Jab’s Builds! (Whomp 'Em! Plumbers Don't Wear Ties! ToeJam & Earl!)

[Woodclaw]

MARVEL'S FOREIGN HEROES:

-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.

I think that most of those problems can be abscribed to one big failure in writing: putting the emphasis on a single specific trait of a character (more on that later).

-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.

One of the things I really liked about that fight was Iron Fist commenting that Daredevil pretty much fight like a heavy-weight boxer (this way before all of Miller's ninja-fest)

-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).

And that's one of the many reasons why Clint is awesome: he saved the universe with just two arrows without tips and a massive pokerface.

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.

As I was saying above the big problem is that too often the emphasis is put on "how do we make a foreign hero iconic of his/hers own country/religion/thnic group", instead of "how do we make him/her a good character". It's a very common problem with female characters, because some writers are really clueless and try to put too much importance in the "female" aspect and not enough in everything else.
This was one of my biggest doubts when I first read some articles about Kamala Khan: everyone was either hyped or bursting a vein over the fact that she was Islamic. I was worried too that she was going to be one major disappointment, a token minority-hero with no personality outside of her religious affiliation, but I'm happy to be wrong.

If a look back, some of the All-New All-Different X-Men were a bit cliché (Colossus and Thunderbird above all), yet they worked because those clichés were not what defined them the most. Granted, sometimes it's funny to play on a stereotype, just to gave a character more depth later on. Colossus is a really good example of it: all-in-all it would have been easy to make the big man of steel from Russia a stalwart communist, but it was rather played in more interesting way making him a country guy walking into the wider world. Looking at it from this perspective I can't help but think that Piotr is actually an interesting counterpoint to a young Clark Kent (both are from the countryside, both have some kind of artistic passion, both are stepping into the bigger world trying to make a positive difference).

On the subject of many character having one ethnic saying, well I can tell you that most people tend to revert back to their mother language when they're either drunk or stressed, so those expletives aren't completely out of place.

[M4C8]

MARVEL'S FOREIGN HEROES:

-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.

I think that most of those problems can be abscribed to one big failure in writing: putting the emphasis on a single specific trait of a character (more on that later).

-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.

One of the things I really liked about that fight was Iron Fist commenting that Daredevil pretty much fight like a heavy-weight boxer (this way before all of Miller's ninja-fest)

-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).

And that's one of the many reasons why Clint is awesome: he saved the universe with just two arrows without tips and a massive pokerface.

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.

As I was saying above the big problem is that too often the emphasis is put on "how do we make a foreign hero iconic of his/hers own country/religion/thnic group", instead of "how do we make him/her a good character". It's a very common problem with female characters, because some writers are really clueless and try to put too much importance in the "female" aspect and not enough in everything else.
This was one of my biggest doubts when I first read some articles about Kamala Khan: everyone was either hyped or bursting a vein over the fact that she was Islamic. I was worried too that she was going to be one major disappointment, a token minority-hero with no personality outside of her religious affiliation, but I'm happy to be wrong.

If a look back, some of the All-New All-Different X-Men were a bit cliché (Colossus and Thunderbird above all), yet they worked because those clichés were not what defined them the most. Granted, sometimes it's funny to play on a stereotype, just to gave a character more depth later on. Colossus is a really good example of it: all-in-all it would have been easy to make the big man of steel from Russia a stalwart communist, but it was rather played in more interesting way making him a country guy walking into the wider world. Looking at it from this perspective I can't help but think that Piotr is actually an interesting counterpoint to a young Clark Kent (both are from the countryside, both have some kind of artistic passion, both are stepping into the bigger world trying to make a positive difference).

On the subject of many character having one ethnic saying, well I can tell you that most people tend to revert back to their mother language when they're either drunk or stressed, so those expletives aren't completely out of place.

I've heard of an instance of a female spy in Nazi Germany (I think) who had married a prominent Nazi and had maintained her cover for years, only to blow her cover by swearing in her mother tongue when she was giving birth to their child.

