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

Where in all of your character write ups will go.
Jabroniville
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Bianca LaNeige

Post by Jabroniville »

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Man, they wasted THIS character design on a fourth-tier X-book in the Dark Ages of comics?

BIANCA LaNEIGE
Created By:
Larry Hama & Terry Dodson
First Appearance: Generation-X #40 (July 1998)
Role: Loser Villain, Bad-Luck Baddie
Group Affiliations: None

-This striking-looking, pale white figure (her name is a pun on "Snow White"- blanc and neige) was a short-lived Generation-X character from the Hama run. She is introduced as a former business rival of Emma Frost's- she'd lost her company to a hostile takeover from Frost International. Desiring revenge, she attempts to use alien technology against Emma, but only succeeds in trapping herself in a "nether dimension", enduring "unspeakable torments". She is finally able to return to Earth, using aliens as minions, and has since acquired psychic powers. She attacks... but this coincidentally occurs during a "Psychic Blackout" caused by Psylocke's battle with the Shadow King, and this allows Emma to defeat her. She is forced to repair a biosphere, being humiliated as she sweats her way through, and finally she and her allies were pulled into a "strange vortex" and she never appears again. So despite an AMAZING appearance (seriously, Dodson knocked it out of the park with this one), this character seems to just be the creators amusing themselves by creating a complete failure who manages to stumble into bad luck in everything she tries.

-Bianca's got vague powers, able to transform insectoid aliens into "Dwarves" (more of the Snow White theme), and presumably Psychic powers to rival Emma's... just too bad she couldn't use them during their fight.
Ian Turner
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Sebastian Shaw! Donald Pierce! Selene! Shinobi Shaw!)

Post by Ian Turner »

Huh, I thought Reeva Payge was a character invented for The Gifted TV show!

Shinobi is funny because he's got a good versatile power, and just zero motivation to be any good at the super-combat thing, and so is utterly useless with it. (Kinda like me, if I ever got a super-power. Zero motivation to train in the gym or learn to fight, I'd probably be the worst super-powered couch potato...) :)
Skavenger
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Sebastian Shaw! Donald Pierce! Selene! Shinobi Shaw!)

Post by Skavenger »

Ian Turner wrote: Sat Jun 05, 2021 11:31 pm Huh, I thought Reeva Payge was a character invented for The Gifted TV show!

Shinobi is funny because he's got a good versatile power, and just zero motivation to be any good at the super-combat thing, and so is utterly useless with it. (Kinda like me, if I ever got a super-power. Zero motivation to train in the gym or learn to fight, I'd probably be the worst super-powered couch potato...) :)
So, you were the inspiration for this?

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Goldar
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Re: Benazir Kaur

Post by Goldar »

Jabroniville wrote: Sat Jun 05, 2021 10:22 pm Image

BENAZIR KAUR (Black Queen of the Hellfire Club)
Created By:
Ian Edgington & Gene Ha
First Appearance: X-Men Annual #3 (1994)
Role: Status-Affecter
Group Affiliations: The Hellfire Club

-Benazir is part of Shinobi Shaw's temporary Manhattan branch of the Hellfire Club, and had the power to create diseases that affect a person. She uses her power to fuel lung cancer within Gambit's lungs (due to his smoking habit), but Bishop one-hit-KOs her with a slap, and Gambit returns to normal. She has never returned.
Wow, that must have been some slap! :lol:
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Sebastian Shaw! Donald Pierce! Selene! Shinobi Shaw!)

Post by Jabroniville »

So this set of builds produces some interesting issues, as Shinobi Shaw was very prominent in TWO super-teams (the Hellfire Club & the Upstarts), while other Hellfire Club members popped up much later. So before I get to the later Clubbers, here's their would-be replacements in the early 1990s.
Jabroniville
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Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

The Upstarts

Post by Jabroniville »

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THE UPSTARTS:

-If awful crap was gold, then Comic Book Companies in the 1990s were the richest people in the freaking universe.

-The X-books were a perfect example of this. Running off on unprecedented success, Marvel had a group of all-star creators working on the mutant books in the early '90s, and they'd added more and more books to the line to go with this- soon, The Uncanny X-Men had the long-running New Mutants, upstart X-Factor and now, a SPIN-OFF title, just called X-Men. As comics had become more creator-focused (ESPECIALLY on the artist side) after long decades of treating the staff like crap, Marvel sought to kiss up to these new guys (Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio, Rob Liefeld), and often let them have their way on the direction of the book- Jim Lee was given X-Men as a vanity project, and Rob took over the creative duties of the extreme, action-packed X-Force from the ashes of the old New Mutants team. These artists ended up getting to write and plot their own arcs (as old guard like Chris Claremont were given the heave-ho), with the writers being often secondary. And it turned out what a lot of artists wanted to do was unleash their own brand-new characters upon the comic book world.

