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

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Jabroniville
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Shaman

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

SHAMAN (Dr. Michael Twoyoungmen)
Created By:
John Byrne
First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men #120 (April 1979)
Role: Team Mage, Swiss Army Power Guy, Ethnic Stereotype
Group Affiliations: Alpha Flight
PL 10 (137)
STRENGTH
1 STAMINA 2 AGILITY 1
FIGHTING 5 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 3 AWARENESS 4 PRESENCE 0

Skills:
Close Combat (Unarmed) 2 (+7)
Close Combat (Magic) 4 (+9)
Deception 5 (+5)
Persuasion 4 (+4)
Expertise (Native Shaman) 11 (+14)
Treatment 9 (+13)
Perception 4 (+8)
Insight 4 (+8)
Ranged Combat (Magic) 5 (+9)
Stealth 6 (+7)

Advantages:
Artificer, Equipment ("Magical Bracelets"- Features: Quick Change), Ritualist, Set-Up, Tracking, Trance

Powers:
"Innate Magical Powers"
"Telepathy" Communication 2 (Mental) [10]
"Levitation" Flight 1 (4 mph) (Flaws: Low Ceiling) [1]
Senses 5 (Magical Awareness, Acute, Analytical, Radius) [5]

"Sarcee Mystical Pouch" (Flaws: Easily Removable -2) (Feats: Restricted 2- Shaman Only) [37]
Features 2: Anyone who Looks Within Will Lose Their Mind (2)

"Vaccuum into the Pouch" Movement 1 (Dimensional Movement- Pouch) (Extras: Affects Others 10, Attack 10, Area- 60ft. Cone 10) (32) -- (56)
  • AE: "Image-Altering Powders" Morph 2 (Humanoids) (10)
  • AE: "Anti-Flying Spell" Affliction 10 (Flight Rank; Hindered/Prone) (Extras: Area- 1000ft. Burst +5) (Flaws: Limited Degree, Limited to Flying Characters -2) (30)
  • AE: "Astral Form" Remote Sensing 8 (Visuals & Hearing) (24)
  • AE: "Bubble Protection" Movement 1 (Slow Fall) (Extras: Affects Others) (3)
  • AE: "Clouding Dust- Dulls the Mind" Affliction 10 (Will; Entranced & Impaired/Stunned & Disabled/Incapacitated) (Extras: Cumulative, Extra Condition) (30)
  • AE: "Mud Ball- Stone Spell" Affliction 10 (Will; Dazed & Vision Impaired/Stunned & Vision Disabled/Transformed & Unaware) (Extras: Extra Condition, Ranged) (30)
  • AE: "Dust From the Realm of Dreams" Affliction 10 (Will; Fatigued/Exhausted/Asleep) (Extras: Cumulative) (20)
  • AE: "Phobia Manipulation" Affliction 10 (Will; Fatigued/Exhausted/Asleep) (Extras: Perception Range +2, Extra Condition) (30)
  • AE: "Deflection Wand" Immunity 20 (Energy Attacks) (20)
  • AE: "Daylight Enhantment Stone" Affliction 10 (Will; Entranced/Compelled/Controlled) (Extras: Area- 30ft. Burst) (Flaws: Limited to "Calm Down") (10)
  • AE: "Dimensional Portal" Movement 3 (Dimensional Travel 3) (Extras: Portal +2) (15)
  • AE: "Eldritch Bolts" Blast 10 (20)
  • AE: "Flame Barrier" Damage 10 (Extras: Area- 30ft. Shapeable) (20)
  • AE: "Eagle Crest" Summon Eagle 5 (Extras: Heroic +2, Active) (Eagle with Affliction 10- Demons cannot attack, can use Remote Sensing) (25)
  • AE: "Healing Powders" Healing 6 (12)
  • AE: "Ice Powders- Shards" Blast 8 (Extras: Multiattack) (24)
  • AE: "Ice Powders- Wall of Ice" Create 8 (16)
  • AE: "Telekinesis" Move Object 8 (16)
  • AE: "Magic Glob/Staff of Growth" Snare 7 (Extras: Area- 30ft. Burst) (28)
  • AE: "Protection Spell" Force Field 10 (Extras: Impervious) (Flaws: Immobile -2) (5)
  • AE: "Shrinking Spell" Shrinking 12 (Extras: Attack Only +0) (24)
  • AE: Nullify (Magical Effects) 10 (Extras: Broad, Simultaneous) (30)
  • AE: "Empathy" Mind-Reading 5 (Flaws: Limited to Emotions) (5)
  • AE: "Weather Control" Environment 6 (900 feet) (Cold, Impede Movement 2, Light, Visibility) (31)
-- (58 points)

