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

Where in all of your character write ups will go.
Sidney369
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Re: Grax

Post by Sidney369 »

Jabroniville wrote: Tue Jan 31, 2023 7:06 pm Image

GRAX
Created By:
Jim Shooter & Wayne Boring
First Appearance: Action Comics #342 (Oct. 1966)
Role: Bronze Age-ish Villain
Group Affiliations: None

-The four-armed, grey skinned alien Grax was a recurring Superman foe... but only for a few years- like most non-Luthor/Brainiac villains, he was discarded and forgotten. He was a thief and conqueror whose M.O. was to steal technology and demand tribute and subservience from entire planets- once, Superman crushed his robot army and stopped his flying saucers who were packing Venusian Radonite. He later stole Brainiac's force-field generator and tossed a bomb at Superman, then trapped Earth in a modifed force-field device so the Man of Steel could watch his adopted planet die. Earth was only saved by the vengeful Brainiac, who attacked Grax.

-Later, Grax teamed up with Lex Luthor, Brainiac and the Marauder, and convinced Superman that using his powers was unleashing phantoms that badly endangered Earth- Superman finally uncovered that it was a hoax, and Grax promptly turned on Luthor, who then teamed up with SUPERMAN, which let them defeat Grax. Grax fled the galaxy and never returned, again a victim of his own treachery. Claiming to be a "20th Level Intellect" (over Brainiac's 12th), he was instead just some douchebag who thought too highly of himself.
I was wondering if you's cover him. He did make another appearance, in the pages of the Super Friends comic (where the picture came from), although what canon that's part of is anyone's guess.
Always ask before you use someone's Original Character.
Never ever use them without permission. Only Villains do that.
Jabroniville
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The Eradicator

Post by Jabroniville »

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THE ERADICATOR (Dr. David Connor)
Created By:
Roger Stern
First Appearance: Action Comics Annual #2 (1989)
Role: Mirror Image Villain, Weird Robo-Thing
Group Affiliations: The Outsiders, Team Superman
PL 14 (305)
STRENGTH
18 STAMINA 16 AGILITY 2
FIGHTING 10 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 7 AWARENESS 0 PRESENCE 0

Skills:
Deception 5 (+5)
Expertise (Science) 13 (+20)
Expertise (Universal Traveller) 12 (+19)
Intimidation 6 (+6)
Perception 8 (+8)
Ranged Combat (Blasts) 2 (+10)

Advantages:
Eidetic Memory, Improved Initiative 2, Ranged Attack 4

Powers:
Immunity 11 (Life Support) [11]
Protection 2 (Extras: Impervious 15) [17]
"More Powerful Than a Speeding Locomotive" Power-Lifting 3 (50,000 tons) [3]
"Computer Mind" Quickness 10 (Flaws: Limited to Mental Tasks) [5]
Hand & Eye Blasts 18 (Feats: Improved Critical, Extended Range 2) (Extras: Penetrating 12) [51]

"Faster Than a Speeding Bullet"
Flight 17 (250,000 mph) (Feats: Dynamic) (35) -- [39]
  • Dynamic AE: Quickness 16 (Feats: Dynamic) (17)
  • Dynamic AE: Speed 15 (64,000 mph) (Feats: Dynamic) (16)
Movement 1 (Space Travel 1) [2]

Senses 19 (Extended Vision & Hearing 3, Analytical, Infra, Ultra & Microvision 4, Vision Penetrates Concealment, Ultra-Hearing) [19]

Offense:
Unarmed +10 (+18 Damage, DC 33)
Blasts +10 (+18 Ranged Damage, DC 33)
Initiative +2

Defenses:
Dodge +10 (DC 20), Parry +10 (DC 20), Toughness +18 (+8 Impervious), Fortitude +16, Will +6

Complications:
Motivation (Preserving Krypton, Other Stuff)- His motivation changes alot.

Total: Abilities: 114 / Skills: 46--23 / Advantages: 7 / Powers: 147 / Defenses: 14 (305)

-I only really remember The Eradicator for his appearances in the Reign of Supermen, as one of the deceased Superman's replacements. He's one of the "Roger Stern Era" enhancements, some Living Energy that later started looking like Supes. He got most of his play in the 1990s, where his "Visor Look" now makes him INCREDIBLY dated (ironically, almost as bad as the uber-90s'd out Cyborg Superman). The Eradicator is some piece of technology designed by an evil Kryptonian to "eradicate" all non-Kryptonian cultures, and tries to trap Kryptonians on their world (he even apparently creates Daxamites by altering the DNA of space-travelling Kryptonians to make them fatally vulnerable to lead). This is one of MANY attempts later writers came up with to explain the whole "so why did Kryptonians never leave their planet?" thing.

