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

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Jabroniville
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The Shadowmasters

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

THE SHADOWMASTERS (Manzo Ezaki, Yuriko Ezaki & Philip Richards)
Created By:
Carl Potts & Dan Lawlis
First Appearance: Marvel Age #78 (Sept. 1989)
Role: Heroic Ninjas
Group Affiliations: The Shadowmasters

-Haha, WOW- never once even heard of these guys. The Shadowmasters were a band of Punisher allies during the late '80s, early '90s period when Ninjas were saturating everything. And hell- they got a push IMMEDIATELY- seems Marvel wanted to sell a Ninja-themed book good and regular, because they got a Limited Series only a month after their debut (I'm betting that Marvel wanted to use The Punisher's success as one of the hottest acts in comics to leapfrog The Shadowmasters into a hot-selling book).

-The Shadowmasters are an ancient clan meant to defend Iga Province against invaders- Shigeru Ezaki, one of the last of their clan, lost a wife to the American Atomic Bombs, but formed a friendship with Americans after Captain Richards, who'd been assigned to oversee Iga saved the life of Ezaki's son. Ezaki, began training his children Manzo & Yuriko, along with Captain Richards' son Philip, in the arts of Ninjitsu, and wanted them to oppose Umezu, an ultra-nationalist who wanted to form a cabal that would take control of Japan and return it to its Imperialist roots. Umezu and his Sunrise Society attack, killing Capt. Richards, and Ezaki himself dies in the final battle, in which the three Shadowmasters storm the base and fight off the Sunrise Society and an army of clones of Ezaki. Actually, that doesn't sound half-bad. Might not be half-GOOD either, but it's something.

-A resurgent Sunrise Society, now called The Eternal Sun, is active in New York, and the Shadowmasters, still in training, ally with The Punisher & Black Widow against them. Far as I can tell, there's only the three of them, but they have some allies who were also Punisher allies, like Hatsu & Katherine Yakamoto.

THE SHADOWMASTERS
PL 7 (119)
STRENGTH
2 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 5
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 1 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Acrobatics 8 (+13)
Athletics 8 (+10)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 2 (+10)
Deception 3 (+5)
Expertise (Ninja) 6 (+7)
Insight 4 (+6)
Intimidation 3 (+5)
Investigation 2 (+4)
Perception 5 (+7)
Ranged Combat (Ninja Weapons) 5 (+12)
Stealth 6 (+11)

Advantages:
Accurate Attack, Agile Feint, Chokehold, Defensive Attack, Equipment 2 (Ninja Gear), Evasion, Fast Grab, Grab Finesse, Hide in Plain Sight, Improved Critical 2 (Sword, Unarmed), Improved Defense, Precise Attack (Close/Concealment), Quick Draw, Ranged Attack 7, Tracking

Equipment:
"Ninja Weapons" Sword +3, Shuriken +2, Chain +1- Reach 4, etc.

Offense:
Unarmed +10 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Weapons +8 (+3-6 Damage, DC 18-21)
Shuriken +12 (+2 Ranged Damage, DC 17)
Initiative +9

Defenses:
Dodge +11 (DC 21), Parry +11 (DC 21), Toughness +3, Fortitude +5, Will +4

Total: Abilities: 46 / Skills: 52--26 / Advantages: 23 / Powers: 0 / Defenses: 14 (119)

-Amateur Ninjas, The Shadowmasters are PL 7 Elites, about equal to Elite Hand Ninjas.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Thu Jan 27, 2022 3:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
Jabroniville
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Davos

Post by Jabroniville »

ImageImage
Image
Image

THE STEEL SERPENT (Davos, aka Steel Phoenix)
Created By:
Tony Isabella & Frank McLaughlin
First Appearance: The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #10 (March 1975)
Role: Mirror Image Villain
Group Affiliations: K'un-Lun, K'un-Zi
PL 11 (162)
STRENGTH
4 STAMINA 4 AGILITY 5
FIGHTING 13 DEXTERITY 5
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 1

