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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Re: Jab's Builds! (Armless Tiger Man! Ajax! The Armadillo! The Aquarian!)

Post by catsi563 »

Spectrum wrote: Sun Mar 12, 2017 3:58 pm Which will win out?
A hatred of trying to do blind builds?
OR
A love of all things Disney?

Bets taken now.
I'll take some of that action! I got a dozen donuts. :lol:
Dr. Silverback has wryly observed that this is like trying to teach lolcats about Shakespeare

Showdown at the Litterbox

Catsi stories
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Armless Tiger Man! Ajax! The Armadillo! The Aquarian!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Yeah... no blind builds. Also, still no access to my desktop. Makes doing all-new stuff kinda difficult.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sun Mar 12, 2017 7:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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The Anachronauts

Post by Jabroniville »

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THE ANACHRONAUTS
Created By:
Mark Gruenwald, Dan Panosian & Rich Yanizesky
First Appearance: The Fantastic Four Annual #25 (1992)
Role: Kang's Goon Squad

-The Anachronauts were a band of time-tossed soldiers used by Kang as his "Elite Guard" of sorts. Naturally, since Mark Gruenwald was writing, they were from all over the Marvel Universe, and quite obscure. Their roster changed with each story... which is pretty standard for a Kang-based tale, honestly. They were all killed in a later story, when Immortus invaded Chronopolis (Kang's home city).

The Roster:
Gilgamesh- The Forgotten One, the Eternal was the leader and trainer of the group.
Red Wolf- Wildrun, the first Red Wolf, was the sole survivor of the team at one point, but was himself killed.
Apocryphus- An Eternal.
Iron Man- I think this was when Tony was revealed to have been a mole for Kang all along. This was naturally retconned as a terrible idea around Heroes Reborn and basically never mentioned again.
Luna- The daughter of Quicksilver & Crystal, but an adult.
Libra- Former member of The Zodiac Cartel, pre-Avengers Forever.
Deathunt 9000- Ludicrously-'90s Cyborg.
Malachi & Tobias- Possibly the Scarlet Witch's adult children.
Mantis- An alternate Avenger.
Marcus Kang- The Son of Kang.
Marcus Immortus- The guy who infamously mind-controlled Ms. Marvel into falling in love with him.
Ravonna- Kang's love, and sometimes rival. Also known as The Terminatrix.
Neut- A blue guy with a giant blue head.
Sir Raston- The second wielder of the Ebony Blade, after Sir Percy (and before Dane Whitman).
Raa- Looks like a caveman with a Bloodstone embedded in his chest.
Tyndar- Trojan warrior, said to have been bathed in the River Styx and was immune to its flames.
Ssith- Serpent-Man.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sun Feb 06, 2022 11:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Akasha

Post by Jabroniville »

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AKASHA MARTINEZ (aka The Living Pharaoh II)
Created By:
Richard Case & Todd Dezago
First Appearance: The Spectacular Spider-Man #19 (Sept. 1997)
Role: Forgotten Character, One-Off Menace, Jumped-Up Civilian
PL 10 (117)
STRENGTH
8 STAMINA 8 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 5 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 0 AWARENESS 0 PRESENCE 1

Skills:
Athletics 2 (+10)
Deception 3 (+4)
Expertise (Ancient Egypt) 7 (+7)
Insight 2 (+2)
Vehicles 6 (+8)

Advantages: 
Ranged Attack 2

Powers:
Cosmic Blast 16 (Feats: Extended Range) (33) -- [35]
  • AE: "Cosmic Wave" Damage 10 (Extras: Area- 60ft. Cone) (20)
  • AE: Teleport 11 (Extras: Extended) (33)
"Sixth Sense" Senses 4 (Detect Life- Ranged 2, Radius) [4]
"Subtle Influence" Enhanced Skills 6: Persuasion 6 (+7) [3]
Power-Lifting 1 (12 tons) [1]
Regeneration 4 [4]

Offense:
Unarmed +5 (+8 Damage, DC 23)
Cosmic Blast +4 (+16 Ranged Damage, DC 21)
Cosmic Wave +10 Area (+10 Damage, DC 25)
Initiative +3

Defenses:
Dodge +7 (DC 17), Parry +5 (DC 15), Toughness +8, Fortitude +8, Will +2

Complications:
Relationship (Parents)- Akasha's parents are divorced, and her childhood was rough.
Power Loss (All Powers)- Akasha's powers can apparently be deactivated by destroying a Magical Staff, an artifact from Ancient Egypt.