Offense:
Unarmed +7 (+1 Damage, DC 16)
Eldritch Bolts +8 (+10 Ranged Damage, DC 25)
Afflictions +8 (+7-10 Ranged Affliction, DC 17-20)
Afflictions +9 (+10 Affliction, DC 20)
Pouch Vacuum +10 Area (+10 Teleport, DC 20)
Initiative +1

Defenses:
Dodge +8 (DC 18), Parry +7 (DC 17), Toughness +2 (+12 Force Field), Fortitude +6, Will +10

Complications:
Relationship (Elizabeth)- Shaman has an adversarial relationship with his daughter- she felt betrayed when he failed to save her mother from sickness.
Responsibility (Shaman)- Michael's position and power give him much responsibility- he is the primary defender of Canada from dark spirits.

Total: Abilities: 32 / Skills: 54--27 / Advantages: 6 / Powers: 53 / Defenses: 19 (137)

-Michael Twoyoungmen was your standard "I use the white man's ways of science" doctor, until his wife and father both died within a day's time, despite his attempts to cure them. Thus, he abandoned Western Medicine and learned the ultra-pure way of his people- the Tsuu T'ina tribe within Canada. Using "Sarcee" (an old term for the tribe- a now-pejorative term given to them by the Blackfeet, who warred with the Tsuu T'ina- it means "stubborn ones") magic and a fancy mystical pouch, Shaman becomes a master mage. Shortly after assisting with the birth of Snowbird (who rapidly ages), the two are recruited to join Alpha Flight. He assists the team as a support character for a while, but we eventually meet his adult daughter Elizabeth, who discovers that she has innate magical powers, and soon becomes "Talisman". When he fails to save her from an enslaving "Coronet" that connects itself to her permanently, she begins hating him for his numerous failings. This causes a crisis of faith, and Michael loses his powers for a time.

-Shaman eventually learns to beseech "animal spirits" for help, and regains powers after Talisman forgives him, following a battle with a demonic being named Pestilence. After this, Michael joins the rest of Alpha Flight in "Marvel Limbo", showing up in scattered books here and there- he misses out on the "Radius/Flex" era, and the "Sasquatch Leads Some Goofs" era, but finds himself dead alongside the rest of the team at the hands of the Collective. He returns with the most recent Alpha Flight book, where he is opposed by Ranark the Ravager of "Alpha Strike", and is instrumental to Alpha Flight's victory through various spells (such as a spell of Stealth, hiding the Alphans from the rest of fascist Canada).

-Shaman's one my least favourite archetypes in comics: Guy Who Can Do Everything. Need a snowstorm? He's got it. Need a blast? Ditto. Stealth powers? Mind Reading? Snares? Teleportation? Moving Stuff? He's got it ALL! So much like Dr. Strange, he can basically do anything, making him the ultimate teammate, and so hard to write for that he often gets de-powered, KO'd, possessed, or loses his stupid pouch thingie. Basically, the walking Plot Device. Hell, I remember The Crossing, an Avengers arc, where Shaman stuck an entire town full of people, plus all these superteams, a nuclear blast and a submarine, into his pouch (something like five square miles of space), basically just sitting there teleporting the teams all over the place. That's the sort of thing that happens when you create a guy just to counter Storm for a single storyline, then have to actually WRITE that character. HOWEVER, I will give them credit- the fact that he's got all his powers packed into a little pouch on his side makes him much more vulnerable than the Power-Creeped-To-Hell Doctor Strange (remember when PILEDRIVER kicked his ass?).

