Jab’s Builds! (Lawnmower Man! Samus Aran! Metroids!)

[Jabroniville]

MARVEL'S FOREIGN HEROES:

-No discussion of Marvel's Foreign Heroes can be held without first referring to the hilarity of one particular cross-over.

-Marvel's Contest of Champions has an odd little story behind it. Created to tie into the 1980 Summer Olympics, it debuted a whole swack of new ethnic heroes from around the world, to promote global harmony or something like that. Only... America boycotted the games due to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Oops. So Marvel just kinda dropped the series, expecting nothing to come of it. But then the series' inker, a Brazilian with no contact from the office, dropped off his finished pages a couple years later (he'd assumed there was no deadline, as Marvel had never contacted him). The Marvel head office figured "what the hell?" and just released the thing anyways (after some art-edits to update a few costumes to their 1982 versions). The series is interesting for multiple reasons:

-The Grandmaster and a mysterious hooded figure abducted every super-hero on Earth and threw them into a big cosmic scene and forced them to fight each other in three-man groups. Each person selected three individuals, excluding Gods and aliens.

-A whole grab-bag of foreign characters are introduced, none of whom ever became important. Most of them were designed by Mark Gruenwald & John Romita Jr., and were not their best work, to put it delicately. Several members were either stereotypes (the flamboyant Peregrine and lascivious Defensor), based off of stereotypical things (from China, the Collective Man's powers were based around a huge population of Chinese, and Shamrock was just a lucky Irish chick in an all-green outfit), or just plain sucked (Talisman).

-Despite having some of the most powerful Earth-born characters alive as options, the two Cosmic Baddies gathered up a bunch of never-seen and never-heard-of characters in a ridiculous display, so that nearly every country with a super-hero in it was covered. At least Africa had The Black Panther & Storm- poor Australia got stuck with Talisman.

-A few of the fights were actually pretty cool. Wolverine nearly killed Black Panther in a Berserker Rage, Angel had to fight Peregrine, who had a flying suit but was a much better fighter. Iron Fist & Daredevil had their only fight to date, though a handful of these were interrupted.

-The creative team actually screwed up, stating there was a 3-to-1 win for The Grandmaster's side. It should've actually been tied. It didn't get dealt with in-story, though they got TONS of letters about it.

-The hooded figure was revealed as Death, and the game was to play for The Collector's life. The Grandmaster traded his life for his brother's.

-There was a much better sequel written a few years later, in which the two Avengers coastal teams had to fight one-on-one for standard "dumb hero reasons" after being led around by The Grandmaster & Collector, who were scheming for ultimate power. THEN the heroes had to fight off the Legion of the Unliving (featuring totally dead characters like Bucky and the Green Goblin... uh, wait) in an epic series of battles (Wonder Man got driven through a PLANET by Evil Hyperion), and the day is ultimately won because Hawkeye is awesome (he offers The Grandmaster the ULTIMATE "game"- his full power up for grabs in a Pick an Arrow game involving which of his arrows has the arrowhead on it. This being Hawkeye, he of course cheats to win and saves the universe).

Foreigners in Comics:

Foreigners in comics are always a tricky thing, and a bit of a double-edged sword, much like minority characters in general. Creators are mocked frequently for their white-washed universes, and told to create minority heroes. Therefore, they feel obligated to make people that are recognizable minorities doing super-hero stuff. But if the character is TOO recognizably a member of his group, he's decried as a stereotype and considered racist (at worst), or just silly (at best). On a similar note, the Five Token Band is such a goofy, obvious attempt at inclusion (Captain Planet, looking right at you here- you too, Extreme Ghostbusters... particularly bad examples of this abound). This means that obvious Tokenism is ALSO a dead horse that just draws laughs these days. Marvel's current method of "well, every hero now has a visible minority or a woman as a replacement, and if you don't like it, you're a bigot" mentality doesn't seem to be winning them many fans, either.

