Jab’s Builds! (Beaker! Sam Eagle! Miss Piggy! The Swedish Chef!)

Where in all of your character write ups will go.
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KorokoMystia
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Re: Star Brand

Post by KorokoMystia »

Jabroniville wrote: Tue Jun 16, 2020 9:40 pm people like this tend to be walking Plot Holes- every time the Earth is threatened, you're like "Well why doesn't _____ use his infinite power to just beat the villain's ass?"
Yeah, this can often be an issue. When Dragon Ball Z introduced the destruction god Beerus to the main cast, it introduced the issue that he could pretty much destroy any of the villains easily. However, they managed to write around it, as he's incredibly lazy, like a cat (as he resembles one and acts quite like one), and sees most threats to be so beneath him as to not bother.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Noh-Varr! The Sentry! Ex Nihilo! Star Brand!)

Post by M4C8 »

I found Starbrand's death was pretty unfair TBH, it felt like he was sacrificed just to give a push the Robbie Reyes Ghost Rider. Robbie suddenly being able to effect a Penance Stare did finally link him with the previous GR's but it could have been done in a less drastic way.
Also, I always though the stare didn't effect people who already felt guilt for past actions.
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Nightmask

Post by Jabroniville »

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NIGHTMASK (Adam Blackveil)
Created By:
Jonathan Hickman & Jerome Opena
First Appearance: The Avengers #1 (Feb. 2013)
Role: Forgotten Character, Vague-Powered Guy
Group Affiliations: The Avengers

-Nightmask was created in Jon Hickman's mega-arc for The Avengers, being grown in a pod by Ex Nihilo in order to be the "perfect human". The last "White Event" (I think those were the universal reboots, but I forget) caused him to turn into "a Nightmask capable of navigating the dreamspace of human potential" (whatever the balls that means). However, he comes out "wrong", speaking Builder-code, and Tony Stark keeps him under observation- he appears to be a black male wearing a "Cosmic Dress" made of light. Captain Universe manages to translate his language, and they finally figure out his name, and that he was warning them of a new "White Event" coming to Earth. He led the Avengers to the new Star Brand, and both would join the Avengers themselves. However, he was turned into non-existence by the end of the story, as the "Multiversal Avengers" squad travelled the cosmos trying to find the Ivory Kings (Beyonders).

-He returned to life following Secret Wars and the rebooting of the Marvel Universe, and started attending college with Starbrand in a comic book written by Greg Weisman of Gargoyles fame. They fought numerous lesser-known villains like Nitro, Graviton & Blizzard, and discovered that Eternity had three children- Explosion, Gravitation & Entropy- and they were controlling the villains. Nightmask & Starbrand broke the control and went to their first college party. They do some other stuff with guys I've never heard of, but ultimately the book is rapidly cancelled, largely because THEY MADE A COMIC ABOUT NIGHTMASK AND STARBRAND. Like, seriously, who decided to add to the market-flooding with THAT? The characters have largely vanished.

-Nightmask has a variety of powers, most of which were barely explained by Hickman (probably by far the worst writer in history for that)- it rendered him un-stattable to me, which was extremely annoying back in the day. His powers include Technomancy, Comprehend (Technology), Hologram Projection, Remote Senses (universal in scale), Teleport (Portal), Energy Blasts via his "Halos" of energy, Quick Change, and Communication & searching across interstellar distances, as well as the ability to access all of the accumulated knowledge of mankind via the "Superflow". I've still got no idea how powerful he is, who he could defeat, or what.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sat Aug 06, 2022 10:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
greycrusader
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Noh-Varr! The Sentry! Ex Nihilo! Star Brand!)

Post by greycrusader »

Hickman's story SHOULD have been a wild, engrossing ride of cosmic scope, the answer to DC's COIE and Infinite Crisis; instead it was an interminable, seemingly endless slog with massive character derailment (the Illuminati), vaguely-defined, uninteresting villains (the Celestials are pretty boring, the Beyonders are barely even a concept), and multiple ret-cons needed to justify the events. And while Alexander Luthor, Superboy-Prime, Harbinger, Pariah, and Dr. Light II all either languished for decades or ended up non-entities in comics, Hickman's new characters barely even mattered in their introductory story.