-So Shaman's had a bumpy ride, being a good teammate sometimes, but then losing all focus and ability. And of COURSE since he's a Native person, he's got to have the "I was using the white man's ways of science, but have turned back to the ways of our ancestors" gimmick, which is offensive to both white AND non-white people. They added some extra stuff to him by giving him a daughter, Talisman, but she's a footnote. I actually think that a lot could be done with Native hero with the current climate towards natives in Canada (the vast majority are poor, a huge chunk in Canada's cities are homeless, and the rest live on crappy reserves), but Michael here kinda skips over all of it by being a smart, rich doctor. Too bad, really.

-Shaman comes up at WAAAYYY the frick cheaper than he should, all because he can't use 95% of his powers without the use of his magical pouch. I just statted as many of the Alphanex website's powers as I felt necessary. So yeah, his Restricted Device saves him about twenty points in this case, and I'd seriously reconsider letting a player do that. Perfectly legal, though. With that and four ranks of Luck, he can pretty much do almost anything. Note the Pouch's ability to mind-wipe people who look into it, and the fact that he can use Telepathy without the Pouch. On the plus side, unless he's using his Force Field (at which point he can't use his blasts or anything), Shaman's a real Glass Cannon, a pathetic PL 5 defensively.

-I could've used a Variable-style set of gadgets on his Pouch and made the same amount of sense (since he's often pulling individual items out of the Pouch to use- little powders and wicker men and stuff like that), but I felt like actually pointing out what most of his powers actually were. Since his most expensive power seems to cost 35 points (his "teleport a whole town and a nuclear blast into his pouch" trick is really an Extra Effort Plot Device more than anything), he would likely end up with Variable 7 (49 points), but the Device would cost 33 points, actually saving him a bit on points (since he's got so many Alt-Effects, boosting the price). But I would likely force any player trying that to put another Extra for "Broad Powers" on it or something.

Image

SHAMAN (Dr. Michael Twoyoungmen)
Created By:
John Byrne
First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men #120 (April 1979)
Role: Team Mage, Swiss Army Power Guy, Ethnic Stereotype
Group Affiliations: Alpha Flight
PL 10 (137)
STRENGTH
1 STAMINA 2 AGILITY 1
FIGHTING 5 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 3 AWARENESS 4 PRESENCE 0

Skills:
Close Combat (Unarmed) 2 (+7)
Close Combat (Magic) 4 (+9)
Deception 5 (+5)
Persuasion 4 (+4)
Expertise (Native Shaman) 11 (+14)
Treatment 9 (+13)
Perception 4 (+8)
Insight 4 (+8)
Ranged Combat (Magic) 5 (+9)
Stealth 6 (+7)

Advantages:
Artificer, Equipment ("Magical Bracelets"- Features: Quick Change), Ritualist, Set-Up, Tracking, Trance

Powers:
"Innate Magical Powers"
"Telepathy" Communication 2 (Mental) [10]
"Levitation" Flight 1 (4 mph) (Flaws: Low Ceiling) [1]
Senses 5 (Magical Awareness, Acute, Analytical, Radius) [5]

"Sarcee Mystical Pouch" (Flaws: Easily Removable -2) (Feats: Restricted 2- Shaman Only) [37]
Features 2: Anyone who Looks Within Will Lose Their Mind (2)
Variable (any magical) 7 (Extras: Affects Others) (56)
-- (58 points)

Offense:
Unarmed +7 (+1 Damage, DC 16)
Eldritch Bolts +8 (+10 Ranged Damage, DC 25)
Afflictions +8 (+7-10 Ranged Affliction, DC 17-20)
Afflictions +9 (+10 Affliction, DC 20)
Pouch Vacuum +10 Area (+10 Teleport, DC 20)
Initiative +1

Defenses:
Dodge +8 (DC 18), Parry +7 (DC 17), Toughness +2 (+12 Force Field), Fortitude +6, Will +10

Complications:
Relationship (Elizabeth)- Shaman has an adversarial relationship with his daughter- she felt betrayed when he failed to save her mother from sickness.
Responsibility (Shaman)- Michael's position and power give him much responsibility- he is the primary defender of Canada from dark spirits.