-Superman later gains this device and brings it to Earth as a memento of a man he met who had found the thing, but the device actually begins to control his thoughts and attitude, making him more brutal like a "true" Kryptonian. Superman eventually fought back when he nearly killed Pa Kent, and threw the Eradicator into the sun. The Eradicator, like Hank Henshaw, returned during The Reign of Supermen as one of two men who thought they were the returned Superman, who had been killed by Doomsday. Wearing a visor that now makes him look SO dated to the 1990s, this one is eventually revealed to be the Eradicator, having built itself a new body using Superman's dead body as a template- an act that convinced it that it was the Man of Steel himself. This act actually ensured SUPERMAN's survival as well, and he soon returned to life as the Eradicator started showcasing a more brutal, clinical attitude to fighting evil, like killing a would-be rapist and shattering a safecracker's hands. Ultimately, the Eradicator realized his error, and sacrificed himself to save a de-powered Superman from Cyborg Superman- this empowered Supes to his true former self.

-After this, the Eradicator's dead body was taken to S.T.A.R. Labs, where it merged with Dr. Davic Connor. This version joined the Outsiders and occasionally teamed up with Superman, then dealt with Connor's personal life. Then The Outsiders was cancelled and Connor merged with the original "Eradicator" program still in the Fortress of Solitude to stop it, giving it multiple personalities- it was seemingly restored to good, but had to be placed in suspended animation by Superman after it tried to kill Krypto, who it thought shouldn't exist. The Eradicator returns briefly wearing Kryptonian robes, but is rapidly written out around Infinite Crisis, injured by an OMAC. A new version surfaces later, with the memories of the original- it is kidnapped by Doomsday, but allies with Steel, Superboy & Supergirl to escape, but Eradicator is ultimately killed by a more evolved Doomsday... only to transfer its mind into the comatose body of the original Doomsday, therefore containing other Doomsday clones and sacrificing himself to destroy them all.

-So ultimately this character is very weird- a quasi-well-intentioned good guy sometimes? But... sometimes not? It's usually fighting against its own programming and doing good in spite of itself, which isn't the worst thing, but as this usually ends up just being "Perform a Heroic Sacrifice", it's a bit stuck in a rut. As the less-interesting of the two beings who returned looking like, and claiming to be, the original Superman returned from the dead, he was doomed in the '90s, and the 2000s adding an ass-ton more Superman-type beings didn't help. This thing always felt like the odd man out, unable to truly "fit in" anywhere. I mean, when every writer finishes an arc of yours by KILLING YOU, you know you're a hassle to write and work things around.

-As a technological thing, The Eradicator was an interstellar teleporter who could Create & Transform just about anything and anyONE, and use Mind Control. During The Reign of Supermen, he gains Superman-level abilities and just flies around Punching & Blasting stuff like the rest of the Superman Family. Only his blasts come from his hands.
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Batgirl III
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Amazo! The Ravers! Doomsday! The Eradicator!)

Post by Batgirl III »

Maybe it makes me a mark, but I still think Eradicator-Superman had an awesome costume… If he’d ditch the visor.
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Jabroniville
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Amazo! The Ravers! Doomsday! The Eradicator!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Batgirl III wrote: Wed Feb 01, 2023 2:08 am Maybe it makes me a mark, but I still think Eradicator-Superman had an awesome costume… If he’d ditch the visor.
Yeah, it looks almost like one redesign I came up with for Superman, though mine made most of the middle and the cape slate-grey and the sides black. I always liked the slick look of vertical lines going all the way down, especially if the top ended in a cape.
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Ares
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Amazo! The Ravers! Doomsday! The Eradicator!)

Post by Ares »

I think having black colors on a Superman costume is kind of a mistake. It's honestly such a classic that you can really only tweak it a little, and it's almost always going to revert to form.
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Batgirl III
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Amazo! The Ravers! Doomsday! The Eradicator!)

Post by Batgirl III »

Ares wrote: Wed Feb 01, 2023 5:12 am I think having black colors on a Superman costume is kind of a mistake. It's honestly such a classic that you can really only tweak it a little, and it's almost always going to revert to form.
Oh, I wouldn’t want it as a costume for the Superman. But it looks great for a Superman Legacy character. Like a Legionnaire, an alien world, or a parallel Earth.