Jim Lee co-created Magneto's Acolytes and Apocalypse's Dark Riders. Rob Liefeld did the Mutant Liberation Front and Weapon: P.R.I.M.E. running concurrently in X-Force. Both guys also added numerous names over the few years they had power, including Cable, Omega Red and more, giving them all pushes. Their "ideal" versions of the X-teams took fruition (lots and lots of Blaster-types, lots of guys with claws, lots of chicks with large boobs, and waists that would be the envy of a Hyemnopteran species) as well. And part of putting this "New Guard" into power was getting rid of the "Old Guard"- once-important characters fell by the wayside, either going completely unused... or just being discarded in a bloodthirsty manner- within a few years we lost DOZENS of characters of varying levels of prominence, all in the name of cleaning the slate for... these douches.

Enter: The Upstarts!
-The Upstarts started off with some positives- they were fresh, new and had motivation. Young punks all, they were rich, hedonistic and wanted to unseat the old guard and form their own new power-base. They were the ultimate takedown of the rich- bored children who thrill-killed and lived lavishly. The ULTIMATE unlikeable bad guys. And so they made a competition based entirely around killing powerful mutants, because they were all rich, bored pricks. All great ideas. Problem being, they were almost all terrible characters, and they actually failed to make any kind of impact after their initial surge. The Upstarts were initially made up of:

* Shinobi Shaw- Sebastian's Newly-Introduced Son (a trope I normally HATE, but it makes sense that Mr. Hedonist would have popped out an adult son, as he WAS middle-aged...), who wanted daddy's fortune. Known for showing up to meetings while wasted.
* Fabian Cortez- The Acolytes' spiritual-leader, he set up MAGNETO of all people to die, just so he could gain "points" with his partners.
* Trevor Fitzroy- A time-travelling dandy from the future. He fled his time period (Bishop was chasing him), and wanted a power-base in the past.
* Graydon Creed- The son of Sabretooth & Mystique, he was a mutant-hating bigot, and non-powered human.
* The Fenris Twins- The children of Baron Von Strucker, they'd been in comics for a decade by this point, but were always minor-leaguers. They used the fabled "Bio-Electric Fury of FENRIS!"- a Claremontism if there ever was one. The were seemingly added to things just so that the heroes could beat somebody up at the BEGINNING of the "Younghunt" storyline, in addition to the end of it.
* The Gamesmaster- A mysterious telepath who seemed to be in charge of the lot, setting the "points" and targets of their competition.
* Selene was apparently the originator of the contest, but she vanished from comics for a decade thanks to a writer-switch.

In the opening shots, Shinobi murdered his father Sebastian (Shaw wouldn't reappear until the VERY late '90s). Cortez was responsible for Magneto's death (which held for like two entire years). Fitzroy's debut involved one of the most ludicrous wastes of good characters in comic book history, as he annihilated the entire ranks of The Hellions, AND threw Emma Frost into a multi-year coma from the trauma that resulted. Donald Pierce and The Reavers were sent back to the 1980s from whence they came, as they were also hunted down and murdered by Fitzroy's new Sentinels- this effectively finished off the Hellfire Club as a concept, leaving only Selene left (and she quickly lost all prominence). The Fenris Twins also threw their names into the arena, as they resurrected Omega Red to start offing some Muties.

The concept turned out to be that the Upstarts were a new group of young mutants who killed other mutants for "points". These points were to be added up in some grand competitive game, with all the various names competing against each other, with The Gamesmaster being the referee. And these were supposed to be our new "Main Eventer" villains- Lee & Portacio in particular put a TON of early focus on their books into pushing these guys as the new guard.

The Issue:
-The problem here? All of these guys were basically coming in like Mary Sue Newcomers, of course showcasing their awesomeness by killing off cooler, older villains (the Club were old-school X-foes, and this cleaned the slate enough for the new guys). It was all "Look at us! Look how KEWL we are! See? We killed the old boring guys and we're so totally awesome and extreme!" It's always off-putting to me when characters do things like that. Also, once these initial deaths had occured, the Upstarts suddenly stopped killing anyone! They went from wiping out Shaw & Magneto to sitting around arguing because nobody could get anything done. This was notably during the era of the Legacy Virus, which was ALSO in the process of finishing off the Old Guard of characters (dropping Revanche the false-Psylocke, Pyro, Mastermind and Psynapse of the Dark Riders), so it's not like there weren't people to kill. They could have at least written in some examples of Cortez or Shinobi icing Tower or Stinger III or something, if they wanted them to maintain cred. But NOPE.

Another issue was the "Big-Name Artists" I mentioned had all left, thus orphaning all of their big new characters. Despite getting most of what they wanted from Marvel in terms of control, the artists still felt slighted financially, and wanted to OWN their own stuff, and so many of them fled to Image (this was called the "X-odus", as Liefeld, Lee & Portacio were all on X-books) with Todd MacFarlane & Erik Larsen, meaning that the X-books were somewhat rudderless. X-Force & X-Men writer Fabian Nicieza & Uncanny writer Scott Lobdell were left picking up the scraps and trying to figure out what to do with all of these guys.

