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

[Jabroniville]

RAPTURE (Sharona Jackson)
Created By: Erik Larsen
First Appearance: The Savage Dragon #4 (Sept. 1993)
Role: Ex-Prostitute Turned Superhero, Miss Fanservice, Blaster
Marvel Character Most Ripped Off: Powerhouse (almost exactly the same character design)
'90s Ratio: 8/10 (HOOKER SUPER-HERO; also, is wearing one of Image's skimpiest one-piece costumes)
Group Affiliations: Freak Force, Strikeforce
PL 8 (127)
STRENGTH 2 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 4
FIGHTING 7 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 1 AWARENESS 1 PRESENCE 1

Skills:
Deception 3 (+4, +6 Attractive)
Expertise (Lady of the Night) 6 (+7)
Intimidation 5 (+6)
Perception 5 (+6)
Persuasion 3 (+4, +6 Attractive)

Advantages:
All-Out Attack, Attractive, Improved Critical (Electricity), Power Attack, Ranged Attack 4

Powers:
Electrical Aura 7 (Feats: Dynamic) (29) -- [30]
Dynamic AE: Electrical Blast 8 (Feats: Dynamic, Split) (18)

"Arc Through The Air" Flight 5 (60 mph) [10]
Immunity 10 (Electrical Effects) [10]

Offense:
Unarmed +7 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Electrical Aura +7 (+7 Damage, DC 22)
Blast +8 (+8 Ranged Damage, DC 23)
Initiative +4

Defenses:
Dodge +10 (DC 20), Parry +8 (DC 18), Toughness +3, Fortitude +5, Will +4

Complications:
Relationship (The Savage Dragon)
Reputation (Former Prostitute)

Total: Abilities: 46 / Skills: 22--11 / Advantages: 8 / Powers: 50 / Defenses: 12 (127)

-Rapture is an early love interest for the main hero in The Savage Dragon, and one of the "Image"-iest- wearing little more than the world's tiniest lingerie, she's spilling out of the top, has hair down to her calves, and is a literal EX-PROSTITUTE, just ramping up the "Bad Girl" tropes. Like a few of Larsen's Dragon characters, she's got great similarities to his past Marvel work- in the 1980s, he designed a character fighting X-Factor, and added her to a Spidey comic as "Powerhouse"- she's also a black woman in a swimsuit-esque costume and wild hair.

-Rapture was born into bad circumstances, and had to make a living on the streets, as her departed mother had. She ended up abducted by Dr. Nirvana, an enemy of Mighty Man's, and given super-powers as part of his experiments on living beings. Rapture was the only survivor, badly burning Nirvana as her powers activated. She killed her murderous pimp in self-defense (she was talked out of murdering him by Ricochet, but he pulled a gun on her), and joined up with Freak Force and the Chicago PD, and even became the Dragon's first long-term girlfriend. Her flirtacious nature often threatened to break them up, but she gave birth to their child- when it was stolen away by the Covenant of the Sword and its death was faked, the trauma broke the couple up for good. The character was killed off in the battle against Damien DarkLord, who incinerated her when she opposed him in a parallel dimension.

-An alternate universe version of Rapture was among many women gathered by DarkLord later on, and she remained on Earth when it was discovered that her homeworld had been destroyed. With the Dragon thought-dead, Rapture decided to raise their now-found son, Malcolm. Except then Earth was destroyed by Universo and she died. Finally, a new "continuity" occurred when Dragon killed DarkLord in the past, and now Rapture was a fugitive from justice, having executed her pimp in cold blood- she joined a new Freak Force, but soon quit, and returned to her old life, now obese (!!). However, she lost weight and... was then killed by a vigilante who punished her for killing the pimp. Later, ANOTHER alternate universe version is killed by a cop using a "Power Glove" (It's so BAD!).

-This all comes off like Erik Larsen has a weird taste for bringing this character back... then rapidly getting bored or just killing her out of a sick fascination or something. I dunno. It's a good look, though! Eye-popping and so, SO '90s, but it's a style. I mean, she's mega-hot, yo.

-Rapture is a reasonably-powerful Blaster, but is REALLY vulnerable, owing to the deaths of a dozen versions of her over the past 28 years or so. I mean, PL 6.5 defenses is NOT impressive.

