Jab’s Builds! (Lawnmower Man! Samus Aran! Metroids!)

[JDRook]

The only good vamp is one that's flambe'd. I hate the idea of vampires. Especially the 'sexy' ones. In my mind, there is no such thing as a sexy vampire. They're animated corpses for goodness sakes! You're basically making whoo-whoo eyes at a walking dead thing. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck.

I never understood the appeal.

I get them as a narrative tool. I remember picking up the Anne Rice novels ages ago and I could see how she uses these long-lived characters with heightened senses to viscerally draw the reader into scenes with all this sense detail and historical first-person experiences, almost giving an omniscient third-person perspective to individual characters; her previous experience with erotic fiction obviously carries over into that as well. I recall seeing similar tricks done in the Highlander series only without the excessive sensuality.

I agree they feel overused, though, and there's probably a straight line of fault you can draw through Rice and Meyer to that.

[Jabroniville]

110) MAD GASSER OF MATTOON
Origin: Mysterious Events (1940s America)
Role: Public Nuisance
PL 8 (69)
STRENGTH 1 STAMINA 2 AGILITY 2
FIGHTING 6 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 3 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Athletics 5 (+6)
Deception 6 (+8)
Expertise (Science) 4 (+7)
Intimidation 3 (+5)
Perception 4 (+6)
Stealth 4 (+6)

Advantages:
Equipment 7 (Gas Gun- Affliction 8; Fort; Dazed & Impaired/Stunned & Disabled/Incapacitated- Extra Condition, Area- 30ft. Cloud +2)

Offense:
Unarmed +6 (+1 Damage, DC 16)
Gas Gun +8 Area (+8 Affliction, DC 18)
Initiative +2

Defenses:
Dodge +6 (DC 16), Parry +6 (DC 16), Toughness +2, Fortitude +4, Will +5

Complications:
Motivation (Mayhem)- The Mad Gasser appears to engage in random attacks.

Total: Abilities: 40 / Skills: 26--13 / Advantages: 7 / Powers: 0 / Defenses: 9 (69)

-huh, I've never heard this story before. The "Mad Gasser of Mattoon" (jesus, did Stan Lee write this copy?) was one or a number of mystery assailants who engaged in a series of gas attacks in Mattoon, Illinois during the 1940s. Around two dozen incidents were reported of people smelling strange odors and then feeling paralyzed, nauseous or unable to breathe properly. The police didn't take it very seriously, could never find the prowler that some victims had reported seeing, and the "attacks" are now considered to be a case of mass hysteria- multiple people believing that something is happening to them because they heard about it happening somewhere else. Once the police ordered the citizens to cease their vigilante watch for further attacks by the mysterious prowler, the attacks stopped.

-The MIMP figure features a hunched figure with alien hands and a gas mask, matching eyewitness accounts of a tall, thin man. This is a SERIOUSLY obscure character for the line, though- a few gas attacks in one small town and we have a Monster In My Pocket? Very odd.

[JDRook]

[KorokoMystia]

Somehow the Mad Gasser features in one of the Shin Megami Tensei games, and that's where the first picture comes from, too. (since those games also pull from lots of different cultures and folklore for their monsters)

[Jabroniville]

I picked up a lot of New Warriors comics at the Comic Expo (and, true to fashion, accidentally bought two I already owned, lol), which produced some interesting stuff. #25 featured Mark Bagley's last issue, and the culmination of the Folding Circle arc, of which only Midnight's Fire & Left Hand got any characterization- it did away with Tai, capping off a large chunk of the book. This was also Mark Bagley's last issue, as he had to focus on his Spider-Man work- apparently NW was his first regular gig at the mainline Marvel Universe.

#53 was a random grab, but was also FABIAN NICIEZA's final issue, after which it was pawned off to his assistant/successor. Retrospect makes it clear that this was the final nail for the book, which even Fabe had admitted was getting "an ever-dwindling fanbase". He confessed that after his kid was born, he was going to have to focus on his other stuff, which of course was the X-Books.

There's also that issue where Empath is revealed to be keeping up the deception that keeps the people of Nova Roma thinking they're Roman citizens. What's weird about it is how... RANDOM it is. Like he couldn't fit this into X-Force so instead it's Firestar of all people who uncovers things, with Cannonball & Warpath being mind-controlled (she even suggests that because they're men, they're not as socially-capable of being suspicious of people behaving strangely, even when they notice them acting odd).