Skills:
Acrobatics 6 (+11)
Athletics 8 (+11)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 4 (+17)
Deception 4 (+5)
Expertise (Martial Arts) 8 (+10)
Intimidation 10 (+11)
Investigation 4 (+6)
Perception 6 (+8)
Stealth 2 (+7)

Advantages:
Accurate Attack, Agile Feint, All-Out Attack, Assessment, Chokehold, Daze (Intimidation), Defensive Roll, Diehard, Extraordinary Effort, Fast Grab, Great Endurance, Improved Critical (Unarmed) 3, Improved Defense, Improved Hold, Improved Initiative, Improved Trip, Languages (Various Asian), Power Attack, Precise Attack (Close/Concealment), Ranged Attack 4, Seize Initiative, Startle, Takedown 2, Trance, Uncanny Dodge

Powers:
"Supreme Physical Specimen"
Leaping 1 (15 feet) [1]
Speed 1 (4 mph) [1]
Immunity 1 (Aging) [1]

"Steals The Chi of Shou-Lao the Undying"
Affliction 10 (Fort; Fatigued/Exhausted/Transformed to Powerless) (Extras: Continuous +3) (Flaws: Grab-Based, Limited to Iron Fist -2) [10]

Offense:
Unarmed +17 (+4 Damage, DC 19)
Initiative +13

Defenses:
Dodge +14 (DC 24), Parry +16 (DC 26), Toughness +4 (+5 D.Roll), Fortitude +7, Will +7

Complications:
Obsession (Gaining the Iron Fist/Killing Danny Rand)- Davos hates Danny as a result of his father Wendell defeating Davos for the right to face Shou-Lao. He once hunted down Danny and stole his Chi, nearly killing him.
Relationship (Father, Lei-Kung)- Davos shamed his father by attempting to face Shou-Lao without first earning the right, and failing miserably. He still taunts his father, believing him to be part of the grand conspiracy against him.
Responsibility (Conspiracy Victim)- Davos believes that the universe has conspired against him. It brought an outsider named Wendell Rand who first befriended him and then defeated him in honourable combat, then turned his own father against him, then had him lose to Shou-Lao and fail in stealing the Iron Fist from Wendell's own son.
Motivation (Making Right)- Eventually, Davos realizes the nature of his problems, and attempts to regain his honor at his father's side. Now, Davos guards the egg of Shou-Lao as he prepares to be reborn.
Disabled (One-Handed)- Davos lost a hand to Tiger's Beautiful Daughter in the first round of the Tournament. He can use a new one with Crane Mother's Chi, but after the tournament, he had none left.

Total: Abilities: 72 / Skills: 52--26 / Advantages: 31 / Powers: 13 / Defenses: 20 (162)

-Davos was first known as The Steel Serpent, and was your classic everyday "Mirror Image Villain", copying the hero's outfit in a new colour scheme (purple, in this case). He came from K'un-Lun, and was the son of Danny's own teacher, and tried to steal The Iron Fist from him. See, when Davos had attempted to subvert the law and defeat Shou-Lao himself, he was scarred like many Fists before him by Shou-Lao's Chi Symbol, but lost his grip and only got a partial tattoo/scar. This scar allowed him to "drain" Danny Rand's chi in an issue of Marvel Team-Up (By Claremont & Byrne, pre-X-Men!), bringing Spider-Man, Misty Knight & Colleen Wing down on him. Davos nearly killed Spidey, but when fighting a drained Danny, he over-used The Fist, and it disintegrated him.

-Davos eventually recovered using The Contemplator (one of The Elders of the Universe), and stole The Iron Fist power again, and this time went back to K'un-Lun and took power. Danny & Lei-Kung teamed up to stop him, where he died once again. Despite only being a two-shot villain, Davos was brought back for the new run as a minion of Crane Mother, ruler of the Heavenly City of K'un-Zi- his mission was to kill Orson Randall in revenge for killing Crane Mother's daughter 88 years prior, and Crane Mother gave him dozens of Crane Daughters to help. This Daughters would either shoot arrows, turn into cranes, or commit suicide, bestowing upon him their Chi, allowing for MASSIVE displays of power. Davos EASILY killed Orson Randall just as Danny was getting to know him (Orson willingly gave up his life, however), and stalemated with Danny using Orson's own chi to boost himself.

