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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Re: Jab's Builds! (Gambit! Ma Gnucci! Golems! Graviton! Jack Kirby!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Skaramine wrote: Wed Aug 30, 2017 12:09 am One thing that always got me was that the Gray Gargoyle should be still an amazing foe.

Even without his alchemical stone touch, he's made of living stone.

Colossus is "living steel" and he's hell on wheels, especially with his combat training and agility. The only opponent who ever caused serious injury to Colossus in hand-to-hand was the World-Breaker Hulk.

The Gargoyle was equally as quick and agile, while made of living stone. If anything, his parry and his toughness should be on par with someone who went knuckle-to-knuckle with the God of Thunder. Yes, Thor easily breaks granite and such, but the Gargoyle, if I were writing him, would be tough for Goldilocks. He'd make use of defensive roll instead of just gutting it out. I dunno. I also would love to see him against the Thing. I would love to see Ben show some of that maneuverability that Gargoyle has.

He also used to climb buildings - not quite like Spider-Man, he'd wreck any facade because his climbing was punching finger and toe holds in stone or steel.
A Gargoyle climbing walls by literally digging into solid stone? I wonder if anyone else has thought of that since then :)?
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Tattooedman
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Re: Galactic Guardians

Post by Tattooedman »

Jabroniville wrote: Wed Aug 30, 2017 12:54 am
Goldar wrote: Tue Aug 29, 2017 11:53 pm
Jabroniville wrote: Tue Aug 29, 2017 11:16 pm THE GALACTIC GUARDIANS:
-The Galactic Guardians are a team from the Guardians of the Galaxy book, and are futuristic superheroes as well. They were formed by Martinex, who thought that the Guardians should become even larger as an organization. He recruited:

Mainframe: The Vision of the future.
The Spirit of Vengeance: The Ghost Rider of the future.
Firelord: The former Herald of Galactus and current Protector of the Universe.
Replica: A Skrull shape-shifter who... ugh, another one?... shakes off the evil of her race and becomes a good guy. Formerly a member of the Universal Church of Truth.
Hollywood: The Wonder Man of the future, guilt-ridden over seeing many of his teammates die during the Martian invasion of Earth in the 20th century. Yes, the Avenger perhaps most famous for repeatedly DYING lived to see the Year 3000.
Phoenix IX: The latest host of the Phoenix Force.
Ooh, can't wait to see all these guys statted up!
oh! I, uhh... wasn't planning on that :). I mean, I've statted SoV recently, and I'm not sure if most of them are actually different from their past selves. Has anyone actually read stories featuring these guys?
~holds up hand~

You pretty much summed it up - their powers aren't really different from the originals. Just add space flight to GG Ghost Rider (thanks to his future bike) and that's about it from what I can remember.
Jabroniville wrote: Tue Jul 13, 2021 11:45 pm
LOl- "The Tattooed Man"? What kind of ABSOLUTE DILDO would refer to himself as "The Tattooed Man" :P!?!
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Bladewind
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Golems! Graviton! Jack Kirby! Grey Gargoyle! Gwenpool!)

Post by Bladewind »

There was some semi decent backstory in there, but yeah, more or less the originals.

Ghost Rider was an alien and despised the Church of Truth which put him at odds with Replica.
Pheonix IX was used as a battery for Mainframe to contain his destructive might.
Firelord was Firelord.
Hollywood was Wonder Man, just with a full beard and white hair. He wore sunglasses because it was kewl.
Replica was a little more than changed Skrull. Her religious beliefs almost made her interesting.
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
Jabroniville
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Graydon Creed

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

GRAYDON CREED (aka "Tribune")
Created By:
Scott Lobdell & Brandon Peterson
First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men #299 (April 1993)
Role: Racist Bigot, Failed '90s Replacement Character (to Robert Kelly)
Group Affiliations: The Hellfire Club, Shaw Industries, The Upstarts
PL 3 (79)
STRENGTH
1 STAMINA 2 AGILITY 1
FIGHTING 3 DEXTERITY 3
INTELLIGENCE 3 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 4

Skills: 
Deception 8 (+12)
Expertise (Computers) 4 (+7)
Expertise (Business) 5 (+8)
Expertise (Oratory) 5 (+9)
Expertise (Politics) 10 (+13)
Insight 4 (+7)
Investigation 3 (+6)
Perception 5 (+8)
Persuasion 8 (+12)

Advantages:
Benefit 4 (Wealth 2, Friends of Humanity Leader), Connected (Politics), Ranged Attack 2

Offense:
Unarmed +3 (+1 Damage, DC 16)
Initiative +1

Defenses:
Dodge +4 (DC 14), Parry +4 (DC 14), Toughness +2, Fortitude +4, Will +5

Complications: 
Motivation (Power)- Creed has tremendous political asperations, which will lead him to run for the Presidency of the United States.
Hatred (Mutants)- The son of Victor Creed & Mystique (ew), Graydon obviously had few mutant role models growing up. Turning out to be a pure, non-powered human, he soon came to despise mutants, and he's devoted his life to a genocidal campaign of elimination.