So Nicieza & Lobdell wrote most of the X-books I got when I was a post-adolescent. I enjoyed the books at the time, but the years have been much less kind to them (Lobdell's books are TERRIBLE, awful stuff, while Nicieza's X-Men is merely passable. X-Force is still quite fun, though). And it is VERY obvious on re-reading them that they pretty much dropped the Upstarts idea and put it into the background while they worked on The X-Cutioner's Song (the huge line-spanning cross-over), Magneto's return (about two years after he'd died), and more. The Acolytes went from loser also-rans to even WORSE also-rans, the Dark Riders farted around, Mister Sinister did his usual vague crap, etc. All of this random stuff meant that the poor Upstarts had little to do- they were absolutely discarded and all their hype had gone nowhere- the victim of busy writers changing gears from the old ones.

And worst of all- The Upstarts were TERRIBLE CHARACTERS. I dug Cortez okay, as he had cool & unique powers (amp-ing up other mutants around him) and a realistic, big cause (he wanted power, and made himself a religious icon using the dead Magneto's name, so that he could lead The Acolytes). But Shinobi Shaw was portrayed as an alcoholic wuss, and his powers (phasing) were simply there to make him hard to beat on. Graydon Creed was nothing more than a Senator Robert Kelly retread (complete with Presidential Run for Office), but without all the characterization and nuance that made Kelly an awesome character- he was just an aimless, ugly bigot with nothing else to him. Trevor Fitzroy had one of those "One Hit Kill" powers that meant he could almost NEVER hit a real, important character (poor, poor Jetstream & Tarot...), and he was given a goofy-ass appearance (green '90s hair & Van Dyke goatee) and a foppish persona, making you want to see him hurt. The Fenris Twins had "D-League Sucky Villain" written all over them, and were never given much of a shot. The Gamesmaster was half-decent, but had your generic Master Telepath power-set, which was getting SERIOUSLY old at the time.

So here's a bulletted list of the reasons why these guys suck, because there's nothing I can't get over like failed super-villain teams from the 1990s, apparently:
* They're Lazy Rich Kids. It's a HATE-ABLE character type, sure. But not respectable. At least "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase has the respect of being a strong fighter- the antithesis of being lazy. These guys mostly just sat around being decadent. Shinobi in particular was just seen lounging around in groups of scantily-clad individuals, drunk off his ass (and I suspect we were supposed to see his bisexuality- men were seen in his tubs as well as women- as another case of his hedonism).

* Most of them never did anything.

* They're kind of weak. In the CULMINATION of the whole "Upstarts" thing, both Graydon Creed & Shinobi Shaw gave up without a fight. They just let the heroes threaten or blackmail them into giving up access to their base of operations- the New Warriors taunted Creed and he just was like "Whatever- I don't like those assholes anyways" and Shinobi was threatened by Cable and was all "Well I was getting bored with this, anywho".

* Almost all of the murders the Upstarts committed were hands-off, indirect killings. Fitzroy killed some of the Hellions (CHILDREN) himself, but he had his SENTINELS kill the Reavers, Pierce (sorta) and Emma Frost (sorta). Fabian Cortez arranged for Magneto to die (sorta) on Asteroid M, but of course didn't do the deed himself. These are all plotting-based, and help make the team look like weaklings. As a result, none of the Upstarts had any credibility.

* They all looked dumb and/or plain. Creed in particular is utterly-plain (other "Anti-Mutant Government Guy" characters like Robert Kelly and Gyrich at least had distinctive glasses- a good writer's trick in making a character more memorable than "Generic White Guy"). Shinobi was the same, but was also usually naked (losing him cred). Fabian Cortez shares his outfit with every other Acolyte, but at least has a ponytail. Fitzroy has goofy green hair, and peculiar pointy armor that looked stupid.

And because of all these stories running along that were more important, the most we would usually get is a side-shot here or there of the guys meeting up and discussing stuff, or Shinobi talking to his ally- Matsu'o Tsurayaba, a Wolverine enemy (he killed Mariko). The Fenris Twins casually mentioned Upstart stuff a bit during a Jim Lee-written X-Men arc a few years before. These mini-cameos finally, FINALLY culminated with The Younghunt, an X-Force/New Mutants cross-over story. As Fabian Nicieza was the head writer of both books, this was a perfect opportunity (the teams had allied during a four-part Kings of Pain thing in the X-Annuals a few summers before).

The Younghunt:
-To amp up the "game" (probably because it was getting seriously ****ing boring sitting around all day while they did nothing and didn't kill anyone else), the Gamesmaster set up a new theme- the Upstarts were to capture the surviving members of the New Mutants and the Hellions, bringing them to his home-base, where presumably they'd be killed or something. This game of course makes NO SENSE, as the Upstarts were all about assassination and just murdering people, so why would they just merely capture people? But it wouldn't be comics if the villains didn't capture the heroes and leave them in chains so they could later escape, would it?

