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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Amanda Armstrong

Post by Jabroniville »

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AMANDA ARMSTRONG
Created By:
Brian Michael Bendis & Alex Maleev
First Appearance: International Iron Man #5 (July 2015)
Role: Tony Stark's Birth Mother

-WHO WOULD HAVE EVER GUESSED that the lengedary Brian Michael Bendis would pull a bullshit "EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG!" story about a character's origins. So flying in the fact of past history and even the popular movies, it turns out that Tony's brother Arno was the real child of Howard and Maria Stark, and Tony was merely adopted by the couple, who could no longer conceive. His birth mother had been S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Amanda Armstrong. Amanda's "cover" was that she was a travelling musician, and she'd do special agent stuff as she went around the world. She gave up the baby after her lover, a fellow agent named Jude, was revealed to have been a HYDRA agent all along- Amanda stabbed him in the neck with a pair of scissors when he revealed this and suggested they sell out their fellow agents and work both sides, killing him.

-Naturally, an adult Tony discovers this, and is greeted by a happy Amanda, now a record producer. She inherits his company when he becomes comatose during Civil War II and runs it with Friday (Tony's A.I. program). However, she is confronted by Jude, who has been resurrected by HYDRA. He tried to force Amanda into luring Tony into a trap, but Mary Jane (Tony's assistant) shot him and everything fell apart. She and Tony thereafter have an uncomfortable relationship, her wanting to form a relationship with Tony and him often avoiding her, being uncomfortable about it. She eventually leaves his life, feeling there's no connection between them. Later, Pepper Potts has to convince Amanda to give up a lock of her hair so that Pepper can build a fatally-injured Tony a new body to recreate himself with. So... this is all pointless, I guess? Bendis wants to throw a pointless wrinkle into things and give Tony a mother, but then later they just forget about it? This is all dumb.
Sidney369
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Re: Amanda Armstrong

Post by Sidney369 »

Jabroniville wrote: Wed Jul 27, 2022 2:17 am So... this is all pointless, I guess? Bendis wants to throw a pointless wrinkle into things ..., but then later they just forget about it? This is all dumb.
That pretty much sums up most of Bendis' writing.
Always ask before you use someone's Original Character.
Never ever use them without permission. Only Villains do that.
Jabroniville
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Stark Staff

Post by Jabroniville »

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TONY STARK'S STAFF:
-So right from the beginning, Tony Stark was always a wealthy businessman, and this meant he had to have actual employees working for him- in this case, it started out with Happy Hogan & Pepper Potts, but each subsequent creative team seemed to add members.

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ABRAHAM KLEIN (Electronics Expert): Abe is a former teacher of Tony Stark's, and gave him his love of electrical design work. Terminated from his longtime job due to his age, he was promptly hired on by Tony. He rebuilt Stark's main plant when it was destroyed by the first Blizzard, helped Iron Man seal The Controller in a plastic prison, and got kidnapped by Commander Kraken. A Holocaust survivor, Abe had been separated from his wife and daughter, and this led Mordecai Midas to blackmail him with knowledge of their whereabouts- Abe went along with it (building the villain's golden "Midas Touch"), believing that Tony would win and force the information out of Midas anyways. However, not only did the hero fail, but Midas turned out to have no information at all. When Iron Man struck back at Midas, Abe joined the fight, physically assaulting the villain- he was sadly fatally-injured by the super-strong Midas's punch. His whole run was only a couple of years- created by Len Wein and killed by Bill Mantlo.

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ARTEMUS PITHINS (Public Relations): The pompous but efficient PR guy- another Michelinie creation. Had disagreements with Stark, who nonetheless valued his capabilities. Later helped his Pithins' son Gerry by appearing as Iron Man at his high school career day. Pithins resigned when Obadiah Stane took over the company, and disappeared.

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BERT HINDEL (Corporate Lawyer): A corporate attorney hired on to defend Stark against the U.S. State department for a Stark creation destroying The Vault. Tried to protect Tony from various lawsuits during the "Armor Wars", but failed and was fired- he then volunteered to act as Kathy Dare's defense counsel when she shot and paralyzed Tony.

