Jab’s Builds! (Beaker! Sam Eagle! Miss Piggy! The Swedish Chef!)

Where in all of your character write ups will go.
Jabroniville
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Lady Gayle Edgerton

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

THE LADY GAYLE EDGERTON
Created By:
Scott Lobdell & Chris Bachalo
First Appearance: X-Men: Prime #1 (July 1995)
Role: Spurned Lover
Group Affiliations: The Hellions III
PL 6 (99)
STRENGTH
3 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 4 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 0 AWARENESS 0 PRESENCE 3

Skills:
Deception 3 (+6)
Expertise (English Upper Classes) 4 (+4)
Insight 1 (+1)

Advantages: 
None

Powers:
"Emplate"
Variable 6 (Powers of Other Mutants) (Flaws: Touch Range, Grab-Based) (Quirk: Limited to Mutants) [29]
Linked to
"Bone Marrow Drain" Weaken Strength 8 (Flaws: Touch Range, Limited to One Rank Per Round on Mutants) [2]

"Transform Others to Emplates" Affliction 6 (Will; Dazed/Stunned/Transformed to Emplates) (Extras: Continuous +3) (Flaws: Limited to Drained Victims) [18]

"See Mutants' Auras"
Senses 4 (Detect Mutant Powers- Ranged, Acute, Analytical) [4]
Mind-Reading 4 (Flaws: Limited to Surface Quirks on Mutants) [4]

Offense:
Unarmed +4 (+3 Damage, DC 18)
Marrow Drain +4 (+8 Weaken, DC 18)
Transformation +4 (+6 Affliction, DC 16)
Initiative +7

Defenses:
Dodge +4 (DC 14), Parry +4 (DC 14), Toughness +3, Fortitude +5, Will +3

Complications:
Enemy (Jonothon Starsmore)- The mutant Chamber is responsible for Gayle's being crippled.
Normal Identity (Non-Emplate Form)- Gayle was paralyzed from the waist down, and has no real physical abilities without Emplate empowering her.

Total: Abilities: 32 / Skills: 8--4 / Advantages: 0 / Powers: 57 / Defenses: 6 (99)

-The Lady Gayle Edgerton was a neglected teen born to a high class London family, and pissed off her parents the way many young girls did, by hooking up with a bad boy- Jonothon Starsmore. Falling in love with him, she was badly-injured the day his mutant powers activated- he paralyzed her from the waist down thanks to an involuntary psionic burst (hey, it HAPPENS TO EVERY GUY, ALRIGHT?). Any hope of reconcilliation was ruined when he went into exile rather than staying with her while she recovered, and the bitter woman made a deal with the dangerous villain Emplate in order to gain revenge. She captured Jono (now the Generation-X member known as "Chamber") for Emplate, but was herself betrayed and buried alive with him. She allied with Jono to help defeat the bad guy, and made her peace with Jono.

-Gayle was basically Emplate-Lite at this time, with few skills beyond Upper Class Snobbery (which, as Downton Abbey has shown us, can be epic).
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sun Jan 30, 2022 6:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (The White Queen! Skin! Chamber! Banshee!)

Post by Horsenhero »

Nocturne needs to re-think that outfit. Stating for the whole world to see, that you're #2 has "bad costume decision" written all over it.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (The White Queen! Skin! Chamber! Banshee!)

Post by Batgirl III »

Horsenhero wrote: Wed Feb 01, 2017 2:01 am Nocturne needs to re-think that outfit. Stating for the whole world to see, that you're #2 has "bad costume decision" written all over it.
Plus she's gonna get sued for copyright infringement by the SPD Blue Ranger.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (The White Queen! Skin! Chamber! Banshee!)

Post by Jabroniville »

And with those losers out of the way, we can get to the surest, most obvious sign that Claremont just didn't have it any more.
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The Neo

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

THE NEO:
-Few things in comics were as big a disappointment to me as Claremont's return to the X-Men titles in the year 2000. After a rough decade and some REALLY awful runs, we finally had our God back! The writer of The Dark Phoenix Saga! The Mutant Massacre! Days of Future Past! It was gonna be like the glory days again!

-And then... it sucked. I mean, it was BAD. Bad enough that by the first issue, everyone was like "uhhh... was this the same guy?" Rogue, who'd spent the better part of the '90s essentially being a Love Interest for Gambit (and then Joseph for a bit), is suddenly thrust into the leadership of the team, with the other characters being like "YEAH- you go Rogue! You're perfect for the job!" and you're like "ROGUE? REALLY?" Granted, Claremont had been working hard at making her a big name hero in his time, and was probably leading towards this moment, but ten years later it felt out of place because of where her character had been. The rosters of the team were jumbled in a weird way, the stories themselves were rather dull. And... you had THESE assholes.

-The Neo were introduced in X-Men #100 as a band of Mutants who were like SUPER-Mutants- more powerful than regular Mutants, they all had flowery, "This is my childhood D&D Character" names like Domina, Jaeger, etc. And they were EXCRUCIATING. Every goddamn time they were on-panel, they were grimacing, making clumsy, overly-dramatic statements of "bad-ass" towards each other. All "We are THE NEO." They blamed the X-Men for the High Evolutionary doing some thing that de-then-re-powered Mutants across the globe, which for some reason killed all the Neo's children. And for some reason, Claremont felt that all the X-Books needed to be All Neo, All The Time. First, they battled Domina's wing. Then they came across The Goth, one of them proclaiming "I am SANGUINE", which is like the most pretentious Hot Topic shit I've ever read in my life. There were some Neo Hoverboard Pirates, too.

