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

Where in all of your character write ups will go.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24695
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Roster

Post by Jabroniville »

The total roster of the team reads like a who's who of loser characters you've never even heard of, but there's a few interesting names on it:

The Acolytes:
1) Magneto (Master of Magnetism, duh. Group leader and overlord)
2) Fabian Cortez (#2, Manipulator, drummed-out within a couple years. Could boost the powers of other mutants)
3) Exodus (Immortal super-god mutant with the Nate Grey uber-powerset)
4) Unuscione (Field leader, Force Field-ish character with a Psionic Exoskeleton that attacks with great force. Among the few of some note)
5) Joanna Cargill (the former Frenzy, now more than a generic thug... kinda. Standard Powerhouse)
6) Amelia Voght (Professor X's ex-girlfriend... among many. Turns people to Mist)
7) The Kleinstock Triplets (Energy-Blasters who could morph into a larger form)
8) Decay (old man who could drain people's life force)
9) Harry Delgado (SHIELD Agent-turned Growing Powerhouse)
10) Chrome (matter-transmuter)
11) Anne-Marie Cortez (unknown powers- given stats in the Saga Marvel RPG)
12) Isaac Javitz (Growing Guy)
13) Senyaka (Energy Whips)
14) REM-RAM (Mind Controller)
15) Vindaloo (Blaster)
16) Katu (Weather Controller)
17) Static (Power-Nullifier)
18) Mellencamp (John Cougar fan-turned-Monstrous powerhouse)
19) Rakkus (Possessor)
20) Tempo (MLF member, Time Control)
21) Colossus (X-Man fallen from the dream)
22) Milan (complex computer powers)
23) Scanner (scans for stuff)
24) Orator (Mind Controller)
25) Neophyte (nice guy, Phaser)
26) Gargouille (Flying Powerhouse/Scraper)
27) Barnacle (Snare-user)
28) Spoor (Scrapper/Mind Controller, named after poop)
29) Projector (Force Field-user)
30) Random (Weapon-Morpher)
31) Joseph (Magneto's clone)
32) Rusty (crappy New Mutants outcast)
33) Skids (crappy New Mutants outcast)
34) Kamal (Object Mimic)

The early incarnation of the group was a mish-mash of uninteresting types behind Magneto- Fabian Cortez was their main voice, with Anne-Marie Cortez, Harry Delgado, Chrome and Nance Winters (a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent turned to Magneto's side, presumably- Delgado may have been the same), and most died in their third appearance.

The second incarnation was Cortez' army of Unuscione, Frenzy and the Kleinstock Triplets, followed by many, MANY more. Virtually the entire chunk of the team debuted between Uncanny X-Men #298 and #300- the anniversary issue saw Voght, Spoor, Mellencamp, Katu, Senyaka, Javtiz, Scanner & Neophyte, which is what rapidly transformed the "Rival Squad" to "Mook Army". Prior creations Rusty & Skids joined during the "Everyone fights Magneto" cross-over coinciding with X-Men and X-Force's 25th issues, as did Colossus, finally broken from his sister dying. Rakkus also joined the squad shortly, in Fatal Attractions, I think.

The third featured Orator, Kamal, Decay, Gargouille, Joseph & Projector, and debuted in a series of books featuring Magneto, then Quicksilver as solo characters. Basically, most of these are among the lamest, most unthought-out Acolytes, created as background characters at best. REM-RAM, Static, Barnacle & Vindaloo debuted shortly thereafter, in X-Men: The Magneto War, another one-shot.

That was it for their modern era, but in the updates following "Messiah War", we had prior mutant villains Random & Tempo also join the alliance.

Regarding Power Levels & stuff:
* Most Acolytes are rather non-powerful, but PL 8 & 9 being very common. Truth be told, many of them did very well in initial fights against the X-Men, and were depicted as almost rivals, but time has proven unkind, so the "First Appearance Villain" syndrome that seeks guys like The Shocker do awesome in fights is upheld strongly here. So guys like Chrome & Delgado, who could tangle with Rogue & Colossus easily at first have eventually dropped to PL 8 status. I had to go over and build nearly everyone before coming to these conclusions (I have no life, plus these guys tend to stat up FAST), but it's there. There ARE a lot of PL 10s, however, as a thirty-odd-man group can build up a good supply of toughies. An "Elite" squadron of all the best could be truly fearsome, and would probably have won the Tournament of Suck pretty easily.
* Most Acolytes have some ranks in an "Expertise (Acolyte)" Skill. This is more or less a Current Events/Science/whatever based around Mutants, but also giving them a working knowledge of their procedures, Magneto's philosophy, and mutant rights and situations all over the world.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Tue May 24, 2022 8:19 am, edited 3 times in total.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24695
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Chrome

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

CHROME (Allen Marc Yuricic)
Created By:
Chris Claremont & Jim Lee
First Appearance: X-Men #1 (Oct. 1991)
Role: Sacrificial Lamb, Status Booster, Transmuter, Crappy Villain
Group Affiliations: The Acolytes
Fate: Died in the crashing of Asteroid M
PL 8 (145)
STRENGTH
2 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 5 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 1 AWARENESS 0 PRESENCE 0

Skills:
Acrobatics 2 (+5)
Athletics 2 (+4)
Close Combat 2 (+7)
Deception 3 (+3)
Expertise (Acolyte) 4 (+5)
Perception 3 (+3)
Vehicles 2 (+2)

Advantages:
Equipment (Acolytes Gear), Ranged Combat 7, Set-Up, Teamwork

Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Matter Transmutation"
Transform (Anything to Anything) 7 (Feats: Increased Mass 4- 1,600 lbs.) (Extras: Continuous, Ranged) [53]

"Transform to Silver Statues" Affliction 8 (Fort; Vulnerable & Hindered/Defenseless & Immobile/Transformed) (Extras: Ranged, Extra Condition, Sustained +2) (32) -- [34]
  • AE: "Transform Air to Combustible Materials" Blast 8 & Flight 6 (120 mph) (28)
  • AE: "Increase the Density of Others" Enhanced Strength 4 & Toughness 4 (Extras: Affects Others Only +0, Sustained +0, Ranged) (Reduced Fighting & Agility -2) (8)
Equipment:
"Acolytes Gear" Communications (1)
"Suit" Protection 1 (1)

Offense:
Unarmed +7 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Transform +7 (+6 Transform, DC 16)
Blast +7 (+8 Ranged Damage, DC 23)
Snare +7 (+8 Ranged Affliction, DC 18)
Initiative +3

Defenses:
Dodge +8 (DC 18), Parry +7 (DC 17), Toughness +3 (+4 Suit), Fortitude +5, Will +2

Complications:
Motivation ("Mutant Power!")