And they were almost all utterly unnecessary; there was already a heroic Hyperion, the 90s X-Men featured an Aboriginal mass teleporter, Weapon Omega/the Collective (remember him?) could have fulfilled the Starbrand role, etc., etc, etc. Why create another bunch of guys en masse in rapid succession, ensuring no one cares about them? Just use existing obscure or C-list characters.

All my best.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Noh-Varr! The Sentry! Ex Nihilo! Star Brand!)

Post by Ares »

It just seemed like an excuse to bring the Starbrand into the 616 MU, which still boggles my mind.

The Marvel Universe is one of the most fun comic settings around and a fertile place for creating new characters. There are dozens upon dozens of little used characters that could be great with the right investment. Iron Fist went from a B or C List hero to an A-Lister with one amazing run, that could easily happen to anyone from Silverclaw to Dust.

So why in the name of Stan's Mustache do writers feel the need to keep importing stuff from other lines into the 616 setting? Everything from the Eternals to Nextwave to Hyperion to Starbrand to Miles Morales to Spider-Gwen to Gwenpool, Marvel creators seem stupidly obsessed with taking out of continuity characters and folding them into the main Marvel Universe. The Starbrand is a fun concept, but why not actually have a side book or imprint that develops the New Universe, MC2, the Squadron Supreme or the like? The whole point of having them as their own settings was to avoid the continuity issues bringing them into the Marvel Universe would cause, and to avoid bloating the setting with redundant characters.

But NOPE! Bloat away!
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The Two-Gun Kid

Post by Jabroniville »

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THE TWO-GUN KID (Matt Liebowicz/Matt Hawkins/Matt Hawk)
Created By:
Stan Lee & Jack Kirby
First Appearance: The Two-Gun Kid #62 (Nov. 1962)
Role: Cowboy, Time-Travelling Hero, Out of Time Hero
Group Affiliations: The Avengers, The Desert Stars (Initiative Team)
Avengers Grade: D-Level
PL 8 (109)
STRENGTH
2 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 7 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 1 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 3

Skills:
Athletics 4 (+6)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 2 (+9)
Deception 5 (+8)
Expertise (Cowboy/Bounty Hunter) 6 (+7)
Expertise (Lawyer) 5 (+6)
Insight 4 (+7)
Intimidation 2 (+5)
Investigation 5 (+8)
Perception 5 (+8)
Persuasion 2 (+5)
Ranged Combat (Pistol) 2 (+11)
Stealth 4 (+7)

Advantages:
Accurate Attack, Equipment 3 (Cowboy Gear), Improved Critical (Pistol), Improved Initiative 2, Quick Draw, Minion 3 (Comet), Ranged Attack 5, Tracking (Visual)

Equipment:
"Pair of Colt Pistols" Blast 5 (10) -- (11)
AE: "Lasso" Snare 4 (Feats: Reach 4) (Flaws: Touch Range, Limited to One Target) (8)
"Cowboy Gear" (2)

Offense:
Unarmed +9 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Colts +11 (+5 Ranged Damage, DC 20)
Lasso +7 (+4 Affliction, DC 14)
Initiative +11

Defenses:
Dodge +11 (DC 21), Parry +10 (DC 20), Toughness +3, Fortitude +6, Will +6

Complications:
Responsibility (Man Out of Time)- A time-travelling character, the Two-Gun Kid has been all over, and is usually unable to get home.

Total: Abilities: 52 / Skills: 46--23 / Advantages: 17 / Powers: 0 / Defenses: 17 (109)

COMET
Role:
Beloved Mount
PL 6 (50)- Minion Rank 3
STRENGTH
6 STAMINA 5 AGILITY 1
FIGHTING 4 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE -4 AWARENESS 1 PRESENCE -2

Skills:
Athletics 2 (+8)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 1 (+5)
Expertise (Survival) 2 (+3)
Insight 3 (+4)
Intimidation 6 (+5 Size)
Perception 4 (+5)

Advantages:
All-Out Attack, Attractive (To Women), Great Endurance, Improved Critical (Hooves), Power Attack