The whole Hellions/New Mutants thing was perfect for these books, as the surviving members were: Cannonball, Boom-Boom/Boomer, Rictor, Sunspot, Magma, Wolfsbane, Karma, Rusty, Skids & Danielle Moonstar of the New Mutants, and Thunderbird II/Warpath, Empath & Firestar of the Hellions. As Cannonball, Boomer, Rictor & Warpath were all X-Force members at the time, and Firestar was on the New Warriors, this was a perfect fit for the teams to get drawn into it. The other targets: Karma, Empath & Magma hadn't been seen since The New Mutants ended over 3-4 years previous, giving this a HUGE "Nostalgia Run" feel for fans who'd missed them over the span of Liefeld's coronation. Moonstar was now a member of the Mutant Liberation Front (she was a plant by S.H.I.E.L.D.), who had opposed X-Force. Wolfsbane was on X-Factor, which wasn't taking part in the cross-over, and so she was largely ignored save for a gag. Sunspot was missing (he'd been teleported to the middle of nowhere) and Rusty & Skids were on Magneto's Avalon, so they were unavailable. This meant that the fans saw most of these characters for the first time in YEARS, and some people were quite excited.

How it Went Down:
* Some new members were introduced- Matsu'o Tsurayaba was added to things for no apparent reason (he called dibs on Psylocke for personal reasons to come later). Siena Blaze was a newly-created character, and was given a big push at the time- she took out Cannonball & Boomer at the beginning of the story. They were on vacation in Kentucky, and Sam's newly-introduced sister, Paige Guthrie, was witness to the incident, and had to talk to Cable & the rest of X-Force.

* Magma was nearly captured by The Bio-Electric Fury of Fenris, but Empath (who was following her around- her hyper-complicated backstory in Nova Roma was unfolding yet again) and Moonstar teamed up to break her free. The Fenris Twins were thus defeated.

* New Warriors member Justice was undergoing some sort of issue at the time, and was pretending to be an ally of Shinobi Shaw, and "captured" his girlfriend, Angelica "Firestar" Jones. This drew the Warriors into things, especially as Night Thrasher was a fellow rich-boy, and thus knew Shaw a bit.

* X-Force got attacked by Trevor Fitzroy (who was looking for Warpath & Rictor), but they easily-defeated him, and he nearly died. X-Force then came for Shaw and threatened him into giving up the game and The Upstarts' whole theme. This de-valued both characters (who I think Nicieza never liked in the first place) immensely- these battles happened in the SAME ISSUE! And this was only a few months after Colossus had beaten the piss out of Fitzroy in Uncanny X-Men, meaning it was TWO humiliating defeats for the guy in a short period! And the way X-Force did it was hilariously-quick- Rictor & Siryn harmonized their powers' vibratory frequency with that of Fitzroy's armor's Force Field, thus breaking it, and then Cable tricked him into trying to drain his life force (by covering his cyborg arm with fake skin), and without a target to drain, Fitzroy's power then turned on HIM, nearly-killing him.

* The New Warriors threatened Creed, saying they'd reveal his parentage to his Friends of Humanity allies, and he washed his hands of the whole deal. He never even factored into the story.

* Eventually, all the captured characters (which now included Moonstar & company- I never got why, as no store close to me carried the Warriors' book) ended up in one place, Paige Guthrie did the whole "Tagalong Kid" thing, and things came to a head with both X-Force & the New Warriors dogpiling The Gamesmaster in his base.

* Here, things got a bit hairy. He effortlessly Mind-Controlled the captured people into attacking their friends. Moonstar EASILY defeats both Nova & Kymaera (Namorita) with her Psychic Arrows, one-shotting them. Siena Blaze actually throws out a HUGE eruption of power, taking out Warpath, Siryn, Rage & Speedball. The narration goes above and beyond hyping up Siena, explaining that only Speedball's powers saved the group, as "no one short of the HULK could have withstood this furious of an assault". Jeez- hype her up any MORE, Fabian? Night Thrasher takes out Firestar, and Domino neuro-scrambles Justice, and Cable is actually able to break Cannonball out of the GM's control. But then the Gamesmaster just pops in and TKOs everybody with psionic powers.

* Paige Guthrie is the savior, convincing The Gamesmaster that he should stop going after mutants to kill them, and instead focusing on training the next generation. The GM is like "Paige... YOU WIN!" and completely changes his focus. In the last pages, we get a gag-panel that the Fenris Twins were captured by X-Factor when they went after Wolfsbane.

This provided a cap-off for the "Upstarts" story, but a REALLY disappointing one. First off, it mostly showed them getting their asses kicked or threatened into submission- the Fenris Twins job TWICE, Fitzroy is pummelled and made to look like a fool, and both Shaw & Creed give up without a fight. And then Siena, the big new character who they seemingly wanted to push, basically got two or three lines of dialogue, and was an almost-voiceless character who hit hard and that was it. And then the Gamesmaster just beat everybody in seconds with his powers, because he's just that tough- it messes with the drama when the heroes drop in SECONDS. I kind of liked the idea of the climax, at least- Paige convincing the GM to become an "Evil Charles Xavier", more or less.

