JDRook's Revised DCA Builds - Blaze! Blockbuster(s)! Lady Vic!

Where in all of your character write ups will go.
User avatar
Batgirl III
Posts: 3626
Joined: Tue Nov 08, 2016 6:17 am
Location: Portland, Oregon

Re: JDRook's Revised DCA Builds - Black Canaries!

Post by Batgirl III »

The Cry itself is problematic to me, even though it's an excellent example of how to make an Array of Alternate Effects for a single power. While it's an iconic part of her character, it's made very clear that she keeps this power in her back pocket for bigger obstacles and usually relies on her melee skills in combat. This makes me want to simplify her power to a single slot she might use semi-regularly and have everything else as stunts.


I built her Canary Cry as an Affliction (see below) that comes in slightly under her PL Cap. In Birds of Prey or Green Arrow, Dinah tends to use her Cry as an opening "goon sweeper," laying low a whole group of thugs at the start of a fight, then switching to martial arts to beat up the primary villain(s). When she's operating as part of the JLA or JSA, she's more prone to using it throughout the entire fight, but still tends to stick to using it as a "goon sweeper." Dinah, Ollie, and the other lower power members of the team tend to stick to clearing out the cannon fodder, so the heavy hitters like Clark and Alan can concentrate on the Big Bad Evil Guy.

Canary Cry Affliction 5 (Resist/Recover: Fortitude; Conditions: Impaired, Disabled, Incapacitated; Extras: Area [Cone, 60'], Concentration, Cumulative; Flaws: Distracting, Fades) [ 10 PP]

Remember, if a Minion fails a resistance check, the Minion suffers the worst degree of the effect and most Minions tend to have pretty lousy Fortitude Defenses. So this version of the Cry will mop the floor with an entire room of goons. Against non-Minion villains, it might take a couple of panels (combat rounds) to get anywhere... But that's why it's Cumulative.
Overall it's a little challenging to get her down to starting PL10 without sacrificing quite a bit. Even if you removed the Cry completely she's 2p over as a PL10 martial arts detective. You could cut down the Cry to 5-6 ranks and still get a really solid Power Attack out of it, but still need to shave points in just about every other area to stay in budget. It would actually be simpler to just add a Cry to her mother's build.
I made a Ready to Play Black Canary a while back. I actually had the opposite problem that you did and needed to come up with ways to build her up to PL10. If I was going for a more straight adaptation of her comic book performance, I'd have probably built her at PL8 / 150~165 PP. Dinah is a good martial artist, but mostly deals with street-level threats; She's a decent detective, but tends to rely on intimidation and to find the information she needs, rather than crime scene forensics.
BARON wrote:I'm talking batgirl with batgirl. I love you internet.
User avatar
JDRook
Posts: 407
Joined: Fri Dec 30, 2016 11:57 pm
Location: The Calgary Rift - City of Monsters

Re: JDRook's Revised DCA Builds - Black Canaries!

Post by JDRook »

Batgirl III wrote: Fri Feb 19, 2021 4:06 am I built her Canary Cry as an Affliction (see below) that comes in slightly under her PL Cap. In Birds of Prey or Green Arrow, Dinah tends to use her Cry as an opening "goon sweeper," laying low a whole group of thugs at the start of a fight, then switching to martial arts to beat up the primary villain(s). When she's operating as part of the JLA or JSA, she's more prone to using it throughout the entire fight, but still tends to stick to using it as a "goon sweeper." Dinah, Ollie, and the other lower power members of the team tend to stick to clearing out the cannon fodder, so the heavy hitters like Clark and Alan can concentrate on the Big Bad Evil Guy.