I don't know if this is true or not, but it sounds plausible.

[Woodclaw]

On the subject of many character having one ethnic saying, well I can tell you that most people tend to revert back to their mother language when they're either drunk or stressed, so those expletives aren't completely out of place.

I've heard of an instance of a female spy in Nazi Germany (I think) who had married a prominent Nazi and had maintained her cover for years, only to blow her cover by swearing in her mother tongue when she was giving birth to their child.

I don't know if this is true or not, but it sounds plausible.

I've never heard of this particular episode, but I've witnessed some in RL. I've got two friends that have lived in Italy for decades, one from Spain and one from Poland. The first always swears in Spanish and tend to go full on when he's nervous. The second completly forget how to speak any language but Polish when he's drunk.

[Yojimbo]

I think my favorite Contest of Champions anecdote came from Steven Grant. He looked at all those silly ethnic guys with their national names and powers and came up with "Defensor" for Brazil, as generic a superhero name as he could conceive. When he saw the art, he was disappointed, because his generic superhero was now dressed up to look like a conquistador.

[Jabroniville]

FASAUD (Sheikh Farouk al-Fasaud)
Created By: Steve Englehart & John Buscema
First Appearance: The Fantastic Four #308 (Nov. 1987)
Role: Short-Lived Foe
PL 10 (235)
STRENGTH 1 STAMINA -- AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 3
INTELLIGENCE 3 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Deception 6 (+8)
Expertise (Oil Minister) 7 (+10)

Advantages:
Benefit 5 (Extreme Wealth), Ranged Attack 5

Powers:
"Living Electricity"
Immunity 30 [30]
Protection 4 [4]
Insubstantial 3 [15]

"Electrical Transmission" Teleport 20 (Extras: Easy, Extended, Accurate) (Flaws: Medium- Electrical Currents & Cables) (80) -- [81]

• AE: Electrical Blast 8 (16)

"Take Over Devices" Affliction 10 (Tech Skill of Creator; Dazed/Stunned/Controlled) (Extras: Cumulative, Sustained +2, Perception Range +2, Merge With Subject) (Flaws: Limited to Technology) [50]

Offense:
Unarmed +8 (+1 Damage, DC 16)
Electrical Blast +8 (+8 Ranged Damage, DC 23)
Take Over Devices -- (+10 Perception-Ranged Affliction, DC 20)
Initiative +3

Defenses:
Dodge +8 (DC 18), Parry +8 (DC 18), Toughness +4, Fortitude --, Will +5

Complications:
Enemy (Richard Dunbar)- Dunbar started the investigative reporting into how Fasaud made his money, which cost him dearly. When Fasaud attempted to kill Dunbar on live TV, he suffered the accident that gave him his powers and permanent condition, and as such has declared a blood feud on the reporter.

Total: Abilities: 34 / Skills: 6--3 / Advantages: 10 / Powers: 180 / Defenses: 8 (235)

-Fasaud was actually a pretty rare thing in comics- an Evil Arab Oil Sheik, something that had pervaded most other forms of media for a while, but since fell out of fashion (whereas nowadays they're either terrorists or "no actually most Arabs are nice normal people" types). Turned into living electricity after stabbing an electrical cord during a live broadcast (one of those things that only happens in comics), Fasaud fought the Fantastic Four until The Thing wrapped him in cable insulation. He reappeared later, again hunting the Dunbar fellow who'd revealed his dark side, but was beaten by The Thing, Sharon Ventura & Crystal- he was left trapped on a satellite that was meant to broadcast him around the world, dying when The Thing wrecked the thing's systems, but he's shown up fairly recently, having been involved in an attack on England.

-It's funny because comics was typically quite even-handed about the whole Arab thing by my recollection (though I don't have a lot of '70s comics, back when the Iran Hostage Crisis hit its peak), with people like Claremont making sure to show some of them as more decent people, as well as making the Israeli characters quite troublesome as well (Arabian Knight was the most prominent Arab in comics, and despite his stereotypical nature, was actually a super-hero). Of course, there was that "Desert Sword" team of Arabs & Persians, but that was a one-off thing. Fasaud here is actually from a nation called "Aquaria".

