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

Where in all of your character write ups will go.
Jabroniville
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Every Magic Villain

Post by Jabroniville »

EVERY MAGIC VILLAIN EVER
Created By:
Any Writer Without A Better Idea
First Appearance: Various Comics (mostly filler)
Role: Villain Who Can Do Whatever
Group Affiliations: Probably Some Demon or Something (seriously, all these stories are similar)
PL 8-12 (124)
STRENGTH
1 STAMINA 2 AGILITY 2
FIGHTING 5 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 4 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 2

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

Advantages:
Improved Critical (Magical Attacks), Ranged Attack 2, Ritualist

Powers:
"Magical Senses" Senses 5 (Detect Magic- Acute, Analytical & Ranged) [5]
"Whatever Powers The Write Tought Of- I Dunno, F*** Off" Variable 7 [49]

Offense:
Unarmed +5 (+1 Damage, DC 16)
Magic Stuff +8 (+8-14 Damage, Probably Ranged, DC 23-29)
Other Magic Stuff +8 (Probably Afflictions and Junk)
Initiative +2

Defenses:
Dodge +8 (DC 18), Parry +7 (DC 17), Toughness +2 (Probably Has a Force Field or Something Dumb), Fortitude +4, Will +6

Complications:
Enemy (Doctor Strange)- PROBABLY.
Responsibility (Some Demon)- PROBABLY.
Power Loss (Magic)- Casting magical spells requires some freedom of movement, and sometimes even speech. Binding a Wizard's hands, body or mouth may impede certain spells. Or not.

Total: Abilities: 46 / Skills: 14--7 / Advantages: 4 / Powers: 54 / Defenses: 13 (124)

-Statting up Magic Villains is such a raging pain in the ass. They combine the worst aspects of the use of Magic (varied Power Levels; random powers that come and go; half-assed ways of writing the villain's defeat) in comics together with them being generally less-used than other villains, making doing any kind of research annoying. Most of them have some kind of stupid, forgettable name like XAROX or CHANDU or CHONDU or something foreign-sounding, often with "The Mystic" tossed in. Their costume is usually a robe (male) or dress (female). They appear to throw some stuff at Doctor Strange, give him some trouble, and then be defeated because he did better next time... OR whatever hero they're fighting just found some Macguffin and defeated them. Seriously, outside of Morgan Le Fay or... Morgan Le Fay... these guys are pretty forgettable. I made mention of refusing to build any more of them, but this way might actually be more effective- just create a Generic Build for all of these losers. Then I can just throw guys I've researched onto here.

-Essentially all the same, these guys will use whatever power imaginable, at oddly-varied levels: sometimes they'll be mountain-shatteringly powerful, and at other times it only takes one solid shot to beat them. '70s characters tend to get the "Villain wins the first round; Hero wins the second" thing.

AGGAMON: Aggamon is the ruler of some alien dimension who had some various Magic Weapons and forces other beings to work as slaves in his mystical gem mines, but loses to Doctor Strange.

ARISEN TYRK: The ruler of Other-Realm, using a combination of magic and sorcery to do so. Desiring the Godstone that was then attached to John "Man-Wolf" Jameson, he teamed with Kraven the Hunter, but both lost. Trying to pursue Jameson, he was trapped in a portal, and split into numerous fragments, such as the Nilffim Riders, The Lunatiks (acrobatic spouters of pop culture- usually popular music and catchphrases like "Well, Ex-CUUUUUUSSSSSSE ME!!") and Harrison Turk. The Lunatiks engaged in rampant vigilantism during full moons (attacking murderers and litterbugs with equal aplomb), but The Defenders fought them. Eventually, Dr. Strange and the others managed to combined them all back into Arisen Tyrk... who attacked the team. He was rendered inert, and has yet to reappear. He was apparently rather powerful (moreso in Other-Realm), and strong enough to brawl with The Hulk.