Total: Abilities: 54 / Skills: 20--10 / Advantages: 2 / Powers: 47 / Defenses: 6 (117)

-Akasha Martinez was a dirt-bike racer from Utah who was struck by a falling meteor- the remains of The Living Pharaoh. She grabbed the Staff of Horus from the Metropolitan Museum of Art & History and was empowered by the villain's own memories to commit evil. Refusing to kill Spider-Man, she was stopped when he realized what was happening, and shattered the Staff. She flew away, determined to forge her own destiny, and has never reappeared.

-This tremendous power (enough to make a rank amateur a PL 10 villain- a +10 Area Effect and one of the only +4/+16 attacks you're likely to see) made her extremely dangerous in her first appearance, but eventually gave way to a Winged girl with a Healing Factor.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sun Feb 06, 2022 11:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Akhenaten

Post by Jabroniville »

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AKHENATEN
Created By:
Peter David & David Brewer
First Appearance: The Incredible Hulk #457 (Oct. 1997)
Role: Would-Be Cosmic Being

-Akhenaten was a real-life Pharaoh of Egypt between 1367 & 1350 B.C. (his wife is much more famous than he is- Queen Nefertiti was a legendary beauty whose legend has extended to today). Akhenaten is notable to historians for his worship of Aten, the Sun God... contrary to the standard worship of the Egyptian Pantheon. This is generally seen as a bit of a "cult of personality", with the pharaoh making a power-play to make himself seem more important.

-The comic book Akhenaten is used by Jim Starlin for his The End series- he was chosen by a Celestial Order to be a representative, but is driven mad by the responsibility. He ended up going for a Cosmic Macguffin for 2000 years, betrayed the Order, and tried to forge a new kingdom on his old planet. He kills the X-Men, Fantastic Four & Avengers, then slaughters the Council of Godheads when they move to oppose him. Only Thor & Zeus manage to survive, apparently. So I'm guessing this dude is rather powerful, but he has that "Vague Cosmic Being" thing that makes him rather unstattable. Probably somewhere between PL 22 & 30, if he's able to take out Godhead-level beings so easily.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sun Feb 06, 2022 11:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Armless Tiger Man! Ajax! The Armadillo! The Aquarian!)

Post by Ares »

So naturally, Thanos defeated him.
"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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Alpha

Post by Jabroniville »

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ALPHA THE ULTIMATE MUTANT
Created By:
Len Wein & Sal Buscema
First Appearance: The Defenders #15 (1974)
Role: One-Shot Villain
PL 12 (286)
STRENGTH
10 STAMINA 12 AGILITY 0
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 5 AWARENESS 4 PRESENCE 0

Skills:
Perception 4 (+8)

Advantages: 
Power Attack, Ranged Attack 8

Powers:
"Turn to Stone" Affliction 15 (Fort; Dazed & Impaired/Stunned & Incapacitated/Transformed to Stone & Unaware) (Extras: Ranged, Cumulative, Extra Condition) (60) -- [67]
  • AE: "Telekinetic Spin" Affliction 8 (Fort; Dazed & Fatigued/Stunned & Exhausted/Incapacitated) (Extras: Ranged) (16)
  • AE: "Fuse to the Ground" Snare 13 (39)
  • AE: "Lifts the United Nations Building" Move Object 14 (Feats: Increased Mass 4) (6,000 tons) (32)
  • AE: "Telepathy" Mind-Reading 12 Linked to Communication (Mental) 2 (34)
  • AE: "Transmute Elements" Transform 10 (50)
  • AE: Teleport 8 (Extras: Extended, Accurate, Portal +2) (48)
  • AE: Force Field 2 (Extras: Affects Others 10, Impervious 9) (21)
"De-Age Permanently" Affliction 12 (Fort; Impaired/Disabled/Transformed to Child) (Extras: Ranged, Area- 30ft. Burst, Continuous +3) [72]