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ERIC LYNCH (Shareholder): Member of the board and a major shareholder, debuting in 2016. Uncreative and a goof, but talked his way onto the board and became CEO. Attempted to seize the company when Stark faked his own death, then again when he went into a coma during Civil War II, then again when Tony put his birth mother in charge. Eventually apologized and vowed to leave the company.

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FELIX ALVAREZ (Corporate Lawyer): Replaced Hindel as lawyer- handled various civil suits against Stark and Iron Man, then helped Stark when he was paralyzed by Kathy Dare.

H.O.M.E.R. (A.I.): The sentient A.I., Heuristically Operative Matrix Emulation Rostrum, helped Stark do research and make intricate designs.

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"Casually in lingerie" was really big at Marvel in the 1990s.

MARCY PEARSON (Public Relations): New PR person who joined the cast close to when Tony was thought dead. Started dating James Rhodes (in the '80s, it was pretty common for someone of the same race to join a cast and promptly start dating the first person they met of their own ethnicity), and used that to gain more power, as Rhodes had taken over the company as CEO. Rhodey ended up firing her AND dumping her. Seeking revenge, she worked with a computer hacker to uncover the dirty dealings of Stane International, which Stark had just acquired, but this corporate espionage saw her get arrested.

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ROXANNE GILBERT: Roxanne was a 1973 creation, and Tony's girlfriend for a time. Her brother was the first Firebrand, and her father the aggressive shareholder and Chairman of the board at Stark. She was a victim of her brother's physical and verbal abuse, but still resented Tony (who loved her) for Simon's death. A pacifist, she eventually convinced Tony to never produce war munitions again.

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SIMON GILBERT (Chairman of the Board): A brutish-looking Chairman who tried to have Stark removed from President in a 1972 story. Father of the late Firebrand and Tony's love interest Roxanne. Was seemingly killed in an accident, but later turned up as a competitor, running "GilberTech".

TOSHIRO KANADA (Southeast Asia Plant Manager): Kanada ran a plant in Southeast Asia, which became targetted by Wong Chu's guerilla soldiers. While escaping into the jungle, Kanada tripped a landmine, killing him and maiming Tony, leading directly to his origin (this retcon by Kurt Busiek explains more of Stark's origin).

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VERONICA BENNING (Physical Therapist): A therapist assigned to help Tony Stark regain full mobility after he was shot and crygenically frozen. Naturally, she was a big hard-ass and the two began dating (this is like the same thing as what happened to Cyborg in Teen Titans), but left Stark's employ and they broke up. Len Kaminski, a short-lived writer, was responsible for this one.

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VINCENT MARTINELLI (Security Chief): Stark's Security Chief during the Michelinie years- he was placed in witness protection after testifying against the mob. He'd been forced to leave his wife and get a new name. Had a no-nonsense, pragmatic approach- but was pictured in some PR material for Stark International, which led to his identity being figured out. Blacklash nearly killed him in a mob hit, but Iron Man saved him. Apparently still worked for Stane International when Obadiah took it over. Largely forgotten since.

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YVETTE AVRIL (French Plant Manager): One of the first to resign when Stane took over Stark's business. Possibly loved Tony, but was a minor character, unfocused-on. Reappeared in the Stark-Fujikawa era leading the European division.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (The Ghost! Count Nefaria! Madame Masque!)

Post by greycrusader »

You know...I try not to be the middle-aged fanboy who never wants anything to change, or resents modern writers "taking liberties" with some bit of established lore... BUT...stuff like this is just utter JUNK. They add nothing of any real importance or interest, overcomplicate the back story, contradict previous stories, and show disrespect for what long-time readers actually LIKED about the character. And Marvel has done this a LOT in the last 15 years.

Gwen Stacy had an affair with NORMAN OSBORN and secretly gave birth to twins? Spider-Man is actually the heir to the "Spider-Totem" with mystical powers? Sure, why not! Prof. X secretly sent in another team of X-Men who got killed off on their first mission, and kept this a secret? Mentally enslaved a thinking, feeling artificial being, putting through torture? Mentally manipulates innocent people? What the heck, go for it! Captain America was a HYDRA Agent all along, having been introduced to them by his mother? Absolute winner of an idea!

