HOLOCAUST (William Rolfson, aka Nemesis)
Created By: Scott Lobdell & Roger Cruz
First Appearance: X-Men Alpha (Feb. 1995)
Role: Wannabe Mega-Villain
Group Affiliations: The Four Horsemen of Apocalypse, The Exiles, The Dark Descendents
PL 13 (198)
STRENGTH 13 STAMINA -- AGILITY 0
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 0 AWARENESS 0 PRESENCE 0
Skills:
Close Combat (Unarmed) 2 (+10)
Deception 3 (+3)
Expertise (Warlord/Soldier) 5 (+5)
Intimidation 14 (+14)
Perception 4 (+4)
Ranged Combat (Bio-Nuclear Energy) 2 (+10)
Technology 4 (+4)
Advantages:
All-Out Attack, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 8, Startle, Withstand Damage (trades defense for Toughness)
Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Bio-Nuclear Energy"
"Energy Being" Immunity 30 (Fortitude Effects) [30]
Protection 6 [6]
"Exoskeleton" Protection 10 (Extras: Impervious 13) [23]
"Bio-Nuclear Energy Blasts" Blast 16 (Feats: Improved Critical, Extended Range, Split) (Extras: Penetrating 10) (45) -- [49]
- AE: "Energy Wave" Damage 13 (Extras: Area- 60ft. Cone, Penetrating 8) (33)
- AE: "Energy Stream" Damage 13 (Extras: Area- 60ft. Line +2, Penetrating 7) (44)
- AE: "Energy Burst" Damage 13 (Extras: Area- 60ft. Burst +2, Penetrating 7) (44)
- AE: "Drain Life" Weaken Physical Abilities 12 (Extras: Broad, Simultaneous) (36)
Offense:
Unarmed +10 (+13 Damage, DC 28)
Energy Area Attacks +13 (+13 Damage, DC 28)
Energy Blasts +10 (+16 Ranged Damage, DC 31)
Drain Life +8 (+12 Weaken, DC 22)
Initiative +0
Defenses:
Dodge +7 (DC 17), Parry +8 (DC 18), Toughness +16, Fortitude --, Will +6
Complications:
Relationship (Apocalypse)- Holocaust is the dutiful son of Apocalypse, doing his father's genocidal work.
Responsibility (Life Energy)- Holocaust must drain the life energy of living beings to survive.
Total: Abilities: 32 / Skills: 34--17 / Advantages: 12 / Powers: 124 / Defenses: 13 (198)
-Now THAT is a villain's name! I mean, it conjures up all kinds of negative associations (which is why the action figures have different names), but I mean- he's an evil SUPER-VILLAIN. He's SUPPOSED to represent that kind of stuff! And it's not like Apocalypse wouldn't be the kind of asshole who would TOTALLY name his son that. Nemesis is Apoc's son from the Age of Apocalypse timeline, and had his skin ripped off by Magneto (a heroic figure and leader of the X-Men)- Dark Beast was able to save his life and channel his energy into a crystalline suit of armour, and he was placed into the Mainstream Marvel Universe during a fight with Nate Grey (who also survived the timeline's destruction, along with Dark Beast & Sugar Man).
-What's funny is that I remember the teasers for this character in Stryfe's Strike Files, a book of pretentious blather from Stryfe, who ranted poetically about all of his allies and adversaries in the manner of a Vampire: The Masquerade character. This was circa The X-Cutioner's Song, and Holocaust didn't appear until so much later (after I'd stopped reading comics regularly) that this would be a bizarre non-sequitor. And he made less of a dent on the MU than his AoA compatriots did... well okay, he killed Rusty Collins, which is SOMETHING, but killing the least-interesting of all the New Mutants ain't exactly a real feat. He then allies with Sebastian Shaw, then Onslaught, who both use him as a general minion.
-The character kind of faltered, really- you'd think being the son of the wannabe key villain of the X-Men would be a big deal, but instead he just farted around with that garbage Nate Grey character, doing nothing much of note. The mainstream Holocaust was actually used as part of Exiles- the only such guy on the team. He's generally evil as HELL (it turns out King Hyperion is ruling the Panoptichron/Timebroker thingie now, and wants the Exiles to do some dirty work), but manages to convince the team to attack the Timebrokers, which result in them discovering his duplicity. Holocaust doesn't matter much, though, as Hyperion just cracks his exoskeleton open and literally INHALES him like a man-shaped pile of super-cocaine. Holocaust never appears again- a Mainstream version showed up (called "Genocide"- which is ALSO an awesome supervillain name) who was also Apocalypse's son, but he didn't get up to much before being executed by The Apocalypse Twins within the pages of The Uncanny Avengers.
-Holocaust is an extremely powerful, durable Blaster/Powerhouse combo who can fight someone like Nate Grey and not get curbstomped immediately, but is also easily-killed by an evil Hyperion (who's at least PL 15). With some New Villain Stink on him he can handle someone as powerful as Exodus (I won't call killing Rusty Collins a "Good Showing") or Grey (the Power Geek character to end all Power Geek characters), but he settled into your standard PL 12-13 Wannabe Ultra-Villain.