The Classic Superman costume, red trunks and all, is one of the greatest costumes in comic’s history. It should never be changed. Ever.
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Ares
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Amazo! The Ravers! Doomsday! The Eradicator!)

Post by Ares »

The Eradicator was, naturally, an attempt to explain why a society as advanced as Krypton didn't just . . . leave. It was also useful as a source of getting Superman so much Kryptonian tech by being this device that could literally reshape matter, creating Superman's arctic fortress, giving him so much Kryptonian technology, etc. And the idea of it trying to turn Clark into the "ideal Kryptonian" also went a ways to show why it was so vital for Superman's character that he was raised by Ma and Pa Kent. Granted, this was early Post-Crisis Krypton where the place had basically been 'dead' long before it had blown up, being inhabited by people who were little more than biological machines. This makes Krypton's destruction less of a tragedy than it would have been in other versions.

The Eradicator can work as this sort of Kryptonian superweapon designed to protect Krypton's legacy at all costs, making it both an ally or an enemy depending on the circumstances. The red, silver and black look just looks awesome, though I'd probably tweak it a little to make it more like it's original black, red and gold look. It can simultaneously be something that wants to protect Superman and will obey him, but can have moments where it can be akin to Zod from Man of Steel, where the preservation of Krypton or the chance to make Krypton anew has it act in an adversarial role.

There was also that weird time where the Eradicator had merged with a human and briefly joined the Outsiders, essentially acting an 'Extreme' version of Superman.
"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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Jabroniville
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King Kosmos

Post by Jabroniville »

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That is a pretty good rendition of Kirby's style, I will say.

KING KOSMOS (Oswald Mandias)
Created By:
Elliot S. Maggin & Keith Pollard
First Appearance: DC Comics Presents Annual #2 (July 1983)
Role: Would-Be Conqueror
Group Affiliations: None

-King Kosmos, with an outfit right out of Jack Kirby, lasted less than a year and never appeared Post-Crisis. He was a petty despot on a future Earth- it rebelled against him, and he destroyed the planet in order to launch himself into the past, where he thought his advanced technology would allow him to reign supreme. He sent Superman back in time as a show of his power and demanded subservience from Metropolis- only the arrival of Kristin Wells from the 29th Century, calling herself "Superwoman", saved the day, and he was lost in the timestream. He returned to Earth as a "nerve bolt", possessed an Earthman named "Oswald Mandias" (hee) and changed Superman's very "essence" so he'd fall to Earth and die, but the "Sword of Superman" (a late-coming Pre-Crisis device) intervened, saving him. Kosmos later re-formed the consciousness of every being on Earth to view Superman as a monster, but the Sword dispelled the illusion. Kosmos enhanced the body of Mandias so much he could physically challenge Superman, but ultimately the Sword empowered him so much that Supes removed Kosmos from the man's body and dispersed his essence. He never returned.

-King Kosmos initially fought with technology that could cast illusions, blast things, and more. But he was dependent on the power of his "Exit Craft" for these things. As an energy being, he had limitless power, altering the minds of every being on Earth at once, empower or weaken others, and more.
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Christopher Kent

Post by Jabroniville »

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CHRISTOPHER KENT (Lor-Zod)
Created By:
Richard Donner, Geoff Johns & Adam Kubert
First Appearance: Action Comics #844 (Dec. 2006)
Role: General Zod's Son

-OH JESUS LOOK AT THAT WIKIPEDIA BIO! DC characters tend to have pretty piss-poor online bios (as I've said, Marvel fans are better than DC fans. You can expect even the worst losers at Marvel to have massive bios going into tons of microscopic detail... but major DC characters can have barely a few paragraphs)... but this dude has "someone updates his bio with every new issue" syndrome. THERE'S A MIDDLE GROUND, PEOPLE!! Chris Kent is important because he is the foster son of Clark & Lois, but the birth son of Ursa and GENERAL ZOD. This is from Richard Donner's run on the Superman books, as the Superman movie creator teamed up with Geoff Johns to do a run, involving the characters he made famous in Superman II.