Canary Cry Affliction 5 (Resist/Recover: Fortitude; Conditions: Impaired, Disabled, Incapacitated; Extras: Area [Cone, 60'], Concentration, Cumulative; Flaws: Distracting, Fades) [ 10 PP]

Remember, if a Minion fails a resistance check, the Minion suffers the worst degree of the effect and most Minions tend to have pretty lousy Fortitude Defenses. So this version of the Cry will mop the floor with an entire room of goons. Against non-Minion villains, it might take a couple of panels (combat rounds) to get anywhere... But that's why it's Cumulative.
...
I made a Ready to Play Black Canary a while back. I actually had the opposite problem that you did and needed to come up with ways to build her up to PL10. If I was going for a more straight adaptation of her comic book performance, I'd have probably built her at PL8 / 150~165 PP. Dinah is a good martial artist, but mostly deals with street-level threats; She's a decent detective, but tends to rely on intimidation and to find the information she needs, rather than crime scene forensics.
I really appreciate the feedback, and frankly was hoping for it. I've been coming at these largely with a mind toward mechanics and the DCA book being my first exposure, although I've been able to do some deeper research occasionally. My impression is that you have much more source experience than I do and work from there, so it's not surprising that we might have opposite problems.

Your Black Canary build seems to be an unintentionally good combo of both Drake and Laurel. I was considering just linking to your builds for some of these descriptions to save a lot of typing.

The Flaws on the Cry really work well, since Black Canary usually just stands and blasts (or at least slows down) in any live-action portrayal I've seen, and Fades is a great way to limit it while still allowing a HP for her to refresh. Even just applying those to the DCA array would feel like a good fix.

How often does Dinah do single-target blasts?
User avatar
Ken
Posts: 3460
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 10:40 pm
Location: Sycalb, Madiganistan

Re: JDRook's Revised DCA Builds - Black Canaries!

Post by Ken »

JDRook wrote: Fri Feb 19, 2021 7:28 amYour Black Canary build seems to be an unintentionally good combo of both Drake and Laurel.
Laurel LITERALLY was Drake for fourteen years. When Black Canary joined the JLA in JLA #75 (11/69) she was still Dinah Drake Lance. It wasn't until JLA #219-220 (10/83 a& 11/83) that DC said "wait, no, that was Dinah Drake Lance's daughter Dinah Laurel Lance back in JLA #75."

So any take on Black Canary that is supposed to represent DLL needs to be a decent representation of DDL+plus+Canary Cry+schtuping Oliver Queen.
My Amazing Woman: a super-hero romantic comedy podcast.

When the most powerful super hero on Earth marries an ordinary man, hilarity ensues.
User avatar
Batgirl III
Posts: 3626
Joined: Tue Nov 08, 2016 6:17 am
Location: Portland, Oregon

Re: JDRook's Revised DCA Builds - Black Canaries!

Post by Batgirl III »

It was also canon for the majority of the post-Crisis / pre-Flashpoint era (a.k.a., the good years) that repeated or prolonged use of the Canary Cry was damaging to her vocal cords, so she had to limit herself or she risked permanently losing her power (and he ability to speak). Hence, the Fades flaw.

Dinah doesn’t do what I would single target attacks much often. The artists almost always draw her Cry as a conical series of concentric circles, even when she’s blasting a single opponent it’s usually just a matter of making sure no one else is in the Area of Effect.

However, Dinah does seem to be able to make her Cry effect larger or smaller areas with ease in the comics. If I had built the linked build as a straight adapter (rather than a Ready to Play), I’d probably have tacked on two or three Alternate Powers: a couple that just changed the Area (Burst, Line) and one that increased the Effect Rank, with Area (Perception) and Tiring Modifiers.

She does occasionally use her Cry in other ways: knocking down walls (Burrowing or Weaken), shattering every bit of glass in a skyscraper (Environment: Impede Movement), or just straight-up putting the hurt on someone (Damage). But showings like this are the reason that Power Stunts exist.

Having said all that, there are thousands of different ways to tackle building any of these characters (just look around). So don’t feel like any of us are ever saying “you’re doing it wrong!” We’re just saying “here’s how I’d do it.”
BARON wrote:I'm talking batgirl with batgirl. I love you internet.
User avatar
JDRook
Posts: 407
Joined: Fri Dec 30, 2016 11:57 pm
Location: The Calgary Rift - City of Monsters

Re: JDRook's Revised DCA Builds - Black Canaries!

