Ben Carone


 * For his Earth 2 counterpart, see Ben Carone (Earth 2).

Benjamin William "Ben" Carone (ベンジャミン・ウィリアム・「ベン」・カローネ) is the titular main character of Zero. He is the husband of Summer Dawson, the best friend of Adam Hart, Cooper Woods, Maddie Parker, and Amanda O'Neil, and the archenemy of Xeno.

After Harper Labs' power generator exploded, Ben suffered a horrible accident and fell into a coma for nine months. When he woke up from his coma, Ben discovered that he had been given life-saving cybernetics by Dr. Charles Murphy. Armed with a variety of powers and abilities, Ben began to aid detectives Jet Willis and Theodore O'Connor by using these powers to protect South City, acting as the cyborg superhero known as Zero. Ben spent the next several months fighting crime, taking down numerous villains and other criminal elements, assisted by Team Zero.

Upon the defeat of Kane, Ben and his team were recruited by Division X and its leader, Xander Summers. Joined by Jet and Theo, Ben battled evil superhumans created by Kane's particle accelerator. However, during a conflict involving a villain, Ben's identity as Zero was made public knowledge, but he was saved when Adam took the fall, who then discovered that Xander was in fact the evil future android, Xeno, having stolen Summers' identity, and that everything was orchestrated by him.

In a desperate attempt to stop him, Ben's reputation of being a hero was tarnished when he generated a shock wave that killed Xeno, crossing the line between hero and murderous vigilante. Retiring after these events, he left to live with Summer but was convinced to return to heroism to defend his city from Neo and his army of Earth 2 villains, joined by the speed demon Courtney Carone, revealed to be Ben's future niece. Several months later, Ben and his team were drawn into a battle with Astral via Neil Günther.

Future War
In 2024, Ben engaged in battle with Xeno in the deadliest war to hit the country, unintentionally causing a temporal loop in 2027.