This wasn't really a major climax, but it effectively ended the Upstarts once and for all. Shinobi Shaw soon vanished from comics and was killed off-panel, Fitzroy went on to become a recurring foe in Bishop's solo series (never figured out how he'd earned that), Creed ran for President but was assassinated by his own MOTHER, the Fenris Twins remained a forever-D-team with Andrea finally dying and Andreas going nuts and becoming the new Swordsman, and Matsu'o went on to do his own thing in the Wolverine book again. The Gamesmaster pretty much vanished as well, and would become one of those villains who only showed up once every five years- he, of course, ignored the climax to the Younghunt and was just a regular ol' bad guy again. This whole story basically just put a lid on a dangling plot-thread, and that was that. The biggest thing to come from it was Paige Guthrie, who was set up to become a major part of Generation-X, the new trainee team of X-kids- her big run would start in The Phalanx Covenant.

As of 2016, Shinobi, Fitzroy, Cortez, Creed, Matsu'o, Siena Blaze and both Von Strucker twins were all dead. The only survivors of The Upstarts into modern times were The Gamesmaster and Selene (Shinobi has recently returned, as have most dead mutants thanks to Hickman's weird run). By contrast, almost all of the people murdered by the Upstarts have been resurrected. How's THAT for a crappy record for a super-team of murderers?

The Roster:
* So the Upstarts were mostly affiliated with other characters in the first place, so I've gotten to most of them anyways. But here they are:
The Fenris Twins- Sported the famous "Bio-Electric Fury of FENRIS!". Generic rich Eurotrash kids who were minor members.
The Gamesmaster- Mysterious omnipath.
Graydon Creed- Racist anti-mutant who joined the group to kill mutants.
Matsu'o Tsurayaba- Aide of Shinobi- typically more of a Wolverine foe.
Selene- Not really associated with them for long- kinda did her own thing.
Shinobi Shaw- The son of Sebastian Shaw.
Siena Blaze- Random newbie character Marvel seemed intent on giving a push for whatever reason, but they half-assed it.
Trevor Fitzroy- Future-sent enemy of Bishop.
Ian Turner
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Donald Pierce! Selene! Shinobi Shaw! The Upstarts!)

Post by Ian Turner »

Gosh, that issue with the death of the Hellions to fuel Fitzroy's portal annoyed me because a dozen mutants stepped through it, most dudes with funky colored skin, and not a single one of them had a clearly defined mutant power. (A few of them had names, but the text boxes were screwy, and the names got switched around in the like *three* panels of speaking, so that one dude ended up being called by the others name.) Fighting breaks out and some throw some colorful blasts, but who knows what they did? (Fat lotta nothin', that's what they did.) Apparently, Bishop killed them all in his first five minutes in our time zone? I don't even know. AFAIK, none of them have ever been seen since...

Pity none of them had the mutant power of 'not getting shot to death in your first appearance.'

And Sienna Blaze. "I have an uber-powerful blast that has like a 1 in 5 chance of destroying the planet when I use it!" "What? How did you even find that out?" "This is my third planet, obvs."
Jabroniville
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Siena Blaze

Post by Jabroniville »

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They put her in like ten different series of cards and forgot to give her a goddamn personality, lol. That's just the '90s in a nutshell, isn't it?

SIENA BLAZE
Created By:
Scott Lobdell & Brandon Peterson
First Appearance: The Uncanny X-men Annual #17 (1993)
Role: Wannabe Major Villain, Blaster
Group Affiliations: The Upstarts
PL 10 (121)
STRENGTH
1 STAMINA 2 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 6 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 1 AWARENESS 1 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Deception 3 (+5)
Expertise (Criminal) 4 (+5)
Insight 4 (+5)
Intimidation 5 (+6)
Perception 4 (+5)
Technology 2 (+3)

Advantages:
All-Out Attack, Defensive Roll, Improved Aim, Improved Critical (Blast) 2, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 5, Taunt

Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Electro-Magnetic Power"
"Explosive Storm" Blast 10 (Extras: Area- 30ft. Burst on 8 Ranks) (28) -- [31]
  • AE: "Focused Beam" Blast 10 (Feats: Split, Penetrating 6) (27)
  • AE: "E-M Wave" Damage 10 (Extras: Area- 60ft. Cone) (20)
  • AE: Teleport 8 (Extras: Extended) (24)
Flight 6 (120 mph) [12]

Offense:
Unarmed +6 (+1 Damage, DC 16)
Blast +9 (+10 Ranged Damage, DC 25)
E-M Wave +10 Area (+10 Damage, DC 25)
Initiative +3

Defenses:
Dodge +10 (DC 20), Parry +9 (DC 19), Toughness +2 (+3 D.Roll), Fortitude +5, Will +5

Complications:
Motivation (Power)

Total: Abilities: 40 / Skills: 22--11 / Advantages: 12 / Powers: 43 / Defenses: 16 (121)

-Siena Blaze is a VERY unknown character from around this era, yet was given a massive amount of hype by Marvel, who were either hoping to make a new megastar X-Villain... or just build someone up to join Malibu Comics' "Exiles" and not have to give up anyone good. She joined the Younghunt as a new member of the "Upstarts" seemingly just to make her bones as an X-Villain. She stomped Cannonball & Boomer by surprise (despite Sam's Blast Field), and otherwise that was it- she attempted to grab Moonstar & Empath, but Karma completely halted her advance with her Mental Possession power. She was next seen facing the heroes, and got this big shilling by the writing (all "no one but the HULK can survive her Blasts!") as she wipes out a swath of them with one shot. But when the Gamesmaster lets everyone go, Blaze fails to appear, and she subsequently vanished for a long time (Nicieza, her creator, left Marvel around this time, which is probably part of it).