-Davos, his mission sorta fulfilled, was kicking around for the Tournament as well, losing a hand to Tiger's Beautiful Daughter. This threw him into an incredible rage, and he nearly beat the Champion to death. Beaten in response by The Prince of Orphans, Davos was kind of left in an odd place- dramatic convenience said that he & Danny needed a final throwdown, but instead, Davos sort of looked inwards, after his father taunted him about his "poor me" attitude. He changed sides, aligning with The Immortal Weapons in defense of his birthplace, fending off HYDRA and the conspiracy set about by Crane Mother to destroy K'un-Lun. Afterwards, he was given a penance by Lei-Kung- he must care for the egg of Shou-Lao the Undying, allowing the new generation of Iron Fist to be born.

-Davos is a pretty cool villain, despite being relatively short-lived in most of his appearances- like most Mirror Image Villains, he's a physical rival to his arch-nemesis, though he actually lacks Danny's power- he has to STEAL IT by locking him up in a manly hug and touching their Dragon-scars together. His "poor me" approach reminds me of Demona from Gargoyles, and he has a SCARY amount of power by the time Immortal Iron Fist starts. It's almost too bad that he learned his lesson and got trounced by John Aman, because he & Danny would have had a hell of a fight. I do like that scene in his origin where he challenges Shou-Lao out of order, loses (and is scarred), yet the Dragon doesn't even bother to finish the job- it slithers away in contempt instead. It really puts you into the head of Davos, as this shame and anger drives him.

-I have an early appearance of his in that Marvel Team-Up story I mentioned, where he & Iron Fist have a pretty even fight (Davos had sneak attacked him a few times prior) until Spider-Man gets involved like a doofus, and Davos just grabs him and tosses him into Danny. Spidey was NOT the fighter that he is today, I tell you what- he was ALWAYS getting trounced by some new villain in his first appearance. This lets Davos steal the Iron Fist power, and then he ends up fighting Spidey & the Daughters of the Dragon, holding his own with raw power. Spidey is NOTICEABLY doing poorly in this fight, mainly because he's pulling his punches, knowing that Davos couldn't take his full force, and it's making him clumsy. The girls actually do better (if Colleen Wing hadn't needed him alive, she'd have actually landed a fatal blow at one point thanks to Misty's Sneak Attack)- once Davos unleashes The Iron Fist, Spidey's as good as done once he gets cornered and can't use his agility to his advantage, and it's the return of Iron Fist that ends things, as Davos burns out.

-The Davos/Spider-Man fight in the second issue is actually very interesting- despite Davos being a high-level Martial Artist, he can barely lay a hand on Spidey, who plays the usual "stick and move" strategy he does with powerhouses like The Rhino. He can nail Spidey with regular shots, but The Iron Fist always misses (another hint that it's an Inaccurate Power). Spidey is noticeably clumsy in team fights, too- he gets in Iron Fist's way in Part One, and accidentally webs up Colleen Wing's katana when she's ready for another shot on Davos- kind of a bad trait for a guy in a book called MARVEL TEAM-UP. Spidey & Steel Serpent fight all over the place (Davos is able to take Spidey's punches, which are NEVER Power Attacked for a normal human opponent, as I added for his Complications years ago) for a bit until the end, when he's clobbered and Iron Fist comes to the rescue, by which point Davos is throwing wild punches that miss by a mile because of his focus on power (ie. he's Power Attacking when Danny is too defense-heavy).