Total: Abilities: 40 / Skills: 52--26 / Advantages: 5 / Powers: 0 / Defenses: 8 (79)

-Graydon Creed mainly goes down as a big, fat failure in '90s-era X-writing, mainly because he was CLEARLY set up as a more villainous Senator Robert Kelly, ie. a mutant-opposing politician, but instead of Kelly's calm, intelligent dissertations on mutants and their dangers to society, Creed was of course a scheming, manipulative bastard who was funding the Friends of Humanity, a terrorist organization which was designed to execute mutants (why they didn't team up with the 18 other groups based on the same concept, I have no idea). Problem is, Creed just wasn't that interesting a character- he was a standard Strawman Villain who was evil, yet didn't even have that many great ideas.

-Even his lineage (the son of Mystique & Sabretooth) didn't help him become any better. Having been given up for adoption by Mystique as soon as he popped out, he grew up resentful of all mutants- his parents in particular. He used this hatred to justify his murder of Birdy (Sabretooth's telepathic sidekick, and the only person who could keep his psychopathic urges in check). Graydon was assassinated during his run for President of the United States, and it was later revealed that his own mom (X-Treme X-Men revealed that it was a future version of Mystique) did the deed, because he killed the grandson of Destiny or some crap. Quite the pointless end for someone they tried decently hard with. His connection to the Younghunt was pretty minor, as he merely gave up some information to the New Warriors and that was about it. He was temporarily-resurrected by Bastion, using the Techno-Organic Virus of Warlock's race, but he was quickly killed by Hope Summers. Creed never really got much play in ANY cross-over, which is part of why he was such a bad villain.

-Nothing special stats-wise, he's dependant upon lots of goons and his political skills, being a better "behind the scenes" type of villain than anyone who could actually fight or defend himself, even though I statted him up as a guy in pretty good shape.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sat Mar 19, 2022 10:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Gwenpool

Post by Ares »

Jabroniville wrote: Wed Aug 30, 2017 12:36 am ImageImage

GWENPOOL (Gwendolyn Poole)
Created By:
Chris Bachalo
First Appearance: Deadpool's Secret Wars #1 (Nov. 2015)
Role: Odd Rip-Off Character
Gwenpool is . . . . I've heard some people like her book, some of the stuff I've read was kind of entertaining, and the concept of Gwen breaking the fourth wall due to coming from beyond it is kind of cute. The idea that her real superpower is knowing everything about the comics is likewise kind of interesting, since she didn't gain any innate powers on arriving in the Marvel Universe. And you could also see how someone in her position could behave the way she does, feeling like since she's in a comic book the people she's interacting with "aren't real" and thus she can just slaughter them with a clear conscience.

And honestly . . . I kind of hate her.

I mean, I'll be honest, the only thing good about "Spider-Gwen" was the outfit, but they could have easily slapped that costume on any of the 3 or so already existing spider-women in 616. Having "Spider-Gwen" as a new character in an alternate reality might have been interesting in something akin to the Spider-Girl series that fans kept trying to save. But having her in the 616 setting just dilutes the already bloated Spider-Family (seriously, right now we've got Peter, Ben, Kaine, Miles, Jessica, Julia, Gwen, Silk and who knows how many f***ing spider-people).

Gwenpool basically takes that knock off concept, but then has her basically act like one of the Animaniacs in the Marvel Universe, getting away with stuff because "she knows the tropes of a superhero setting". Like she gets arrested, but before she goes to jail, the guy arresting her decides to retire, because superheroes and villains never stay in jail long, you see?

And it's stuff like that I dislike. There have been stories before where writers would self-insert themselves into a story, or have characters travel to a universe that are full of characters they've read in comic books in their home world. But in every instance, the people treated the folks they encountered like they were real people, understanding that they were in just some other universe.