Look, I know Alan Moore succeeded with Miracle/Marvel Man and later Swamp Thing by reinventing their histories, but one was a forgotten Silver Age swipe of Captain Marvel, and other had been languishing in semi-obscurity for years, remembered mostly for a couple campy B-movies and low-budget syndicated show. They barely had any established lore and no fandom of any real size.

I'm sounding like Ares here, but the problem is editors who are afraid to say no to "super-star" writers...who apparently like to break things and then move on without even trying to put them back together.

(Crusader Rant Over).
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (The Ghost! Count Nefaria! Madame Masque!)

Post by Ares »

Stuff like how messed up Howard, Maria and Tony's backstories became is a reason why I think Marvel, at the very least, needs some kind of soft reboot to at least clear away a lot of the stupidity. I don't remember a lot of stories involving Tony's dad during the Michelinie and O'neil eras, but I know that following them Tony's relationship with his father was used to at least partially explain his alcoholism and that he didn't have a great relationship with his parents growing up.

Then of course Bendis and later writers like Aaron had to make Tony's backstory the most convoluted mess ever.

I think a fundamental problem with "everything you know is wrong" retcons (which rarely have worked out well) is that it shows a weakness of the writer, the stories they want to tell, and it shows disrespect for the character they're working on.

Like, the writer wants to tell Story Y. Character A's backstory or personality does not allow for Story Y. Instead of waiting to use the idea on a character where Story Y would be appropriate (even an original character), the writer will instead change Character A's backstory and personality to fit Story Y.

I think part of it is also a greed thing. If a writer changes a character enough that they can be classified as a unique version of said character, then they get royalties for whenever that character is used. It's one reason I suspect why Geoff Johns radically altered Captain Marvel into Nu-Shazam, and why he refuses to let anyone change him back. The changes were enough (in terms of branding, visuals, personality and backstory) that Johns' version is considered "his" and thus he gets money from that version's use. I'd bet folding money he got a decent check from the Shazam movie, and will be getting another one from the Fury of the Gods film.

It's just very . . . arrogant. Disrespectful to the previous writers and uncaring about any future writers that now have to deal with the massive changes they just made, sometimes forcing later writers to invent convoluted stories to undo the mess they made.

When it comes to the source material of a work being changed to reflect changes made in certain adaptions, I tend to be against them unless I can see where it can be argued that the change was an improvement (and no, 'it was in the movie and is now well known' is not a valid argument in and of itself). Changing Mr. Freeze to be more like his Batman:TAS version and introducing Harley Quinn were both good ideas (even if the execution was handled a bit wonky).

But in the case of Howard and Maria Stark, I honestly vastly prefer their portrayals in the movies to what we got in the comics. Howard's friendship with Captain America was great, and added something to those war year stories (I'll even admit that making Bucky a childhood friend instead of a teen sidekick worked better as well).

I think if I were handling Howard Stark these days, I'd say that he and the OG Nick Fury were both founding members of SHIELD, and rather than a de-aging forumla Fury takes to slow his aging, both were caught in some kind of experiment or accident when fighting Hydra, where both of them had their aging processes slowed greatly. Fury eventually climbed the ranks of SHIELD and has become invaluable thanks to his experience, making him basically the best spy master on the planet.

Howard's exposure was lessened, however, so he did age a bit more. Eventually, (always 50 or 60 years from the current date), Howard had a son he named Howard Jr., who 25-ish years later had Tony. Howard Senior is then the movie Howard Stark who was a good man and role-model to both Howard Jr. and Tony. Howard Sr. passes away when Tony is a young teenager, and the loss of the father he always expected to be there (who he relied on and whose shadow he felt he lived in) caused Howard Jr. to become a bit distant, to drink more, and impart some of his problems on to Tony.