-This boy descends to Earth much as a young Kal-El did, landing via spaceship. Superman himself helps it land and is shocked to find a Kryptonian boy inside with no knowledge of his origins. He quickly removes the kid from the "Department of Metahuman Affairs" and chooses to raise him alongside Lois, naming him "Chris Kent". Chris befriended Tim "Robin" Drake and struggled with his growing powers, and soon learned of his origins- his arrival had actually set Zod, Non & Ursa free from the Phantom Zone. They beat Superman and capture Chris & Lois, then Zod's family invades Earth while Supes is tossed into the Phantom Zone in their place. Superman escapes with Mon-El's help and team up with Lex Luthor of all people to defeat the Kryptonian army (who had already captured most of Earth's superheroes). Chris saves Lois and later ensures that Zod's army is trapped in the Zone, following them there and thanking Clark & Lois for being good parents.

-Chris lives in the Zone, engaging in superheroics as "Nightwing" with a "Flamebird"- evoking Superman & Jimmy Olsen in the "Kandor" stories. Chris engages in one of my least-favorite story tropes, "Superfast Comic Book Aging", thanks to being in the Zone, and is reintroduced to Clark & Lois. He & Flamebird, Thara Ak-Var, form a relationship and fight various villains on Earth, then the Kryptonian criminal Jax-Ur. Thara ultimately sacrifices herself to stop the sun from turning red (at the hands of General Lane & Lex Luthor), while Chris becomes an "Avatar" of the Nightwing entity after battling an avatar of Rao, Krypton's chief god. In the final Chris Kent appearance of the old continuity, he pushes Zod back into the Phantom Zone, again trapping himself there, but returns to being a young boy. And then DC rebooted everything and eventually gave Superman & Lois an actual son named Jonathan.

-Chris Kent is another Kryptonian character of varying Power Level- likely starting at PL 10 and rapidly hitting PL 13-14 or so.
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Silver Banshee

Post by Jabroniville »

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woah, nelly.

SILVER BANSHEE (Siobhan McDougal)
Created By:
John Byrne
First Appearance: Action Comics #595 (Dec. 1987)
Role: Background Villain
PL 12 (191), PL 14 (191) Death Wail
STRENGTH
14 STAMINA 14 AGILITY 4
FIGHTING 6 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 0 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 0

Skills:
Athletics 2 (+7)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 3 (+9)
Expertise (Arcane Lore) 4 (+4)
Expertise (Criminal) 4 (+4)
Insight 2 (+4)
Intimidation 10 (+10)
Perception 3 (+5)
Ranged Combat (Wail) 4 (+10)
Stealth 2 (+6)

Advantages:
All-Out Attack, Improved Critical (Wail), Power Attack, Ranged Attack 4, Startle

Powers:
Immunity 10 (Sonic Effects) [10]
Regeneration 4 [4]
Flight 8 (500 mph) [16]

"Death Wail"
Weaken Abilities 11 (Extras: Broad, Area- 60ft. Cone) (33) -- [38]
  • AE: Weaken Abilities 11 (Extras: Broad, Ranged) (33)
  • AE: "Death Stare" Weaken 14 (Extras: Broad, Area- Visual Perception) (Flaws; Limited to Those Whose Names She Knows) (28)
  • AE: "Fear Projection" Affliction 12 (Will; Dazed/Stunned/Paralyzed) (12)
  • AE: "Sonic Vibrations" Blast 10 (Extras: Penetrating) (30)
  • AE: Teleport 8 (Extras: Extended) (24)
Offense:
Unarmed +9 (+14 Damage, DC 29)
Wail +10 (+11 Ranged Weaken, DC 21)
Wail +11 Area (+11 Weaken, DC 21)
Death Stare +14 Area (+14 Weaken, DC 24)
Initiative +4

Defenses:
Dodge +10 (DC 20), Parry +10 (DC 20), Toughness +14, Fortitude +14, Will +7

Complications:
Prejudice (Obvious Superhuman)- She has a big white skull on her face. Kinda freaky.
Power Loss (Wail)- Gagging her forcibly removes Silver Banshee's ability to Wail.

Total: Abilities: 84 / Skills: 32--16 / Advantages: 8 / Powers: 68 / Defenses: 15 (191)

-Silver Banshee's another John Byrne creation added to the Superman mythos, but I wasn't aware of the link till just reading Wikipedia (and again just re-reading my bio of the JLU character). I'm more aware of her as a backgrounder in big fight scenes (since she has a very distinctive look, especially in the plainer- by contrast to Marvel- DCU), JLU and now Gail Simone's Secret Six, where she was a sex-fiend freaky girl who usually spent most of her time in a white-haired Normal Chick form that was nonetheless freakishly strong. In JLU, she actually said NOTHING (despite having a Voice Actress credited), but got to wipe out a few Skartarian Barbarians (hey, that rhymes) with her Weakening Wail thingie. She's also a low-end metahuman, though Green Lantern easily defeated her just by gagging her. It's a BIG Weaken, but she's rather light on the tricks, what with her lack of showings.

