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

Where in all of your character write ups will go.
Jabroniville
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Hawkshaw

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

HAWKSHAW (Real Name Unknown)
Created By:
Chris Claremont & Rick Leonardi
First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men #235 (1988)
Role: Tracker, Detective
Group Affiliations: The Press Gang
PL 7 (100)
STRENGTH
2 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 7 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Athletics 2 (+4)
Deception 4 (+6)
Expertise (Genoshan Soldier) 4 (+6)
Insight 3 (+6)
Investigation 6 (+9)
Perception 9 (+12)
Persuasion 2 (+4)
Stealth 4 (+7)
Vehicles 4 (+4)

Advantages:
Equipment 3 (Military Gear- Body Armour), Ranged Attack 8, Set-Up

Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Mental Tracking"
Senses 13 (Detect Minds- Ranged, Radius, Acute, Analytical, Extended 5, Tracking 2) [13]

Equipment:
"Body Armour" Protection 1 (1)
"Guns" Blast 6 (12)

Offense:
Unarmed +7 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Guns +8 (+6 Ranged Damage, DC 21)
Initiative +3

Defenses:
Dodge +9 (DC 19), Parry +9 (DC 19), Toughness +3 (+4 Body Armour), Fortitude +5, Will +5

Complications:
Motivation (Soldier)- Hawkshaw is incredibly loyal to the Genoshan government, and is especially hateful of those he views as traitors.

Total: Abilities: 44 / Skills: 38--19 / Advantages: 12 / Powers: 13 / Defenses: 12 (100)

-Hawkshaw (named for an antiquated term for detectives) is the leader of the Press Gang, and has one of those Dawnstar (*sigh*.... oh wait, got distracted there, sorry) power-sets, allowing him to Track people across the world because he can detect their minds. He can tell when they're sleeping, or if they're awake (dunno if he knows if they've been bad or good, however), as well as telling the difference between humans, mutants or animals, which is sort of how "Analytical" Senses work- picking out the minutae like that. He ain't much of a fighter, but his abilities are handy for a Detective.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sun Feb 06, 2022 11:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
Jabroniville
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Cameron Hodge

Post by Jabroniville »

Image
Image

CAMERON HODGE
Created By:
Bob Layton & Jackson Guice
First Appearance: X-Factor #1 (Feb. 1986)
Role: Evil Bigot, Lunatic Villain, Annoyingly-Powerful Villain
Group Affiliations: The Right, The Phalanx, X-Factor, The Purifiers, The Genoshan Cabinet
PL 12 (279)
STRENGTH
10 STAMINA -- AGILITY 2
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 4 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 0

Skills:
Close Combat (Body Weaponry) 3 (+11)
Deception 10 (+10)
Expertise (Science) 4 (+8)
Expertise (Public Relations) 5 (+9)
Expertise (Leader of "The Right"- Anti-Mutant Terrorist) 7 (+11)
Insight 2 (+4)
Intimidation 14 (+14)
Perception 6 (+8)
Stealth 7 (+9, +5 Size)
Technology 4 (+8)
Vehicles 4 (+4)

Advantages:
All-Out Attack, Daze (Intimidation), Diehard, Evasion 2, Fascination (Intimidation), Improved Critical (Blasts), Improved Initiative 3, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 12, Startle, Takedown

Powers:
"Immortal Cybernetic Body"
Regeneration 6 [6]
Immunity 50 (Fortitude Effects, Mental Effects) [50]
"Phasing" Insubstantial 4 (Feats: Precise) [21]
Growth 4 (Str & Toughness +4, +4 Mass, +2 Intimidation, -2 Dodge/Parry, -4 Stealth) -- (12 feet) (Feats: Innate) (Extras: Permanent +0) [9]
Protection 10 (Extras: Impervious 15) [25]
"Numerous Tendrils" Extra Limbs 10 [10]
Movement 3 (Wall-Crawling 2, Slithering) [6]

"Arsenal of Weapons" Blast 12 (Feats: Variable Descriptor- Laser, Piercing or Ballistic) (Extras: Multiattack) (37) -- [40]
  • AE: "Melee Weapons" Strength-Damage +3 (Feats: Penetrating 8, Reach 4) (15)
  • AE: "Bolas" Snare 8 (Feats: Split 2) (26)
  • AE: "Molecular Adhesive Gun" Snare 12 (36)
Offense:
Unarmed +8 (+10 Damage, DC 25)
Body Weaponry +11 (+13 Damage, DC 28)
Arsenal Blasts +12 (+12 Ranged Damage, DC 27)
Bolas +12 (+8 Ranged Affliction, DC 18)
Adhesive Gun +12 (+12 Ranged Affliction, DC 22)
Initiative +14

Defenses:
Dodge +10 (DC 20), Parry +10 (DC 20), Toughness +14 (+8 Impervious), Fortitude --, Will +7

Complications:
Motivation (Destroying Mutants)- A virulent racist, Hodge hated mutants even when he was sorta-sane, and it's only gotten worse the more nuts he becomes.
Responsibility (Chaotic Evil)- Hodge is such a psychopathic monster that he enjoys torturing people, even if it will hamper him later (he had Rahne Sinclair turned into a mindless drone, but left her former memories intact just to hurt her "all the more", and he left Gambit with a blade sticking out of his thigh, which allowed the thief to use it to pick his locks).
Prejudice (Monster)- No longer altogether human, Hodge cannot pass for anything other than a horrific creation.