Powers:
"Animal Senses" Senses 3 (Acute Scent, Low-Light Vision, Radius Sight) [3]
"Animal Physiology" Speed 3 [3]

"Natural Size" Growth 3 (Str & Sta +3, +3 Mass, +1 Intimidation, -1 Dodge/Parry) -- (10 feet) (Feats: Innate) (Extras: Permanent +0) [7]
Reach 1 [1]
Protection 2 [2]

Offense:
Unarmed +5 (+6 Damage, DC 21)
Initiative +1

Defenses:
Dodge +2 (DC 12), Parry +4 (DC 14), Toughness +7, Fortitude +9, Will +4

Complications:
Disabled (Animal)- Horses cannot speak to humans, nor use their hooves to easily manipulate objects.

Total: Abilities: 10 / Skills: 18--9 / Advantages: 5 / Powers: 16 / Defenses: 9 (50)


-The Two-Gun Kid we recognize actually debuted in the SIXTIETH issue of The Two-Gun Kid, oddly enough- the original Two-Gun Kid comics were a thing in the late 1940s, but were soon cancelled after ten issues. The concept was rebooted in 1953 when Cowboy Heroes became more popular- the original, Clay Harder, was treated like a fictional character who inspired the current one, Matt Hawk. Hawk was a lawyer who decided to fight crime on his own. His comic was quite strange, as it was inspired by more Silver Age-ish concepts like aliens and authentic SUPER-VILLAINS, as he fights guys in impenetrable armor and stuff like that. Finally, he meets up with Hawkeye in The Avengers, as the hero has been sent through time, and spends some time with him in the 20th Century as a result, becoming an honorary Avenger. His own book lasted until 1977.

-A 1995 Limited Series reveals that he had a wife who died during childbirth, and that he brought some weapons back from the future. His final fate is shown to be getting killed fighting the racist Nightriders, dying alongside Kid Colt and the Outlaw Kid, other Cowboy Heroes. However, in one of the more recent She-Hulk comedy books, Shulkie is given the chance to bring one time-travelling Avenger out of continuity limbo- she chooses Two-Gun, and he tries to join the law firm Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg & Holliway (I mean, he IS a lawyer), but concludes that modern law is just too far ahead of him, and so he becomes a bounty-hunter. He reveals a foreign last name and rooms with the Awesome Android. He leads the Desert Stars of the Fifty-State Initiative. Finally, it's revealed that one of Marvel's first heroes, The Angel, was inspired to take up a mask and gun by an elderly Matt Hawk, who told him stories about super-heroes from their future. A teen vesrion of the hero was revealed in 2012 and went nowhere.

-The Two-Gun Kid's a modern version of a Cowboy build, being PL 8 overall with his Twin Colts, a good rider with a good horse, and a nice roundabout set of skills. He's not a superstar, but he's better than most cowboys, because most cowboys never had to deal with super-powered opposition. TGK's rogues gallery in his own book were actual SUPER-VILLAINS, having come out in the early 1960s, as Stan & Jack tried to recapture their super-hero success with the westerns that were so popular in the 1950s. It didn't work- the genre was dead except for a bunch of failed Jonah Hex re-makes over the decades.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sat Aug 06, 2022 10:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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drkrash
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Noh-Varr! The Sentry! Ex Nihilo! Star Brand!)

Post by drkrash »

greycrusader wrote: Wed Jun 17, 2020 12:03 am Hickman's story SHOULD have been a wild, engrossing ride of cosmic scope, the answer to DC's COIE and Infinite Crisis; instead it was an interminable, seemingly endless slog with massive character derailment (the Illuminati), vaguely-defined, uninteresting villains (the Celestials are pretty boring, the Beyonders are barely even a concept), and multiple ret-cons needed to justify the events. And while Alexander Luthor, Superboy-Prime, Harbinger, Pariah, and Dr. Light II all either languished for decades or ended up non-entities in comics, Hickman's new characters barely even mattered in their introductory story.

And they were almost all utterly unnecessary; there was already a heroic Hyperion, the 90s X-Men featured an Aboriginal mass teleporter, Weapon Omega/the Collective (remember him?) could have fulfilled the Starbrand role, etc., etc, etc. Why create another bunch of guys en masse in rapid succession, ensuring no one cares about them? Just use existing obscure or C-list characters.