-Anyways, the comic book version has her own thing going on. To his credit, John Byrne didn't want to just recreate various characters (Parasite was done in Firestorm, not Action Comics, for instance), but to ADD some people to the mythos. Siobhan McDougal (sporting one of those names that Irish people invented silly spellings for just to confound the English, because of course it should be spelled "Shvaughn" because of how it's pronounced) is the daughter of a Gaelic clan's patriarch who had travelled the world before returning home on her father's death. However, her uncle refused to let a woman lead the clan, and her brother Bevan interrupted her attempts at engaging in the supernatural ritual to claim leadership- she was dragged to an "infernal netherworld", where an entity called "The Crone" granted her powers and returned her to Earth in return for an occult book her father owned.

-As the Silver Banshee, Siobhan arrived in Metropolis on a murderous rampage for the book (which had been sold and sent there), but Superman figured out she had some "catch" where she could only kill a person once (as she turned away from someone who looked like a prior victim), then faked his death and had the Martian Manhunter attack her while posing as Superman's "ghost". The Silver Banshee retreated. She returned twice more, again halted by Superman, and Superman brought the book to her family castle- the Crone then appeared, dragging Banshee, Bevan and their uncle to her netherworld home. Later, Supergirl rescued the Banshee from Lord Satanus's Netherworld in Peter David's run on her book. The Banshee was confused and eventually went psychotic, possessing Supergirl's friend Mattie and went on a rampage. Supergirl separated the two when she attempted to kill someone who'd killed Mattie's brother while under mind control. After this, Silver Banshee became "One Of Those Backgrounders", usually thrown against Superman in various stories (working for Manchester Black, Lex Luthor, then joining Alex Luthor's Secret Society). She was being turned into a Supergirl-focused villainess before continuity ended, and showed up in the New 52.

-Silver Banshee is actually remarkably powerful, having PL 12 physical stats at a high tier and then a PL 11 Area Weaken and a specific Death Stare that can seriously kill even top-tier heroes if she knows their real names.
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Shadowdragon

Post by Jabroniville »

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SHADOWDRAGON (Savitar Bandu)
Created By:
Dan Jurgens
First Appearance: Superman #97 (Feb. 1995)
Role: Forgotten Superhero

-Shadowdragon has a pretty '90s name that could nonetheless still hold up today, but is largely a forgotten character from the "Dan Jurgens" run in the 1990s. Prince Savitar of "Bhutran" was stripped of his royalty after adventuring in a neighboring country using a powersuit, and decides to act as an antihero, helping the suffering masses of his home country. He decides to do this by stealing innovations from scientific firms in Metropolis (man it just has to be the place famously guarded by the most powerful superhero in the universe, lol), which of course lured in Superman. He initially gave information on Superman to the villain Conduit, but regretted his decision on seeing Conduit's actions and personally deleted all the information people had on him. He later met Lady Shiva, but otherwise disappeared.

-uh, I guess he had martial arts skills and hacking abilities.
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Superboy-Prime

Post by Jabroniville »

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SUPERBOY-PRIME (Clark Kent, aka Superman-Prime)
Created By:
Eliot S. Maggin & Curt Swan
First Appearance: DC Comics Presents #87 (November 1985)
Role: Superboy Variant, Psychotic Murderer
PL 18 (346)
STRENGTH
24 STAMINA 22 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 9 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 3 AWARENESS 0 PRESENCE 4

Skills:
Aerobatics 4 (+7)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 3 (+11)
Deception 2 (+6)
Insight 3 (+3)
Intimidation 8 (+12)
Perception 10 (+10)
Ranged Combat (Heat Vision/Freeze Breath) 2 (+11)
Technology 2 (+5)

Advantages:
Diehard, Evasion, Fast Grab, Fearless, Great Endurance, Improved Critical (Unarmed), Improved Initiative 2, Inspire, Last Stand, Move-By Action, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 5, Takedown, Teamwork, Ultimate Strength Check, Withstand Damage