Post by JDRook »

Ken wrote: Fri Feb 19, 2021 3:24 pm
JDRook wrote: Fri Feb 19, 2021 7:28 amYour Black Canary build seems to be an unintentionally good combo of both Drake and Laurel.
Laurel LITERALLY was Drake for fourteen years. When Black Canary joined the JLA in JLA #75 (11/69) she was still Dinah Drake Lance. It wasn't until JLA #219-220 (10/83 a& 11/83) that DC said "wait, no, that was Dinah Drake Lance's daughter Dinah Laurel Lance back in JLA #75."

So any take on Black Canary that is supposed to represent DLL needs to be a decent representation of DDL+plus+Canary Cry+schtuping Oliver Queen.
I did end up reading Drake's first appearance and comparing that to Laurel when I read parts of Birds of Prey to find out who Misfit was, so I don't have a deep understanding of the characters but I am looking at their treatment as separate. I actually like the small variations in their DCA builds, like how Drake has better interaction skills and Attractive but Laurel is a little more intimidating and does not, or how Drake's Advantages are more geared toward assisting in a fight while Laurel's are better suited for solo or leading.

It's the little mechanical things like how neither build can really benefit from the Power Attack Advantage that I'd like to iron out.

It seems to me between the two of you someone must know if the 2 Black Canaries have ever had a proper team-up.
User avatar
Ken
Posts: 3460
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 10:40 pm
Location: Sycalb, Madiganistan

Re: JDRook's Revised DCA Builds - Black Canaries!

Post by Ken »

JDRook wrote: Fri Feb 19, 2021 5:52 pm It seems to me between the two of you someone must know if the 2 Black Canaries have ever had a proper team-up.
Not in any real meaningful sense. The closest we ever saw to a team-up between them was in JLA: Incarnations #1. We saw mother and daughter together in their civilian identities in JLA: Year One. But otherwise, I am not aware of any.

This goes back to what I said in my prior post. They weren't two characters. They since the JLA was on a sliding time scale, and the JSA wasn't it left them in the weird position of having a Black Canary who was in her mid-50s in the JLA circa 1983. So the mother/daughter thing was invented at that time. And this was in the penultimate of the classic JLA/JSA team-ups.

Then everything with the Crisis, and changing their histories... It's just a nightmare of continuity from wanting to keep a character who debuted in 1947 active into the 1980s, 1990s, and the 21st century.

Now, no one can be bothered to remember that she began her career in 1947, and they keep showing her with the JSA and All-Stars during the War....
My Amazing Woman: a super-hero romantic comedy podcast.

When the most powerful super hero on Earth marries an ordinary man, hilarity ensues.
User avatar
Batgirl III
Posts: 3626
Joined: Tue Nov 08, 2016 6:17 am
Location: Portland, Oregon

Re: JDRook's Revised DCA Builds - Black Canaries!

Post by Batgirl III »

It's complicated.

Dinah Drake made her debut in Flash Comics (Vol. 1) #86 way back in 1947 and basically got dropped from regular publication in the mid-1950's. Like most of the other Golden Age DC characters, she was brought back into the fold in the mid-1960s. It was retroactively established she lived on the parallel world of Earth-2 (which was the home of almost all of DC's Golden Age characters). Married to Larry Lance since the 1950s, Dinah participates in annual team-ups between the Justice Society and Earth-1's Justice League of America. In the 1969 annual team-up, Larry Lance was killed saving Dinah's life from the Big Bad Evil Guy and she decided to move permanently to Earth-1 and joined the JLA.

In the early Eighties, they published a story to explain her new sonic power and why she continued to appear youthful despite being active since the late 1940s*. So they retcon'd that back in the `50s, she and Larry had a daughter, Dinah Laurel Lance, who was cursed by the villain Wizard with a devastating sonic scream. The Drakes asked Johnny Thunder's genie Thunderbolt could cure her, but he was only able to keep the younger Dinah in suspended animation. To ease their pain, the Thunderbolt altered the memories of the tragedy, leaving all to believe Dinah's daughter had simply died. Following the battle where Larry was killed, Dinah discovered she was dying from radiation exposure, and she asked to see her daughter's grave one last time. Shown the body of her daughter — still in suspended animation and grown to adulthood — Dinah wished that she could somehow be her successor. The Superman of Earth-1 and the Thunderbolt conceived a solution and transferred Dinah's memories into her daughter's body so that she could continue fighting as the Black Canary. To quote Linkara, "Comics are weird."