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CASIOLENA: Reputed to be "Equal to the Enchantress" as a sorceress (Casiolena defeated her as part of her backstory), and teamed with Poppo as Ollerus's minion. Her fate is unknown, though she apparently reappeared in the Hellcat series a little while ago.

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CHANDU: Some Arabic mystic who allied with Prince John (from Robin Hood) and Mordred (from King Arthur). His specialty was Animating Golems, and some Alchemy that messed-up The Vision. The Time-Travelling Defenders stopped him, but he showed up centuries later allied with other Mystics.

FRAGON: A goofy-ass Merlin look-alike in an actual, literal cone-hat with stars on it, Fragon blocked Dr. Strange's spells on their first meeting, but got his ass handed to him the second. I have no idea why he didn't just try to block the spells again- maybe because Magic Sucks?

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KABALLA: A Hebrew wizard who fought Dr. Strange once, then showed up as part of The Conspiracy, attempting to gain control of the Bloodstone. He was killed by its energies.

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MERLIN DEMONSPAWN (aka Mad Merlin, The Warlock, Maha Yogi): A weird Silver Age guy with Psionic-based Magic. Actually, MORE than one- it seems that Peter David felt the need to combine a few one-off "Wizard" types into one character, creating an imposter to Merlin. He was a European guy who gained the Bloodstone that later belonged to Ulysses, and impersonated Merlin. Ending up in suspended animation thanks to the REAL Merlin, he popped out in the Silver Age, fighting Thor as "The Mad Merlin". Then he became The Warlock and faced the original X-Men until Professor X rendered him comatose (trust me, the modern tales do NOT make Chuck more "dark" than he used to be- he was ALL ABOUT Mind-Wiping & Coma-Induction back in the day). He showed up again as Maha Yogi, losing to The Beast & Iceman, then spending 20 years on the shelf before fighting The Hulk and Doctor Druid (ah, THIS is when David first used him, and probably why he's the only modern writer to remember him). Later, he would reveal his "true" nature, and combined all of these losers into one character.

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MORDRED THE EVIL: The son of King Arthur by Arthur's own sister Morgause- he generally just floats around in Morgan Le Fay stories, as she's a much-more important character tied to the same mythos. Generally does stuff involving The Defenders or The Black Knight (as the original, Sir Percy, was an Arthurian Knight). He died against Arthur, but was resurrected by "Evil Celtic Nether Gods" (whatever those are), then became Morgan Le Fay's lover.

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NAGALA: A Lemurian Sorceress. Faced the infamous Busiek/Larsen Defenders, using a recreated Serpent Crown as a Macguffin, and The Fathom Five as her minions. Has a big ugly lizard-face to match the "Standard Wasp-Waisted, Balloon-Breasted Larsen Female Body", and was beaten by The Silver Surfer taking the oxygen away from the water surrounding her, allowing Strange to KO her. Also managed to show up in a Scarlet Witch solo book.

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POPPO THE CUNNING: Marvel's Unofficial Appendix describes him as, I kid you not, "a sorcerer of unknown capabilities". He aided Casiolena under Ollerus The Unmerciful (some generic Evil General), and faced The Defenders. He was so minor it's not even known what became of him after Ollerus was cast into Nifelheim.

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SALOME: Oddly enough, there have been FOUR WOMEN named Salome in the Marvel Universe. Most are background characters (one was the consort of an ancestor of Sebastian Shaw's in the Hellfire Club... which goes against the history where he was a self-made man, but whatevers; another was the daughter of the Living Monolith; yet another fought Conan the Barbarian), but this one came from Marvel Comics Presents and faced Doctor Strange. She was a former follower of Zarathos (the demon that possesses Danny Ketch to turn him into Ghost Rider, and rebelled in order to become the first Earth Sorceror Supreme... which goes against the general thought that Agamotto was the owner of that title. I'm guessing this back-up story didn't really get much thought in the editorial process). She was created by two guys I've never heard of (David Quinn & Geoff Isherwood), and was defeated by Strange. She had bat wings, and seemed to favor green fire.

