Kelly Connolly

KELLY CONNOLLY

Real Name: Kelly Connolly

Class: Parallel-Earth (Earth-DMZ) human

Occupation: Journalist

Group Affiliation: None

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Canada, upstate NY, DMZ, Manhattan, NYC, Earth-DMZ

First Appearance: DMZ #10 (October, 2006)

Powers: Kelly was a skilled journalist.

History: (DMZ #10) - Kelly was a journalist for the left-wing Independent World News. Thee Free States declared independence from the United Sates and claimed territory from Canada to New Jersey. The US army occupied Queens, Brooklyn, and Long Island to combat them, with Manhattan made a DMZ. Kelly arranged to be smuggled in the DMZ after the US was ready to use it as a staging ground for all-out war, blaming the Free States for the deaths of journalists Viktor Ferguson and Matty Roth. In reality Matty was alive, and the US had assassinated Viktor to provide an excuse for the war. Kelly found Matty with his friend Zee taking refuge in the Times Square subway station. Zee distrusted her, but Matty said she was a well respected liberal journalist, and he had fond memories of how IWN made his father insane with their left-leaning politics. Matty told her he documented the military killing Viktor, and she promised her news would publish the pictures. Matty made copies of the photos, and sent copies to his friends. Matty called his military liaison Eve Lindon and told her he was going to expose what the US had done, and she went into a tirade threatening him. Col. Harriman, who realized threats wouldn't stop him from exposing Viktor's death, replaced Eve. Harriman was willing to negotiate with Matty, in exchange for not publishing the photos he promised a withdrawal from the DMZ. Kelly would have killed for the story, but understood Matty's need to protect his friends. Under pressure from Matty, Liberty reported that he was still alive, and that Viktor died in a friendly fire incident. With their intel deemed bad the US pulled out of the DMZ. The US awarded a contract to repair key parts of Manhattan to Trustwell, Inc. which the government had previously used to clean up Afghanistan and Iraq. Matty and Kelly spent the night together, and she left the next day.

(DMZ #12) - Kelly asked for a guidebook to the DMZ, and Matty was happy to comply. After dealing with Liberty, which was only interested in politics, he was finally able to write about the neighborhoods, the people, and the lives they carved out after the war.

(DMZ #13) - Wilson set Matty up with a secure Chinatown apartment, with his "grandsons" guarding Matty. Matty finally realized that Wilson was a crimeboss, and felt stupid for taking so long to realize this. Trustwell started a reconstruction project at Ground Zero, with their private security forces clashing with the U.N. peacekeepers assigned to them. Trustwell was known as corrupt, benefiting financially from US military conflicts, and Matty decided to go undercover as a reconstruction crew worker, hoping to expose them. Kelly came to visit him, and she agreed to use her contacts to get him a job as a day laborer in exchange for an exclusive story. The two also continued their physical relationship.

(DMZ #16 (BTS), 17, 24) - Matty uncovered Trustwell's master plan, hiring terrorists to drive out the UN peacekeepers watching over them so they could have full control of the DMZ. The FSA kidnapped members of the terrorist cell to use them as leverage against the US, but Matty thought the FSA wasn't doing right by the DMZ, so he used his cell to record some interviews while sending the information to Kelly. The IWN exposed Trustwell, and the FSA commander put a gun to Matty's head, telling him he'd ruined a chance for an end to hostilities between the US and FSA. UN peacekeepers arrived and the commander was forced to flee. Kelly came to see Matty, but his heart was no longer in their relationship, and during his assignment he'd slept with someone else.

(DMZ #26) - Kelly continued her work in the DMZ fearlessly, but wondered if being numbed to the casualties around her was making her a horrible person. She died during a conflict between the military and insurgents, and since she had no close relatives her funeral arrangements were left to her co-workers and Matty. They saw her off with a Viking's funeral off the west end, and reflected on how she made them feel alive.

Comments: Created by Brian Wood & Ricardo Burchielli.

Kelly Connolly had a cameo in cameo DMZ #47, 50, 72.