Valida and Ben Payton are twins who were born on Earth in the year 2020. They were part of a group of scientists and engineers who boarded the Seeker 3000. This generation ship was designed to escape an oppressive world government planning to destroy the planet with nuclear weapons. The Seeker 3000 was supposed to find a new home for humanity in the stars, but it encountered many dangers and mysteries.

The twins first appeared in Marvel Premiere #41 (January 1978), written by Doug Moench and drawn by Tom Sutton. They were part of the main cast of the Seeker 3000 series, which lasted for five issues. The series was a sci-fi adventure that explored the themes of survival, identity, and destiny. The twins had different personalities and skills: Valida was a physicist and a leader, while Ben was an engineer and a rebel. They often clashed with each other but cared deeply for each other.

Some little-known facts about the characters are:

– They were initially named Valida Shaw and Ben Shaw but changed their last name to Payton after their parents died in an accident on the Seeker 3000.
– They had a romantic relationship with each other, which was considered taboo by some of the other crew members.
– Their psychic link allowed them to communicate telepathically and sense each other’s emotions.
– They were genetically modified by an alien race called the Xantareans, who gave them enhanced abilities such as super-strength, speed, agility, and durability.
– A parasitic organism also infected them called the Zygote, which threatened to take over their minds and bodies.

Some important storylines that they were featured in are:

– In Marvel Premiere #41-43, they discovered that the Seeker 3000 was an ancient alien vessel that humans had modified. They also encountered the Xantareans, who claimed to be the ship’s original owners and wanted to reclaim it.
– In Marvel Premiere #44-45, they faced the Zygote, which had infected most crew members and turned them into mindless drones. They also learned that the Seeker 3000 had a hidden purpose: to find and awaken a cosmic entity called the Star-God.
– In Marvel Spotlight Vol 2 #11 (April 1981), they returned in a flashback that revealed how they met and fell in love on Earth before boarding the Seeker 3000.