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SHANZAR: A Hulk foe- The Sorcerer Supreme of "The Strange Matter Dimension", and tends to Possess powerful beings (his matter is so odd that Dr. Strange has a hard time affecting his spells). He tried to take over other dimensions using the Hulk's body, but he crossed over into Namor, Strange and the Surfer's Annuals in a 1990 Cross-Over that reunited the old Defenders. Shanzar proved powerful, but the heroes saw him off, and he eventually let them leave his dimension, promising a reappearance. This being twenty-five years ago, he's taking his sweet-ass time.

TIBORO: An evil humanoid from "The Sixth Dimension", he was banished from a tribe of humans in South America ages ago, and now waits for Earth's civilization to fall into decay so that he can rule the whole planet. Most of his power is contained in his Magic wand. He faced Doctor Strange, and the Black Knight destroyed the wand with his Ebony Blade. He uses "The Screaming Idol" to communicate with Earthlings while in his home dimension. The character Coat of Arms, part of the Young Masters in the Young Allies book, is said to have "found Tiboro's coat".

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URTHONA: Urthona is the Sorceror Supreme of the planet Gevaltu, who wishes to become Sorceror Supreme of the entire universe. He tortured Wong to get to Dr. Strange (one of many roadblocks to his goal), and stole numerous books from the Sanctum Sanctorum, but Strange and his ally Rintrah destroyed most of them. One of those books? The Darkhold- doing so undoes the spell that slew all of the Vampires, thus bringing them all back to life. He reappeared once more, and was then exiled into another dimension by Strange.

YTITNEDION: The Sorceror King of the Buzzard People, this goofily-named weirdo looks like a Skesis from The Dark Crystal, and gains power from The Unnameable, a being who can control anyone who learnts its name. The creature draws its power back from his subjects temporarily, but is then trapped in its realm, forever unable to escape. Ytitnedion, distraught over losing his power, commits suicide.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Thu Jan 27, 2022 1:31 am, edited 9 times in total.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (S.G. Scarlet! Storm! Starblasters! Slug! Sugar Man!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Spectrum wrote:Iceman, Valkyrie, Hawkeye? (Handlebar Head Man?), Beast, Gargoyle, Cloud?, Captain America, ???, Angel, ?, ?, ?, ?
I dunno- ComicVine lists the cast as including Andromeda in that issue, so the handlebar-helmet is hers. The four red guys are aliens whose star was thieved. "Captain America" is actually Kubik taking his form because he associates heroism with Cap after meeting him in an earlier story.
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab's Builds! (S.G. Scarlet! Storm! Starblasters! Slug! Sugar Man!)

Post by Jabroniville »

So yeah, I ported my "Every Magic Villain Ever" template over to the new thread, since Salome was a new character on the list, and turned out to be yet another magically-powered villain.
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Sammy Silke

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

SAMMY SILKE
Created By:
Brian Michael Bendis & Alex Maleev
First Appearance: Daredevil #26 (Dec. 2001)
Role: Mid-Tier Criminal
PL 5 (62)
STRENGTH
2 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 2
FIGHTING 4 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 3

Skills:
Expertise (Criminal) 6 (+8)
Insight 3 (+5)
Intimidation 1 (+4)
Perception 2 (+4)

Advantages:
Benefit 1 (Wealthy Criminal), Equipment 2 (Pistol), Ranged Attack 2

Offense:
Unarmed +4 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Pistol +6 (+4 Ranged Damage, DC 19)
Initiative +2

Defenses:
Dodge +5 (DC 15), Parry +5 (DC 15), Toughness +3, Fortitude +4, Will +4

Complications:
Motivation (Greed)
Relationship (Richard Fisk)- The two have been friends since childhood.