-This all makes Davos an interesting character in terms of PL. Ideally, he's basically Danny Rand minus the Presence and Iron Fist Powers (until, of course, he gains them with his own Affliction). He & Danny were probably PL 9s by the late 1970s, along with Spider-Man (who notably sucks against new opponents), but have upgraded with each other, hitting PL 10.5. With Crane Mother adding her daughters' Chi to Davos, he gained a ridiculous amount of power, including:

"Crane Chi" (All Have Flaws: Requires Crane Daughter's Death)
"Chi Release" Damage 11 (Extras: Area- 60ft. Burst +2) (22) -- [24]
  • AE: "Ground Strike" Damage 11 (Extras: Area- 60ft. Line +2) (22)
  • AE: "Steel Phoenix Blow- First Execution" Strength-Damage +7 (Extras: Penetrating 8) (Inaccurate -3) (4)
Last edited by Jabroniville on Thu Jan 27, 2022 12:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
Jabroniville
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Stacy X

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

STACY X (Miranda Leevald)
Created By:
Joe Casey & Tom Raney
First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men #399 (Nov. 2001)
Group Affiliations: The X-Men, The New Warriors, The X-Ranch
Status: Alive (But With No Hands)
Role: Mutant Hooker
PL 9 (129)
STRENGTH
2 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 5
FIGHTING 9 DEXTERITY 5
INTELLIGENCE 0 AWARENESS 1 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Acrobatics 4 (+9)
Athletics 5 (+7)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 1 (+10)
Deception 6 (+8)
Expertise (Hooker) 6 (+6)
Insight 4 (+5)
Perception 4 (+5)

Advantages:
All-Out Attack, Defensive Attack, Daze (Deception), Fascination (Deception), Taunt

Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Pheromone Control & Snake-Skin"
"Snake-Skin" Protection 3 [3]

"Pheromones" 
"Orgasm/Vomit Inducing" Affliction 8 (Fort; Dazed & Vulnerable/Stunned & Defenseless/Incapacitated) (Extras: Reaction +3, Extra Condition) (32) -- [34]
  • AE: "Adrenaline Shot" Enhanced Stamina 4 (Extras: Affects Others Only +0) Linked to Enhanced Advantages: Great Endurance (Extras: Affects Others Only +0) (9)
  • AE: Healing 6 (12)
Mind-Reading 6 (Flaws: Limited to Emotions) [6]

Offense:
Unarmed +10 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Pheromones +10 (+8 Affliction, DC 18)
Initiative +5

Defenses:
Dodge +5 (DC 18), Parry +7 (DC 17), Toughness +3 (+10 Force Field), Fortitude +5, Will +5

Complications:
Prejudice (Obvious Mutant)- Miranda has snake-like skin, and has been seen shedding it.
Power Loss (Pheromones)- Stacy X requires skin contact to utilize her powers- someone wearing full armour would be immune.

Total: Abilities: 54 / Skills: 30--15 / Advantages: 5 / Powers: 43 / Defenses: 12 (129)

-I don't know much about Stacy X, but she seems pretty crappy. You know you suck when you get de-powered by M-Day barely a year after your debut, and you die horribly in the subsequent "De-Powered Mutants With Tech-Powers" series that results. She was a "mutant hooker" that swore she "never had sex for money" (presumably either the writer didn't look up what "prostitute" meant, or else she just orgasmerates men without doing the intercourse, via her powers), tried to seduce all her teammates, and eventually just quit the team altogether.

-She got de-powered after M-Day, and then started ACTUALLY sleeping with men for money, but joined The New Warriors as "Ripcord", but was soon killed in action- this was undone in 2011's Vengeance Limited Series (something so big I've never heard of it). She seems like more of a collection of weird fetishes and a writer wanting to get his rocks off writing the sluttiest character possible.

-Stacy-X is a more interesting build than she ever was a character. She's apparently a great martial artist for no apparent reason, getting to knock around Wolverine to show how good she was (The Worf Affect, according to TV Tropes, denotes characters that are built up as bad-asses exclusively so other characters can beat on them to show how good THEY are), so she's got a few Combat Advantages, in addition to a pretty handy mutant power. Through skin contact, she can give people extreme pleasure or nausea (both the same power in M&M, really), and I threw the Aura Extra set onto it.