-And they went over like an absolute fart in church. The fans HATED them. With the X-Men doing nothing but fighting guys that artist Leinil Francis Yu drew exclusively as 1980s Pro Wrestling/Mad Max rejects with facepaint and torn-up clothes, fans pretty well revolted. Claremont pushing his weird stuff with them go to the point where his disastrous run was cancelled after only nine months- a ridiculously short run, even by the standards of turn-of-the-century comics (notorious for revolving creative teams). And then, in one of the most hilarious, overt "hey- your ideas were shit and you should feel bad for coming up with them" moments I have ever read in my thirty years of reading comic books, the next writer simply had the entire team slaughtered and embarrassed, never to be seen again. It's literally just some Neo standing around talking, MAGNETO bursts in, says "I am only going to say this once: KNEEL", at which point Domina mouths off and sends her boys after him... Magneto waves his arm, shreds two of the established Neo into paste, and forces the rest to kneel before him. Domina is seen on her knees, staring up like at a God. And then they don't show up again. THAT was the send-off they were given! Basically "hey, you all actually suck compared to the prior villains! F*ck you and go away!"

-Claremont seems to have gotten the message about the Neo, and never attempted to bring them back. And given that he spent the next ten years sticking the boring, unpopular Sage onto every single book he worked on (X-Treme X-Men? SAGE! Excalibur revamp? SAGE! The Exiles, about a band of alternate universe heroes? Mainstream SAGE!), I'm thinking there must be a damn good reason he never used them again.

Their History:
-The Neo are a hidden society of Mutants that has been kept away from humanity (and the rest of mutantkind) for millennia... along with about 900 other groups in the Marvel Universe who have also done that (I think if you added the New Men, Eternals, Deviants, Atlanteans, Lemurians, Inhumans, Utopans, African Inhumans and other groups together, they would probably outnumber the rest of humanity). When the High Evolutionary temporarily turns all the world's Mutants into ordinary humans, the child of the leader of the Warclan dies, and this leader, Domina, declares war on the world. The Warclan thus plots genocide, using their small army of super-tough, high-tech warriors in Mad Max rip-off gear (Claremont, like many writers, never quite got out of a certain decade- in his case, it's the 1980s, what with all of his face-painted, punk-dressed, pirate & surfer-themed characters). The X-Men fight them off, but soon encounter OTHER Neo clans, such as The Lost Souls (who trap souls near death, causing them to despair forever), The Shockwave Riders (psionically-powered anti-grav-skimmer riders), The Goth (goths- and of course the S&M/leather-loving Claremont was ALL OVER that), and the Crimson Pirates (inter-dimensional slavers). The X-Men repeatedly encountered groups of Neo over the next few adventures, until suddenly Claremont left and Magneto humiliated the group- he slaughtered two Neo, forced Domina to kneel in reverence to him and pledge allegiance to stop the war between Neo & Mutants... and then flew away and we never saw her group again.

-Some other Clans existed, but received little focus- Guardian, War, Spirit & Mind Clans were there. The Guardian & War Clans actually attacked Utopia in a modern issue, enraged and confused over their loss of powers and why no new births had been occuring in their community (I guess they didn't know about "No More Mutants" at all)- before Cyclops could explain to them what happened, a group... and I have to quote Wikipedia on this directly or else you'll be like "What the F, Jab?"- "a group of supreme beings called the Evolutionaries intervened and in a blink of an eye caused the global extinction of the entire Neo subspecies based on the premise that the Neo had ceased to evolve and thereby posed a threat to the survival of baseline Homo Superior." Seriously, where these Evolutionaries people who'd read Claremont's garbage X-Men run in disguise? Because that's basically what the fans had been saying, and had wanted to do, since those idiots debuted!

-So yes, that was the fate of the Neo- the ENTIRE RACE was exterminated as an afterthought by an almost literal case of Deus Ex Machina, just to get them out of the way. Claremont actually re-used the Crimson Pirates in a Nightcrawler arc, stating that they were in a different dimension when the Race-Nuke went off, so they were unaffected.

STANDARD NEO WARRIOR
Created By:
Chris Claremont & Leinil Francis Yu
First Appearance: X-Men #100 (May 2000)
Role: Jobber Army
Group Affiliations: The Various Neo Clans
PL 6 (77)
STRENGTH
5 STAMINA 5 AGILITY 5
FIGHTING 7 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 0 AWARENESS 0 PRESENCE 0

Skills:
Athletics 4 (+9)
Expertise (Soldier) 4 (+4)
Intimidation 4 (+4)
Perception 4 (+4)
Stealth 1 (+6)
Technology 3 (+3)

Advantages: 
All-Out Attack, Ranged Attack 4, Set-Up, Teamwork

Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Stuff"
Speed 2 (8 mph) [2]
Leaping 1 (15 feet) [1]

Offense:
Unarmed +7 (+5 Damage, DC 20)
Initiative +5

Defenses:
Dodge +7 (DC 17), Parry +7 (DC 17), Toughness +5, Fortitude +6, Will +2

Complications:
Responsibility (The Neo)- All the branches of the Neo appear furiously loyal.

