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

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Jabroniville
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Baroness Zemo

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

BARONESS ZEMO (Heike Zemo)
Created By:
Mark Gruenwald & Dave Hoover
First Appearance: Spider-Man- Fear Itself #1 (Feb. 1992)
Role: The Villain's Wife
Group Affiliations: None
PL 8 (99)
STRENGTH
2 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 4
FIGHTING 11 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 3 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 4

Skills: 
Athletics 4 (+6)
Deception 5 (+9)
Insight 4 (+7)
Investigation 2 (+5)
Perception 3 (+6)
Stealth 2 (+6)
Technology 2 (+5)

Advantages:
Equipment 5 (Assorted Gear), Daze (Deception), Ranged Attack 4

Offense:
Unarmed +11 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Sword +11 (+5 Damage, DC 20)
Initiative +4

Defenses:
Dodge +11 (DC 21), Parry +11 (DC 21), Toughness +3, Fortitude +4, Will +5

Complications: 
Motivation (Power)
Relationship (Baron Zemo)- However, the Baroness may be willing to eliminate the Baron in order to gain more power.

Total: Abilities: 68 / Skills: 22--11 / Advantages: 10 / Powers: 0 / Defenses: 10 (99)

-Hailing from the weird, really kinda bad years of Mark Gruenwald's Captain America run (though she debuted in a Spider-Man one-off), Baroness Zemo initially claimed to be the reincarnation of Heinrich Zemo (the Silver Age one). She funded a great number of Eastern European terrorist cells following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and threatened Spider-Man with some fear-inducing crystals, hoping to create a new Nazi Party. However, she was thought dead after being driven insane by the crystals and blowing up her base.

-She reappears in Captain America, having claimed to have made up the whole "Heinrich Zemo" thing, which was good, because she was now married to HELMUT Zemo, and that would have been hella-weird. The two forged a bit of an aristocratic bond, threatening Cap and Diamondback when they came to Germany. However, when Superia arrived to discuss empowering the children the two had been raising in the castle, Heike suggested that she considered the Baron "the help", and would eliminate him if necessary to join Superia's organization. Helmut overheard this, and was hurt by it- he had Heike & Superia gassed and bound, but she convinced him that she was merely playing along with Superia. The two fell into a vat of molten Adhesive X at the end of the story arc, but Cap (who'd seen Zemo escape this way before) wisely tracked them down an escape pipe and captured the two of them.

-Hilariously, this is the end of the road for Baroness Zemo- despite all this work Gruenwald did with the character, the next writers ignored it completely. Heroes Reborn was the new thing, and then Heroes Return, which rebooted a lot of stuff in terms of stories and character turns- Baron Zemo, when he finally reappeared, was with the Thunderbolts, and that story was ALREADY complicated enough without a WIFE dragging it down. And so Kurt Busiek, who knew every damn piece of continuity at Marvel, wisely went "Oh, she died" in the most hilariously casual, offhand manner, as Zemo explains that his wife had died in prison. Like, we don't even SEE IT. Now, an "Unseen Death" would normally be a perfect reasoning for a resurrection... but it's been more than seventeen years since that story was written, and nobody's seen fit to mention her since. I think, despite the hand of Gru in this, everyone realized it was stupid and was more than happy to act like it had never happened.

-Baroness Zemo is a pretty uninteresting character, packing standard "Smart, Skilled Person" stats, but nothing really distinctive. She's a heck of a liar, though.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Tue May 10, 2022 1:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Ken
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Madam Slay! Klaw! Shuri! The Blob! Brass! Blackout!)

Post by Ken »

Well, it's not like Gru was a factor. I mean, the whole Heroes Reborn thing killed Gruenwald. So, it's not like Gru was around to tell anyone what he would have done with Heike if, you know, Marvel hadn't unceremoniously removed Captain America from him to flush it down the Image crapper.
My Amazing Woman: a super-hero romantic comedy podcast.

When the most powerful super hero on Earth marries an ordinary man, hilarity ensues.
MacynSnow
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Joined: Tue Dec 20, 2016 2:56 pm

Re: Baroness Zemo

Post by MacynSnow »

Jabroniville wrote: Wed Feb 07, 2018 3:08 am Image

BARONESS ZEMO (Heike Zemo)
Created By:
Mark Gruenwald & Dave Hoover
First Appearance: Spider-Man- Fear Itself #1 (Feb. 1992)
Role: The Villain's Wife
Group Affiliations: None
PL 8 (99)
STRENGTH
2 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 4
FIGHTING 11 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 3 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 4

