Jab’s Builds! (Miss Piggy! The Swedish Chef! Sweetums! Gonzo!)

Where in all of your character write ups will go.
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Marvel 2099- Ghost Rider! Punisher! DOOM! X-Men!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Alright, so that's the end of this little one-day set. Only a handful of builds, but this knocks like 10-12 builds off of The List all in one go, so I'm happy :). The "T"s in particular got a whole day knocked off of them, all in the name of my OCD insanity!
Jabroniville
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Suicide Squad

Post by Jabroniville »

SUICIDE SQUAD:

-Suicide Squad is one of those comic books that I heard spoken of in hushed, "wow was this series ever cool" tones when I first got back into comics, circa around 2000 or so. This series was totally Jon Ostrander's baby- a book about a government operative (Amanda Waller) sending super-villains on missions of questionable legality. Characters like Bronze Tiger & Deadshot were given massive "Bad-Ass" reputations and considered top-tier, while Captain Boomerang was given a new lease on character life. However, I never got around to reading it- back issues were hard to come by, the characters weren't famous at that point, and the Trades weren't around. So all we got was a weak, quickly-cancelled revamp around that same era.

Swing ahead to around Infinite Crisis, and we had a slightly different story, but with a similar "villains as protagonists" vibe, with Gail Simone & Dale Eaglesham's Villains United. Here, they made Deadshot a big deal again, Catmanned Catman, and made one of the better books of that era. Subsequent books by Simone took things further, and the book was probably her best overall work. The Nu52 revamped it again, taking bits and pieces of both popular series and making a new Suicide Squad, this time featuring Harley Quinn as the central character. This version led to the somewhat-controversial movie, which made a crap-ton of money while critics were fighting over who got to take the biggest dump all over it.

Origins:
-The original Suicide Squad featured one of those generic "Adventurer Bands" that were popular in the 1960s, with the usual "Three guys and a girl" set-up, and only lasted for six appearances before disappearing. The revamped version in the '80s saw Ostrander create Amanda Waller- a fierce, sneaky, hard-assed woman who proved to be a great part of the DC Universe. She and Rick Flag Jr. (the leader of the original Squad) led a team primarily consisting of super-villains on a "work release", engaging in black ops work on behalf of the United States government in order to win pardons.

The recurring cast, aside from Waller & Flag, included Deadshot- a minor villain now given to suicidal tendencies (which he let out by engaging in dangerous missions). Captain Boomerang was a Flash foe made into a bit of a hapless doofus- but a dangerous, vicious one. Eventually a large band of heroes soon joined the team regularly, with Nightshade, Nemesis & Shade the Changing Man taking up recurring roles. A few years in, the end up going to APOKOLIPS, Lashina of the Female Furies having joined the Squad as "Duchess".

The series proved popular enough to last for 66 issues, which isn't bad considering it had no big-name characters on the book. It was well-thought-of for years following (in part because Ostrander created the character of "Oracle" for the book, righting the wrong that happened to Barbara Gordon at the hands of the Joker by recreating the character as a handicapped computer genius), spoken of in a general "wow, remember Suicide Squad? Now THAT was a cool book." A revamp came out in the 2000s, but was quickly cancelled.

Having bought and read 3 or 4 trades, I can say that it IS indeed quite good- Waller is a fantastic character, and some of the villains seen are quite amusing. Super-villains as protagonists was VERY new when this book first came out, and you can see the great energy that comes out when every character is an utter asshole (this was, naturally, before that became the default personality for HEROES, as well). The fact that most of the characters were nobodies was a boon, as Ostrander could invent personalities as he liked. And really, that is the greatest team name of ALL TIME: "Suicide Squad" is just EPIC. The only major flaw I see is that the heroic characters are all dreadful bores. Shade the Changing Man in particular is so utterly boring that I basically stopped wanting to collect further trades, because he kept getting focused on. Flag's entire backstory and character is dreary as hell, too, and I can't be f***ked about Nemesis or Nightshade, either. I was really just here for the bad guys.