Total: Abilities: 52 / Skills: 20--10 / Advantages: 7 / Powers: 3 / Defenses: 5 (77)

-Neo are super, amazing, awesome Special Snowflakes as a race, being Mary Sue villains who are apparently like Mutants, but better in every single way. Every one of them is treated as if they had Captain America-ish stats. Individually, they're not so impressive, but PL 6 for a baseline member of the race is pretty hardcore.

THE CRIMSON PIRATES:
* Interdimensional slavers who managed to survive the extermination of their race at the hands of the Evolutionaries.

BLOODY BESS- PL 8 (92): FIGHTING 9, PRE 2, Sword +2, Pistol +5, Expertise (Slaver) 4 (+4), Improved Critical (Sword), Ranged Attack 6 [16]
-A swordswoman who teamed up with Nightcrawler for a bit.
BROADSIDE- PL 7 (87): ST 7, STA 7, Expertise (Slaver) 4 (+4) [10]
-The team's "Big Guy".
KILLIAN: The leader of the Pirates, who seemingly wears a suit of Power Armor, has a Force Field and the ability to Absorb Energy.
SEA DOG: A hunched-over gadgeteer who is presumably very smart.

THE GOTH:
BELDAME- PL 8 (93): "Drain Energy" Affliction 8 (Impaired/Disabled/Transformed to Powerless, Cumulative) [16]
THE GOTH- PL 10 (110): "Drain Energy" Affliction 10 (Impaired/Disabled/Transformed to Powerless, Cumulative), Blast 12 (Accurate, Source- Powers) [33]
-The Goth leads... The Goth. His absorption power backfired on him when he tried to absorb Rogue, who'd recently absorbed Gambit's own powers- the overwhelming amount of power overloaded The Goth, killing him.
SANGUINE- PL 9 (98): FIGHTING 9, AWA 2, PRE 2, "Drain Blood" Weaken Strength 9 [21]
-The hilariously pretentious guy who once absorbed Archangel so much he temporarily turned Caucasian-looking again.
WANDERER- PL 6 (109): Teleport 8 (Easy, Extended) [32]

THE GUARDIAN CLAN:
ORB- PL 8 (93): Fire Blast 8 [16]
STATIC- PL 6 (77):
-The leader- he was depowered by the time we saw him.
Others: Backahnd, Flare, Pillar, Repulse, Sinew, Singularity

THE LOST SOULS: Desolation, Dirge, Lament & Requiem (the leader)
-Various Psionic Powers.

THE SHOCKWAVE RIDERS- PL 6 (83): Vehicles 6 (+10), Equipment 3 (Antigrav Vehicles) [6]
-None are ever named.

THE WARCLAN:
ANTEUS- PL 8 (99): ST 8, STA 8 [12]
-The team strongman.

BARBICIAN- PL 6 (93): "Seal Empty Spaces" Create 8 (Continuous, Limited to Seals & Barriers) [16]
-A mysteriously-powered guy.

Image

DOMINA- PL 10 (155): FIGHTING 13, INT 2, AWA 3, PRE 3, "Energy Charges" Damage 8 (Reach 2, Penetrating), "Superhuman Gestalt" Mimicry 5 (Limited to Neo), Will +7 [78]
-Domina is the tough-talking leader of the Neo, who only appeared for nine months before Magneto forced her to bow before him. She has literally never been seen since- all other Neo stuff happened off-panel or didn't involve her.

JAEGER- PL 9 (106): FIGHTING 12, AWA 3, PRE 2, Perception +4, Senses 7 (Detect Emotions- Acute, Tracking, Ranged 4) [29]
-A lead "Hunter" of their people, he attacked Nightcrawler and Cecilia Reyes, and Cecilia, a doctor, accidentally killed him.

JUNCTION- PL 6 (109): Teleport 8 (Easy, Extended) [32]
-Rax replaced Jaeger as the lead "Hunter" of the Warclan.

KILMER- PL 6 (93): Healing 8 [16]
-A Healer.

RAX- PL 9 (91): FIGHTING 10, AWA 2, Perception +4, Ranged Attack 6 [14]
-Rax replaced Jaeger as the lead "Hunter" of the Warclan. He also plotted against Domina, wanting leadership for himself.

SALVO- PL 8 (103): Ranged Attack 6, Blast 8 (Multiattack) [26]
-Salvo was seen a fair bit- he could turn his hands INTO GUNS YOU GUYS, and blast away. He was one of the two Neo slain by a literal handwave from Magneto.

ELYSIA- PL 6 (117): Illusion 8 (All Senses) [40]
-Illusion Caster. The youngest of her Clan.

RANSOME SOLO- PL 6 (99): INT 2, PRE 3, Business 8 (+10) [12]
-A renegade Neo, and Domina's brother. His powers are never explained, but he appears to be a businessman of some kind.

SETH- PL 8 (99): PRE 3, Electrical Blast 8 [22]
-He romanced Kitty Pryde and tried to destroy the High Evolutionary's satellites.

STATIC- PL 8 (87): "Power Control" Affliction 10 (Impaired/Disabled/Controlled) [10]

TARTARUS- PL 8 (101): "Experience Your Worst Fears" Affliction 8 (Dazed/Stunned/Incapacitated; Perception Range) [24]
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sun Jan 30, 2022 6:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Emma Frost! Chamber! Banshee! Synch! The Neo!)

