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

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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Power Girl! The Ultra-Humanite! Maxima! Ultraman!)

Post by Ken »

Skavenger wrote: Fri Jan 27, 2023 5:00 pm Wait, at one point Maxima was pining for Captain Atom? Wasn't she interested in strong people so they could father her offspring?

Am I missing something here, cause I'm pretty sure the good Captain is, anyway.
Yes. There was at least one big story about it in Justice league Quartery; it's also why Maxima later joined the Captain's "Extreme Justice" team.
Ares wrote: Fri Jan 27, 2023 5:48 pm Captain Atom could shift between a normal human form and his metallic superpowered form. So him having kids was on the table.
And now I'm wondering why the dilustel covered Nathanial Adam as if he were a Ken doll, rather than following every nook, cranny, pore, and hair follicle like it did over the other 99% of his body.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Power Girl! The Ultra-Humanite! Maxima! Ultraman!)

Post by Ares »

Ken wrote: Fri Jan 27, 2023 6:58 pm
Ares wrote: Fri Jan 27, 2023 5:48 pm Captain Atom could shift between a normal human form and his metallic superpowered form. So him having kids was on the table.
And now I'm wondering why the dilustel covered Nathanial Adam as if he were a Ken doll, rather than following every nook, cranny, pore, and hair follicle like it did over the other 99% of his body.
Same reason it covered his toes in a way that made them look like boots instead of individual toes. I don't know what that reason is in universe, but it's the same reason.

At least the Charlton version the metal coating was designed to look the way it did.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Power Girl! The Ultra-Humanite! Maxima! Ultraman!)

Post by Batgirl III »

Watsonian answer? He subconsciously controls the shape and it looks like an idealized, heroic form. Complete with chest insignia!

Doylist answer? Thou Shalt Not Display Dong in Children’s Comic
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Re: Maxima

Post by catsi563 »

Jabroniville wrote: Fri Jan 27, 2023 12:44 am Image
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Those '80s character designs!

MAXIMA
Created By:
Roger Stern & George Perez
First Appearance: Action Comics #645 (Sept. 1989)
Role: Aggressive Sexy Space Bitch
Group Affiliations: The Superman Revenge Squad, The Justice League, Extreme Justice
PL 13 (189)
STRENGTH
10/14 STAMINA 8/12 AGILITY 4
FIGHTING 10 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 3 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Deception 4 (+6)
Expertise (Space Bitch) 7 (+10)
Intimidation 4 (+6)
Perception 3 (+5)
Technology 6 (+9)

Advantages:
Fast Grab, Great Endurance, Improved Critical (Blast), Move-By Action, Ranged Attack 6

Powers:
"Gene Therapy & Careful Breeding"
"Psychokinesis" Move Object 12 (Extras: Perception-Ranged) (36) -- [39]
  • AE: "Hypnosis" Affliction 10 (Will; Entranced/Compelled/Controlled) (Extras: Perception-Ranged +2) (Flaws: Vision-Dependent) (20)
  • AE: "Optic Beams" Blast 14 (28)
  • AE: Force Field 6 (Extras: Impervious 15) (21)
"Boosted Abilities"
Enhanced Strength 4 [8]
Enhanced Stamina 4 [8]
Flight 8 (500 mph) [16]

Offense:
Unarmed +10 (+10 Damage, DC 25)
Boosted Strength +10 (+14 Damage, DC 29)
Hypnosis -- (+10 Perception-Ranged Affliction, DC 20)
Optic Beams +10 (+14 Ranged Damage, DC 29)
Initiative +4

Defenses:
Dodge +10 (DC 20), Parry +10 (DC 20), Toughness +8 (+12 Boost, +16 Force Field, +8 Impervious), Fortitude +8 (+12 Boost), Will +6

Complications:
Motivation (Seeking a Mate)- Maxima wishes for a suitable mate to sire her offspring- the future ruler of Almerac.
Relationship (Amazing Man)- The two were together until their version of the Justice League split up.
Responsibility (Pride)- Maxima has a great deal of noble pride, and does not take kindly to being rebuffed romantically. She expects men to merely drop trou in her presence, I guess.