Total: Abilities: 28 / Skills: 18--9 / Advantages: 10 / Powers: 87 / Defenses: 11 (145)

-Chrome's a weird "transmutation" guy, who tended to freeze people into silver statues or power up his comrades with armour and stuff like that. He was killed at the end of X-Men #3 when Asteroid M blew up. He didn't get any characterization in the arc, and was pretty much there as an interesting power Claremont or Lee (who LOVED to draw reflective metal surfaces) thought up, and that was that.

-There's not a lot to do with a character like that, but I figure PL 7.5 is enough- he helped take down a group of X-Men (the Blue Strike Force), but as a one-shot guy, he was obviously undergoing a bit of "useful new guy" boost. He can Blast (presumably- he can make fire shoot out of his legs to fly- no reason he can't do the same with his hands), Fly, Transform objects, Transform PEOPLE, and at one point he increases the density of Delgado, making him "Near-Adamantium" strong. This makes him, like Cortez, and effective "Team Player".

-In fact, it's entirely possible that his powers are the reason Magneto even SURVIVED the initial landing. When the husk of Asteroid M was found, the bodies of the Acolytes were discovered... with an empy metal "shell" of Magneto. It's implied that Mags was coated by his devoted follower, allowing him to walk away from the planetside crash-landing.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Tue May 24, 2022 8:19 am, edited 2 times in total.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24695
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Delgado

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

"But all I did was ask whether my name was Harry or Marco!!!"


HARRY DELGADO
Created By:
Chris Claremont & Jim Lee
First Appearance: X-Men #1 (Oct. 1991)
Role: Sacrificial Lamb, Growing Guy, Crappy Villain
Group Affiliations: The Acolytes, S.H.I.E.L.D.
Fate: Died in the crashing of Asteroid M
PL 8 (87)
STRENGTH
4/6/12 STAMINA 4 AGILITY 1
FIGHTING 5 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 0 AWARENESS 1 PRESENCE 0

Skills:
Close Combat 1 (+6)
Deception 3 (+3)
Expertise (Acolyte) 2 (+2)
Expertise (S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent) 6 (+6)
Intimidation 5 (+5, +8 Size)
Perception 3 (+4)
Ranged Combat (Firearms) 2 (+6)
Vehicles 4 (+6)

Advantages: 
Equipment 3 (Acolytes Gear, Blaster), Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Ranged Combat 2, Startle, Takedown 2, Teamwork

Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Size Alteration"
Enhanced Strength 2 [4]
Enhanced Stamina 2 [4]
Speed 1 (8 mph) [1]
Growth 6 (Str & Sta +6, +6 Mass, +3 Intimidation, -3 Dodge/Parry, +1 Speed) -- (18 feet) (-2 Fighting) [8]

Equipment:
"Acolytes Gear" Communications (1)
"Blaster" Blast 5 (10)

Offense:
Unarmed +6 (+6 Damage, DC 21)
Full Size +4 (+12 Damage, DC 27)
Blaster +6 (+5 Ranged Damage, DC 20)
Initiative +5

Defenses:
Dodge +6 (DC 16), Parry +9 (DC 19), Toughness +6, Fortitude +7, Will +2
"Full Size" Dodge +3 (DC 13), Parry +14 (DC 14), Toughness +12, Fortitude +7, Will +2

Complications:
Motivation ("Mutant Power!")
Responsibility (S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent, Spy For Magneto?)- It's a question as to WHERE his allegiances lay (is he mind-controlled? A mole loyal to Magneto? A different guy than the actual Agent?).

Total: Abilities: 34 / Skills: 26--13 / Advantages: 10 / Powers: 17 / Defenses: 13 (87)

-God there was some clumsy writing in that first X-Men arc. Not only was Claremont in full "Everyone talks for nine hours in the middle of a firefight" mode (poor Jim Lee had to stuff his hyper-detailed linework- then the hottest in the industry- amongst countless gigantic white word balloons in every panel), but you had someone like Harry Delgado (not "Marco", which shows up on some bio-sites), who started out as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent chasing some mutants to Asteroid M, then somewhere along the line turned to Magneto's side and was revealed as a mutant with Growth powers! And that's in the FIRST ISSUE. They basically just went "hey, is that the same Delgado as before?" and Wolverine goes "Maybe" and hands out a couple possible explanations. They even LOOKED the same (both had a small goatee and were big, square-headed tough guys), and you never saw the first one again after that initial debut. It turned out not to matter much, as Delgado died at the end of the arc anyways. He popped up as a one-shotter during Blackest Ni... I mean Necrosha, and got offed quickly (to the point of it being a joke that Loa, an X-Student whose powers worked especially well against zombies, would one-off losers like him), and that's the end of him.

-Delgado's a generic soldier, given a handy Growth power, turning him into a low-level Brick/Powerhouse, since this was '90s Marvel, and EVERY team had one of those. He's enough to beat on a surprised Rogue, who assumed she was done for, which would put him up to PL 9 levels, which I think is excessive for this one-shot guy. Delgado does +12 damage (just under Colossus & Ben Grimm). He's NOT a good fighter though, and would be hard-pressed to hit anybody, especially when growing super-big.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Tue May 24, 2022 8:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24695
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Re: Jab's Builds! (Aggressors of Dark Kombat! Undergrads! Viral Swarm!)

Post by Jabroniville »

HalloweenJack wrote: Fri Mar 30, 2018 10:20 pm I enjoyed Secret Defenders....at least until Dr. Druid became the centerpiece of it
Dr. Druid is the Dino Bravo of the Marvel Universe.

It's kind of sad that Roy Thomas, creator of The Vision, Ultron and other classic characters, pretty much ended his run in comics doing stuff like this. Secret Defenders and the last trickle of the Avengers West Coast book were most of what he did in the 1990s. He probably has more fun working on Back Issue or whatever that comics-themed magazine is, though.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24695
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Re: Jab's Builds! (Aggressors of Dark Kombat! Undergrads! Viral Swarm!)

Post by Jabroniville »

So yeah, why re-post The Acolytes? Simple!