-Fasaud is Living Electricity, making him a VERY pricey character who can generally hit others without being hit, Blast away (though only at PL 8 levels), Teleport anywhere on Earth in the blink of an eye, and take over technology (his primary method of confounding heroes). He's not a major villain, but definitely a giant pain in the ass to fight.

[Jabroniville]

I think my favorite Contest of Champions anecdote came from Steven Grant. He looked at all those silly ethnic guys with their national names and powers and came up with "Defensor" for Brazil, as generic a superhero name as he could conceive. When he saw the art, he was disappointed, because his generic superhero was now dressed up to look like a conquistador.

haha, yeah, that got commented on last time I posted him, too- it's a funny story.

[Ares]

The state of modern China just depresses me. The history, culture and philosophy of the nation is fascinating, but the current political climate is just a mess. Its about as close to a Big Brother state as you can get. That iconic image of a single man standing in front of a line of tanks? Apparently a lot of Chinese millennials have never seen it because the government censorship policies. They have to travel outside of China to even see it.

Say what you will about America, at least our blemishes are on full display. China's in desperate need of a cultural revolution.

[Jabroniville]

LE PEREGRINE (Alain Racine)
Created By: Mark Gruenwald, Bill Mantlo, Steven Grant & John Romita Jr.
Country of Origin: France
First Appearance: Contest of Champions #1 (June 1982)
Role: Ethnic Stereotype, Flier
Group Affiliations: The Wild Pack
PL 8 (116)
STRENGTH 3 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 5
FIGHTING 9 DEXTERITY 3
INTELLIGENCE 1 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 2

Skills: 
Acrobatics 5 (+10)
Aerobatics 4 (+14)
Athletics 2 (+5)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 3 (+12)
Deception 2 (+4)
Expertise (Mercenary) 3 (+4)
Insight 3 (+5)
Investigation 3 (+5)
Perception 4 (+6)
Stealth 3 (+8)

Advantages: 
Accurate Attack, Agile Feint, Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll, Equipment 4, Evasion, Fast Grab, Favored Environment (Air), Grab Finesse, Improved Critical (Unarmed), Improved Defense, Improved Hold, Move-By Action, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 2, Seize Initiative, Uncanny Dodge

Powers:
"Peregrine Costume" (Flaws: Removable) [8]
Flight 5 (60 mph) (10 points)

Equipment:
"Thermite Grenades" Blast 7 (Extras: Area- 15ft. Burst +1/2) (18) -- (20)

• AE: "Ammonium Bromide Gas Grenades" Affliction 5 (Fort; Fatigued/Exhausted/Asleep) (Extras: Ranged, Area- Cloud) (Diminished Range -1) (14)
• AE: "Taser Darts" Affliction 5 (Fort; Dazed/Stunned/Incapacitated) (Extras: Ranged, Multiattack) (15)

Offense:
Unarmed +12 (+3 Damage, DC 18)
Initiative +5

Defenses:
Dodge +12 (DC 22), Parry +12 (DC 22), Toughness +3 (+4 D.Roll), Fortitude +6, Will +5

Complications: 
Responsibility (France)

Total: Abilities: 56 / Skills: 32--16 / Advantages: 20 / Powers: 8 / Defenses: 16 (116)

-Le Peregrine (which actually is confusing to real French people, since they don't call falcons that over there, and "Le" by itself does not a French term make) is a savate-master who popped up in Contest of Champions. Like most of the foreigners introduced there, they were created solely to pander to the crowds during the Olympics in 1980 or whenever they were, convincing people that Marvel had this giant, proud foreign contingent of super-heroes. Of course, the U.S. boycotted those Olympics, and the series came out a couple years later, with these nobodies just showing up and then almost never being used again.