Post by Batgirl III »

The idea of a "no new characters" moratorium seems better every time I hear about it. Absolutely everything you described as happening in the Neo plot would have worked just as well (if not better) with one of the existing races of hidden superhumans.

The X-Men versus the Eternals? It could have been epic.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Emma Frost! Chamber! Banshee! Synch! The Neo!)

Post by Jabroniville »

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1324828
An interesting commentary on "why Claremont sucks now".
Some of the posts in this thread are MADNESS. Respect. X-Men wouldn't be where it is today without his contribution. Emphasis on CONTRIBUTION.

Claremont was definitely a product of the time, and he was able to create a type of story and template that just can't be reproduced. Even by him.

For starters, he had ACE editorial team(s). He came on to the book when nobody gave a damn about X-Men and it's a lot easier to play with something when it wasn't on the radar.
Over the years, people forget that Claremont worked with fucking PHENOMENAL writers / editors. Ann Nocenti. Jim Shooter. Claremont is best when he's collaborating. John Byrne. Paul Smith. The stories are best when the artists also have a good understanding of story and they work well together, or there's a strong editorial direction that lines up with the team's sensibilities.
You can tell that Marvel was this hugely creative environment at the time. Marvel was this huge playhouse for artists and writers to get together and play together with the purpose of a unified universe.

1. Claremont - and a lot of writers at the time - wrote stories that felt more like serial soap operas that relied heavily on the tools of the medium. Often, the dialogue was slower paced. Less snappy. Longer moments set aside for character growth that don't necessarily push the plot. (Ororo, you really don't like being in enclosed environments, do you? Kurt, does this make you question your belief in God? etc). Also, just look at his contemporaries who he was inspired by at the time. People whom he read in his free time. Elfquest. Wandering Star. Or even Star Trek. Work that was so distinctly 80's and character-heavy that nobody today would have the patience for. Comics as a whole was just very different then.


2. One of the worst things to happen to american comics was when they began to copy the tools and pacing of television. One of Claremont's most powerful tools was the inner thought bubble. That tool totally disappeared during the modern age (the bendis years), but it allowed a character to speak one thing and THINK something else entirely. It's actually a VERY popular tool that you still see in anime and manga, but they use it as internal monologue. For example, when, say, Naruto is trying to reason out how he's going to combat a particular move, he'll go through the process internally (which the audience can hear), then the payoff is seeing him act out... or fail. American comics used to OWN this technique. We've given it up, however, for quicker pacing and self-contained arcs. Easier to monetize and make movies from.

3. Another tool Claremont mastered was the dream sequence. Admittedly, he lifted the technique straight from Gaiman, Ursula Le Guinn and Octavia Butler at the time as he made no secret of loving 70's sci fi. He blatantly stole the Shadow King outright from Octavia Butler. Regardless, his characters had the ability to engage in dreams, most evident during the Inferno, Australia years, and notably during his Paul Smith run. This gave the characters even more depth, with which to plan long run plots, and even short run character bits.

4. The man just gave up. To put it bluntly, he had his soul snatched away and wasn't able to finish the story that he intended to. Good or bad, he had a particular story that he wanted to tell about the X-Men and specifically Wolverine. There's a time and a place, and you just can't snatch a writer out of that groove, divorce him from the content, then expect him to pick back up years later as if the writing just paused and he hadn't changed as a person. For example, there was a time 10 - 15 years ago when I wanted more than anything to write for Marvel, and specifically The X-Men. Now that I'm older and my sensibilities and priorities have shifted, I couldn't care less about writing for any major publisher.

5. Claremont is exposed. Without a strong collaborator in the artist/storyteller, or in the editor, you begin to see that Claremont falls back on old stories and old dialogue rhythms.
You get passable stuff like Soverign Seven, or outright cringey stuff like GeNext.
When Claremont felt like he was finally feeling something like the old CC with X-Men forever, it was too late. The books lived in the past, they weren't contemporary, and ultimately, the didn't matter.

Claremont was inarguably one of the most powerful writers in mainstream comics. He influenced some of the best books on the market (like Teen Titans), and to say that he sucked all along is not only absurd but disrespectful and totally ignorant of the contribution to Marvel. Hell, there was a point in the 80s where it felt like he was writing half of Marvel's books. This is why there was such strong continuity between Spidey, X-men, Power mand and Iron Fist, etc. He was definitely the Bendis of his day.

Finally, Marvel was just a different place back then. In a shared universe where details mattered enough to make a "Marvel handbook to the Marvel Universe", Claremont was under a team where everyone was on the same page. That no longer exists.

Hope that helps.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Emma Frost! Chamber! Banshee! Synch! The Neo!)

Post by Ares »

Huh. I agree with all of that.

And while I wouldn't put a ban on new characters, I would encourage folks to look through the existing setting material and see if there isn't something already there that could work with a few tweaks. To use the old toybox metaphor, I've got no problems with adding to it, but before you do, see if there isn't something that hasn't been played with in a while that couldn't work just as well, maybe with a little cleaning and minor bit of restorative paint job. But if you have something that makes the toy box better, by all means, add to it. Just also be careful not to break a toy someone else likes, or repaint/customize it to the point it isn't recognizable.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Emma Frost! Chamber! Banshee! Synch! The Neo!)