Total: Abilities: 32 / Skills: 54--27 / Advantages: 6 / Powers: 53 / Defenses: 19 (137)

-Here's an alternate Shaman, using Variable as the basis for his Pouch, with Affects Others so that he can hand some of his Powered Items to others. This actually costs the same, which is odd.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Thu Jan 27, 2022 3:41 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Goldar
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Marrina! Vindicator! Puck! Manikin! Sasquatches!)

Post by Goldar »

Jabroniville wrote: Heh- I thought the "too scary!" thing was a reference to Sasquatch just being so big that it'd look scary if he was sleeping with dudes. But then, I guess the same would hold if he was sexing up ladies as well.
Lol. There are probably many "bears" and "cubs", "otters" and even "twinks" that would love to cuddle right up nice and close to furry old Walter Sassy!
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L-Space
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Re: Shaman

Post by L-Space »

Jabroniville wrote:-So Shaman's had a bumpy ride, being a good teammate sometimes, but then losing all focus and ability. And of COURSE since he's a Native person, he's got to have the "I was using the white man's ways of science, but have turned back to the ways of our ancestors" gimmick, which is offensive to both white AND non-white people. They added some extra stuff to him by giving him a daughter, Talisman, but she's a footnote. I actually think that a lot could be done with Native hero with the current climate towards natives in Canada (the vast majority are poor, a huge chunk in Canada's cities are homeless, and the rest live on crappy reserves), but Michael here kinda skips over all of it by being a smart, rich doctor. Too bad, really.
In The Dresden Files (HA! beat Ares to it this time!) they handled that trope fairly well. A Native American wizard, who is one of the top magic healers, mentions that he makes a point to keep up on modern medicine as that kind of information is useful regardless if magic is involved. ;)
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Arcaene
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Re: Shaman

Post by Arcaene »

L-Space wrote:
Jabroniville wrote:-So Shaman's had a bumpy ride, being a good teammate sometimes, but then losing all focus and ability. And of COURSE since he's a Native person, he's got to have the "I was using the white man's ways of science, but have turned back to the ways of our ancestors" gimmick, which is offensive to both white AND non-white people. They added some extra stuff to him by giving him a daughter, Talisman, but she's a footnote. I actually think that a lot could be done with Native hero with the current climate towards natives in Canada (the vast majority are poor, a huge chunk in Canada's cities are homeless, and the rest live on crappy reserves), but Michael here kinda skips over all of it by being a smart, rich doctor. Too bad, really.
In The Dresden Files (HA! beat Ares to it this time!) they handled that trope fairly well. A Native American wizard, who is one of the top magic healers, mentions that he makes a point to keep up on modern medicine as that kind of information is useful regardless if magic is involved. ;)
Ah, yes... Joseph Listens-to-Wind, aka "Injun Joe."
For some reason, I see Wes Studi playing him... especially when he tells the skinwalker, "Don't plan to bind or banish you, old ghost. Just gonna kick your ass up around your ears. Let's go."
The Dude abides, man...
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Sasquatch! Northstar & Aurora! Shaman!)

Post by Horsenhero »

Both Shaman and Talisman are characters that would be irritating beyond measure in an actual rpg (but most comic book mages are like that). They fall into that Deus ex Machina category of character that plagues comic book sorcerers or psionics these days. To make things worse, Byrne pretty much explicitly states that Talisman is more powerful than Shaman and might be a match for Earth's sorcerer supreme (because Dr. Strange has been dealing with the "omega level mutant" issue longer than mutants have). My personal suspicion is Byrne was going to build up Talisman to be his personal Phoenix stand-in for Alpha Flight, because he's never managed to put the fact Shooter more-or-less forced him and Claremont to kill off Jean Grey behind him.

Seriously, Byrne just can't leave that plotline alone, and the damage it's done to otherwise decent characters is ridiculous. Scarlet Witch has suffered years of tarnishing because Byrne used her as a "Dark Phoenix" substitute in his WCA run and other writers couldn't help but keep piling on junk. Hell, the "X" books can't make it more than a couple years without some idiot writer dragging more Phoenix Force crap out of whatever dark corner it's kept in.