---

RIPCORD (Miranda Leevald)
Created By:
Joe Casey & Tom Raney
First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men #399 (Nov. 2001)
Group Affiliations: The X-Men, The New Warriors, The X-Ranch
Status: Alive (But With No Hands)
Role: Mutant Hooker
PL 9 (111)
STRENGTH
2 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 5
FIGHTING 9 DEXTERITY 5
INTELLIGENCE 0 AWARENESS 1 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Acrobatics 4 (+9)
Athletics 5 (+7)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 1 (+10)
Deception 6 (+8)
Expertise (Hooker) 6 (+6)
Insight 4 (+5)
Perception 4 (+5)

Advantages:
All-Out Attack, Defensive Attack, Daze (Deception), Fascination (Deception), Taunt

Powers:
"Super-Gear" (Flaws: Removable) [25]
Protection 2 (2)
"Frog-Springs" Leaping 3 (60 feet) (3)

"Web Shooters" Snare 8 (Feats: Split) (17) -- (18)
  • AE: "Tentacles" Damage 5 (Feats: Reach 3) (8)
"Slyde Powers"
"Sliding Over Land" Speed 4 (30 mph) (4)
"Cannot Be Grabbed" Immunity 5 (Ensarement Effects) (5)
-- (31 points)

Offense:
Unarmed +10 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Pheromones +10 (+8 Affliction, DC 18)
Initiative +5

Defenses:
Dodge +5 (DC 18), Parry +7 (DC 17), Toughness +3 (+10 Force Field), Fortitude +5, Will +5

Complications:
Prejudice (Obvious Mutant)- Miranda has snake-like skin, and has been seen shedding it.
Power Loss (Pheromones)- Stacy X requires skin contact to utilize her powers- someone wearing full armour would be immune.

Total: Abilities: 54 / Skills: 30--15 / Advantages: 5 / Powers: 25 / Defenses: 12 (111)

-As Ripcord, Stacy X gathers a lot of other characters' gimmicks onto a special suit.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Thu Jan 27, 2022 12:49 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Stacy X

Post by bsdigitalq »

Jabroniville wrote:-She got de-powered after M-Day, and then started ACTUALLY sleeping with men for money, but joined The New Warriors as "Ripcord", but was soon killed in action- this was undone in 2011's "Vengeance" Limited Series (something so big I've never heard of it).
"Vengeance" was written by her creator, Joe Casey. Ostensibly it was story linking together a whole bunch of big shot Marvel villains (Magneto, Doc Ock, Red Skull, etc), but was really a showcase for a whole bunch of his creations for Marvel that nobody really cared about (well, except for America Chavez). About the only thing anyone remembers from it is America Chavez and the sweet cover art.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Kitty Pryde! Sunfire! The Seekers! Smuggler!)

Post by Batgirl III »

About the only thing anyone remembers from it is America Chavez and the sweet cover art.
Who the heck is America Chavez?
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Kitty Pryde! Sunfire! The Seekers! Smuggler!)

Post by bsdigitalq »

Batgirl III wrote:Who the heck is America Chavez?
The latest version of Ms. America: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Amer ... ica_Chavez

She was in Marvel limbo for a couple years until Kieron Gillen used her for his Young Avengers run, and the character's sort of taken off from there. She's kind of annoying though, especially in Al Ewing's Ultimates.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Kitty Pryde! Sunfire! The Seekers! Smuggler!)

Post by danelsan »

Never heard of her before. Apparently she is a superhero in normal clothes, though, so I hate her already XD
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Kitty Pryde! Sunfire! The Seekers! Smuggler!)

Post by greycrusader »

America Chavez is the latest Miss (well, Ms.) America, though apparently unrelated to Madeline Joyce; she is part of the Young Avengers, and hails from a parallel world of advanced science, whose population is all-female (apparently the males died off due to a virus, and the women kept going through cloning and genetic engineering). She's a flying brick who can also travel between alternate Earths. Not much is known of her past, save for being a enemy of Loki's, through unrevealed circumstances.

Interestingly, her creators have announced an indie effort starring America Vasquez, a pretty much identical character. We'll see how that goes, given Marvel's litigious streak.

All my best.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Kitty Pryde! Sunfire! The Seekers! Smuggler!)