Total: Abilities: 44 / Skills: 12--6 / Advantages: 5 / Powers: 0 / Defenses: 7 (62)

-Sammy Silke was close friends with Richard Fisk, the son of the Kingpin, when the two were children. He eventually joined the Kingpin's crew, but helped Richard pull off a coup that deposed Wilson Fiks, and put the former Rose (Richard) in charge. They arranged a Julius Caesar-style assassination of the fat man, but unbeknownst to them, he survived, and was avenged by his wife Vanessa, who put a bullet in her own son for his patricidal crime. Silke went into Witness Protection as a result, and bartered the only thing he was willing to give up: The secret identity of Daredevil. This created a HUGE change in the status quo of the Daredevil book, all because of a two-bit hood who was in over his head. Silke was imprisoned and kept under protection, but apparently someone got paid off, because sure enough, he met the Kingpin himself instead of his father as a "visitor", and his head got a-squished.

-Sammy is just a generic Crook, but a bit higher in the organization charts than most thugs.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Thu Jan 27, 2022 1:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Storm! Starblasters! Slug! Sugar Man! Star-Thieves!)

Post by Goldar »

Thanks for posting some of the magic users pics and a brief bio of them! I enjoyed it!
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Storm! Starblasters! Slug! Sugar Man! Star-Thieves!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Goldar wrote:Thanks for posting some of the magic users pics and a brief bio of them! I enjoyed it!
No problem- I used to just "skip over" the magic guys because they're annoying to build, but I realized that it's easier on me, when going over lists of characters I've never built, to just throw them onto that list. I do the same with "Generic Demon Lords" now.
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Shou-Lao

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

SHOU-LAO THE UNDYING
Created By:
Roy Thomas & Gil Kane
First Appearance: Marvel Premiere #15 (May 1974)
Role: Mythical Dragon
PL 11 (141)
STRENGTH
10 STAMINA 12 AGILITY 6
FIGHTING 12 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE -2 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE -2

Skills:
Expertise (Survival) 4 (+6)
Intimidation 10 (+8, +11 Size)
Perception 6 (+8)
Ranged Combat (Fire) 10 (+10)

Advantages:
All-Out Attack, Fast Grab, Great Endurance, Improved Critical (Bite) 2, Improved Initiative 2, Takedown 2

Powers:
"Immortal"
Immunity 3 (Aging, Disease, Poison) [3]
Immortality 1 [2]

Movement 1 (Slithering) [2]
Speed 4 (30 mph) [4]
"Natural Size" Growth 7 (Str & Sta +7, +7 Mass, +3 Intimidation, -3 Dodge/Parry, -7 Stealth) -- (21 feet) (Feats: Innate) (Extras: Permanent +0) [15]

"Dragon's Fire"
Damage 10 (Extras: Area- 60ft. Line +2) (30) -- [31]
  • AE: Fire Blast 12 (24)
Offense:
Unarmed +12 (+10 Damage, DC 25)
Dragon's Fire +10 Area (+10 Damage, DC 25)
Fire Blast +10 (+12 Ranged Damage, DC 27)
Initiative +14

Defenses:
Dodge +9 (DC 19), Parry +9 (DC 19), Toughness +12, Fortitude +12, Will +8

Complications:
Motivation (Guarding K'un-Lun)- Shou-Lao protects K'un-Lun when the Iron Fist is not present.
Vulnerable (Grapples)- Despite being REALLY hard to hurt, Shou-Lao can be slain by someone grappling it over its Dragon Symbol, thus cutting off the flow of Chi from its heart, which lies in the chamber behind the Gates outside the city of K'un-Lun. After four or five rounds of a Grapple, Shou-Lao will die, allowing the victor to plunge their hands into his heart.

Total: Abilities: 48 / Skills: 30--15 / Advantages: 9 / Powers: 57 / Defenses: 12 (141)

-Shou-Lao is a huge part of the Iron Fist Mythos, but for obvious reasons doesn't appear in that many comics- it's the creature Danny killed to gain his power, after all. Its motivations have varied over the years, from being a generic Monster to a Powerful Guardian, but basically, sixty-five people have fought and killed the thing over the years to gain their powers. Shou-Lao is pretty powerful, being a DRAGON and all- it really shows you the power of an Iron Fist that they can defeat a monster like this WITHOUT THEIR POWERS, even with his powerful weak point. I mean, most Fists are probably only PL 7-9 Unarmed Fighters at the time they first gain their powers, going up against a PL 10.5 giant monster with Fire Breath.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Thu Jan 27, 2022 1:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Storm! Starblasters! Slug! Sugar Man! Star-Thieves!)