Total: Abilities: 34 / Skills: 66--33 / Advantages: 25 / Powers: 167 / Defenses: 19 (279)

-Yeah, I hated Hodge as a kid. He was the leader of The Right (a D-level Anti-Mutant group in X-Factor, and predecessors to The Friends of Humanity) and a member of the Genoshan Cabinet. And his Suck Factor IS tremendous- he's a unique mix of "Way Too Powerful" (every fight featuring him was boring as hell, because he was immune to physical AND mental harm), stupidly one-sided (he's sorta like a proto-Kefka from Final Fantasy VI, but turned into a one-note virulent racist who happened to be independently crazy as well... and unlike Kefka, was never remotely funny). I figured my hatred was in the"I want him to die via the heroes" kind of way, but no- in retrospect I don't even like READING about him. He just got made so totally unkillable (he could phase through things AND was immune to Psionics, in addition to making a deal that left him permanently immortal. This is Dragon Ball Z levels of stupid unkillableness right here), and he's that blantant kind of Chaotic Evil villain that's just an insane mass-murderer who drools and acts like the "Wacky Guy" crazy-hero RPG-Gamers (but as a VILLAIN, which makes his scenery-chewing hamminess even WORSE), that he overpowers every story he's involved in, and makes me hate him all the more. Hodge basically has "X-Pac Heat" with me.

-Cameron Hodge was Warren Worthington III's "old friend" from college, who was a big backer of X-Factor when that book was first starting out. But it later turned out that he was actually a horrible bigot who hated Mutants. And also he made a deal with the demon N'astirh to gain immortality, then killed Candy Southern- Archangel's girlfriend. Warren decapitates Hodge for this, which unfortunately is not permanent- he survives thanks to the aforementioned "deal", and returns with a massive Robotic Body as part of the cabinet of Genosha. During The X-Tinction Agenda, Hodge zipped around, making stupid comments left and right, drooled like a idiot, and at one point put a cardboard cut-out of a man in a suit around his neck and "pretended" like he was a normal person, because "FUNNYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!", right? It was pretty awful stuff to read. Hodge, attempting to gain Warlock's shapechanging powers, kills the New Mutant, then imprisons his allies. For issue after issue he easily defeats the X-Men, X-Factor & New Mutants, taunting them all the way, until FINALLY the entire team moves as one- Wolfsbane gains brief powerhouse stats and damages his body, while Havok blasts him and Rictor knocks a building onto his severed head.

-And so Hodge was one of MANY earlier villains who sat out the 1990s in comics- it seemed that his death was actually permanent! However, he would return as a member of The Phalanx, gaining Warlock's shapechanging powers after all- he was killed by Archangel once more. Later, Bastion reanimates him using the Transmode Virus of Warlock's people, but he is brutally killed along with an army of similar creatures when Warlock, back from the dead, forcibly absorbs the Lifeglow of the entire group at once.

-Hodge's stats reflect his sheer terror- an Insubstantial, super-powerful Blaster with high durability (+10 Impervious is pretty rare in Marvel books), an Immunity to many key X-Men attacks (Archangel's paralyzing darts & Psylocke's Psychic Knife would have no effect). He's almost 300 points of ultra-cheap power tricks and other stupidity.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sun Feb 06, 2022 11:35 am, edited 2 times in total.
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab's Builds! (VF- Sarah! Dural! The Press Gang! Cameron Hodge!)

Post by Jabroniville »

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Nippy13 continues to be amazing. And not just for the stuff I've commissioned :).
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Re: Jab's Builds! (VF- Sarah! Dural! The Press Gang! Cameron Hodge!)

Post by Spectrum »

It's basically the story of how Genosha, this evil country based off of enslaving mind-controlled Mutants as forced-laborers, falls apart when its president starts working with anti-mutant bigot Cameron Hodge.
Is it intentional that they implied that it took an American racist to lead a racist nation to its destruction?
We rise from the ashes so that new legends can be born.
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Re: Cameron Hodge

Post by Ares »

Jabroniville wrote: Thu Mar 23, 2017 4:40 am ImageImage

CAMERON HODGE
Created By:
Bob Layton & Jackson Guice
First Appearance: X-Factor #1 (Feb. 1986)
Role: Evil Bigot, Lunatic Villain, Annoyingly-Powerful Villain
Group Affiliations: The Right, The Phalanx, X-Factor, The Purifiers, The Genoshan Cabinet

-Yeah, I hated Hodge, the leader of The Right (a D-level Anti-Mutant group in "X-Factor", and predecessors to The Friends of Humanity) and a member of the Genoshan Cabinet. And his Suck Factor IS tremendous- he's a unique mix of "Way Too Powerful" (every fight featuring him was boring as hell, because he was immune to physical AND mental harm) and stupidly one-sided- he's sorta like a proto-Kefka from "Final Fantasy VI", but turned into a one-note virulent racist who happened to be independently crazy as well. At one point, he drools like a loon, while wearing a paper cutout of a man in a business suit tied around his neck to "look human".

-I figured my hatred was in the "I want him to die via the heroes" kind of way, but no- in retrospect I don't even like READING about him- Hodge has X-Pac Heat. He just got made so totally unkillable (he could phase through things AND was immune to Psionics, in addition to making a deal that left him permanently immortal. This is Dragon Ball Z levels of stupid unkillableness right here), and he's that blatant kind of Chaotic Evil villain that's just an insane mass-murderer who drools and acts like the "Wacky Guy" crazy-hero RPG-Gamers (but as a VILLAIN, which makes his scenery-chewing hamminess even WORSE), that he overpowers every story he's involved in, and makes me hate him all the more. Hodge is even worse than Mojo in that regard. Every fight scene involving the guy was just him easily surviving everything.

-And you can tell that Hodge was generally unpopular, because despite being the major villain of a cross-over, he was almost never referred to in the time past his death. I mean, STRYFE died at the end of "The X-Cutioner's Song", but HE got The Legacy Virus out of it, and he was a constant factor in X-Force & Cable books. Hodge was basically forgotten until he was a side-character in "The Phalanx Covenant" (which is an AWFUL, putrid story, by the way), and a decade later in some other cross-over with the other anti-mutant Bigot Brigade (y'know- Donald Pierce, William Stryker, guys like that). He managed to separate Karma from her leg, but otherwise he's not done much.