-Baroness Zemo is a pretty uninteresting character, packing standard "Smart, Skilled Person" stats, but nothing really distinctive. She's a heck of a liar, though.
I honestly had NO idea this lovely woman exsisted,as i could've used her instead of an old Luke Cage foe for an Rl MnM 2e game i'm currently running(it's based around an old TSR adventure called Avengers Franchised! and since the rest of Greed-E had read it before i needed to replace the villians),nice find jab!
Jabroniville
Posts: 24689
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Basilisk (Elks)

Post by Jabroniville »

Image
Image
Image

BASILISK I (Basil Elks)
Created By:
Len Wein & Gil Kane
First Appearance: Marvel Team-Up #16 (Dec. 1973)
Role: Jobber Villain, Weird Villain
Group Affiliations: None
PL 10 (142)
STRENGTH
9 STAMINA 6 AGILITY 2
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 0 AWARENESS 0 PRESENCE 0

Skills: 
Deception 4 (+4)
Expertise (Thief) 6 (+6)
Intimidation 5 (+5)
Perception 5 (+5)
Stealth 4 (+6)

Advantages: 
All-Out Attack, Great Endurance, Improved Hold, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 10

Powers:
"Alpha Stone Powers"
Protection 3 [3]
Immunity 12 (Heat Effects, Starvation & Thirst) [12]

"Eye Beams" 
Fire Blast 10 (Feats: Improved Critical) (Extras: Penetrating) (31) -- [38]
  • AE: "Molecular Rearranging" Transform 12 (3,200 lbs.) (Rock to Sand) (24) 
  • AE: "Transform Air to Solid" Snare 10 (Feats: Reversible) (31) 
  • AE: "Coldness" Environment 3 (120 feet) (Cold 2) (6)
  • AE: "Ice Patch" Affliction 10 (Strength or Agility; Hindered/Prone) (Extras: Area- 60ft. Burst +2) (Flaws: Limited Degree,  (20)
  • AE: "Ice Snare" Snare 10 (Extras: Area- 30ft. Shapeable) (Flaws: Touch Range) (20)
  • AE: "Stun Beam" Affliction 8 (Fort; Dazed/Stunned/Incapacitated) (Extras: Ranged, Cumulative) (24)
  • AE: "Control Wind" Flight 5 (60 mph) (Flaws: Distracting) (4)
Offense:
Unarmed +8 (+9 Damage, DC 24)
Fire Blast +10 (+10 Ranged Damage, DC 25)
Ice Powers +10 (+10 Ranged Affliction, DC 20)
Stun Beam +10 (+8 Ranged Affliction, DC 18)
Initiative +2

Defenses:
Dodge +9 (DC 19), Parry +8 (DC 18), Toughness +9, Fortitude +8, Will +4

Complications:
Motivation (Greed)
Prejudice (Obvious Villain)- Basil looks nothing like a normal human- his eyes are gigantic and red, and his skin is reptilian in nature.

Total: Abilities: 50 / Skills: 24--12 / Advantages: 14 / Powers: 53 / Defenses: 13 (142)

-Basilisk came about in those Marvel Team-Up and Two-In-One books in the early 1970s- this was back when they had a cavalcade of B & C-story material to pawn off on newbies or guys between major jobs, so you had a TON of new heroes & villains debut in a very short span of time, very few who ever made any kind of dent, in some very standard stories. Basically a series of one-offs that had little effect on continuity, and simply had Spider-Man (in Team-Up) or The Thing (2IO) teaming up with a random ally- usually someone without their own solo title, or a guy in a team. Most of the villains were incredibly forgettable, had a strange appearance, and typically only reappeared when their creator worked on ANOTHER book and needed a one-off villain. Many were later victimized by the Scourge of the Underworld.

-Basil Elks is one of those characters. He has a classically-lazy comic book origin- he stole something that turned out to have super-properties, and was thus transformed into a super-being (I copy this every time I need a generic origin story for a bad guy, of course). In this case, a museum guard accidentally shot the Alpha Stone, an ancient artifact that turned out to be Kree in origin, and it's energies bathed the common criminal Elks and turned him into a reptile-looking dude. He faced Spider-Man and Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell), and was imprisoned within the Omega Stone- a counterpart to the Alpha Stone.

-Later, he was freed from the Stone (which was being worshipped by some Moloids), and faced Spidey and The Thing. And in his very next appearance, he was murdered by the Scourge of the Underworld, while he was plotting further revenge on The Thing. Three appearances were all he got! I could have sworn someone this distinctive-looking and memorable (he's even statted up in a handful of RPGs, like the Marvel SAGA System one!) had appeared more than that! Actually, it's kind of a waste- while most of Scourge's victims are worthless Jobbers, Basilisk could have been showing up in background scenes and as a serviceable threat for YEARS afterwards! I guess it made sense to have at least ONE non-jobber in his list of victims, but still...