* I had a few days to fill with assorted stuff, and they're a big group.
* I want to EVENTUALLY transfer all my builds to this thread.
* The Acolytes have such a huge roster, they were ALWAYS showing up in my "To-Repost" list under every letter of the alphabet. We had Anne-Marie at "A", Barnacle at "B", Chrome at "C", Decay at "D", etc. It gets annoying with 30+ guys like that.
* I can spam them out without worry, as I haven't really altered these builds much at all in the past 5-6 years.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24695
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Re: Jab's Builds! (Aggressors of Dark Kombat! Undergrads! Viral Swarm!)

Post by Jabroniville »

ACOLYTES BUILDS THROUGH THE YEARS:
* As a lover of all things Jobby, I've posted The Acolytes quite a few times. Let's take a look back:

2nd Edition Builds: April 2008-
-Jebus- *2008*! TEN YEARS AGO! No WONDER I can remember the names of all these douchebags now. This is back when my "bios" were pretty much just me making fun of the characters, rather than giving a Handbook-style biography. Some of the old commenters were on board, with Libra's "You really do like setting yourself big projects Jabron." and Servitor's "In reading these mid-90s builds, Jab, I always get the distinct impression that creating them is an act of sadomasochism for you. "Marvel was so lame in the 90s . . . BUT I MUST! KEEP! STATTING!!" :wink:"- damn, I miss Servitor. He was the ONLY GUY who was commenting on my thread back when it first started, alongside Kreuzritter. And I still remember his "MUST! KEEP! STATTING!" line, a full decade later.

Thorp gets a good comment in: "Mellencamp...

You know, it's one thing to BE a John Mellencamp fan, but to take it to those lengths where it affects the general public is just WRONG. :D

Keep those Acolytes a'comin'! We want Spoor!

Man, these guys seriously suck...

And THAT'S what I love about 'em! And you even threw in Spoor, one of the suckiest of the sucky! Great, great stuff, Jabroni!!! "


You can tell it's 2008 because I not only skip a day here or there, but I'm posting Avatar: The Last Airbender builds alongside all the Acolytes.

Dec 2010- 3rd Edition Builds
-Two and a half years later, and I move the characters to 3rd Edition, adding some more stuff for their bios. Man, these builds are eight years old now- weird.

heh- Horsenhero and Cassius get into it over public spelling corrections: http://atomicthinktank.com/viewtopic.ph ... d5#p769101

Huh- ClassDunce was the guy cheerleading the Acolytes in the old "Tournament of Suck": "*Raises an eyebrow and holds up my Unuscione is #1 sign.* The Acolytes were robbed...".

Thorp adds:
"The suck...the all-mighty, epic 90's SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK of the Acolytes...

*sniff*...it's....*sniff*...beautiful...

Carry on Jab...*sniff*....carry on... :cry: :D :cry:"

Unbeliever's comments on the team: "Amen to your Acolytes err ... commentary (rant?). I think you pretty much nailed it all. Especially with the bit on their powers. Though ever since x-men #1 I've always liked Chrome and am part of the Unsuncione fan club.

Question: did we ever find out how Delgado got his powers? Wasnt he a human Shield space cop hunting the pro to-Acolytes? So where'd he get all his growth powers?

Don't ask me why I store that info - it's one of the few comics I still own"

FuzzyBoots: "Debatable canon status, but in X-Men Mutant Empire : Book 1 - Siege, Javitz and Wolverine have a dialogue which implies that Wolverine was responsible for the loss of the eye. Unfortunately, I lost the book in a move, so I can't look it up. Good book though, featured the Acolytes being fairly effective against the X-Men in a raid.

As regards Unuscione, it's more background info than anything else, but she does have a great deal of fear of turning into her father, Unus the Untouchable, who eventually suffocated in his force field exoskeleton because he couldn't turn it off to let in air. It's one of those fun details to note so that creative players can play upon her fears (Illusion of the exoskeleton staying up and the air starting to taste stale, for example?)."
ClassDunce again: "That book is one of the primary reasons that I am such a huge Acolytes fan, they were used so well by Christopher Golden that they didn't even feel like Losers. Hell they were dangerous and cool, still bad guys mostly but cool. I have the hard back collectors edition of Mutant Empire that collects all three of the books and I still reread it every few years, I skip the Shiar chapters though.

A lot of the Acolytes were fleshed out in that book that is sadly noncannon lol. The Rivalry between Unuscione and Voight was a major subplot, the Klienstocks were fleshed out a good bit as well. Senyaka was still a dangerous bad ass. I think it was very much the Acolytes A-Team of characters that were by Magneto's side as he hijacked the Sentinels and took over Manhattan as the new country for Mutantkind."

Grayson: "For starters, I have to agree with those who commented on the Mutant Empire Trilogy. It was a good read and one of the best paced books that I have ever read. I am currently reading the Chaos Engine Trilogy. As for the Acolytes (with a handful of exceptions), I am now convinced that maybe House of M wasn't such a bad thing. Clearly, there was some mutant trash that needed to be taken out!"


Thorp: "Mellencamp was my favorite Acolyte by far as he was just about the only decent character, meaning being giving some background, having a personality and actually being a decent challenge, in the whole bunch. Not counting Magneto and Exodus, of course. Plus, come on, Jack and Diane?!?!? Doesn't get any better than that! :wink:

I like how 3E makes characters like Scrambler and Static actually easier to build. Affliction continues to be about my favorite thing about the new system. Keep those Acolytes a'comin, I need some Projector and Gargouille!

And Happy Holidays to you and yours!"

Voght inspired a bit of conversation about the nature of her powers, and if they could be used offensively, from Grayson: "Well, I read this novel a long time ago and I don't even think a novel counts as canon but she did threaten to teleport Wolverine's head off his shoulders if she felt a "pinprick" from his claws. Apparently Wolverine believed her because he yielded believing that he could kill her but she would take him with her. He ended up getting taken out by Senyaka's psionic whip. Amelia also fended off a challenge to her leadership by Uniscione by teleporting away with part of her exoskeleton, which was wrapped around her (Amelia's) neck, causing Uniscione to double over in severe pain. Like I said, it was a novel, but probably no less consistent than comics are.
Top
Grayson
Compatriot
Compatriot
Posts: 494
Joined: Tue Jul 05, 2005 8:13 am
Re: Jab's Builds: Mellencamp, Scanner, Neophyte, Gargouille
Postby Grayson » Mon Dec 27, 2010 8:05 am

Actually, I just found the aformentioned novel to be sure my memory was accurate. Amelia teleported bullets fired at her into the gut of the man who fired them. She actually caught the projectiles in mid-flight and sent them back at him with velocity intact. She also teleported a woman who called her a "bitch" into the air and then let her drop...a nice long, messy drop. It was all to subdue a rather hostile crowd."