What Gwen does is treat the 616 setting like its a fictional setting that runs on fictional tropes, and gets rewarded for doing so. To her, it isn't like she entered an alternate universe, it's like she literally entered a comic world where everything is being written by a writer and she can exploit writer tropes to get ahead. And again, if this was some alternate reality where she could just do whatever, it wouldn't be a problem, but she's in the 616 setting with actual heroes, and she basically kills any verisimilitude the setting has.

It'd be like if in Last Action Hero, instead of going to some cheesy action movie, the kid went into the Star Wars original trilogy, and then started taking advantage of all the Star Wars tropes, only then it's revealed this was canon to the Star Wars setting. It's anti-immersion.

It's probably best that I don't have any authority at Marvel, because I know she's a popular character. I'd probably just make it clear that she's off in some alternate Marvel Universe and retcon all of her official appearances in the setting away. Because otherwise I'd be tempted to:
A) Have an actual hero beat the crap out of her and humiliate her, and basically tear her enter concept apart to point out she isn't really that clever.
B) Kill her off in some sadistic fashion, where the families of the people she's killed get together and murder her in retribution.
C) Reveal that all of her adventures were in her head and that's she's really a mental patient or in some kind of coma.

I will say I love the art for her solo book tho.
"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."
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Jabroniville
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Gambit! Ma Gnucci! Golems! Graviton! Jack Kirby!)

Post by Jabroniville »

kreuzritter wrote: Tue Aug 29, 2017 12:39 pm as I understand it, according to the showrunners, Glomgold is still Afrikaaner, its just he makes himself look "More Scottish Than Scrooge" as part of his self-promoting marketing, reconciling how they made him Scottish in the 80's series
Oh, neat. Can't wait for later episodes, in any case. I think they've still only aired the one. And I'll nerd out like f*ck if D.W. ever shows up.
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Golems! Graviton! Jack Kirby! Grey Gargoyle! Gwenpool!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Yeah, the art in some of the Gwenpool pics I was looking up was great. It reminds me a lot of Flick the Thief's stuff from DeviantArt (and... other sites...).

ImageImage

This is terrific Americanime-styled stuff. Though apparently the artist duo is Japanese. So I guess just... anime.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sat Mar 19, 2022 10:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Gypsy Moth

Post by Jabroniville »

Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

GYPSY MOTH (Sybil Dvorak, aka Skein, Sybarite)
Created By:
Mark Gruenwald & Carmine Infantino
First Appearance: Spider-Woman #10 (Jan. 1979)
Role: Jobber Villain, Odd Power Lady
Group Affiliations: The Masters of Evil, The Femizons, The Night Shift, The Woman Warriors
PL 8 (96)
STRENGTH
0 STAMINA 2 AGILITY 4
FIGHTING 5 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 1 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 4

Skills:
Acrobatics 4 (+8)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 2 (+7)
Deception 5 (+9, +11 Attractive)
Expertise (Pop Culture) 4 (+5)
Perception 3 (+5)
Ranged Combat (Psychokinesis Attacks) 2 (+8)

Advantages:
Attractive, Defensive Roll, Daze (Deception), Fascinate (Deception), Ranged Attack 6

Powers:
"Low-Level Psychokinesis"
Snare 8 (Quirks: Requires Fabrics -2) (22) -- [26]
  • AE: "Disintegrate Materials" Blast 4 (Feats: Precise) (Extras: Penetrating 10) Linked to Weaken Toughness 4 (Extras: Ranged, Affects Objects Only +0) (17)
  • AE: "Close Off Windpipes" Affliction 6 (Fort; Dazed/Stunned/Incapacitated) (Extras: Ranged, Cumulative) (18)
  • AE: Move Object 2 (Feats: Precise) (5)
  • AE: "Heart-Valve Destruction" Blast 5 (Extras: Penetrating, Fortitude Check) (20)
Flight 4 (30 mph) (Flaws: Limited to While Wearing Wings, Winged) [2]

Offense:
Unarmed +7 (+0 Damage, DC 15)
Snare +8 (+8 Ranged Afflicton, DC 18)
Windpipe Squeez +8 (+6 Ranged Affliction, DC 16)
Heart-Valve Attack +8 (+5 Ranged Fortitude Damage, DC 20)
Initiative +4

Defenses:
Dodge +9 (DC 19), Parry +8 (DC 18), Toughness +2 (+3 D.Roll), Fortitude +5, Will +3

Complications:
Motivation (Hedonism)- Gypsy Moth is in it for kicks, money, and more kicks. She's formed hedonistic cults, hung out with celebrities, and murdered her husband for his money. She's also bisexual, and joined The Thunderbolts just to seduce Songbird (tragically, it didn't work).
Reputation (Sluuuuuuut)- Sybil hits on pretty much whomever, and wears one of the sluttier costumes going.

