LOL now how did I know the braids would be a different length and position in every picture?
BATTLESTONE (John Stone)
Created By: Rob Liefeld
First Appearance: Youngblood #1 (April 1992)
Role: Anti-Hero, Unskilled Leader, Undead Super-Commando, Edgelord
Marvel Character Most Ripped Off: Cable (Shitty attitude; anti-government team leader; white/grey hair; ageless sorta-mutant)
'90s Ratio: 9/10 (long braids; shitty attitude; aggressive personality; ageless; banded metal on his... cock?)
Group Affiliations: Youngblood, Brigade, Knightstrike
PL 8 (101)
STRENGTH 7 STAMINA 7 AGILITY 4
FIGHTING 9 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 0 PRESENCE 0
Skills:
Athletics 3 (+10)
Deception 5 (+5)
Expertise (Government Agent) 4 (+6)
Intimidation 8 (+8)
Perception 6 (+6)
Stealth 2 (+3)
Advantages:
All-Out Attack, Fearless, Improved Critical (Unarmed), Power Attack, Ranged Attack 6, Startle, Takedown 2
Powers:
"Rob Liefeld Character"
Enhanced Skills 3: Stealth 3 (+8) (Flaws: Limited to Feet) [1]
Features 1: Braids Appear A Different Length Each Time They're Seen [1]
Offense:
Unarmed +9 (+7 Damage, DC 22)
Initiative +4
Defenses:
Dodge +9 (DC 19), Parry +9 (DC 19), Toughness +7, Fortitude +9, Will +5
Complications:
Motivation (Being Extreme and Looking Cool)
Responsibility ("Real Man")- Poisoned by a toxic upbringing by his alpha-male father, Battlestone has forged his entire life by being the most uncompromising, unfeeling, vicious, strong, tough, grizzled, bad-ass man possible. This makes him shockingly aggressive and stupidly destructive in battle.
Enemy (Cabbot Stone- Brother)- Cabbot was frequently beaten by John when they were boys, under their father's orders. Cabbot was thought killed years ago, but returned with a grudge.
Enemy (Quantum- Father)- The Stone boys' father is an aggressive, Mutant Suprema-- NU-GENE Supremacist, and has opposed Battlestone a few times.
Total: Abilities: 60 / Skills: 28--14 / Advantages: 13 / Powers: 2 / Defenses: 12 (101)
-The central character of the Brigade series is unquestionably Battlestone, who quite possibly best represents the true nature of an Image character more than any other. No, not the whole "Rips off an X-Men character" thing, nor the "Titty Costume" thing: To me, what best exemplifies Image Comics is the whole "BAD ATTITUDE" thing. And Battlestone, who appears aggressive, grimacing and mean in every single picture, seems to seep that shitty "Edgelord" attitude from every pore of his being. His appearance screams Liefeld, too- though he lacks the ubiquitous pouches in most pictures, he's got those weird-ass "Liefeldian Braids" that pop up on a few bad-ass male charaters of his- for whatever reason, Rob liked to draw these weird, skinny braids on his heroes. Braids that would shift in length and thickness from panel to panel. But by god, he loved braids.
-His violent temperament was probably forged by his father, who forced Battlestone & Cabbot to engage in physical violence from a young age, in part to raise "real men". Both Stone boys were "Nu-Gene" bearers- similar to, yet legally-distinct from, mutants. Living for decades without aging much, he fought in World War II (this is something VERY COMMON to Image characters- many of them copy Wolverine so directly that they're also ageless World War II veterans) alongside various now-aged Image heroes, then became a government wetworks agent, becoming more psychopathic with each passing decade (SEE? IMAGE COMICS!!). Finally, he was turned on by his teammate Dutch, who was a Cybernet operative- Stone's corpse was resurrected via the "Born Again" project, making him a pasty, goulish warrior.
-Battlestone thus ended up the original leader of the government group Youngblood, but was fired after a mission got some members killed- two members who hated him died on a mission in Iraq, and another blamed Stone, thinking he sent them to their deaths on purpose (they were blown up by booby-traps)- during a brawl, Stone punched the man, killing him, too. Diehard beat Stone to a pulp, while Chapel had him arrested. He was court-martialed and quickly let disappear, and of course promptly formed his OWN strike force, named "Brigade"- gathering some old associates, they went on their way as a clandestine group, then decided to go more public as mercenaries.
-When Boone betrayed the team to his government bosses by publishing an expose about them (it was written by Thermal, who had chosen not to do so), Battlestone naturally attacked him, the two men seeming to perish in an explosion. Battlestone was taken away by Boone and brainwashed into being a loyal puppet. He thus headed a Youngblood team alongside Diehard, Vogue, Cougar and Combat, and led them against his original squad (now very different, as most members had since been killed). He took orders from a guy named "Lord Dredd", and made to head one of a few Youngblood teams, seemingly getting a new personality- more calm, collected and professional. Given how he was NEVER SHOWN RECOVERING, it seems very clear to me that Rob had simply decided that "Brigade sucks and the book doesn't sell; I'm just gonna bring the character I like to Youngblood" and that was that, explaining away the new personality and never focusing on the plot thread at all.
-Battlestone is more or less a savage, uncompromising, PL 8 Scrapper build- fearless and tough, but a low-end superhuman all the same. Despite being leader, he has barely any PRE score and no Leadership-related Advantages, largely because he's a giant, aggressive idiot whose entire strategy is "Hit 'Em Hard!".
!?!