[Jabroniville]

Erik Larsen has now killed off the original Dragon of the series for good it seems. His son Malcolm Dragon is now the Savage Dragon and actually as a hero is a lot more competent and a better fighter than his dad was ever portrayed as being. The series hit a very bad patch in the 150's to 160's, with Dragon doing little other than getting badly mangled in a fight and then having to spend some time recovering. One entire page once was nothing but Dragon laid up in bed swathed head to toe in bandages while a fly buzzed about. No dialogue, no plot, just a buzzing fly.

The series is also at times a lot saucier than it used to be. It's always been pretty adult but it has gotten a lot more explicit and racy over the last few years. It's a rare issue now that doesn't feature some female nudity, though Larsen keeps it mostly to boobs and butts and doesn't actually go into full-on porn.

As of the most recent issue Dragon is back, but an alternate universe version based on the original design from the '80's. Alex has already hooked up with him, not caring that he is not quite the Dragon she knew. Larsen draws Alex as looking almost exactly the same as she was back in 1992, only making her seem a little aged in the face and not at all in the body as she's still got a classic '90's figure, despite the comic running in real time and her being in her 50's now.

As you can tell I'm a big Dragon fan and have read the entire series and all the specials and crossovers.

yeah, my friend was telling me about how it gets graphic on waves. Like it’ll be pretty smutty in the first years, then pretty chaste, and now you’ll see borderline porn. I looked at some stuff online and it was JUST on the edge of hardcore, with Malcolm with a whole group of people in a gangbang, lol.

[Jabroniville]

I would have put Dragon at PL 10, since he's in that butter zone where he can still take some damage from normal opponents, but he also has some real "Oh fuck, how strong he is" moments.
Just for a bit of context, I usually estimate Spidey to be a PL 10 environmental specialist (i.e. he operates at PL9, but climbs to 10 when he can move freely). Full PL10 is what I often use for mid-tier powerhouses like the Thing, She-Hulk and Colossus.

Ah, I’m usually a PL over you, which is funny, because I’m usually a level or two under “board standards”, at least back in the day.

[Gamebook]

yeah, my friend was telling me about how it gets graphic on waves. Like it’ll be pretty smutty in the first years, then pretty chaste, and now you’ll see borderline porn. I looked at some stuff online and it was JUST on the edge of hardcore, with Malcolm with a whole group of people in a gangbang, lol.

Strictly speaking that was a threesome, or maybe a foursome, depending on the issue, which is usually a guy and several women. A gang bang is a woman and several men. Multiple people of both (or exclusively one of the) sexes is an orgy .

[Ken]

yeah, my friend was telling me about how it gets graphic on waves. Like it’ll be pretty smutty in the first years, then pretty chaste, and now you’ll see borderline porn. I looked at some stuff online and it was JUST on the edge of hardcore, with Malcolm with a whole group of people in a gangbang, lol.

Strictly speaking that was a threesome, or maybe a foursome, depending on the issue, which is usually a guy and several women. A gang bang is a woman and several men. Multiple people of both (or exclusively one of the) sexes is an orgy .

"Technically an orgy requires a minimum of six participants. It goes: masturbation, one-on-one, threesome, two couples swinging, two couples swinging with a lookie-loo, orgy's six." - Charlie Harper

[Jabroniville]

FREAK FORCE:
-Savage Dragon being based around the notion of the main hero fighting the "Suprefreaks" that make up Chicago's supervillain community, it made sense to slowly gather good-aligned superfreaks to help out. The Chicago PD recruited various characters- the Detroit vigilante Dart, the abuse victim Horridus, and Ricochet & Barbaric were recruited by the Dragon. The elder heroes SuperPatriot & Mighty Man also join, as does Dragon's girlfriend, the ex-prostitute Rapture. Their run as cops was pretty disastrous- Barbaric nearly killed some Vicious Circle members during a prison break, and they all hated the idea of wearing police uniforms. This all led them to quit the force, at which point Erik wrote a spin-off series that lasted for eighteen issues from Dec. 1993 to July 1995- Vic Bridges provided the pencils, and Keith Giffen was a co-writer. The team is frequently beaten and humiliated- Dart quits after a disastrous mission that leaves two assisting heroes (Mr. Big & Hornet) dead and Rapture with a broken leg. Freak Force disbands shortly thereafter.

-The team's members appear periodically over the years, like in the Dragon's "Strikeforce" team to replace Youngblood- Mighty Man's human form is killed, and his powers go to Dart. Barbaric & Ricochet marry to get a merchandising deal, and Rapture is killed on an S.O.S. mission.