-Hodge's stats reflect his sheer terror- an Insubstantial, super-powerful Blaster with high durability (+10 Impervious is pretty rare in Marvel books), an Immunity to many key X-Men attacks (Archangel's paralyzing darts & Psylocke's Psychic Knife would have no effect). He's almost 300 points of ultra-cheap power tricks and other stupidity.
It does really show how much you hate the guy, when the right up is that brief and basically includes no real background info on him. From what I remember, this guy was someone who pretended to be on X-Factor's side when they were "pretending to hunt mutants to get them to safety", was a friend of Angel, but was using them all to further his anti-mutant agenda.

How he went from that to some weird cyborg, I don't know. Nor why him being some weird cyborg made him so hard to kill. I mean, what about this particular cyborg body made it so hard to take down?
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- Captain Marvel SHAZAM! : Power of Hope (2000)

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Jack of Spades
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Re: Jab's Builds! (VF- Sarah! Dural! The Press Gang! Cameron Hodge!)

Post by Jack of Spades »

It's not the cyborg body that makes him unkillable, it's having sold his soul to N’astirh in exchange for immortality. Then Archangel chopped off his head, so now he's an immortal head.
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Jabroniville
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Re: Jab's Builds! (VF- Sarah! Dural! The Press Gang! Cameron Hodge!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Heh- I might have include the N'Astirh stuff originally, but the build is still trapped on my old computer. Most of my new notes were re-written after the fact, so I might have left some things out by accident.

Only I could make a four-paragraph writeup and have it be declared "so short" :).
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab's Builds! (VF- Sarah! Dural! The Press Gang! Cameron Hodge!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Oh yeah, and I finally found the Alpha Flight issue where Pink Pearl debuted. Absolutely bizarre stuff, featuring Northstar easily defeated by a scrawny contortionist, and Pearl's terrorist mission that involved a year-long plot that depended on a travelling circus. Pearl only does a bit of Fighting, beating a confused, random-acting Aurora once, then stunning her with a surprising leap. Her jobbing to a single knife toss is still pretty funny. Clearly Byrne didn’t plan on much of a career for her.
Jabroniville
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Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Excalibur

Post by Jabroniville »

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EXCALIBUR:

-One of the later '80s Spin-Offs of The X-Men, Excalibur took advantage of another of Chris Claremont's favourite things- The U.K. Having lived there in his youth, Claremont had a tendency to have characters vacation or visit there. Having written part of Captain Britain's book in the 1970s, Chris added Brian Braddock to the book, alongside his girlfriend Meggan and three former X-Men: During the Mutant Massacre, Kitty Pryde & Nightcrawler were badly-injured, and were left in Scotland to recover. Rachel Summers (aka the second Phoenix) had left the team much earlier for her own reasons. They were thus in the vicinity of the U.K. when Warwolves and the Technet attacked, and also watched the X-Men "die" in Dallas (the start of the Australia Era). Because of this, the five grouped together to form Excalibur, and become Britain's defenders.

-Claremont joined forces with Alan Davis, a brilliant penciler who had the ultra-rare ability to DRAW WOMEN WITH DIFFERENT PHYSICAL APPEARANCES, and was also generally just very, very good. They decided to make Excalibur an exception to the Grim 'n' Gritty style of X-books, having them engage in weird and whacky adventures that often involved parallel relaties. The stories were the kind of "are they taking LSD"-type weird stuff that REALLY makes you question their sanity. While the books were brilliantly-drawn, I actually felt they were a bit too silly to enjoy. I mean, there was stuff like Galactus eating a world because "it is too silly to live". Also, they wiped out one of Braddock's love interests, then replaced her with a doppelganger (Courtney Ross & Opal-Luna Saturnyne)... then basically just appeared to drop the storyline completely, as I don't remember it ever coming up again.

-Some of the issues were pretty good- there's a neat one when Nightcrawler becomes the lover of some hot psychopathic Queen chick and Excalibur has to come save him. But for the most part, I had trouble getting into it, even though I loves me some Kitty Pryde. There's also the fact that Claremont just absolutely LOVED Rachel Summers, forcing her down the fans' throats by going on and on about how hot and super-powerful she was (Kitty is shown moping frequently about how much hotter Rachel is, and Alistair Stuart seems to agree... to say that most comic book fans think quite the opposite is an understatement). She kind of took too much of the attention, while Captain Britain himself was portrayed as a bit of a pathetic, clueless boob, frequently ignoring his girlfriend Meggan or getting into foolish situations.

-Davis left with issue #24 (1990), and Claremont with #34, but Davis would eventually return as sole creative force, adding the characters Kylun, Cerise & Micromax to the book. Scott Lobdell would take over in 1993, and rapidly alter the book from something that felt like "just another X-Men spin-off"- Captain Britain & Meggan left, the team moved to Muir Island and they made a lot of closer associations to the X-Men... which is actually the opposite of their intentions. Phoenix also left, replaced by Douglock & Britannic (a modified Captain Britain), and Amanda Sefton. This was pretty poorly-received, and so Warren Ellis took over a year later, using his trademark dark sense of humor, and utter inability to NOT include a cigarette-smoking Self-Insert in every book, thus giving us Pete Wisdom. Naturally, he had his Self-Insert boink Kitty Pryde. Wolfsbane (late of X-Factor joined the team, as did Colossus, having quit The Acolytes, making it more X-related.

