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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The Invisible Hood (Ken Thurston)

Post by Jabroniville »

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THE INVISIBLE HOOD II (Ken Thurston)
Created By:
Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray & Daniel Acuña
First Appearance: Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters #5 (Jan. 2007)
Role: Invisible Hero
Group Affiliations: The Freedom Fighters, Primal Force

-In Uncle Sam & The Freedom Fighters, another "Invisible Hood" turns up, but this one reveals himself as the great-grandson of the original, and uses the same hood. Later, Ken is killed by the traitorous Ray (Stan Silver), just as he is about to leave the superhero profession.
Jabroniville
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Miss America

Post by Jabroniville »

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MISS AMERICA (Joan Dale)
Created By:
Elmer Wexler
First Appearance: Military Comics #1 (Aug. 1941)
Role: Forgotten Golden Age Hero
Group Affiliations: The Freedom Fighters, The All-Star Squadron, The Justice Society of America (Possibly Retconned Out)
PL 8 (117)
STRENGTH
1 STAMINA 2 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 6 DEXTERITY 3
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 1 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Deception 4 (+6)
Expertise (Reporter) 4 (+6)
Insight 2 (+3)
Investigation 3 (+4)
Perception 3 (+4)
Persuasion 3 (+5)
Ranged Combat (Transformation) 2 (+7)
Stealth 3 (+6)

Advantages:
Improved Defense, Improved Initiative, Ranged Attack 2

Powers:
"Molecular Transmutation"
Transform 8 (Anything to Anything Else) (Extras: Ranged) [48]

Offense:
Unarmed +6 (+1 Damage, DC 16)
Transform +7 (+8 Ranged Transform, DC 18)
Initiative +7

Defenses:
Dodge +8 (DC 18), Parry +8 (DC 18), Toughness +2, Fortitude +4, Will +5

Complications:
Enemy (Project M)- Joan thought her powers came from the Statue of Liberty, who'd appeared to her in a dream. In actuality, Project M had abducted and experimented upon her.

Total: Abilities: 40 / Skills: 24--12 / Advantages: 4 / Powers: 48 / Defenses: 13 (117)

-Miss America went from an obscure character nobody'd ever heard of to being part of one of DC's more convoluted stories (which, as you've noticed by now, is SAYING SOMETHING). See, Miss Joan Dale (gaining Transmutation powers from the Statue of Liberty, who appeared to her in a dream) was a briefly-appearing hero in Military Comics for like seven issues (one of the shortest runs of any character in Quality or DC), but vanished into such obscurity that nobody challenged Timely Comics when they released a character of the same name shortly thereafter. Roy Thomas, of course, brought her back and stuck her on the Freedom Fighters squad of Quality Comics' concepts, where she was killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor.

-It would've ended there, had the Crisis not altered DC's continuity, thus requiring someone to replace Wonder Woman in the JSA's old adventures. Retroactively, MISS AMERICA was placed in that role, despite having none of Diana's powers, and nowhere near enough fame to make her "worthy" of such a boost- it's especially strange because Thomas retconned in a Golden Age FURY to take this role (and as the modern Fury's mother). But then Hippolyta, Wonder Woman's mother (who is now retconned into looking like Diana), travels back in time and ends up on the JSA, thus RE-FITTING those JSA adventures with a "Wonder Woman"!

-This, of course, makes Miss America's position VERY dubious, as I'm pretty sure she was supposed to have been on the team during its earliest adventures, while Hippolyta was not, but modern-day DC continuity makes NO mention of her JSA days, and instead fits her back on the Freedom Fighters full-time, so I think it's safe to say she's back where she belongs- obscurity. Her only real "link" to modern times is being the adoptive mother of Lyta "Fury" Hall (she's married to Admiral Derek Trevor, a cutesy in-joke because Lyta's original parents were of course WW and STEVE Trevor). She's also notable for having the most ridiculously-powerful ability ever for a character portrayed as a fourth-stringer, but then, the 1940s was hardly the time where you'd expect comic writers to have knowledge of molecular physics.

-The 2006 Freedom Fighters series added in a modern Miss America, who was confronted by a much older Joan, who then reveals that she was FAKING her aged appearance, and joins Uncle Sam's team after destroying her android impostor. However, she is blown up, but "evolves" in space to become Miss Cosmos. Because comics.