"Pavement to Rock-Men" Summon 3 (Extras: 8 Minions +6, Horde) [27]
Flight 8 (500 mph) [16]
Immunity 10 (Life Support) [10]
"Tall" Growth 3 (Str & Sta +3, +3 Mass, +1 Intimidation, -1 Dodge/Parry, -3 Stealth) -- (10 feet) (Feats: Innate) (Extras: Permanent +0) [7]

Offense:
Unarmed +8 (+10 Damage, DC 25)
TK Spin +8 (+8 Ranged Affliction, DC 18)
Fuse to Ground +8 (+13 Ranged Affliction, DC 23)
De-Age +10 Area (+10 Ranged Affliction, DC 20)
Turn to Stone +8 (+15 Ranged Affliction, DC 25)
Mind-Reading -- (+12, DC 22)
Initiative +0

Defenses:
Dodge +8 (DC 18), Parry +8 (DC 18), Toughness +12 (+14 Force Field), Fortitude +12, Will +6

Complications:
Responsibility (Starts Out Dumb)- Initially, Alpha was INT -2 and AWA -2, and was easily-led by Magneto. Repeated uses of his power made him smarter.

Total: Abilities: 66 / Skills: 4--2 / Advantages: 9 / Powers: 199 / Defenses: 10 (286)

-Len Wein did a lot of semi-popular work on his mid-70s book The Defenders, featuring a lot of lesser-known Marvel characters, which gave a lot of freedom in storytelling compared to more-iconic, "important" characters who had to be kept at some kind of status quo. Alpha The Ultimate Mutant is a goofy-ass character created by Magneto in his "Generic Conqueror Villain" days (before Chris Claremont reinvented him as a thoughtful, brooding Holocaust survivor), after he found a long-lost civilization underneath New Mexico (a pretty big mystery, when you think about it. Though it's probably just an old Deviant city or something) and bio-engineered a powerful dude out of it. Alpha started out dumb, but got smarter with each use of his powers, which got extreme enough to fend off The Defenders by himself, until he got smart enough to realize that The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants were a bunch of douchebags (this was accomplished via a mind-scan, though you'd think THE FREAKING NAME OF THE GROUP would have been a tip-off). Getting pissed off, Alpha transforms them into a bunch of children (this is actually a plot point later, when Moira MacTaggart tries to "de-evil" the infant Magneto, who is PISSED when he discovers it later on, leading to his death in X-Men #3 in the early '90s). Deciding to leave the planet and explore the universe, he turns into a beam of light and vanishes.

-This guy only appeared in one 1974 story, and then a Quasar one (one guess who was writing that)- it ends in an oddly-similar way to the "Amazo" story in Justice League, looking into it. Almost freakishly-similar, in fact. And by similar I mean it was basically exactly the same, complete with "mind-reading his ally to find out how evil he is, and then he goes into space."

-Alpha's powers are INSANE- not only does he have a veritable grab-bag of assorted mental tricks and Telekinesis, but he can fully-Transmute just about anything, giving him both Transform AND various Afflictions, some of which can de-age people, Snare them, or just turn them to Stone. Hell, the last power was used on THE INCREDIBLE HULK, so you know that damn Affliction is high-level. Even considering everyone was at 1970s Power Levels for that fight, this guy is nutty. PL 12 and with an incredible amount of powers.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sun Feb 06, 2022 11:01 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Armless Tiger Man! Ajax! The Armadillo! The Aquarian!)

Post by Jabroniville »

When i posted Alpha three years ago, Horsenhero had this to say:
Thanks Jab. I always appreciate when you put your formidable skills to use on one of my requests, especially since they tend to be guys like Alpha and Nebulon. People discount the old Defenders book, but they forget that the now iconic jobber team "The Wrecking Crew" debuted in that book.

So yeah, I'm a Defenders fan, especially the Dr. Strange, Hulk, Nighthawk & Valkyrie team.
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Alpha (Maguire)

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

I don't care- I still say Humberto Ramos is as bad as Rob Liefeld. At least Liefeld is ENTERTAININGLY bad.