Yep. If there's ever a reason why it was a good thing Byrne stepped away from Alpha Flight when he did, it's that his leaving prevented having to retread the Dark Phoenix plot yet again. That story is more worn out than the "Thanos gains ultimate power and tries to destroy the universe" story and the damn Thanos thing is the only story Jim Starlin remembers how to tell!
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Sasquatch! Northstar & Aurora! Shaman!)

Post by Batgirl III »

Comic book writers are really prone to "I can do that thing we all liked twenty years ago... but Better!" Which is why Marvel keeps regurgitating the Dark Phoenix plot, the Galactus plot, the Captain America Quits plot, and so forth. Meanwhile, DC hasn't let a decade pass that hasn't regurgitated the Terror of Trigon plot, the Batman Betrays the JLA (or Did He?) plot, and so on and so forth.

It's not a problem unique to comics... I mean, look at Hollywood. You can sum up eighty percent of the movies released between 1988 and 1998 as either "Die Hard in/on a ____." There's a longstanding bit of apocrypha that someone actually pitched a Hollywood studio on a concept that was Die Hard in an office building!" (Then again, I can think of three or four actual movies that are exactly that... So maybe not so apocryphal.)
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Jabroniville
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Sasquatch! Northstar & Aurora! Shaman!)

Post by Jabroniville »

God yes- "Wanda Goes Evil" has been overdone so badly that I consider the character to be irreparably harmed. She's basically been poisoned by stupid.

Also, some extra info, re: Shaman:

Canada's "Native Problem":
-Since Shaman's a highly-educated doctor who spends more time with "the ancient ways" than any CURRENTLY living Natives, John Byrne didn't have to deal with any of the enormous troubles surrounding Canada's Native population- a hurricane of problems that basically goes: Generations of ill treatment and poverty. Decades of Residential Schooling separating children from their parents, often resulting in abuse both physical & sexual, messing up a few generations of people. Stuck on reserves where the rich Chiefs horde the money and leave everyone else in Third World conditions. A century-long, worldwide stereotype of alcoholism (that is tragically largely based on fact). Attempts to "dry out" the reserves meets conflict with "personal rights", meaning you can't make it illegal to sell booze on reserves. Natives leaving their hellhole reserves into the big cities... where they find themselves without skills, turning them homeless. At which point, they become a massively problematic underclass- dependent on government money but with no way out of their dependency. Natives in Canada are basically a Libertarian's worst nightmare, and a huge damnation of the welfare system. THAT SAID... there are plenty of wealthy Reserves- out East I've heard of a lot of guys making bank selling their cigarettes (which Natives don't pay tax on) to white people for a hefty profit (since cigs here are taxed to extremes beyond even the U.S.'s taxation), and some Reserves made a killing off of oil profits.

-And for the record: the original term was "Indian", but changed to "Native" because "Native Canadian" (the companion to the U.S.'s "Native American" was too awkward to say. Then people got mad over THAT (largely because people would just add "drunk" in front of "Native", and started saying "First Nations". But that one never took, so currently people are trying to get "Aboriginal" over. Except that's never gonna work, because again- it's an awkward term. So you'll see First Nations/Aboriginal on the news or in government reports, but 100% of white people I've ever met will still use "Native".

-What's funny is that I'm not sure if Alpha Flight has EVER touched the "Native Problem". Given how big on an issue it is in Canadian society, and how often it hits the news, it's a bit funny. Instead, Shaman is basically the most Stereotypical Old-School Injun Ever, just being a nature-worshipping... well, Shaman. Granted, it's a hell of a lot more positive than the OTHER Native Stereotype.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Sasquatch! Northstar & Aurora! Shaman!)

Post by Spectrum »

Down here in the south central US, several reservations have turned to making really good money through casinos. It helps that they are technically a foreign country so don't have to follow the laws of the state around them but that gets pretty blurred at times.

Do Canadian tribes do something similar?
We rise from the ashes so that new legends can be born.
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Sasquatch! Northstar & Aurora! Shaman!)

Post by Jabroniville »

There are some, but not a lot. Gambling is more legalized here than in much of the States, so it's not worth the same amount. There are multiple casino options inside most cities, for example.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Marrina! Vindicator! Puck! Manikin! Sasquatches!)