-Ellis left two years later, and sales soon badly faltered, which resulted in the book's cancellation in 1998 with Excalibur #125- Meggan and Captain Britain were married, capping off the series. Kitty, Nightcrawler & Colossus were placed back onto the X-teams, which some of them hadn't been on for more than a DECADE. We'd see a reboot in 2001 with Ben Raab, the writer of the failing years of the original- it didn't last long. In 2004, they rebooted it with Claremont at the helm, dealing with Professor Xavier & Magneto's attempts to rebuild the devastated mutant nation of Genosha. It was cancelled just over a year later, as The House of M cross-over interfered. New Excalibur, also by Claremont, came out a year later, with some of the usual suspects (Sage & Psylocke, naturally)- it lasted two years. Ironically, Captain Britain himself would have a very critically-beloved run in a NON-Excalibur format as a member of MI:13, but it was too focused on using unpopular characters to really succeed, and lack of sales killed it after three Trades.

-What's odd about this book is that to me, Kitty and Nightcrawler were ALWAYS members of Excalibur, and were never X-Men. I mean, I KNEW on a fundamental level that they were former X-Men, but since I started reading at around 1991, they were already established Excalibur members, and stayed that way for years. I'd actually started and STOPPED collecting before they re-joined the team, and when they finally re-joined the team while I was doing my "read them on the stands and never buy them" phase, it actually felt weird because I'd never associated the characters with the X-Men (while a spin-off, Excalibur almost neverdealt with the mainstream book, even avoiding the Cross-Overs that were now ubiquitous to the X-Books, involving major events in the mutant community, like X-Tinction Agenda, The X-Cutioner's Song and others).
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Re: Jab's Builds! (VF- Sarah! Dural! The Press Gang! Cameron Hodge!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Captain Britain and MI-13:
This was a quite good, doomed-to-Early-cancellation, book from 2010-ish. I mean, iit was well written and well drawn... but a CAPTAIN BRITAIN book? With Pete Wisdom, Black Knight and Spitfire as his major supporting cast?

The arcs are quite interesting, and I liked how it focused more on quick thinking and tactics over just punching. The first arc is all Secret Invasion stuff, as Brian gets all this mystical destiny stuff and offs a Super-Skrull with the combined might of all England's magic. In the second story, the team faces off against one of the monstrous demons unleashed by Wisdom in order to beat the Skrulls (he freed Satannish, and was granted one boon- apologizing to the people he couldn't resurrect, Wisdom said "No More Skrulls", saving England). The final arc is most fascinating, as it's all a tactical game of chess between Wisdom and Dracula himself, who plots the total overthrow of England. And Wisdom pulls some great stuff in that arc.

One of the only problems with the book is a lack of exposition. For example... nobody explains why Spitfire is a vampire! Or why her son wears a funny costume (it's Baron Blood's)! Or who Captain Fate is. Or who Captain Midlands (who ends every sentence with a comma and "like") is. Or why Meggan disappeared! They explain where she was, but all you see at one point is that she was missing- she's basically ignored for the entire story until it's relevant. She's the hero's WIFE. Hell, they never even explain minor stuff, like anyone's origins, or what their powers actually are. I mean- you can make fun of Claremontisms, but you understood what everyone could do! *I* know that Pete throws Hot Knives, but think of new readers!
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Captain Britain

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

Still his best costume. Though I bet you a million dollars the artist refused to draw that lion 90 times an issue, and that's why they changed it.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN (Brian Braddock)- Early Version
Created By:
Chris Claremont & Herb Trimpe
First Appearance: Captain Britain Weekly #1 (Oct. 1976)
Role: National Hero, Weapon User, Flying Brick
Country of Origin: England
Group Affiliations: Excalibur, The Captain Britain Corps., MI-13, The Knights of Pendragon, The Hellfire Club
PL 9 (115)
STRENGTH
2/5 STAMINA 2/4 AGILITY 1/6
FIGHTING 11 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 4 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 1

Skills:
Acrobatics 4 (+10)
Deception 4 (+5)
Expertise (Science) 7 (+11)
Insight 4 (+6)
Intimidation 4 (+5)
Investigation 4 (+6)
Persuasion 6 (+7)
Perception 6 (+8)
Stealth 1 (+7)
Vehicles 5 (+5)

Advantages:
Attractive, Evasion, Fearless, Improved Critical (Staff), Improved Defense, Improved Smash, Interpose, Power Attack, Takedown

Powers:
"Captain Britain Form" (Activation) [-1]
Enhanced Strength 3 [6]
Enhanced Stamina 2 [4]
Enhanced Agility 5 [10]

"The Star Sceptre" (Flaws: Easily Removable -2) [15]
Force Field 6 (Extras: Impervious) (-1 Dodge & Parry) (10) -- (11)
  • AE: Strength-Damage +3 (Feats: Split, Reach) (5)
Flight 6 (120 mph) (12)
"Replenish Energies" Enhanced Advantages: Great Endurance, Withstand Damage (2)
-- (25 points)

Offense:
Unarmed +11 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Captain Britain +11 (+5 Damage, DC 20)
Star Sceptre +11 (+8 Damage, DC 23)
Initiative +1 (+6 Britain)

Defenses:
Dodge +11 (DC 21), Parry +11 (DC 21), Toughness +2 (+4 Captain Britain, +10 Force Field), Fortitude +7 (+9 Britain), Will +8

Complications:
Responsibility (England, Merlyn)- Brian is the servant of Merlyn & Roma, and incredibly loyal to England itself.
Power Loss (All Powers)- Brian must rub the Amulet of Right to activate his powers.
Relationship (Betsy Braddock)- Brian is very protective of his sister. When he thought she died with the X-Men in Dallas, he was beside himself with grief, and spent several days completely wasted.