All my best.
I certainly agree with all of this. I realize the industry is only interested in maintaining a nod to continuity rather than actual continuity, but it seems that the bigger your epic story is, the more likely it won't even be retconned away - it will just be forgotten entirely. Other than a few minor references in the FF and Doom's temporary good phase, I personally haven't seen any hero make mention of the fact that the entire multiverse was destroyed and rebuilt.

This is exactly what I hope will happen when Hickman is done with X-Men and the next writer does a Back-to-Basics on them, It's not a superhero book and it's not even that interesting as social sci fi. Not a single other character anywhere else in the MU is talking about how a new mutant nation is providing life-changing technology to the nations of the world.

Bendis has his flaws but he never forgot that the mutants were part of the universe as a whole.

Sorry. Got off-topic because I'm hating X-Men so much. I apologize.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Noh-Varr! The Sentry! Ex Nihilo! Star Brand!)

Post by M4C8 »

Ares wrote: Wed Jun 17, 2020 1:28 am It just seemed like an excuse to bring the Starbrand into the 616 MU, which still boggles my mind.

The Marvel Universe is one of the most fun comic settings around and a fertile place for creating new characters. There are dozens upon dozens of little used characters that could be great with the right investment. Iron Fist went from a B or C List hero to an A-Lister with one amazing run, that could easily happen to anyone from Silverclaw to Dust.

So why in the name of Stan's Mustache do writers feel the need to keep importing stuff from other lines into the 616 setting? Everything from the Eternals to Nextwave to Hyperion to Starbrand to Miles Morales to Spider-Gwen to Gwenpool, Marvel creators seem stupidly obsessed with taking out of continuity characters and folding them into the main Marvel Universe. The Starbrand is a fun concept, but why not actually have a side book or imprint that develops the New Universe, MC2, the Squadron Supreme or the like? The whole point of having them as their own settings was to avoid the continuity issues bringing them into the Marvel Universe would cause, and to avoid bloating the setting with redundant characters.

But NOPE! Bloat away!
I completely agree. The primary issue I have with Miles Morales is that he was brought permanently into the prime reality, why not just continue his stories as a stand alone book in his own like they did with the MC2 Spider-Girl. At the very least it would end the constant 'I am the real Spider-Man' crap that we get in his books (It's annoying enough with the two Hawkeye's)
'A shared universe, like any fictional construct, hinges on suspension of disbelief. When continuity is tossed away, it tatters the construct. Undermines it'
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Noh-Varr! The Sentry! Ex Nihilo! Star Brand!)

Post by Ares »

drkrash wrote: Wed Jun 17, 2020 12:15 pm This is exactly what I hope will happen when Hickman is done with X-Men and the next writer does a Back-to-Basics on them, It's not a superhero book and it's not even that interesting as social sci fi. Not a single other character anywhere else in the MU is talking about how a new mutant nation is providing life-changing technology to the nations of the world.

Bendis has his flaws but he never forgot that the mutants were part of the universe as a whole.

Sorry. Got off-topic because I'm hating X-Men so much. I apologize.
No, I hear you. The only book featuring the X-Men that I've enjoyed lately was the Fantastic Four vs X-Men series where the X-Men showed up on the FF's doorstep and basically said "Look, Franklin's a mutant. He's slowly losing his powers. He should be with his own kind, especially since we've got the best chance of restoring his powers. He's coming with us."

And then had the gall to be surprised when Sue responded with "Get the Hell out of my house".

Reed even points out how unreasonable the X-Men are being, because Franklin's only a few years away from being 18, at which point he'd likely want to go to the X-Isle of his own free will. But that's too long for Xavier and Magneto, who want to get their hands on Franklin while he still has access to his godlike power.

It finally portrays the X-Men being mutant supremacist, racist, and segregationist as a BAD THING.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Noh-Varr! The Sentry! Ex Nihilo! Star Brand!)

Post by greycrusader »

Marvel: We don't have the movie rights to the X-men, so let's bury the franchise as much as we can and we'll make the Inhumans the new X-men!

Readers: Uh, no thanks.

