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

Where in all of your character write ups will go.
Shock
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Goblins! The Lizard! Mysterio! Dr. Octopus!)

Post by Shock »

I think Kraven would make a good "catch & release" type of hunter. Give him an interest in conservation and have him catch defeated heroes and then let them go. Or even have him try to set up some kind of superhero "zoo" like a low rent Collector. Then you can have him actually win once in a while without having to kill off heroes.
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Arkrite
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Re: Kraven

Post by Arkrite »

Jabroniville wrote: Sun May 21, 2017 6:35 am And because twenty years' time had basically erased the stink of all that Jobbing, turning Kraven now into this merciless ass-kicker (I wonder if that would work for Hank Pym? Marvel should kill him for twenty years to see!).
I support this line of thinking! ;~)
Jabroniville
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Calypso

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

CALYPSO (Calypso Ezili)
Created By:
Denny O'Neil & Alan Weiss
First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #209 (Oct. 1980)
Role: Wicked Witch, Legacy Character (to Kraven)
Villain Ranking: D-List
Group Affiliations: N/A
PL 10 (131)
STRENGTH
0 STAMINA 2 AGILITY 2
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 3

Skills:
Deception 8 (+11)
Expertise (Voodoo) 10 (+12)
Expertise (Survival) 4 (+7)
Insight 4 (+7)
Investigation 3 (+6)
Perception 5 (+8)
Persuasion 4 (+7)
Sleight of Hand 6 (+6)
Stealth 4 (+6)
Treatment/Medicine 4 (+6)

Advantages: 
Artificer, Equipment 2 (Voodoo Items, Knife +1, Poisons), Improved Defense, Ritualist

Powers:
"Voodoo" Magic 10 [42]
AE: Mind Control 10 (Extras: Area- 60ft. Burst +2) (Flaws: Touch Range -2) (40)
AE: Nullify Sensory Powers 6 (Extras: Perception Range) (18)
AE: Summon Minions 3 (16 Zombies) (Extras: Controlled, Horde, Multiple Minions +2) (Flaws: Limited- Requires Dead Bodies) (15)
"Voodoo Resurrection" Immortality 1 [2]

Offense:
Unarmed +8 (+0 Damage, DC 15)
Knife +8 (+1 Damage, DC 16)
Nullify +6 Perception (+6 Perception Nullify, DC 16)
Initiative +2

Defenses:
Dodge +10 (DC 20), Parry +10 (DC 20), Toughness +2, Fortitude +5, Will +6

Complications:
Obsession (Kraven the Hunter)- Calypso is truly insane, and worships Kraven's memory in spite of driving him nuts in the first place, and tries to hunt Spider-Man for his role in Kraven's death.
Enemy (Spider-Man)

Total: Abilities: 40 / Skills: 52--26 / Advantages: 5 / Powers: 44 / Defenses: 16 (131)

-Calypso was brought in as a partner to the falling character of Kraven the Hunter, sort of a girlfriend/egger-on, she tried to get him even MORE angry over Spider-Man. Since his death, her role's been negated to more of a crazy vendetta-based chick, who keeps resurrecting herself since she dies almost every appearance. Oh, that voodoo. Not a physical threat, she usually just poisons or manipulates Spidey. Her biggest role came when Todd McFarlane got his very own Spider-Man book, and she went all crazy, got more powerful, and sent The Lizard after Spidey. She was apparently killed, but returned (well, her power IS Voodoo) to fight our hero, plus Alyosha Kravinoff. Alyosha said he would hold Calypso at his mansion (which Spidey for some reason went along with), but executed her instead.

-Also, she dresses in one of the skimpiest costumes in comic book history- she'd probably be a lot more well-known if she wasn't a fifth-tier Spidey foe. Young Jab never even picked up on how much skin she was showing... only reason I can think of is that Young Jab wasn't into black chicks, maybe.

-Not a major threat, Calypso's usually stuck creating poisons and manipulating animals or other people to attack Spider-Man. So she's scary in that sense, but not so much in combat. Her PL is fairly high thanks to Mind Control being fairly costly, as well as a Summon power and Resurrection. She tends to use a lot of planning and large groups to fight for her.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Wed Feb 16, 2022 5:30 am, edited 1 time in total.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24690
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

The Grim Hunter

Post by Jabroniville »

ImageImage

THE GRIM HUNTER (Vladimir Kravinoff)
Created By:
Howard Mackie & Tom Lyle
First Appearance: Spider-Man #47 (June 1994)
Role: Failed Legacy Villain
Villain Ranking: E-List
Group Affiliations: The Kravinoffs
PL 8 (164)
STRENGTH
7 STAMINA 7 AGILITY 6
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 0 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 1