Post by bsdigitalq »

Eh, her look is more "Civvie Spandex" than "Not Wearing Tights." Superhero outfits are as much about use of color as elements like tights, masks, and capes, and she's pretty much always dressing up like she's been inspired by Captain America.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Kitty Pryde! Sunfire! The Seekers! Smuggler!)

Post by Ares »

Much as I love Iron Fist, Luke Cage and their Heroes for Hire book, Davos / Steel Serpent / Steel Phoenix shows kind of a flaw with the duo. Namely that they had REALLY crappy villains for the most part. I mean, outside of Davos and Sabertooth, Danny's next biggest villain was Master Khan, a sorcerer so generic Danny didn't even get to finish him off, Namor wound up taking him out.

It's a shame Immortal Iron Fist went the way it did, as it was setting Danny up to be a proper solo hero with his own mythos, and he just needed a some new quality villains to really cement that. Sadly, that never happened. Then again, much as I loved Danny and Luke, it was weird to have Iron Fist as a street level "hero for hire" type of guy, when his background would make you think he was designed specifically for the Avengers or Defenders.

A guy trained in a city of immortal martial arts masters to be a Living Weapon, one of the most dangerous martial artists on the planet, who slew a dragon in single combat to use it's magical life energy to enhance his chi to the point that he can actually do Street Fighter/Shonen chi techniques, his most prominent being a flaming, chi fueled punch of unbelievable power.

That's a more awesome origin than frickin Batman and he's rarely been used to his potential.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Kitty Pryde! Sunfire! The Seekers! Smuggler!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Ares wrote:Much as I love Iron Fist, Luke Cage and their Heroes for Hire book, Davos / Steel Serpent / Steel Phoenix shows kind of a flaw with the duo. Namely that they had REALLY crappy villains for the most part. I mean, outside of Davos and Sabertooth, Danny's next biggest villain was Master Khan, a sorcerer so generic Danny didn't even get to finish him off, Namor wound up taking him out.

It's a shame Immortal Iron Fist went the way it did, as it was setting Danny up to be a proper solo hero with his own mythos, and he just needed a some new quality villains to really cement that. Sadly, that never happened. Then again, much as I loved Danny and Luke, it was weird to have Iron Fist as a street level "hero for hire" type of guy, when his background would make you think he was designed specifically for the Avengers or Defenders.

A guy trained in a city of immortal martial arts masters to be a Living Weapon, one of the most dangerous martial artists on the planet, who slew a dragon in single combat to use it's magical life energy to enhance his chi to the point that he can actually do Street Fighter/Shonen chi techniques, his most prominent being a flaming, chi fueled punch of unbelievable power.

That's a more awesome origin than frickin Batman and he's rarely been used to his potential.
The problem with Iron Fist is the same problem with almost every character created after 1970- the well had run a bit dry, and comics was turning in on itself, and began only pushing the "established characters". Almost any character after a certain point was doomed, particularly with mediocre "Rogues Galleries". I can't remember exactly when everyone went "Hey- if we invent new characters, the companies will 100% own them and we get nothing- time to half-ass it and only use old characters!".

And so you had the Iron Fist book, which was apparently not a major seller (not if a major villain only got to appear for real in Marvel Team-Up). Then stuff happened, and he got pushed into Heroes For Hire, combining two 1970s Crazes in one book. And that book wasn't really a major hit, either.

And yeah, Sabretooth got "Kingpinned" over to the X-Men. Though, to be fair, Claremont gets rights because he INVENTED the guy, and had done that a dozen times over- he'd populated that book with characters from other books- Mystique, Deathbird & Carol Danvers/Binary from Ms. Marvel, Rogue from an Avengers Annual, etc. Now that he had a BIG hit book, he was gonna use it to make all of his other pets into all-stars. And hell... it WORKED. You can't deny his success rate with that- there's no way in hell we'd have seen Sabretooth in a pair of movies, Rogue as one of the most-beloved X-Men, or an impending Danvers-based movie without his work. No way would we have Jennifer Lawrence playing Mystique (herself one of the most popular X-characters, thanks largely to fanservice... which is odd, because the actual comic book character wasn't played up all that sexually by comparison to basically EVERY OTHER COMIC BOOK FEMALE) if Claremont had left her as a forgotten character from a forgotten 1970s book.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Kitty Pryde! Sunfire! The Seekers! Smuggler!)