Marvel: We own the movie rights to the X-men again! Forget the Inhumans, but we'll still bury the X-Men franchise!

Readers: Uh...the what now?
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Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan)

Post by Jabroniville »

Image
Image
Image

MS. MARVEL IV (Kamala Khan)
Created By:
Sana Amanat, Stephen Wacker, G. Willow Wilson & Adrian Alphona
First Appearance: Captain Marvel #14 (Aug. 2013)
Role: Best Minority Hire Ever, Everyday Kid Hero
Group Affiliations: The Avengers
PL 8 (100)
STRENGTH
0/8 STAMINA 4/8 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 6 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 0 AWARENESS 0 PRESENCE 0

Skills:
Athletics 2 (+2, +10 Embiggened)
Deception 5 (+5)
Expertise (Superheroes) 6 (+6)
Expertise (Pop Culture) 8 (+8)
Insight 1 (+1)
Investigation 2 (+2)
Perception 2 (+2)
Stealth 2 (+5)

Advantages:
Fast Grab, Improved Hold, Interpose

Powers:
"Terrigen Mist-Given Powers"
"Cockroach Size!" Shrinking 16 (32) -- [34]
  • AE: "Embiggen!" (20)
  • AE: Morph 2 (10)
"Embiggen!"
Growth 4 (Str & Sta +4, +4 Mass, +2 Intimidation, -2 Dodge/Parry, -4 Stealth) -- (15 feet) (9)
Growth +3 (+7 Mass, +3 Intimidation, -3 Dodge/Parry, -7 Stealth) -- (25 feet) (Flaws: Limited to Non-ST & STA Growths) (3)
Enhanced Strength 4 (8)

"Giant Hands & Feet" Strength-Damage +2 (Feats: Accurate, Reach 4) (Flaws: Damage Limited to Non-Embiggened Form) [6]
"Long Strides" Speed 2 (8 mph) [2]
"Healing Factor" Regeneration 4 [4]

Offense:
Unarmed +6 (+0 Damage, DC 15)
Giant Hands & Feet +8 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Embiggened +8 (+8 Damage, DC 23)
Initiative +3

Defenses:
Dodge +8 (DC 18), Parry +8 (DC 18), Toughness +4 (+8 Embiggened), Fortitude +6, Will +6

Complications:
Responsibility (Obsessed With Super-Heroes)- Kamala is a giant fangirl.
Responsibility (Jersey City)- Disrespect it if you dare.
Relationship (Family)- Kamala's brother is super-religious but lazy. Her mother is ultra-conservative and over-protective. Her father wants her to be more diligent and studious.

Total: Abilities: 22 / Skills: 28--14 / Advantages: 3 / Powers: 46 / Defenses: 15 (100)

Kamala Khan- Best Minority Hire Ever:
-The new Ms. Marvel, Kamala Khan, was a big hit pretty much immediately. She gave Marvel its biggest Muslim character ever (before her, it was like Arabian Knight or Dust), creating a character out of the current most-distrusted and marginalized group in the world (a vast proportion of the world's population holds Islam itself in a negative light). This could have obviously come off as pandering or attention-seeking, and been doomed to failure like so many other diversity-themed characters in the history of comics, but apparently Marvel hit on some unique trick to make the whole thing work: The had the comic ACTUALLY BE GOOD. Sneaky bastards.

-Basically, Kamala (it amuses me that she shares the same name as wrestling's Ugandan Giant) is a superhero character who is Muslim, NOT A MUSLIM SUPERHERO. This distinction is one of the things that separates a GOOD minority character from a bad one, as far too many of these guys are created to fulfill a quota (I half-suspect that Editors walk around prospective covers and pull out the swatches to compare) without anybody ever bothering to create a CHARACTER around them. Oftentimes, writers try to avoid offending anyone and create a bland character with few flaws (or, more strangely, create minority characters that are treated as perfect in every way by the universe around them). Or they go the opposite way and just create a stereotype. Or they just get panicky and try to avoid bothering ANYONE and just stick with the same-old characters. But here the creators were actually gifted and intelligent, and made a character who was just as big a f*ck-up as every OTHER Marvel superhero, and it all worked.