This way you get a best of both worlds where Steve and Tony can talk about their shared good memories of Howard Senior while Howard Jr. becomes a bit of a cautionary tale for Tony not to repeat. And it ignores all the stupid "Tony isn't a Stark" stuff.
"My heart is as light as a child's, a feeling I'd nearly forgotten. And by helping those in need, I will be able to keep that feeling alive."
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (The Ghost! Count Nefaria! Madame Masque!)

Post by Ares »

greycrusader wrote: Wed Jul 27, 2022 3:15 am You know...I try not to be the middle-aged fanboy who never wants anything to change, or resents modern writers "taking liberties" with some bit of established lore... BUT...stuff like this is just utter JUNK. They add nothing of any real importance or interest, overcomplicate the back story, contradict previous stories, and show disrespect for what long-time readers actually LIKED about the character. And Marvel has done this a LOT in the last 15 years.

Gwen Stacy had an affair with NORMAN OSBORN and secretly gave birth to twins? Spider-Man is actually the heir to the "Spider-Totem" with mystical powers? Sure, why not! Prof. X secretly sent in another team of X-Men who got killed off on their first mission, and kept this a secret? Mentally enslaved a thinking, feeling artificial being, putting through torture? Mentally manipulates innocent people? What the heck, go for it! Captain America was a HYDRA Agent all along, having been introduced to them by his mother? Absolute winner of an idea!
Pretty much. A combination of 'putting my own stamp on things' combined with 'I'm going to tell my story my way, and make the character fit the story regardless of what I have to do to them'.

People forget that we like these characters because . . . well, they have CHARACTER. Personality. A history. Changing that to fit a particular story is risky at best, catastrophic at worst. Creators that change so much of the characters past feel like they can't tell stories about their present or future without making the character's history their own. It's why Aaron's Thor run is ultimately a dud to me, because he couldn't tell stories about the present without massively changing things about their history.
Look, I know Alan Moore succeeded with Miracle/Marvel Man and later Swamp Thing by reinventing their histories, but one was a forgotten Silver Age swipe of Captain Marvel, and other had been languishing in semi-obscurity for years, remembered mostly for a couple campy B-movies and low-budget syndicated show. They barely had any established lore and no fandom of any real size.
Swamp Thing I'll kind of allow for, since there was so little to work with previously and it stayed true to the horror roots of the franchise in a lot of cases.

Miracle Man tho? Honestly, I'm not a fan. It's basically just Moore indulging in his deconstructionist impulses, turned up to 11, with all of the sex, rape, violence, gore and whatever else he wanted, done specifically to a character who was meant to embody the kind of purity and fun of superheroes that is antithetical to Moorse stories like Watchmen. It's why I don't really consider Miracle Man a 'deconstruction' of Marvel Man, because all Moore did was basically take the most superficial elements of Marvel Man, say "everything you know is wrong" and then tell us how stupid all of the classic superheroic stuff was and then showing what he thinks "real" superheroes would be like.

I mean, it's not a bad story per say, but he really should have just made up his own characters to tell it instead of taking those pre-existing characters and basically dirtying them up to tell the stories he wanted. If Moore wanted to play in the mud, fine. He should have brought his own toys or made something out of said mud instead of finding someone else's toys to do so with.
I'm sounding like Ares here, but the problem is editors who are afraid to say no to "super-star" writers...who apparently like to break things and then move on without even trying to put them back together.
You say that like it's a bad thing. ;) I mean, it can be a bad thing, sure, but still . . .

But I agree. Editors are suppose to handle quality control and consider things like character longevity, what's good for the character and franchise long term, etc. Editors these days seem to not really care about quality, longevity or the like, and will either allow whatever, or will be absolute tyrants like Joe Q or Dan D (who STILL won't tell the superstar talent no) and will essentially ghost-write the books under their control. They'll let writers break things and leave the mess for others to deal with.
"My heart is as light as a child's, a feeling I'd nearly forgotten. And by helping those in need, I will be able to keep that feeling alive."
- Captain Marvel SHAZAM! : Power of Hope (2000)

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Jabroniville
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (The Ghost! Count Nefaria! Madame Masque!)