Horsenhero: "Well, I'm not so sure about Projector (get a better name please) or Rakkus, but, I like Kamal somewhat. I mean all the builds are fine, I'm talking about the concept. I've always liked Object Mimic types. (I mean if Crystal Girl hadn't been so perfect for my first Legion Academy plotline, I might've cast your mimic instead.) Despite the fact that he has like one brain cell, the Absorbing Man has always been a fave. Of course, having him super-strong and durable to start with sort of hoses the mimicry a little."

ClassDunce: "Senyaka is a bad ass, there's no doubt about it. I think he's my second favorite Acolyte." and "I'm a Kevin Maguire fan, he draws extremely expressive faces and is an excellent visual story teller. I want to say though that I really dig the Tempo build, that's a hard style of character to make and I think you got it dead on."

July 2016- 3rd Edition Re-Posts
-The first time I reposted the characters, mainly to get them into the Ronin Army site, because they'd been sitting on the un-editable Atomic Think Tank for some time.

Thorp once again: "No...no...not again...

The horror...the horror...

The suck...the suck...

The...*shudder*...Acolytes."

Batgirl adds: "Try not to let anyone find out you were a fangirl of Senyaka...". Tattooed Man adds: "I recall a panel in the X-Factor book (the government sponsored version of the team with Havok, Polaris and the others) where (I think) it was Quicksilver saying that just one time he'd like to see Katu use his powers in a fight before getting knocked out, but that they didn't have time for him to do it right then and maybe next time he'll get the chance right before knocking him out. I mean that says something about how badly you suck"

The drawing of Static inspires Batgirl to comment on Boob Socks: "It was very nice of the team's tailor to take the time to work out the complicated geometry to ensure that the uniform's V would continue to appear as a straight line despite crossing through each of her boob socks. Ahh, Nineties... Even the artists who understood anatomy didn't understand how cloth works."

I add:
DRAWING IS HARD, OKAY?!?!!?

But seriously- even the best do that. Drawing proper fabric across someone's body (ESPECIALLY breasts) is among the more difficult "figure drawing" tasks in existence. Hell, one of the very reasons superheroes wear tights is so that the artist could save time and just draw lines over a nude figure and call it a day. Frank Cho is the only guy I can think of off the top of my head who draws proper non-boobsocked tights on women (and that's largely because he draws the breasts SO big that they have a natural "hang", and so they'd look horrible in "boob socks").

But seriously, if something's so omnipresent that an artist as good as ALAN DAVIS does it, then it's hard to avoid. Cripes, even Dan DeCarlo did this more often than not. Harry Lucey over at Archie did the same thing, even with *1950s* clothing, which looks even more bizarre (fun fact: he drew Betty & Veronica naked and made the inkers cover over their bodies with fabrics ). Looking at old FF comics, both George Perez & John Byrne, among the greatest ever in their primes, boob-socked the ladies and ab-socked the men. Ironically, Byrne's ONLY non-socked woman was Sue, who wore a baggy uniform where her pronounced breasts stretched the upper fabric out, leading it to "tent" down towards her wasp waist. And yes, I cared about this aspect of art SO MUCH that I spent several minutes examining every panel to feature a female character. Now who says I don't make personal sacrifices for this place ?

And, to be perfectly fair, EVERY hero has this kind of thing going on- muscular male characters have absolutely every muscle bulging through their clothes, up to and including six-packs (which is basically impossible in real life). There's a reason why movie superhero costumes are sculpted the way they are, and that the women often wear leather instead of spandex. Heck, look at Cosplayers- even the hottest women and most-ripped men can't properly emulate what shows up in the comics.

Oftentimes, if you DON'T draw super-tight fabric, your superhero will look dumpy and out of shape. The best way to avert this is either use Frank Cho-drawn proportions, or Alex Ross-style beefy superheroes.
Then it goes into a thing where I accept requests for my Video Game builds, and get a ton of comments about that.

Man... every once in a while, I got a TON of comments. Still happens here or there, of course. And even 2015-16 had some dead periods. But the splitting of the forums and looking back makes me realize how much could be lost.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24695
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Anne-Marie Cortez

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

There is absolutely nothing in the world more '90s than somebody with super-powers never showing them on-panel, and instead firing a weird-looking sci-fi laser gun.

ANNE-MARIE CORTEZ
Created By:
Chris Claremont & Jim Lee
First Appearance: X-Men #1 (Oct. 1991)
Role: Sacrificial Lamb, Mentalist, Crappy Villain
Group Affiliations: The Acolytes
Fate: Died in the crashing of Asteroid M
PL 8 (79)
STRENGTH
1 STAMINA 1 AGILITY 2
FIGHTING 4 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 1 AWARENESS 0 PRESENCE 0

Skills:
Close Combat 1 (+5)
Expertise (Acolyte) 2 (+3)
Perception 3 (+3)
Ranged Combat (Firearms) 6 (+6)
Stealth 4 (+6)
Vehicles 4 (+4)

Advantages:
Equipment 3 (Acolytes Gear, Blaster), Set-Up

Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Hypnosis/Mind Control"
Affliction 8 (Will; Dazed/Compelled/Controlled) (Extras: Perception Range +2, Cumulative, Continuous +3) (Flaws: Hearing & Vision-Dependent, Distracting) [40]

Equipment:
"Acolytes Gear" Communications, Protection (2)
"Blaster" Blast 5 (10)

Offense:
Unarmed +5 (+1 Damage, DC 16)
Hypnosis +8 Perception (+8 Perception Affliction, DC 18)
Blaster +6 (+5 Ranged Damage, DC 20)
Initiative +2

Defenses:
Dodge +4 (DC 14), Parry +6 (DC 16), Toughness +1 (+2 Suit), Fortitude +2, Will +2

Complications:
Motivation ("Mutant Power!")