There's almost no way to really win, which is why the occasional successful character (Storm, who moved past her "Innocent Fanservice Girl" beginnings to become a truly elite Marvel hero) stands out as such a triumph. The best examples I can think of are of course the Giant-Size X-Men team, with the Canadian, German, Kenyan, German & Russian team members going on to become hugely popular heroes (and the Irish one didn't do so bad either). They had slight stereotypes to them (the Husky Russkie, the rural Canadian), but they were mild, and most of their powers or identities had absolutely nothing to do with their origins. 

This is thanks to Dave Cockrum, a brilliant character-designer who simply transplanted some ideas he was going to use for DC's Legion of Super-Heroes to a bunch of humans instead (this is why Nightcrawler, his most beloved creation, looks so weird, even for a mutant team). Making their racial identities somewhat secondary (but never ignored- "Unglaublich!"), and giving them a good look with cool powers is very much the way to go here. Hell, even the occasional Claremontisms that befall characters (like how everyone has at least one ethnic saying when they're surprised- "Bozche Moi!" "Droga!" "Madre de dios!") don't hold them back entirely, though they ARE silly as hell.

I think it just makes good sense to have characters of various groups in comics- fans in foreign countries have a potential character to lionize (I know many fellow Canadians who get a kick out of Wolvie for this reason, and I'm sure there are others), and it's purely logical in any case: Why WOULD all super-heroes be white Americans in real life? You're telling me that the U.S. would somehow have a massive monopoly on all industrial accidents, irradiated animals and other disasters (not to mention the X-Gene, which is supposed to show up all over the place)? China has a larger popluation, and the former Communist world (especially Russia) has a lot more accidents & radiation stuff flowing around. It just makes sense in-universe that there would be a few more heroes from other lands. Of course, Americans will still outnumber them, since the main comic book companies ARE American, and are selling primarily to Americans (and Canadians, to a lesser extent), so there's nothing wrong with there being MORE guys from the U.S.

Marvel is... sometimes decent with this, at other times bad. There's been a handful of villainous foreigners from token Evil Empires of days past (Radioactive Man, Crimson Dynamo, The Mandarin, etc.), and a bunch of mostly one-note foreigners based off of silly gimmicks. The Arabian Knight for example is technically no worse than a modern hero based off of a cowboy or Fantasy character like a werewolf or something... it's only silly when you realize that the ONLY Arabic hero of note is based off of part of his nation's past history, while there are dozens of other non-fantasy & history-based heroes from America). The exceptions seem to be the X-verse of mutants, which actually acknowledge that the Mutate Gene obviously wouldn't afflict only Americans, giving us a handful of Five Token Bands (the Giant-Size X-Men & the New Mutants being the most obvious), and TONS of background villains (and a few subsequent X-Men) from different countries. The Acolytes were a pretty lame group, but it's kinda interesting to see people from Sri Lanka (Senyaka), Switzerland (the Kleinstocks) and Belgium (Rem-Ram, apparently) represented in a comic book universe. It kinda just makes things feel BIGGER, y'know? There's a whole wide world out there beyond our continental borders, and it's interesting to get even a minor look at it.

[L-Space]

-Is kind of the Ireland/Poland/Ukraine of the East, being right between the Chinese (dominant, huge, imperialistic), Mongols (violent, imperialistic) and Japanese (cruel, imperialistic), all of which have had fun over the years raping the country (sometimes almost literally).
-Korea got conquered a LOT as a result (by the various powers), but occasionally had it's own empire for decades at a time (such as the Joseon era). Fought off the Japanese a few times, and got fought off themselves (the famous "divine wind" that wiped out their fleet TWICE on two separate occasions!) other times.

Just a note that it was Mongolian fleets that were wiped out by "divine wind" not Korean, they had taken over Korea at the time and used it as a staging area to attack Japan. There's also a theory out there that the reason the fleets were so massively devastated by the storms was because the Mongols forced the Koreans to build their boats and the Koreans (not exactly being fond of their Mongolians overlords) may have half-assed it a bit.