ALPHA (Andrew "Andy" Maguire)
Created By:
Dan Slott & Humberto Ramos
First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #692 (Aug. 2012)
Role: Irresponsible Hero
PL 10 (78)
STRENGTH
2/10 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 2
FIGHTING 5 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 0 AWARENESS 0 PRESENCE 0

Skills:
Expertise (Pop Culture) 2 (+2)

Advantages: 
Power Attack, Ranged Attack 4

Powers:
"Cosmic Power, But One At A Time"
Cosmic Blast 12 (Feats: Split) (24) -- [29]
  • AE: "Cosmic Wave" Damage 10 (Extras: Area- 60ft. Cone) (20)
  • AE: Force Field 8 (Extras: Impervious 5) (13)
  • AE: "Telekinesis" Move Object 12 (24)
  • AE: Flight 7 (250 mph) (14)
  • AE: "Super-Strength" Enhanced Strength 8 (16)
Senses 6 (Extended Vision 4, Vision Penetrates Concealment) [6]
"Energy Mask" Enhanced Advantages 1: Quick Change [1]

Offense:
Unarmed +5 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Super-Strength +5 (+10 Damage, DC 25)
Cosmic Blast +6 (+12 Ranged Damage, DC 27)
Cosmic Wave +10 Area (+10 Damage, DC 25)
Initiative +2

Defenses:
Dodge +6 (DC 16), Parry +6 (DC 16), Toughness +3 (+11 Force Field), Fortitude +4, Will +2

Complications:
Relationship (Parents)- Andy's parents do not care much about him, and he becomes legally emancipated from them after gaining his powers.
Responsibility (All Power, No Responsibility)- Andy often lets loose when he shouldn't, and overdose it with his powers (such as using full power on normal humans). This accident-prone nature gives him a bad reputation amongst super-humans.

Total: Abilities: 28 / Skills: 2--1 / Advantages: 5 / Powers: 36 / Defenses: 8 (78)

-Andrew (named for both of Peter Parker's portrayals' actors on film) was a Midtown High student, he has a Parker-ish origin while Pete is showing his students some "Parker Particles", and ends up being trained by a bunch of superheroes in his new powers. However, he turned out to be too irresponsible with them, and Spidey had his powers greatly diminished, awaiting the day when he would mature enough to wield them. The Superior "Ock" Spider-Man gave him the powers back, and he ended up fighting some "Zetas", monsters that were created because of his powers... somehow.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sun Feb 06, 2022 11:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
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The Apocalypse Beast

Post by Jabroniville »

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THE APOCALYPSE BEAST
Created By:
Zeb Wells & Seth Fisher
First Appearance: The Fantastic Four/Iron Man- Big in Japan #3 (Feb. 2006)
Role: Weird Monster

-The Apocalypse Beast is a random drug-induced creation that sprung from a mystery egg (sort of the Cosmic equivalent of the Gobbledygooker, I guess) and was exiled by the Deviants of long ago, but returned in modern times, requiring Iron Man and the Fantastic Four to team up and send it away. The creature was large enough to cover entire countries with a few steps, and had eyes all over its body.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sun Feb 06, 2022 11:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Archangel! Annex! Armless Tiger Man! The Armadillo!)

Post by L-Space »

Arkrite wrote: Sun Mar 12, 2017 5:19 am It just seems like you could have a lot of fun putting Armadillo and Sandman into a team trying to be heroes... but I know it'd be forgotten in a week and they'd be back to being badguys again.
In the last Ant-Man series they kind of did that by having Scott Lang hire the Grizzly and the Machinesmith to work for his security company. Now I'm not sure if they kept with the "good guy" act, but it's not like the Grizzly is a hot commodity or anything so it might stick.
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Formerly luketheduke86
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Axum

Post by Jabroniville »

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AXUM (Daniel Broughton)
Created By:
John Arcudi & Francisco Ruiz Velasco
First Appearance: Thunderbolts #76 (April 2003)
Role: Background Fighter
PL 7 (53)
STRENGTH
6 STAMINA 6 AGILITY 0
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 0 AWARENESS 0 PRESENCE 0

Skills:
Expertise (Criminal) 2 (+2)
Intimidation 4 (+4)

Advantages: 
Improved Critical (Unarmed)

Offense:
Unarmed +8 (+6 Damage, DC 21)
Initiative +0

Defenses:
Dodge +6 (DC 16), Parry +8 (DC 18), Toughness +6, Fortitude +6, Will +3

Complications:
Motivation (Greed)

Total: Abilities: 40 / Skills: 6--3 / Advantages: 1 / Powers: 0 / Defenses: 9 (53)