Skills:
Acrobatics 4 (+10)
Athletics 6 (+13)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 1 (+9)
Deception 2 (+3)
Expertise (Hunter) 8 (+8)
Intimidation 5 (+6)
Perception 9 (+11)
Ranged Combat (Guns) 2 (+10)
Sleight of Hand 4 (+8)
Stealth 5 (+11)

Advantages: 
Animal Empathy, Chokehold, Equipment 6 (Gear), Fast Grab, Great Endurance, Improved Critical (Unarmed), Power Attack, Ranged Attack 4, Tracking

Powers:
"Permanent Herb-Given Super-Physiology"
Leaping 2 (30 feet) [2]
Speed 4 (30 mph) [4]
Immunity 2 (Aging, Poison) (Flaws: Limited to Half-Effect) [1]
"Animal-Like Senses" Senses 5 (Low-Light & Extended Vision, Extended Hearing & Scent, Acute Scent) [5]

"Hunter Armor" (Flaws: Removable) [23]
"Spiked Cleats" Movement 2 (Wall-Crawling, Sure-Footed) (4)
"Dart-Launchers" Affliction 8 (Fort; Dazed/Stunned/Incapacitated) (Extras: Ranged, Cumulative) (24)
  • AE: "Electro-Shock Gauntlets" Damage 7 (7)
-- (28 points)

"Energy Spear" (Flaws: Easily Removable) [11]
Blast 8 (16) -- (17 points)
  • AE: "Spear-Stab" Strength-Damage +1 (Feats: Reach 2) (3)
Equipment:
"Knife" Strength-Damage +1 (Feats: Improved Critical) (2)
"Rifle" Blast 6 (12)
"Pistol" Blast 5 (10)
"Shuriken" Blast 2 (Extras: Multiattack) (5)
"Blowgun" Affliction 8 (Fort; Dazed/Stunned/Incapacitated) (Extras: Ranged, Cumulative) (Diminished Range -2) (22)

Offense:
Unarmed +9 (+7 Damage, DC 22)
Knife/Spear +8 (+8 Damage, DC 23)
Pistol/Rifle +10 (+5-6 Ranged Damage, DC 20-21)
Shuriken +10 (+2 Ranged Damage, DC 17)
Blowgun/Dart-Launchers +8 (+8 Ranged Affliction, DC 18)
Initiative +6

Defenses:
Dodge +10 (DC 20), Parry +10 (DC 20), Toughness +7, Fortitude +7, Will +4

Complications:
Motivation (The Hunt)- Vladimir is like his father- an avid hunter.
Power Loss (Darts)- Darts can only injure someone if they can penetrate their hide. Someone with any degree of Impervious Toughness, or even a hide/suit thick enough to stop a dart, would be unaffected.

Total: Abilities: 70 / Skills: 46--23 / Advantages: 17 / Powers: 46 / Defenses: 7 (163)

-The first of many attempts to give Kraven a Legacy Character (second, if you include Calypso), Vladimir is the son of The Hunter, and was raised with wealth and luxury in Russia, trained personally by his father. Appearing as "The Grim Hunter", he decided to hunt down Spider-Man and several of his foes, and even teamed up with Jason Macendale (giving him Kraven's Super-Strength Formula). He only fights Spider-Man the one time- the next time he appears, he is killed by Kaine, an insane clone of Peter Parker, and act that even the Appendix to the Official Handbook states was a good move, as we'd seen all there was to see with this new character after his first fight with Spider-Man. Howard Mackie was... NOT one of the better Spider-writers.

-He is resurrected by his mother Sasha during the same storyline in which Kraven reappears- Mattie Franklin (a garbage '90s character) is sacrificed to bring him back. He returns as a humanoid Lion Monster because Mattie "was not pure spider", but teams up with his siblings in attacking various Spider-people and abducting them. At the end of the storyline, Kraven kills Sasha, and "euthanizes" Vladimir, out of "respect for the dead", finding no honor in resurrection spells.