Total: Abilities: 44 / Skills: 46--13 / Advantages: 8 / Powers: 35 / Defenses: 16 (171)

-This Captain Britain has more in common with the late '70s/early '80s Marvel UK stuff than what Alan Moore eventually turned him into on his '80s run, and what Claremont did (turn him into a big, goofy lummox) in his Excalibur run. Here, Brian Braddock is basically your average fairly-strong costumed acrobat, with a nifty Star Sceptre that can telescope and make a Force Field. In Contest of Champions, he made Arabian Knight look like an idiot, and only got KOed because Defensor was busy getting the snot beat out of him, too (they collided in mid-air when Cap was trying to land). This Captain I actually find a lot more interesting that Excalibur's idiotic buffoon of a Flying Brick, since he's got a few more tricks up his sleeve, and uses actual tactics to win aside from having the most generic power-set in the history of comic books. And he has a much cooler (if MUCH harder to draw) costume, in my opinion.

-I did kind of enjoy his origin story- given the choice between a sword and an amulet with which to defend England, the scientist refuses the call of war, and becomes empowered by the Amulet of Right instead.

-One of the few Contest of Champions guys to earn PL 10 status, but he comes up over 30 points short, thanks to his relatively lower levels of power and combat Advantages and the like. His powers had a tendency to change quite a bit in this era, but I think this covers most of it.

---

Image

CAPTAIN BRITAIN (Brian Braddock)- Excalibur Version
Created By:
Chris Claremont & Herb Trimpe
First Appearance: Captain Britain Weekly #1 (Oct. 1976)
Role: National Hero, Flying Brick
Country of Origin: England
Group Affiliations: Excalibur, The Captain Britain Corps., MI-13, The Knights of Pendragon, The Hellfire Club
PL 10 (159)
STRENGTH
11 STAMINA 11 AGILITY 4
FIGHTING 9 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 4 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 1

Skills:
Acrobatics 4 (+8)
Deception 4 (+5)
Expertise (Science) 7 (+11)
Insight 4 (+6)
Intimidation 4 (+5)
Investigation 4 (+6)
Persuasion 6 (+7)
Perception 6 (+8)
Stealth 1 (+5)
Vehicles 5 (+5)

Advantages:
Attractive, Benefit (Hero of the United Kingdom), Diehard, Fast Grab, Fearless, Improved Critical (Unarmed), Improved Defense, Improved Smash, Interpose, Power Attack, Takedown, Teamwork, Withstand Damage

Powers:
"Member of the Captain Britain Corps"
Impervious Toughness 11 [11]
Flight 8 (500 mph) [16]
Senses 2 (Detect Magic- Ranged) [2]

Offense:
Unarmed +9 (+11 Damage, DC 26)
Initiative +4

Defenses:
Dodge +9 (DC 19), Parry +9 (DC 19), Toughness +11 (+6 Impervious), Fortitude +11, Will +7

Complications:
Responsibility (England, Merlyn)- Brian is the servant of Merlyn & Roma, and incredibly loyal to England itself.
Power Loss (All Powers)- If Brian is away from England for a long period of time, he will start losing power. This may occasionally make him very ill. Sometimes he needs his costume to do it, too. They're vague on this at times, and it changes a lot.
Relationship (Meggan)- They're married. Sometimes. It gets complicated, because writers don't care for her very much, and she gets written out a lot.
Relationship (Courtney Ross, Opal Luna Saturnyne)- When Claremont writes you, you tend to date hot chicks and their alternate-reality counterparts who are also dominatrixes and stuff.
Relationship (Betsy Braddock)- Brian is very protective of his sister. When he thought she died with the X-Men in Dallas, he was beside himself with grief, and spent several days completely wasted.

Total: Abilities: 84 / Skills: 46--13 / Advantages: 13 / Powers: 29 / Defenses: 10 (159)

-Like I said, Cap has a weird history- starting out as a Weapon-based superhero in Marvel UK stuff, teaming up with Spider-Man, then getting turned into a Flying Brick and having weird adventures with Alan Moore doing one of the first "Overly complex storylines involving parallel universes & reality-warpers" in comics, which made him fairly popular amongst fans of those books (personally, I HATE long-running stories featuring villains like that). Chris Claremont worked on them as well, and had a general appreciation for the UK also (his X-Men often vacationed there, something which irked co-creator John Byrne for some reason).

-Eventually, Claremont started using Cappy for his Excalibur book... however, he turned Brian, a skilled scientist, into a doofus-like lamebrain out of nowhere, as the book was kind of based on comic relief for a very long time. so Meggan was naive, Nightcrawler clever, Kitty uncertain, Phoenix powerful... and Brian was a dope. Me, I never saw much the point in him, and found his powers dull. He wasn't even really the team leader, and kind of bounced around a bit, once getting a "90s Upgrade" as Britannic, which lasted about five seconds.

-Brian eventually, after years of seemingly ignoring her obvious plays for his affection (especially since Courtney Ross was also aiming for him), hooked up with Meggan for real, marrying her in the final issue of Excalibur. And a later writer would add in that Roma had inflicted him with a "blunder factor" to force him to see the value of a team.

-Cap would later take Roma's job as Protector of the Multiverse, even giving his powers to Kelsey Leigh in Chuck Austen's Avengers run. Soon, however, this would be undone & forgotten.

-This is Cap circa Excalibur's main run in the '80s-'90s, being a Flying Brick of decent power, and he's a notch under Powerhouses like Thing & Colossus in strength, but with the ability to fly. He's still a PL 10 overall, though. It was a HELL of a lot of research to find out just WHAT his weakness was in this era, as writers have retconned & added stuff ad nauseum over the years, but I FINALLY got the real facts after some skimming when someone flat-out states that Cap's costume "absorbs the magicks of Great Britain, to allow him to use his powers elsewhere", rather than a mere Device-based power set. Thankfully 3e dumps ALL of that crap under "Complications" rather than price-matching Drawbacks, so it's a thousand times easier now. His stats are curiously different in some ways from his more-athletic self. He's CLEARLY a worse fighter, trading acrobatic skill for being super-buff and fighting Superman-style, so he drops a few attributes here and there while gaining Class 50 power.