Post by Jabroniville »

I think the "Thought Bubbles" have been replaced by "Word Boxes" in the past few years, but it's not really the same thing- Thought Bubbles actually give off stream-of-consciousness thoughts and go in a conversational style that matches the character's own speech patterns, giving a bigger sense of their character. Word Boxes just come off like the writer wants to be Frank Miller. And so many characters have the same voice with the Word Boxes- a particular issue with Bendis, who took over all of Marvel at one point, and was functionally writing 50 people with the same snarky attitude, Mamet-Lite speak, and joke style.

I didn't know about Claremont's inspirations, nor whomever created the "original" Shadow King concept, though. I don't care for the hard sci-fi genre, so I never know any of the authors. And I've always found ElfQuest off-putting (seriously, that ART STYLE).
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Emma Frost! Chamber! Banshee! Synch! The Neo!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Batgirl III wrote: Wed Feb 01, 2017 3:42 am The idea of a "no new characters" moratorium seems better every time I hear about it. Absolutely everything you described as happening in the Neo plot would have worked just as well (if not better) with one of the existing races of hidden superhumans.

The X-Men versus the Eternals? It could have been epic.
I kind of see the point of that, at times.

When Byrne came up with the idea, it was due to a huge glut of newbies come in in the 1980s and filling the ranks of villainy with countless forgettable Jobbers, and the heroic side with nobodies who were never going to matter. Nowadays, I find comics has a bigger problem with the heroes- as one writer wrote in to Avengers Academy complaining, Marvel seems to want to create an entirely new team of teen heroes every five years or so, and then once they've "exhausted the storyline potential" of each one of them, simply scrap them and start over.

Since around the year 2000, I've seen this happen with The New X-Men, The New Hellions (many of whom supplanted the New X-Men), The Young Avengers, The Runaways, The Initiative, whatever that Firestar/New Bucky book was called, Avengers Academy, Wolverine & The X-Men's class, Cyclops's new class of trainees. That's more than sixty-three new characters, assuming seven newbies per group (and this launches into the stratosphere if you add in all the backgrounders in the Xavier school's various classes. And in every one of those cases, the sales eventually bottom out after some early success, the book is dumped, and one or two characters might find success elsewhere, if they're LUCKY. The Young Avengers finally got a hit out of Kate Bishop, but The Unambiguously Gay Duo was probably the least successful part of Al Ewing's "Avengers Idea Mechanics" group and was quietly dropped after being central to the first arc. The rest? Uh... not really.

That is a HUGE number of forgotten characters that are now just kinda floating around the background. Remember Contest of Champions? That giant group of assembled heroes? Nearly every one of them had their own book (or a team book), and only a handful of new foreigners were there. And it was STILL a big, impressive collection of heroes. Nowadays, that group would be exponentially larger, just based off of characters created after the year 2000!

Now... adding to the sandbox isn't inherently bad. But they've basically backed a dumptruck to the sandbox, raised the cab, and overflowed the damn thing. There's some good toys in there. Many that were just glossed over because not enough effort was made in cleaning them up. But... just too damn many.

Dear God... did I just... justify the existence of Avengers Arena??
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Uber Alles to Utgard-Loki

Post by Jabroniville »

U:
Uber Alles (NuHuman- Lash's Crew)
The Ubermadchen
Ubiquitor (Space Destroyer)
---
The U-Foes
U-Go Girl (X-Statix)
Ukko (Finnish Skyfather)
Ulgen (Mongolian Light God)
Ulik
ULTIMATUM
Ultima
The Ultimate Nullifier
Ultimo
Ultimus (The Demon Druid)
Ultra Girl
Ultrana
The Ultroids
Ultron
Ulysses (The Pantheon)
Ulysses Bloodstone
Ulysses Cain (NuHumans)
Ulysses Dragonblood (Sword of Damocles)
---
The U-Man
Umar
---
Uncle Ben
Uncle Lex (The Parasites)
The Undead Motorcycle Club
The Undergrounders (Nomad Allies)
The Undertaker
Undertow
Underworld
The Undying Ones (Demons)
The Unholy Three (Ani-Men)
The Unicorn I (Masaryk)
The Unicorn II (Balinov)
The Unicorn III (Blomfield)
The Uni-Mind
The Universal Church of Truth
Union Jack I (Falsworth)
Union Jack II (Destroyer II)
Union Jack III (Chapman)
The Universal Inhumans
The Unnameable (Tunnelworld Ruler)
Uno (Anti-Superhuman Agent)
El Uno
The Unspoken (Inhuman King)
Unum
Unus the Untouchable
Unus's Gang
Unuscione
---
Uplink (Chain Gang)
Uproar
Uproar II (Gorilla)
The Upstarts
---
The Uranian (1950s Marvel Boy)
Uranium (Elements of Doom)
Uriah the Faithful (Disciples of Doom)
Uroc (Uru Rock Troll)
Ursa Major
Urthona (Mage)
Uru (Norse Metal)
Urcuchillay (Incan Animal God)
---
U.S. Archer
U.S. Agent (Super-Patriot)
---
Utgard-Loki



The Letter "U":
-A comparatively-new letter to the alphabet, its sound was formerly spelled out as "V" by the Romans (you can see this in titles such as I, CLAVDIVS, or any Latin inscriptions, really). This is, by the way, why a "W" looks nothing like two "U"s, and instead like two "V"s. During the late Middle Ages, two types of "V" developed- one written at the start of words ("vpon" instead of "upon"), and a rounded version in the middle (such as "haue" instead of "have"). The first recorded usage of this odd "u" came in 1386, but was not fully-accepted in alphabets across Europe for a few more centuries.