-Statting her's pretty easy, as she's a fairly weak hero with one powerful ability. She couldn't do anything to living beings and she had a finite timeline for her abilities, but she could basically turn stuff into other stuff. Obviously this is way more powerful than a 1940s writer would showcase, but flashbacks show her turning guns into flowers and tanks into other stuff, so she's actually got some retro-oomph to her abilities. In modern times, she got powerful enough that she could threaten to turn people's organs into glass.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Mon May 09, 2022 12:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Davies
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Uncle Sam! Phantom Lady! Black Condor! The Red Bee!)

Post by Davies »

Thomas also retconned Miss A's origin to tie her into one of his "theory of everything" elements in Young All-Stars, that of Project M, a super-science facility that most notably was where King Kong's corpse wound up. (The Statue giving her powers became just a dream she had.)
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Jabroniville
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The Golden Age Red Torpedo

Post by Jabroniville »

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RED TORPEDO (Jim Lockhart)
Created By:
Henry Carl Kiefer
First Appearance: Crack Comics #1 (May 1940)
Role: Forgotten Golden Age Hero
Group Affiliations: The Freedom Fighters, The All-Star Squadron
PL 8 (85)
STRENGTH
2 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 2
FIGHTING 6 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 3 AWARENESS 1 PRESENCE 3

Skills:
Athletics 6 (+7)
Athletics 6 (+12) -- Flaws: Limited to Swimming
Deception 2 (+5)
Expertise (Sailor) 7 (+10)
Insight 2 (+3)
Investigation 3 (+4)
Perception 4 (+5)
Persuasion 2 (+5)
Technology 7 (+10)
Vehicles 8 (+12)

Advantages:
Equipment 8 (Red Torpedo Mini-Sub w/ Energy Beams), Ranged Attack 4

Equipment:
"Red Torpedo"
(Large Size, Strength 4, Swimming 9- 250 mph, Defenses 8, Toughness 8)
(Weapons: "Twin Cannons"- Blast 8 (Feats: Split), AE: "Frontal Spike"- Damage 8- Penetrating 8)
-- (39 points)

Offense:
Unarmed +6 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Twin Cannons +8 (+8 Ranged Damage, DC 23)
Frontal Spike +8 (+8 Damage, DC 23)
Initiative +2

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

Complications:
Relationship (Peg)- Lockhart has a girlfriend, like most '40s heroes, but she never reappears after his first issue.
Enemy (The Nazis, The Japanese)
Enemy (Black Shark)

Total: Abilities: 48 / Skills: 44--22 / Advantages: 12 / Powers: 0 / Defenses: 13 (85)

-Nope, this isn't Ma Hunkel, it's the similarly-named Red Torpedo, a guy so lame he didn't make it 20 appearances before going away, until a retcon from the '80s resulted in him being blowed up at Pearl Harbor with the rest of Uncle Sam's Suck Fighters. But ANOTHER retcon (this one from Starman- beacon of hope & Retcons for all the Golden Age fans in the '90s) has him turn up alive, helping Starman II (Charles McNider) build his Star Ship or whatever it was, and THEN you hear nothing else from him. So yeah, this one-note guy ends up living past the war with some history, just like nearly everybody else. His outfit is pretty terrible, though- bare arms and big floppy jhodpurs.

-Jim Lockhart was a Sailor who resigned when his superior rejected his designs for an advanced torpedo-like submarine. He builds it himself, and becomes "The Robin Hood of the Deep". Few attempts were made at continuity- his girlfriend Peg never reappears after the first story, and his arch-nemesis Black Shark's motivation and name changes several times. Roy Thomas used him briefly in an All-Star Squadron story as a sacrificial lamb, and that was it until the 1990s' Robinson Retcon. Lockhart was a billionaire thanks to a post-War naval business he'd set up.

-Torpedo's actually a remarkable Skillmonkey, especially for his era, with great mechanical & tech skills, but lacks almost anything in the combat area. He only makes PL 8 caps in his Mini-Sub, elsewhere he's just some guy who's a pretty decent fighter, but very weak.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Uncle Sam! Phantom Lady! Black Condor! The Red Bee!)

Post by Sidney369 »

Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #42 showed that Jim Lockhart currently operated a ocean-going city, and was in a relationship with the former wife of Prince Ra-Man, an obscure 60s character.
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Re: The Golden Age Red Torpedo

Post by Spam »

Jabroniville wrote: Mon May 09, 2022 12:18 am
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The navy has no use for your 250 mile per hour, one man submersible vessel! Get out of here before I have you court martialed!
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Phantom Lady! The Red Bee! Miss America! Red Torpedo!)