[M4C8]

MARVEL'S FOREIGN HEROES:

-No discussion of Marvel's Foreign Heroes can be held without first referring to the hilarity of one particular cross-over.

-Marvel's Contest of Champions has an odd little story behind it. Created to tie into the 1980 Summer Olympics, it debuted a whole swack of new ethnic heroes from around the world, to promote global harmony or something like that. Only... America boycotted the games due to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Oops. So Marvel just kinda dropped the series, expecting nothing to come of it. But then the series' inker, a Brazilian with no contact from the office, dropped off his finished pages a couple years later (he'd assumed there was no deadline, as Marvel had never contacted him). The Marvel head office figured "what the hell?" and just released the thing anyways (after some art-edits to update a few costumes to their 1982 versions). The series is interesting for multiple reasons:

-The Grandmaster and a mysterious hooded figure abducted every super-hero on Earth and threw them into a big cosmic scene and forced them to fight each other in three-man groups. Each person selected three individuals, excluding Gods and aliens.

-A whole grab-bag of foreign characters are introduced, none of whom ever became important. Most of them were designed by Mark Gruenwald & John Romita Jr., and were not their best work, to put it delicately. Several members were either stereotypes (the flamboyant Peregrine and lascivious Defensor), based off of stereotypical things (from China, the Collective Man's powers were based around a huge population of Chinese, and Shamrock was just a lucky Irish chick in an all-green outfit), or just plain sucked (Talisman).

-Despite having some of the most powerful Earth-born characters alive as options, the two Cosmic Baddies gathered up a bunch of never-seen and never-heard-of characters in a ridiculous display, so that nearly every country with a super-hero in it was covered. At least Africa had The Black Panther & Storm- poor Australia got stuck with Talisman.

-A few of the fights were actually pretty cool. Wolverine nearly killed Black Panther in a Berserker Rage, Angel had to fight Peregrine, who had a flying suit but was a much better fighter. Iron Fist & Daredevil had their only fight to date, though a handful of these were interrupted.

-The creative team actually screwed up, stating there was a 3-to-1 win for The Grandmaster's side. It should've actually been tied. It didn't get dealt with in-story, though they got TONS of letters about it.

-The hooded figure was revealed as Death, and the game was to play for The Collector's life. The Grandmaster traded his life for his brother's.

-There was a much better sequel written a few years later, in which the two Avengers coastal teams had to fight one-on-one for standard "dumb hero reasons" after being led around by The Grandmaster & Collector, who were scheming for ultimate power. THEN the heroes had to fight off the Legion of the Unliving (featuring totally dead characters like Bucky and the Green Goblin... uh, wait) in an epic series of battles (Wonder Man got driven through a PLANET by Evil Hyperion), and the day is ultimately won because Hawkeye is awesome (he offers The Grandmaster the ULTIMATE "game"- his full power up for grabs in a Pick an Arrow game involving which of his arrows has the arrowhead on it. This being Hawkeye, he of course cheats to win and saves the universe).

Foreigners in Comics:

Foreigners in comics are always a tricky thing, and a bit of a double-edged sword, much like minority characters in general. Creators are mocked frequently for their white-washed universes, and told to create minority heroes. Therefore, they feel obligated to make people that are recognizable minorities doing super-hero stuff. But if the character is TOO recognizably a member of his group, he's decried as a stereotype and considered racist (at worst), or just silly (at best). On a similar note, the Five Token Band is such a goofy, obvious attempt at inclusion (Captain Planet, looking right at you here- you too, Extreme Ghostbusters... particularly bad examples of this abound). This means that obvious Tokenism is ALSO a dead horse that just draws laughs these days. Marvel's current method of "well, every hero now has a visible minority or a woman as a replacement, and if you don't like it, you're a bigot" mentality doesn't seem to be winning them many fans, either.

