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

Where in all of your character write ups will go.
Jabroniville
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Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Midnight Sun

Post by Jabroniville »

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MIDNIGHT SUN (M'Nai)- Human Martial Artist
Created By:
Steve Englehart, Jim Starlin & Al Milgrom
First Appearance: Marvel Special Edition #16 (Feb. 1974)
Role: Martial Artist
Group Affiliations: Fu Manchu's Organisation
PL 9 (146)
STRENGTH
3 STAMINA 5 AGILITY 7
FIGHTING 13 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 3

Skills:
Acrobatics 8 (+15)
Athletics 7 (+10)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 2 (+15)
Expertise (Criminal) 6 (+8)
Expertise (Martial Arts) 12 (+14)
Insight 3 (+5)
Intimidation 4 (+7)
Investigation 2 (+4)
Perception 5 (+7)
Ranged Combat (Martial Arts Weapons) 4 (+12)
Stealth 5 (+12)

Advantages:
Accurate Attack, Agile Feint, Assessment, Chokehold, Diehard, Equipment 2 (Martial Arts Stuff), Evasion, Extraordinary Effort, Fast Grab, Grab Finesse, Great Endurance, Improved Critical (Unarmed) 3, Improved Defense, Improved Disarm, Improved Hold, Improved Initiative, Improved Trip, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 4, Seize Initiative, Takedown 2, Uncanny Dodge

Equipment:
"Nunchaku" Strength-Damage +1 (Feats: Improved Disarm) (2)
"Shuriken" Blast 3 (6)

Offense:
Unarmed +15 (+3 Damage, DC 18)
Nunchaku +13 (+4 Damage, DC 19)
Shuriken +12 (+3 Ranged Damage, DC 18)
Initiative +11

Defenses:
Dodge +13 (DC 23), Parry +13 (DC 23), Toughness +5, Fortitude +7, Will +6

Complications:
Motivation (Fu Manchu's Will)- Midnight Sun is loyal to his adopted father, and thus hunts Shang-Chi.

Total: Abilities: 76 / Skills: 58--29 / Advantages: 29/ Powers: 0 / Defenses: 12 (146)

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MIDNIGHT SUN (M'Nai)- Space Martial Artist
Created By:
Steve Englehart, Jim Starlin & Al Milgrom
First Appearance: Marvel Special Edition #16 (Feb. 1974)
Role: Martial Artist... IN SPACE
Group Affiliations: Fu Manchu's Organisation, The Kree
PL 13 (219)
STRENGTH
11 STAMINA 11 AGILITY 7
FIGHTING 14 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 3

Skills:
Acrobatics 8 (+15)
Athletics 7 (+10)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 2 (+15)
Expertise (Criminal) 6 (+8)
Expertise (Martial Arts) 12 (+14)
Insight 3 (+5)
Intimidation 4 (+7)
Investigation 2 (+4)
Perception 5 (+7)
Ranged Combat (Martial Arts Weapons) 4 (+12)
Stealth 5 (+12)

Advantages:
Accurate Attack, Agile Feint, Assessment, Chokehold, Diehard, Evasion, Extraordinary Effort, Fast Grab, Grab Finesse, Great Endurance, Improved Critical (Unarmed) 3, Improved Defense, Improved Disarm, Improved Hold, Improved Initiative, Improved Trip, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 4, Seize Initiative, Takedown 2, Uncanny Dodge

Powers:
"Cosmic Guy"
Immunity 10 (Life Support) [10]
Impervious Toughness 5 [5]

"Silver Discs Of Flight"
Strength-Damage +1 (Feats: Split) [2]
Flight 10 (2,000 mph) [20]
Movement 2 (Space Travel 2) [4]

Offense:
Unarmed +15 (+11 Damage, DC 26)
Silver Discs +14 (+12 Damage, DC 27)
Initiative +11

Defenses:
Dodge +15 (DC 25), Parry +15 (DC 25), Toughness +11, Fortitude +12, Will +6

Complications:
Motivation (Fu Manchu's Will)- Midnight Sun is loyal to his adopted father, and thus hunts Shang-Chi.
Disabled (Mute & No Fingers)- Midnight Sun has lost his ability to communicate or use his fingers as a result of Kree experimentation.

Total: Abilities: 108 / Skills: 58--29 / Advantages: 27 / Powers: 41 / Defenses: 14 (219)

-The man initially known as "Midnight" grew up as the adopted son of Fu Manchu, raised alongside Shang-Chi. He was the son of an African family slain when Fu Manchu fought Sir Denis Nayland Smith (Manchu was impressed by the boy's ability to be injured without crying), but M'Nai grew up a loyal son, and fought Shang-Chi, who turned traitor. He declared that he held only hatred for humanity- hatred earned when his family died and he was permanently scarred. It was only for a single fight, however, and he died when he was kung-fu kicked off a building. Brought back as part of Kang's Legion of Unliving, he jobbed to Mantis (because EVERYONE DID), and sent back to his demise.