Kamalal Khan- Everygirl:
-The new Ms. Marvel was basically an "Everygirl" character, made One Of Us by making her a giant nerd for superheroes and other dork stuff. She was a teenager who happened to get caught up in the big new Inhumans push, gaining strange powers via Terrigenesis. She was scrawny, a bit odd-looking, acted like a nerd (she shouts "EMBIGGEN!" when growing- a Simpsons catchphrase), had nerdy friends and a weird family (her brother is all super-religious but is lazy and won't go looking for a job; her mother is an old-fashioned harpy; her dad is a bit dull), and her schoolmates were kind of douchebags (rather than face full discrimination in which people Learned Lessons and all that, she was just tricked into drinking some booze, and a dumb girl asked her friend of she was "gonna get honor-killed" if she didn't wear her head-scarf- the girl's parents actually wished she'd grow OUT of it, which is apparently a pretty common thing with young Muslims these days). But everything REALLY worked, because the comic had a sense of humor about itself, had goofy villains, made the heroine likeable and a bit of a screw-up, and gave her weird powers.

-Even the hiccups are relatively minor: her Rogues Gallery is unimpressive and pretty weak. A few characters kind of overdid the "you should LIKE this new character!" thing by having popular guys like Wolverine sing her praises and talk about how much "potential" she had- Character Shilling will always come off as clumsy. This particuar trait ended up being a lot more prominent as Marvel created more "Kamalas" in the wake of this one's success. But I really dig the book- I liked the family she had, and how her mother kept trying to make Kamala more Pakistani, not realizing that, you know, they FLED PAKISTAN because it was a dangerous hellhole and Kamala is now Jersey Born & Bred. Honestly, this is the most "Early Spider-Man" a book has felt in YEARS.

-Kamala's push was pretty subdued, as well. A big mistake would have been shoving her all over every book as soon as she hit big, but it seems like they restrained it enough. A brief appearance in Inhumans and only NOW is she on an Avengers team. Unfortunately, that was Mark Waid's disappointing current run, which really felt like it had the beginnings of a "Mark Gruenwald"-style run to it (showing the deliberate machinations of creating a team from the ground up; featuring many un-used villains from Marvel's past; featuring side characters you hadn't seen in big roles before), but kind of petered-out and didn't go anywhere great. Also, I like how at least ONE GIRL at Marvel isn't a ravishing sexpot- while I'll roll my eyes at anyone who tries to remove all fanservice from comics, and people being over-sensitive and reactionary to friggin' EVERYTHING, it's nice to see at least SOME "normal-looking people" get stuck with powers. I like how it's diverse and even a bit feminist without being preachy (compare it to Captain Marvel or Jason Aaron's Thor, which was otherwise FINE save for one issue where she might as well have just pulled out an actual soapbox and stood on it to preach about feminism)- I call it "small f" feminism, over the "BIG F" Feminism of weaker, politically-motivated books. And like I've always said, MORE diversity is better than LESS.

Kamala's Run:
-Kamala was a pretty clear "Second String Hero" in a "Second-String City", as a deliberate concept by the creative team, and fought mostly goofy villains and one-offs, despite a few team-ups with other heroes. She takes her name from Carol Danvers, now "Captain Marvel", and was a huge fangirl. As time went on, Kamala actually joined Mark Waid's Avengers roster- unfortunately, that book was painfully hit-or-miss and only lasted a short time- she, Miles Morales, Sam Alexander and Nadia Van Dyne were kind of the "Trainee" heroes on the squad, but I don't really feel like anyone got "trained". Her book still stuck around, and she eventually jumped to Waid's The Champions, with other teen heroes. I've not heard good things from some, but never read it. Civil War II, however, led to a break with her idol, as Kamala lashes out at Carol's jack-booted thuggery in arresting people for crimes they've yet to commit. G. Willow Wilson, the head writer, finally left the book after sixty issues, and it still exists- thus, it's one of Marvel's longest-running books starring a female character, if not the longest. Wilson has a bunch of respect, and the book sells well digitally as well... fellow co-creator Sana Amanat is... more controversial. A corporate minority hire (literally hired for her "different voice", which I don't inherently disagree with), she went on to become Director of Content & Character Development, a role she pretty likely has failed at, given plummeting sales.

