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

Where in all of your character write ups will go.
Jabroniville
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Bushmaster (John McIver)

Post by Jabroniville »

Image
Image

I can't tell if they're going for "Freakish musculature" or it's just a '90s comic and that's supposed to look normal.

BUSHMASTER I (John McIver, aka Power Master)
Created By:
Chris Claremont, John Byrne & Dan Green
First Appearance: Iron Fist #12 (Sept. 1977)
Role: Crime Lord
Group Affiliation: None
PL 9 (117)
STRENGTH
3/10 STAMINA 3/8 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 3 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 3

Skills:
Athletics 1 (+4, +11)
Deception 3 (+6)
Expertise (Criminal) 5 (+8)
Insight 2 (+5)
Intimidation 3 (+6)
Perception 2 (+5)

Advantages:
Beneft 2 (Crime Boss), Fast Grab, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 2

Powers:
"Cage's Empowerment"
Enhanced Strength 6 [12]
Enhanced Stamina 5 [10]
Protection 2 (Extras: Impervious 11) [13]
Power-Lifting 1 (50 tons) [1]

Offense:
Unarmed +8 (+10 Damage, DC 25)
Initiative +3

Defenses:
Dodge +8 (DC 18), Parry +8 (DC 18), Toughness +10 (+6 Impervious), Fortitude +8, Will +5

Complications:
Motivation (Greed)
Enemy (Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Misty Knight)- Bushmaster in particular resents Misty because she went undercover as his girlfriend.

Total: Abilities: 60 / Skills: 16--8 / Advantages: 6 / Powers: 36 / Defenses: 7 (117)

-The first Bushmaster is a gang lord who moved up through the ranks after growing up in abject poverty with his brother Quincy (who became the Bushmaster of The Serpent Society). Working for a crimelord named Herve Argosy, he opposed Cage, Iron Fist & Misty Knight, generally acting from behind the scenes. His acts included sending Shades & Comanche after them, and hating Misty in particular because she was going undercover as his girlfriend, then beat him into telling her where a hit on Iron Fist was taking place.

-He eventually gained an extreme version of the augmentation that Luke Cage received, becoming even MORE powerful- he was thought-killed in an explosion. His body slowly becoming immobile, he tried to force Dr. Burnstein (who'd empowered both he and Cage) into curing him, but his form crumbled to metallic dust before he could act out his threat to kill Burnstein's daughter. His son Cruz Bushmaster appeared in more modern times, placing Cage and his father's remains in a chamber to give Cage the negative effects of the "Power Man Process" that killed his father- this ended up reviving John, who took over Cruz's body. Now going by the name Power Master, he fought Luke Cage & Iron Fist, nearly beating him until they stuck him with a power cable- his absorption powers went out of control, causing him to explode.

-Bushmaster appears in the second season of the Netflix Luke Cage series, as a primary antagonist who engages in a war with Black Mariah.