-And that would've been it for this rarely-used guy... until someone had the BIZARRE idea to use the guy (renamed "Midnight Sun") as a SILVER SURFER FOE, upgrading his power dramatically via the Kree so they'd have someone who could beat The Surfer in a fight. Why they chose some random Earth martial artist is beyond me, but the Kree are a bit weird that way. And, of course, in every one of these stories, the SAME WRITER is responsible- Steve Englehart sporting his villainous creation across multiple books, whether or not it makes sense. I mean, going from "Fu Manchu's Adopted Son" as a martial artist to fighting the SILVER SURFER in outer space? WTF?

-Midnight Sun fought the Surfer with a series of hit-and-run tactics, which worked fairly well, as Norrin is more of a Cosmic Space Blaster instead of a hand-to-hand guy. The two fought on two separate occasions, but the Surfer always overpowered him in the end. Eventually, his memories were returned to him by his Kree masters, hoping to improve his fighting techniques, but he instead rebelled, and exiled himself, unaware of who or what he was. He battled the Surfer again, largely out of confusion, but their fight ended up on the Blue Area of the Moon, where the Inhumans broke up the brawl. Midnight Sun decided to go to Attilan with them, parting with the Surfer as friends.

-Much later, Midnight Sun appeared again on EARTH, having his whole "Inhumans" thing completely ignored, fighting Shang-Chi at his old power levels. The two parted as "brothers". However, in a 2014 miniseries, Midnight Sun masterminds a plot to murder various crimelords and realize his father's dreams. This ended up involving Shang-Chi, the Daughters of the Dragon, and the Sons of the Tiger- he is pulled into a dimensional portal by forces he'd summoned via black magic.

-At first, Midnight Sun was merely a single-issue foe for Shang-Chi, so he's about equal to what Shang was back in the day- a PL 9 over-pointed elite Martial Artist Guy. But by the time he faces the Silver Surfer, he's an extremely powerful, stealthy Martial Artist, held back only by the Surfer's incredible might.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Fri Jul 01, 2022 7:45 am, edited 2 times in total.
Jabroniville
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Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Mister One & Two

Post by Jabroniville »

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MISTER ONE & MISTER TWO (Real Name Unknown)
Created By:
Jack Kirby
First Appearance: Captain America Annual #4 (1977)
Role: Odd Mutant
Group Affiliations: None

-This oddball has a pretty generic pair of designs- he's a Mutant created by Jack Kirby for his late '70s Captain America stuff (when he was fighting the middle Brotherhood of Evil Mutants group who later became The Resistants), and his concept is that his mind can inhabit one of two separate forms, jumping between them at will. "Mister One" is a tiny, immobile creature with telepathy, and the other is a large brute known as Mister Two. Typically, he just used Mister Two to take care of Mister One. A sympathetic human found them and took care of them, but placed an ad in the newspaper seeking more help for the mutants. Captain America and MAGNETO both answered the ad at the same time (Jesus Criminy- this is back in the "Goofy Villain" era of Magneto, where he has zero dignity and just does wacky schemes- what is he doing READING NEWSPAPER ADS?). Magneto thinks that Mister One would be PERFECT to investigate a tiny spacecraft he found (JESUS!), and has his Brotherhood, including Peepers, Burner, and the original Shocker, attack. However, Mister Two rushes in to Mister One's defense and badly wrecks Magneto's helmet and tosses him away.

-Cap brings both Misters to a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility, but Mister Two grows tired of captivity and lashes out. He's proved easily stopped with electrical impulses, though. Magneto abducts Mister One and forces him into the spaceship, but Cap & Mister Two arrive to his defense (Cap having figured out the guy's gimmick when Two awoke after One was captured). Burner set Mister Two aflame, and so he used an inborn "defense mechanism" to protect himself- closing up all his pores. This had a nasty side-effect, however, as he apparently suffocated. Mister One awoke in the spacecraft realizing what had happened. Recognizing that he himself did not have long to live (they were apparently symbiotic), he activated a self-destruct in the spacecraft, seemingly killing Magneto and his Brotherhood (all would reappear), along with himself.

-This is REALLY WEIRD, and so totally wrong compared to how Magneto would behave in a couple of years when the X-Men were revived and Chris Claremont took them over. It's SO DUMB. Just random goofiness, a strange mutant, and Magneto acting in such a silly, undignified manner with a band of doofuses at his side.