-In the comic itself, Le Peregrine showed a bit of an overly-cheery personality, and was paired up against the only other winged superhero around- The Angel. And the fight was actually a pretty good example of how to write conflicting fighting styles in a comic book, as Peregrine's mastery of savate meant that he got the drop on Angel and did a lot of damage with his versatile combat methods. Angel, on the other hand, was a more experienced hero, and a better flier- after taking some damage (and chiding himself because him, "the guy who practically INVENTED being a flying super-hero!", was getting beat by a newbie), he grabbed a peasant's walking stick and clubbed Peregrine upside the head, defeating him!

-Le Peregrine does not go on to be a major super-hero- his next appearance is all the way in the early '90s, in Silver Sable and the Wild Pack, where he briefly joins her band of operatives. Later, he is mind-controlled by Brain Drain into fighting Sasquatch, but is defeated (seriously, a guy whose power is that he FLIES against a Class 100 monster?). He is occasionally seen in "Super-Hero Montages", such as teaming with Micromax to fight Kang's armies in the Kang War story, or protecting France from superhuman refugees fleeing the Superhuman Registration Act. He aides The Black Widow in France during Fear Itself, and is one of the Champions of Europe in Secret Empire, teaming with Ares, Captain Britain, Excalibur, Guillotine & Outlaw.

-I kind of like the idea of guys like Peregrine, though- taking a pretty simple, cheap power and simply using REALLY GOOD MARTIAL ARTS to make oneself a well-rounded superhero. It's too bad we don't see more of that kind of concept, but comics has kind of gotten away from dealing with the tactics of combat- one more thing the modern era seems to have lost.

-A PL 8 hero, Peregine's accurate and hard-to-hit, but lacks significant power or toughness. He also has the weakness of only being really good in the air, and having to choose where his bonuses lie as a result. Catch him out of costume, and he's toast. All of his gear was only seen in Silver Sable- otherwise, he's just a flying martial artist.

[Jabroniville]

Age-Old Notes:

* Le Peregrine had a 3e build posted in 2011: http://atomicthinktank.com/viewtopic.ph ... d2#p795379

Horsenhero's comment:

Here's something funny (and maybe a little sad), but le Peregrine was my favorite of the foreign jobbers...Heroes!...that showed up in CoC. That was mostly because he had the coolest costume (imo).

Flying Cobra's reply:

It's like they stuck Blue Falcon's head on Joe the Condor's body, then painted it 80s...

Ares:

As for Peregrine, he actually stood out as something kind of cool to me, a guy whose only 'power' was uniform based flight, but who made up for it by being an expert martial artist. Give him a couple of gadgets, tweak the outfit a bit and he wouldn't be half bad.

Woodclaw:

I quite agree here, Le Peregrine has the perk of being one of the few original concepts in Contest of Champions, I usually file him among those characters that are 1-2 writers short of a decent serie.

Huh- dude has some fans. Well... "Almost Fans", anyway .

There's also an even MORE ancient, nine-year old 2e version of Le Peregrine: http://www.atomicthinktank.com/viewtopi ... 68#p496170

This is back before I had many readers, so there's only a handful of comments amidst a spurt of guys from the same book.

My old Fasaud build: http://atomicthinktank.com/viewtopic.ph ... 7#p1364437

He largely got ignored. This is from 2013, right near the end (well, five months before) of the Atomic Think Tank. I know Goldar's been reminded of Fasaud a few times, largely because of a Spider-Man villain with the same general concept: Videoman.

[DominusExMachina]

Lol- WOWWWWWWWWW... that's a big list of dudes.

It could've been bigger, Jab...a LOT bigger...

Lemme see:

Lori Lemaris: Not a bad idea. Kind of a fun look at the Silver Age.

I agree. It would've been nice if Green Ronin included stats for Lori when they released their DC Adventures RPG line, but since they didn't (with either the entry for Aquaman in Heroes & Villains Vol. 1 OR that for Superman in Heroes & Villains Vol. 2), an unofficial build for her will have to do. (And don't forget: the build for Lori should also include templates for generic Atlanteans (one from Poseidonis and one from Tritonis) as well, in case folks want to make, say, a fish-tailed Atlantean character for their use in the game.)