[Jabroniville]

BARBARIC (Barney Runningbear)
Created By: Erik Larsen
First Appearance: The Savage Dragon #1 (July 1992)
Role: The Strong Guy
Marvel Character Most Ripped Off: None
'90s Ratio: 6/10 (Token Team "Strong Guy")
Group Affiliations: Freak Force, Strikeforce
PL 8 (86)
STRENGTH 11 STAMINA 10 AGILITY 2
FIGHTING 5 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 1 AWARENESS 1 PRESENCE 1

Skills:
Deception 3 (+4)
Intimidation 7 (+8)
Perception 3 (+4)
Persuasion 3 (+4)

Advantages:
Fast Grab, Improved Hold

Powers:
Leaping 2 (30 feet) [2]

Offense:
Unarmed +5 (+11 Damage, DC 26)
Initiative +2

Defenses:
Dodge +6 (DC 16), Parry +6 (DC 16), Toughness +10, Fortitude +10, Will +4

Complications:
Relationship (Ricochet)- The two are married.

Total: Abilities: 66 / Skills: 16--8 / Advantages: 2 / Powers: 2 / Defenses: 8 (86)

-Barbaric is a pretty generic-looking "Team Strongman" character- a Native American who had nuclear waste illegally dumped in his reservation's water supply. His friends and family died, but Barney Runningbear mutated into a powerhouse. He befriended Ricochet and the two were captured by "Mutant Management Service", but escaped and were recruited by the Savage Dragon to Freak Force, and later Strikeforce. Unusual for this series, both survived until modern times, marrying and having a child.

-A friend told me that Barbaric was vaguely "Thing-Level" in strength, but less durable, so I went with a weaker PL 8 variant of the Powerhouse build.

[Ares]

Eric Larsen may have been why Image decided to stop going the "shared universe" route and instead had each individual studio occupy it's own "Image-verse" as part of a larger Image Multiverse. Where crossovers with other characters were possible but didn't affect individual continuity between books unless the writers wanted it to. Because, by my last count, the current Savage Dragon setting is at least the THIRD universe the Savage Dragon cast has wound up in. As far as Larsen is concerned, the original Image-verse? It got blowed up. Then another universe Dragon went to got blown up. It might have happened a third time, I'm not sure. At least once there was also a massive time retcon.

Larsen seems to have fallen into the "Rick and Morty Multiverse Theory of Nihilism" with the idea that since there's an infinite multiverse, nothing really matters because he can just destroy the worlds, wind up on a similar world where things are how he wants them for whatever interesting story he wants to tell. I think Malcom and Alex are technically the only surviving members from the original Larsen-Image-Verse now that Dragon himself has died.

As a result, Larsen is more than fine with killing off characters, because he can just time travel or universe hop to get them back if he ever feels like writing them again. He's likewise okay with mutilating his characters as well. One of the earliest signs was when he had Dart's legs blown off during a super fight, then had Rapture murdered, he had Super Patriot's kids killed during a fight, he killed off Anne Stevens/Mighty Man twice (she's fine in the current universe), pretty much all of Dragon's girlfriends save Alex have died, Star died at least twice, then he started killing off entire universes. He's VERY kill happy, but again, he just brings them back via alternate universe shenanigans if he wants to write them.

Larsen is . . . kind of frustrating. His "more mature than Marvel, less pretentious than Vertigo" is kind of true for a given value of "mature", but only in the sense that he shows more R-Rated content and basically stops just short of his comics being porn. For a while I was a real fan of the Savage Dragon book, partially because of the obvious Captain Marvel homage (Larsen is a huge Captain Marvel fan), and partially because it felt like an actual superhero book with the fun craziness of comics. There'd be awesome fight scenes, some fun humor, there was an interesting set up with Dragon as a police officer in a city that had just lost its main superheroes, and then had Dragon as a leader of the Younglood replacement team (made just after Liefeld was booted out of Image).

And then Larsen will engage in the same kind of gross out humor and ultra violent that annoys me about Garth Ennis and Mark Millar. Eric literally created a villain whose power is to shoot waves of high-pressure feces (literal human shit), while another guy called Backblast could shoot explosive energy blasts out of his ass. He created a Galactus homage (Universo) who was served by a herald called Mother Mayhem, an overweight alien woman wearing a Moo Moo flying around with three alien babies that she could command to do do her will. Oh, and the aliens were all connected to her by umbilical cords that the the dress thankfully concealed.

I think what makes Larsen's version more tolerable is that he has a genuine love for comics and superheroes, and doesn't feel the need to deconstruct them at every turn or call them stupid. He'd definitely poke fun at comics, but they felt more like in jokes and not really mean spirited.