And it's all so RANDOM- why ever deal with this? Magma, Empath and Nova Roma had nothing to do with X-Force, save Magma being a former New Mutant and Hellion (like some X-Forcers). Nova Roma was a completely ignored part of comics history! Was this just an issue of Nova Roma sticking in Fabian's craw? Because he was never writing The New Mutants when it was dealt with. And so he "Everything You Know Is Wrong"d it out... and then it was never dealt with for fifteen more years, until someone came in and un-wronged it.

[greycrusader]

Weird how the New Mutants book was so very good in its early run, and the characters sort of a big deal...and then both became just about entirely irrelevant, really quickly. Some of the old members occasionally crop up here and there, but never in any important way. About the ONLY exception is Rahne, who was a pretty cool character in PAD's original run of X-Factor, but since then, she's just been muddled up so much.

Seems to be the case with nearly ALL Marvel's "teen teams"-New Warriors, Young Avengers, Runaways-a short quality run, some popularity, then sliding into comics limbo.

All my best.

[Spectrum]

Somehow the Mad Gasser features in one of the Shin Megami Tensei games, and that's where the first picture comes from, too. (since those games also pull from lots of different cultures and folklore for their monsters)

I've been reading up on the Mad Gasser and how it has been documented as a mid20th century case of mass hysteria and was all over the Psychological Journals of the time.. It's very possible that the researchers came across this story when doing general research into fear.

[HalloweenJack]

I was wondering when you were going to get to the Mad Gasser.

That was a story that really interested me because it was so odd and MIMP is the first place I had ever heard of it. Years later I'd find some info on it in some paranormal books in my school library when I did library science. I seem to recall people suspected the Gasser may have actually been a woman.

[Jabroniville]

39) MAD SCIENTIST (Dr. Henry Jekyll, aka Edward Hyde)
Origin: Modern Story (Late 19th Century)
Role: Dr. Jekyll/Mister Hyde
PL 5 (73), PL 6 (73) Defenses
STRENGTH 0/4 STAMINA 0/4 AGILITY 0/3
FIGHTING 0/6 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 7 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Deception 6 (+8)
Expertise (Science) 4 (+11)
Perception 2 (+4)

Advantages:
Inventor

Powers:
"Mr. Hyde Form"
Enhanced Strength 4 [8]
Enhanced Stamina 4 [8]
Enhanced Agility 3 [6]
Enhanced Fighting 6 [12]
Enhanced Advantages 2: Chokehold, Fast Grab [2]

Offense:
Unarmed +6 (+4 Damage, DC 19)
Initiative +0

Defenses:
Dodge +6 (DC 16), Parry +6 (DC 16), Toughness +4, Fortitude +6, Will +5

Complications:
Involuntary Transformation- Dr. Jekyll cannot help but take the form of Mr. Hyde, sometimes transforming involuntarily. Hyde is actually a separate personality, and does things that Jekyll doesn't want.

Total: Abilities: 22 / Skills: 12--6 / Advantages: 1 / Powers: 36 / Defenses: 8 (73)

-Mad Scientists are more of a "Stock Character" than monster, and appear all over the place, from horror to science-fiction. The notion of highly-intelligent people being a bit "off" has been a thing forever, and these kooks take it to the extreme, with wild hair and crazy inventions the norm. The prototype is Victor Frankenstein himself, though the original character is more of a tortured, obsessed genius. The Island of Doctor Moreau in 1896 popularized the trope even further, making a villainous variant. Though the characters were always common, the incredible weapons of World War II led to a proliferation of them, as many people began to fear the notion of science going out of control.

-The MIMP Mad Scientist, however, is directly supposed to be Dr. Jekyll, of the famous 1886 novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. This created the iconic scientist whose strange formula caused him to become a murderous maniac who kills people during the course of the story. The famous metamorphosis actually takes the form of a TWIST ENDING, however, which became so iconic that every retelling presumes that the audience knows the secret in the first place and has to make do with a different sort of plot- the original is actually a mystery about some evil "Mr. Hyde" who keeps doing bad things, but disappears frequently. It turns out that Dr. Jekyll created this personality to indulge in his worst desires, but found the transformations ultimately permanent, as his "cure" serum starts to not work any longer. The main character only discovers the truth after Hyde is discovered dead, wearing Jekyll's clothes.