-Vladimir is basically a wussier version of Kraven, but packs a lot of extra gear, including redundancies considering he has an Energy Spear, plus Knives, Guns, Dart-Launchers, a Blowgun, Shuriken and more. He's only PL 8 as he was a one-off foe who never really ended up anywhere. As a Lion-Man, he drops all the gear and carries around a big Stone Axe, but is still PL 8.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Wed Feb 16, 2022 5:30 am, edited 1 time in total.
Jabroniville
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Kraven (Alyosha)

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

KRAVEN THE HUNTER II (Alyosha Kravinoff)
Created By:
J.M. DeMatteis & Luke Ross
First Appearance: The Spectacular Spider-Man #243 (Feb. 1997)
Role: Failed Legacy Villain
Villain Ranking: E-List
Group Affiliations: The Kravinoffs
PL 8 (161), PL 10 (161) to Animals
STRENGTH
7 STAMINA 7 AGILITY 6
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 0 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 3

Skills:
Acrobatics 5 (+11)
Athletics 6 (+13)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 1 (+9)
Deception 2 (+5)
Expertise (Hunter) 8 (+8)
Intimidation 3 (+6)
Perception 9 (+11)
Persuasion 3 (+6)
Sleight of Hand 4 (+8)
Stealth 5 (+11)

Advantages: 
Animal Empathy, Chokehold, Equipment 4 (Gear), Fast Grab, Great Endurance, Improved Critical (Unarmed), Power Attack, Ranged Attack 4, Tracking

Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Animalistic Super-Physiology"
Leaping 2 (30 feet) [2]
Speed 4 (30 mph) [4]
Immunity 2 (Aging, Poison) (Flaws: Limited to Half-Effect) [1]
"Animal-Like Senses" Senses 5 (Low-Light & Extended Vision, Extended Hearing & Scent, Acute Scent) [5]

"Animal Control" Mind Control 10 (Flaws: Limited to Animals) [30]

Equipment:
"Knife/Axe/Spear/etc." Strength-Damage +1 (Feats: Improved Critical, Reach on Some) (2)
"Poisons" (2)
"Lion Vest" Blast 8 (16)

Offense:
Unarmed +9 (+7 Damage, DC 22)
Weapons +8 (+8 Damage, DC 23)
Electro-Shock Vest +8 (+8 Ranged Damage, DC 23)
Initiative +6

Defenses:
Dodge +10 (DC 20), Parry +10 (DC 20), Toughness +7, Fortitude +7, Will +4

Complications:
Motivation (The Hunt)- Alyosha is like his father, an avid hunter.

Total: Abilities: 74 / Skills: 46--23 / Advantages: 15 / Powers: 42 / Defenses: 7 (161)

-Another Newly-Discovered Son of Kraven's, Alyosha was created by the man who offed the villain in the first place, J.M. DeMatteis. An illegitimate, Mutant son, he was raised in the African jungle, and came to New York to investigate his father. He teamed up with The Chameleon (Kraven's half-brother), and was seduced by Calypso (WEIIIIIIIIRRRRRRDDDD- she nailed his DAD!), and then attacked Spider-Man. Alyosha & Spider-Man were drugged by Calypso and made to fight, but he responded by murdering her. And then... he kind of got a bit screwy.

-With a new Kraven the Hunter around, Marvel suddenly had a brand NEW Jobber Villain to trot around to all the Animal-Themed characters- he fought The Black Panther, hunted the Fantastic Four's giant Puppy, and joined The Sinister Six, being beaten each time. In short, he had become a Journeyman Jobber Villain. He then attempted to become a Hollywood-type character in a comedy series (though apparently it dealt with things like brutal rape), fought another Kraven child in Ned Tannengarden (who was later killed by The Chameleon), and quit Hollywood to become a superhero.

-But that was ignored, as he went nuts from experimenting with his father's potions, then captured over a dozen Animal-themed characters (Bushmaster II, Tiger Shark, Kangaroo II, Aragorn the Flying Horse, The Vulture, Mongoose, Man-Bull, Dragon Man, Gargoyle II, Swarm, Mandrill, Grizzly III, Frog-Man & The Rhino), keeping them all in a zoo before they were freed by The Punisher. This makes Kraven II a guy you'll read about a lot researching Jobber Villains, as each one of them seems to have the "captured by Alyosha Kraven and thrown into a zoo" bit added in to their modern history.

-Alyosha aids his family in resurrecting Kraven, but is mostly a side-character, and mattered little to the overall story. So in short, Alyosha is a big failure of a Legacy Character, turned into a Jobber almost within a YEAR of his creation, then basically trotted around to job to almost everyone else. It's the kind of thing that makes you wonder- is it just impossible for certain guys to escape the siren song of Jobberhood? 
Last edited by Jabroniville on Wed Feb 16, 2022 5:31 am, edited 1 time in total.
RainOnTheSun
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Goblins! The Lizard! Mysterio! Dr. Octopus!)