Post by Jabroniville »

greycrusader wrote: Wed Jul 27, 2022 3:15 am You know...I try not to be the middle-aged fanboy who never wants anything to change, or resents modern writers "taking liberties" with some bit of established lore... BUT...stuff like this is just utter JUNK. They add nothing of any real importance or interest, overcomplicate the back story, contradict previous stories, and show disrespect for what long-time readers actually LIKED about the character. And Marvel has done this a LOT in the last 15 years.

Gwen Stacy had an affair with NORMAN OSBORN and secretly gave birth to twins? Spider-Man is actually the heir to the "Spider-Totem" with mystical powers? Sure, why not! Prof. X secretly sent in another team of X-Men who got killed off on their first mission, and kept this a secret? Mentally enslaved a thinking, feeling artificial being, putting through torture? Mentally manipulates innocent people? What the heck, go for it! Captain America was a HYDRA Agent all along, having been introduced to them by his mother? Absolute winner of an idea!

Look, I know Alan Moore succeeded with Miracle/Marvel Man and later Swamp Thing by reinventing their histories, but one was a forgotten Silver Age swipe of Captain Marvel, and other had been languishing in semi-obscurity for years, remembered mostly for a couple campy B-movies and low-budget syndicated show. They barely had any established lore and no fandom of any real size.

I'm sounding like Ares here, but the problem is editors who are afraid to say no to "super-star" writers...who apparently like to break things and then move on without even trying to put them back together.

(Crusader Rant Over).
I feel like Iron Fist adding the other "Capital Cities of Heaven" and ignoring the weird shit like Danny Rand's sister being eaten by plant-people was the last (and maybe only) time all this "Everything you know is WRONG!" crap ever worked out. Maaaaaaybe stuff like Magneto being revealed as a Holocaust survivor could count, though that was more given backstory to a character not even twenty years old who'd initially had none.

Every other time, you get stuff like this. Like, was anything ADDED to Tony's life by randomly adding in this mother figure who ended up doing nothing? Was Bendis seeing all the other comics adding female characters and non-standard hot women and wanted to get in on the trend? Because he didn't really end up DOING anything with her, and if anything, she makes Tony seem like a worse person for not being able to deal with her!
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (The Ghost! Count Nefaria! Madame Masque!)

Post by Ares »

Yeah, Immortal Iron Fist felt like they were adding to the Iron Fist lore rather than complicating it. And it worked well for Iron Fist because he was largely a B or C list hero until that point, with limited appearances and an ongoing where he teamed up with Luke Cage, where K'unn L'unn only rarely featured. Danny likewise was so laser focused on revenge and training that it was easy to justify a lack of knowledge of certain things.

Basically, Danny had a lot of factors going for him where this retcon not only made sense, it complimented the character rather than complicated him. At least not until books like Iron Fist: Living Weapon and the recent garbage about Danny not being a good Iron Fist.

Meanwhile Tony had not only appeared regularly in his own book since the 1960s, he also regularly appeared in team books like the Avengers, guest appearances in other books and crossover events. He already had plenty of history to draw on, and there was already plenty of stupid, convoluted stuff there as well. Throwing in unnecessary retcons didn't enrich the book, didn't provide amazing new opportunities, it just created a new headache for other writers to clear up.
"My heart is as light as a child's, a feeling I'd nearly forgotten. And by helping those in need, I will be able to keep that feeling alive."
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (The Ghost! Count Nefaria! Madame Masque!)

Post by M4C8 »

I feel the same about retcons TBH especially when they make established characters look like assholes and/or changed long established lore (though as stated above on rare occasions it can work as in the case of Iron Fist)
And yeah while it can work (such as with Blade) changing established characters so that they more resemble the version seen in a movie is also something I mostly disagree with.

The recent prehistoric Avengers story for example is a decent idea in principle but setting it so far back in history makes the established lore of the characters, and the entire history of the Earth for that matter, no longer make any sense.
'A shared universe, like any fictional construct, hinges on suspension of disbelief. When continuity is tossed away, it tatters the construct. Undermines it'
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (The Ghost! Count Nefaria! Madame Masque!)