Post by Spectrum »

Jabroniville wrote: Like most things, this can be explained with a Broadway musical:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMAuesRJm1E

Watch a little girl sing about how glorious it was the first time she saw a butch lesbian, from Fun Home (based off of the memoir of Alison Bechdel, of "Bechdel Test" fame).

Though yeah, going immediately to the hugest possible stereotype was probably not the BEST way to add "diversity" to the roster of a book.
Clearly, some things are better when the audience is 30 feet away from a fixed angle rather than on closeups.
We rise from the ashes so that new legends can be born.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Sasquatch! Northstar & Aurora! Shaman!)

Post by Spectrum »

I was going to quote somewhere back about Canadian liberalism but couldn't find it.

Exhibit A: Justin Trudeau, Canada's even more regressive left answer to Obama.

Exhibit B: Bill C-16- threat or menace?

And sorry in advance for pulling this into another politics debate. MILF tax
We rise from the ashes so that new legends can be born.
Jabroniville
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Wild Child

Post by Jabroniville »

Image
Image

WILD CHILD (Kyle Gibney, aka Wildheart, Weapon Omega)
Created By:
John Byrne
First Appearance: Alpha Flight #1 (Aug. 1983)
Role: The First Claw Guy Knock-Off, Animal Child, I Want To Be Human Guy
Group Affiliations: Alpha Flight, Beta Flight, Omega Flight, X-Factor
PL 9 (104)
STRENGTH
5 STAMINA 5 AGILITY 5
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 0 AWARENESS 0 PRESENCE 0

Skills: 
Acrobatics 6 (+11)
Athletics 6 (+11)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 3 (+11)
Close Combat (Claws) 3 (+11)
Expertise (Survival) 6 (+6)
Intimidation 6 (+6)
Perception 7 (+7)
Stealth 5 (+10)

Advantages:
All-Out Attack, Chokehold, Improved Critical (Claws), Improved Initiative, Improved Hold, Improved Trip, Instant Up, Power Attack, Startle, 

Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Wolverine Knock-Off"
"Healing Factor"
Regeneration 6 [6]
Immunity 4 (Aging, Disease, Poison, Cold) (Flaws: Limited to Half-Effect) [2]
Enhanced Advantages 2: Diehard, Great Endurance [2]

"Animal Senses" Senses 8 (Darkvision, Extended Vision, Tracking, Extended & Acute Scent, Extended Hearing, Acute Taste) [8]

"Claws" Strength-Damage +1 (Feats: Split) [2]
Speed 2 (8 mph) [2]

Offense:
Unarmed +11 (+5 Damage, DC 20)
Claws +12 (+6 Damage, DC 21)
Initiative +9

Defenses:
Dodge +11 (DC 21), Parry +11 (DC 21), Toughness +5, Fortitude +8, Will +4

Complications:
Responsibility (Errant Transformations)- Kyle changes form A LOT. He'll be a shrunken Sabretooth knock-off one day, and then he'll look like a long-haired pretty boy the next. He can be tall or short, hairy or clean-shaven, and everything in between.

Total: Abilities: 46 / Skills: 42--21 / Advantages: 9 / Powers: 22 / Defenses: 16 (104)

-Wild Child seems like a pretty monstrous Sabretooth rip-off at first appearance (with the conceit that he's a younger kid, being pretty short and stuff like that), though he debuted years before the Wolverine/Sabretooth rivalry actually started- way back when Sabes was just a Claremont/Byrne one-shot villain from when they were working on Iron Fist. It's just his bad luck that his only real significance as a character came long AFTER "Claw Guy" was one of the most copied and generic set-ups in comics. He spent a good chunk of his time as an animalistic, cranky kid in the lower "Flights", but upgraded to the main team as Weapon Omega (and later Wildheart), in a more attractive, non-bestial form. That of course didn't stick, and he ended up kicking around the X-verse for a few years (on the worst team, of course), and now he's turned evil like alot of do-nothing mutants from Marvel Limbo.

-Kyle Gibney was a kid who'd been kicked out of his home when his Mutant Powers activated (he looked bestial and dangerous), at which point he was kidnapped by the Secret Empire, whose experiments caused him to become even more animalistic and unpredictable. When he finally escaped, he was remanded to government custody at Department H, which put him on the low-tier trainee team Gamma Flight. When all of the Flights were disbanded, he was scooped up by the criminal Omega Flight, who battled Alpha Flight in West Edmonton Mall (hee- I go to there)- he was finally captured after committing a series of murders and losing a fight to Wolverine.