"U" is peculiar in English, as it has four pronunciations: Duck, Put, Mule & Rule. And it can make a sound just like a "W" ("anguish"). This is probably one of those things that F's with the minds of newbies to the language, as it's ludicrously-complicated. Oh, and you have to add it after a "Q" no matter what, unless you don't.

It gets referred to in Universities a lot (most are called "The U" or "The U of ______"), and is now common in "textspeak" to mean "you". Also, British English (better known as ACTUAL English, since they kind of invented it) includes it in words like colour, labour, valour, etc. Americans eschewed these and spell them as color, labor and valor like a bunch of shiftless hobos. Us Canadians have the best of both worlds, being able to use either spelling without difficulty, except for racist autocorrects (most of which are American in origin), which put red lines under "colour". Bastards.

As you might imagine, there are scarcely-any comic book characters using this letter- most of the latter part of the alphabet is like this. A couple Thor foes, some Jobber Villains, a British superhero lineage, and a father/daughter Evil Mutant pair. The most-important characters by far are U.S. Agent and, of course, ULTRON.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Fri Nov 24, 2023 8:29 pm, edited 31 times in total.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24689
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

The V-Battalion to Vyrra

Post by Jabroniville »

V:
The V-Battalion
---
The Vagabond I (Golden Ager)
Vagabond II (Cap Ally)
Vacuum (The Spacemen)
Vague (Hell's Belles)
Vakume
Val Cooper
Valeria (Doom's Beloved)
Valeria Richards
Valkin (Polar Eternals Leader)
Valkyrie I-II (Brunnhilde/Norris)
Valkyrie III (Thor's Hallucination)
Vammatar (Finnish God of Pain & Suffering)
The Vamp
Vampire By Night
Vampires
El Vampiro (Eternal Wrestler)
Vampiro (Larcenous Three)
Vanadium (Elements of Doom)
Vanessa Fisk
Vanguard (Red Guardian VII)
The Vanisher
Vantage (Dallas Riordan)
Vapor
Vapora
Vargas (X-Treme X-Men Foe)
Varnae
Varua (The Young Gods)
Vault (The Hellbent)
The Vault (Super-Prison)
Vavavoom (The Grapplers)
---
Vector I (The U-Foes)
Vector II (The Dynasty/Ascendants)
Veda
Veeg/Veerg (Sword of Damocles)
Vegas
El Vejigante
Veil (Avengers Academy)
The Veil (The Desert Sword)
Veles (Slavic God of the Underworld)
Velocidad
Vengeance
Venom I (Regular & Anti-Venom)
Venom 2099
Venomm
Venus
Venus Dee Milo (X-Statix)
Vera Gemini (Half-Demon Sorceress)
Vermin
Verminus Rex
The Vernichtungs Kommandos (Dead Nazi Team)
Veronica Benning (Stark Physical Therapist/Girlfriend)
Veronica Von Frankenstein
The Vershucts (Mutant Researchers)
Vertigo I (Salem's Seven)
Vertigo II (Marauders)
Vespa (Ant-Man Foe)
Vesper I (Legion of Vengeance)
Vesper II (Genetix)
Vessel (Gene Nation)
---
Vibranium (Metal)
Vibranium (Baru)
Vibraxas
Vibro
Vic Slaughter
Vice (The Power Tools)
The Vice Agent
Vichy Vixen (Ubermadchen)
Victor Mancha
Victor Stein (The Pride)
Victor Sternwood (Q7 Strike Force)
Victor Strange
Victoria Bentley
Victoria Frankenstein
Victorius
Vidar
Videoman
The Vidkids
Vienna (Lady Spy)
V.I.G.I.L. (Anti-Punisher Police)
Vil (Future Foundation)
Vin Vision
Vincent Destine (The ClanDestine)
Vincent Martinelli (Stark Security)
Vincent Von Frankenstein
Vincente
Vindaloo
Vindicator
Violence (S.H.I.E.L.D. Super Agents)
The Viper I (Stryke)
Viper II (aka Madame HYDRA)
Vira (Deviant Queen)
Viracocha (Incan Skyfather)
Virago the She-Devil
Virako (Ikaris's Father)
The Viral Swarm (Secret Defenders Foes)
Virginia Vision
Virgo I (McLaughlin)
Virgo II (LMD)
Virgo III (Ecliptic Zodiac)
Virgo IV (NW Zodiac)
Virgo V (Thanos' Zodiac)
Virgo VI (Vernon's Zodiac)
Viridian the Brainfeeler (The Special Executive)
Virtue (Ethan Edwards)
The Vishanti
Vishnu (Hindu God of Heaven & Preservation)
The Vision I (Aarkus)
The Vision II (Avengers)
The Vision III (Jonas)
Visionary (Crazy Eight)
Vivian Vision
Vivisector (X-Statix)
Vixen
---
Vlad the Impaler (Black Panther One-Off)
---
The Vodu (West African Gods)
Voght
Vohu Manah (Zoroastrian Animal God)
The Voice
Volcana
Volcanus (One-Off Thing Foe)
Volga Belle (Peristrike Force)
Volstagg the Voluminous
Volton (Golden Ager)
The Von Frankensteins
Voortrekker
Vorin
Vortex (The Hellbent)
Vostok (aka Sputnik)
Voyager (Imperial Guard)
Voyager II (Valerie Vector)
Voyager (New Universe)
---
Rebound(First Line)
Vulcan I (First Line)
Vulcan II (Goon)
Vulcan III (Shi'ar Emperor)
The Vulture I (Meltzer
The Vulture II (Toomes)
The Vulture III (Drago)
The Vulture IV (Shallot)
The Vulture V (Natale)
The Vulturions
---
Vyrra