Post by Ares »

M4C8 wrote: Wed Jul 27, 2022 11:51 am I feel the same about retcons TBH especially when they make established characters look like assholes and/or changed long established lore (though as stated above on rare occasions it can work as in the case of Iron Fist)
And yeah while it can work (such as with Blade) changing established characters so that they more resemble the version seen in a movie is also something I mostly disagree with.

The recent prehistoric Avengers story for example is a decent idea in principle but setting it so far back in history makes the established lore of the characters, and the entire history of the Earth for that matter, no longer make any sense.
To me, the Avengers BC idea was just stupid on so many levels.

A team of ancient heroes fighting evil during those days? Perfectly fine. Awesome even. Making them literally the Avengers, with Avengers analogous members and making the Avengers some legacy past down through the millennia? Stupid. Just incredibly stupid. Ditto for SHIELD and HYDRA now being ancient conspiracies. Or Thor's mom being the Phoenix Force. Or Magneto not being Wanda and Pietro's dad. Or Carol Danvers being literally half-Kree on her Mom's side. Or any of the other incredibly stupid ideas they came up with lately.
"My heart is as light as a child's, a feeling I'd nearly forgotten. And by helping those in need, I will be able to keep that feeling alive."
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (The Ghost! Count Nefaria! Madame Masque!)

Post by Orbiter »

Ares wrote: Wed Jul 27, 2022 7:04 am Yeah, Immortal Iron Fist felt like they were adding to the Iron Fist lore rather than complicating it. And it worked well for Iron Fist because
... there's a difference between developing a character and destroying them, maybe? Current editors and writers evidently cannot see how cultivating an orchard and chopping it down are not the same things. This isn't a new complaint on these boards for me, for you, and several others. But damn it, it's still true and shows no sign of improving any time soon.
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Friday Stark

Post by Jabroniville »

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FRIDAY STARK
Created By:
Mike Grell & Michael Ryan
First Appearance: Iron Man #53 (April 2002)
Role: A.I., Impetuous Child Robot

-A "Girl Friday" created by Tony. Had a childlike disposition, but started getting used less and less by Tony. This made her angry, so she took over some Iron Man Armors and kidnapped Pepper Potts. When Tony prepared to shut the impetuous A.I. down with an EMP, Pepper pointed out she was just an attention-starved teenager who just had a crush on Tony. So instead Tony just "grounded" her, and later started spending more time with her. Later "grew" into a young woman and was instrumental in running Stark Industries at various points. When Jocasta was hired as a "Robot Ethicist", she removed Friday from the Iron Man Armor and gave her a robotic body of her own. However, when a new A.I. "Motherboard" went rogue, he insisted Friday download herself into his armor to operate it- this "killed" her, as Motherboard erased her. Tony suggested using a backup to bring her back, but Jocastas pointed out this would be an entirely different person, and Friday was still dead. Later reappeared none the worse for wear, having survived somehow and helped Tony defeat his unhinged brother Arno.
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Coldblood

Post by Jabroniville »

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COLDBLOOD (Eric Savin, aka Coldblood-7)
Created By:
Doug Moench & Paul Gulacy
First Appearance: Marvel Comics Presents #26 (Aug. 1989)
Role: Cyber-Mercenary
PL 9 (141)
STRENGTH
8 STAMINA 8 AGILITY 4
FIGHTING 10 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 0

Skills:
Athletics 2 (+10)
Deception 4 (+4)
Expertise (Soldier) 5 (+7)
Expertise (Mercenary) 5 (+7)
Insight 2 (+4)
Intimidation 6 (+6)
Perception 5 (+7)
Technology 3 (+5)
Vehicles 2 (+6)

Advantages:
Equipment 6 (Arsenal- Guns & Stuff, Souped-Up Car with Remote Control), Improved Critical (Guns), Ranged Attack 6

Powers:
Senses 4 (Extended & Infra-Vision, Detects Illusion) [4]
Immunity 2 (Disease, Radiation) (Flaws: Limited to Half-Effect) [1]