-A few more short-lived villainous exploits, and she was shunted into the Malibu Comics universe (with The Juggernaut and REAPER of all people, whom Siena had been attempting to kill for a small amount of points for the Upstarts competion... which was over by that point) for a brief storyline Marvel did with the indie company (which they bought entirely for their fancy coloring process). They were forced to act as heroes, Siena apparently getting on really easily with them and being attracted to the team's leader, but all three returned. That never really went anywhere, and the character basically vanished from history. She was casually killed off in a Mutant Concentration Camp storyline (one of MANY attempts at "Spring Cleaning" the line), and nobody really noticed. Kind of a far drop for someone who was seemingly being groomed for "Major Character" status, but that'll happen when your creator leaves, and you're a completely generic-looking character.

-She since reappeared temporarily during Necrosha like most dead villains, then suddenly popped up with new Upstarts in a story that comes off like the writer didn't realize most of them had been killed already- they kill off some of the Nasty Boys, and she is imprisoned and apparently killed OFF-PANEL. That story seems incredibly weird.

-Siena's a REALLY powerful Blaster, given PL 10 status, despite being 30 points short of the max points, mainly because she's so limited. The ultra-powerful Blast, along with her other electro-magnetic powers (her Nullify Teleport I'll leave as a Power Stunt, since it was only used against Nightcrawler), make her a pretty good one-trick pony, but she's hardly a master villain. Reading her debut and the way Nicieza describes her powers, you'd figure her for a PL 12 (Rage, Speedball & Warpath are all pretty durable- KOing ALL of them, in spite of Speedball's protective field blocking her attack, is no mean feat), but she seems to have settled down after that New Villain Stink wore off.
Shock
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Donald Pierce! Selene! Shinobi Shaw! The Upstarts!)

Post by Shock »

Jabroniville wrote: Sun Jun 06, 2021 1:48 am they were fresh, new and had motivation. Young punks all, they were rich, hedonistic and wanted to unseat the old guard and form their own new power-base
Are you talking about comic characters or the artists there? :D
Jabroniville
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Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Re: Jab’s Builds (Donald Pierce! Selene! Shinobi Shaw! The Upstarts!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Shock wrote: Sun Jun 06, 2021 1:27 pm
Jabroniville wrote: Sun Jun 06, 2021 1:48 am they were fresh, new and had motivation. Young punks all, they were rich, hedonistic and wanted to unseat the old guard and form their own new power-base
Are you talking about comic characters or the artists there? :D
… Yes.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24690
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

The Gamesmaster

Post by Jabroniville »

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THE GAMESMASTER (Henry Stevens)
Created By:
Whilce Portacio
First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men #283 (Dec. 1991)
Role: Uber-Telepath, Would-Be Major Villain
Group Affiliations: The Upstarts
PL 12 (193)
STRENGTH
1 STAMINA 1 AGILITY 0
FIGHTING 2 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 3 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 3

Skills:
Deception 4 (+7)
Expertise (Behavioral Sciences) 4 (+7)
Insight 6 (+9)
Perception 6 (+9)

Advantages:
None

Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Omnipath"
"Constant Omnipathy" Mind Reading 2 (Feats: Subtle 2) (Extras: No Action +4, Area- 30-mile Burst +13, Continuous Duration) (Flaws: Permanent) [40]
"Mental Detection" Senses 7 (Mental Awareness- Ranged, Radius, Acute, Detect Mutants- Ranged & Radius) [7]
"Mental Blocks" Enhanced Will Save 6 (Flaws: Limited to Mental Attacks) [3]

"Enhanced Mind Reading" Mind Reading 12 (Feats: Subtle, Dynamic) (Extras: Effortless, Sensory Link) Linked to Mental Communication 4 (Extras: Area, Selective) (74) -- [88]
  • Dynamic AE: Mind Control 12 (Feats: Dynamic) (Extras: Sustained +2) (73)
  • Dynamic AE: "Wide Area Control" Affliction 4 (Will; Entranced/Compelled/Controlled Emotions) (Feats: Dynamic) (Extras: Sustained +2, Area- 30-mile Burst +13) (65)
  • Dynamic AE: "Mental Blast" Blast 12 (Feats: Dynamic) (Extras: Perception Range, Alternate Save- Will) (49)
  • Dynamic AE: "Mental Stun" Affliction 12 (Will; Dazed/Stunned/Incapacitated) (Feats: Dynamic) (Extras: Perception Range) (37)
  • Dynamic AE: Illusion All Senses 12 (Feats: Dynamic) (Extras: Selective) (Flaws: Resistible By Will) (61)
  • Dynamic AE: "Astral Form" Remote Sensing 15 (Visuals & Hearing) (Feats: Dynamic, Dimensional) (Flaws: Physical Body is Defenseless) (32)
  • Dynamic AE: Nullify 12 (Feats: Dynamic) (Extras: Perception Range, Broad- Mutant Powers, Simultaneous) (49)
Offense:
Unarmed +2 (+1 Damage, DC 16)
Mind Reading/Nullify +12 (DC 22)
Mental Powers +12 Perception (+12 Perception Affliction, DC 22)
Mental Blast +12 Perception (+12 Perception Damage, DC 27)
Initiative +0