-Axum showed up in that painfully-stupid Thunderbolts Re-Written as Fight Club revamp as a super-strong minor criminal. He was caught by Spider-Man, but eventually grew to become a prison "Fight Club" champion.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sun Feb 06, 2022 11:02 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Ammo

Post by Jabroniville »

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AMMO
Created By:
Ann Nocenti & John Romita, Jr.
First Appearance: Daredevil #252 (March 1988)
Role: Street Thug
Group Affiliations: His Gang
PL 7 (109)
STRENGTH
3 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 10 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 4

Skills:
Athletics 3 (+6)
Deception 2 (+6)
Expertise (Criminal) 6 (+8)
Expertise (Soldier) 2 (+4)
Insight 4 (+7)
Intimidation 3 (+7)
Investigation 4 (+7)
Perception 2 (+5)
Persuasion 2 (+6)
Stealth 4 (+6)

Advantages: 
Benefit (Gang Leader), Contacts, Connected, Daze (Intimidation), Equipment 3, Fast Grab, Improved Critical (Any Attack), Improved Hold, Inspire, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 5, Seize Initiative, Taunt, Teamwork

Equipment:
"Gangster's Arsenal"
"Leather Jacket" Protection 1 (1)
"Brass Knuckles" Strength-Damage +1 (Feats: Subtle) (2)
"Knife" Strength-Damage +1 (Feats: Improved Critical) (2)
"Pistol" Blast 5 (10)

Offense:
Unarmed +10 (+3 Damage, DC 18)
Knuckles or Knife +10 (+4 Damage, DC 19)
Pistol +9 (+5 Ranged Damage, DC 20)
Initiative +3

Defenses:
Dodge +9 (DC 19), Parry +10 (DC 20), Toughness +3 (+4 Jacket), Fortitude +5, Will +3

Total: Abilities: 64 / Skills: 34--17 / Advantages: 20 / Powers: 0 / Defenses: 8 (109)

-Ammo is, alas, just some street punk, and not a super-powered Jobber Villain. He leads a street gang and appears to have a pathological love of violence, creating a reign of terror in Hell's Kitchen. He led his gang into a hospital to steal some drugs to enable them to rule a Post-Apocalyptic New York City (they thought it was the apocalypse- it was just X-Factor FIGHTING Apocalypse and caused a power-out), but Daredevil beat them. He, Bullet and others were gathered together to fight DD again, and did a number on him, but he hasn't been seen since. He's basically my Elite Thug build from my "Mooks" builds, but upgraded a tiny bit to a full PL 7. He's enough to bother a lower-end Daredevil, but he's a small fry these days- I mean, he's just a GANG LEADER.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sun Feb 06, 2022 11:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Arcade

Post by Jabroniville »

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ARCADE (Real Name Unknown)
Created By:
Chris Claremont & John Byrne
First Appearance: Marvel Team-Up #65 (Jan. 1978)
Role: Unusually-Unsuccessful Assassin
PL 2 (104), PL 6 (104) Inventor
STRENGTH
0 STAMINA 1 AGILITY 2
FIGHTING 2 DEXTERITY 3
INTELLIGENCE 6 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Athletics 3 (+3)
Deception 4 (+6)
Expertise (Science) 7 (+13)
Expertise (Assassin) 6 (+12)
Perception 2 (+4)
Stealth 2 (+4)
Technology 10 (+16)
Vehicles 4 (+7)

Advantages:
Beginner's Luck, Benefit 4 (Wealthy), Benefit (Is Usually a Robot All Along), Inventor, Ranged Attack 4

Offense:
Unarmed +2 (+0 Damage, DC 15)
Initiative +2

Defenses:
Dodge +2 (DC 12), Parry +2 (DC 12), Toughness +1, Fortitude +2, Will +5

Complications:
Motivation (Kicks)- Arcade got into the assassination game out of boredom. And he's no simple killer: Any idiot can just walk up to someone and shoot them- he wants to make a GAME of it.