The concept is usually very simple: Waller grabs some villains (a few recurring ones, and a few one-offs), gives them a briefing as to the mission, splits them up (teamwork is almost NEVER a function of the squad), and lets them fight America's enemies. In two stories, the team gives an absolute butt-kicking to The Jihad, a band of Arabic/Terrorist Nation super-villains, usually trouncing them one-on-one. A running theme is casualties (it is a SUICIDE Squad, after all)- a team member dies in the original Legends story (Blockbuster), and again in the debut of the comic series (Mindboggler). The humor is pretty dark, which is a plus, and the villains are pretty fun when they're together.
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab's Builds! (X-Men 2099! Titannus! Ganymede! Suicide Squad!)

Post by Jabroniville »

LOL- Doug & Rob Walker's review of the new Beauty and the Beast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI4y53Oj-io

The first couple minutes will tell you their take. One of the angriest reviews ever. I actually appreciated it for what it was, but this is hilarious :).
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Skaramine
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Re: Jab's Builds! (X-Men 2099! Titannus! Ganymede! Suicide Squad!)

Post by Skaramine »

I can't wait to see your sheet for Lashina/Duchess. She was my favorite, after Deadshot.
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Jabroniville
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The Enchantress

Post by Jabroniville »

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This is one of those characters artists sometimes go nuts for.

THE ENCHANTRESS (June Moon)
Created By:
Bob Haney & Howard Purcell
First Appearance: Strange Adventures #187 (April 1966)
Role: Insane Mage
Group Affiliations: The Suicide Squad, The Forgotten Villains, The Shadowpact, Justice League Dark, The Sentinels of Magic
PL 10 (164)
STRENGTH
6 STAMINA 7 AGILITY 2
FIGHTING 6 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 3 AWARENESS 1 PRESENCE 3

Skills:
Deception 2 (+5)
Expertise (Magic) 6 (+9)
Intimidation 5 (+8)
Perception 3 (+4)
Ranged Combat (Magic) 4 (+10)

Advantages:
Improved Critical (Magic), Power Attack, Startle, Ranged Attack 2, Ritualist

Powers:
"Magical Might"
Senses 5 (Detect Magic- Ranged 2, Accurate, Tracking) [5]
"Remotely Access Magical Power" Variable (Magical Effects) 2 (Flaws: Source- Other Magical Beings) [12]
Flight 4 (30 mph) [8]

Teleport 10 (Feats: Increased Mass 4) (Extras: Extended, Accurate) (44) -- [48]
  • AE: Blast 10 (20)
  • AE: Healing 10 (20)
  • AE: Nullify Magic 10 (Extras: Broad) (30)
  • AE: Insubstantial 4 (20)
Offense:
Unarmed +6 (+6 Damage, DC 21)
Initiative +3

Defenses:
Dodge +9 (DC 19), Parry +7 (DC 17), Toughness +7, Fortitude +7, Will +4

Complications:
Responsibility (Two Personalities)- June Moon and The Enchantress are two different people. Enchantress is nutso.
Normal Identity/Power Loss (Transformation)- June must say "Enchantress" in order to take on her powered persona. June has no Powers.

Total: Abilities: 64 / Skills: 20--10 / Advantages: 6 / Powers: 73 / Defenses: 11 (164)

-I'd never heard of this character until getting that first Suicide Squad trade (though I guess I remember her DC Adventures bio- she appeared in the anthology book Strange Adventures in the mid-'60s, showing up here and there, but never in big roles. She'd only appeared a handful of times until Suicide Squad came out, at which point she disappeared again until 1999. It seems post-2000 was actually her biggest era, as her status as a female magic-user made her a bit unique, and artists started getting a little more creative with her very plain appearance- she was the big mega-villain of Justice League Dark, and even appeared in the Suicide Squad movie, getting some pretty cool effects with her "Alternate Personality".

-She was a normal girl- a freelance artist- until a magical being empowered her to fight evil, transforming the blonde woman into the raven-haired "Enchantress". Despite this heroic start, later appearances show her as a misguided person, driven to crazy acts by the "Enchantress" pesronality, fighting characters like Supergirl. Joining the Suicide Squad in order to keep her villainous side in check... she fails. Instead, her control grows weaker, and several missions are compromised because of it. Eventually, June disappears from the book when a being known as Incubus steals the Enchantress away from her.