-Mister One had no powers other than being small, and Mister Two was probably a Class 10-25-ish Powerhouse, with some Reactive Variable adaptations... which killed him.
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Morgan Le Fay! Jim Jaspers! Fury! Madelyne Pryor!)

Post by Spam »

Yeah, Ol Number Two should have taken his chances with the fire. That's like are REALLY bad GM abusing a player's defensive power out of spite.
Jabroniville
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Machine Teen

Post by Jabroniville »

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MACHINE TEEN (A.D.A.M., aka Autonomously Decisive Automated Mechanism, Adam Aaronson)
Created By:
Marc Sumerak & Mike Hawthorne
First Appearance: Machine Teen #1 (2005)
Role: Unknowing Android
Group Affiliations: Avengers Academy
PL 6 (74)
STRENGTH
7 STAMINA -- AGILITY 4
FIGHTING 5 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 1 AWARENESS 0 PRESENCE 3

Skills:
Athletics 3 (+10)
Expertise (Pop Culture) 3 (+4)
Perception 2 (+2)

Advantages:
Eidetic Memory, Improved Initiative

Powers:
"Android"
Immunity 30 (Fortitude Effects) [30]
Protection 6 [6]

Offense:
Unarmed +7 (+7 Damage, DC 22)
Initiative +8

Defenses:
Dodge +5 (DC 15), Parry +5 (DC 15), Toughness +6, Fortitude --, Will +2

Complications:
Relationship (Carly & J.T.)- Adam is a normal teen, with a cute girlfriend and a best friend. J.T. knows that Adam is a robot.
Secret (Robot)- Adam is actually a robotic creation given false memories.
Weakness (Wrecked A.I.)- Adam has a lot of issues with his computer brain, often having seizures or shutting down.
Weakness (Mechanical being)- Adam is highly vulnerable to electromagnetic pulses, and his father built a self-destruct into him.

Total: Abilities: 30 / Skills: 8--4 / Advantages: 2 / Powers: 36 / Defenses: 3 (75)

-Soooooooooooo wweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrrrdddd. I literally have never heard of this character before, but he appeared in his own SERIES. Though it's actually just a mini-series that never went anywhere- that explains it. Machine Teen was about an all-star, idealized teenage boy... who discovers that he's in fact an ANDROID, created by the man he thinks of as his father. Loosely based off of Machine Man, Adam Aaronson deals with the fact that his dad was on the run after his old employer tried to destroy his work in Artificial Intelligence, and the prolonged computer issues that cause a near shutdown of his mind (seizures, a logic loop, and system overload). He freaks upon discovering that he's a robot, but gets attacked by his dad's old company. It's revealed that his best friend J.T. is AWARE he's a robot, too, having been his father's old assistant. In the end of the series, Adam's "father" sets a self-destruct on the boy, and he explodes, taking his dad's old boss and a corrupt cop with him.

-One year later, he is rebuilt, with the intention to start a new life. Kind of... disturbing. I hope the father is meant to be as horrible as he comes off here, because Adam being constantly rebuilt is kind of a downer ending. He gets the same "Possible Initiative Recruit" thing that 900 other forgotten characters get, but the next time we see him is an eyeblink of time he spends as one of a gaggle of extra background students in Avengers Academy- he quickly leaves the school.

-Machine Teen is a pretty generic, low-powered Android Hero. In Avengers Academy, he shows some Machine Man-like extendable arms & legs, but for the most part, he's nothing more than a semi-bulletproof teen- a machine gun shreds him pretty heavily, but he's still able to move, albeit clumsily.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Fri Jul 01, 2022 7:47 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Morgan Le Fay! Madelyne Pryor! Midnight Sun! Machine Teen!)

Post by greycrusader »

Kirby's later Marvel work was...hell, it just wasn't good. I mean, it wasn't as if "The King" hadn't phoned stuff in before (in terms of ideas-his artwork was always his artwork, until impaired by age and infirmity), but there is a clear distinction between material Kirby was genuinely excited to create compared to characters and stories cranked out because deadlines were looming and he needed a paycheck. I mean, some of the "Fourth World" stuff was corny and ridiculous too, but almost all of it was at least INTERESTING in some way.

Oh, and re: Midnight/Midnight SUN-I suppose if I HAD to, I'd retroactively rule the latter was a genetic knock-off of some sort, an attempt by the Kree to create their own version of a Super-Skrull by combining traits of various formidable warriors. The experiment was judged a failure when the various memory implants overwhelmed the prototype's loyalty to the Kree Imperium. He's still out there somewhere, with a different costume/appearance. As to the original showing up again after definitely shown to have died...ah, hell, I don't know, he was revived by "The Devil Doctor's" elixir vitae. I mean, is there anyone in those "Legions of the Unliving" who actually ended up STAYING among the "unliving?