Post by Ken »

In Crack Comics #7, not only did Jim Lockhart battle the Black Shark, but the Red Torpedo encounters -ahem- Klitra, queen of the Mermazons.
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Jabroniville
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Phantom Lady! The Red Bee! Miss America! Red Torpedo!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Ken wrote: Mon May 09, 2022 2:29 am In Crack Comics #7, not only did Jim Lockhart battle the Black Shark, but the Red Torpedo encounters -ahem- Klitra, queen of the Mermazons.
Pfff- I bet he couldn’t even find her.
Jabroniville
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The Android Red Torpedo

Post by Jabroniville »

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That's a seriously plain look for an elemental android.

THE RED TORPEDO II
Created By:
Kevin VanHook & José Luis Lopez Guardia
First Appearance: Red Tornado #1 (Nov. 2009)
Role: Female Android

-A new, female Red Torpedo appeared in a 2009 Red Tornado series, shortly before DC rebooted itself. She was a creation of T.O. Morrow WAY back in the day, during the Soviet Union's collapse, but rebelled against his control and was deactivated. He hid her in a sunken wreck at Pearl Harbor as a sick joke- she sent out a beacon that drew in her "siblings"- Red Tornado, Red Volcano & Red Inferno. She ends up being a much more lethal type of vigilante, contrasting the Tornado.
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The Clock

Post by Jabroniville »

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Okay, the calling card is some proper-ass pulp shit.

THE CLOCK (Brian O'Brien)
Created By:
William Cook & John Mahon
First Appearance: Funny Pages #6 (Nov. 1936)
Role: Forgotten Golden Age Hero, Two-Fisted Detective
Group Affiliations: None
PL 7 (108)
STRENGTH
2 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 4
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 5
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 4

Skills:
Close Combat (Unarmed) 2 (+10)
Deception 5 (+9)
Expertise (Radio Announcer) 6 (+10)
Expertise (Acting) 2 (+6)
Insight 5 (+8)
Intimidation 3 (+7)
Investigation 7 (+10)
Perception 5 (+8)
Persuasion 2 (+6)
Stealth 4 (+8)
Vehicles 1 (+6)

Advantages:
Beginner’s Luck, Equipment 4 (Gun +4, Spring-Loaded Cane- Blast 4), Fast Grab, Improved Disarm, Precise Attack (Close/Concealment), Ranged Attack 3

Powers:
"Two-Fisted Detective" Strength-Damage +1 [1]

Offense:
Unarmed +10 (+3 Damage, DC 18)
Gun +8 (+4 Ranged Damage, DC 19)
Initiative +4

Defenses:
Dodge +10 (DC 20), Parry +10 (DC 20), Toughness +3, Fortitude +5, Will +6

Complications:
Motivation (Justice)- Midnight is the eerie friend of the needy, seeking to right wrongs.

Total: Abilities: 62 / Skills: 42--21 / Advantages: 11 / Powers: 1 / Defenses: 13 (108)

-The Clock actually kinda makes me nostalgic for the era in which I looked up the old "DC's Cosmic Teams" website, which took every DC superhero and drew them in a pixelated "Big Head" style, giving mini-bios for each character. Amazingly, that site is STILL AROUND: https://www.cosmicteams.com/quality/profiles/Clock.html.

-The Clock here holds the distinction of... well, he's not the first masked hero, but he's the first one created specifically for comics. So I guess that's a thing? Debuting in 1936, he wore a handkerchief or something over his face and punched bad guys, and existed during a time when his only contemporary was Dr. Occult. He didn't have much of an origin at first or anything. About a year after he debuted, he started showing up in Quality Comics' Feature Funnies, after their owner had befriended the creators and kept their feature afloat.

-The Clock would beat up bad guys, then leave a calling card for the police stating "The Clock struck at..." with a symbol of a clock beneath. It wasn't until Quality took over that he got a real name and identity- Brian O'Brien, a wealthy playboy and "ace criminologist". That wasn't exactly new- playboy-adventurers existed in the pulps (The Spider) and radio (The Green Hornet). In 1940, The Clock recruited former heavyweight champion boxer Pat "Pug" Brady as a sidekick, after helping him when he fell on hard times (trying to mug the Clock, but then saving his life). However, when Kid Sidekicks became all the rage in 1941, Pug was dumped without explanation and a bullet-riddled Clock stumbled into the home of a young girl named Butch, who nursed him to health over a period of months- a trash-talking "street urchin", she became his new sidekick. In Autumn 1944, The Clock appears for the last time- even DC Comics has never used him (though The Shade makes reference to him once).