As for Lori herself, while technically she appeared shortly after the Silver Age of DC Comics began (her first appearance being in Superman #129 back in May 1959), I myself consider her to be more of a "'Last Hurrah' of the Golden Age"-type character, as her origins straddle the line between the "anything goes" nature of the Golden Age of comics and the more scientifically grounded sensibilities of the Silver Age (she being a member of a race of mythical creatures that came into existence as a result of a scientifically-derived serum tainted by magic). All that being said, since her last appearance in the two-issue Superman: Confidential flashback story "Welcome to Mer-Tropolis", it seems as if Lori (and indeed, all of Tritonis and anyone else native thereto) have completely fallen by the wayside in comics. (The fact that she supposedly perished in the 2005-2006 limited series Infinite Crisis when the Spectre destroyed Atlantis, yet was never confirmed as being either alive or dead, doesn't help matters either.)

Personally, I still believe there is a place for Lori (and indeed, anyone else native to Tritonis) in the post-New 52/Rebirth DC continuity, either as a member of the "Aquaman family" or "Superman family" of characters. We clearly see a massive statue of a stylized mermaid in the New 52/Rebirth Atlantis, and if publishers like Dynamite and Zenoscope can manage to have mermaids in their own comics (with offerings like Damsels: Mermaids and Grimm Fairy Tales Presents: The Little Mermaid, respectively), I don't think DC is done with the mer-people of Tritonis quite yet...

DNAngels: Do they have real bios online? What little I've found doesn't indicate much of what can be statted. I can't even find a character history!

Unfortunately, there's no bios or stats for the DNAngels outside of the DC Comics wiki (dc.wikia.com): it seems the DNAngels, while hardly "jobber" characters, were still sufferers of what I call "Disposable Character Syndrome" (the DNAngels appearing in only three issues of Superboy Vol. 4 and making a cameo alongside some nameless thugs in a flashback in Supergirl Vol. 5 #14). That being said, Cherub's bio (including her power set) can be found here, Epiphany's here, and Seraph's here.

Watchmen: That's an interesting idea- one I've kind of always put on the backburner over the years and never really considered. ProdigyDuck is doing some good ones right now. I'll probably get to them someday, probably next year-ish.

Well, Jab, it's like the old saying goes: better late than never. And ProdigyDuck's not the only one: over on the new Green Ronin forums, someone going by the username "Tattooedman" has done stats for all six main Watchmen characters on his thread here.

Anyhoo, here's looking forward to your take on the likes of Dr. Manhattan and company (which will coincide quite nicely with DC's latest crossover event, Doomsday Clock)...

Ben 10: I've only watched one episode of that show, and that was more than ten years ago I think, so I couldn't hope to do builds for it.

Then you're in th the right timeframe, Jab. To me, the only versions of Ben 10 and his colleagues worth doing stats for come from the Ben 10/Ben 10: Alien Force/Ben 10: Ultimate Alien/Ben 10: Omniverse continuity that began in 2005: there's nothing in the 2016 reboot even remotely worth statting.

Generator Rex: I've never seen it. Is that the one by the Samurai Jack guys?

Nope. It was made by Man of Action Entertainment, the same team that gave us Big Hero 6 and the Ben 10 franchises - not surprising, given that the Image Comics title that inspired the show, M. Rex (short for Machina Rex), was created by two of Man of Action's founders, Joseph "Joe" Kelly and Duncan Rouleau.

Overwatch: I've considered it from time to time. Though I have no interest in actually playing the game, I think I would have fun messing around with what I think the FPS game's abilities would look like in M&M terms, or in a typical comic book. Plus the character designs are AWESOME, and is exactly why that game hit so huge.

I GUESS I could do the male characters, too .

Are those Omnics something you fight in the game?