-Bushmaster ended up as a PL 9 Powerhouse, and apparently had some kind of a Drain-based power that resulted in his death.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Thu Jul 07, 2022 7:53 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Tai Cheetah, Foxy Roxy, Dali Llama! Luke Cage!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Posting these builds is interesting, because the last time I posted Luke-related builds (about 3-ish years ago; less time than I usually spend before re-posting), there was no Netflix TV show. This means that most of these guys now have additional appearances thanks to making comebacks due to the show (There was no way Stryker was staying dead after being the primary antagonist of the Netflix series, for instance).
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Tai Cheetah, Foxy Roxy, Dali Llama! Luke Cage!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Batgirl III wrote: Sun Jul 15, 2018 6:49 pm Green Goblin and the Joker also suffer from being seriously overused. If they only showed up much more rarely (like they did for most of the Silver and Bronze Ages) then it wouldn’t seem like the Batman and Spider-Man were being callously indifferent to their crimes’ victims. But when they pop up every other storyline...? It gets ridiculous.
It's why I've long argued that "Insane Spree-Killer Joker" is the worst option they could have used for the guy. It makes everyone look SO STUPID for allowing this to continue. The Animated Series, as always, did it best- The Joker killed people, and threatened others... but he was also out to steal. And he was USUALLY FOILED. Hell, that episode where he stalked that poor schmuck for years made him seem ABSOLUTELY TERRIFYING, yet also extremely entertaining. He was intelligent, resourceful, conniving, and dangerous... but he was still foiled in the end, and then his victim HUMILIATED HIM. F*CKING BATMAN laughed! BATMAN!!
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Tai Cheetah, Foxy Roxy, Dali Llama! Luke Cage!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Ares wrote: Sun Jul 15, 2018 5:21 pm I honestly can't blame Peter for this. I blame the writers for bringing Norman back to life and then continue to put Peter in those situations. Peter was a hero who goes to Batman-like lengths not to kill. Peter let one person die due to his inaction. He refuses to let anyone else die the same way, no matter how horrible that person might be. That kind of restraint should be admirable.

That the Green Goblin died by his own hands was poetic justice. That the writers continue to let Norman go unpunished by this point is a travesty. It's much the same issue with the Joker: him and the Goblin only work if the heroes prevent them from killing anyone 99% of the time. That these two people could rack up body counts without being executed for their crimes makes the legal system of the comics universes look ridiculous. It's one reason why I prefer animated versions of superheroes to a lot of their current comic counterparts.
Norman Osborn as "Evil Top-Level Government Guy" was terrific for the injustice of it all, especially as you could still see his sanity slowly unravel in books like Thunderbolts. BUT... they went nowhere with it, and then he just kept going. Dude should have been comatose, dead, or utterly broken by the end of it, but he was back within a couple of years.
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KorokoMystia
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Tai Cheetah, Foxy Roxy, Dali Llama! Luke Cage!)

Post by KorokoMystia »

I once got one of the 90s Cage comics when I bought a bunch of comics that were on sale for cheap..something like a deal of 5 comics for a low price or something. (probably all from the 90s) I got an Aquaman issue which had Aquaman's father in it (I think?), a 90s Cage issue, a Superman issue with Parasite in it, and I don't remember what else.
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Batgirl III
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Tai Cheetah, Foxy Roxy, Dali Llama! Luke Cage!)

Post by Batgirl III »

The Joker should be a murderer, obviously, but he shouldn't be an indiscriminate mass murderer. He should have very specific reasons for killing the people he does, even if that reasoning only makes sense to him and to the Batman once he begins to investigate it. This would give the Batman a chance to actually show off his detective skills (remember when he was a detective?), give the Joker a chance to be a story-arch length villain, and keep him scary. The Joker should be written like Hannibal Lecter, not Jason Voorhees.
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HalloweenJack
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Tai Cheetah, Foxy Roxy, Dali Llama! Luke Cage!)

Post by HalloweenJack »

Bushmaster becoming slowly immobile? That's sort of reminding me of that huge guy in the Power Broker story
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HalloweenJack
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Tai Cheetah, Foxy Roxy, Dali Llama! Luke Cage!)

Post by HalloweenJack »

likewise I can only recall ever having two Luke Cage comics


One was actually a reprint in Sabretooth Classics that had Luke and Danny taking on Creed and the Constrictor, which was actually pretty cool.

The other was from the 90s series and I admittedly only got that because the Hulk was guest starring in it, though it did have some nice moments in it like when Luke and the Hulk were fighting, Luke throwing out that he liked the Hulk better back when he was stupid and said "C'mon man, it's me 'Fuzzy Hair' remember?"
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KorokoMystia
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Tai Cheetah, Foxy Roxy, Dali Llama! Luke Cage!)

Post by KorokoMystia »

The talk of the Joker and kiling reminds me of a certain image:
Image
greycrusader
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Tai Cheetah, Foxy Roxy, Dali Llama! Luke Cage!)