Post by RainOnTheSun »

I feel like there's a huge opportunity being missed in not hooking Other Doctor Octopus and Stunner and their crazy "solid VR" tech up with Mysterio.

"Oh, Otto doesn't want our help anymore? Well, maybe we'll find somebody ELSE to work for."

You could even get a fun little Octopus-Mysterio war out of it.
Jabroniville
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Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Re: Jab's Builds! (Goblins! The Lizard! Mysterio! Dr. Octopus!)

Post by Jabroniville »

So I'm FINALLY back in town now- I gotta start taking shorter vacations :). Europe was fun, though Paris gives off the impression that it's absolutely full of criminals with warnings of pickpockets EVERYWHERE. And OF COURSE my checked bag didn't make it back with me- they told me it'd be there the whole way, but then the girl says "you were probably supposed to pick it up in Calgary". It's a huge inconvenience to lose ALL my toiletries at once, AND that's where I put my Wicked program that I got signed by most of the cast- they better goddamn well have it back here quickly. Remind me NEVER to check bags ever again. I know long-time travelers recommend that for a reason.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24690
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Ana Kravenova

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

KRAVEN THE HUNTER III (Anastasia "Ana" Kravinova)
Created By:
Marc Guggenheim, Joe Kelly, Mike McKone & Phil Jiminez
First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #565 (Sept. 2008)
Role: Legacy Villain, Pint-Sized Killer
Villain Ranking: D-List
Group Affiliations: The Kravinoffs
PL 9 (148)
STRENGTH
6 STAMINA 6 AGILITY 6
FIGHTING 10 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 4 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Acrobatics 6 (+12)
Athletics 7 (+13)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 2 (+12)
Deception 2 (+4)
Expertise (Hunter) 6 (+10)
Expertise (Science) 6 (+10)
Intimidation 2 (+4)
Perception 9 (+12)
Sleight of Hand 4 (+8)
Stealth 6 (+12)

Advantages:
Accurate Attack, Animal Empathy, Chokehold, Equipment 6 (Gear), Fast Grab, Great Endurance, Improved Critical (Unarmed), Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 6, Tracking

Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Animalistic Super-Physiology"
Leaping 2 (30 feet) [2]
Speed 4 (30 mph) [4]
Immunity 2 (Aging, Poison) (Flaws: Limited to Half-Effect) [1]
"Animal-Like Senses" Senses 5 (Low-Light & Extended Vision, Extended Hearing & Scent, Acute Scent) [5]

Equipment:
"Knife/Axe/Spear/etc." Strength-Damage +1 (Feats: Improved Critical, Reach on Some) (2)
"Rifle" Blast 6 (12)
"Pistol" Blast 5 (10)
"Shuriken" Blast 2 (Extras: Multiattack) (5)
"Blowgun" Affliction 8 (Fort; Dazed/Stunned/Incapacitated) (Extras: Ranged, Cumulative) (Diminished Range -2) (22)
"Boomerang" Blast 4 (Feats: Ricochet 2, Homing) (11)

Offense:
Unarmed +12 (+6 Damage, DC 21)
Knife/Spear +10 (+8 Damage, DC 23)
Pistol/Rifle +10 (+5-6 Ranged Damage, DC 20-21)
Shuriken +10 (+2 Ranged Damage, DC 17)
Blowgun +8 (+8 Ranged Affliction, DC 18)
Initiative +6

Defenses:
Dodge +12 (DC 22), Parry +12 (DC 22), Toughness +6, Fortitude +7, Will +4

Complications:
Motivation (The Hunt)- Ana is like her father, an avid hunter.

Total: Abilities: 80 / Skills: 50--25 / Advantages: 21 / Powers: 12 / Defenses: 10 (148)

-Because WOULDN'T YOU KNOW, Kraven just happened to have a FOURTH child running around somewhere, here's Ana Kravenova (Russians have different last names for men and women, apparently), a 12-year old girl who's really Daddy's Little Sociopath. She and her mother Sasha form the "Grim Hunt" to attack Spider-Man and other spider-powered people in order to return Kraven the Hunter to life. She seems to have a lot of potential at first, but once there's about four members of the Kravenoff family running around, it kind of neutralizes her, and she becomes a bit of an "extra" in most scenes. She hasn't really done much but aid her resurrected father, all in all, though the secondary Inhumans title managed to have her as one of many background characters to suddenly reveal Inhuman ancestry, as she picks up some mostly-unexplored "green tendrils", and gets hired to help some Inhuman newbies out, while struggling with her newfound identity.