All my best.
Last edited by greycrusader on Thu Apr 25, 2019 2:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Morgan Le Fay! Jim Jaspers! Fury! Madelyne Pryor!)

Post by Ares »

Madelyne Pryor is so weird to me. I mean, I get in concept what Claremont was going for: He felt that with Jean's death it was time for Cyclops to move on with his life, become a family man, and "grow up". He wanted Scott to meet someone he could settle down with and have his happily ever after while allowing Storm to assume leadership of the X-Men.

There are a few problems with that, however.

1) Making Madelyne look even a little like Jean. That just makes Scott look like he's suffering from a rebound and going after a woman with a similar look and personality. As someone pointed out, you didn't even need to give her red hair: EVERYONE looks like a red-head to Scott thanks to his eyes and visor. The idea of her being a clone Mr. Sinister created specifically to take advantage of Scotts weakened emotional state actually makes a lot more sense than "I found a woman who looks like my dead girlfriend who I am in no way over". And by comic time they have an extremely quick courtship and kid. I mean, think of how long it took Reed and Sue to get married and have a kid compared to Scott and Madelyne?

2) The idea of Scott "growing up" by giving up being a superhero . . . what? Claremont DOES realize that people like people like cops, soldiers and first responders do have wives and children, right? In a setting with supervillains, cosmic planet eaters, alien invaders, dark gods and the like, Superheroes are basically all three jobs rolled into one. In Marvel society, being a superhero IS a grown up job where you are making a real impact on the world around you. The X-Men take it to another level by also being teachers and advocates for mutant rights as well as superheroes.

Claremont is coming at it from the idea of "well, superheroes are childish things and everyone needs to grow up and move past them". Whether you agree with that or not is up to you, but you can't say things like "superheroes are childish" within the SETTING where the concept is required for the survival of the planet. I'd be like someone telling a Paladin who just stopped a Dark God from eating the souls of 100 Dragons and devouring all of humanity that doing such things is "childish" and he needs to grow up, go home and get a job as a tax collector for the local baron. It makes no internally consistent sense within the universe.

3) What is Scott going to exactly do? He could get work as a pilot perhaps, but most of his life has been about developing group tactics, leadership skills, some decent martial arts skills and mastering his eye beams. Is he going to go into politics? Try to be the first public mutant to be a member of congress?

Scott honestly would have made a much better case for a teacher of the New Mutants than Magneto. Having him teach could have also been


So yeah, I get what Claremont was going for, but in universe it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. Of all the X-Men, Scott was the one most dedicated to Xavier's dream, and the idea of him just moving out somewhere with random woman he just met that kind of looks like his dead girlfriend to live do a 9-to-5 job just doesn't really work for him, nor does the idea that it's more grown up to stop trying to save people's lives.
"My heart is as light as a child's, a feeling I'd nearly forgotten. And by helping those in need, I will be able to keep that feeling alive."
- Captain Marvel SHAZAM! : Power of Hope (2000)

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Re: The Mandroids

Post by Ares »

Jabroniville wrote: Wed Apr 24, 2019 5:15 am Image

THE MANDROIDS (Standard Mooks)
Created By:
Roy Thomas & Neal Adams
First Appearance: The Avengers #94 (Dec. 1971)
Role: Elite Mooks
Group Affiliations: Various Criminals, S.H.I.E.L.D.
I always kind of liked the Mandroids (that version of the armor especially), as they made a perfect degree of sense. If SHIELD is going to exist in a world of superheroes and villains, especially those with power armor, then it makes sense that they'd need an elite power armor squad of their own. I actually liked that during the Armor Wars where Tony tried to take out the Mandroids, it was shown that the Mandroids were very competent soldiers and gave Tony a bigger challenge than most of the supervillains he was facing. And unlike the villains, Tony had used his connections with SHIELD (he had a secret identity back then and SHIELD had come to him to deal with the "rogue Iron Man") to set a trap for the Mandroids and take advantage of being able to feed them bad intel, advice and listen in on their communications. And they still managed to give him a pretty good run for his money, though he naturally won out in the end.

The Mandroids also are an example of something I've mentioned before that makes sense for superheroes in general, Marvel in particular: Not every suit of power armor should be Iron Man level. Power armor IN GENERAL should require an absolute genius scientific mind to create, but Iron Man-class armor that combines immense power and versatility while also being highly compact should require a genius on Tony Stark's level, as well as a lot of money.

The Mandroids are a good example of this. Lacking Stark's genius, the best SHIELD could create were armors that were three times as big with half the power and versatility. And even that results in a pretty solid suit of armor that could give Iron Man trouble with enough numbers and coordination. Suits that can even remotely be mass produced should be like this: large, bulky and not as powerful or versatile as the high end gear. But it's effective and relatively cheap to produce, perfect mid-tier Elite Goon armor.