Like when he had Bedrock attack Dragon to see if he was tough enough for Youngblood, and Dragon point out how stupid that was, only for Bedrock to declare that it happened in Marvel Comics all the time. That was a bit of an exaggeration, and even in Marvel they would point out how dumb it was to attack a potential teammate, but it showed how immature Bedrock was and that a superpowered cop would be different than a normal superhero.

Likewise, when Dragon fought Solar Man, it was basically poking fun at how Superman had started out relatively low-powered, but got more powerful as time went on, often by suing the competition or by absorbing them into his own universe. I think Larsen's Captain Marvel fandom was showing with that story. The idea being that Solar Man would capture superpowered heroes, hook them up to a device and draw power from them, basically making himself stronger while putting the rest of the heroes in stasis. It was also a fun way to bring back a lot of public domain heroes like the original Daredevil.

It's also telling that even Larsen's evil Superman wasn't as insane as Rob Liefeld's Pre-/Post-Moore Supreme.

Then again, he'll sometimes dedicate entire pages of a book to a diatribe about whatever bug is up his butt at the time, like when he had a character complain about how ever villain in a live action superhero movie in the last 15 years is a mirror image villain of the hero.

Larsen is a man that definitely enjoys his cheesecake, but his women are often more anatomically correct than his men, so I can't fault him too much. Plus when he puts effort in, he can make them actually look good.

I've also heard that Larsen found it funny that most people remember Savage Dragon as a cop, when he was only a police officer for only the first 40 issues of a book that is now over 250 issues and still going. But at the same time, that was really Dragon at it's most interesting. We got a different perspective with a superpowered cop, there was ton of story potential, and after Dragon stopped being a cop the series sort of lost focus and just became a kind of "whatever Larsen felt like doing at the time" kind of series. Now Dragon was leading the new Youngblood-equivalent. Now he was fighting in an alternate dimension. He just seemed to bounce from one thing to another with no direction or focus in his life. As a cop, there was a focus to the story that helped tie everything together. Basically, everyone remembers Dragon as being a cop because that was when the book made the most sense.

Overall Larsen seems like someone who needs either an editor or a co-writer. A lot of creativity, but really unfocused. Not interested so much in world-building as just having crazy shit happen, throwing in the odd insult when he feels like it, indulging in his weird fetishes, and mostly just having fun. The fun part is probably why the book endures to this day, even if it's largely lost focus. But at the very least, you can definitely that Larsen is still having fun with it.


*EDIT*

Apparently Larsen actually destroyed his version of the multiverse around issue 225, which was about 25 issues ago as of now. So it looks like I was wrong on that count. It kind of sounds like Larsen realized how low-stakes his setting was with his current take on things, so now it's back to a single universe for him.


*DOUBLE EDIT*

[CENSORED] me, but I was wrong. Larsen has gotten REALLY sex obsessed with the last 30 issues or so. Like, Malcolm's wife is basically super horny all the time, constantly masturbating, constantly going for sex, and we keep getting these shots of them having sex and Malcolm cumming so hard he blasts her across the room, complete will full frontal nudity of the wife. And there's worse stuff I'm not even going to describe. It's just . . . WHY?

[Jabroniville]

RICOCHET (Rikki Shaefer)
Created By: Erik Larsen
First Appearance: The Savage Dragon #2 (Aug. 1992)
Role: Bouncer
Marvel Character Most Ripped Off: Speedball (bouncing-themed hero)
'90s Ratio: 1/10 (goggles are I guess a '90s trait)
Group Affiliations: Freak Force, Strikeforce
PL 7 (90)
STRENGTH 2 STAMINA 5 AGILITY 4
FIGHTING 9 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 1 AWARENESS 1 PRESENCE 1

Skills:
Acrobatics 6 (+10)
Athletics 8 (+10)
Deception 3 (+4)
Perception 5 (+6)
Persuasion 3 (+4)
Ranged Attack 3 (+11)

Advantages:
Agile Feint, Defensive Attack, Improved Defense, Move-By Action

Powers:
"Bouncing"
Leaping 5 (250 feet) [5]
Leaping +2 (Flaws: Source- Falling Equal Distance) [1]
Immunity 2 (Falling Damage) [2]

"Stretchy"
Elongation 1 [1]

Offense:
Unarmed +9 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Initiative +4

Defenses:
Dodge +9 (DC 19), Parry +9 (DC 19), Toughness +5, Fortitude +6, Will +4

Complications:
Relationship (Barbaric)- The two eventually marry.