Total: Abilities: 86 / Skills: 24--12 / Advantages: 10 / Powers: 71 / Defenses: 10 (189)

-Maxima is part of that ever-popular comic book story- the sexually-aggressive paramour that desires to tear the male hero's clothes off and make babies with him. Somethin' about that character type appeals to male comic book writers, I guess :). The princess of the planet Almerac married to some hapless nobody, she wanted to jump Kal-El's bones, but was rebuffed, and joined the Justice League on Earth after her planet was threatened by Brainiac- she had been working with him, but when he nearly blew up Almerac with Warworld she turned on him. Working with him still got her exiled from Almerac, however. She was part of the League that jobbed to Doomsday, and later joined Captain Atom's Extreme Justice team, where her whole "Bone the alpha male" thing led to her hitting on the Captain himself- he was as uninterested as Superman was. Her ex-husband, Ultraa, attacked Atom during this time, but she interrupted the fight and sent him away. She and Amazing-Man later formed a relationship, lasting until the team was dissolved.

-When Supes rejected her AGAIN (this time, he was married), she decided to join the murderous Superman Revenge Squad- generally speaking, she was often hard to deal with, rather imperious, and hyper-demanding. My kinda gal- the classic George Perez look doesn't hurt, either. Later, she allied with Supes and Darkseid against Imperiex during Our Worlds At War, was saved by him and made her peace with their past, and met her death against Brainiac 13's Warworld.

-Overall, Maxima was more of a nuisance to Superman than a real threat (or a legitimate threat to his love of Lois)- he immediately rejects her every time (first because he won't sire despots; the next because he's married) and she just pouts and acts offended- Superman: The Animated Series plays this entirely for comedy for a reason. But then it looks like the writers just get tired of her and this top-tier powerhouse has nothing to do, so she ends up on the Justice League books that at this point DC didn't care about AT ALL. Like, there was a couple decades where the book was this miserable morass of C & D-League characters and utter nobodies, and so there's Maxima on a team led by Captain Atom and you have Crimson Foxes and stuff in other books. And then she's back in the book, all mad and joining the friggin' Superman Revenge Squad (the writers were probably not fans of those JLA books, lol), but then she's written out and finally killed off. This is a potentially very fun, very interesting character, like DC's version of Thundra, but man they never even gave half of a shit about her. Just discarded like so much trash. The most "Because DC" thing ever.

-Maxima is your standard Flying Brick/Blaster, but can also use a Force Field to hit PL 13 defensively. She's powerful enough to brawl with Superman in the late '80s (when he was around PL 14), but never really ascended to a higher level.
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Amazo

Post by Jabroniville »

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AMAZO
Created By:
Gardner Fox & Murphy Anderson
First Appearance: The Brave and the Bold #30 (June 1960)
Role: Copycat Villain
Group Affiliations: None
PL 16 (453)
STRENGTH
10 STAMINA -- AGILITY 0
FIGHTING 9 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 0 AWARENESS -1 PRESENCE -1

Skills:
Intimidation 8 (+7)

Advantages:
Ranged Attack 8

Powers:
"Android Body"
Immunity 30 (Fortitude Effects) [30]
Protection 14 (Extras: Impervious 9) [23]

"Nanotech-Based Mimicry"
Mimic (All Traits of Others) 50 (Extras: Continuous) (Flaws: Tainted) [350]
(250 points' worth of traits)

Offense:
Unarmed +9 (+10 Damage, DC 25)
League Powers +13 (+19 Damage, DC 34)
League Ranged Powers +12 (+17 Ranged Damage, DC 32)
Initiative +0 (+12 Flash Speed)

Defenses:
Dodge +9 (DC 19), Parry +9 (DC 19), Toughness +14 (+5 Impervious), Fortitude --, Will +6

Complications:
Motivation (Killing)- Amazo has been programmed pretty much to destroy the Justice League, and doesn't do much else.
Power Loss (Duplication)- Amazo can sometimes only copy one person's abilities at a time.
Power Loss, Weakness, Vulnerable (Various)- Amazo adopts the weaknesses of anyone he copies, up to and including Kryptonite.