Anyone trying to make Iron Man armor-style armor without Tony's brains and resources then needs to decided whether they want power/versatility or compactness. If you go for power/versatility, then you're going to need to need a suit closer to the Hulkbuster in size, ala Firepower or some versions of the Titanium Man. If you're going for compact, you're going to wind up with armor closer to Spider-Man's level, ala the Beetle armor. And in both of those cases, you still need to be a genius to accomplish it. If Tony analyzed the Beetle armor, he should actually be very impressed with how Abe was able to miniaturize his tech, especially since he lacks Tony's resources.

Iron Man 2 is a good example of this. Ivan Vanko has a solid understanding of superhero technology, but with limited resources the best he can manage is a harness with some very deadly whips. With Justin Hammer's resources, he's able to build a bulkier suit of armor easily on par with Tony or Rhodey's, albeit focused on strength and toughness with his weapon of choice.

Something like the Crimson Dynamo armor should be the result of Russia's best and brightest working together with a huge budget to make even one suit of the armor.
"My heart is as light as a child's, a feeling I'd nearly forgotten. And by helping those in need, I will be able to keep that feeling alive."
- Captain Marvel SHAZAM! : Power of Hope (2000)

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Re: Midnight Sun

Post by Ares »

And we all knew I was going to comment on this guy:
Jabroniville wrote: Wed Apr 24, 2019 9:23 pm Image

MIDNIGHT SUN (M'Nai)- Space Martial Artist
Created By:
Steve Englehart, Jim Starlin & Al Milgrom
First Appearance: Marvel Special Edition #16 (Feb. 1974)
Role: Martial Artist... IN SPACE
Group Affiliations: Fu Manchu's Organisation, The Kree
Poor Midnight Sun. While a decent design with the whole Caped Ninja Fedora look, he got a solid upgrade to a rare Cosmic Martial Artist. I mean, he was still basically a jobber for the hero to defeat, but when the hero is the SILVER SURFER, you're a solid badass. I've said it before, but he'd have been perfect for Annihilation, having maybe undergone treatment with the InHumans to get his face and vocal cords repaired so he could speak (though he'd still be pretty taciturn), and fight the Annihilation Wave as this Sci-Fi Kung Fu Ninja. For the people that consider it important, he'd even be a solid diversity push, being one of the few black men operating on the cosmic level.

I'd honestly just pretend that the human version that faced Shang Chi later was part of the whole Reality Colliding nonsense and forget it, along with the Living Weapon Iron Fist.
"My heart is as light as a child's, a feeling I'd nearly forgotten. And by helping those in need, I will be able to keep that feeling alive."
- Captain Marvel SHAZAM! : Power of Hope (2000)

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Re: Machine Teen

Post by Ares »

Jabroniville wrote: Thu Apr 25, 2019 1:38 am Image
Image

MACHINE TEEN (A.D.A.M., aka Autonomously Decisive Automated Mechanism, Adam Aaronson)
Created By:
Marc Sumerak & Mike Hawthorne
First Appearance: Machine Teen #1 (2005)
Role: Unknowing Android
Group Affiliations: Avengers Academy
It's weird how I can easily accept physics defying technology like what Iron Man has, but the idea that it's just this simple to create fully functional AIs in the Marvel Universe just comes off as weird to me. Dan Slott's kind of meh Iron Man run is pushing the idea of AI as the new kind of discriminated life form, when it use to be that just having Vision, Machine Man, Jocasta and Ultron was a BIG DEAL as far as artificial intelligences went.

Then again, guys like Adam Warlock use to be somewhat unique as a genetically created artificial life form, but that's not exactly rare in Marvel either.
"My heart is as light as a child's, a feeling I'd nearly forgotten. And by helping those in need, I will be able to keep that feeling alive."
- Captain Marvel SHAZAM! : Power of Hope (2000)

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Mojo II

Post by Jabroniville »

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MOJO II- THE SEQUEL
Created By:
Fabian Nicieza & Jim Lee
First Appearance: X-Men #10 (July 1992)
Role: Failed Replacement Villain, Rebel Leader
Group Affiliation: The Mojoverse

-Ugh- I should have written a bio for this guy alongside Longshot & Mojo a couple months back, but I couldn't find any info. Turns out he has a HUGE bio at Marvunapp, which I should have thought to check. Oh well.