-The character has since become an icon- a representation of the duality of the human spirit as both Good and Evil, and the inner turmoil between those two extremes. The very names "Jekyll & Hyde" are tropes in and of themselves, with Marvel Comics in particular doing the most with their own tragic figure, the powerful Incredible Hulk. That Jekyll deliberately created Hyde to live out some darker impulses typically goes ignored in later versions, which mark him as entirely tragic.

-The MIMP figure isn't overly great, but is at least evocative of a monstrous scientist- Mr. Hyde here appears in Jekyll's clothes, looking like a deformed monster.

[KorokoMystia]

Whenever I think of Dr. Jekyll, my mind usually thinks of the infamously bad NES game, where Jekyll walks incredibly slow, his cane can't damage any of the enemies (except bees for some reason), and when his stress meter gets to high, you turn into Hyde and the gameplay completely changes into a force-scrolling action game where Hyde has to punch and shoot fireballs (rather fittingly named the "Psycho-Wave") at random monsters (though given the story, you oculd easily flavor it as that's what Hyde sees the people as), and since Hyde and Jekyll share the same stages, but flipped left to right, if Hyde reaches the same spot as Jekyll, you will instantly get stuck by lightning and get a game over. It's bizarre.

[Scots Dragon]

The only good vamp is one that's flambe'd. I hate the idea of vampires. Especially the 'sexy' ones. In my mind, there is no such thing as a sexy vampire. They're animated corpses for goodness sakes! You're basically making whoo-whoo eyes at a walking dead thing. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck.

I never understood the appeal.

I get them as a narrative tool. I remember picking up the Anne Rice novels ages ago and I could see how she uses these long-lived characters with heightened senses to viscerally draw the reader into scenes with all this sense detail and historical first-person experiences, almost giving an omniscient third-person perspective to individual characters; her previous experience with erotic fiction obviously carries over into that as well. I recall seeing similar tricks done in the Highlander series only without the excessive sensuality.

I agree they feel overused, though, and there's probably a straight line of fault you can draw through Rice and Meyer to that.

Sexy and seductive vampires go back as far as they've existed as a horror creature. Literally the first major literary vampire was in the early-19th century with a character called Lord Ruthven who seduced the sister of the protagonist. And even before then, folkloric vampires and several other creatures that serve as the basis for them have involved seduction and similar. The concept of the dhampir or 'half-vampire' is equally old.

Meyer and Rice are playing a literally-centuries-old game. They just weren't playing it very 'well.

And having seen stuff from Twilight, let me tell you; the biggest problem with those vampires is that they're not sexy. Turns out a pretty damn conservative Mormon housewife writing for teenagers wasn't actually the most qualified person to bring any real eroticism or sexiness to the table.

Incidentally, vampires aren't completely 'walking corpses'. They retain the vitality of life by virtue of stealing it from the still-living. That's kind of the whole point, and they tend to acquire some kind of unearthly beauty and attractiveness as part of the package deal. Often this itself is to aid in their ability to stalk and attract living prey. If you're a young and healthy human, you're gonna want to hang around with the impossibly attractive person with the hypnotic eyes.

[Jabroniville]

8) CYCLOPS
Origin: Mythological Creature (Ancient Greece)
Role: Large Brute, Man-Eater
PL 10 (91)
STRENGTH 11 STAMINA 14 AGILITY -1
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE -2 AWARENESS -1 PRESENCE -2

Skills:
Athletics 3 (+12)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 9 (+7)
Expertise (Survival) 6 (+4)
Intimidation 10 (+8, +14 Size)
Perception 5 (+4)
Ranged Combat (Rocks) 3 (+7)
Stealth 4 (+3, -9 Size)

Advantages:
Fast Grab, Improved Critical (Club), Improved Grab, Improved Hold, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 4

Powers:
Growth 12 (Str & Sta +12, +12 Mass, +6 Intimidation, -6 Dodge/Parry, +1 Speed, -12 Stealth) -- (48 feet) (Feats: Innate) (Extras: Continuous) [25]
"Giant Senses" Senses 2 (Low-Light Vision, Acute Scent) [2]
"Giant's Size" Strength-Damage +2 (Feats: Reach 2) [4]
"Giant Stride" Speed 3 (16 mph) [3]
"Wall of Mass" Immunity 1 (Cold) [1]

Offense:
Unarmed +9 (+11 Damage, DC 26)
War Club +8 (+12 Damage, DC 25)
Initiative -1

Defenses:
Dodge +5 (DC 15), Parry +7 (DC 17), Toughness +14, Fortitude +14, Will +5

Complications:
Prejudice (Monster)
Disabled (One-Eyed)- Cyclopses do not have good depth perception, and can be more easily blinded than other creatures.