Total: Abilities: 24 / Skills: 8--4 / Advantages: 8 / Powers: 403 / Defenses: 16 (453)

-I think Amazo has literally the worst character design in the history of comics. There has never been anyone dumber than this. Rob Liefeld's designs look like Rembrandt made them compared to this shit. The "generic pointy supervillain ears". The shirtless body. The green leggings. THE GIRDLE. The little red skullcap. He's just completely asinine. And his name is AMAZO. The character is almost unusable in anything you want taken seriously. I get that it was 1960 and comics in general were corny enough to have shitloads of "something+O" names and multiple "something OF EVIL" names, but this is just so bad, lol. No wonder the Justice League cartoon writers just redesigned him entirely into a featurless silver android and ignored the name completely. Like they made it clear it was the "Amazo Project" or whatever, but he was just called "The Android".

-Amazo debuts in 1960 as the creation of the evil Professor Ivo, able to copy the powers of anyone. He drains various heroes of energy, then captures them- bringing them to Professor Ivo, who declares that he's seeking out the means of immortality by investigating long-lived animals. However, his experiment turns himself into a monster, and the inert android is left in the Justice League's trophy room. He reappeared four years later as a threat for the entire Justice League, as of course the more heroes being around meant the more he could swipe! He returns various times, usually reactivated by something- one time he is stopped before killing Ivo and the League, having turned on his creator. He faces the infamous "Detroit League" in the 1980s, defeating all the new heroes, but is beaten by Justice League originals Aquaman & Martian Manhunter.

-Amazo is reasoned with by Aztek in his solo book, and temporarily gains the time-controlling powers of the Worlogog in Hourman, but is destroyed by the Resurrection Man. However, there starts to be lazy editing or just "many versions of Amazo" because he shows up all over the place. One time, he easily defeats the JLA and all the heroes called in for backup, until the Atom cleverly convinces Superman to publicly announce the League has disbanded. Programmed to "Copy all the powers of the Justice League", Amazo is then automatically depowered and easily defeated. Later, an Amazo attacks Metropolis alongside other villains, but is destroyed by Black Adam.

-Later, Ivo is revealed to have created a "Son" of Amazo, who grew up thinking he was a normal human. Frank Halloran finally has his powers unlocked, but decides to become the heroic "Kid Amazo"... but he slowly becomes mentally unstable, discovering that his fiancee is actually Ivo's daughter and was instructed to monitor him by Ivo himself. He goes on the rampage while Batman realizes that he not only has the League's powers, but their contrasting personality traits. This is used to cause greater internal instability, and Kid Amazo self-destructs. Amazo briefly returns being downloaded into the Red Tornado's body before he's destroyed.

-Ultimately the character is... kinda weird. As he stands, he's a walking Extinction Level Event, but he has zero character to his own, so he's just some big dumb goon. I was expecting more interesting stuff or some good hooks, but he's actually LESS of a character than Marvel's rip-off, the Super-Adaptoid! He's just some powerful, stupid-looking guy.

-Amazo is pretty tough and strong as his baseline, but he's defined by his ability to steal the powers of ANYONE. As an android with various "models", he sometimes can only use one power-set at a time, which would limit him quite a bit (and might drop his Mimic ranks by several, though Superman alone nets him 150+ points' worth of stuff).
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (The Ultra-Humanite! Maxima! Ultraman! Amazo!)

Post by Skavenger »

The idea an android who can take on the powers of anybody would decide "what I really need is to take over the body of an android most famous for crying" is beyond anybody's guess.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (The Ultra-Humanite! Maxima! Ultraman! Amazo!)

Post by Batgirl III »

Amazo’s astronomically high levels of power kinda necessitate the “total lack of creativity” and “overly literal robot” drawbacks, otherwise the story ends in one panel with the good guys reduced to a red smear. He’s more of a doomsday weapon than an actual character as a result, since he also has essentially no personality.

Which would be fine, if he wasn’t the creation of one of the most bland, boring, and Basic B——h mad scientists in the history of comics.
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The Ravers

Post by Jabroniville »

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THE RAVERS
Created By:
Karl Kesel & Paul Pelletier
First Appearance: Superboy & The Ravers #1 (Sept. 1996)

-Superboy and the Ravers may be the single worst comic book title ever published, short of those indie comics TMNT knock-offs. The most '90s title imaginable, it was a 19-issue run starring Superboy and a team of superheroes called "The Ravers", running from 1996 to 1998 somewhat after the peak "Flood the Market" movement in comics. In the comic, a girl named "Sparx" shows up and tells Superboy of a never-ending party at Event Horizon. Superboy is intrigued and meets up with others like Hero Cruz and Aura, and the man in charge, Kindred Marx, bestows upon him a mark that allows him to travel to and from the party at will. Superboy, at this point being an immature punk '90s kid, is like "HELL YEAH!", and enjoys himself, but is confronted by a Qwardian named Kaliber, but after a brief fight they team up against some other guys and win each other's respect. Another kid, a zombie named Half-Life, shows up and also joins.