Powers:
"More Powerful Than a Speeding Locomotive" Power-Lifting 7 (500,000 tons) [7]
"The Man of Steel" Protection 2 (Extras: Impervious 19) [21]
Immunity 11 (Life Support, Aging) [11]

"Heat Beam" Damage 17 (Extras: Area- 60ft. Line +2) (51) -- [50]
  • AE: "Heat Vision" Blast 20 (Feats: Extended Reach 2) (42)
  • AE: "Freeze Breath" Affliction 15 (Strength; Hindered & Vulnerable/Stunned & Defenseless/Paralyzed) (Extras: Ranged, Extra Condition) (45)
  • AE: "Freeze Cone" Affliction 15 (Strength; Hindered & Vulnerable/Stunned & Defenseless/Paralyzed) (Extras: Area- 60ft. Cone, Extra Condition) (45)
  • AE: "Ground Pound" Affliction 15 (Strength/Athletics; Hindered & Vulnerable/Stunned & Defenseless) (Extras: Area- 120ft. Burst +3, Extra Condition) (Flaws: Limited Degree, Both Must Be Grounded, Instant Recovery) (29)
  • AE: "Super-Breath" Affliction 15 (Strength/Athletics; Hindered & Vulnerable/Stunned & Defenseless) (Extras: Area- 120ft. Cone +2, Extra Condition) (Flaws: Limited Degree, Both Must Be Grounded, Instant Recovery) Linked to Move Object 11 (Extras: Area- 120ft. Cone +2) (Flaws: Touch Range) (39)
"Faster Than a Speeding Bullet"
Flight 18 (500,000 mph) (Feats: Dynamic) (37) -- [41]
  • Dynamic AE: Quickness 16 (Feats: Dynamic) (17)
  • Dynamic AE: Speed 15 (64,000 mph) (Feats: Dynamic) (16)
Movement 2 (Space Travel 2) [4]

Senses 22 (Extended Vision & Hearing 4, Analytical, Low-Light, Infra, Ultra & Microvision 4, Vision Penetrates Concealment, Ultra-Hearing) [22]

Offense:
Unarmed +12 (+24 Damage, DC 39)
Heat Vision +11 (+20 Ranged Damage, DC 35)
Heat Beam +17 Area (+17 Damage, DC 32)
Freeze Breath +11 (+15 Ranged Affliction, DC 25)
Freeze Cone/Ground Pound +15 Area (+15 Affliction, DC 25)
Initiative +11

Defenses:
Dodge +10 (DC 20), Parry +10 (DC 20), Toughness +24 (+10 Impervious), Fortitude +22, Will +7

Complications:
Motivation (Fame & Credibility)- Superboy-Prime desires only to be thought of as important, powerful and amazing- knowledge that he has been robbed of his "birthright" is enraging to him.
Responsibility (Psychopath)- Superboy-Prime goes from a reluctant killer, horrified at "what you made me do!" and what others made him become, into a full-fledged drooling psychopath.
Power Loss/Vulnerable (Earth-Prime's Kryptonite)- Superboy will lose all of his powers, and soon begin to die, if exposed to the Kryptonite of Universe-Prime, the element of his dead homeworld.
Power Loss/Vulnerable (Red Sun Radiation)- Earth's Yellow Sun empowers Superboy- without it, he will soon lose his powers. Red Sun-based energies will do much more damage to him. Typically, Brainiac-5 will give him some kind of protection against this weakness.
Power Loss (X-Ray Vision)- Kryptonian X-Ray Vision cannot penetrate lead.
Phobia (The Flash Family)- Superboy-Prime has an intense fear of the Flashes, after they trapped him in the Speed Force for four years of his time.

Total: Abilities: 138 / Skills: 34--17 / Advantages: 21 / Powers: 155 / Defenses: 15 (346)

Superboy-Prime- Superboy Legacy To Genocidal Madman:
-Okay, when you think of characters who were created one way and then shifted way, WAY further into something else, look no further than Superboy-Prime. The character was initially written as a parallel Earth variant of Superboy- a boy who grew up on a world with no other superheroes. This world, "Earth-Prime", had actual DC comics where Superman was a regularly pusblished character. Sharing the same name as Superman, it turns out that this young boy, adopted by Jerry & Naomi Kent, was in fact a real life Kryptonian! The true Kal-El! During this 1985 story, he meets the Superman of Earth-One and learns to deal with his true nature when Halley's Comet triggers his powers.