Total: Abilities: 18 / Skills: 20--10 / Advantages: 4 / Powers: 40 / Defenses: 7 (79)

-Anne-Marie got nearly ZERO play during the initial arc. So little was shown of her that all we knew was that she was a mutant- she didn't even use her POWERS during her three issues of life. She was shot to death in the first issue, then got healed by Fabian (apparently her brother- though it wasn't mentioned in issue #1)- she finally died for serious when Asteroid M was destroyed. The only indication of her powers is in the Marvel Saga System RPG, which implies she's the Hypnotist who got Harry Delgado to turn to the Acolytes' side. It's good enough to make a build out of her I guess- she's a PL 8 Mentalist- weak as hell on defense, and her Mind Control is hardly ideal, but it's quite effective.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Tue May 24, 2022 8:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24695
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Fabian Cortez

Post by Jabroniville »

Image
Image
Image

FABIAN CORTEZ
Created By:
Chris Claremont & Jim Lee
First Appearance: X-Men #1 (Oct. 1991)
Role: False Religious Leader, Failed '90s Villain, Master Manipulator/Lying Bastard, Status Booster
Group Affiliations: The Acolytes, The Upstarts
Fate: Skooshed by Magneto for betraying him (again)
PL 10 (148)
STRENGTH
2 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 3 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 4

Skills:
Acrobatics 1 (+4)
Athletics 2 (+4)
Close Combat 1 (+10)
Deception 8 (+12)
Expertise (Current Events) 2 (+5)
Expertise (Acolyte) 5 (+8)
Insight 3 (+6)
Investigation 2 (+5)
Perception 3 (+6)
Persuasion 6 (+9)
Stealth 2 (+5)
Technology 1 (+4)
Vehicles 2 (+4)

Advantages:
Benefit (Wealth), Daze (Deception), Equipment 4 (Acolytes Gear, Gun), Ranged Combat 7, Set-Up, Teamwork, Ultimate Deception

Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Mutant Power Manipulation"
"Bolster Power" Variable 3 (Subject's Powers) (Extras: Affects Others +0, Perception Range +2) (Flaws: Fades) Linked to "Power Burnout" Weaken Abilities 4 (Extras: Broad, Simultaneous, Ranged) (Quirks: Limited to Mutants) (39)-- [41]
  • AE: "Power Control" Affliction 10 (Fort; Dazed/Compelled/Controlled Powers) (Extras: Perception Range +2) (Quirks: Limited to Mutants) (29)
  • AE: Healing 8 (Flaws: Affects Others Only) (Quirk: Requires Subsequent Treatments) (Quirks: Limited to Mutants) (6)
Equipment:
"Acolytes Gear" Communications (1)
"Suit" Protection 1 (1)
"Blaster" Blast 6 (Extras: Multiattack) (18)

Offense:
Unarmed +9 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Blaster +9 (+6 Ranged Damage, DC 21)
Weaken +9 (+4 Ranged Weaken, DC 14)
Power Control +10 Perception (+10 Perception Affliction, DC 20)
Initiative +3

Defenses:
Dodge +10 (DC 20), Parry +10 (DC 20), Toughness +3 (+4 Suit), Fortitude +6, Will +5

Complications:
Reputation (Liar)- Cortez was eventually revealed as a betrayor who helped kill Magneto, and took leadership of The Acolytes for himself, all to score points for The Upstarts. Once he was discovered, he was mistrusted forevermore.

Total: Abilities: 58 / Skills: 38--19 / Advantages: 16 / Powers: 41 / Defenses: 14 (148)

-Fabian Cortez is a strictly '90s-style mutant villain, and one that Marvel only KINDA sorta tried with. See, they had him ready to be the new A-list mutant villain, since he's the one responsible for Magneto's death in the classic X-Men #1-3, having led Magneto along by "healing" him (actually making him weaker in the long run), then abandoning him on Asteroid M. But sadly for Fabian, he got saddled with the lame "Upstarts" gimmick of young mutant-hunters, and led the Acolytes around doing stupid stuff (seriously, they're a pretty rotten team). Then he vanished into the ether of 1990s Marvel X-books, with guys like Stryfe, Apocalypse and the returning Magneto taking his place super-quickly. He got a bit of a push during that Bloodties X-Men/Avengers team-up (where he went to Genosha and tried to publicly-execute Luna Maximoff, the human daughter of Quicksilver & Crystal), but it didn't make him any cooler, and the guy disappeared, only doing a couple of random things, like trying to lead Joseph into killing Exodus- eventually, the Acolytes abandoned him after realizing he was just using them for his own purposes. He was surprisingly recruited by Magneto once more (allying with the Acolytes simply to boost their powers- Magneto kept him on a short leash), but when he was done with him, Magneto just threw him fifty miles across Genosha, splattering him on impact.

-My personal theory is that Jim Lee & Chris Claremont were teaming up to make him the huge successor, but with both of them out of Marvel shortly thereafter, the new writers picking things up (Lobdell, Nicieza) didn't like him, and he was gone. His kind of unique, but hard-to-write Mutant Power probably didn't help. He's suitable as a team guy and a lethal planner, but it's hard to win solo fights as a mega-villain should when all you can do is BOOST people's powers. It necessitates you being on a team.

-Fabian's got an odd power-set, and one that takes a little imagination to work into M&M stats, especially with Boost gone. I think Variable suits it best- as it has an Affects Others Extra, as well as a generally-broad gift array (Other People's Powers seems to fit as well as Object Mimicry or Animal Powers does into the broadness of it's stats), but he can use it on enemies as well, immolating their bodies with their own powers (creating a Linked Effect of sorts). Weaken Abilities works as well as any, linking it to the Boost set-up if he chooses to use it. He gets Power Control (Affliction) added to the array, because oftentimes people don't get the choice of using their powers around him (he can set off a mutants' Area Effect when they're around teammates, or make a Blast come out and nail a partner, or something). He can also heal people in his first appearance, though I'm pretty sure that never happened again. I can't really give him (Limited- Only on Mutants) in good conscience, since ALL HE FIGHTS are mutants 90% of the time (like a lot of X-characters), so he gets a Quirk out of it.

-Altogether, Fabian is a weak villain on his own (+4 Weaken and a PL 7.5 Blast being his offensive options for the most part), but with teammates around him... Variable 3 gives him fifteen points to spend on someone else's behalf, boosting Magneto's Magnetic Control of 14-16 to knock him up SEVERAL Power Levels if necessary, and with him, even the ACOLYTES can be devastating, as PL 8s become PL 10s or 11s, Class 20 guys become Class 80 Powerhouses, fast guys start moving at Supersonic Speeds, etc. Cortez is a GAMEBREAKER if used properly
Last edited by Jabroniville on Tue May 24, 2022 8:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24695
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

The Kleinstocks

Post by Jabroniville »

Image
Image

Seriously, almost every pic of the brothers makes it looks like two dudes bonin'.