-Basilisk, as one of the most distinctive of Scourge's victims, was resurrected along with sixteen others in that Punisher story, as The Hood creates a mini-army to take out Frank Castle. Some were given funny deaths, but Basilisk actually survived, and captured Frank for his boss! His appearances afterwards are pretty minor, though (I think many writers just assume he's dead)- he pops up in Herc allying with Griffin & Man-Bull, a monster-themed group who face Hercules on behalf of Hecate. His only other appearance after that was being beaten up by The Superior Spider-Man.

-Basilisk is a surprisingly balanced offensive PL 10, but is only PL 9 on defense. He's super-strong (a Marvel RPG has Spidey-like Strength on him, and Marvunapp states it as well) and has shown some varied powers revolving around molecular rearrangement of stuff, speeding up or slowing things down (his fire & ice-based powers represent this). His Flight is an Alt-Effect off his main powers, as he has to use Eye Beams for that in addition to his other abilities. As such, he's a kind of all-around weird guy, mainly a Blaster without the common weaknesses (Glass Cannon-type stuff), with some Immunities. When he got the Omega Stone in another story, all his powers got upgraded to the point where he was a temporary PL 12-13 threat, had Full Life Support, and other things.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Tue Jun 14, 2022 11:40 am, edited 3 times in total.
slade the sniper
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Madam Slay! Klaw! Shuri! The Blob! Brass! Blackout!)

Post by slade the sniper »

Just so you know, Maleficent is absolutely making an appearance in next week's gaming scenario. Thank YOU, sir! You saved me about 4+ hours.

The Evil Queen, however is going to be a pastiche of the Sigourney Weaver/Charlize Theron/ + the Queen of Air and Darkness, sister of Titania, Unseelie Fae... I think that gives her more gravitas. I would hate for her to down like a chump since my "Snow White" is a 5th generation Ventrue and the PC's are fae assassins.

Anyway, thanks!

-STS
Jabroniville
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Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Re: Jab's Builds! (Madam Slay! Klaw! Shuri! The Blob! Brass! Blackout!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Jack of Spades wrote: Wed Feb 07, 2018 12:17 am There's a Ghost Rider villain?
Yup- THIS raging douchelord: viewtopic.php?p=26158#p26158
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Man-Ape! Madam Slay! Klaw! Shuri! The Blob! Brass!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Ares wrote: Wed Feb 07, 2018 1:39 am
MacynSnow wrote: Wed Feb 07, 2018 12:50 am
Spectrum wrote: Tue Feb 06, 2018 8:24 pm And then we get the mindf-ckery like- "Bobby you're gay".
I always thought that came way to far out of left field,so i promptly ignored it for any of my games and kept with the old Bobby Drake.....
As an intresting aside, i personally detest it when Marvel decides to do that junk.....
Aside number 2:personal oppinion,young Jean just did that to not be the only "female" in the bunch and i hope the writer's have shown the ramifications of doing this type of junk.....
I honestly can't read that scene without it coming off as Jean imprinting on young Bobby. I'd pay folding money for it to come out that Jean was just some yaoi fangirl and did that she just wanted to see Bobby and Warren make out. I really want her to face some kind of punishment for it.
While that would be hilarious, ADULT Iceman also went "you know what- I'm totes gay", so unless she yaoizapped him too, that's unlikely.

I dunno- I still find it hard to care that much about a gay retcon of ICEMAN.
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Madam Slay! Klaw! Shuri! The Blob! Brass! Blackout!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Ken wrote: Wed Feb 07, 2018 4:22 am Well, it's not like Gru was a factor. I mean, the whole Heroes Reborn thing killed Gruenwald. So, it's not like Gru was around to tell anyone what he would have done with Heike if, you know, Marvel hadn't unceremoniously removed Captain America from him to flush it down the Image crapper.
Well, I was saying it because despite Gru creating her... she was pretty bad. He kind of made Zemo out to be a bit of a ponce and a loser, though. Ages and ages spent building up the Red Skull and dealing with the inner workings of his organization (Gru was REALLY GOOD at showing people "planning" stuff and having ground crews and support staff like that), but Zemo was pretty much always a jobber in those books, and his wife came off as kinda silly.
Jabroniville
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Re: Baroness Zemo

Post by Jabroniville »

MacynSnow wrote: Wed Feb 07, 2018 4:33 am
I honestly had NO idea this lovely woman exsisted,as i could've used her instead of an old Luke Cage foe for an Rl MnM 2e game i'm currently running(it's based around an old TSR adventure called Avengers Franchised! and since the rest of Greed-E had read it before i needed to replace the villians),nice find jab!
No probz! Though full credit goes to Spectrum, who helped me form The List eons ago. I'd actually READ her appearance in the one Captain America trade I have- it's pretty awful, with bad '90s-era art, so I wasn't overly impressed. She didn't stand out too much (I paid more attention to the goofy Serpent Society/Mr. Hyde arc), so I'd never thought to stat her up, even when I did my full "Captain America" set in 2014! It was only seeing her on The List that made me finally decide to read into her. Her backstory's more interesting than I thought.