Then came the Crisis on Infinite Earths.

In the new post-Crisis continuity, DC Comics retconned out Wonder Woman's role as a founding member of the JLA and replaced her in the line up with Black Canary... But they also left Black Canary in the line-up of the JSA. So they needed to come up with a way to explain how this one character could be a member of both teams*, thus the split into "Dinah Drake-Lance" (JSA) and "Dinah Laurel Lance" (JLA) both as individual heroines with the mind-transfer plot and the Earth-1 / Earth-2 split never having happened.

Then came Flashpoint and The New 52.

And her new comic was terrible and I stopped reading.






* And they couldn't do something silly like have her just be a middle-aged woman!
BARON wrote:I'm talking batgirl with batgirl. I love you internet.
User avatar
JDRook
Posts: 407
Joined: Fri Dec 30, 2016 11:57 pm
Location: The Calgary Rift - City of Monsters

Re: JDRook's Revised DCA Builds - Year 2; Still Painting it Black

Post by JDRook »

For those concerned, I'm still at it. The Big C didn't get me (damn capybaras) and I'm still hoping to get to the C's by Xmas. So let's see if I can get over the hump with a pumped-up GL-villain reboot like the Black Hand.
User avatar
JDRook
Posts: 407
Joined: Fri Dec 30, 2016 11:57 pm
Location: The Calgary Rift - City of Monsters

Re: JDRook's Revised DCA Builds - Year 2; Still Painting it Black

Post by JDRook »

Image
source

Image
source

Image
source

Black Hand - PL 11

Strength 0, Stamina 1, Agility 1, Dexterity 2, Fighting 2, Intellect 4, Awareness 3, Presence 2

Advantages
Diehard

Skills
Close Combat: Unarmed 4 (+6), Deception 4 (+6), Expertise: Death 8 (+12), Insight 4 (+7), Intimidation 6 (+8), Perception 4 (+7), Ranged Combat: Power Siphon 6 (+8), Technology 4 (+8), Treatment 2 (+6)

Powers

Power Siphon (Removable) - 64p - 13 removable51p
. . Force Field - 34p
. . . . Immunity: Immunity 10 (Life Support) - 10p
. . . . Protection: Protection 12 (+12 Toughness; Impervious) - 24p
. . Force Manipulation - 28p pool + 2AE
. . . . Force Blast: Blast 14 (DC 29) - [28p]
. . . . Force Constructs: Create 14 (Volume: 15000 cft., DC 24) - [1p]
. . . . Lifting: Move Object 14 (400 tons) - [1p]

Offense
Initiative +1
Force Blast: Blast 14, +8 (DC 29)
Grab, +2 (DC Spec 10)
Lifting: Move Object 14, +8 (DC 24)
Throw, +2 (DC 15)
Unarmed, +6 (DC 15)

Complications
Arrogant: Black Hand has a very high opinion of himself and his abilities, and loves to gloat given the opportunity.

Defense
Dodge 8, Parry 8, Fortitude 7, Toughness 13, Will 14

Power Points
Abilities 30 + Powers 51 + Advantages 1 + Skills 21 (42 ranks) + Defenses 30 = 133

The original Black Hand was introduced in the 60's as "criminal genius" William Hand, who had actually written and memorized an entire book on crime so he could think his way out of any situation, which sounds cheesy enough but is even better when he breaks the fourth wall to exposit all of this to the reader directly. Being both a criminal and a genius he crosses paths with Hal Jordan and manages not only to detect the traces of Hal's ring energy but even builds a device that collects and uses that energy for his own purposes, with the goal of using it to trap Hal in another dimension while still sucking power out of his ring. The plan only half-works, literally making the left half of Hal Jordan disappear (how they missed making a "Half Jordan" joke is the real crime) but Hal eventually prevails with creativity and a ring that can do anything.