-I actually remember this guy JUST a little bit, having spotted him while flipping through comics on the rack. As I HATED Mojo (for reasons of looking stupid and being annoying), I loved the idea of a more normal-shaped, stoic character who looked cool instead of dumb. Alas, I never saw the character anywhere else, and Mojo soon returned to power. It turns out that Mojo II- The Sequel (as he's called), was produced among the final Jim Lee issues of the X-Men title, which is probably why the character never took off. Given how the REST of the X-Titles were going, this new, badass-looking character was probably meant to kill off and replace Mojo, thus giving us a new character. It was that kind of thought process that wiped out Magneto, the Hellfire Club and numerous other X-Villains in favor of the new "Sketchpad Characters" of Lee, Liefeld & Portacio. However, when Jim Lee left Marvel to go co-found Image, out went Mojo II.

-Mojo II was a clone of Mojo, created at the Mojoverse dictator's direction, but he was rejected as flawed because he apparently had compassion for others. Discarded, the clone actually observed and plotted, eventually starting up a rival studio to Mojo's, and leading rebel forces against Mojo. He rescued Dazzler from certain doom, and aided her & Longshot, along with the X-Men, in a rebellion that seemingly left Mojo dead at Longshot's hand. And so Mojo II was set up as the new ruler of the Mojoverse, and the heroes got a happy ending.

-Three years pass by before Scott Lobdell uses the character in an "X-Babies" story, as Mojo II attempts to have the X-Babies and other relics of Mojo's reign killed. So the character is suddenly evil and repulsive, eventually opposing Dazzler & Longshot's "entertainment-free society". The two regimes oppose each other, Mojo II tries to kill Wolverine publicly in order to get ratings, but Dazzler & Longshot helped him, and convinced the Mojoverse people to turn off their television sets, robbing Mojo II of power. A year later would see the final Mojo II story in the pages of Marvel Fanfare of all things- this book that was normally a hype thing ended up featuring an all-out war between Longshot's forces and those of Mojo II. Longshot includes Major Domo (Mojo's old... majordomo) and Spiral among his allies, and together, they... came to a stalemate.

-Youngblood/X-Force, which came a few months BEFORE that Marvel Fanfare story, apparently showed what happened to Mojo II- the original Mojo recovered, and led his own rebellion against "The Sequel". Mojo II was now part of the Longshot/Dazzler Rebellion AGAIN, helping convince the extradimensional Image team Youngblood to turn on Mojo (they were giving him some good ratings). Ultimately, the character was still alive at the end of the story, but has not appeared since early 1997, and Mojo is simply treated as the ruler of the Mojoverse again- he'd been deposed for only five years of our time.

-This is all... REALLY stupid. It's pretty clear that later writers (nearly all the later tales are told by different people) just did their own thing, with Mojo II going from a compassionate freedom-fighter and fair ruler to "Meet The New Boss" and simply being just as bad as Mojo was. A handful of comics about yet another xeroxed Longshot-Led Rebellion goes nowhere, and finally Mojo is just... in charge again. The X-Force/Youngblood team-up appears to be canon, but confusingly comics later that year depict Mojo II in charge again, before he's simply ignored by comics, possibly because nobody realized whether or not the crossover WAS canon!

-It's unclear what stats Mojo II might have, as he was never shown fighting on-panel. He's at least 6'9", so is probably quite strong, and is definitely charismatic. Everything else is up in the air.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Thu Jul 07, 2022 8:19 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Morgan Le Fay! Madelyne Pryor! Midnight Sun! Machine Teen!)

Post by Jabroniville »

More old comments!
Ares, re: Midnight Sun:
Heh, yeah, I love Midnight Sun. Guy's a cosmic level martial artist who flies around in space with a fedora and a cape and can go one-on-one with the Silver frickin Surfer. And he NEVER gets used. The guy's had something like 10 appearances in almost 40 years of history. Out of all the one shot cosmic guys that used during Annihilation and the like, they leave him out? You can't tell me it wouldn't have been awesome to see Midnight Sun using cosmic kung fu against the Anihilation Wave. :mrgreen:

Incidentally, I believe Midnight Sun got upgraded from 'One-shot Shang Chi villain' to 'Silver Surfer Class Cosmic Badass' due to Steve Englehart having created Midnight Son and was the one writing Silver Surfer at the time.
Actually, I remember you going on about him more. I wonder if it was on Facebook or on a "Red Guardian Character" post on the ATT. Because I was definitely aware of your love for the Cosmic Martial Artist when I posted him, all the way back in 2012 for a "Cosmic Marvel" set. I mean, a martial artist Power-Geeked up to Cosmic Level? How is that NOT your jam :)?
Jabroniville
Posts: 24689
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Re: Jab’s Builds (Morgan Le Fay! Jim Jaspers! Fury! Madelyne Pryor!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Ares wrote: Thu Apr 25, 2019 3:10 am Madelyne Pryor is so weird to me. I mean, I get in concept what Claremont was going for: He felt that with Jean's death it was time for Cyclops to move on with his life, become a family man, and "grow up". He wanted Scott to meet someone he could settle down with and have his happily ever after while allowing Storm to assume leadership of the X-Men.