MARVEL- THE LETTER "V":
-The letter "V" was formerly used as a "U" or "W" sound in Latin, as well as being for the Roman Numeral for "5". During the Late Middle Ages, another form was found- the one that we recognize today. Sometimes they only used "V" as the BEGINNING of a word, and the same sound was written as "U" in the middle or end (so you'd have words like "haue" and "vpon"), but by the 16th century, they two were pretty much permanently split, with "V" becoming the consonant form, and "U" the vowel. It does not appear very much in English, but is very common in Romance Languages. It also doesn't really exist as a sound in Japanese, which often makes a "B" sound instead.

-For comic book characters, you see it a decent amount compared to many "Later Alphabet" letters, but not a lot of major guys. There's Venom, The Vision, Vindicator, Vulcan, Valkyrie and The Vulture at the forefront- Venom being arguably the most-important thanks to his HUGE push in the 1990s. The rest is mostly jobbers.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Tue Jan 09, 2024 4:08 am, edited 38 times in total.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24689
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

X-23 to X-Ray

Post by Jabroniville »

X:
X-23 (Wolverine II)
X-23_PAR (The Sisters/X-23 Clones)
---
Xander
Xandu
Xantia (The Super-Soldiers)
Xanto Starblood
Xaos (Demon; Dr. Strange Enemy)
Xaphan (Demon; Lucifer Ally)
Xarus (Son of Dracula)
Xavier's Security Enforcers
Xavin
---
X-Beast (Beast Clone)
---
The X-Cutioner
---
Xemnu the Titan
Xena (Wyrd Sisters)
Xenith/Strontian
Xenon (Elements of Doom)
The Xenophobic Man (One-Off U.S.Agent Foe)
X.E.R.O. (X-51 Foe)
Xeron the Star-Slayer (Hulk Foe)
---
X-Force (M Squad)
X-Force II (Cable's)
---
Xi Wangmu (Chinese God of Immortality)
The Xian (Chinese Gods)
Xipe Totec (Aztec Agriculture & Sacrifice God)
---
Xlyym (Starblasters)
---
The X-Men
The X-Men 2099
---
X-Nation 2099
---
Xochiquetzal (Aztec Fertility & Flower God)
Xolotl (Aztec God of Fire)
Xorn I (Quan-Yin)
Xorn II (Shen)
Xorr the God-Jewel
---
X-Ray I (U-Foes)
X-Ray II (The Wild Pack)



Marvel- The Letter "X":
-"X" is one of the least-used (third-least, in fact) and least-necessary letters in the English language- it's basically pronounced like either "ks", "gs", or "z", and is essentially an extra letter. Very few words start with it, either. However, it has uses elsewhere- it features heavily in the anglicization of names from East Asia & Greece, it's used CONSTANTLY as an unknown in algebra (and in many names, like Malcolm X and The X-Files), it's used in Roman Numerals heavily as a stand-in for "ten", and it features as a shortened form for words like "cross" and "Christ".

Despite all of that, however, it's come to be the most-important letter in the Marvel Universe. All because a third-tier team from 1960s comics suddenly got WAY more popular with the introduction of Chris Claremont & Dave Cockrum to their lore, and soon everything in Marvel was coming up "X". Initially it was JUST the X-Men, but soon we had X-Factor- then they changed The New Mutants to X-Force. The '90s saw a FURTHER conflagration of names like that, and numerous cross-overs (The X-Tinction Agenda and The X-Cutioner's Song, namely). Even guys like Adam-X, Skrull-X, Predator X & Mister X would come about. Very few CHARACTERS use it to start their names, however, making this one of the quickest sections to cover. Basically a handful of generic, forgettable guys.

Most-important is easily X-23 (the new Wolverine), but after that... I dunno- Xemnu the Hulk enemy? Xorn? And maybe Xavin from The Runaways? Not a lot to go on here. I guess X-Man would count, but he's really just called "Nate Grey" 90% of the time.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Thu Dec 21, 2023 11:26 pm, edited 25 times in total.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24689
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Yama to Yvette Avril

Post by Jabroniville »

Y:
Yama (Hindu Death God)
Yamato-no-Orochi (Shinto Serpent Demon)
Yandroth (Scientist Supreme)
Yang Kwei Fei (Quentin Carnival Mystic)
Yankee Clipper
The Yazatas (Zoroastrian Gods)
---
Yelena Belova (Black Widow III)
The Yellow Claw
The Yellow Kid
Yellowjacket I (Hank Pym)
Yellowjacket II (Rita DeMara)
Yen-Lo Wang (Chinese Death God)
Yeti (The Lunatic Legion Crooks)
The Yeti I (First Line)
The Yeti II (Weapon: PRIME)
Yetrigar
---
Yith
---
Ymir
---
Yod of the All-Seeing Eye (Tetrarchs)
Yondu
The Young Allies I (Golden Age)
The Young Allies II (Modern)
The Young Avenger (Golden Ager)
The Young Avengers
The Young Gods
The Young Masters
---
Ytitnedion (Buzzard Mage)
Ytterbium (Elements of Doom)
Yttrium (Elements of Doom)
---
Yu Huang the Jade Emperor (Chinese Skyfather)
Yu Zhu Rong (Chinese Fire God)
Yukio
Yukon Jack
Yum Kaax
The Yuppunisher
Yu-Ti
---
Yvette Avril (Stark European Staff)