-Over a decade later, The Enchantress is killed by Felix Faust, leaving June catatonic, but soon he reveals that it was an illusion, and the two are reunited. She helps a bunch of magic-themed guys take on The Spectre around Infinite Crisis, joining the Shadowpact. Post-Nu52, she's an insane woman who split off from June, and Justice League Dark attempts to stop her. The "Rebirth" era, and the Suicide Squad film, result in her joining the Squad again.

-Enchantress's power is pretty high-end, especially for the more "low-tier" Suicide Squad series (where "guy with guns" was a dangerous threat, and the Female Furies were ungodly tough). Naturally, a lot of that "Vague DC Power Level" stuff rears its ugly head, as she didn't seem overly powerful, yet later books put her out there as a Team Threat all by herself. By the 2000s, she's probably a PL 11-12 (like DCA portrays her), but around Suicide Squad, she's just PL 10. There's a lot of stuff in her DCA bio I've never seen and I don't see listed elsewhere, but the writer of that was presumably a much more knowledgeable fan than I am about this character (seeing as how I knew her as "the OTHER DC chick in green who wears a Wicked Witch hat").
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sat Feb 12, 2022 10:32 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Skaramine
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Re: Jab's Builds! (X-Men 2099! Titannus! Ganymede! Suicide Squad!)

Post by Skaramine »

Witch hats and CLEAVAGE! Two great tastes that make waste together! :lol:
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Emerald_Flame300
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Re: Jab's Builds! (X-Men 2099! Titannus! Ganymede! Suicide Squad!)

Post by Emerald_Flame300 »

Skaramine wrote: Tue Apr 25, 2017 7:04 pm Witch hats and CLEAVAGE! Two great tastes that make waste together! :lol:
Personally, I liked her look from the Suicide Squad movie.

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Re: Jab's Builds! (X-Men 2099! Titannus! Ganymede! Suicide Squad!)

Post by Skaramine »

Witch hats optional given small enough halters. ;)
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Jabroniville
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Chemo

Post by Jabroniville »

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CHEMO
Created By:
Robert Kanigher & Ross Andru
First Appearance: Showcase #39 (July 1962)
Role: Giant Monster
Group Affiliations: The Suicide Squad
PL 12 (196)
STRENGTH
14 STAMINA -- AGILITY -2
FIGHTING 6 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE -- AWARENESS 0 PRESENCE --

Skills:
Close Combat (Unarmed) 4 (+10)
Perception 4 (+4)

Advantages:
Fast Grab, Takedown

Powers:
"Made of Chemicals"
Immunity 30 (Fortitude Effects) [30]
Protection 4 [4]
Regeneration 6 [6]
Growth 12 (Str & Toughness +12, +12 Mass, +6 Intimidation, -6 Dodge/Parry, +1 Speed, -12 Stealth) -- (60 feet) (Feats: Innate) (Extras: Permanent +0) [25]

"Acidic Chemicals" Weaken Toughness 12 (Extras: Affects Objects, Area- 120ft. Cloud +3) Linked to Damage 12 (Extras: Secondary Effect, Area- Cloud +3) (120) -- [122]
  • AE: "Noxious Chemicals" Weaken Abilities 12 (Extras: Broad, Simultaneous, Area- 120ft. Cloud +3) (72)
  • AE: "Incapacitating Chemicals" Affliction 12 (Fort; Dazed/Stunned/Incapacitated) (Extras: Broad, Simultaneous, Area- 120ft. Cloud +3) (72)
Offense:
Unarmed +10 (+14 Damage, DC 29)
Acidic Chemicals +12 Area (+12 Damage & Weaken, DC 27 & 22)
Noxious Chemicals +12 Area (+12 Affliction, DC 22)
Incapacitating Chemicals +12 Area (+12 Weaken, DC 22)
Initiative -2

Defenses:
Dodge +6 (DC 16), Parry +6 (DC 16), Toughness +16, Fortitude --, Will --

Complications:
Motivation (Killing Stuff)- Chemo doesn't think about much.