There are a few problems with that, however.

1) Making Madelyne look even a little like Jean. That just makes Scott look like he's suffering from a rebound and going after a woman with a similar look and personality. As someone pointed out, you didn't even need to give her red hair: EVERYONE looks like a red-head to Scott thanks to his eyes and visor. The idea of her being a clone Mr. Sinister created specifically to take advantage of Scotts weakened emotional state actually makes a lot more sense than "I found a woman who looks like my dead girlfriend who I am in no way over". And by comic time they have an extremely quick courtship and kid. I mean, think of how long it took Reed and Sue to get married and have a kid compared to Scott and Madelyne?
Yeah, it's really weird, even in-story. The point Claremont was making was never gonna stick in comics (especially with CLAREMONT HIMSELF being obsessed with making all of his characters have strange origins and never be normal), and really did come off like Scott just wasn't over Jean, and was just replacing her with a copycat.

Though Catsi DID point out that Scott was punched for even SUGGESTING that she wasn't her own person.
2) The idea of Scott "growing up" by giving up being a superhero . . . what? Claremont DOES realize that people like people like cops, soldiers and first responders do have wives and children, right? In a setting with supervillains, cosmic planet eaters, alien invaders, dark gods and the like, Superheroes are basically all three jobs rolled into one. In Marvel society, being a superhero IS a grown up job where you are making a real impact on the world around you. The X-Men take it to another level by also being teachers and advocates for mutant rights as well as superheroes.

Claremont is coming at it from the idea of "well, superheroes are childish things and everyone needs to grow up and move past them". Whether you agree with that or not is up to you, but you can't say things like "superheroes are childish" within the SETTING where the concept is required for the survival of the planet. I'd be like someone telling a Paladin who just stopped a Dark God from eating the souls of 100 Dragons and devouring all of humanity that doing such things is "childish" and he needs to grow up, go home and get a job as a tax collector for the local baron. It makes no internally consistent sense within the universe.
Chalk it up to the self-hatred going on among "Comics Auteurs" in that time period. Being kind of ashamed of their own genre. Claremont's been on the record about how dumb he thinks superhero fights are, so I can believe him thinking that a lot of these guys would eventually give up the constant fights.
It's weird how I can easily accept physics defying technology like what Iron Man has, but the idea that it's just this simple to create fully functional AIs in the Marvel Universe just comes off as weird to me. Dan Slott's kind of meh Iron Man run is pushing the idea of AI as the new kind of discriminated life form, when it use to be that just having Vision, Machine Man, Jocasta and Ultron was a BIG DEAL as far as artificial intelligences went.
Yeah, it's a bit odd, though I don't know offhand how common it is. I've only seen a handful of random characters like this that I can remember, and at least in this case, it's shown as not quite working right.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24689
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Morwen

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

MORWEN
Created By:
J. Michael Straczynski & John Romita, Jr.
First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #503 (March 2004)
Role: Evil Sorceress
Group Affiliations: None

-Morwen is from the JMS run of Spider-Man that saw a LOT of mysticism thrown into the book- she's an ancient sorceress that was defeated by the Ancient One centuries ago, and trapped between dimensions. She was released when a battle between Doctor Strange & Dormammu created an excess of magical energy, allowing her to use it to gain a foothold in our dimension. Possessing a mortal daughter of Loki named Tess, she was only beaten when Spider-Man & Loki allied to stop her.

-Morwen is your everday "Vaguely-Powerful Sorcerer" type of character, with the trademark "Tell, Don't Show" stuff where everyone else talks up how powerful she is- Heimdall, the Grandmaster and even MISTRESS DEATH feel her presence when she enters our plane of existence once more.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Fri Jul 01, 2022 7:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
Doc chaos
Posts: 59
Joined: Fri Dec 02, 2016 11:13 pm

Re: Jab’s Builds (Morgan Le Fay! Madelyne Pryor! Midnight Sun! Machine Teen!)