-He was mysteriously pardoned and placed back on Gamma Flight, soon allying with the Alphans- he was eventually cured of his mental problems, made to look more human, and was properly-trained, allowing him to become Weapon Omega, at which point he became one of the most obscure characters to appear in the Series III Marvel Cards. Some time later, he changed his name to Wildheart after discovering his true origin as an exiled child, and engaged in a romance with his teammate Aurora. However, he later left the team when his appearance reverted back to its more bestial state- he followed Valerie Cooper to the United States, where he joined X-Factor in its "Post-Peter David" years. There, he hooked up with the holographic Shard, and had to deal with the goading of Sabretooth (who was insanely placed ON this government-run team, by virtue of a device that forced him not to kill people, because THOSE always work) to become more savage, and more- he eventually degenerated into a near-mindless state, and was recruited by Weapon X. He was later savagely mauled by Sabretooth, and rendered mute for a time.

-Wild Child was then placed into "Marvel Limbo", where he basically vanished from site for years at a time. They even had him De-Powered after M-Day... but someone seemed to FORGET about it, as he suddenly appeared with full power, defeating Wolverine in a fight! By this point, he appears to have fallen under the sway of another claw-senses-teeth mutant, Romulus: "the first of their kind". He was last seen being thrown into a vat of molten steel by Omega Red.

-Overall, Wild Child has been through a lot as a character... but unfortunately, the only thing he's really good for is "Wolverine Lite" kind of stuff, as he hits all of the same notes (animalistic, savage, claws, regeneration). Albeit as a more minor character they're allowed to shake him up a bit and go in different directions- such as making him more or less human, having him go fully evil, going brain-dead, etc.- often for extended periods (with Logan, these are more quick arcs). But yeah... he's still just Wolverine Lite. 

-Standard Claw Guy Scrapper build, but way under-pointed for a PL 9. He's dangerous, packing an accurate Claw Strike along with All-Out Attack, but he's nothing Wolverine or Sabretooth couldn't beat the hell out of (and both have done it a few times)... at least until his recent power-up, where apparently he's good enough to beat on Wolverine now.

-For statting his short-lived Weapon Omega form, simply boost the Charisma (gained confidence) to 1, and stick some of the Dodge & Attack Focus stuff into higher bonuses in Attack & Defense, getting a much stronger build. I'm not sure if he had the claws in that form, though (since he held it for such a short period of time, Alphanex & Wikipedia don't say). He becomes MUCH more powerful in the modern era, getting the "can kick Wolverine's ass" push, so we'll see how long they can keep it up before he starts getting beaten regularly again.

Image

WILD CHILD (Kyle Gibney, aka Wildheart, Weapon Omega)- Modern Version
Created By:
John Byrne
First Appearance: Alpha Flight #1 (Aug. 1983)
Role: The First Claw Guy Knock-Off, Animal Child, I Want To Be Human Guy
Group Affiliations: Alpha Flight, Beta Flight, Omega Flight, X-Factor
PL 10 (124)
STRENGTH
5 STAMINA 5 AGILITY 5
FIGHTING 10 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 0 AWARENESS 0 PRESENCE 0

Skills: 
Acrobatics 6 (+11)
Athletics 6 (+11)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 3 (+13)
Close Combat (Claws) 4 (+14)
Expertise (Survival) 6 (+6)
Intimidation 7 (+7)
Perception 7 (+7)
Stealth 5 (+10)

Advantages:
All-Out Attack, Chokehold, Improved Critical (Claws), Improved Initiative, Improved Hold, Improved Trip, Instant Up, Power Attack, Startle, 

Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Wolverine Knock-Off"
"Healing Factor"
Regeneration 6 [6]
Immunity 4 (Aging, Disease, Poison, Cold) (Flaws: Limited to Half-Effect) [2]
Enhanced Advantages 2: Diehard, Great Endurance [2]

"Animal Senses" Senses 8 (Darkvision, Extended Vision, Tracking, Extended & Acute Scent, Extended Hearing, Acute Taste) [8]