There's almost no way to really win, which is why the occasional successful character (Storm, who moved past her "Innocent Fanservice Girl" beginnings to become a truly elite Marvel hero) stands out as such a triumph. The best examples I can think of are of course the Giant-Size X-Men team, with the Canadian, German, Kenyan, German & Russian team members going on to become hugely popular heroes (and the Irish one didn't do so bad either). They had slight stereotypes to them (the Husky Russkie, the rural Canadian), but they were mild, and most of their powers or identities had absolutely nothing to do with their origins. 

This is thanks to Dave Cockrum, a brilliant character-designer who simply transplanted some ideas he was going to use for DC's Legion of Super-Heroes to a bunch of humans instead (this is why Nightcrawler, his most beloved creation, looks so weird, even for a mutant team). Making their racial identities somewhat secondary (but never ignored- "Unglaublich!"), and giving them a good look with cool powers is very much the way to go here. Hell, even the occasional Claremontisms that befall characters (like how everyone has at least one ethnic saying when they're surprised- "Bozche Moi!" "Droga!" "Madre de dios!") don't hold them back entirely, though they ARE silly as hell.

I think it just makes good sense to have characters of various groups in comics- fans in foreign countries have a potential character to lionize (I know many fellow Canadians who get a kick out of Wolvie for this reason, and I'm sure there are others), and it's purely logical in any case: Why WOULD all super-heroes be white Americans in real life? You're telling me that the U.S. would somehow have a massive monopoly on all industrial accidents, irradiated animals and other disasters (not to mention the X-Gene, which is supposed to show up all over the place)? China has a larger popluation, and the former Communist world (especially Russia) has a lot more accidents & radiation stuff flowing around. It just makes sense in-universe that there would be a few more heroes from other lands. Of course, Americans will still outnumber them, since the main comic book companies ARE American, and are selling primarily to Americans (and Canadians, to a lesser extent), so there's nothing wrong with there being MORE guys from the U.S.

Marvel is... sometimes decent with this, at other times bad. There's been a handful of villainous foreigners from token Evil Empires of days past (Radioactive Man, Crimson Dynamo, The Mandarin, etc.), and a bunch of mostly one-note foreigners based off of silly gimmicks. The Arabian Knight for example is technically no worse than a modern hero based off of a cowboy or Fantasy character like a werewolf or something... it's only silly when you realize that the ONLY Arabic hero of note is based off of part of his nation's past history, while there are dozens of other non-fantasy & history-based heroes from America). The exceptions seem to be the X-verse of mutants, which actually acknowledge that the Mutate Gene obviously wouldn't afflict only Americans, giving us a handful of Five Token Bands (the Giant-Size X-Men & the New Mutants being the most obvious), and TONS of background villains (and a few subsequent X-Men) from different countries. The Acolytes were a pretty lame group, but it's kinda interesting to see people from Sri Lanka (Senyaka), Switzerland (the Kleinstocks) and Belgium (Rem-Ram, apparently) represented in a comic book universe. It kinda just makes things feel BIGGER, y'know? There's a whole wide world out there beyond our continental borders, and it's interesting to get even a minor look at it.

I always assumed (or maybe even read somewhere) that the reason given for there being more mutants/mutates in the US and other western nations is because although such people have existed throughout history in small numbers, the rise of modern scientific development has created environmental factors that have jump-started the creation of super-powered people, therefore first world/developed nations have a higher percentage of super-powered individuals than developing nations despite them usually having much larger populations.

[Jabroniville]

THE TRIUMPH DIVISION
Created By: Matt Fraction & Salvador Larocca
First Appearance: The Invincible Iron Man #2 (June 2008) 
Role: Disposable Foreigners

-Man, didn't Matt Fraction already create guys JUST LIKE THIS, but from China? Like, an entire superteam of throwaway nobodies?