-Ana is smarter than her siblings, and is effectively a spritelier version of her father, carrying a wide variety of weaponry, and being focused around laying traps and planning ahead. This makes her the second-most-dangerous member of her family, despite lacking Vladimir's versatile weapons array, or Alyosha's Animal Control power.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Wed Feb 16, 2022 5:31 am, edited 1 time in total.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24690
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Re: Jab's Builds! (Goblins! The Lizard! Mysterio! Dr. Octopus!)

Post by Jabroniville »

KorokoMystia wrote: Sun May 21, 2017 3:54 pm Kraven's a pretty fun villain, even though the whole "Great White Hunter/Hunting The Most Dangerous Game" thing is pretty common in fiction.

Also, at some point after you come back, could you try converting your Power Ranger Template build to 3rd edtion? I'm curious, since there's that Power Rangers/Justice League crossover comic (Which, while interesting, is pretty ridiculous..I mean, the Power Rangers are strong, but there's no way they could take on the stronger JLA members like Supes, even with teamwork. The Megazord, maybe, but Superman is good at taking out giant robots. It's just a thing you have to forget about during crossovers, I suppose. Power Creep and all.)
Conversions are usually pretty easy. Though I don't want to break up my "Spider-Man" builds chain- it's annoying to look at my original thread and see builds just popping up all over the place indiscriminately. Did you ever clear out your e-mails? I could send one to you that way. The PM system here just doesn't allow large messages.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24690
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Vermin

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

VERMIN (Edward Whelan)
Created By:
J.M. DeMatteis & Mike Zeck
First Appearance: Captain America #272 (Aug. 1982)
Role: Generic Animalistic Villain, Background Guy, Minion
Villain Ranking: D-List
Group Affiliations: N/A
PL 9 (128)
STRENGTH
6 STAMINA 6 AGILITY 5
FIGHTING 11 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE -3 AWARENESS 0 PRESENCE -2

Skills:
Acrobatics 2 (+7)
Athletics 3 (+10)
Expertise (Survival) 9 (+9)
Intimidation 8 (+6)
Perception 8 (+8)
Sleight of Hand 5 (+5)
Stealth 5 (+10)

Advantages:
All-Out Attack, Chokehold, Daze (Intimidation), Diehard, Great Endurance, Hide in Plain Sight, Improved Critical (Bite), Improved Grab, Improved Iniative 2, Power Attack, Startle, Uncanny Dodge

Powers:
"Rat-Like Physiology"
"Animal Senses" Senses 4 (Acute & Extended Scent, Low-Light Vision, Tracking- Scent) [4]
"Razor-Sharp Teeth" Strength-Damage +1 [1]
Leaping 1 [1]

"Change Forms At-Will" Morph 1 (Ed Whelan) (Extras: Metamorph) [6]

"Control Vermin" Affliction 2 (Will; Dazed/Compelled/Controlled) (Extras: Area- 2-miles +10, Concentration) (Flaws: Limited to Rodents & Stray Dogs) [22]

Offense:
Unarmed +11 (+6 Damage, DC 21)
Bite +11 (+7 Damage, DC 22)
Vermin Control +2 Area (+2 Affliction, DC 12)
Initiative +13

Defenses:
Dodge +12 (DC 22), Parry +12 (DC 12), Toughness +6, Fortitude +8, Will +3

Complications:
Motivation (Hunger)
Enemy (Spider-Man)
Responsibility (Unwanted Powers)- Whelan considers his Vermin transformations (forced upon him by Arnim Zola) to be a curse.

Total: Abilities: 48 / Skills: 40--20 / Advantages: 13 / Powers: 34 / Defenses: 13 (128)

-Vermin is a weird character in the Spidey mythos, in that he's generally the minion of other, BETTER, villains, meant to hunt and harass Spider-Man. He actually debuted in Captain America's book, but he quickly became a Spidey Rogue when J.M. DeMatteis, his creator, came over to the Spidey books (this happens a lot with minor villains- doing my thread, I've found this dozens of times, where a writer shops his villain to each new book he works on, in an attempt to make them more popular). He's a generic "Animal Guy", with the unimpressive name and power-set of a giant rat, but he nonetheless has given Spidey major problems in the past, often defeating him or leaving him badly hurt. Despite this, he was gone for most of the '90s, and I don't think I'd ever read a book with him in it until about 2011. He'd been mostly-cured of his curse thanks to psychiatric care in the Cap book... and it's mostly-forgotten, as he would reappear in several modern books as a generic Background Villain (probably because he's distinctive enough to have some name value, not exposed as a jobber, and yet the writers don't care about a minor Spidey Rogue, making him an ideal one-off foe).