Post by Doc chaos »

Wouldn't have been a lot better if Loki, instead of Mephisto were responsible for one more day? The story with Tess came out right before Thor.
Editorial mandate I think.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24689
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Madcap

Post by Jabroniville »

Image
Image

MADCAP (Real Name Unknown)
Created By:
Mark Gruenwald & Paul Neary
First Appearance: Captain America #307 (July 1985)
Role: Goofy Villain, Journeyman Villain
Group Affiliations: The Unkillables, The Masters of Evil, The Wild Pack, Mercs For Money, The Ghost Rider Assassination League
PL 8 (122)
STRENGTH
2 STAMINA 2 AGILITY 4
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE -1 AWARENESS -2 PRESENCE -1

Skills:
Acrobatics 4 (+8)
Intimidation 5 (+4)
Perception 3 (+1)

Advantages:
Equipment (Toy Bubble-Gun), Great Endurance

Powers:
"Exposure to Compound X7"
Regeneration 14 (Feats: Regrows Limbs) [15]
"Unkillable" Immortality 20 [40]

"Induce Insanity" Affliction 8 (Will; Dazed/Compelled/Controlled) (Extras: Cumulative, Perception-Ranged +2) (Flaws: Limited to Madness & Random Actions, Vision-Dependent) [16]

Offense:
Unarmed +8 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Insanity -- (+8 Perception-Ranged Affliction, DC 18)
Initiative +4

Defenses:
Dodge +8 (DC 18), Parry +8 (DC 18), Toughness +2, Fortitude +4, Will +3

Complications:
Enemy (Deadpool)- Among the few people to fight Madcap more than once, the two get along perfectly-well in that they both love to fight and injure each other.
Motivation (Convince Others of the Pointlessness of Life)- Madcap likes to cause riots and mass hysteria.

Total: Abilities: 32 / Skills: 12--6 / Advantages: 2 / Powers: 71 / Defenses: 11 (122)

-Madcap's creator Gruenwald sez "Madcap represents purposelessness, the disaffected youth of today who thinks 'What's the reason for doing anything?' The ultimate dropout generation." So another look at contempoarary America and world culture through the most-moral of Americans- the Captain himself. Similar acts include The Watchdogs (far-right extremists/moral guardians), Flag-Smasher (anti-government/patriotism activist), The Red Skull (Nazi gone Corporate), John Walker (modern-day "bad-ass" heroes), and the whole drug war thing.

-Madcap was originally a devoutly-religious young man who gets the typical "doused with chemicals" origin- his mind shatters upon learning of the deaths of his family. Attempting suicide, he is shocked to discover his wounds healing almost instantly- he decides to convince others to share his worldview of the pointlessness of life, dressing in a garish costume and wielding a toy pistol. He causes mass chaos and a huge riot using the power to induce madness in others, but is defeated by Nomad.

-He later shows up in Daredevil, dying in a fire thanks to The Rose's goons, but he recovers in the morgue. He then foments chaos alongside Katie Power & Franklin Richards (who wanted to go on an adventure, but instead learn an important lesson in responsibility). Then he fights She-Hulk. Then he's kidnapped by Vice & Triphammer of the Power Tools (under orders from Dr. Karl Malus), and rescued by Hawkeye. By this time he was well and truly a "Journeyman Anti-Hero"- seemingly breaking out of prison to face the hero as an irreverent "Villain of the Week", and acted more like a nuisance. In fact, I can't even see another incident of him meeting his first nemesis, Captain America.

-Madcap mixes up with Quasar, and causes a riot at Grand Central Terminal in NYC, forcing Ghost Rider to quell a riot that causes people to murder each other and commit suicide en masse. Madcap ends up facing the Penance Stare, but ENJOYS the pain of all his accumulated victims' agony! Silver Sable, thinking she's hiring Nomad, ends up accidentally HIRING MADCAP to be part of the Wild Pack, causing him to fight with Deadpool. He's then hired to fight Ghost Rider (the first time he "repeats" a nemesis), and shows up on the Shadow Council's Masters of Evil. He is then killed by Thor- being vaporized alongside Deadpool. However, this results in them being regenerated as ONE BEING, with Madcap now one of the voices in Deadpool's head! Eventually, Deadpool is torn in half by Thor & Luke Cage, regenerating each character in one of the halves. He still fights Wade, though- becoming one of Deadpool's recurring Rogues Gallery- a man as insane as Deadpool himself. He attempts to torture Wade Wilson and ruin his life, even vexing him by using host bodies for his spirit. Ultimately, Wade arranges for him to be taken away and "collected" by The Collector, with Madcap taunting him that he'd lost interest in ruining Deadpool's life- recent events (Stryfe, HYDRA, etc.) had already done that FOR him!

-Madcap isn't much of a fighter himself- his main ability is to create mass havoc by turning civilians into a raving mob of lunatics. People will begin fighting, murdering each other, and even committing suicide. Already-insane people like Deadpool have actually been TURNED SANE by exposure to Madcap's gaze, and people risk permanent insanity if he holds contact for too long! The other troubling thing about fighting Madcap is that he's unkillable- his power allows for INSTANT REGENERATION, from things as varied as decapitation or VAPORIZATION. So a battle against him becomes a war of attrition, making up for his unimpressive statline and combat capabilties.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Fri Jul 01, 2022 7:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
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