-... YES! YES HE DID!! He created The Dynasty, a Chinese super-team, and used them as jobbers! And the same arc also featured The Triumph Division. So these guys are basically the same thing, but from The Philippines instead. That's an increasingly talked-about part of the world, as their economy is largely based off of sending people abroad to work in servile jobs that lets them send money back home. Anthony Bourdain did a special on this, and I definitely notice it in my hometown, which fills McDonalds, Subway and assorted retail establishments with temporary, Filipino workers. Apparently there's a bit of inter-Asian racism about them (yes, that's a thing), where some Chinese (who often view themselves as the "top tier" of Asians, with Filipinos at the bottom) refer to them as "The Mexicans of Asia".

-So apparently the superheroes of The Philippines are all legacy characters, with the names passed down from generation to generation along familial lines. One incarnation of the team had just been killed in a terrorist attack by Ezekiel Stane. A new Triumph Division was then set off, with guys like Tony Stark & Thor claiming that "The Philippines are in good hands". The characters are entirely Backgrounders, with little information given.

What I said about The Dynasty holds true for the Triumph Division as well.

-The Dynasty is a perfect microcosm of something weird I've noticed in modern comics- the idea that a brand-new superteam of guys could be created at once, have almost no personality notes or even major descriptions of their powers, only do stuff in the background, and then get mostly wiped out with casual glee. In olden times, you'd almost NEVER see that happen. In 1975, The Dynasty would have debuted with a lot of fanfare on the cover, given all their names at once, bragged about their powers, showcased them by whupping on the hero, and the finally been beaten back, where they'd go into Marvel Limbo for years, until Mark Gruenwald remembered them.

-Instead, The Dynasty showed up, barely had mention of their powers, were only seen in the background in random "Snapshots" (comics are SO bad for doing that with fight scenes now- it's all just "snapshots" here and there of a fight scene- barely a mention of tactics, style or even guys selling the damage they've just taken), and then disappeared until a few of them were killed later that year, with the remainder forming a NEW superteam in another book.

-This kind of thing means that older characters are SO much easier to stat- even Douchey Loser #852 from Marvel Team-Up who did one thing and then got murdered by the Scourge of the Underworld has a more elaborate bio that the friggin' Star or Revolutionary. What's sad is that "Chinese Superteam" is a totally great idea for a story- a semi-antagonistic nation has superheroes of its own, who oppose the heroes and do their own thing, but are ultimately still heroic defenders. The Soviets had one; why not China? Which really should have THOUSANDS of superhumans- superhumans are formed by two things: People and Industrial Accidents. Who the hell has more of both than CHINA? The world should be swarming with superhuman Chinese.

The Membership:
RED FEATHER: A Superman-like guy- Flying Brick with great speed. The male version gave way to a female successor.
SAINT GEORGE: Apparently a super-strong knight-type with a high-tech sword and flying armor.
ANITUN: Possibly the Goddess Anitun Tabu (Anitong Tabo) of Philippine Mythology, as Thor himself appeared at her funeral. Presumably had wind and rain powers like the Storm Goddess.
FIGHTER ONE: Presumably a good fighter.
THE GREAT MONGOOSE: Just some guy.
THE WISHING MAN: Could apparently alter reality using verbal "wishes".
MIGHTY MOTHER: Just some lady.

[Jabroniville]

TALISMAN III (Real Name Unknown)
Created By: Mark Gruenwald, Bill Mantlo, Steven Grant & John Romita Jr.
First Appearance: Contest of Champions #1 (June 1982)
Role: Weird Magic Guy
Country of Origin: Australia
Group Affiliations: None
PL 8 (155)
STRENGTH 2 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 2
FIGHTING 5 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 4 PRESENCE 0

Skills: 
Close Combat (Unarmed) 3 (+8)
Expertise (Aborigine Shaman) 8 (+10)
Expertise (Survival) 7 (+11)
Perception 4 (+8)
Insight 4 (+8)
Stealth 4 (+5)

Advantages: 
Animal Empathy, Trance

Powers:
"Aborigine Magic"
Comprehend 2 (Spirits) [4]
"Enter the Dream-Time" Movement 1 (Dimensional Travel) [2]
Senses 7 (Detect Magic- Ranged, Microvision, Counter Concealment 2, Detect Life- Ranged) [7]