The DCA Black Hand is a little different.* Both are William Hand, son of the successful and respected Hand family, but instead of crime, this Billy-boy is obsessed with death and has all the classic habits and foibles we've grown to expect from serial killers. Instead of inventing the Power Syphon himself, he acquires it while caught in the crossfire between Atrocitus, Hal Jordan and Sinestro, urged by a voice in his head to pick up a weapon Atrocitus drops. And instead of addressing the reader directly, William babbles about his greatness to the voice in his head, which is a manifestation of an ancient prophecy about the Blackest Night, the reason Atrocitus came to Earth. So while the first Black Hand was a "self-made" rich man who chose a life of crime to actively disappoint his family, the modern one is a child of destiny and a tool of prophecy.

Modern BH gets jobbed pretty hard, driven to madness from humiliation by Green Lantern and associates kicking his necrophile ass all over the place. This is all according to prophecy, of course, so the voice eventually reveals it is the Black Power Battery, and after he murder/suicides his family, William gets the first Black Power Ring, turning his dead body into the first Black Lantern.

Image
source

Black Lantern - PL 14

Strength 0, Stamina -, Agility 1, Dexterity 2, Fighting 2, Intellect 4, Awareness 3, Presence 8

Advantages
Diehard

Skills
Close Combat: Unarmed 4 (+6), Deception 4 (+12), Expertise: Death 12 (+16), Insight 4 (+15/+7), Intimidation 6 (+14), Perception 4 (+7), Ranged Combat: Black Power Ring 6 (+8), Technology 4 (+8), Treatment 2 (+6)

Powers
Black Power Ring (Removable)
. . Force Field
. . . . Protection 12 (+12 Toughness; Impervious)
. . Force Manipulation
. . . . Force Blast: Blast 14 (DC 29)
. . . . Force Constructs: Create 14 (Volume: 15000 cft., DC 24)
. . . . Lifting: Move Object 14 (400 tons)
Life-Draining: Weaken 20 (Affects: Stamina, Resisted by: Fortitude, DC 30)
Risen
. . Immortality 20 (Return after 3 seconds)
. . Immunity 30 (Fortitude Effects)
. . Regeneration 20 (2 per round)
Spectral Sight
. . Detect Emotions: Senses 5 (Accurate: Emotions, Acute: Emotions, Detect: Emotions 1, Ranged: Emotions)
. . Enhanced Trait 4 (Traits: Insight +8 (+15))

Offense
Initiative +1
Force Blast: Blast 14, +8 (DC 29)
Grab, +2 (DC Spec 10)
Life-Draining: Weaken 20, +6 (DC Fort 30)
Lifting: Move Object 14, +8 (DC 24)
Throw, +2 (DC 15)
Unarmed, +6 (DC 15)

Complications
Arrogant: Black Hand has a very high opinion of himself and his abilities, and loves to gloat given the opportunity.
Weakness: Only the pure white light of creation can truly destroy the Black Lanterns.

Defense
Dodge 8, Parry 8, Fortitude Immune, Toughness 12, Will 14

Power Points
Abilities 30 + Powers 162 + Advantages 1 + Skills 23 (46 ranks) + Defenses 24 = 240

The 3 Hands

It's hard to say if I even like these guys. The first BH has that hokey yet charming early comics appeal. I read that first appearance issue and seeing William and his gang of goons stealing armloads of fur coats just seems so damn quaint! I'm sure furs are still good targets for theft, but still, something about it feels really mid-20th century. Conceptually, the idea of using the hero's unique power against him also has good legs; hoisting any character, good or evil, by their own petard can be pretty clever and entertaining. And he's exactly the kind of villain you could trick into monologuing while the rest of your team sneaks around behind to wedgie him. I think he'd make a great template for a nemesis to any weird-energy wielding hero.

William Hand, Pet Taxidermist just puts me off. Knowing there's an end goal for this Edgelord Harry Potter makes him a little more bearable, but I'm just not a fan of serial killer chic, although I seem to be in the minority on that view. His greatest function is that you'll never feel bad when he loses.