Still the funniest way to write out a character ever. "Baroness Zemo died on the way back to her home planet."
Jabroniville
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Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Re: Jab's Builds! (Madam Slay! Klaw! Shuri! The Blob! Brass! Blackout!)

Post by Jabroniville »

slade the sniper wrote: Wed Feb 07, 2018 6:07 am Just so you know, Maleficent is absolutely making an appearance in next week's gaming scenario. Thank YOU, sir! You saved me about 4+ hours.

The Evil Queen, however is going to be a pastiche of the Sigourney Weaver/Charlize Theron/ + the Queen of Air and Darkness, sister of Titania, Unseelie Fae... I think that gives her more gravitas. I would hate for her to down like a chump since my "Snow White" is a 5th generation Ventrue and the PC's are fae assassins.

Anyway, thanks!

-STS
Hey, no problem! Glad to be of service! Let me know how she does :).
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Madam Slay! Klaw! Shuri! The Blob! Brass! Blackout!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Ken Levine's blog remembers John "Martin Crane" Mahoney: http://kenlevine.blogspot.ca/2018/02/ri ... honey.html
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Ares
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Re: Basilisk (Elks)

Post by Ares »

Jabroniville wrote: Wed Feb 07, 2018 5:33 am ImageImage

BASILISK (Basil Elks)
Created By:
Len Wein & Gil Kane
First Appearance: Marvel Team-Up #16 (Dec. 1973)
Role: Jobber Villain, Weird Villain
Group Affiliations: None
Basilisk seems like a solid one-off villain, either to be used for a group of baddies or just a nice one-shot story. I miss the days when you could just have a one-shot issue with some random supervillain to break up things.

In other news, the talk of Emma Frost's outfit reminded me of someone else that looked pretty good in it:

Image
"My heart is as light as a child's, a feeling I'd nearly forgotten. And by helping those in need, I will be able to keep that feeling alive."
- Captain Marvel SHAZAM! : Power of Hope (2000)

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M4C8
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Re: Basilisk (Elks)

Post by M4C8 »

In other news, the talk of Emma Frost's outfit reminded me of someone else that looked pretty good in it:

Image
[/quote]

'What if' the White Queen and Iceman had a child.
'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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L-Space
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Madam Slay! Klaw! Shuri! The Blob! Brass! Blackout!)

Post by L-Space »

Jabroniville wrote: Wed Feb 07, 2018 1:45 pm Ken Levine's blog remembers John "Martin Crane" Mahoney: http://kenlevine.blogspot.ca/2018/02/ri ... honey.html
I was sad to hear of his passing, he was just phenomenal in Frasier. RIP :(
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Formerly luketheduke86
Jabroniville
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Blaze

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

BLAZE (Kirk Donoghue)
Created By:
Peter David & Dwayne Turner
First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #123 (Feb. 1987)
Role: Forgotten Villain
Group Affiliations: None
PL 6 (66)
STRENGTH
2 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 5 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Athletics 3 (+5)
Deception 4 (+6)
Expertise (Criminal) 2 (+4)
Insight 2 (+5)
Perception 2 (+5)
Stealth 1 (+4)
Technology 2 (+4)

Advantages:
Equipment 4 (Flame Gun- Blast 6, Grenades +6 Burst), Ranged Attack 2

Offense:
Unarmed +5 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Flame Gun +6 (+6 Ranged Damage, DC 21)
Grenades +6 Area (+6 Ranged Damage, DC 21)
Initiative +3

Defenses:
Dodge +7 (DC 17), Parry +5 (DC 15), Toughness +3, Fortitude +3, Will +3

Complications:
Motivation (Greed)

Total: Abilities: 48 / Skills: 16--8 / Advantages: 6 / Powers: 0 / Defenses: 4 (66)

-Blaze is a small-time crook who was arrested by Spider-Man, and is later hired by The Foreigner to fight Spidey and the Black Cat as part of a plan to vex the Wall-Crawler. The crook is given the identity of "Blaze" after a hoax by some college students, and blamed for firebombing the Cat's apartment. Blaze suspects he's being set up by the Foreigner, and hires extra support before luring the heroes to him- Spider-Man, furious that Blaze has killed a security guard, beats the hell out of him. A Police Lieutenant arrives to arrest Blaze, but reveals himself to be The Foreigner in disguise- he executes Blaze for going against orders, then frames Spider-Man for the crime- it takes the Cat to expose the frame-up.

-Blaze is remarkably close to what would happen if you gave a generic criminal slightly-above-average gear. Largely because that's really just what he is. He's a tad clever, though- anticipating being set-up by The Foreigner.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Tue May 10, 2022 1:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
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