"Astral Form"
Communication (Mental) 2 (Feats: Subtle, Dimensional) (10) & Remote Sensing 11 (Visual & Hearing; 1 mile) (Feats: Dimensional, Subtle 2) (36) -- [48]

"Mystical Bullroarer" (Flaws: Easily Removable) (Feats: Restricted 2- Only Talisman) [22]
"Disorienting Wave" Affliction 8 (Will; Dazed & Impaired/Stunned & Disabled/Incapacitated) (Extras: Extra Condition, Area- 60ft. Burst +2) (32) -- (33 points)

• AE: "Dream-Time Wave" Concealment 3 (Visual, Hearing) (Extras: Attack, Area- 60ft. Burst +2) (18)

Offense:
Unarmed +8 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Disorientation +8 Area (+8 Affliction, DC 18)
Initiative +2

Defenses:
Dodge +10 (DC 20), Parry +10 (DC 20), Toughness +3, Fortitude +5, Will +8

Complications:
Responsibility (The Dream-Time)

Total: Abilities: 36 / Skills: 30--15 / Advantages: 2 / Powers: 83 / Defenses: 19 (155)

-Talisman has, to date, appeared in only two Marvel stories (Contest of Champions and a Quasar story involving most of Marvel's mystics, because Mark Gruenwald will use ANYBODY). This is probably owed to the fact that A) Magic characters are a hard sell in comics, B) he's visually uninteresting, basically a black guy (despite being Australian Aborigine) in his ginch, and C) his powers suck and he's boring in general. He'd say a bunch of cryptic stuff about the "Dream Time", then basically just confuse everybody in range while sitting, or astrally projecting himself. He did come into play in the end by having the Invisible Woman use the Dream Time to sneak up on Death and reveal her to the assembled heroes, but that was about it for the poor Australian Contest of Champions guy.

-A pretty weird Mage build, he's way over his cap on points, and his only PL 8 ability is his super-costly Concealment/Obscure/Affliction effect group. But with it's wide arc, and it's ability to allow people to walk unfettered amongst the enemy, it makes him a pretty good teammate to have. Just don't get him hit, or take away his stick, or he's screwed. Remote Sensing & Communication is HUGELY expensive, and makes up the majority of his cost- totally useless in combat, however.

[Jabroniville]

THE COLLECTIVE MAN (Sun, Chang, Ho, Lin & Han Tao-Yu)
Created By: Bill Mantlo & Sal Buscema
First Appearance: Contest of Champions #1 (June 1982)
Role: Ethnic Stereotype
Country of Origin: China
Group Affiliations: The People's Defense Force, 3-Peace, The Mutant Liberation Front
PL 9 (188), PL 12 (188) When Combined
STRENGTH 3/6/12/15 STAMINA 4/6/15 AGILITY 5
FIGHTING 10 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 1 AWARENESS 1 PRESENCE 1

Skills:
Acrobatics 3 (+8)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 2 (+12)
Deception 2 (+3)
Expertise (Government Operatives of China) 5 (+6)
Insight 2 (+3)
Intimidation 4 (+5)
Perception 4 (+5)

Advantages:
Accurate Attack, All-Out Attack, Chokehold, Defensive Throw, Evasion, Fast Grab, Improved Critical (Unarmed), Improved Hold, Takedown

Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Combining Strength"
Senses 1 (Mental Link- Other Tao-Yu Brothers) [1]
Teleport 8 (Extras: Accurate, Extended) (Flaws: Limited to Where Brothers Are) [24]

"Combine into Single Powerful Form" (All Have Flaws: Limited to When Brothers Combine)
Enhanced Strength 3 [3]
Enhanced Stamina 2 [2]
Combined Advantages 4: Diehard, Extraordinary Effort, Great Endurance, Power Attack, Takedown (Total 2) [2.5]
Enhanced Fortitude Save 3 [1.5]