Defenses:
Dodge +4 (DC 14), Parry +4 (DC 14), Toughness +1, Fortitude +4, Will +10 (+16 vs. Mental Attacks)

Complications:
Motivation (Distractions)- An Omnipath, The Gamesmaster feels nearly all the thoughts of the human race at once. To fight this, he must focus on different, specific activities. These distractions are often as extreme as murder.
Power Loss (Telepathy)- The Gamesmaster's only failings in Telepathy were his inability to affect Jean Grey, Husk (by shifting her forms) and Speedball.

Total: Abilities: 30 / Skills: 20--10 / Advantages: 0 / Powers: 138 / Defenses: 16 (193)

-The Gamesmaster was the top dog of the Upstarts, and depicted as less of a chaotic evil adversary than an omnipath who had to focus on certain people (like the Upstarts and their games) to "drown out" the rest of the six billion voices in his head. This was an interesting idea, but it got goofy, as only certain people could avoid his powers (in order to actually defeat someone who of course should've been able to see every attack coming and kill everyone by thinking), and he did the classic villain failing of actually being talked out of something by the hero- Paige Guthrie got him to give up his assassination league to instead focus on "training the next generation of mutants", which he of course never did. No, really- the STORY'S CLIMAX ended up NEVER MATTERING, as the next bunch of writers just used Gamesmaster as yet another villain. It didn't help that Fabian Nicieza wrote him as his trademark "Overly Chatty Faux-Philosophical Villain" (seriously, Fabe's stuff actually holds up better than most '90s comic book writing, but his villainous dialogue has never been anything but awful. Completely-pretentious, overly-long drek from everyone from Magneto to Stryfe to Apocalypse. They ALL talk like this).

-He appeared in a Deadpool comic, threatening Wade's love interest Siryn, then got mixed up in Shatterstar's life when they introduced the "he's really the comatose human Benjamin Russel" thing that most writers just ignored. Later, the Gamesmaster tried to trap the X-Men in a telepathic world of his own creation so that he could do stuff without their interference, but Joseph (the clone of Magneto) undid his work. And his latest appearance runs all the way up to X-23, where he declared an interest in watching her activities (someone call Chris Hansen!), but, like a LOT of Gamesmaster stories, it led nowhere. Seriously, that's like three story arcs that were rendered meaningless by the next writer just forgetting what was going on.

-The GamesMaster is limited outside of his Telepathy/Mind Control Array, but holy hell it's a powerful effect. Dozens of Perception-Range attacks and effects mean that he can basically mind-warp anyone he wants, and use varying intensities (like communicating with his allies while he's battling someone else with Illusions or Mind Blasts). He comes up short elsewhere (considering he can't actually physically hurt anyone, and couldn't hold up to any attacks), and is thus the cheapest guy at his power level imaginable.

-Plus, the whole Mind-Reading thing. You can extend it ever further if you go by his whole "I can read the minds of everyone on the planet" thing, which makes the Burst Area cover... one heck of a lot of ground . It's more low-rank than his "focused" Mind-Reading though.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24690
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Re: Jab’s Builds (Donald Pierce! Selene! Shinobi Shaw! The Upstarts!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Ian Turner wrote: Sun Jun 06, 2021 7:31 am Gosh, that issue with the death of the Hellions to fuel Fitzroy's portal annoyed me because a dozen mutants stepped through it, most dudes with funky colored skin, and not a single one of them had a clearly defined mutant power. (A few of them had names, but the text boxes were screwy, and the names got switched around in the like *three* panels of speaking, so that one dude ended up being called by the others name.) Fighting breaks out and some throw some colorful blasts, but who knows what they did? (Fat lotta nothin', that's what they did.) Apparently, Bishop killed them all in his first five minutes in our time zone? I don't even know. AFAIK, none of them have ever been seen since...

Pity none of them had the mutant power of 'not getting shot to death in your first appearance.'

And Sienna Blaze. "I have an uber-powerful blast that has like a 1 in 5 chance of destroying the planet when I use it!" "What? How did you even find that out?" "This is my third planet, obvs."
Oh yeah- this era confused the hell out of me. As a new reader, I saw both this and the later issue where Bishop’s allies Malcolm and Randall died, and couldn’t figure ANYTHING out. Like it was multiple layers of poor narration, jumping through time, and bad editing. Malcolm & Randall die in our time while they’re all seen watching Jean Grey’s report of the X-Men’s deaths in the past, while Bishop is talking to the future version of Gambit. It’s an absolute MESS.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24690
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Emma Steed

Post by Jabroniville »

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The top: Age of Apocalypse; the bottom: Marvel 616.