Post by Jabroniville »

greycrusader wrote:America Chavez is the latest Miss (well, Ms.) America, though apparently unrelated to Madeline Joyce; she is part of the Young Avengers, and hails from a parallel world of advanced science, whose population is all-female (apparently the males died off due to a virus, and the women kept going through cloning and genetic engineering). She's a flying brick who can also travel between alternate Earths. Not much is known of her past, save for being a enemy of Loki's, through unrevealed circumstances.

Interestingly, her creators have announced an indie effort starring America Vasquez, a pretty much identical character. We'll see how that goes, given Marvel's litigious streak.

All my best.
Her inclusion in Ultimates mystified the hell out of me, because I'd literally never seen her before. I mean, I understood WHY she was there- it was a Minoriteam book, much like Al Ewing's Cage-based Avengers book, and her purpose was to be a dark-skinned Latina. But unlike the other characters in the squad, she had no real PURPOSE in the book itself, aside from helping with teleportation. And we never really knew her character, what she was about, or even her friggin' ORIGIN. How do you show a relatively-new character in Ultimates #1 and basically don't explain her AT ALL? I love Ewing's stuff- he's absolutely going to be the Next Mark Waid (with all that entails; the occasional crap run, the occasional terrific one, very good "ideas" and occasionally lackluster endings). But as neat as some of the book's concepts are (it's straight-up Cosmic Nonsense Explained), none of the characters aside from Brashear/Blue Marvel are explained.

Her costume wouldn't annoy me if she fit in more with the team- they're doing Space Exploration Stuff all FF-style, and she looks like a clever Cosplayer. It's actually a great look for a Street-Level character- bad-ass and tomboyish, lacking tights while also saying "I Fight Crime". But on this squad of mature adults in Classic Comic Book looks, she looks odd.

Though in like 40 issues of Ewing writing her, he's STILL never had Monica Rambeau do anything interesting. Like, I don't even know squat about her home life.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Kitty Pryde! Sunfire! The Seekers! Smuggler!)

Post by Batgirl III »

Iron Fist is also a bit of a "genre orphan," as the kung fu fad of the 1970s is almost as dead as Disco.

This is a problem I talked about forever ago on the other forum. Certain genres just don't attract audiences anymore, leaving characters strongly tied to those genres orphaned.


So Shang Chi and Iron Fist (kung fu exploitation) are in the genre orphanage; just like Ka-Zar (jungle adventure), Adam Strange (planetary romance), Warlord (swords-n-science), Amethyst (sword-n-sorcery), and King Faraday (stale beer spy fiction) the character is left an orphan of a genre no one wants to read anymore.

Luke Cage was in the orphanage for most of the Eighties, Nineties, and Aughts. But a serious effort by Marvel to really push him — hard — has seen him break through. Time will tell if it lasts.
BARON wrote:I'm talking batgirl with batgirl. I love you internet.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24689
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Re: Jab's Builds! (Kitty Pryde! Sunfire! The Seekers! Smuggler!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Yeah, and going the "F'd Up Mystical Weirdness" route was actually a big boost for him, as he was doing all kinds of crazy stuff. Shang-Chi has it a bit trickier...

But honestly, "Great Fighter Kicking Ass" is as popular as it ever was. So is Spy Stuff (which Shang-Chi sorta did/does) and more. Both could easily be fit into modern stuff without the genre trappings of old.

---

Okay, so you all may have noticed some X-Men builds creeping in here. That's a deliberate thing- I kinda wanted some more "big names" to flesh out the "S" builds, and some of the other letters- 20-30 days of minor, forgotten characters & old builds just isn't always gonna cut it to generate interest, y'know?

So what I did was add some big-name X-Men for much of the glossary stuff. Many of those builds were from more than 2 years ago, and were part of the "X-Men Series" I did right when I started the new thread (Stacy X appears on page 17 of 1543, for example). And as I've mentioned before, I made some mistakes when "re-posting" my old X-Men stuff. I felt like I should shoot them out as quickly as possible, since they were "old" and thus would be boring otherwise. BUT, what I noticed was that my new commentaries and checking the stats was more time-consuming than I thought, and so posting FIVE builds a day was kind of crazy.