THE KLEINSTOCK TRIPLETS (Sven, Eric & Harlan Kleinstock)
Created By:
Scott Lobdell & Brandon Peterson
First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men #298 (March 1993)
Role: Background Bodies, Crappy Villains, Blasters
Group Affiliations: The Acolytes
Fate: Unknown- Eric had a hole blown in him by Tom Corsi
PL 8 (89), PL 9 (89) Merged Form
STRENGTH
2/10 STAMINA 2/10 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 5 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 0 AWARENESS 0 PRESENCE 1

Skills:
Close Combat (Unarmed) 2 (+7)
Deception 2 (+3)
Expertise (Acolyte) 3 (+3)
Intimidation 2 (+3, +7 Size)
Perception 2 (+3)
Ranged Combat (Blasts) 3 (+8)
Technology 2 (+2)

Advantages:
Equipment (Acolytes Gear), Improved Aim, Ranged Attack 5, Teamwork

Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Plasma Blasts & Giant Merged Form"
Flight 5 (60 mph) [10]
Blast 8 (16) -- [17]
  • AE: "Plasma Wave" Damage 8 (Extras: Area- 60ft. Cone) (16)
"Merge With Brothers" (All Powers have Flaws: Requires Brother Contact)
Alternate Form (Standard Action) [-2]
Growth 8 (Str & Sta +8, +8 Mass, +4 Intimidation, -4 Dodge/Parry, +2 Speed) (-1 Fighting & Agility) -- (24 feet) [7]
Enhanced Blast 2 [2]
"Extra Size"
Reach 2 [1]
Speed 2 (8 mph) [1]
Extra Limbs 2 [1]

Equipment:
"Acolytes Gear" Communications (1)

Offense:
Unarmed +7 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Plasma Blast +8 (+8 Ranged Damage, DC 23)
Plasma Wave +8 Area (+8 Damage, DC 23)
"Merged Form"
Strength +6 (+10 Damage, DC 25)
Blast +8 (+10 Ranged Damage, DC 25)
Initiative +3 (+2 Merged Form)

Defenses:
Dodge +7 (DC 17), Parry +7 (DC 17), Toughness +2, Fortitude +4, Will +2
"Merged Form" Dodge +3 (DC 13), Parry +3 (DC 13), Toughness +10, Fortitude +12, Will +2

Complications:
Motivation ("Mutant Power!")
Relationship (Each Other)- Though they don't appear to be close- one of the brothers laughed off the death of a third. Possibly, that brother was an asshole. Well... a BIGGER asshole, anyway.

Total: Abilities: 26 / Skills: 16--8 / Advantages: 8 / Powers: 37 / Defenses: 10 (89)

-More weird Mutant Power mayhem from the '90s in the Swiss Kleinstock Brothers, a duo (triplets in their first appearance, until a side-X-character Tom Corsi killed one, with a simple handgun that artist Brandon Peterson drew as a MASSIVE explosion that nearly ripped Eric Kleinstock in twain) who were generic Blaster guys (Plasma, in this case) who could form one giant guy if they touched. Sometimes it was a giant pair of legs with two torsos attached by the waist, so it looked like two dudes doing it doggy style. Like I said, a weird set of mutant powers. They were mainly background Acolytes (filling space), and likely died at some point down the line- they haven't shown up since the Genoshan Sentinel Massacre, but they didn't show up in Necrosha like a handful of other Acolytes either. Odd characters- when Eric was killed, and someone referred to them as twins moments later, one said "Triplets, till just recently", laughing off the death of HIS OWN BROTHER.

-The Kleinstocks are fairly simple Flying Blasters at PL 8 levels, but they have one VERY unique trick- they can attain an Alternate Form and set of traits by merging, effectly a bunch of powers all with the same Flaw attached. I figure that's fair (the old Gestalt Power was similarly quite cheap to buy). This Merged Form is PL 9 on offense, doing a fair bit more damage (even with it's Plasma Blast), but is SO ridiculously weak on defense that it's only PL 6.5- making it a VERY dangerous change to make. Bishop punched him out with one hit, for example. For this reason, they tend to just form a Two-Torsoed smaller version with a better Blast. Pretty weak stuff, but then, Eric Kleinstock is the only superhuman I've ever seen get killed by a common bullet.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Tue May 24, 2022 8:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24695
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Decay

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

So many Acolytes, so many phenomenal character designs...

DECAY I (Jacob Lashinski)
Created By:
John Ostrander, Joe Edkin & Ivan Reis
First Appearance: Quicksilver #9 (July 1998)
Role: Crappy Villain
Group Affiliations: The Acolytes
Fate: Killed trying to drain the High Evolutionary- he drained himself instead.
PL 8 (53)
STRENGTH
0/2 STAMINA -1/3 AGILITY 0/3
FIGHTING 6 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 0 AWARENESS 1 PRESENCE 0

Skills:
Deception 4 (+4)
Expertise (Acolyte) 4 (+4)
Insight 2 (+3)
Perception 4 (+5)

Advantages:
Improved Critical (Weaken) 2, Equipment (Acolytes Gear)

Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Life Drain"
Weaken Stamina 10 [10]
Enhanced Strength 2, Stamina 4 & Agility 3 (Flaws: Requires Weaken) [9]
Regeneration 4 (Flaws: Source- Draining) [2]

Equipment:
"Acolytes Gear" Communications, Protection (2)

Offense:
Unarmed +6 (+0 Damage, DC 15)
Unarmed Boosted +6 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Life Drain +6 (+10 Weaken, DC 20)
Initiative +0 (+3 Boosted)

Defenses:
Dodge +7 (DC 17), Parry +8 (DC 18), Toughness -1 (+0 Suit), Fortitude +0, Will +2
"Boosted" Dodge +10 (DC 20), Parry +8 (DC 18), Toughness +3 (+4 Suit), Fortitude +4, Will +2

Complications:
Motivation ("Mutant Power!")
Disabled (Elderly)- An old man, Decay is prone to sickness and any disabling effects. He has to use his power to counter-act this.