Ms. Marvel's Powers:
-Ms. Marvel isn't a terribly-powerful superhero- she's just good at being weird enough to mess with more-experienced adversaries thanks to having giant limbs all flying about. Like a lot of Rookie Heroes, her PL is fine, but her points total is quite low- inexperience and a lack of Power Feats are holding her back. She can grow, shrink, heal, move quickly, and has shown a low-end ability to morph that she's so far only used twice (both times turning into women- Carol Danvers and her own mother).
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sat Aug 06, 2022 10:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Ex Nihilo! Star Brand! Kamala Khan!)

Post by M4C8 »

Yep Kamala is an okay character, I like her better than most of the other current crop of young characters, she has a realistic personality and wasn't just a teen version of an existing hero. The main issues I had with her book were the art and the lack of any decent foes.
The Champions book IIRC featured a lot of bitching about the established heroes being terrible, a completely unearned 'we know better' arrogance. I'd hoped the writers would've at least shown not everything is so black and white, that the decisions/actions of the older heroes are based on years of on the job experience but nah.

And of course I still have issue with the Avengers suddenly being okay with having several young teens on the team.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Ex Nihilo! Star Brand! Kamala Khan!)

Post by drkrash »

I don't mind Kamala.

Though one of my friends joked that if any teenage girl in America had powers to make themselves into odd, grotesque shapes, they'd never actually do that in front of anyone else.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Noh-Varr! The Sentry! Ex Nihilo! Star Brand!)

Post by Jabroniville »

drkrash wrote: Wed Jun 17, 2020 12:15 pm
greycrusader wrote: Wed Jun 17, 2020 12:03 am Hickman's story SHOULD have been a wild, engrossing ride of cosmic scope, the answer to DC's COIE and Infinite Crisis; instead it was an interminable, seemingly endless slog with massive character derailment (the Illuminati), vaguely-defined, uninteresting villains (the Celestials are pretty boring, the Beyonders are barely even a concept), and multiple ret-cons needed to justify the events. And while Alexander Luthor, Superboy-Prime, Harbinger, Pariah, and Dr. Light II all either languished for decades or ended up non-entities in comics, Hickman's new characters barely even mattered in their introductory story.

And they were almost all utterly unnecessary; there was already a heroic Hyperion, the 90s X-Men featured an Aboriginal mass teleporter, Weapon Omega/the Collective (remember him?) could have fulfilled the Starbrand role, etc., etc, etc. Why create another bunch of guys en masse in rapid succession, ensuring no one cares about them? Just use existing obscure or C-list characters.

All my best.
I certainly agree with all of this. I realize the industry is only interested in maintaining a nod to continuity rather than actual continuity, but it seems that the bigger your epic story is, the more likely it won't even be retconned away - it will just be forgotten entirely. Other than a few minor references in the FF and Doom's temporary good phase, I personally haven't seen any hero make mention of the fact that the entire multiverse was destroyed and rebuilt.
As far as I can tell, only a couple have- Al Ewing based the entirety of The Ultimates doing "Big Cosmic" stuff, figuring out the new cosmology of a rebooted universe- things were in flux for a bit, but they kinda went back to the status quo thanks to the heroes' help.

Jason Aaron also remake an origin for Earth in Avengers that everyone here just LOVED, lol.
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Noh-Varr! The Sentry! Ex Nihilo! Star Brand!)

Post by Jabroniville »

M4C8 wrote: Tue Jun 16, 2020 11:23 pm I found Starbrand's death was pretty unfair TBH, it felt like he was sacrificed just to give a push the Robbie Reyes Ghost Rider. Robbie suddenly being able to effect a Penance Stare did finally link him with the previous GR's but it could have been done in a less drastic way.
Also, I always though the stare didn't effect people who already felt guilt for past actions.
I mean, it was Star Brand so I don't care, but yeah- it's kind of a "screw you" to Hickman to wipe out his character so soon after giving him a "Doomed to Fail" comic book series with Nightmask. Seriously, that book was SUCH BLOAT. Marvel had to know that was going nowhere.
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