We learn some dark secrets of the party, like that Marx will exile people who violate the rules, even when they face certain death, and that the Darkstars are chasing after them. The Ravers help out during the Genesis event and then the book is cancelled, and most of the characters never feature anywhere else, ever again. I've never seen or heard of ANY of these people, but remember laughing at the asinine title back when the book first came out.

The Roster:
Aura- Binge-drinking magnetic girl.
Hero Cruz- Gay Latino hero.
Sparx- Electrokinetic wannabe heroine.
Kaliber- A juvenile delinquent from Qward in the antimatter universe.
Half-Life- 1950s teen killed and resurrected by aliens in a zombie-like state. Gains a fancy motorcycle.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (The Ultra-Humanite! Maxima! Ultraman! Amazo!)

Post by Thorpocalypse »

Amazo is yet another character that JLU took from crap to kinda cool. Having him being a seeker of universal knowledge and purpose with an axe to grind against Luthor gave him much needed characterization. His arc was handled so well, I almost forgot how much I loathed his DCU version, which your build reminded me. ;)
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Amazo!)

Post by Ken »

Here's the secret about Amazo: he wasn't written to be an ongoing villain; he was intended as a one-off.

#1) See where it says he debuted in Brave & the Bold #30? That was the 3rd issue of the JLA's 3 issue try-out. There wasn't a regular Justice League of America title yet.

#2) Gardner Fox, generally speaking, didn't create on-going villains for the Justice League of America. A lot of the characters he created were revisited by later writers, but Gardner Fox typically treated each villain as a one and done, with only a few exceptions.

Between the 3 issues of Brave & the Bold , and the 63 original issues of Justice League of America, the number of recurring villains is limited to Despero (2 stories), Doctor Destiny (4 stories), and Amos Fortune (4 stories: 1 as Amos Fortune, 1 as Mr. Memory, and 2 as the Ace of Clubs - leader of the Royal Flush Gang). And as evidenced by Amos Fortune, he only repeated enemies when he was reinventing them. Despero's chess board was missing in his second story; John (Doctor Destiny) Dee went from a gravity manipulator, to someone creating evil JLA duplicates, to a dream manipulator. Fox wasn't above reusing a character when he could do something different with them, Amazo's 2nd appearance, Amazo wasn't a villain; he was a tool the Justice League used to defeat something else.

There were villains like Kanjar Ro and Doctor Light that Fox created for the JLA but who were shipped off to fight other characters (Kanjar Ro became an Adam Strange villain; Doctor Light would show up in Green Lantern and Atom. Professor Ivo, the guy who built Amazo, appeared in an issue of Flash, in a story where Barry ended up getting the powers and costumes of Green Lantern, Aquaman, the Atom, and Hawkman in rapid succession; and he only barely appeared, again. He was less a character and more of a story element to explain why the main action was happening, just as he had been in B&B #30.

Fox had written All-Star Comics in a similar fashion 20 years earlier. He wasn't trying to write super teams "Marvel" style. Marvel didn't exist yet. He was about new ideas, and new characters. Or new ideas with old characters. But he wasn't one for rogues' galleries.
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Sparx

Post by Jabroniville »

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SPARX (Donna Carol "D.C." Force)
Created By:
Karl Kesel & Tom Grummett
First Appearance: The Adventures of Superman Annual #5 (1993)
Role: Flying Blaster
Group Affiliations: The Ravers, Blood Pack, Force Family

-Sparx is a flying Electrokinetic girl responsible for bringing Superboy to the "never-ending party" at Event Horizon. She is part of Canada's super-team, the "Force Family", but had no powers. Desiring some, she went to Metropolis in hopes of finding the alien parasites that were rampaging the city at the time- some people got super-powers, but many others just died. She changes her mind when she sees the risks, but is attacked and drained anyways- she gets lucky and gains electrical powers. She meets Superboy in her debut and they team up against the aliens, parting with a kiss- she joins the Blood Pack comic based around many of these uber-'90s introduced characters, but the whole event goes nowhere and only Hitman survives among the books- the Blood Pack discover the people responsible for a TV show starring them actually want to take over the world, and defeat them with the help of their trainer Jade, but they still split up.