I've no real interest in playing Overwatch myself, but I think it'd actually be interesting to see how the various abilities of all the main characters translate (and how well) to the M&M/DCA rules. Some translations are pretty straightforward (i.e. Zarya's Particle Cannon or Sombra's Thermoptic Camo and Translocator), while some may prove more difficult (i.e. Winston's Primal Rage or Tracer's Recall).

As far as the designs for all the main characters being a major selling point for the game, I couldn't agree more: they are awesome as hell. There are also many fan-made character designs on the Web that look just as good as those done by Blizzard for the in-game characters, a few of which are made by their creators to look like they were lifted straight from Blizzard's official Overwatch website. (I would love to see concept art for a child-soldier-turned-cyborg-centaur character, by the way.)

And yes, Jab, you can do all the male characters, too (not that it should be an issue). Hell, you can even do the gorilla Winston (and while you're at it, maybe figure out what species of gorilla Winston is).

Finally, as far as omnic combatants in-game, the only ones you would face in regular PvP (Player-versus-Player) games are the playable characters Bastion, Orisa, and Zenyatta. The only omnic NPCs one would face are members of the terrorist group known as Null Sector, which can be found as part of the Uprising seasonal event.

I'm a bit "booked" for the rest of the year, but some of that you might see next year (not Ben 10, unfortunately).

Understood. Looking forward to seeing some of this posted. (Don't take too long, though...)

[Jabroniville]

Guess who just got back from Disney On Ice (yes I bought a ticket shut up)?

Quite fun. Production budget's pretty simple, but there's a LOT of people skating around. It's kind of a "Greatest Hits" compilation, with some odd creative choices- the first 50 minutes is bookended by a lot of stuff from Inside Out, with the emotions providing the framework for the next "scene"- Beauty and the Beast gets the most focus, with a quickly explanation that makes their relationship pretty funny (The Beast screams "GET OUUUUUUUUUUUUUTTT!" and they make nice without any wolves or anything, and Gaston just shows up unnamed and stabs him). Snow White got about 10 minutes out there, too, just doing songs (though the Evil Queen is there for stuff, talks to the Magic Mirror... and then leaves without doing anything).

The other Princesses? They just get some one-offs, briefly dancing on their own with the Princes, all coming out at once. Jasmine & Aladdin (who, hilariously, gets less focus that Jasmine ALL THE TIME in this sort of thing) do the most complicated, athletic ice-dancing moves (the "ankles around the head" spin, for example). Ariel does the equivalent of Pole Dancing, hanging onto a rope from the ceiling and actually SPINNING and going upside-down and stuff. Rapunzel & Flynn do their thing from some "blonde" drapes, also looking athletic. Cinderella... was forgettable, Tiana did nothing special, neither did Mulan (who wears the feminine look, of course), and Merida fires a "firework" arrow. Oddly, Aurora was the only Princess missing.

The second 50 minutes had no bookends- just a retelling of Finding Dory (my friend went with his kids and almost fell asleep at this part!), then a big song & dance with the Toy Story characters (no plot thread) that has no real purpose. Then, of course, a retelling of Frozen, which drew the most "oohs" from the crowd. Though it's really just For The First Time In Forever, Love Is An Open Door, In Summer, Let It Go and For The First time In Forever (reprise) one after another. Naturally, Let It Go is our big showstopper, as the armature above the ice is primarily made up of snowflakes for that number.

Not as much of Mickey & friends as I was expecting (or fearing). Everyone did a big thing at the end, coming out (so I guess nobody did double-duty as a major character). Apparently some of the Princesses are SERIOUSLY in shape up close (this is a physical job; they also do 2-3 performances a day)- Jasmine had a six-pack according to my friend (awesome seats) and Tiana was JACKED.

Not a bad show, all in all. My seat was pretty far away, but you can still see everything.