"Claws" Strength-Damage +1 (Feats: Split) [2]
Speed 2 (8 mph) [2]

Offense:
Unarmed +13 (+5 Damage, DC 20)
Claws +14 (+6 Damage, DC 21)
Initiative +9

Defenses:
Dodge +13 (DC 23), Parry +15 (DC 25), Toughness +5, Fortitude +9, Will +4

Complications:
Responsibility (Errant Transformations)- Kyle changes form A LOT. He'll be a shrunken Sabretooth knock-off one day, and then he'll look like a long-haired pretty boy the next. He can be tall or short, hairy or clean-shaven, and everything in between.

Total: Abilities: 50 / Skills: 44--22 / Advantages: 9 / Powers: 22 / Defenses: 21 (124)

-Wild Child in his most modern incarnation is actually in the upper tier of "Claw Guys", being only a notch below Wolverine & Sabretooth.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Thu Jan 27, 2022 3:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Batgirl III
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Location: Portland, Oregon

Re: Jab's Builds! (Sasquatch! Northstar & Aurora! Shaman!)

Post by Batgirl III »

Bill C-16, as I understand it, only expands Canada's hate crime protections to also cover gender expression. It's not quite the "they going to make it illegal to use the wrong made-up Tumblr words!" paranoia that some are freaked out about.

On the other hand, the LGBT community isn't doing much to dispel that paranoia given how they allow the way too vocal Tumblr types to freak the fuck out on anyone who gets a pronoun wrong. Most people, in my experience, are more than willing to treat a transgendered person as if they are a member of their chosen gender... But, well, we're human. Sometimes we make mistakes.

This whole "Thou shalt not misgender a trans person" commandment that the Timblr types are fanatics over is a prohibition that I violate on a nearly daily basis when speaking to my own husband. Now, I don't bring up my personal life much, because frankly, it's not that interesting, but as I have mentioned once or twice my husband is a transgendered man (i.e., he was born a female and has chosen to transposition to a male).

The thing is, we've known each other for over sixteen years... for most of that time he was "she," I thought of his as "her," as "girlfriend," as "wife," as "mom" (to our kids, and so on and so forth. Now, I don't like playing the Tumblr game of weird made-up pronouns, I'm never going to be onboard with Xir and Xe and Bunself... But I don't have any objection with swapping "she" for "he." Except, thing is, sometimes I slip up. I don't thought police every word that comes out of my mouth and will occasionally still use a "she" or a "her" when talking about my husband.

Tumblr types would have you believe this is is because of some sort of internalized transphobic misogyny or some other buzzword salad. Instead of just, y'know, oops.

Frankly, I think the best thing that could happen for the LGBT movement would be for someone to nuke Tumblr from orbit.
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Doctor Malsyn
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Sasquatch! Northstar & Aurora! Shaman!)

Post by Doctor Malsyn »

I'm a little lost on how builds about a Canadian team jumped into gender politics. Though I do agree with much of what you said.
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Horsenhero
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Sasquatch! Northstar & Aurora! Shaman!)

Post by Horsenhero »

Re: Wild Child/Heart/Whatever- I never read any of those later issues of Alpha Flight, so my only real experience with him is him getting his ass handed to him by Northstar in the Alpha vs Omega Flights fight...and him being kept like a chained pet by Sabretooth in the first "Age of Apocalypse" mini-series. So yeah, drop him into a vat of molten steel and call it a day.

Re: The Native People thing....Casinos don't make things better for a huge chunk of the Native-American population. They, like oil profiteering have simply added extra layers of stratification to that segment of the population. Hurray for greed. :|

As for the group identification, there was a short-lived push for "Indigenous people", but someone immediately shortened it to Indige's which is an insult, so that's mostly gone away. Hurray for bigotry. :|

I have to wonder though, if the reason no Alpha Flight writer addressed them is, John Byrne didn't want to wade into those waters and the other AF writers have been US born and raised and generally unaware of social issues beyond our own borders. (One day I'll have to tell the story of my buddy who went to Ethiopia and discovered in a sudden, harsh way how many Africans view/treat non-African blacks)
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