Total: Abilities: 36 / Skills: 20--10 / Advantages: 10 / Powers: 28 / Defenses: 12 (96)

-Gypsy Moth is a VERY minor character, being a Spider-Woman villain who later came up against Captain America in the Superia Stratagem storyline, and briefly joined The Crimson Cowl's Masters of Evil. Her whole schtick was that she was a low-level telekinetic (able to carry a maximum of 120 pounds) who specialized in manipulating the molecules of fabric. This basically let her shred super-heroes' costumes, leaving them either half-nude or otherwise tripping them up, but she had a few other unique tricks as well, like giving people heart attacks by manipulating the smaller materials inside their bodies. She's actually reappeared a few times as "Skein" or "Sybarite" ("Gypsy" is often considered an ethnic slur by the Roma people, but at least a "Gypsy Moth" is an actual animal), but still gets written off as a minor character. She briefly allied with Hawkeye's Thunderbolts after quitting the Masters, mainly "for kicks" and to make an attempt at seducing Songbird (!!!).

-She pops up as a member of the Initiative team "The Women Warriors" of Nebraska, but shows up as Gypsy Moth again during Spider-Island, using her powers to disguise a gagged Spider-Woman as herself (so that The Thing will attack her). Her next appearance is of course as Skein, as she joins The Menagerie (along with Hippo, White Rabbit & Panda-Mania, whom I obviously must now stat)... but then she shows up allied with Baron Zemo in Secret Empire, calling herself Gypsy Moth again. Oh, comics.

-Gypsy Moth has a very weird power-set that stats up rather oddly. She can unweave fabrics, or even the inner-workings of the human body (!), giving her a low-level form of Disintegration. She can also attack people's Fortitude directly (able to Penetrate inside human bodies- such as her late husband, where it's implied he met his end via an obstructed blood vessel). This matches with a low-level Move Object (only 120 lbs. maximum), the ability to close off windpipes like a Force-User would, or simply ensnare people in their own clothing (and unless she's fighting Iron Man, that's pretty much everybody).

-She's not overly powerful with most of her attacks- her Snare is by far the most effective, and she's not even particularly fast for a Flier, but she's rather effective in a team situation- Snares & distracting stuff like that are positively LETHAL when you can set up heroes for other people to hammer on in combat. So she's a VERY low-pointed PL 8, but PL 8 all the same. But it'll only take one shot from any half-decent hero to put this dame down for the count.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sat Mar 19, 2022 10:34 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Golems! Graviton! Jack Kirby! Grey Gargoyle! Gwenpool!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Alrighty! That's all for the "G" section! An interesting little set, though I feared it a little short on "name" characters, especially since it turned out a lot of the guys I thought I'd have to build, I'd built already (you could blame bad memory, but really, how many people are gonna see a name like "Gormuu" and immediately remember that they'd done a build for a character like that?). I actually added Graviton and his crew (only 3-ish years old as recent posts) because I only had Gambit for important people.

I only added Gwenpool at the very end, because something suddenly jogged my memory that she existed and actually counted :).

There are, naturally, guys still exclusively set to Ronin Army (such as Gargouille, Gaea, Gazelle and the Gardener), but most are themed to certain groups I hadn't wanted to repost just yet, or were more recent posts and I don't like "spamming" them out quite so quickly.

Next Up: Some names that also include a few "G" guys, and I decided to finally re-post them all as one big group- the multiple characters who formed up the roster of The Initiative- the BEST thing to come out of Marvel's Civil War! I'd been posting a handful of them each time I got to a different letter from "The List", but since they're all basically linked, it's easiest to stat them all at once. And holy hell, I forgot that Dan Slott was responsible for all of that.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Golems! Graviton! Jack Kirby! Grey Gargoyle! Gwenpool!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Oh, and for future reference, I'll be posting The Initiative, followed by a handful of ATT & RA-centric builds from various franchises for a couple of days, followed by something I've been late on doing for AGES- MEGA MAN!! Yup- one of the last bits of 2nd Edition translated into 3rd Edition!