-More to the point, Vermin used to be pretty dangerous, but has been so devalued by jobbing and lack of focus that he's full-bore Jobber by this point- a key victim of what I call "The Problem With Jobbin'". See, it was actually a plot point that Spider-Man had never beaten him fairly before (he'd once teamed up with Cap to do it), and Kraven the Hunter made his capture of Vermin the proof that he'd surpassed Spider-Man, allowing him to commit suicide with his mission accomplished. But by the modern era, he was just "one of those guys" who showed up in mass-villain scenes. As "Rat Man" really fails to stand out in a Rogues Gallery that consists of an Octopus, Squid, Scorpion, Vulture(s), Rhinoceros, and more; so there's little reason for the writers to be defensive of him when other writers just use him as some background loser. It got so bad that in one Avengers Academy book, he's beaten OFF-PANEL by Tigra, who simply jokes "Cat versus Mouse- what do you think?" And yet, in a LATER story, he's shown getting a near-win over SPIDER-MAN, who is WAY better at fighting than Tigra ever was!

-Vermin's a PL 9 with some options, namely All-Out & Power Attack, making him quite dangerous. Sometimes he comes off like a PL 10 (especially in his early days fighting Spider-Man to a standstill), but fits in around PL 8 during his "Background Villain" phase, so I evened it out and made him a PL 9 who occasionally rolls well. His Control Vermin power is EXTREMELY wide-ranged, but so limited that this side-concept really doesn't add up to that much. He can summon entire swarms or rats (or even PL 3 stray dogs), which is scary and a pain, though. He also can switch freely between Vermin & Ed Whelan (... wait. The announcer for Stampede Wrestling & the Calgary Stampeders is a super-villain?) forms at-will, giving him the Morph power. Whelan isn't a powerhouse, basically ST 0, STA 0, AGI 0, FIGHT 0, INT 4, PRE 0, with 10 ranks in Science.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Wed Feb 16, 2022 5:31 am, edited 1 time in total.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24690
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Re: Jab's Builds! (Goblins! The Lizard! Mysterio! Dr. Octopus!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Glad everyone dug the Octopus build- he's one of the trickier guys to stat up "correctly", as the Limbs sometimes act as sentient minions, and he's not a good fighter normally. But he's one of the few Spidey threats that is routinely able to beat him in one-on-one combat- something Norman Osborn never managed.
Jabroniville
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Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Re: Jab's Builds! (Tombstone! The Enforcers! The Chameleon! Electro!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Ares wrote: Mon May 15, 2017 4:22 am Boomerang is actually kind of interesting, because when he was introduced, he was actually a pretty credible villain. While Captain Boomerang came first, Boomerang took the schtick of a boomerang gimmick weapon user and added jet boots to the concept, which is actually a stroke of genius. I mean, as ranged weapons go, Boomerangs are perfect comic book gimmick weapons, since you could put everything you'd put on Hawkeye or Green Arrow's arrows on it, but the boomerang also can do all of these weird arcs, can return, etc. It amazes me that it took Robert Kirkman to have a heroic boomerang gimmick user. Now taking that concept and giving them the ability to FLY, thus ensuring that they have a shot at maintaining their range advantage? That's bloody brilliant.