[Jabroniville]

THE ISOLATIONIST (Josef Huber)
Created By: Peter David & Pablo Raimondi
First Appearance: X-Factor #89 (April 1993)
Role: "Every Power Ever" Guy
Group Affiliations: X-Cell
PL 14 (246)
STRENGTH 14 STAMINA 14 AGILITY 2
FIGHTING 6 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 3 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 3

Skills:
Deception 5 (+8)
Expertise (Current Events) 5 (+8)
Insight 3 (+6)
Perception 1 (+4)

Advantages:
Power Attack, Ranged Attack 4

Powers:
"Mutant Powers: The Powers Of All Mutants"
Variable (Mutant Powers) 20 (Flaws: Limited to Against Non-Mutants) [120]
Regenneration 12 [12]

Offense:
Unarmed +6 (+14 Damage, DC 29)
Initiative +2

Defenses:
Dodge +7 (DC 17), Parry +6 (DC 16), Toughness +14, Fortitude +14, Will +6

Complications:
Motivation (Power)
Weakness (Going Crazy)- The minds of so many people infiltrating his brain at once is driving Josef insane. He is often considered Distracted for the purposes of fighting.
Power Loss (All Powers- Terrigen Crystals; Lack of Mutants)- Josef loses powers quickly when the Crystals are around. Also, if he is far away from any Mutants, his powers will fade.

Total: Abilities: 94 / Skills: 14--7 / Advantages: 5 / Powers: 132 / Defenses: 8 (246)

-The Isolationist is a bizarre Peter David creation, known for appearing in only a single in his debut, and then taking SIXTEEN MORE YEARS to be fleshed-out, in the pages of another David book. He's one of those "Every Power Ever" guys whose power is to have the powers of every mutant on the planet at once, but this MASSIVE Game-Breaker is diminished by the fact that having every Telepath's powers combined is driving him insane. He tries to get all the mutants to gather together in one place, so that he can KILL ALL OF THEM to free him of his burden. Rictor was able to stop him in a fistfight thanks to holding some Terrigen Crystals, which rendered Josef's powers ineffective. Isolationist turns to sand and floats away, disdaining fighting in favor of his genocidal plan.

-Isolationist is potentially unstoppable, with the powers of every Mutant alive (even post M-Day, this includes dozens of high-powered individuals)- essentially the kind of Variable effect no GM should ever allow a player to have. 100 points is available to him at any given moment. The only problem, naturally, is that he's insane, and probably always counts as Distracted or something. And he has a Mental Block of sorts that prevents him from using his powers against Mutants- he can only attempt to put them in situations where they might die (like teleporting X-Factor to the Arctic, where they might freeze to death).

[Jabroniville]

THE DESERT SWORD:
-This team came about due to a story featured in the X-Men Annuals over 1991. Basically, it was a back-up story by Fabian Nicieza & Kirk Jarvinen, where Freedom Force went into war-torn Iraq to save a captured German scientist. "Desert Sword" was a group of Iraqis and sympathizers who ganged up to capture the scientist and beat the Americans back. This charming back-up was basically Villain (vs) Villain, as Freedom Force was comprised of murderers and villains making do on Uncle Sam's dollar (pre-Thunderbolts, even!).

The Desert Sword featured new characters Sirocco (wind powers), Aminedi (invisible cutting guy) and The Veil (black smog powers), teaming up with Puck's enemy The Black Raazer (immortal sword-wielding sorceror- no idea why he was outside of Puck at this time- he normally inhabits Puck's body to make him small) and The Arabian Knight (turban-wearing Flying Carpet & Scimitar guy), who was forced into it because the Iraqis had his multiple Wives & children kidnapped. Freedom Force was made up of Crimson Commando, Super-Sabre, Pyro, Avalanche and The Blob, as this was after Destiny & Stonewall had been killed, and Mystique was still in mourning over her lover's death.

This was, of course, the finale of the Freedom Force concept. They'd been harassing the X-Men for years, and I remember REALLY hating them as a kid, along with most kids I knew, since unlike most X-villains, they were dumb-looking and seemed to do way better in their repeated battles than they should. So this was kind of cathartic to me- watching them being cut apart. Super-Sabre was killed immediately while on patrol, having his head sliced off by Aminedi (Sabre was a careless sort, having nearly lost his head TWICE thanks to Storm & Cable using garrote wires draped across trees), and Commando lost a hand. In the second of three parts, Commando & Avalanche were caught in some land-mine explosions.