After that, I'm not quite sure. I'm thinking of re-posting (with some new stuff, probably) my Dinosaur builds, leading to Dino Riders again. Plus there's Gargoyles, The Legion of Super-Heroes and Super Mario Bros., which could stand to be re-posted, though my opinions on most of that stuff hasn't changed. For new stuff, there's Mega Man X and South Park. MMX would be a natural to follow in the footsteps of Mega Man, but I fear the non-gamer fans would be bored stiff if I posted nothing but Mega Man builds for weeks on end :).

Any particular stuff from that list you'd like to see? Any other things possibly interest you, either in terms of re-posting or from something I've never statted before? Keep in mind if it's from some TV I've never seen, there's no way I'll be doing it :).
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Golems! Graviton! Jack Kirby! Grey Gargoyle! Gwenpool!)

Post by KorokoMystia »

Jabroniville wrote: Wed Aug 30, 2017 8:51 am Oh, and for future reference, I'll be posting The Initiative, followed by a handful of ATT & RA-centric builds from various franchises for a couple of days, followed by something I've been late on doing for AGES- MEGA MAN!! Yup- one of the last bits of 2nd Edition translated into 3rd Edition!

After that, I'm not quite sure. I'm thinking of re-posting (with some new stuff, probably) my Dinosaur builds, leading to Dino Riders again. Plus there's Gargoyles, The Legion of Super-Heroes and Super Mario Bros., which could stand to be re-posted, though my opinions on most of that stuff hasn't changed. For new stuff, there's Mega Man X and South Park. MMX would be a natural to follow in the footsteps of Mega Man, but I fear the non-gamer fans would be bored stiff if I posted nothing but Mega Man builds for weeks on end :).

Any particular stuff from that list you'd like to see? Any other things possibly interest you, either in terms of re-posting or from something I've never statted before? Keep in mind if it's from some TV I've never seen, there's no way I'll be doing it :).
I'm probably one of the people that wouldn't be bored by all the Mega Man builds. Really, I'm looking forward to them a lot, since I'm a huge fan of the series. I also wonder if Roll deserves a build, since even though she's usaully a non-combatant, she's seen combat in a few side-games (and Marvel vs Capcom!) and mobile ports, and of course there's the ridiculous cartoon version, who had a Toast Buster among other household stuff. As for other stuff I'd be interested in: Fire Emblem, Shining Force, Thundercats.. (I know you hate it, but I just wanna see how Lion-O and the rest compare to He-Man and Thundarr, power level wise.), also, more obscure fighting games like Ballz and Power Instinct. It'd be fun to see the Mario builds again, with maybe some additions like Daisy, Waluigi, Rosalina, Bowser Jr., and the like. One thing I would very much be interested in is Marvel Vs. Capcom builds, but it's a really large project, and the Marvel side would just be your pre-existing builds re-balanced to Fighting Game standards, which is probably pretty boring to do. On the other hand, it'd allow you to stat a bunch of more obscure Capcom characters.

Also, huh, it's not until you pointed it out that I noticed you haven't statted Hippo before. Thorp has, though. Panda-Mania, though, I've never heard of!
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Golems! Graviton! Jack Kirby! Grey Gargoyle! Gwenpool!)

Post by Ares »

KorokoMystia wrote: Wed Aug 30, 2017 4:05 pm Thundercats.. (I know you hate it, but I just wanna see how Lion-O and the rest compare to He-Man and Thundarr, power level wise.),
They actually had a ThunderCats / Masters of the Universe crossover semi-recently, one that got a trade release not long ago. I definitely recommend picking it up.

There's an obligatory fight between Lion-O and He-Man, one that starts out purely one of swordsmanship until Lion-O manages to disarm He-Man, figuring that should give him an edge. At which point He-Man PUNCHES Lion-O and sends him across the room and into a stone column. Lion-O's response was essentially, "Okay, that kind of strength is just RIDICULOUS." After that, Lion-O had to call on the Sword of Omens to even the odds by granting him "Power BEYOND Power", which briefly allowed him to match He-Man's strength. Awesome stuff.

It's kind of interesting how they match up, at least in my head.

Lion-O was more or less Captain America in terms of stats, but with mild superhuman strength (probably around a ton lifting wise) since he would occasionally do things like wield downed trees as a club. Beyond those exceptional stats, Lion-O was primarily a skilled leader, swordfighter, grappler and acrobat, along with some vague cat senses. The Sword of Omens, tho, was incredibly overpowered, to the point of basically being a plot device. It could shoot energy, deflect energy, remove magical enchantments, grant Lion-O information, give the ThunderCats brief boosts of power, summon and animate giant stone statues, return to Lion-O's hand on command, etc. One time, when a gyroscope that held a planet together broke down, Lion-O just chucked the Sword into the place where the gyroscope had been, and the sword held the planet together. Sometimes it got to the point where you'd wonder why Lion-O just didn't end the threat of the episode by going "Sword of Omens, DO SOMETHING!"