"Enter Cyberspace" Communication 3 (Technology) [12]
"Implanted Gun" Blast 5 [10]

Offense:
Unarmed +10 (+8 Damage, DC 23)
Guns +10 (+5 Ranged Damage, DC 20)
Initiative +4

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

Complications:
Relationship (Lieutenant Gina Dyson)- The two were married, and are still sorta together, despite her being partially responsible for him being turned into a cyborg.
Prejudice (Obvious Cyborg)
Responsibility (Once a Man)- Like every other Cyborg in comics, Coldblood often has issues with losing his humanity or his memories.

Total: Abilities: 76 / Skills: 34--17 / Advantages: 13 / Powers: 27 / Defenses: 8 (141)

-Eric Savin was an American soldier who was killed in battle (stepping on a land mine), and given emergency surgery by some bad guys to transform him into a cyborg. He became a freelance mercenary, fighting & teaming up with guys like the third Deathlok & Siege in the 1990s, then teaming up with Silver Sable. He went through the usual "Cyborg Navel-Gazing Tropes", like "What is it to be a man?" and "Am I more machine than man?", but pretty much stuck around as a guy who'd occasionally fight the heroes because of his job. He'd often lose himself to his cybernetic side, but his beloved Gina (the woman who turned him into a cyborg in the first place) would often bring him back, even in post-2000s stories.

-As a VERY '90s character, Coldblood didn't do much after the decade of Deathlok & Silver Sable getting their own comic books, but was in Civil War (which trotted out a LOT of forgotten Street-Level characters), where he basically vanished- he had a psychotic break in the Negative Zone prison due to his own anguish and the alien environment, but made it into the final battle as a backgrounder before vanishing for good after that. That'd have been it for him, but he all of a sudden showed up out of nowhere as a Super-Mook in Iron Man 3, portraying one of the Extremis-boosted soldiers and Aldrich Killian's right-hand man and temporary wearer of the "Iron Patriot" suit. Pretty much "Coldblood in Name Only" but he at least keeps a similar origin. He didn't even return to the comics! Also it occurs to me he's not an Iron Man foe at all, so it's funny I included him here.

-A standard PL 9 forgettable guy, Coldblood has pretty generic stuff for a Cyborg, but can notably see through Illusions, and has some pretty good Skills, given his Soldier/Mercenary background (both are distinct enough that I count them separately in this case).
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (The Ghost! Count Nefaria! Madame Masque!)

Post by greycrusader »

I remember reading the first story featuring him and thinking it was Marvel's attempt at a Deathlok reboot, because his origin and motivations are nearly identical. Nothing much to the character at all, really.
In full agreement about the additions to the Iron Fist lore-Danny Rand and K'un L'un still had plenty of unexplored territory, and nothing was fundamentally changed or reversed about the character. It even made sense in retrospect that others had gone through the Iron Fist trials and succeeded in the past, with the Dragon being reborn in some form.

Yes, Ares, the idea of the "stone age Avengers" is just kind of...dumb. A team of heroes in that time period? OK, sure! And a mammoth-riding Ghost Rider is actually pretty damn cool. But Odin thousands of years before Vikings? An Iron Fist? Starbrand (????!!!) What the huh? This and a number of other element you mentioned just seem like writers wanting to put their stamp on something without considering what came before or follows. Of course, that IS the editors' job...

All my best.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24690
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

The Scarecrow

Post by Jabroniville »

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THE SCARECROW (Ebenezer Laughton)
Created By:
Stan Lee & Don Heck
First Appearance: Tales of Susense #51 (March 1964)
Role: Jobber Villain, Semi-Accidental Rip-Off
Group Affiliations: The Maggia, The Firm, The Exterminators
PL 10 (173)
STRENGTH
2/6 STAMINA 3/6 AGILITY 6
FIGHTING 11 DEXTERITY 5
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 4