Total: Abilities: 54 / Skills: 28--14 / Advantages: 4 / Powers: 9 / Defenses: 9 (90)

-Ah, so that's who this is. I know I've seen this character in images before, but I didn't know who the "1940s Aviator" chick was. Her power is to bounce like a ball, and she was born with it, causing tension with her family, who disliked mutants. She eventually ran away from home, becoming a petty thief with Barbaric, and the two were eventually recruited to Freak Force. After they left, she & Barbaric became minor characters, popping up in the alternate world created by Dragon killing Damien DarkHold as prisoners, then runaways again, then TV stars, losing their prime TV slot after a ratings war with Lamb Chop.

[Ares]

It's weird that her outfit is basically "Pants-less Rocketeer With Goggles Instead of a Helmet".

[Ian Turner]

I was wondering who the Rikki Barnes-looking chick was, with the double-breasted coat and the aviator goggles, and what a coincidence, she's also named Nikki!

[Jabroniville]

HORRIDUS (Sara Hill)
Created By: Erik Larsen
First Appearance: The Savage Dragon #4 (Sept. 1993)
Role: Freaky Hero
Marvel Character Most Ripped Off: None
'90s Ratio: 6/10 (sad backstory, claw character)
Group Affiliations: Freak Force, Strikeforce
PL 8 (93)
STRENGTH 5 STAMINA 7 AGILITY 6
FIGHTING 9 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 0 AWARENESS -1 PRESENCE -1

Skills:
Acrobatics 6 (+12)
Athletics 6 (+11)
Intimidation 6 (+5)
Perception 8 (+7)

Advantages:
Agile Feint, All-Out Attack, Fast Grab, Improved Hold

Powers:
Senses 3 (Low-Light Vision, Extended & Acute Scent) [3]
Leaping 1 (15 feet) [1]
"Prehensile Tail" Extra Limb 1 [1]
"Teeth and Spikes" Strength-Damage +1 (Feats: Split) [2]
"Spiky Body" Damage 2 (Extras: Reaction +3) [8]

Offense:
Unarmed +9 (+5 Damage, DC 20)
Teeth & Spikes +9 (+6 Damage, DC 21)
Spiky Body +9 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Initiative +6

Defenses:
Dodge +9 (DC 19), Parry +9 (DC 19), Toughness +7, Fortitude +7, Will +3

Complications:
Relationship (Rapture)- The two formed a strong mother-daughter-like relationship.
Prejudice (Freak)- Horridus has such a strange appearance that even police officers are startled by her.

Total: Abilities: 54 / Skills: 26--13 / Advantages: 4 / Powers: 15 / Defenses: 7 (93)

-This character kind of defines "Ugly Cute" for me- a spike-covered female with a weird lizard-head, she nonetheless has huge "Disney Eyes" and so comes off more as a Cute Cartoon Critter to me. But she's most famous for the early scene in The Savage Dragon where she shocks our hero by waking him up via giving him a beej- the horrified hero tosses her aside. This kind of thing is the result of her awful upbringing- she was the result of aliens abducting and impregnating her mother, and was raised by extremely religious parents who hated and were ashamed of her (they thought she was punishment for premarital sex)- they kept her in the basement and eventually committed suicide out of guilt over having such a monstrous child. The chained-up Horridus was eventually found by a paper boy, and the Chicago PD rescued her.

-Horridus joined Freak Force, and formed a close bond with Rapture, who became a mother figure. Like SuperPatriot, Horridus was originally part of Erik Larsen's "X-Factor" pitch, but when it was rejected, he moved her along to Image Comics instead.

-Horridus is a pretty bare-bones PL 8- higher level than a couple of her teammates and a solid, durable Scrapper with some unique things (like a Thorny Aura- definitely unusual for comics), but under-skilled because she spent her first 18 or so years chained up in a basement.

[Spectrum]

Oh, she's an adorable cuddlywuddly ball of owwww.

[Gamebook]

She's still around in the comic, making very occasional appearances. It isn't clear how old she is for whatever she is. Other characters in the comic tend to regard her as a bit insane. She can be rather animalistic in her behaviour, she often goes about on all fours, and if startled and distressed yipes like a dog while scuttling away with her head held low and her tail down.

*Edit*

Going over her back appearances I find that she dated Michaelangelo of the Ninja Turtles for a while in their Image series. With his tough turtle shell and scaly hide he seems to have been impervious to her spiky skin.

[Shock]

What the hell is going on in this picture? There's just limbs and spikes everywhere.