Conversely, He-Man's Power Sword seemed mostly to be there just to transform Adam and Cringer into He-Man and Battlecat, as well as occasionally deflect lasers or slice through some rocks. He-Man tho, HE was almost the plot device, basically being as strong or as fast as the episode required, throwing entire castles into outer space, running fast enough to create vortexes of wind, etc. His strength would vary from having to struggle with Skeletor's minions to being strong enough to armwrestle Superman.

Thundarr would actually be something of a light-weight compared to the above heroes. He was basically Conan the Barbarian with a magical lightsaber, which is impressive, but he was neither as powerful physically as He-Man nor had as awesome a weapon as Lion-O. Though in any kind of fight it'd turn into a fairly evenish swordfight until the other heroes used their advantages.

Comparing the Power Sword and Sword of Omens is actually kind of interesting. The Power Sword would occasionally display some unique abilities, but for the most part it was just a super-sharp, unbreakable sword that was a transformation trinket. The Sword of Omens actually wasn't indestructible, being broken more than once and needing to be re-forged. However, it was actually semi-sentient, refusing to let evil being touch it or be used to harm the innocent. And then there was just all of the magical stuff the sword could do. It's weird how different the two blades are.
"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."
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Golems! Graviton! Jack Kirby! Grey Gargoyle! Gwenpool!)

Post by KorokoMystia »

Man, I had no idea there was actually a Masters of the Universe/Thundercats crossover, but it sounds awesome. I'll have to pick it up at some point. Now I'm curious how Mumm-Ra compares to Skeletor. I don't remember much about Mumm-Ra other than the fact that he was a powerful mage as well as "ANCIENT SPIRITS OF EVIL! TRANSFORM THIS DECAYED FORM....TO MUMM-RA, THE EVER-LIVING!" (Seriously, that's such a cool transformation phrase.) His Ever-Living form would likely beat the tar out of Skeletor if he got close enough, though.
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The Initiative

Post by Jabroniville »

THE INITIATIVE:
-Civil War may have been a piece of junk, but I think a lot of the stories and concepts that sprung from it were quite strong, and full of potential- one of them was the concept of "The Initiative"; the idea that the American government would actually interject itself into superhuman activities (I mean, they totally would in real life, too), enforce "proper" training of people with powers, and then spread them out across the United States. This "Fifty States Initiative" actually gave a place to countless forgotten heroes, establishing people like Devil-Slayer, Ultra-Girl and plenty of other newbies in background shots.

The Initiative was a great little book that featured the new status quo: Superhumans were forced to undergo military training and could only perform "heroics" as agents of the government. And they played both sides very well- some of the kids needed training, but it was so full of the standard "Comic Book Governments are Always Evil" stuff that it reminded you immediately that this whole idea was basically a pipe dream that was never gonna work out. With one kid getting his head blown off in the first day of basic training, teenagers being turned into living weapons of mass destruction, immoral cloning and turning children into killers, you had basically every Government Is Evil trope played to the hilt, and it was AWESOME.

-I'm not much for most of Marvel's big arcs, but I've read all my old roomate's trades of that era, and Initiative stood out as the best book dealing with this whole thing. I think Civil War was a good idea on paper translated into horrible storytelling and characterization in the actual books (I don't hold the "Mr. Fantastic once spoke out AGAINST Registration ten years ago" thing against the writers, but the whole group of Pro-Reg guys going full-bore evil and doing insane things? THAT's stupid). Secret Invasion was also cool in ways, but the big death was WASP? And then Captain America finally returns, but in the most boring way humanly possible, without anybody being all in awe of him and stuff? And his triumphant cavalry charge involves lower-end characters like THE YOUNG AVENGERS instead of top-tier heroes? Then Norman Osborn gets all this power in a GREAT example of character-based storytelling (his sh*t-eating grins and ass-kissing during press interviews was great), but then just decides to randomly go nuts and attack Asgard in the dumbest thing a villain has done to screw up his own plan in YEARS? I mean, the guy just had the keys to the kingdom handed to him, so now he decides to publically break the law, shove it in the President's face, and then go to a war he had very little chance of actually winning? Wha--??