And Boomerang really was a legit threat for the longest time, but he vanished for a while during the Clone Saga mess, and after that, he was one of the lower tier Spider-Man villains who came back just to be jobbed, and he sort of settled into jobber territory thereafter. I will say that the new outfit is a definite plus, tho. Did the new get up include the flight boots? For some reason I don't think I've ever seen that version of the character fly.
Yeah, I think the flight boots disappeared. Which is too bad- that is a kind of odd thing about comics. Flight is SO EASY to get, yet almost nobody ever puts two and two together, and starts sticking flight harnesses and flight boots onto other concepts.
Speed Demon is a weird one, though his outfit and name were incredible upgrades over his old one. He of all of them was a legit menace, but it's also not surprising they'd make him a joke for the sake of comedy. It's one reason I don't really care for the last Power Man/Iron Fist series, as that book basically made Danny into a complete buffoon. So seeing Sands
Looks like you missed something in your cut & paste there. But yeah, Speed Demon & Mach-whatever being reduced to jokes in the series were one of the only negatives about it. Spencer's so great otherwise that I bet he'd do WONDERS if he was ever given carte blanche to do whatever he... wait a minute.
Overdrive is kind of interesting as someone who wants to be a hero, but decided to Hawkeye it to have a better shot at it. It'd be interesting to have a superhero actually sit down and talk to him about that and how messed up that actually is. Because it means that, instead of trying to help people, he's trying to be a criminal as a shortcut to Avengers membership. Which says he's really more about the shallow idea of a superhero than actual heroics, more like someone who wants to be a celebrity in our world by accident.
Yeah, it kind of made him a perfect doofus- attempting to be a superhero for a completely shallow reason, and being "genre-savvy", but not in the right kind of way. It's more clever than the usual "genre-savvy" character, because instead of being all "HO HO villains are always turning good!", he's taken completely the wrong lesson from it, and gone off-kilter in this weird way.
As for the Shocker, I'm going to have to disagree with Jab here. Even more than Electro, I think Shocker is the perfect "standard super criminal" in Marvel. Why? Because he can be anything the writer wants, and it's believable. At the end of the day, the Shocker is an average guy who developed a talent for crime, and was smart enough to build a suit that is actually pretty cool, in terms of powers if not style. He then got a taste for super-crime, but overall he's a mostly normal guy whose confidence is frequently rattled, but never truly broken. He can pull it together and be a real professional, but too many bad encounters can make him a sad sack of self-pity, moping and convinced he's a loser, only to get his shit together again and be a legit threat. We all probably know people like that, who take setbacks very personally and can really screw with their confidence.

So you can have him get his act together and be a credible criminal threat, or you can have him going through a bad spot, and be the jobber you need. The Shocker is a perfect villain because he can be a legit threat and a total jobber and it CONTRADICTS NOTHING. He's the perfect "standard" super criminal, flexible enough for any story.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

I think his status as "the ultimate Jobber Villain" makes him just as perfect for the kind of stuff you're talking about, though. It makes his occasional bouts of victory all the more beautiful, like when he saves the Dons of New York from the Punisher, or finally lashes out and beats the snot out of Spider-Man in The Deadly Foes.
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HalloweenJack
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Re: Calypso

Post by HalloweenJack »

Jabroniville wrote: Mon May 22, 2017 12:46 am Image



-Also, she dresses in one of the skimpiest costumes in comic book history- she'd probably be a lot more well-known if she wasn't a fifth-tier Spidey foe. Young Jab never even picked up on how much skin she was showing... only reason I can think of is that Young Jab wasn't into black chicks, maybe.
It's fascinating because I think it was Calypso that got a young Jack into black chicks
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Goblins! The Lizard! Mysterio! Dr. Octopus!)

Post by Jabroniville »

PS having seen Wicked on the West End, and liking it so much that I decided to spend the money on a SECOND ticket, I'm totally re-posting my Wicked builds after the Spider-set has ended.

For those unawares, THIS is how good Wilhelmijn Verkaik is as Elphaba (this performance is a few days after the one I saw): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ4CdOCc_hU

This is her Vlog with her co-stars- though this Nessarose was sick, that's the Glinda I saw. Cute Australian woman- when I complimented her on the faces she was making during No One Mourns the Wicked (she acts like Wicked Witch deserved it, but every time OTHERS are singing, you can see her actively MOURNING THE WICKED- the sign of a great actor is what they're doing when it's NOT their turn to speak), she was like "Oh, THAWNK you- I'm so glawd that reads!" PS Aussie Accents are hot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHFnRcIQyhs

Also, Kara Lindsay, the best Glinda I've ever seen, doing For Good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5yPmRi4e7I
Jabroniville
Posts: 24690
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Jean DeWolff

Post by Jabroniville »

Image
Image

CAPTAIN JEAN DeWOLFF
Created By:
Bill Mantlo & Sal Buscema
First Appearance: Marvel Team-Up #48 (Aug. 1976)
Role: Police Helper
Supporting Cast Ranking: C-Level
Group Affiliations: The NYPD
PL 7 (67)
STRENGTH
1 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 2
FIGHTING 4 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Athletics 3 (+4)
Deception 3 (+5)
Expertise (Police Officer) 7 (+9)
Insight 3 (+6)
Investigation 7 (+10)
Perception 2 (+5)
Treatment 1 (+3)
Vehicles 2 (+6)

Advantages:
Equipment 2 (Police Revolver +5), Ranged Attack 4

Offense:
Unarmed +4 (+1 Damage, DC 16)
Revolver +8 (+5 Ranged Damage, DC 20)
Initiative +2

Defenses:
Dodge +5 (DC 15), Parry +5 (DC 15), Toughness +3, Fortitude +3, Will +5

Complications:
Relationship (Brian DeWolff)- Brian goes insane when Jean is murdered, becoming The Wraith.
Relationship (Spider-Man)- Jean appreciates the Wall-Crawler's help in certain hairy situations, and is his strongest supporter on the NYPD. There is strong evidence (from a collection of Spidey pictures she has) that her admiration runs a little deeper than mere "appreciation", too.