---

Image

CAPTAIN BRITAIN (Brian Braddock)- MI-13 Version
Created By:
Chris Claremont & Herb Trimpe
First Appearance: Captain Britain Weekly #1 (Oct. 1976)
Role: National Hero, Flying Brick
Country of Origin: England
Group Affiliations: Excalibur, The Captain Britain Corps., MI-13, The Knights of Pendragon, The Hellfire Club, The Avengers
PL 11 (171)
STRENGTH
12 STAMINA 12 AGILITY 4
FIGHTING 10 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 4 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 1

Skills:
Acrobatics 4 (+8)
Deception 4 (+5)
Expertise (Science) 7 (+11)
Insight 4 (+6)
Intimidation 4 (+5)
Investigation 4 (+6)
Persuasion 6 (+7)
Perception 6 (+8)
Stealth 1 (+5)
Vehicles 5 (+5)

Advantages:
Attractive, Benefit (Hero of the United Kingdom), Diehard, Fast Grab, Fearless, Improved Critical (Unarmed), Improved Defense, Improved Smash, Interpose, Power Attack, Takedown, Teamwork, Withstand Damage

Powers:
"Member of the Captain Britain Corps"
Impervious Toughness 13 [13]
Flight 8 (500 mph) [16]
Senses 2 (Detect Magic- Ranged) [2]
Features: All Attacks Count as Magical [1]

"Psychic Link With Sister"
Senses 1 (Communication Link- Psylocke) [1]
Immunity 1 (Psylocke's Powers) [1]

Offense:
Unarmed +10 (+12 Damage, DC 27)
Initiative +4

Defenses:
Dodge +9 (DC 19), Parry +10 (DC 20), Toughness +12 (+6 Impervious), Fortitude +12, Will +10

Complications:
Responsibility (England, Merlyn)- Brian is the servant of Merlin, and incredibly loyal to England itself.
Power Loss (All Powers)- If Brian is away from England for a long period of time, he will start losing power. This may occasionally make him very ill. Sometimes he needs his costume to do it, too. They're vague on this at times, and it changes a lot. In this version, his costume can "absorb" some of England's power for when he needs to do stuff outside of it.
Power Loss (Confidence)- Cap's powers are now also linked to his confidence levels- if his courage falters, so does he.
Relationship (Meggan)- They're married. Sometimes. It gets complicated, because writers don't care for her very much, and she gets written out a lot.
Relationship (Courtney Ross, Opal Luna Saturnyne)- When Claremont writes you, you tend to date hot chicks and their alternate-reality counterparts who are also dominatrixes and stuff.
Relationship (Betsy Braddock)- Brian is very protective of his sister. When he thought she died with the X-Men in Dallas, he was beside himself with grief, and spent several days completely wasted.
Responsibility (The Braddock Academy)- We'll see how long it takes before they forget that he's running a school for super-powered children.

Total: Abilities: 90 / Skills: 46--13 / Advantages: 13 / Powers: 33 / Defenses: 13 (170)

-Cap circa MI-13 gets an upgrade. He's much better overall, and is more powerful, becoming a PL 11 guy who'd fit really well on The Avengers or the like. Unfortunately, his critically-beloved but little-read series was cancelled. He's shown up briefly in Secret Avengers and helped out the American heroes once or twice, as well as creating a counterpart to Avengers Academy in England, which will no doubt result in the creation of many Sacrificial Teenagers.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sun Feb 06, 2022 11:35 am, edited 2 times in total.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24689
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

The Corps

Post by Jabroniville »

THE CAPTAIN BRITAIN CORPS:
-It's said that every Universe in the Multiverse has a version of Captain Britain (not always called that), and is designated by a number- it was actually Alan Moore that designated the mainstream Marvel Universe as "616". Mostly we just see our version's, but there are also:

Image

CAPTAIN U.K. (Linda McQuillan):
A female Captain, from a world in which The Fury exterminated that reality's heroes, including her husband. She aids Brian against the villain, ultimately tearing it apart with her bare hands.

Image

ALBION (Brian Bardic): is from a war-torn world, and tried to overthrow the Corps.
SPIDER-UK (Billy Braddock):
Also a member of the army if cross-world Spider-Men in the saga of The Other.

Image

HAUPTMANN ENGLANDE: A Nazi Brian, from a world where the Axis Powers won the war.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sun Feb 06, 2022 11:37 am, edited 2 times in total.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24689
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Roma

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

ROMA
Created By:
Chris Claremont & Herb Trimpe
First Appearance: Captain Britain #1 (1976)
Role: The Ultimate Wizard
Group Affiliations: The Captain Britain Corps.
PL 15 (354)
STRENGTH
3 STAMINA 4 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 5 AWARENESS 5 PRESENCE 5

Skills:
Deception 5 (+10)
Expertise (Magic) 13 (+18)
Expertise (History) 7 (+12)
Insight 3 (+8)
Intimidation 2 (+7)
Perception 6 (+11)
Persuasion 6 (+11)
Ranged Combat (Magic) 8 (+12)

Advantages:
Artificer, Daze (Intimidation), Fearless, Power Attack, Ritualist, Well-Informed

Powers:
"Immortal"
Immunity 1 (Aging) [1]
Immortality 15 [30]

"Magical Might"
Flight 7 (250 mph) [14]
Force Field 10 [10]
Senses 4 (Detect Magic- Acute, Analytical & Ranged) [4]
Morph 4 (Any Form) [20]
Shapeshift (Creature Forms) 6 [42]