Freedom Force had to scrap the mission, killing the scientist so he wouldn't fall into evil(er) hands, and Blob took out Raazer & the Knight with their own Scimitars (they were from the Middle East, see- so they HAD to use scimitars), while Pyro killed The Veil. In the final part, Commando & Avalanche fled in some American 'copters, leaving Pyro & Blob to be captured and forced into being bodyguards for Iraqi generals. This would be fixed in the next story (an X-Force (vs) renewed Brotherhood of Evil Mutants battle), and we would NEVER SEE DESERT SWORD AGAIN. Seriously, Sirocco vanished into the ether, Raazer went back to Alpha Flight (or Puck's body or whatever), and Aminedi was revealed to have died from the Legacy Virus off-panel. Marvel REALLY didn't care for this one-shot squad.

[Jabroniville]

This is a surprisingly popular name with Middle Eastern characters. Ken pointed out last time "Made more strange because siroccos are more associated with northern Africa, the Med, and southern Europe. In the actual Middle East (everything between Egypt, Turkey, and Iran [inclusive], "Simoom" would probably be a more likely name for a sandstorm type character, or maybe "haboob".

But Americans know the term sirocco, so..."

SIROCCO
Created By: Fabian Nicieza & Kirk Jarvinen
First Appearance: The New Mutants Annual #7 (1991)
Role: Evil Foreigner
Group Affiliations: The Desert Sword, The Iraqi Army
PL 8 (105)
STRENGTH 2 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 4
FIGHTING 7 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 1 PRESENCE 1

Skills:
Deception 4 (+5)
Expertise (Iraqui Soldier) 4 (+6)
Insight 3 (+4)
Intimidation 4 (+5)
Perception 4 (+5)
Technology 3 (+5)
Vehicles 3 (+7)

Advantages:
Equipment (Communications, Armour +2), Ranged Attack 4, Set-Up

Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Wind Control"
"Air Blast" Blast 8 (16) -- [22]

• AE: "Air Strike" Damage 8 (Extras: Area- 30ft. Line) (16)
• AE: "Air Control" Move Object 8 (Extras: Area- 60ft. Cone) (Flaws: Touch Range, Limited to Pushing Away) (8)
• AE: Move Object 8 (16)
• AE: "Wind" Features 2: Nullifies Arrows, Blows Out Flames, etc. (2)
• AE: "Very Blustery Day" Environment 2 (60 feet) (Impede Movement 2) (8)
• AE: "Blowback Effect" Affliction 8 (Strength; Hindered & Vulnerable/Prone & Defenseless) (Extras: Area- 60ft. Cone, Extra Condition) (Flaws: Limited Degree, Instant Recovery) (8)

Flight 6 (120 mph) [12]

Offense:
Unarmed +7 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Air Blast +8 (+8 Ranged Damage, DC 23)
Air Strike +8 Area (+8 Damage, DC 23)
Blowback +8 Area (+8 Affliction, DC 18)
Initiative +4

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

Complications:
Responsibility (Iraq Government)

Total: Abilities: 48 / Skills: 14--7 / Advantages: 6 / Powers: 34 / Defenses: 10 (105)

-Sirocco seems to be the leader of Desert Sword, and with his military headdress, appears to be the most "Iraqi" of the bunch. Yeah, so it's super-dated, even now. Sirocco's pretty dull-looking, too- having a brown & black outfit designed more like fatigues with an Arabic bent, and he's got the ever-popular Wind Powers set-up. He's so minor, though, that he only ever appeared in this one storyline.

-A fairly simple design- Sirocco's a minor-league Elementalist-type guy with very few Advantages or Alternate Powers, but has some military skills to back him up. He gave out orders well enough, I suppose, but his teammates were the ones doing all the heavy lifting. Therefore, he's only a PL 8 minor threat one-on-one.

[Ken]

What do the French call falcons?