-The character took on some importance when it became clear in 1985 that the DC universe was being rebooted, and there would no longer by a "Superboy", as Superman had now debuted as an adult. This was a bug up John Byrne's ass, and DC editorial were like "yeah sure" about it despite the legion of f*ck-ups it'd cause, but the important thing is that "Superboy Stories" were going to be gone, and so this kid was now a symbolic link to that concept. And so in the final issue of Crisis on Infinite Earths, Alexander Luthor gathered up a few "exiles" who survived the merging of the Earths, such as the Golden Age Superman, his wife Lois, and Superboy-Prime (whose Earth-Prime had been destroyed by the Anti-Monitor; he'd joined the final surge of heroes), and moved to a pocket dimension from which they said they would never return. Thus "Superboy" was gone, but a version of the character "lived on".

Infinite Crisis:
-However, things go hairy in Infinite Crisis- this uber-opus by Geoff Johns would retread a lot of the old ground of the first Crisis, and the "pocket dimension" characters would return, claiming the darkness of the "New Earth" was improper, and a sign that they'd "saved the wrong Earth"- Earth-TWO should have been saved and formed the baseline! Superboy-Prime is convinced of this by Luthor, and breaks through their dimensional barrier. This story was obviously incredibly metatextual, as Johns had them disgusted by the various stories that'd taken place over the past few decades in DC.

-Superboy-Prime formed the backup alongside the Golden Age Superman, and hadn't aged notably. However, things get dark pretty quickly, as Prime soon grows unhinged. Believing that his destiny was to become Superman, he goes mad with power, lashing out at various characters. One particularly notable issue has the Teen Titans attack him en mass, and he REMOVES PANTHA'S HEAD with a single punch. Red Star & Baby Wildebeest are enraged, but the Wildebeest is punched through. Bushido, a completely minor side-character of no importance, is also heat visioned in half as a hilarious aside while Risk loses an arm. D-Leaguers all, but a very notable massacre. In the end, Superboy-Prime puts on a variant of the Anti-Monitor's armor, kills the new Superboy (Conner Kent), 32 Green Lanterns and even the ORIGINAL SUPERMAN HIMSELF, as the modern and original Superman battle the villain and finally bring him down at the cost of Kal-L's life. Thus the DC universe has a mass-murderer on a cosmic scale on their hands.

Post-Infinite Crisis:
-Superboy-Prime thus kind of becomes a "General Villain", fighting various people. Killing all those Green Lanterns results in him being placed in a Sun-Eater holding cell with 50 GLs guarding him at all times. Carving an "S" shield into his chest with his finger, he is broken free by the Sinestro Corps' attack on Oa, and they recruit him to their cause. The Sinestro Corps War is a high water mark of Geoff Johns's run on Green Lantern, but gets a bit overstuffed by things like this- the return of not only him but the FRIGGIN' ANTI-MONITOR ends up running alongside Sinestro's master-stroke and the story gets way too busy, huge as it is. And here Superboy-Prime goes from maniacal to childish, just lashing out like a giant whiner, robbing the character of any potential tragedy or dignity. It's been stated many times that S-P is more or less Johns (and DC Editor-In-Chief Dan Didio) riffing on comic book fans themselves and their endless whining for the "Good Old Days". And you can see it a bit in how whiny and impossible to please he is. So the character bitches and moans as he beats Sodam Yat half to death (despite having a Power Ring, the power of Ion, and Daxamite power levels), then assaults the Anti-Monitor for having destroyed Earth-Prime all those years ago, whining at him as he did so. Finally, one of the Guardians of Oa sacrifices themselves, exploding to kill Superboy-Prime... however, he is instead infused with Oan energy and warped back into the multiverse.

-Now wearing a black costume and calling himself "Superman-Prime", he slaughters a few worlds in the multiverse, then faces three versions of the Legion of Super-Heroes in Johns's Legion of Three Worlds mega-story. Throwing a tantrum because he's merely a footnote in the Superman Museum of the future, Superman-Prime learns of the Legion of Super-Villains and breaks them out of prison, and learns that he is their inspiration, "The Prime whose name was never spoken". They ally with Mordru and other LOSH foes, bringing the Legion of Super-Villains against all the heroes, Superman, and more, and ultimately Superboy & Impulse/Kid Flash are returned to life, stopping him. The Sun Boy & Element Lad of "Threeboot" Legion are killed, but the Time Trapper is revealed to be an AGED version of Superboy-Prime- S-P throws another tantrum and attacks HIM, thus wiping out both via a time paradox. Superboy-Prime ends up back on Earth-Prime, but his happiness is ruined by the discovery that his parents and girlfriend had READ the same DC comics he'd appeared in, and were disgusted by his behavior. S-P now spends his days without his powers, reading comics and trolling the DC comics message boards, remarking that he always survives. Oh yeah, now it's pretty obvious who he was parodying.