And... even WORSE... posting five builds a day meant that when I posted Character A, I got a couple of comments. But two hours later, here comes Character B. Who might get one comment, while Character A gets one if he's LUCKY. Then Character C comes in, then Character D, and finally Character E. By the time Character E was posted, the build from earlier that day (Character A) was basically a distant memory. NOBODY was commenting on him, even if he was a top-tier X-Man, like Nightcrawler or Storm. Even if Characters B-D were complete nobodies like Pyro, Stacy X & Maggott, the fact that I'd just posted FIVE GUYS in a single day caused people to either get burned out, or just gloss over the builds on the "last page".

Just check out the old thread: http://roninarmy.com/threads/149-Jab-s- ... 1#post6340
* Moira MacTaggert and Sunfire are posted right before Nightcrawler, who gets three comments. Then... it's Stacy X AND Pyro, at which point the next day's build is Quicksilver. The ONLY ONE of that group that gets any comments is Nightcrawler, and those stop as soon as the other characters are posted. Horsenhero comments on Quicksilver, but then we get right into Iceman, who gets one comment, then some Filler, then a couple other comments.

But the 18th, one day later, NOBODY has had much to say about Nightcrawler, because Pietro, Bobby & then Colossus are all posted up and getting comments (but only a couple in the first two's case). Posting so many builds basically squashed any chance for a long discussion about Nightcrawler.

I always regretted stuff like that, and took it to heart when I posted up the Avengers and their villains, and the Fantastic Four later. Three per day was the MAXIMUM in those cases. So when I post the X-Men NOW, a bigger name (like Kitty Pryde) will get posted in a 3-per-day sort of way, alongside some relative nobodies. This allows MAXIMUM penetration (hee hee).

Even now, I only break "3/day" when it's COMPLETE nobodies, or reposts from less than a year or so ago. I care a lot less when minor types like Stacy X & the Shadowmasters are posted (the Shadowmasters aren't even an old build- I was just shoving a filler one in there to put more builds onto the new forum :)). And look at what happened when I posted Sunfire & Kitty this time around- a freakin' page full of people going back & forth over Sunfire's costume! A TON of comments about Kitty Pryde! Actual CONVERSATION! That's why I learned to settle down.

Take today for example: Steel Serpent was the biggest name, and he's pretty cool... but he's also pretty much entirely a re-post, with nothing new about him since I last built the character, and no new insight, really. So I also posted Shadrac, who's entirely new, built from the ground up. But since he's not a well-known character, I stuck a "Filler Build" from the RA forum with the Shadowmasters, then stuck Stacy X on there to fill out some of the X-Men.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Wed Dec 07, 2016 8:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24689
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Re: Stacy X

Post by Jabroniville »

bsdigitalq wrote:
Jabroniville wrote:-She got de-powered after M-Day, and then started ACTUALLY sleeping with men for money, but joined The New Warriors as "Ripcord", but was soon killed in action- this was undone in 2011's "Vengeance" Limited Series (something so big I've never heard of it).
"Vengeance" was written by her creator, Joe Casey. Ostensibly it was story linking together a whole bunch of big shot Marvel villains (Magneto, Doc Ock, Red Skull, etc), but was really a showcase for a whole bunch of his creations for Marvel that nobody really cared about (well, except for America Chavez). About the only thing anyone remembers from it is America Chavez and the sweet cover art.
aahhhhh that makes sense. Casey's one of those guys I've mostly only heard about. I know a guy who LOVED this stuff- especially Mr. Majestic and WildCATS, which he segued into a Superman run. The rest of it's all TV stuff and creator-owned works.

Funny how twice now I've written about creators who made new characters up... but had those characters killed, got miffed, and then went BACK into a story, making sure than their creation got resurrected! Because death in comics isn't meaningless enough- we gotta have STACY X in the Marvel Comics sandbox!
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