Black Lantern I don't particularly like more than Black Hand, but the process of turning heroes' greatest losses into undead beings playing on their emotions is fascinating stuff, and if the whole GL theme is playing on the power of emotion, this is right on target. I don't necessarily like all of it, but I respect the storytelling and character delving power of it. In a game setting, this should hit players right in the Complications.

Mechanically, BH is an underpointed PL11 hitting offensive caps with his Power Siphon and coming in at PL10.5 across the boards for his defenses. A few point issues common for Removables. I still think adding some gadgets and goons to him would make for a fun old-school villain, someone who wouldn't feel out of place in Batman's Rogue's Gallery.

The Black Lantern upgrade techically makes Hand a PL14 (thanks to Will 14 and Fort Immunity) but his defenses haven't changed (although he can drop two conditions every round and ressurect at the start of each round) and the Life Draining Weaken attack is still only PL13. At +6/20, it's not likely to hit any GL or comparable hero unless they're already down or possibly Vulnerable/Defenseless, maybe Grabbed by BL's Move Object or entrapped by his Force Constructs. Summoning the dead to make the living feel bad is basically a PLX plot device and not worth statting out.

I did make some adjustments to BL to make the numbers work better. Removed Life Support since Fort Immune covers that, bumped up his Death skill as per the book, but for reasons I don't recall I made his INT 10 and PRE 8. I put his INT back to normal but decided he really needed the Presence boost so I left it in. There's also no reason I'm aware of you couldn't give him more of the standard Ring Powers, like Interstellar Flight and Universal Translator; is BL the only Lantern who can't fly?

---

Ok, that is done. Now on to a BL that's a little more consistently fun. Black Lightning next!



*Really, if you want to make the 1964 Black Hand, you'd probably want to gadgeteer him up a bit, giving him Inventor and Eidetic Memory at the very least, upping his tech skills and changing his "Death" Expertise to Crime.
Last edited by JDRook on Thu Sep 23, 2021 3:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Ares
Site Admin
Posts: 4963
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:40 am

Re: JDRook's Revised DCA Builds - Year 2

Post by Ares »

Man, I hated the changes they made to the Black Hand character.

The original Black Hand was a bit of Silver Age fun, and worked just fine as is. A genius inventor who was apparently some expert in energy related technology figures out how to trace Green Lantern energy and even create a device that feeds on residual or that energy directly. He's basically an evil version of the Ted Knight Starman, only his "cosmic rod" works on Green Lanterns.

I'm not saying the guy should have been Hal Jordan's number one nemesis, but there should have been plenty of ways to use him without having to turn him into some death obsessed weirdo with a completely new backstory. Imagine if the Black Hand started creating anti-Green Lantern technology and sold it to people, even aliens, who wanted an edge on the Lantern? Suddenly he's raking in cash, having "a hand" in everything and is both the source of new problems and a fun recurring menace in an old school costume.

And instead, Johns goes full edge lord and makes him a death obsessed nutjob. Probably while listening to "Crawling in my skin" for extra edge. Ugh.
"My heart is as light as a child's, a feeling I'd nearly forgotten. And by helping those in need, I will be able to keep that feeling alive."
- Captain Marvel SHAZAM! : Power of Hope (2000)

Want to support me and Echoes of the Multiverse? Follow this link to subscribe or donate.
User avatar
JDRook
Posts: 407
Joined: Fri Dec 30, 2016 11:57 pm
Location: The Calgary Rift - City of Monsters

Re: JDRook's Revised DCA Builds - Year 2

Post by JDRook »

Ares wrote: Thu Sep 23, 2021 1:54 amMan, I hated the changes they made to the Black Hand character.
We are definitely on the same page about that.
He's basically an evil version of the Ted Knight Starman, only his "cosmic rod" works on Green Lanterns.
That's interesting. I've still got this backburner idea with Ted Knight studying Alan Scott's energies and stumbling on a way to access the Oa Battery with his own somewhat clunkier versions of the rings (I'm thinking vambraces). When he realizes the energies tune in on certain individuals of strong will, he gathers a small group of them to act as a secret arm of the Opal City Police Department. I've been trying to come up with a good name for the group, but I can't get past calling them the Knight Lights.
User avatar
Davies
Posts: 5080
Joined: Thu Mar 23, 2017 10:37 pm
Location: Edmonton, AB