Teleport 14 (Feats: Increased Mass 6, Change Direction & Velocity, Dynamic) (Extras: Accurate, Extended, Portal +2) (Flaws: Standard Action) (79) -- [106]
  • Dynamic AE: "Telepathy" Mind Reading 10 (20) & Mental Communication 5 (20) -- (41)
  • Dynamic AE: Mind Control 14 (Feats: Dyamic) (57)
  • Dynamic AE: "Astral Projection" Remote Sensing (Vision & Hearing) 16 (Feats: Dynamic, Subtle) (50)
  • Dynamic AE: Eldritch Blast 18 (Feats: Improved Critical 2, Dynamic, Affects Insubstantial, Affects Astral Plane Travellers) (Extras: Penetrating 10) (51)
  • Dynamic AE: "Eldritch Wave" Damage 15 (Feats: Dynamic) (Extras: Penetrating, Area- 60ft. Cone) (45)
  • Dynamic AE: Illusion (Vision & Hearing) 14 (Feats: Dynamic) (43)
  • Dynamic AE: "Improved Field" Force Field +4 (Feats: Dynamic) (Extras: Impervious 15) (20)
  • Dynamic AE: Concealment (All Senses) 10 (Extras: Affects Others, Area) (41)
  • Dynamic AE: "The Crimson Bands of Cyttorak" Snare 14 (Feats: Reversible) (Extras: Area- 30ft. Burst, Selective) (72)
  • Dynamic AE: Move Object 14 (Extras: Perception Range) (42)
  • Dynamic AE: Create 12 (Feats: Precise, Innate) (Extras: Movable, Selective, Stationary +0) (51)
  • AE: Movement 3 (Dimensional Travel) (Feats: Increased Mass 6) (Extras: Portal +2) (19)
  • AE: Healing 16 (Extras: Restorative) (48)
  • AE: Movement 3 (Time Travel 3) (6)
  • AE: "Transmutation" Transform Anything to Anything Else 14 (6 tons) (70)
  • AE: Nullify Energy Effects 12 (Extras: Concentration, Broad) (48)
Offense:
Unarmed +8 (+3 Damage, DC 18)
Mind Control -- (+14 Perception-Ranged Affliction, DC 24)
Blast +12 (+18 Ranged Damage, DC 33)
Eldtritch Wave +15 Area (+15 Damage, DC 30)
Crimson Bands +14 Area (+14 Ranged Affliction, DC 24)
Initiative +3

Defenses:
Dodge +10 (DC 20), Parry +10 (DC 20), Toughness +4 (+14-18 Force Field), Fortitude +8, Will +12

Complications:
Motivation (Omniversal Guardian)- Roma takes over Merlyn's position as the defender of all realities.
Relationship (Merlyn- Father)- She respects her father, but he's also a notorious liar.

Total: Abilities: 76 / Skills: 50--25 / Advantages: 6 / Powers: 227 / Defenses: 20 (354)

-Alongside Merlyn typically appeared his daughter Roma- it was she who did most of the talking, asking a young Brian Braddock to choose either the Sword of Might or the Amulet of Right during his test to join the Corps. When Merlyn "died", Roma ascended to becoming Omniversal Guardian, but was herself manipulated by the old man. Claremont would use her again in The Uncanny X-Men, where she would be victimized by The Adversary- when the X-Men sacrificed their lives against him, she repaid them by retrieving their souls from a portal and resurrecting them- this changed the status quo in the comics for quite some time (the X-Men were thought to be dead by the rest of the world, and were temporarily rendered immune to technological detection). In another huge change for the book, she gave them the Siege Perilous, which saw many members of the team split off.

-Roma's power is difficult to guess at times, as she appears captured by The Adversary and the much-weaker Mastermind on separate occasions, and it's never quite clear HOW they trapped her. She was also killed by Abraxas (in- guess what?- another Claremont story- this time in Fantastic Four). She's very much in the "can do basically anything" crowd, but not as good at manipulations as Merlyn is.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sun Feb 06, 2022 11:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24689
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Merlyn

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

MERLYN (aka Merlin, Myrdh, the Magus, Myrrdin)
Created By:
Chris Claremont & Herb Trimpe
First Appearance: Captain Britain #1 (1976- Numerous Other Merlins Have Been Seen)
Role: The Ultimate Wizard
Group Affiliations: The Captain Britain Corps.
PL 15 (369)
STRENGTH
3 STAMINA 4 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 5 AWARENESS 5 PRESENCE 5

Skills:
Deception 10 (+15)
Expertise (Magic) 15 (+20)
Expertise (History) 10 (+15)
Insight 3 (+8)
Intimidation 8 (+13)
Perception 6 (+11)
Persuasion 8 (+13)
Ranged Combat (Magic) 8 (+12)

Advantages:*
Artificer, Daze (Intimidation), Fearless, Power Attack, Ritualist, Well-Informed

Powers:
"Immortal"
Immunity 1 (Aging) [1]
Immortality 15 [30]

"Magical Might"
Flight 7 (250 mph) [14]
Force Field 10 [10]
Senses 4 (Detect Magic- Acute, Analytical & Ranged) [4]
Morph 4 (Any Form) [20]
Shapeshift (Creature Forms) 6 [42]