Marvel- The Letter "Y":
-The letter "Y" is well-known for being the only letter that's either a consonant OR a vowel. A lot of Greek words use it (where it was called "upsilon"), and numerous European languages refer to it as the "Greek I"- the Romans introduced it to their alphabet with the reign of Emperor Claudius (wow, English should totally do that once in a while- it's make weird pronunciations a lot clearer). Old English pronounced it a bit differently, leading to many old words replacing I with Y and vice-versa.

-Not a lot of words start with it, leading to "Y" being the rarest letter in terms of character names- seriously, even less than "Q". Generally it goes to weird, non-human types and wizards (Yandroth, Yith, Ymir, Yetrigar), and no major characters start with it. The best you'll get is the "Big in the '50s" Yellow Claw, Ymir- King of the Frost Giants, and Yondu of the Guardian of the Galaxy. However, since the word "Young" all of a sudden became a common name for super-teams, you'll find it a lot more common these days- The Young Allies, Young Avengers, Young X-Men & Young Masters have all existed at the same time.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Mon Mar 18, 2024 11:54 pm, edited 25 times in total.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24689
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Marvel- Z

Post by Jabroniville »

Z:
Zabu
Zachary Moonhunter
Zaffer (Alien Rose-Worshipper)
Zahnmorder (Vernichtungs Kommandos)
Zaladane
Zalme (One-Off Dazzler Foe)
Zaniac
Zara of the Jungle (Golden Ager)
Zaran the Weapon-Master
Zarathos
Zarathustra
Zardock (Starblasters)
Zarin (Eternal Pilot)
Zarrko the Tomorrow Man
Zawadi (Bloodstone Ally)
---
Z'Cann (Cadre K- Skrulls)
---
Zealot (Genoshan Mutate Leader)
Zebra Daddy
Zeek (Morlocks)
Zeitgeist I (Everyman)
Zeitgeist II (X-Statix)
Zeitgeist III (Special Executive)
Zelda (The Sisters/X-23 Clones)
Zenith
Zenzi
Zephyr (The Elementals)
Zephyr Jones (Golden Ager)
Zeus
Zero I (MLF)
Zero II (The Lights)
Zero/One
---
Zhered-Na (Ancient Sorceress)
Zhou Cheng
---
Zinc (Elements of Doom)
Zirconium (Elements of Doom)
---
The Zodiac I (New Warriors Foes)
The Zodiac II (Thanos's Group)
The Zodiac III (Vernon Fury's Group)
The Zodiac Cartel I (Crime Cartel)
The Zodiac Cartel II (Life Model Decoys)
The Zodiac Cartel III (Ecliptic)
Zodiak
Zohar (Moon Knight Foe)
Zom
Zombie I (Simon Garth)
Zombie II (Howling Commandos)
Zona (Sword of Damocles)
The Zoo (Gun Runner Enemies)
Zorba
Zoroaster (Diabolique's Giant Spider)
Zorr (Luphumoids; Nova Foe)
Zota of Pergamum (Evil Wizard)
---
Zsaji (Secret Wars Healer)
---
Zuras
---
Zyklon (Heinrich Himmler)
---
Zxaxz
Zzutak
Zzzax
ZZZXX



Marvel- The Letter "Z":
One of the most rarely-used letters in the Alphabet, "Z" is called "Zed" in the majority of English-speaking countries (including the one that invented the language- England, plus Ireland, Australia, Canada & India), related to the Greek "Zeta". However, the Americans changed it to "Zee" because it then rhymed with all the OTHER letters, and thus fits into a song better- close proximity to the United States (and Sesame Street means that a lot of Canadian children pick up on the American way- I generally always default to that one. It isn't used a lot for names, and anyone unfortunate enough to have surname starting with "Z" is liable to spend a lot of time waiting for things. It is also the least-used letter in the English language, but appears more in American writing due to ending words with "-ize", "-ization" and "-yze" (analyze, organize, organization, etc.). It also has a tendency to replace the letter "S" when using Xtremely Kool Letterz, but this is largely-discredited as a cool thing to do.

As you might imagine, very few comic book characters have names starting with this letter. For decades, the Hulk foe Zzzax would have been at the end of anyone's Alphabetical list of Marvel Comics characters. However, Christopher Yost created a Shi'ar Imperial Guard member named "ZZZXX", thus taking the crown from the electrical bad guy once and for all. Typically, it'll be random, weird characters with atypical or foreign-sounding names (Zorba, Zom, Zarathos). Very few of the characters are important- pretty much the biggest name on the list is the Olympian All-Father, Zeus (who, naturally, is not really a Marvel creation).
Last edited by Jabroniville on Wed Apr 19, 2023 10:20 am, edited 26 times in total.
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