"Combined Strength Their Countrymen"
"Multiple Forms" (60) -- [62]

• AE: "Giant Size" (26)
• AE: "Big Push" Enhanced Strength 6 (6)

"Giant Size"
Growth 9 (Str & Sta +9, +9 Mass, +4 Intimidation, -4 Dodge/Parry, +2 Speed) -- (30 feet) (18)
-5 Fortitude (-5)
-3 Attack (-3)
"Additional Size" Elongation 2 (2)
"Sweeping Attack" Damage 12 (Extras: Area- 30ft. Burst) (24)

"Duplication"
Summon 6 (Summons 32 86-Point Duplicates, Minus all Powers) (Extras: Active, Controlled, Horde, Multiple Minions +5) (60)

Offense:
Unarmed +12 (+3 Damage, DC 18)
Five Brothers Combined +12 (+6 Damage, DC 21)
All of China Combined +12 (+12 Damage, DC 27)
Giant Size +9 (+15 Damage, DC 30)
Sweeping Attack +12 Area (+12 Damage, DC 27)
Initiative +5

Defenses:
Dodge +11 (DC 21), Parry +12 (DC 22), Toughness +4 (+6 Combined), Fortitude +7 (+12 Combined), Will +6
"Giant Size" Dodge +7 (DC 17), Parry +7 (DC 17), Toughness +15, Fortitude +18, Will +6

Complications:
Responsibility/Enemy (The People's Republic of China)- The Tao-Yu Brothers were initially subserviant to their Communist leaders, but eventually broke free and began opposing them.

Total: Abilities: 50 / Skills: 22--11 / Advantages: 9 / Powers: 101 / Defenses: 16 (187)

-The Collective Man's a pretty weird idea; a quintet of brothers who can form one solid, super-powerful being, that can tap into the abilities of all his countrymen, gaining their powers for a short period of time. In Contest of Champions, he over-powered Sasquatch of all people and tossed him out from a grapple, then passed out due to the strain. He's only appeared periodically since then, usually as a supporting character, eventually fighting his own corrupt government- he's battled the Hulk, but turned on China when they prevented the brothers from visiting their dying mother in Marvel Comics Presents- they were fought by Ho-Ti, Japanese God of Wine & Happiness. He appeared in an X-Force Annual as a member of "3-Peace", a team devoted to fighting the Chinese power-base- they were betrayed by Reignfire's Mutant Liberation Front to China.

-Despite potentially great power, The Collective Man's never really been shown as an elite hero. The God Marduk later attempted to use the brothers' powers to empower himself to godhood once more. He's recently shown up in the X-books, with all-new powers like Growth & Mass-Duplication, and he's under control of his government again. Later, they were shown on the X-Mansion's lawn as part of the many disenfranchised, hunted Mutants, post-M-Day. Then he pops up on the People's Defense Force- China's counterpart to The Avengers, then as a solo operative in X-Men, as no writer can ever keep straight whether or not they're agents of the Chinese government or not.

-A PL 8-ish band in their basic forms, the brothers meet their caps through a gestalt form easily handled by generic "Enhanced Traits" Limited to when they're able to combine (much easier than the clunky old Gestalt power, and it seems pretty fair). In the old days, he could also concentrated and combine the strength of his one-billion countrymen for a combined super-shot that would tire him the hell out (he over-powered Sasquatch once using it, then immediately passed out). At later times, their powers are diminished to simply being the shared powers of the five men, making The Collective Man a PL 9.

-The brothers themselves actually have Communication Links & can Teleport to each other as well. In recent years, they've developed MUCH more power, adding Growth to their lot.

[Jabroniville]

-Is kind of the Ireland/Poland/Ukraine of the East, being right between the Chinese (dominant, huge, imperialistic), Mongols (violent, imperialistic) and Japanese (cruel, imperialistic), all of which have had fun over the years raping the country (sometimes almost literally).
-Korea got conquered a LOT as a result (by the various powers), but occasionally had it's own empire for decades at a time (such as the Joseon era). Fought off the Japanese a few times, and got fought off themselves (the famous "divine wind" that wiped out their fleet TWICE on two separate occasions!) other times.