Total: Abilities: 6 / Skills: 32--16 / Advantages: 9 / Powers: 35 / Defenses: 25 (91)

-The famous Cyclops are known the world over, but take a few different forms in Greek Mythology. The three "Cyclopes" ("Round Eyes") were children of the Sky & Earth (Uranos & Gaea), imprisoned by their cruel father, and later by their brother Kronos, who was himself unseated by Zeus using weapons the Cyclopes made for him and his brothers- particularly his famous Thunderbolt. Here they are largely ignored or left alone, though some stories have them killed by Zeus, and another by Apollo (for creating the thunderbolt that killed his son Asclepius). Others write that they continue to serve Olympus, aiding Hephaestus in his foundry.

-In Homer's Odyssey, they are an uncivilized group of shepherds, made most famous by Poseidon's son Polyphemus, who is blinded by Odysseus, who gives his name as "Nobody", confusing the others when Polyphemus names his attacker. Another group of Cyclopes are said to have built the walls of Mycenae. Some naturalists have suggested that the discovery of elephant skeletons may have created the "Cyclops" story, as the central eye cavity of an elephant's skull can be mistaken for the place of a single eye.

-The MIMP figure is alright, but not overly impressive. His beaky mouth looks kind of wimpy to me. He's said to be a 50-foot-tall man-eater, so I went with an upgraded Giant build. They appear briefly in the NES game.

[HalloweenJack]

I never even noticed he had a beak

[Jabroniville]

14) MANTICORE
Origin: Folklore (Persia, 300 BC)
Role: Flying Mix & Match Critter
PL 9 (126)
STRENGTH 7 STAMINA 8 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 9 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE -4 AWARENESS 1 PRESENCE -2

Skills:
Acrobatics 2 (+5)
Athletics 2 (+8)
Expertise (Survival) 5 (+6)
Intimidation 12 (+10 Size)
Perception 8 (+9)
Ranged Combat (Barbs) 8 (+8)
Stealth 3 (+6)

Advantages:
Accurate Attack, All-Out Attack, Chokehold, Diehard, Extraordinary Effort, Fast Grab, Fearless, Improved Critical (Natural Weapons) 3, Improved Hold, Improved Initiative, Prone Fighting, Ultimate Intimidation Check

Powers:
"Animal Senses" Senses 5 (Low-Light Vision, Acute & Extended Scent, Extended & Ultra-Hearing) [5]
Speed 2 (8 mph) [2]
"Natural Weapons- Claws & Teeth" Strength-Damage +2 [2]

"Cat Agility" Leaping 1 (15 feet) [1]
"Natural Size" Growth 1 (Str & Sta +1, +1 Mass, +0 Intimidation, -0 Dodge/Parry, -1 Stealth) -- (8 feet) (Feats: Innate) (Extras: Permanent +0) [3]

"Scorpion Tail"
Strength-Damage +1 Linked to Weaken Stamina 8 (Extras: Progressive +2) (25) -- [26]
AE: "Thrown Barbs" Blast 3 Linked to Weaken Stamina 4 (Extras: Progressive +2, Ranged) (22)

Offense:
Unarmed +9 (+7 Damage, DC 22)
Claws & Teeth +9 (+9 Damage, DC 24)
Scorpion Tail +9 (+8 Damage & +8 Weaken, DC 23 & 18)
Thrown Barbs +8 (+3 Ranged Damage & +4 Affliction, DC 18 & 14)
Initiative +7

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

Complications:
Disabled (Animal)- Manticores cannot speak to humans, nor use their paws to easily manipulate objects.