Total: Abilities: 12 / Skills: 14--7 / Advantages: 2 / Powers: 21 / Defenses: 11 (53)

-Hey look, it's an old man with one power! He tried to use his powers against the High Evolutionary, but was killed trying to in a Quicksilver comic. I figured he'd be a powerful drainer, but a total Glass Cannon, being able to be easily taken out otherwise. He can heal himself using his powers, though. A pretty pathetical combination altogether- he went down EASILY in the old "Tournament of Suck".
Last edited by Jabroniville on Tue May 24, 2022 8:24 am, edited 2 times in total.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24695
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Javitz

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

JAVITZ (Isaac Javitz)
Created By:
Scott Lobdell, John Romita Jr. & Brandon Peterson
First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men #300 (May 1993)
Role: Growing Guy, Delgado Replacement, Crappy Villain
Group Affiliations: The Acolytes
Fate: Killed by Holocaust on Avalon
PL 8 (93)
STRENGTH
4/5/11 STAMINA 4 AGILITY 1
FIGHTING 5 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 0 AWARENESS 0 PRESENCE 0

Skills:
Close Combat 1 (+6)
Deception 3 (+3)
Expertise (Acolyte) 2 (+2)
Intimidation 6 (+6, +9 Size)
Perception 2 (+3)
Vehicles 4 (+6)

Advantages:
Equipment (Acolytes Gear), Fast Grab, Improved Grab, Improved Hold, Power Attack, Startle, Takedown 2, Teamwork

Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Size Alteration"
Enhanced Strength 1 [2]
Enhanced Stamina 1 [2]
Speed 1 (8 mph) [1]
Growth 6 (Str & Sta +6, +6 Mass, +3 Intimidation, -3 Dodge/Parry, +1 Speed) -- (18 feet) (-1 Fighting) [10]

Equipment:
"Acolytes Gear" Communications (1)

Offense:
Unarmed +6 (+5 Damage, DC 20)
Full Size +5 (+11 Damage, DC 26)
Initiative +1

Defenses:
Dodge +6 (DC 16), Parry +8 (DC 18), Toughness +5, Fortitude +7, Will +3
"Full Size" Dodge +3 (DC 13), Parry +5 (DC 15), Toughness +11, Fortitude +7, Will +3

Complications:
Motivation ("Mutant Power!")
Enemy (Cyclops)- Javitz has an unexplained enmity towards Scott Summers, frequently targetting him.
Disabled (One Eye)- Javitz is missing his left eye for some reason (doing his best imitation of a Rob Liefeld character with the "Left Eye Thing"?). It doesn't appear to effect him, but might at some point.

Total: Abilities: 28 / Skills: 18--9 / Advantages: 9 / Powers: 15 / Defenses: 14 (93)

-Javitz had a TEEEENY bit of characterization (he'd followed the X-Men's careers for some time, and seemed to have a specific problem with Cyclops), but he didn't last long enough to get anything out of it: Holocaust discorporated him upon his invasion to the 616 timeline. Before that, he was just "that guy in the background", often chosen for group shots because his size made him stand out. He's a standard "big guy" power set, nothing unique- he's very much like Delgado, minus some Skills, but with a one-note Accuracy/Power ratio difference, making him weaker but more accurate.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Tue May 24, 2022 8:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24695
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Gargouille

Post by Jabroniville »

Image
Image

GARGOUILLE (Lavinia LeBlanc)
Created By:
John Ostrander, Joe Edkin & Ivan Reis
First Appearance: Quicksilver #9 (July 1998)
Role: Half-Decent Villain
Group Affiliations: The Acolytes
Fate: Killed by a Predator X creature
PL 9 (112)
STRENGTH
7 STAMINA 8 AGILITY 4
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 0 AWARENESS 0 PRESENCE 0

Skills:
Aerobatics 2 (+6)
Athletics 2 (+9)
Expertise (Acolyte) 4 (+4)
Insight 2 (+2)
Intimidation 7 (+7)
Perception 5 (+5)
Stealth 2 (+6)

Advantages:
All-Out Attack, Chokehold, Close Combat 2, Daze (Intimidation), Equipment (Acolytes Gear), Fast Grab, Great Endurance, Improved Critical (Talons), Improved Initiative, Improved Hold, Move-By Action, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 4, Startle

Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Gargoyle-Like Physiology & Super-Dense Short Form"
"Sharp Talons" Strength-Damage +1 (Feats: Split, Penetrating 3) [5]
Speed 3 (16 mph) [3]
Flight 6 (120 mph) (Flaws: Winged) [6]
"Hyper-Keen Senses" Senses 2 (Low-Light Vision, Acute Scent) [2]

Equipment:
"Acolytes Gear" Communications (1)

Offense:
Unarmed +10 (+7 Damage, DC 22)
Talons +10 (+8 Damage, DC 23)
Initiative +8

Defenses:
Dodge +9 (DC 19), Parry +10 (DC 20), Toughness +8, Fortitude +8, Will +5

Complications:
Motivation ("Mutant Power!")
Prejudice (Obvious Mutation)- Gargouille is quite short (under most artists not interesting in Fanservice), grey and has a large wingspan. She cannot pass for human.

Total: Abilities: 54 / Skills: 24--12 / Advantages: 18 / Powers: 16 / Defenses: 12 (112)

-Gargouille has an obvious gimmick based off of her name- Gargoyle chick who looks like she's made out of stone. Some artist draw her quite short & dense (like Puck from Alpha Flight), but others give her the standard sexy "Most Common Superpower" look. Her interesting visual look (created back in a Quicksilver issue featuring an Exodus-led team) helped her survive to the present day, having ignored a Massacre, M-Day, and Messiah Complex... only to be murdered by a "Predator X" creature off-panel, with her corpse being found by her boyfriend. Well that was fun. Yet another Acolyte bites the dust.