Teleport 14 (Feats: Increased Mass 6, Change Direction & Velocity, Dynamic) (Extras: Accurate, Extended, Portal +2) (Flaws: Standard Action) (79) -- [106]
  • Dynamic AE: "Telepathy" Mind Reading 10 (20) & Mental Communication 5 (20) -- (41)
  • Dynamic AE: Mind Control 14 (Feats: Dyamic) (57)
  • Dynamic AE: "Astral Projection" Remote Sensing (Vision & Hearing) 16 (Feats: Dynamic, Subtle) (50)
  • Dynamic AE: Eldritch Blast 18 (Feats: Improved Critical 2, Dynamic, Affects Insubstantial, Affects Astral Plane Travellers) (Extras: Penetrating 10) (51)
  • Dynamic AE: "Eldritch Wave" Damage 15 (Feats: Dynamic) (Extras: Penetrating, Area- 60ft. Cone) (45)
  • Dynamic AE: Illusion (Vision & Hearing) 14 (Feats: Dynamic) (43)
  • Dynamic AE: "Improved Field" Force Field +4 (Feats: Dynamic) (Extras: Impervious 15) (20)
  • Dynamic AE: Concealment (All Senses) 10 (Extras: Affects Others, Area) (41)
  • Dynamic AE: "The Crimson Bands of Cyttorak" Snare 14 (Feats: Reversible) (Extras: Area- 30ft. Burst, Selective) (72)
  • Dynamic AE: Move Object 14 (Extras: Perception Range) (42)
  • Dynamic AE: Create 12 (Feats: Precise, Innate) (Extras: Movable, Selective, Stationary +0) (51)
  • AE: Movement 3 (Dimensional Travel) (Feats: Increased Mass 6) (Extras: Portal +2) (19)
  • AE: Healing 16 (Extras: Restorative) (48)
  • AE: Movement 3 (Time Travel 3) (6)
  • AE: "Transmutation" Transform Anything to Anything Else 14 (6 tons) (70)
  • AE: Nullify Energy Effects 12 (Extras: Concentration, Broad) (48)
Offense:
Unarmed +8 (+3 Damage, DC 18)
Mind Control -- (+14 Perception-Ranged Affliction, DC 24)
Blast +12 (+18 Ranged Damage, DC 33)
Eldtritch Wave +15 Area (+15 Damage, DC 30)
Crimson Bands +14 Area (+14 Ranged Affliction, DC 24)
Initiative +3

Defenses:
Dodge +10 (DC 20), Parry +10 (DC 20), Toughness +4 (+14-18 Force Field), Fortitude +13, Will +13

Complications:
Motivation (Omniversal Guardian)- Merlyn considers it his job to protect the multiverse against threats.
Enemy (Necrom)- Merlyn's old master turned evil and now threatens everything.
Reputation (Liar)- Merlyn lies and manipulates with the best of them. He even lies to his apprenctices, the Captain Britain Corps, and his own daughter.
Relationship (Roma- Daughter)

Total: Abilities: 76 / Skills: 68--34 / Advantages: 6 / Powers: 227 / Defenses: 26 (369)

-There's been numerous different "Merlins" in the Marvel Universe, all owing to the tremendous legend of King Arthur, Excalibur and all that Round Table jazz. Merlin himself is actually the most famous character FROM the legends I would say- this aged, haggard wizard is the most-iconic Mentor Figure in fiction, and you can see his shadow everywhere across thousands of stories written since. He's been seen aiding the original Black Knight, fighting Kang alongside some time-traveling super-heroes, fighting Morgana Le Fay (herself a recurring Marvel Villainess), and more. A few have imitated him- the villain now known as Maha Yogi, a Space Phantom, a certain Doctor, and a Dire Wraith, and Albion (some English superhero) claims to be the current reincarnation of the man.

-But this built represents MERLYN, who claims to be the original (though he's a known bullshitter), and appears in spectral form alongside his daughter Roma. Curiously having little to do with Doctor Strange, he instead focuses on Captain Britain as a multiversal defender (Omniversal Guardian, to be exact). He was born on an alternate Earth as a member of a race of super-powered immortals, learning from Necrom- the Sorcerer Supreme of that Earth. Necrom turned evil (eventually becoming an Excalibur foe), while Merlyn stole some of his boss' power and established himself as a protector of all universes in existence. He would eventually form the Captain Britain Corps in order to help him.

-Eventually, he and his daughter Roma got Brian Braddock to become the Captain Britain of Earth-616 (the first time it was named as such was in Captain Britain, as a matter of fact). Brian stopped Mad Jim Jaspers from destroying the fabric of the multiverse, but Merlyn died in the battle, his daughter taking over. However, he was FAKING, and manipulated things so that Excalibur would be formed to eventually become Merlyn's weapon against Necrom. Excalibur & Roma, angered at having been lied to and manipulated, destroyed their Tower homebase, thus removing a major part of Merlyn's power. He would return years later behaving in an evil manner, killing Roma and allying with a revived Jim Jaspers- he would be defeated by Excalibur and the Exiles (this would be Claremont's Exiles run) when MERLIN, one of his many aspects, removed a shard of madness from him.

-Uber-Powerful Magic Guys are easier to build now that I've statted both Dr. Strange and Morgana Le Fay- since they all have "whatever power the writer decides today", I can just be lazy and give them all the same powers :). Seriously, this is the same build as Morgana, minus Attractive, plus some more manipulative Skills and higher Will.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sun Feb 06, 2022 11:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Bladewind
Posts: 3234
Joined: Sat Nov 05, 2016 9:26 pm

Re: Jab's Builds! (The Press Gang! Cameron Hodge! Captain Britain!)

Post by Bladewind »

Out of everything you posted in your opening salvo, the thing about Sat-yr9 stands out to me.

In issues 56-57 (IIRC... going from memory) The Excalibur folks are having a party at Brian's stately manor, when Alysdane is attacked by Jamie... Chaos ensues and Sat-yr9 tries to take over...

It was still in the realm of silly stories, but not quite as extreme...
Thorpocalypse wrote: Sun Oct 07, 2018 6:01 pm Building to be comics "accurate" is different than building to run a PC or building something to challenge a group.
Bladewind's 3ed M&M Builds
The Merge Setting document
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