EMMA STEED
Created By:
Warren Ellis & Ken Lashley
First Appearance: X-Calibre #1 (March 1995- AoA Version), Excalibur #96 (April 1996- 616 Version)
Role: Evil Woman
Group Affiliations: The Hellfire Club (London Branch)
PL 7 (104)
STRENGTH
1 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 6 DEXTERITY 3
INTELLIGENCE 3 AWARENESS 1 PRESENCE 3

Skills:
Deception 6 (+6)
Expertise (Business) 4 (+7)

Advantages:
Benefit 2 (Wealth)

Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Low-Level Psionic"
"Psionic Weapons" Damage 8 (Feats: Affects Insubstantial) (Extras: Will-Based) [17]
Immunity 20 (Mental Effects) [20]

Offense:
Unarmed +6 (+1 Damage, DC 16)
Psionic Weapons +6 (+8 Will Damage, DC 23)
Initiative +3

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

Complications:
Motivation (Power & Greed)

Total: Abilities: 48 / Skills: 10--5 / Advantages: 2 / Powers: 37 / Defenses: 12 (104)

-A little more "on the nose" with the whole Avengers link than even the ORIGINAL Club was, Emma Steed (named for Emma Peel & John Steed, the protagonists of the '60s TV series) is the Black Queen of the London branch of the Hellfire Club's Inner Circle. She'd initially appeared as "Damask" during the Age of Apocalypse alternate continuity series, and like a few other characters shown there, actually got to show up for real in the standard universe as well. However, unlike most of them (Holocaust, Sugar Man & Dark Beast fled into the main dimensional timeline), she is a different person in both. Steed appears killing her Club's Black King for being turned insane by a demon (whom he'd attempted to use to control London), and had some vague connection to Onslaught. When Brian Braddock confronted her about weird goings-on in London, she attacked him with Psionic Blades, but was easily-beaten. Weird.

-Emma's powers are basically like Betsy Braddock's Psychic Knife, affecting the minds of her opponents. However, she's apparently not so great that Captain Britain can't take her out pretty quickly. She's also Immune to Mental Effects (a 20-point power in the Marvel Universe).
Jabroniville
Posts: 24690
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Scribe

Post by Jabroniville »

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SCRIBE (Jane Hampshire)
Created By:
Warren Ellis & Ken Lashley
First Appearance: Excalibur #96 (April 1996)
Role: Jobber Villain
Group Affiliations: The Hellfire Club (London Branch)
PL 8 (113)
STRENGTH
6 STAMINA 6 AGILITY 5
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 3
INTELLIGENCE 3 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Deception 6 (+8)
Expertise (Business) 7 (+10)
Perception 6 (+8)
Stealth 1 (+6)
Technology 2 (+5)

Advantages:
Benefit 2 (Wealth)

Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Super-Physiology & Phasing"
"Sharpened Talons" Strength-Damage +1 (Feats: Split) [2]
Leaping 1 (4 mph) [1]
Speed 2 (8 mph) [2]
Insubstantial 4 [20]

Offense:
Unarmed +8 (+6 Damage, DC 21)
Claws +8 (+7 Damage, DC 22)
Initiative +5

Defenses:
Dodge +8 (DC 18), Parry +8 (DC 18), Toughness +6, Fortitude +6, Will +4

Complications:
Motivation (Power & Greed)

Total: Abilities: 70 / Skills: 22--11 / Advantages: 2 / Powers: 25 / Defenses: 5 (113)

-Scribe is the Red Rook of the London Hellfire Club branch, and uses a special device to record anything that goes on during their meetings (reminds me of that scene in The Wire, where the guy is taking notes in order to copy how real businesses act, and an astonished Stringer Bell is like "Bitch, are you keeping notes during a CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY?"). She was possessed by someone named Mountjoy, who warned Captain Britain about the Club's plan to use a demon to take over London... but that was all a trap and the Club attacked him. He soundly beat all of them. She later dueled Madelyne Pryor, who tore Mountjoy out of Scribe's body, beating them both.

-Scribe showcases low-level Super-Strength and the generic crap Wikipedia ALWAYS uses to define this sort of character- "Reflexes". They ALWAYS mention Reflexes. Never mind whether or not the character's ever SHOWN Enhanced Reflexes; ya gotta always mention the Reflexes. It's right up there with "Razor-Sharp" being the required descriptor every single time claws are mentioned. Oh, also she has razor-sharp claws.
Ian Turner
Posts: 220
Joined: Sat Jun 06, 2020 4:54 pm

Re: Jab’s Builds (Donald Pierce! Selene! Shinobi Shaw! The Upstarts!)

Post by Ian Turner »

Emma Steed / Psi-Skinner chickie would be more interesting IMO if she could create psychic weapons with more versatility than just 'damage' like barbed psychic whips that entangled and damaged people or psychic nets or bolas or whatever.

'Cause the 'psychic blades' thing has been done since Southern Knights, long before Psylocke got in on the action (IIRC). :)

(And I had no idea there was a version of her outside of the AoA! Neat!)
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