Post by greycrusader »

What story is that from? I like it a lot.
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Batgirl III
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Tai Cheetah, Foxy Roxy, Dali Llama! Luke Cage!)

Post by Batgirl III »

Its from Neil Gaiman's "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?" from Batman (Vol. 1) #686 and Detective Comics (Vol. 1) #853 back in 2009, although it's been collected in the single volume trade paperback as Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?

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Jabroniville
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Cornell Cottonmouth

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

COTTONMOUTH (Cornell Stokes)
Created By:
Bill Mantlo & George Tuska
First Appearance: Power Man #18 (June 1974)
Role: Crimeboss
PL 7 (87)
STRENGTH
7 STAMINA 7 AGILITY 2
FIGHTING 7 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Deception 4 (+6)
Expertise (Criminal) 5 (+7)
Intimidation 4 (+6)
Perception 1 (+4)

Advantages: 
Benefit (Wealth), Improved Critical (Teeth), Ranged Attack 2

Powers:
"Metal Teeth" Strength-Damage +1 (Extras: Penetrating 3) (Inaccurate -1) [3]

Offense:
Unarmed +7 (+7 Damage, DC 22)
Metal Teeth +5 (+8 Damage, DC 23)
Initiative +2

Defenses:
Dodge +7 (DC 17), Parry +7 (DC 17), Toughness +7, Fortitude +7, Will +3

Complications:
Motivation (Greed)- Cottonmouth is a drug dealer.

Total: Abilities: 68 / Skills: 14--7 / Advantages: 4 / Powers: 3 / Defenses: 5 (87)

-Cottonmouth here (unrelated to the Serpent Society member Cottonmouth) is one of Luke's three snake-themed nemeses- a Crimeboss who attempted to hire a rookie Cage to work for him. Luke pretended to go along with it in order to find some information about other gangsters in town, and beat Cottonmouth down. This was the last he was seen until MODERN times, in Shadowland, where he was a member of Nightshade's gang The Rivals- Power Man II breaks his metal teeth, and some gold-capped teeth fare no better. He shows up a few more times in background appearances, typically as part of the "non-speaking hordes", but later joins Alex Wilder's new "Pride". Like many other of Cage's early foes, he shows up in the Netflix series.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Tue Jun 14, 2022 9:31 am, edited 1 time in total.
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Tai Cheetah, Foxy Roxy, Dali Llama! Luke Cage!)

Post by Jabroniville »

HalloweenJack wrote: Sun Jul 15, 2018 11:09 pm Bushmaster becoming slowly immobile? That's sort of reminding me of that huge guy in the Power Broker story
Yeah, it was almost the exact same idea. The latter was Mark Gruenwald, and seems to be set earlier, I think, judging by the art in the Bushmaster story.
greycrusader
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Tai Cheetah, Foxy Roxy, Dali Llama! Luke Cage!)

Post by greycrusader »

Why didn't they just have Bushmaster's son acquire powers, instead of doing the weird resurrection via draining his own child's life-force thing, I wonder? And then they killed him all over again in the same story. Seems pointless.

Man, Cage has AWFUL villains for most of his solo run. Thank goodness Netflix basically just uses the names. I mean a few are salvageable, like Chemistro, but so many are either just straight up terrible or offensive stereotypes or BOTH.

The only Marvel rogues galleries I can think of with equally bad jobbers are Pym's, Dazzler's, and pre-Miller Daredevil. Yikes!
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Batgirl III
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Tai Cheetah, Foxy Roxy, Dali Llama! Luke Cage!)

Post by Batgirl III »

Dazzler has a rogue’s gallery?

She was one of my favorite X-Men back in the Eighties and I never knew this. I mean, I guess there’s Mojo... But I’d consider him more of Longshot’s villain that just becomes her enemy by proximity.
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