Re: JDRook's Revised DCA Builds - Year 2; Still Painting it Black

Post by Davies »

Star Lights.
"I'm sorry. I love you. I'm not sorry I love you."
User avatar
Ken
Posts: 3460
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 10:40 pm
Location: Sycalb, Madiganistan

Re: JDRook's Revised DCA Builds - Year 2

Post by Ken »

JDRook wrote: Thu Sep 23, 2021 4:32 am
He's basically an evil version of the Ted Knight Starman, only his "cosmic rod" works on Green Lanterns.
That's interesting. I've still got this backburner idea with Ted Knight studying Alan Scott's energies and stumbling on a way to access the Oa Battery with his own somewhat clunkier versions of the rings (I'm thinking vambraces). When he realizes the energies tune in on certain individuals of strong will, he gathers a small group of them to act as a secret arm of the Opal City Police Department. I've been trying to come up with a good name for the group, but I can't get past calling them the Knight Lights.
Getting from Alan to the Oan battery is quite a leap since Alan isn't attached to the Corp.

Ted already developed what is arguably a clunkier version of a power ring. If one looks at what he (and then Sylvester) were doing with the cosmic rod and cosmic belt in the 1960s and compare that to what he could do in the 1940s with the gravity rod... It was a huge leap. And even sometimes the rod seemed to be activated by willpower at a distance (e.g. JLA #101).

Your Knight Lights idea will work w/o tying it to the GLC.
My Amazing Woman: a super-hero romantic comedy podcast.

When the most powerful super hero on Earth marries an ordinary man, hilarity ensues.
User avatar
JDRook
Posts: 407
Joined: Fri Dec 30, 2016 11:57 pm
Location: The Calgary Rift - City of Monsters

Re: JDRook's Revised DCA Builds - Year 2

Post by JDRook »

Ken wrote: Thu Sep 23, 2021 2:44 pmGetting from Alan to the Oan battery is quite a leap since Alan isn't attached to the Corp.

Ted already developed what is arguably a clunkier version of a power ring. If one looks at what he (and then Sylvester) were doing with the cosmic rod and cosmic belt in the 1960s and compare that to what he could do in the 1940s with the gravity rod... It was a huge leap. And even sometimes the rod seemed to be activated by willpower at a distance (e.g. JLA #101).

Your Knight Lights idea will work w/o tying it to the GLC.
The original impetus for the idea was pretty dry: I just wanted to make a PL6 Green Lantern as a build challenge. That led to wondering what kind of setting that would work in, and making street level Lantern stories - effectively taking the "space" out of Space Cop - made an Earth-bound semi-powered police force make sense. Thinking who and how put Ted Knight as the most likely candidate, and his contact with Alan Scott an obvious spark to experiment with "lantern energy". I know the Starheart may not be directly related to the Corps, but their respective energies seem close enough for comic science, and whatever universal broadcast power they both have to use could be "hackable" by Knight. So a mid-20th Century Opal City with a secret Green Lantern-esque police force feels like it would have a lot of story potential and tie in a lot of alternate DC versions. Ares's suggestion of having original flavour "crime genius" William Hand as an ongoing threat would be perfect for this setting, with Hand an ideal counter to Knight.

I mean I guess it doesn't have to have the connection to the Oan battery for stories to work, but it's certainly a fun option.
User avatar
Ares
Site Admin
Posts: 4963
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:40 am

Re: JDRook's Revised DCA Builds - Year 2; Still Painting it Black

Post by Ares »

Why not make it something like a two part device where they have a badge shaped like Ted's Starman symbol and a baton / nightstick that they use to direct the energy, and the can be called something like the Star Knights or the Knight Watch. Or heck, give them an arm guard and have the device also called a Knight watch.
"My heart is as light as a child's, a feeling I'd nearly forgotten. And by helping those in need, I will be able to keep that feeling alive."
- Captain Marvel SHAZAM! : Power of Hope (2000)

Want to support me and Echoes of the Multiverse? Follow this link to subscribe or donate.
Post Reply