-The Clock is your standard-issue Two-Fisted Detective... but also I guess once used hypnotism via his "piercing eyes" and used nerve pinches and stuff.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Phantom Lady! The Red Bee! Miss America! Red Torpedo!)

Post by Ken »

Jabroniville wrote: Mon May 09, 2022 4:22 am
Ken wrote: Mon May 09, 2022 2:29 am In Crack Comics #7, not only did Jim Lockhart battle the Black Shark, but the Red Torpedo encounters -ahem- Klitra, queen of the Mermazons.
Pfff- I bet he couldn’t even find her.
Well, it did take the help of several other women. And his underwater swimming equipment.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Phantom Lady! Red Bee! Miss America! Red Torpedo! The Clock!)

Post by M4C8 »

Wait, so Klitra was found by the little man in the boat?
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Phantom Lady! Red Bee! Miss America! Red Torpedo! The Clock!)

Post by greycrusader »

The Clock was actually used as the villain in Dynamite's first Masks series, which came out a decade or so ago (I figure the spoiler alert requirement has elapsed). That's where that Alex Ross image came from, with the Clock standing over the unconscious bodies of The Black Terror, the Shadow, the Black Bat, and a Zorro successor. The Clock also apparently used a gimmicked up cane later in his comics career.

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Jabroniville
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Midnight

Post by Jabroniville »

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MIDNIGHT (Dave Clark)
Created By:
Jack Cole
First Appearance: Smash Comics #18 (Jan. 1941)
Role: Forgotten Golden Age Hero, Spirit Rip-Off
Group Affiliations: The Freedom Fighters, The All-Star Squadron
PL 7 (103)
STRENGTH
2 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 4
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 5
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 4

Skills:
Close Combat (Unarmed) 2 (+10)
Deception 5 (+9)
Expertise (Radio Announcer) 6 (+10)
Expertise (Acting) 2 (+6)
Insight 5 (+8)
Intimidation 3 (+7)
Investigation 7 (+10)
Perception 5 (+8)
Persuasion 2 (+6)
Stealth 4 (+8)
Vehicles 1 (+6)

Advantages:
Beginner’s Luck, Fast Grab, Improved Disarm, Precise Attack (Close/Concealment), Ranged Attack 2

Powers:
"Two-Fisted Detective" Strength-Damage +1 [1]

Offense:
Unarmed +10 (+3 Damage, DC 18)
Initiative +4

Defenses:
Dodge +10 (DC 20), Parry +10 (DC 20), Toughness +3, Fortitude +5, Will +6

Complications:
Motivation (Justice)- Midnight is the eerie friend of the needy, seeking to right wrongs.

Total: Abilities: 62 / Skills: 42--21 / Advantages: 6 / Powers: 1 / Defenses: 13 (103)

-Hey, look, it’s a two-fisted detective! Haven’t seen one of THOSE before! In all seriousness, Midnight is a blatant Spirit rip-off, designed to replace that strip while Will Eisner was off to war (see, Quality published The Spirit comics, but didn’t own them- Eisner did). Midnight is Dave Clark- a radio announcer and actor who plays a superhero in a radio drama- he dons the outfit for serious when a crooked builder is at fault for a deadly collapse. He therefore becomes Midnight- "the eerie friend of the needy." He befriends a mad scientist and his talking monkey Gabby. Your standard gumshoe, differentiated only by his sidekicks. Oddly enough, despite these origins, he was a pretty successful Golden Age hero, managing cover duty on his strip for EIGHT YEARS, being cancelled around 1949. Nothing is known of his Post-War antics, but a new version appeared in a 1990s Ms. Tree Quarterly.

-Scarcely dissimilar from guys like Invisible Hood, I gave Midnight your standard detective Skillmonkey set.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Phantom Lady! Red Bee! Miss America! Red Torpedo! The Clock!)

Post by Davies »

I have vague memories of the modern-day Midnight showing up in Batman comics at some point, but I'm not finding any references to support them. His real name was apparently Robert Mason, and he's statistically indistinguishable from the above. (Well, maybe drop Radio Announcer and Acting.)
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