Total: Abilities: 36 / Skills: 38--19 / Advantages: 11 / Powers: 0 / Defenses: 4 (104)

Arcade- A Handy One-Off Opponent:
-Arcade is one of those characters that gets trotted out for the occasional one-shot appearance, given that he's a natural for the funny books or a TV series- a gamesman who throws the heroes into a World of Wonders full of robots, poison gas, bizarre settings and difficult puzzles. He's sort of like The Riddler, but with a much bigger gameboard (of course, Edward Nygma got an episode like this on Batman: The Animated Series, and there was a G.I. Joe episode with The Gamesmaster as well). I never really liked Arcade stories as a kid, because I found the character genuinely annoying (sort of like a villainous Spider-Man but with worse jokes), poorly-designed, and his Murderworld things were usually easily-overcome. I mean, this guy is the worst assassin in comic book history- HE NEVER ACTUALLY HURTS ANYONE, despite having appeared in upwards of thirty comic book stories over the past forty years- his only confirmed kills are random backstory people. Of course, a writer named Dennis Hopeless would notice that same thing, and decide to "correct" it in a pretty controversial way...

-Arcade's gimmick is quite simple- he's an eccentric assassin who kills people in the most elaborate, "fun" way possible- trapping them in a killer amusement park called "Murderworld", where they have to fend off robots, deathtraps and more in order to escape. Bored with killing regular people, he gets hired on to wipe out Captain Britain in a Marvel Team-Up issue featuring him and Spider-Man. Unlike most assassins, Arcade offers a "Sporting Chance", allowing people a tiny percentile of victory. As a Claremont creation, Arcade tended to show up mostly in X-books- he'd vex the X-Men, X-Factor, X-Force (well, mostly Shatterstar & The X-Treme) and Excalibur. But his particular M.O. led him to become a popular "Journeyman Villain", often facing heroes of all stripes. In the '90s, his constant henchwoman, Miss Locke, would be killed by him during a fit of rage- she would be replaced by a series of android duplicates. 

-This kind of led to a problem, however- barring some great imagination on the part of the creative team, every Arcade story was the same. And because of his omnipresence, he became a bit like Nightmare & D'Spayre around the same time- endless comics featuring the exact same set-up (with Arcade, it was "Hero gets captured; thrown into Murderworld; overcomes deathtraps; escapes". With the two fear-based Cosmic Villains, it was "Hero goes to sleep; gets vexed by villains; gets shown fears; overcomes them and wins"). The first couple stories had some fun, weird stuff, but later writers would just be lazy with the "hero is kidnapped and has to fight minions" thing.

-And, as a bad guy with dozens and dozens of appearances but no wins (unless you count the intial K.O. that captures the hero), there was a credibility issue. Greg Weisman noted in his Gargoyles commentary that he upgraded The Pack with various power-ups just because they'd jobbed a few too many times. Many villains in comics suffer from this, of course, leading to issues of over-jobbing. 

Avengers Arena:
-However, it would be Avengers Arena that would lead to a major change in the character. Dennis Hopeless, noticing the same thing I did about Arcade's failing, would put a HUGE amount of focus on it, which came off a bit odd- I mean, failure isn't exactly UNIQUE to Arcade; the fact that he would have a bad reputation due to it seems a bit out of hand. Granted, guys like Bullseye have suffered blows to their rep for failing before, but making such a HUGE deal out of it was odd. Hell, they'd have been better served just by having him off some forgotten hero or two.

-Instead, Hopeless rips off the Japanese movie Battle Royale (itself very similar to The Hunger Games, which came out later), as Arcade kidnaps sixteen superheroic teenagers, and forces them to fight to the death in his Arena. This of course begs the question of why a villain in need of a boost to his rep would target inexperienced children, but hey- Arcade was always a weird sort. Most of the captives are members of the canceled Avengers Academy book, and one of their cast members, Mettle, is the first sacrifice. This of course made the book REALLY controversial almost right away, as the whole "Disposable Teenager" thing is a recurring trope in comics, and Marvel & DC have had a BAD tendency towards wiping out their teenage casts as soon as their books fail and they have to invent a NEW group of kids ("Here's our racial minority! Oh, and here's the Mandatory Gay Teen").

-Ultimately, several teen heroes would die, nobody would really get a popularity push due to it (X-23's push would be largely unrelated, and follow the death of Wolverine), and Arcade would simply return to business as usual, with a clone being served up to die against Hazmat, who'd execute him for the death of Mettle, her boyfriend. Arcade has been used in Patsy Walker and a few other books, right back to his old persona, seemingly ignoring the dark turn as a child-killer.