Post by Batgirl III »

The only straight-up evil wizard in comics that I've ever found interesting is Mordu, the former Big Bad Evil Guy of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Although his backstory is a horrib mess of retcons, continuity snarls, and some really weak showings outside of the LoSH books. But that's kinda par for the course for every LoSH-associated character.

Wonder Woman's arch-nemesis, Circe, and Thor's arch-nemesis, Loki, are both evil wizards... But writers long ago realized that they work better as Chessmasters. This keeps them viable threats, and keeps the writers from doing the same cast Summon Bigger Fish spell, get interrupted by hero, get eaten by summoned critter routine that makes so many of these generic sorcery schmucks so lame.

Thor and Diana both also have a lesser villain that is still a fairly generic sorcerer for the most part: the Enchantress and Felix Faust. But the writers have given both a very strong specialization/theme and keep them focused on that... Thus avoiding the "Can Do Anything The Writer Needs Me To" bullshit.

The Flash's perennial punching bag, Abra Kadabra, is a fun riff on the wizardly theme... for pretty much the same reason Spider-Man's Mysterio works as well. They have all the tropes and trappings of sorcerous villains, but as they're really just gadgeteers, writers can't make quite the same "asspull" moves to allow them a cheaters way of writing themselves out of a weak plot.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Storm! Starblasters! Slug! Sugar Man! Star-Thieves!)

Post by Ken »

Batgirl III wrote:The only straight-up evil wizard in comics that I've ever found interesting is Mordu, the former Big Bad Evil Guy of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Although his backstory is a horrib mess of retcons, continuity snarls, and some really weak showings outside of the LoSH books.
Like singing "That's Entertainment" on national TV back in the 1970s.
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The Skrull Kill Krew

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

THE SKRULL KILL KREW
Created By:
Grant Morrison, Mark Millar, Brendan McCarthy & Steve Yeowell
First Appearance: Skrull Kill Krew #1 (Sept. 1995)
Role: Skrull Hunters
PL 7 (119)
STRENGTH
4 STAMINA 4 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 0 AWARENESS 0 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Athletics 3 (+7)
Deception 2 (+4)
Expertise (Xenobiology) 4 (+4)
Insight 2 (+2)
Intimidation 3 (+5)
Perception 4 (+4)
Stealth 1 (+4)
Technology 3 (+3)

Advantages:
Equipment 4 (Weapons- Blasters +6- Multiattack), Improved Critical (Guns), Ranged Attack 4

Powers:
"Human/Skrull Physiology"
Morph 4 (Any Form) [20]
Concealment 1 (Detect True Shape) [2]
Shapeshift 1 [8]

"Detect Skrulls" Senses 6 (Skrull Sense- Radius, Ranged 4) [6]

Offense:
Unarmed +8 (+4 Damage, DC 19)
Blasters +8 (+6 Ranged Damage, DC 21)
Initiative +3

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

Complications:
Obsession (Killing All Skrulls)

Total: Abilities: 50 / Skills: 22--11 / Advantages: 9 / Powers: 36 / Defenses: 13 (119)

-The Skrull Kill Krew is distinctive to me for being by FAR the worst part of the Secret Invasion part of The Initiative. The fun part was seeing groups of heroes fighting Super-Skrulls that had infiltrated each of the Fifty State Initiative's super-teams. The lame part? Seeing a bunch of regular guys I'd never heard of, doing unimpressive stuff, dressing like '90s "We're too good for tights" losers. Seriously, these guys had NOTHING TO DO with the rest of the story- they just kind of interjected themselves because Skrulls were involved, and I guess we needed the Skrull Kill Krew somewhere.