-Finally, Alexander Luthor returns to life and taunts a now fully-powered Superboy-Prime with his inevitable death. However, he puts on a Black Lantern ring, which stuns him with all the various powers on the Emotional Spectrum. His former girlfriend now finds him, and promises him that "they" (DC writers) are done torturing him and are sorry for what they made him do, and a flicker of hope lights up in his heart. However, he's quickly brought back AGAIN, as a Teen Titans arc sees him ripped from Earth-Prime and sent to the Titans, and he's imprisoned in the Source Wall by Superboy & Supergirl. The character subsequently appears in "New 52" and "Rebirth" comics.

Superboy-Prime Overall:
-Oh man, this character is a MESS. He went from this neat little "Parallel Earth" story to a metatextual way for Marv Wolfman to "keep a Superboy around" same as the Golden Age Superman (as he probably didn't want to erase both, given their meaning to comics)... and then Geoff Johns just got to nurture all his worst impulses with the guy. In many ways, Superboy-Prime turned into the kinds of villains Chuck Austen wrote- needlessly cruel, taunting, childish assholes who just lashed out at everybody. Making fun of comic book message board fans is well and good and can be funny, but this character had way too much power to have so little dignity. It made him this annoying twerp who had a Sentry-like ability to drain the joy or fun out of stories. Part of the issue was that he just got used SO MUCH right after Infinite Crisis (never mind the fact that he ran away with the story, going from "psychotic Superboy duplicate" to "the guy who kills three Teen Titans, Superboy and THE ORIGINAL SUPERMAN"!)- we weren't even allowed to breathe without him as Johns used him again and again- The Sinestro Corps War was only a single YEAR after IC and Legion of Three Worlds was only the year after THAT. This is literally three huge events one after the other in which this guy is the central villain, always acting like a whiny, entitled crybaby. It's WAY TOO MUCH and part of why Johns went from the Golden Boy of DC to someone everyone started side-eyeing after a point.

Superboy-Prime's Powers:
-For whatever reason, Superboy-Prime is IMMENSELY powerful. Even moreso than most Supermen, he seemed exceptionally strong, to the point where 20+ superheroes of 32 Green Lanterns at once didn't even stand a CHANCE at holding him back- he just kills and kills and kills until a true top-tier (even PL 15 Modern Superman) can at least hold him back. He's even IMMUNE to tons of shit- Magic doesn't hurt him that much, nor does the Kryptonite of any world but Earth-Prime's.
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HalloweenJack
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (The Eradicator! Silver Banshee! Superboy-Prime!)

Post by HalloweenJack »

And Superboy Prime actually had a bit of character development during the end of Death Metal (exxxxtreme!) where he ended up being on the side of the heroes more or less due to happenstance, had a moment where he bonded with Krypto, and ended up acting like a hero instead of a strawman.

Why it's almost like if effort is expended you can make stories.

Oh hi Jab.
Skavenger
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (The Eradicator! Silver Banshee! Superboy-Prime!)

Post by Skavenger »

It's funny, I was sharing that "ending" for Superboy Prime on the Discord, and it's a really, really bizarre story path Superboy Prime had.

Also, I don't know if it's a power stunt, but his "dimension punching" powers seemed to still be a thing and not just a power stunt. When he hit one of the "evil Supermen" during Death Metal, he actually felt the impact cause "changes" on the world it came from. It's what lead him to believe he could take on the Great Darkness himself, and was able to hit him hard enough to destroy the "corrupted" worlds.
greycrusader
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (The Eradicator! Silver Banshee! Superboy-Prime!)

Post by greycrusader »

HalloweenJack wrote: Thu Feb 02, 2023 10:39 pm And Superboy Prime actually had a bit of character development during the end of Death Metal (exxxxtreme!) where he ended up being on the side of the heroes more or less due to happenstance, had a moment where he bonded with Krypto, and ended up acting like a hero instead of a strawman.

Why it's almost like if effort is expended you can make stories.

Oh hi Jab.
Hey, thanks for coming back!
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