Total: Abilities: 42 / Skills: 28--14 / Advantages: 6 / Powers: 0 / Defenses: 5 (67)

Jean DeWolff- The Lost Supporting Cast Member:
-Captain Jean DeWolff is another character I only know as a "Dead Person" from the backstory, but unlike Gwen Stacy, she isn't even REFENCED in any stories these days. Created for Marvel Team-Up of all places, she plays that sometimes-necessary role as "The Police Contact"- like Batman's Comissioner Gordon, she's there to lead the hero in the right direction; to help him find out what's currently going on or something like that. She'd only show up once or twice a year, though- she wasn't like a Major Supporting Cast character or any of that. She was portrayed as a bit of a hard-nosed, sarcastic woman with maybe a chip on her shoulder, but was one of Spidey's strongest supporters in a world where most of the general public doesn't trust him. She also had an interesting look, being given a weird hat and a penchant for smoking like a Noir tale's Femme Fatale- little things like that, in a visual medium like comics, REALLY set a Supporting Character apart from the sometimes-meaningless horde of "These are the hero's friends" types. It's actually a trick recommended in writing courses as well- giving characters visual "quirks" that instantly make them stand out from Generic Background Guy (I think that's why so many of Superman's supporting characters are considered so boring/forgettable- Jimmy Olsen's got the bowtie, and Lois is LOIS, but Perry White is just some old dude, and Cat Grant is just some chick).

The Death of Jean DeWolff:
-Alas, she was murdered by The Sin-Eater in a very well-remembered Peter David storyline Who Killed Jean DeWolff?- one of the top Spidey tales of the '80s. In the Introduction for the collected Trade, David explains that fans were very dejected (and still are), saying he removed an excellent supporting character with tons of potential... to which he agreed! He basically says that was the POINT of the thing- to make it a really horrible tragedy that took someone very interesting away- if she HAD no potential, then the death would ring hollow and not be that big of a deal. And yeah, he's very right- nobody would have given a rat's ass if the story was called Who Killed Liz Allan?. Though he confesses the whole storyline was assigned to him by Jim Owsley (the future Christopher Priest), his Editor. Same as him famously turning the Hulk back to gray was actually done by AL MILGROM, not him.

-HOWEVER, while it keeps the tragedy of the story active, it also kept on with something that's a recurring thorn in the Spider-Books- a dwindling supporting cast. It became a lot more noticeable when even MORE characters died or left in the 1990s (Aunt May, Harry Osborn), but Spidey's supporters tend to shrink and shrink as time goes on, either dying or turning into super-villains. It really weakens the book, as this cast is almost as important as the VILLAINS sometimes. So for all the good the story did (by being a good story), it also hurt the Spider-books as well. David "took away a toy from the sandbox", so to speak- something that all comic book writers should be hesitant to do, as ALL writers in comics have to use the same one. I'm not saying he SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE IT... I'm just saying it's something to think about.

-The story itself is VERY good. It's got some great character bits, especially when Matt Murdock/Daredevil gets involved. It deals with the nature of the law (Matt hates the fact that he's defending brutal punks; an old mentor tells him he needs some "guts", and that lawyers HAVE to sometimes defend people who are rotten, as everyone is equal under the law) and the tragedy of an early passing. Peter is a LOT angrier than he ususally is, practically seething with intensity even in his regular identity (David explained that he wanted to make Pete more realistic, and showcase how a real fight would go in his mind- in real life, nobody just stops throwing punches when the guy's down- they usually have to be dragged off). J. Jonah Jameson gets a thoughtful moment where he mourns a woman he never liked, and even admits that he wouldn't wish a fate like that on SPIDER-MAN! Though some parts of it are a bit odd, like the revelation of the Sin-Eater's identity (more on that later), and features Daredevil nearly-handily taking Spider-Man out in a fight because Spidey's too enraged to fight properly. Like, I GET that he's a bit careless in his fury (and DD admits that he'd stand no chance otherwise), but this is a guy who's readily-known for going into Aunt May Mode and straight-up ANNIHILATING people when he gets pissed off! And DAREDEVIL can take him out? Also, The Sin-Eater takes out both Daredevil & Spidey relatively-handily considering they're both pros.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Wed Feb 16, 2022 5:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
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