-Gargouille is a decent, well-rounded PL 9 fighter, lacking X-Men-level power, but she's handy in a fight. Mildly super-strong and with some sharp Talons, she's a good example of what I liked about 3e- now that the Strength chart has been opened up to put all the human-level people between 0 and 5, you can have a semi-accurate super-strong chick with sharp claws without sticking her at Captain America's level of strength. Now a "7" is 3 tons, versus Peak Human in the old days. To avoid having to make her break PL caps, I would have had to give Gargouille ranks of Super-Strength in addition to a human-level damage bonus.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Tue May 24, 2022 8:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24695
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Katu

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

KATU (Katu Kath)
Created By:
Scott Lobdell & John Romita Jr.
First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men #300 (May 1993)
Role: Blaster, Weather Controller, Crappy Villain
Group Affiliations: The Acolytes
Fate: Died during the Sentinel Massacre on Genosha
PL 9 (105)
STRENGTH
2 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 7 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 1 AWARENESS 1 PRESENCE 1

Skills:
Close Combat (Unarmed) 1 (+8)
Expertise (Acolytes) 4 (+5)
Insight 3 (+4)
Intimidation 5 (+6)
Perception 5 (+6)

Advantages: 
Equipment (Acolytes Gear), Ranged Attack 6

Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Interatmospheric Anomaly Control"
"Absorb Electromagnetic Fields" Blast 9 (18) -- [19]
  • AE: "Wind" Move Object 8 (Flaws: Limited to Pushing Away) (8)
Environment 4 (120 feet) (Impede Movement 2, Visibility 1) [12]
Movement 1 (Environmental Adaptation- Storms) [2]

"Bionic Systems" Protection 2 [2]

Equipment:
"Acolytes Gear" Communications, Protection (2)

Offense:
Unarmed +8 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Blast +8 (+9 Ranged Damage, DC 24)
Initiative +3

Defenses:
Dodge +8 (DC 18), Parry +9 (DC 19), Toughness +5 (+6 Suit), Fortitude +6, Will +5

Complications:
Motivation ("Mutant Power!")
Enemy (Omega Red)- For some reason, Katu & Omega Red are enemies. It is Arkady who tore off Katu's arm, in addition to murdering his family.
Vulnerable (Magnetic Attacks)- With Bionic arms, Katu is more vulnerable to magnetics than most.

Total: Abilities: 40 / Skills: 18--9 / Advantages: 7 / Powers: 35 / Defenses: 14 (105)

-Katu had a vast hatred for Omega Red (something to do with the latter killing his family), but they did the classic "he dies fighting him, but the next writer forgets and just has Katu alive with the Acolytes later" thing that tends to happen either before Wikipedia, after Mark Gruenwald died, or when people just don't give enough of a crap about fifth-tier characters. This sort of thing happens when you're a terrible background character. An apparent running gag was that his powers were so complex to explain (absorbing electromagnetic atmospheric energy to neutralize or utilize weather) that they just never showed him using them on panel (in mass Acolyte battles, guys just standing around not doing anything was rather common- look at Fabian Cortez' sister, who died having never used her powers in X-Men #3- so he probably didn't stand out much). But yeah, he was a low-level Storm-type, who also shot blasts at people. He died in the invasion of Genosha by Cassandra Nova's sentinels, but was so minor that it was only confirmed during Necrosha when he came out as a techno-zombie.

-More or less an Environment/Wind/Blaster type of guy, Katu is PL 9 thanks to the fact that he once ended a fight with Omega Red (I'm guessing he played an HP, but still), but is really more like PL 8.5 with his Blasts, PL 5 in melee, and PL 7 defensively. So again, a jobber.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Tue May 24, 2022 8:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24695
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Kamal

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

KAMAL (Kamal el Alaqui)
Created By:
Peter Milligan, Jorge Gonzales & Kelley Jones
First Appearance: Magneto #1 (Nov. 1996)
Role: Crappy Villain, Absorbing Man Knock-Off
Group Affiliations: The Acolytes
Fate: Unknown- Marvel forgot he existed
PL 8 (97)
STRENGTH
7/10 STAMINA 7 AGILITY 1
FIGHTING 6 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 0 AWARENESS 0 PRESENCE 0

Skills: 
Expertise (Acolyte) 3 (+3)
Intimidation 7 (+7)
Perception 2 (+2)

Advantages: 
Equipment (Acolytes Gear), Fast Grab, Improved Hold, Interpose, Power Attack, Teamwork

Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Object Mimicry"
Variable 5 (Any Effects of a Material) (Feats: Selective) (Flaws: Limited to Objects Touched) [36]

"Sample Power-Sets"
"Stone"
Enhanced Strength 2, Protection 3, Impervious Toughness 9, Strength 1- Limited to Resisting Movement (17)
"Metal"
Enhanced Strength 2, Protection 3, Impervious Toughness 11, Strength 2- Limited to Resisting Movement (20)
"Titanium"
Enhanced Strength 3, Protection 3, Impervious Toughness 13, Strength 2- Limited to Resisting Movement (24)

Equipment:
"Acolytes Gear" Communications (1)

Offense:
Unarmed +6 (+7 Damage, DC 22)
Mimicking Dense Materials +6 (+10 Damage, DC 25)
Initiative +1

Defenses:
Dodge +6 (DC 16), Parry +6 (DC 16), Toughness +7 (+10 Mimicking, +5-7 Impervious), Fortitude +7, Will +2

Complications: 
Motivation ("Mutant Power!")

Total: Abilities: 42 / Skills: 12--6 / Advantages: 6 / Powers: 36 / Defenses: 8 (97)

-Kamal is a character only seen once in a Magneto-based story, dealing with Magneto's clone Joseph in the mountains somewhere. Since nobody ever read Magneto #1, Kamal disappeared into the ether and was completely forgotten, one of Marvel's relatively-few Middle Eastern super-characters (it's him, Dust, Arabian Night, Sirocco, The Veil, Black Raazer, Aminedi, and a teensy handful of others). He was basically a Tank, using an Absorbing Man-styled power-set, but set to much lower (he was already super-strong and tough, so touching dense objects just made him moreso- he can only mimic 25 points' worth of stuff). It's likely he was killed during the Sentinel Invasion of Genosha. An unimpressive PL 7.5-8 all-around. He'd be even lower because he was a one-shot, but I figure he's probably pretty strong at maximum density- he's weaker with common metals and stone.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Tue May 24, 2022 8:26 am, edited 2 times in total.
User avatar
Woodclaw
Posts: 1462
Joined: Fri Sep 08, 2017 8:05 pm
Location: Como, Italy

Re: Jab's Builds! (Aggressors of Dark Kombat! Undergrads! The Acolytes!)

Post by Woodclaw »

So many wasted ideas here. A lot of secondary members of the Acolytes (any many other crap teams) really had something going. There was a number of visually unique ideas and they just needed a more personality notes to make them really stand out.
"You're right. Sorry. Holy shit," I breathed, "heckhounds.”

WareHouse W (main build thread for M&M)
Post Reply