-Sparx is instrumental in Superboy and the Ravers, being a pre-existing character that he trusts- she leads him to the rave. They help out against cosmic threats, people fighting others at the rave, and more. She develops romantic feelings for Superboy, then Hero Cruz, but is horrified that Hero is gay, and shows a significant amount of homophobia in the process. She ends up losing all her powers after a brief power-up to stop some aliens. She disappears after the book is cancelled, showing up only in 2007, now re-powered under unexplained means (ie. they forgot) being controlled by Despero along with many other heroes. She pops up in a few other background scenes, probably because of her distinctive appearance as an energy being in a one-piece swimsuit with gigantic "spark hair". She's otherwise treated as a failed candidate for a few Teen Titans teams.

-Sparx is likely a PL 8-ish generic Flying Blaster with an Aura & Force Fields.
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Aura

Post by Jabroniville »

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AURA (Lindsay Wah)
Created By:
Karl Kesel & Paul Pelletier
First Appearance: Superboy & The Ravers #1 (Sept. 1996)
Role: Magnetic Hero, Party Girl, Miss Fanservice
Group Affiliations: The Ravers

-An attractive Asian girl in a stripperific costume, Aura was with Hero Cruz when they encountered and befriended Superboy in the first issue of Superboy and the Ravers. ... that's it- that's her entire bio. Oh wait, Comicvine has more- she was on the run after her father framed her for the death of her mother. He had done this because they were both “filthy mutants”- she eventually confronted him, laying waste to the police and getting a confession out of him. She much later attempted to join the Teen Titans, but was rejected by Cyborg, who dismissed her as an "underage binge drinker!". So uh, that's her entire legacy.

-Aura had magnetic powers, able to use Move Object (Metals), Force Fields (most magnetism users are able to inexplicably use "magnetic energy" to avoid all attacks), Flight, Radius Blindsight (by magnetic fields), and sometimes Energy Absorption (Strength). She also maybe did the occasional "mess with someone via the iron in their bloodstream" trick and could apparently (judging by one pic) create "metal armor", albeit still baring her midriff, like God intended.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sun Jan 29, 2023 12:13 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Sparx

Post by Shock »

Jabroniville wrote: Sat Jan 28, 2023 7:57 am
SPARX (Donna Carol "D.C." Force)
This one left such a mark that the nearly identical looking Livewire was introduced only 4 years later in the cartoon and made her way into the comics and nobody blinked an eye.
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Kaliber II

Post by Jabroniville »

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KALIBER II
Created By:
Karl Kesel & Paul Pelletier
First Appearance: Superboy & The Ravers #1 (Sept. 1996)
Role: Growing Guy
Group Affiliations: The Ravers

-Kaliber was a bald-headed, muscular guy hailing from Qward in the anti-matter universe. He was offended by the presence of Superboy at the rave at Event Horizon, feeling he was disrespecting the legacy of Superman, and the two fought. Under the rules of the party, there was no fighting, and so they were sent to an arena to settle their differences- there, they were attacked by another party named "InterC.E.P.T." and were forced to team up against them. Impressed by Superboy's fighting, Kaliber became his ardent defender, and from then on would defend him even against threats that stood no chance against him. In the Genesis story-arc, he was blinded and gained other senses to make up for it.

-Kaliber was able to grow to large heights and subatomic sizes. When he was blinded, his other senses became sharpened to some degree.
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Re: Sparx

Post by Batgirl III »

Shock wrote: Sat Jan 28, 2023 6:53 pm
Jabroniville wrote: Sat Jan 28, 2023 7:57 am
SPARX (Donna Carol "D.C." Force)
This one left such a mark that the nearly identical looking Livewire was introduced only 4 years later in the cartoon and made her way into the comics and nobody blinked an eye.
Yes, but Livewire had a personality.
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