Total: Abilities: 40 / Skills: 40--20 / Advantages: 13 / Powers: 39 / Defenses: 15 (126)

-Manticores are the creation of Persian mythology- a Manticore had the head of a man, the body of a lion, and a tail covered in venomous spines (or just a scorpion's tail). With triple rows of teeth, they were man-eaters ("Mardyakhowr" = "Man Eater"). It passed into European folklore because of a Greek court physician of King Artaxerxes II in the 300s, but later writers presumed this was a tiger with some mythological fervor attached to it. Even so, the naturalist Pliny wrote numerous fanciful descriptions into his books, which were repeated endlessly in the Middle Ages, speaking of it as some mysterious man-eater from India. Even in the 1600s, naturalists would write of the creature like it was real. Manticores very rarely appear in fiction that I can see- an even larger, bat-winged version is a rent-a-monster in Dungeons & Dragons and that's all I can remember.

-The MIMP figure is decent-looking- the face is like something out of Attack on Titan, and there's a lot of fur detailing, though it's chowing down on some weirdly-flat bone. The tail ends in a pincer-like shape instead of a scorpion's stinger, which is odd, but a decent creative choice. They appear briefly in the NES video game, hiding behind pillars, throwing bones as projectiles, and taking a few hits to defeat.

-This Manticore takes my Lion build and upgrades it with strength, durability and greater fighting, in addition to the tail of a scorpion, and barbed spines. My previous build for my Animal thread was much too large, being equivalent to the D&D version.

[Jabroniville]

55) SCORPION MAN
Origin: Mythological Creature (Ancient Assyria)
Role: Desert Monster
PL 7 (145)
STRENGTH 6 STAMINA 7 AGILITY 2
FIGHTING 6 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE -1 AWARENESS 0 PRESENCE -3

Skills:
Athletics 4 (+10)
Expertise (Survival) 5 (+5)
Insight 2 (+2)
Intimidation 12 (+9, +11 Size)
Peception 8 (+8)
Stealth 6 (+8, +4 Size, +12 Deserts)

Advantages:
Chokehold, Diehard, Equipment 2 (Bow & Arrow), Fast Grab, Improved Critical (Stinger) 2, Improved Grab, Improved Initiative 2, Improved Hold, Improved Smash, Power Attack, Precise Attack (Close/Concealment), Ranged Attack 6, Startle

Powers:
"Natural Size" Growth 4 (Str & Sta +4, +4 Mass, +2 Intimidation, -2 Dodge/Parry, -4 Stealth) -- (12 feet) (Feats: Innate) (Extras: Permanent +0) [9]
"Desert Creature" Enhanced Skills 6: Stealth 6 (+12) (Flaws: Limited to Deserts) [1.5]

"Half-Arachnid Physiology"
Senses 1 (Low-Light Vision) [1]
"Tremorsense" Senses 4 (Ranged Touch- Accurate & Extended) [4]
Speed 3 (16 mph) [3]
Movement 2 (Wall-Crawling 2) [4]
Extra Limbs 8 [8]
Burrowing 6 (4 mph) [6]

"Stinging Tail" Strength-Damage +2 (Feats: Reach 3- one for Each Power, Penetrating 6) Linked to Weaken Stamina 6 (Extras: Progressive +2) & Affliction 7 (Fort; Impaired/Disabled/Paralyzed) (36) -- [37]
AE: "Multi-Limb Attack" Strength-Damage +0 (Extras: Multiattack 6) (6)

Offense:
Unarmed +6 (+6 Damage, DC 21)
Stinging Tail +6 (+8 Damage, +6 Weaken & +7 Affliction, DC 23, 16 & 17)
Bow & Arrow +4 (+4 Ranged Damage, DC 19)
Initiative +10

Defenses:
Dodge +6 (DC 16), Parry +7 (DC 17), Toughness +7, Fortitude +8, Will +4

Complications:
None

Total: Abilities: 18 / Skills: 37--18.5 / Advantages: 21 / Powers: 73.5 / Defenses: 14 (145)

-Scorpion Men are rarely-appearing monsters in Assyrian Mythology, created by the evil Goddess Tiamat as Elite Mooks to wage war against the younger Gods for the betrayal of her mate, Apsu. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, they stand guard outside the gates for the Land of Darkness. They are given a fanciful description- "Their heads touch the sky" and "their glance is death". Gilgamesh meets them on his journey, but apparently they do not fight.

-The MIMP figure is one of the plainer ones, but at least respects the origins, looking like a bearded man with Assyrian headgear. Wielding a bow, he holds it straight forwards, giving him a bit of a static look.