-What's funny is that I desperately hated these losers even BEFORE I saw that they had the stink of Grant Morrison & Mark Millar on them. They really do have that "British Creator" feel to them, having a silly origin (they ate some beef that was tainted with Skrulls- a reference to how Reed Richards turned some Skrulls into cattle in their first appearance; though those Cow-Skrulls have appeared at least twice before with different results, usually turned back into cows) and EXTREEEEEEEME personalities and fighting styles. Tom Brevoort, the Editor of the title, admits the 2000AD nature of the whole thing- part-parody, part-gritty, part-over the top action- so many UK-based writers do that kind of stuff, and generally speaking, it usually fails to amuse me. It's part of why I laugh when some UK creators (like Garth Ennis, who's Irish) make fun of super-heroes- because this kind of thing is generally just as "childish" and silly as anything superheroes ever get up to.

-The series was originally supposed to be an ongoing, but shifted to a five-issue limited series because of the low appeal, Marvel's head Editor Tom DeFalco leaving in the duration, and problems in the mid-90s comic book industry. It's a bit funny, of course, to think of a time when GRANT MORRISON and MARK MILLAR could work on something and get absolutely zero confidence from Marvel on it, given that both later became megastars in the industry (though I'm a fan of neither), but hey- this was 1995- way before either was a "name".

-After the first Limited Series, they sat on the shelf for years until The Inititiave used them, and the whole Skrull-focused nature of the current "Event Story" led to ANOTHER Limited Series, written by Adam Felber (??). Generally, their concept is always the same: they are driven by their Skrull-tainted meat to murder all Skrulls in graphic manner. However, by Secret Invasion, only Ryder & Riot are left with their bodies intact- the other three are now heads in jars, having been eaten away by their Skrull infestation. Here, they join up with 3-D Man (the former Triathlon), then go on a Skrull-killing rampage. In the end, the three heads and Riot all die from their condition, leaving 3-D Man & Ryder to go off on a Skrull-hunting partnership. Later, Riot turns up alive (they came up with a reason, but I would bet money that the next writer forgot), and revives his dead teammates.

Skrull Kill Krew Roster:

Image

RYDER- PL 8 (149): ST 5, STA 5, Teleport 8, Extra Limbs 8, Ranged Attack 6 [30]
-Team leader and founder. Prefers to animate his hair into tentacles. It's implied in the newer series that he may in fact be one of the original Skrulls, and has been rendered amnesiac, believing himself to be a human being.

Image

RIOT II (Heidi Sladkin)- PL 8 (127): ST 6, STA 6, Protection 2, Parry +8 [8]
-A lesbian punk rocker who turns into an armored, insectoid form, and often has trouble reverting to human form.

Image

CATWALK- PL 8 (131): FIGHTING 10, Claws +2 (Split), Leaping 1 (15 feet), Speed 2, Expertise (Model) 4 (+6) [12]
-Former fashion model who takes a feline form.

Image

DICE- PL 8 (155): AGI 4, Immunity 2 (Suffocation, Pressure), Swimming 4, Env. Adaptation (Aquatic), Blast 8 (Area- 30ft. Burst), Expertise (Surfing) 4 (+6) [36]
-A former surfer who transforms his limbs into Blaster weapons.

Image

MOONSTOMP- PL 7 (119): None [0]
-British Neo-Nazi Skinhead. He hates Skrulls so much that he's willing to work with Ryder (who is black), even though he feels like he's compromising his values. Naturally, he is humiliated by the fact that his condition causes dark patches to form on his skin. Prefers to bash foes with a big claw hammer.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Thu Jan 27, 2022 1:34 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Storm! Starblasters! Slug! Sugar Man! Star-Thieves!)

Post by greycrusader »

Batgirl III wrote:The only straight-up evil wizard in comics that I've ever found interesting is Mordu, the former Big Bad Evil Guy of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Although his backstory is a horrib mess of retcons, continuity snarls, and some really weak showings outside of the LoSH books. But that's kinda par for the course for every LoSH-associated character.