Just a note that it was Mongolian fleets that were wiped out by "divine wind" not Korean, they had taken over Korea at the time and used it as a staging area to attack Japan. There's also a theory out there that the reason the fleets were so massively devastated by the storms was because the Mongols forced the Koreans to build their boats and the Koreans (not exactly being fond of their Mongolians overlords) may have half-assed it a bit.

Oh, damn. I'll have to fix that. I could have sworn in all my History classes (History Minor, here!), I'd heard it was Koreans. I also remember in my RoninArmy thread, a Korean correcting me that Korea had its own empire for CENTURIES at a time, not decades. But alas, it was on the ATT, so I couldn't edit it any longer.

[Gilliam]

Jab I am truly shocked , speechless even.. Samoa is mentioned even our West Island (aka Australia) but no mention of good old New Zealand in your list of nations, you know home of Middle Earth and the world's greatest rugby team.

I really don't know what to say ... hmm maybe some builds from Miraculous Ladybug could make up for this slight

[Jabroniville]

Jab I am truly shocked , speechless even.. Samoa is mentioned even our West Island (aka Australia) but no mention of good old New Zealand in your list of nations, you know home of Middle Earth and the world's greatest rugby team.

I really don't know what to say ... hmm maybe some builds from Miraculous Ladybug could make up for this slight

LOL- I could only include nations with super-heroes in them! I don't think New Zealand has any Marvel heroes! I can make a note of NZ and include "Nobody" in their Superhuman Representatives, if it'll make you happy .

[Gilliam]

Jab I am truly shocked , speechless even.. Samoa is mentioned even our West Island (aka Australia) but no mention of good old New Zealand in your list of nations, you know home of Middle Earth and the world's greatest rugby team.

I really don't know what to say ... hmm maybe some builds from Miraculous Ladybug could make up for this slight

LOL- I could only include nations with super-heroes in them! I don't think New Zealand has any Marvel heroes! I can make a note of NZ and include "Nobody" in their Superhuman Representatives, if it'll make you happy .

Fair enough sadly that is probably very true

I guess I will have to reread the NZ section in the Atlas of Earth Prime.

[Jabroniville]

OK, it's added .

And hey! It turns out it DOES have some superhuman residents! I'll add those, too!

[Gilliam]

YES!!! Thank you

*goes to read it*

mutter mutter

A couple of typos Canberra is not the capital and rugby is nothing like football, you can run with the ball and tackle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6bKrs6gbWk

[Ken]

A New Zealander man with a permanent tan, that's a Maori....

[Jabroniville]

YES!!! Thank you

*goes to read it*

mutter mutter

A couple of typos Canberra is not the capital and rugby is nothing like football, you can run with the ball and tackle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6bKrs6gbWk

Oops- put "Wellington" under Full Name instead of Capital.

[Jabroniville]

The "Roll Call" for this little set of foreign heroes:

Heroes:
La Bandera
Bantam
Black Crow
Black Jack Tarr
Blitzkrieg
Brother Voodoo
Captain Germany
Clive Reston
The Collective Man
David Nesmith
Defensor
Le Peregrine
Sati
Red Ronin
El Vejigante

Avengers:
Shang-Chi

Villains:
Aminedi
Baron Strucker
Black Raazer
The Cat
Death-Dealer
Dragonfly II
Fasaud
The Fenris Twins
The Flying Dutchman
Fu Manchu
The Ghost-Maker
Haven
The Isolationsist
The Mad Slayer
Mister M
Monsoon
Mordillo & Brynocki
The Moving Shadow
Shadow Slasher
Sirocco
Tiger-Claw
The Yellow Claw
Zeitgeist

Plus the super-teams Euroforce, Gemini and Weapon: PRIME- all of whom are fairly recent re-posts from RA, and so will be posted pretty quickly in succession.