Some of the teens were pretty decent characters, while others were gathered from the Bin O' Cliches, but I think it worked. They also used some characters we rarely get to see sometimes, like H.P. Gyrich (the pencil-pushing bigoted asshole that usually is at the forefront of every nasty government thing) and Justice of the New Warriors. As time went on, you got to see some of the team leave, die or get screwed around, and eventually things shifted to Dark Reign and now TASKMASTER was in charge of the training camp!

Books like this showcase a lot of what makes the Marvel Universe fun- countless background guys, forgotten characters and Loser Villains can suddenly gain a ton of characterization and focus, turning into decent characters in the long run.

Things kind of faltered after that point and the book was quietly cancelled, leaving most of the team to vanish into the ether- Justice vanished into Marvel Limbo again, and I have no idea what any of the kids are up to these days- the book became just another of a LONG string of "New Teenage Team" books that became a recurring Marvel joke- they would release a new book of teen heroes, push it for a while, then cancel it and create a NEW teen hero book. In the past fifteen or so years, we've seen The New Mutants/New X-Men/Young X-Men, The Runaways, The Young Allies, The Young Avengers & Avengers Academy all come and go, with the Young Avengers getting random pushes once in a while, and the Academy kids probably being the most successful, with their sequel series being published for a few years after the expected Best-Before-Date.

Curiously, none of the characters from this series have appeared much in other books. This, despite the fact that Dan Slott, their creator, is a big-name creator at Marvel Comics still, being the head writer of Spider-Man, among other books. Most writers in his position, especially in earlier eras, ALWAYS used old character concepts on their new books, especially once they became famous (watch Claremont turn side-characters from Ms. Marvel, like Mystique & Deathbird, into major X-Men Supporting Characters).

The Initiative:
Gauntlet
Cloud 9
Hardball
Komodo
MVP
The Scarlet Spiders
KIA
Proton
Gorilla Girl
Butterball
Geiger
The Liberteens
The Order

Here's the overall list of known Initiative Teams (mostly comprised of Jobber Heroes or "Reformed" Villains- many were secretly Skrulls):
The Great Lakes Initiative: The Great Lakes Avengers (Mr. Immortal, Dinah Soar, Big Bertha, Doorman, Flatman, Grasshopper- Skrull, Gravity)
Earth Force (Washington): Skyhawk (Skrull), Earth Lord, Wind Warrior
The Garrison: Fin, Man-Eater
The Called (Utah): unknown group of Mormon heroes
The Rangers (Texas): Texas Twister, Phantom Rider, Red Wolf , Shooting Star, Firebird, Armadillo (Skrull), Living Lightning, Fifty-One (Alien telepath)
The Liberteens (Pennsylvania): a team of new heroes
The Forces of Nature: New Warriors Enemies (Aqueduct, Skybreaker, Sunstreak, Terraformer)
Ohio: Howard the Duck (seriously?), Machine Man, Swift Cloud, Hurricane
North Carolina: Butterball, Batwing, The U-Foes (Ironclad, Vapor, Vector, X-Ray)
The Mighty Avengers/Dark Avengers: Norman Osborn's evil squad
The Mavericks (New Mexico): She-Thing (Skrull), Annex, Geiger, Jocasta
Nebraska: Captain Ultra, Gadget, Paragon
Freedom Force (Montana): Challenger (Golden Age Hero), Cloud 9, Think Tank, Equinox (Skrull), Spinner
Psionex (Maryland): a team of New Warriors foes
Action Pack (Kentucky): Vox (Sonic Blasts), Prima Donna (Super-Strength), Frog-Man (Skrull)
The Harvesters (Kansas): Grain Belt, Pioneer, Topeka, Meadowlark, Sunflower (last three all killed by a Zombie Hyperion)
Force Works (Iowa): Cybermancer
Spaceknights (Illinois): unknown
Point Men (Hawaii): Stingray, Devil-Slayer, 3-D Man, Star Sign (hippie), Paydirt, Magnitude (Skrull)
The Cavalry (Georgia): Ultra Girl, Thor Girl, Crime-Buster (Nova ally and martial artist/crimefighter- killed by a Skrull), Stunt-Master (unknown guy), Red Nine
The Command (Florida): Jennifer Kale, Wundarr the Aquarian, Siege, The Conquistador (Skrull)- Siege & Conquistador were killed by Zombies.
The Women Warriors (Delaware): Asp, Black Mamba, Diamondback, Quicksand, Skein (the former Gypsy Moth)
The Order (California): Five new heroes
The Battalion (Arkansas): Razorback (Skrull), Tigra
The Desert Stars (Arizona): Johnny Cool (Cold Control), Komodo, Two-Gun Kid (Modern-day Cowboy), Supermax (Size), Blacksmith (Skrull)
Alaska: Hellcat
The Heavy Hitters (Nevada): Hardball, Prodigy, Gravity, Nonstop, Telemetry, Outback (formerly Boomerang), Unnamed Skrull
Last edited by Jabroniville on Mon Sep 04, 2017 7:35 am, edited 1 time in total.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24689
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Gauntlet (Green)