Total: Abilities: -18 / Skills: 8--4 / Advantages: 2 / Powers: 187 / Defenses: 20 (196)

-Huh. So Chemo was apparently created to fight the METAL MEN, of all people. Created in a lab to be a repository for discarded chemicals, Chemo of course gained sentience when the wrong thing was injected into him. He murdered his creator, and went on to fight the Metal Men several times before their book was cancelled. He was used a few times here and there, but disappeared in the mid-80s (during the Crisis, he was responsible for the death of Aquagirl, a mostly-throwaway character who DC didn't feel like having around anymore), getting reimagined in a 1997 Supergirl issue. During Infinite Crisis, he was used as a way to get rid of the "Blüdhaven" concept, being dropped on the city and killing hundreds of thousands of people, in a horrifying action that was basically glossed over in any comic that didn't feature the Bat-Family, so it basically didn't matter.

-Chemo is a massive, unthinking, gigantic ball of chemicals, capable of Weakens, Afflictions & damaging Acids.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sat Feb 12, 2022 10:33 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Spectrum
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Re: Preak

Post by Spectrum »

Jabroniville wrote: Mon Apr 24, 2017 7:11 pm Image

PREAK
Created By:
Javier Grillo-Marxuach & Greg Titus
First Appearance: Annihilation- Super-Skrull #2 (July 2006)

-Peak was a one-off character who joined Super-Skrull's small army in Annihilation- he was a Class 1-25-level being who could duplicate into THOUSANDS of creatures, making him above and beyond one of the most powerful aliens in Marvel Comics (even doubling every two ranks, you'd need a TON of them to equal a thousand creatures- at least twenty ranks of Multiple Minions). However, he made a heroic sacrifice against the Annihilation Wave, dying in order to buy his teammates some time.
Didn't Men in Black have this guy?

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We rise from the ashes so that new legends can be born.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (X-Men 2099! Titannus! Ganymede! Suicide Squad!)

Post by Spectrum »

So..uhh, how did they include a massive vat of vaguely sentient goo in the Suicide Squad?
We rise from the ashes so that new legends can be born.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (X-Men 2099! Titannus! Ganymede! Suicide Squad!)

Post by KorokoMystia »

Yeah, the destruction of Bludhaven, in the end, was pretty pointless and a senseless waste of life. One of the only things that really came out of it was the mess that was "Battle for Bludhaven".
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab's Builds! (X-Men 2099! Titannus! Ganymede! Suicide Squad!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Spectrum wrote: Wed Apr 26, 2017 12:02 am So..uhh, how did they include a massive vat of vaguely sentient goo in the Suicide Squad?
Beats the hell out of me- he just shows up in the list of guys as having been there at a couple of points. I guess they just point him at stuff and have him say monosyllabic things, then explode.

On that note, I should probably give the "To-Post List":

Suicide Squad:
Amanda Waller
Blockbuster
Bronze Tiger
Captain Boomerang
Chemo
Count Vertigo
Deadshot
The Enchantress
Mindboggler
Nemesis
Nightshade
Plastique
Punch & Jewelee
Rick Flag, Jr.
Shade, The Changing Man
The Thinker I
The Thinker II
Vixen

The Female Furies:
Bernadeth
Gilotina
Lashina
Mad Harriet
Stompa

The Jihad:
Agni
Badb
Dahak
Dervish
Djinn & Digital Djinn
Ifrit
Jaculi I & II
Koshchei
Manticore I-III
Piscator
Ravan
Rustam

The Secret Six:
Bane
Catman
Jeannette
King Shark
Knockout
Parademon
Ragdoll III
Scandal Savage

The Force of July:
Mayflower
Lady Liberty
Major Victory
Sparkler
Silent Majority

There's been a few other one-offs on the various incarnations, but I'm aiming for the iconic members. There's a handful of longer-running Secret Six members, but anyone who's more well-known for stuff OUTSIDE of the group, I'd rather leave out. I wasn't intending to build any Nu52-only guys, either, but we'll see. I've set this up to run until about May 8th, which is when I leave for vacation- after that, I'll move on to re-posting my Spider-Man builds over to here, since Ares has PROMISED he'll be around to read & comment on them this time, and I'll only really have time to "spam out" the day's builds all at once, which I'd rather not do with newer stuff.
Jabroniville
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Shade