-The total Death Toll of Avengers Arena is: Mettle, Reptil (a TV-original), Apex (new character), Kid Briton (new character), Nara (new character), Juston Seyfert (the Sentinel kid) & Red Raven (new character). So basically his return to credibility was to kill two characters from Avengers Academy, and then some newbies.

Arcade as a Whole:
-Funnily enough, my exact misgivings about Arcade (in the opening paragraph, which was the entirety of my old rant about him) were held by Hopeless (and both of us had the same response from Ares about our statements). Honestly, I can see his lack of credibilty becoming an issue, but his "typical M.O." could have just received an update or been segued into fighting lower-end heroes, rather than this All-New, All-Dark upgrade he had.

-Arcade adventures typically involve poison gas, drowning in giant vats, Robotic Versions of common heroes (basically take a modern Superhero, make him a robot, and lower him to PL 7-8 or so- they're pretty fragile folk), illusory battlefields and the like. It's pretty much a GM's paradise (or an inventive writer's), and Arcade himself is generally a useless non-combatant who either flees from trouble, or turns out to have been a robot all along (a Benefit Advantage that I felt like using).
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sun Feb 06, 2022 11:02 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Ares
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Re: Jab's Builds! (The Armadillo! The Aquarian! Axum! Arcade!)

Post by Ares »

Heh, well, I already went on my big Arcade rant here, but it's worth repeating that the idea of Arcade losing credibility is a bit weird, both in and out of universe. I mean, over in DC, Deathstroke, Deadshot and Lady Shiva are among the most feared assassin's in the world. To my knowledge, the only one of them to actually kill a superhero is Deathstroke, and he needed a team of villains as back up that included Osiris of the Black Adam Family to kill Ryan Choi, the third Atom. Over in Marvel, Bullseye has to my knowledge killed basically two of Daredevil's girlfriends, but apart from that hasn't really killed anyone important. It just seems weird to single out Arcade for this kind of thing.

And like you said, the easiest way to re-establish his rep is to have him kill characters no one has any plans for. While I'm generally against that sort of thing, if you NEED to establish someone's cred this way, this isn't a terrible way to do it. If anything, I would have had a few easily replaceable maybe mock Arcade about his lack of failure, only for THEM to end up in a Murder World as a trial run of his new upgrades, and see what happens when someone winds up there without character shields.

I can see the point about those stories being repetitive, but I blame that on lazy writing more than anything. His first appearances with Spider-Man and later the X-Men were a lot of fun, and he was used very well in the Thing's solo book (with my only complaint there being that they didn't have him be a good sport about losing that time). He's a perfect filler villain, you just need to make sure the scenarios he creates in Murderworld are interesting and tailored to the target.

I could also see just ignoring all of the dumber stuff Arcade did recently, or like my other post said and just Doom bot the thing. I think a minor looks update (tone down the carnival barker look and just make it a white business suit and him a fan of loud ties), and minor theme update.

See, when Arcade was made in the 70s, an arcade was usually a row of various games of chance, shooting galleries, ball tosses, crane machines and pinball games, which is why a lot of his early death traps had a lot of circus themes to them. Funhouse mirrors that created distorted android copies of heroes, bumper cars that could move at incredible speeds and had razor saws on them, holographic battlefields designed after pinball artwork, and of course, his infamous pinball launching device.

In the 80s and later the theme got upgraded to make Murderworld like a hellish Disneyworld, AKA "The deadliest place on Earth" or "The Murder Kingdom", so more ride themes were added in. The Thing issue actually referenced Universal Studios' "Islands of Adventure" parks, which at the time include a Marvel theme park.

I'd keep all of that, but throw in the idea of making Arcade fond of, well, video arcades as well, continuing the trend of his somewhat old school sensibilities. Areas of Murderworld could then be homages to video games, which themselves basically lend themselves to virtually any scenario.

Maybe it's just me being a GM, but while an Arcade story is mostly the same kind of story (hired to kill a hero or someone the hero is protecting, hero winds up in Murderworld, has to escape Murderworld), the details can be changed in almost every way to make every encounter different. He's a perfect one-off badguy, IMO.

And thank God I actually had the day off so I could get in a good longer rant in for a change.
"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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