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

GAUNTLET III (Joseph Green)
Created By:
Dan Slott, Stephano Caselli & Eric Powell
First Appearance: She-Hulk #100 (Jan. 2006)
Role: Big Bad Drill Instructor
Group Affiliations: Head of Camp H.A.M.M.E.R., The Avengers Resistance
PL 10 (137)
STRENGTH
3 STAMINA 4 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 3
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 3

Skills:
Athletics 4 (+7)
Deception 2 (+5)
Intimidation 6 (+9)
Investigation 2 (+5)
Expertise (Military) 8 (+10)
Perception 5 (+8)
Insight 3 (+6)
Stealth 2 (+5)
Vehicles 4 (+7)

Advantages: 
All-Out Attack, Benefit (Rank), Diehard, Equipment (Communications), Fast Grab, Improved Critical 2 (Gauntlet Blast, Rifle), Inspire, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 6, Takedown, Teamwork

Powers:
"Non-Removable Alien Gauntlet Weapon"
Blast 11 (Extras: Penetrating 8) (30) -- [33]
  • AE: Snare 9 (Feats: Reversible, Chokehold, Tether) (30)
  • AE: Move Object 8 (16)
  • AE: "Block Attacks" Enhanced Defenses 2 (4)
Super-Senses 1 (Detect Alien Weapons, Ranged) (Limited to The Tactigon) [1]

Offense:
Unarmed +8 (+3 Damage, DC 18)
Gauntlet Blast +9 (+11 Ranged Damage, DC 26)
Gauntlet Snare +9 (+11 Ranged Affliction, DC 21)
Initiative +3

Defenses:
Dodge +8 (+10 Gauntlet Shield, DC 18-20), Parry +8 (+10 Gauntlet Shield, DC 18-20), Toughness +4, Fortitude +6, Will +6

Complications:
Responsibility (U.S. Military/Government)
Responsibility (Recruits/Trainees' Safety)

Total: Abilities: 58 / Skills: 36--18 / Advantages: 17 / Powers: 34 / Defenses: 10 (137)

-Gauntlet is one of the nice bits of The Initiative series. He's your stereotypical Big Bad Drill Sergeant Nasty-Ass (I have a suspicion they created him because they didn't want an ESTABLISHED hero coming across this cruel), and he's got the typical "deep-down a good guy" mentality where he doesn't want bad things to happen to the good soldiers he's trained, but I like him anyways. Part of it is his powers- he's got a high output of damage, but he's as vulnerable as all hell- basically a big tough human being underneath all that power. The fact that his power is mostly JUST Blasting is nice- comic book writers nowadays can get all over the place in terms of weird specifics and complicated origins- this is just some alien weapon that fell from space and linked to a guy. He's just a Blaster on a U.S. Soldier, and he works with just that. 

-He started out as a Yes-Man, but has moved around to the Avengers Resistance after leaving Camp H.A.M.M.E.R. when Dark Reign was going down. Gauntlet's okay, but it looks like his story is about over, as there's not much else left for him, and he went back to fight with U.S. Soldiers in Afghanistan. He hasn't been seen in years.

-Gauntlet luckily went right down as a PL 10, with a focus on high-powered offense (he can modify his caps, but has a very good soldier-like Attack +9 at his base), and comparatively little defense. He's not helpless, but he's PL  8.5 that way, which fits his non-optimization in real life. He's got good all-around stats, and great Soldier-type skills (Something that'll go a bit down in cost once 3rd Edition comes out). Gauntlet can Blast, Grab, Move Stuff, or block incoming attacks, and also detect the Tactigon, a rival's weapon. Oh, and his "Weapon" isn't really a Device any more- the only way to remove it is to basically laser it off his arm. And really, any power with THAT Drawback would be every power every hero has had, ever ("Cut Out His Eyes" isn't an acceptable Power Loss/Flaw for Cyclops, for example). 
Last edited by Jabroniville on Thu May 11, 2023 5:31 am, edited 3 times in total.
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