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

SHADE, THE CHANGING MAN (Rac Shade)
Created By:
Steve Ditko
First Appearance: Shade, The Changing Man #1 (June 1977)
Role: Failed Hero
Group Affiliations: The Suicide Squad
PL 9 (104)
STRENGTH
2 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 7 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 4 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Athletics 3 (+5)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 2 (+9)
Deception 3 (+5)
Expertise (Science) 4 (+8)
Insight 3 (+5)
Perception 3 (+5)
Technology 8 (+12)
Vehicles 2 (+6)

Advantages:
Interpose, Ranged Attack 2

Powers:
"M-Vest" (Flaws: Removable) [22]
Force Field 8 (Extras: Impervious 7) (15)
Flight 4 (30 mph) (8)
"Alters Appearance" Morph 1 (Alternate Form) (Flaws: Uncontrolled- Different Viewers See Different Things) (4)
-- (27 points)

Offense:
Unarmed +9 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Initiative +3

Defenses:
Dodge +9 (DC 19), Parry +7 (DC 17), Toughness +3 (+11 M-Vest), Fortitude +5, Will +5

Complications:
Reputation (Criminal)- Shade was framed for a crime in his home dimension, and fights to clear his name.
Relationship (Mellu- Fiancee)- Shade's fiancee hunts him down for his crimes.
Reputation (Dingus)- Shade tends to spend a lot of time complaining about Earth's simplistic technology compared to Meta (his homeworld), and it's given him the reputation as being a grouchy, condescending whiner.

Total: Abilities: 54 / Skills: 28--14 / Advantages: 3 / Powers: 22 / Defenses: 11 (104)

-This is a character about whom I know absolutely nothing- I only vaguely know the name. He's apparently one of Ditko's numerous characters invented for his DC run, and like most of them, a failure who disappeared, lasting only eight issues before the "DC Implosion" of 1978 (where low sales and profits dictated a nuking of the line) killed it. He's a fugitive from another dimension (named "Meta"), who uses a stolen "Miraco-Vest" to fight. He is ultimately captured, but escapes through a portal as the book ends. Suicide Squad is the next time we see the character, in an ugly red suit with yellow circles all over it- he agrees to help the team so long as they can help him return to Meta.

-Shade tires of spending time on Earth, and so is convinced by Lashina to betray the Squad and take a detour through Apokolips to Meta- he doesn't wish to, but feels he has no choice. He is wracked with guilt as he's finally sent home, having doomed some members of the Squad organization to die. A remake of his book came out for Vertigo only six months later, with Pete Milligan (part of DC's "British Invasion" of weird British writers working on their new "adult" line) & Chris Bachalo, featuring a version of the character who used a "Madness-Vest". He was killed repeatedly in the series, coming back in different forms each time. It's probably the least-successful and least-beloved out of those early Vertigo books, as Neil Gaiman & Grant Morrison were working on its contemporaries.

-Honestly, I felt this character was HORRIBLE, I didn't understand why he was there, he looked stupid, and everything about him was boring- he failed to draw my interest at all, and was one of numerous heroic characters I felt dragged the book down too much.

-Shade has a powerful Force Field, but isn't that elite a combatant all by himself- he doesn't even have any offensive super-powers!
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sat Feb 12, 2022 10:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab's Builds! (X-Men 2099! Titannus! Ganymede! Suicide Squad!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Hm, Calgary Comic Expo has a pretty solid guest list this time around: https://calgaryexpo.com/guests/media-guests/

I assume the old Doctor will have the biggest line, because UGH I'm the only nerd anywhere who hates that show. Jeremy Renner's a hell of a "get", though, and John Cusack is probably the biggest overall STAR who's going to be there- responsible for one of the most iconic scenes in movie history.

I'll nerd out hardest for Patrick Warburton (I've been watching him since Dave's World, but he's the friggin' TICK!), Rider Strong & Will Friedle, though- Boy Meets World fans represent! And holy shit, there's Todd MacFarlane. Wasn't expecting THAT one.

And of course Stan Lee's promised "retirement" lasted about as long as he realized he can still command huge lines and major money for autographs. I wonder what a signed Ravage 2099 #1 is worth now?

I've only heard of like 3 or 4 of the "Artist & Creator" people this time around: https://calgaryexpo.com/guests/artists-and-creators/

Dan Parent and the Least I Could Do (ugh, how is THAT still popular?) guys are there, as always. Jim Shooter will be cool. His blog is always a very interesting read.
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