Wonder Woman's arch-nemesis, Circe, and Thor's arch-nemesis, Loki, are both evil wizards... But writers long ago realized that they work better as Chessmasters. This keeps them viable threats, and keeps the writers from doing the same cast Summon Bigger Fish spell, get interrupted by hero, get eaten by summoned critter routine that makes so many of these generic sorcery schmucks so lame.

Thor and Diana both also have a lesser villain that is still a fairly generic sorcerer for the most part: the Enchantress and Felix Faust. But the writers have given both a very strong specialization/theme and keep them focused on that... Thus avoiding the "Can Do Anything The Writer Needs Me To" bullshit.

The Flash's perennial punching bag, Abra Kadabra, is a fun riff on the wizardly theme... for pretty much the same reason Spider-Man's Mysterio works as well. They have all the tropes and trappings of sorcerous villains, but as they're really just gadgeteers, writers can't make quite the same "asspull" moves to allow them a cheaters way of writing themselves out of a weak plot.
Agree to the Nth degree with Jab and Batgirl on this one. Far too often, magic-users/sorcerers fall into the "hand-wave/deus ex machina" category of super-powers, allowing them to solve just about any plot problem...but only when the writer is ready to wrap up the story, conveniently being unable to work the right spell until then. This applies not only to straight-up magic-based characters but also figures such as the Silver Age Green Lanterns, whose rings basically allowed them to do anything authors needed, just so long as it didn't involve the color yellow.

Such characters CAN work, so long as they are given a focus for their powers and reasonable limitations on what they can actually pull off in terms of effects; for example, a Dr. Fate whose spells are all rooted in Ancient Egyptian mythology/mysticism is much easier to deal with as a character than one who can cast any sort of spell any given writer can think up. The exception would be someone like Dr. Strange, who as Sorcerer Supreme is supposed to be something of a game-breaker, but even then there should be SOME parameters about what the power-set actually can and cannot do.

Oh, and quick aside-yeah, Jab, I agree with you about the snooty attitude a few British comic book writers have taken on super-heroes (Grant Morrison isn't actually one of these, to his credit); given a LOT of the stuff they do like (and like to write, for that matter) is equally outlandish, it just comes off as cultural snobbery.

All my best.
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Re: The Skrull Kill Krew

Post by Spam »

Jabroniville wrote:Image
I'll admit that it's been a while since I rode a motorcycle, but I think these people are doing it wrong. The only person actually sitting on it is sharing the handlebars with someone standing behind him, and none of them have their hands on the throttle. This is seriously one of the dumbest single images I've ever seen in a comic.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Storm! Starblasters! Sugar Man! Star-Thief! Skrull Kill Krew!)

Post by M4C8 »

Regarding Poppo, I'd never heard of him so I tried MarvelDatabase and it states he eventually turned on Casiolena and was told he would be welcomed back into Asgard.
'A shared universe, like any fictional construct, hinges on suspension of disbelief. When continuity is tossed away, it tatters the construct. Undermines it'
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Storm! Starblasters! Sugar Man! Star-Thief! Skrull Kill Krew!)

Post by Goldar »

Yeah Poppo was a minor character mystic, but powerful enough to be involved with the coupe on Asgard, although Fragon and Casiolena both much more powerful mystics, were definitely required to be involved.
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Batgirl III
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Re: The Skrull Kill Krew

Post by Batgirl III »

Spam wrote:
Jabroniville wrote:Image
I'll admit that it's been a while since I rode a motorcycle, but I think these people are doing it wrong. The only person actually sitting on it is sharing the handlebars with someone standing behind him, and none of them have their hands on the throttle. This is seriously one of the dumbest single images I've ever seen in a comic.
There actually seem to be two sets of handlebars. Blonde ponytail guy in the Member's Only jacket seems to be holding onto a set of handlebars connected to the rear wheel of a motorcycle...
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