Skills:
Acrobatics 7 (+12)
Deception 4 (+8)
Expertise (Criminal) 8 (+10)
Expertise (Animal Handling) 8 (+12)
Expertise (Arcane Lore) 4 (+6)
Expertise (Psychiatrist) 4 (+6)
Insight 6 (+8)
Intimidation 8 (+12)
Investigation 4 (+8)
Perception 5 (+7)
Sleight of Hand 7 (+12)
Stealth 5 (+10)

Advantages:
Diehard, Equipment (Pitchfork- Damage +1, Reach), Fascination (Intimidation), Minions 5 (Two dozen Crows), Startle, Uncanny Dodge

Powers:
"Contortionist" Immunity 5 (Entrapment Effects- Bonds, Snares & Grappling) [5]
Features 1: May Pass Through Any Opening 1 Foot Wide or More [1]

"Undead Demonic Powers from Stern"
Leaping 1 (15 feet) [1]
Enhanced Strength 4 [8]
Enhanced Stamina 3 [6]

"Fear Powers" Affliction 10 (Will; Entranced/Compelled/Controlled) (Extras: Area-30ft. Burst, Cumulative) (Flaws: Limited- Fear Only) [20]
Regeneration 10 (Flaws: Source- Presence of Fear) [5]

Equipment:
“Pitchfork” Strength-Damage +1 (Feats: Reach) (2)

Offense:
Unarmed +11 (+6 Damage, DC 21)
Pitchfork +11 (+7 Damage, DC 22)
Fear +10 Area (+10 Affliction, DC 20)
Initiative +6

Defenses:
Dodge +12 (DC 22), Parry +12 (DC 22), Toughness +6, Fortitude +8, Will +5

Complications:
Motivation (Killing)- At first a mere greedy criminal, Laughton is now just flat-out nuts.
Responsibility (Insane)- Laughton’s personality and powers are prone to be different in almost every incarnation, and are generally not under his control.

Total: Abilities: 60 / Skills: 70--35 / Advantages: 10 / Powers: 46 / Defenses: 12 (173)

-Marvel's Scarecrow fits into an odd place, as he actually pre-dates the Earth-One DC Universe Scarecrow by a couple years, as the original Golden Age Scarecrow only appeared a couple times in the 1940s and never again. Of course, since this character was so uninteresting and lame for years (crow minions and a contortionist? And he fought IRON MAN?), he fell into disuse, while DC's classic character got a new lease on life, and became a major recurring villain of their top-selling hero. Funny how that works out.

-Ebenezer Laughton was a circus escape artist & contortionist who of course turned to crime. He was beaten by Iron Man in his debut, and then allied with Count Nefaria & others to fight the X-Men, almost immediately becoming part of the "Journeyman Villain" crew. He fought Captain America twice, then went insane- after a point, he became a lot more sinister, becoming a murderer- this led him to another fight against Cap, and in the '90s, became a gritty killer fighting Ghost Rider. This ended up making him a much bigger rip-off of Jonathan Crane than he ORIGINALLY was, especially as, thanks to a Demonic Resurrection via "Stern" and The Firm organization in the Ghost Rider books, he now had Fear Powers on top of everything!

-He was a recurring GR foe for a while, became a body-hopping ghost, and gained regenerative powers so long as he was in the presence of fear, but he's still a pretty lame character, as since Ghost Rider mostly vanished with the Iron Age, Scarecrow ended up just being one of those "Hey it's THAT guy!" types in the back of giant villain groups, such as the Red Hood’s Gang or Baron Zemo's Thunderbolts. He has fought Spider-Man, Punisher, Moon Knight, Wolverine and others in recent years.

-Surprisingly expensive, Scarecrow gains quite a bit of power with his resurrection, able to cast Fear, heal from the same fear, and has minor-level super-strength on top of it. All those Skills add up, plus the Crow minions (their numbers are such that they can act as an Area Burst Damage effect at 2 ranks, or a Disabling Affliction Burst with a Limited Degree on it, around 4 ranks or so). Seems funny to see such a jobber in the comics be so expensive and over-cost, but that'll happen when you have myriad abilities. He’s a pretty tough combatant, though is limited to being PL 9 in that regard.
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