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

[Jabroniville]

SKARTARIS:
-Skartaris is your basic everyday "Land of Adventure" barbarian setting- a land of loincloth-clad muscular men and lithe, athletic bikini-clad women going up against cavemen, lizard-men, dinosaurs and zombies. There are various lands, each ruled by a powerful King or Queen, and sorcery rules some while the sword rules others. Skartaris is initially said to be the literal underside of Earth's surface- I've seen one issue that has a map showing it's essentially "underneath" the surface with a few access points (like the one Morgan flew through), with an artificial "sun" in the middle. However, it is later said that this is actually an alternate dimension entirely.

Skartaris was colonized by ancient Atlantis centuries ago, in what was then a big focus on DC. The Atlanteans used their great technology and stuff, but their own great cataclysm destroyed this, leaving behind some of their wonders as "mysteries of the gods" to the Skartarians.

This Set:
-So this set is not only going to feature Travis Morgan, but his daughter Jennifer, Machiste, Shakira and a few other supporting characters I can find, plus Deimos the evil wizard and some of the spin-off characters, as otherwise I'm never going to remember to find out about Arak- Son of Thunder or forgotten dildos like Claw the Unconquered.

[Jabroniville]

TRAVIS MORGAN, WARLORD OF SKARTARIS
Created By: Mike Grell
First Appearance: 1st Issue Special #8 (Nov. 1975)
Role: Barbarian Hero, Man Out of Time (sorta), Warrior King
PL 9 (142)
STRENGTH 3 STAMINA 4 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 11 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 4

Skills:
Acrobatics 2 (+5)
Athletics 6 (+9)
Close Combat (Sword) 1 (+12)
Deception 2 (+6)
Expertise (Warlord of Skartaris) 10 (+12)
Expertise (Soldier) 8 (+10)
Expertise (Survival) 4 (+7)
Insight 3 (+6)
Intimidation 4 (+8)
Perception 6 (+9)
Ranged Combat (Gun) 2 (+12)
Stealth 4 (+7)
Technology 2 (+4)
Vehicles 8 (+12)

Advantages:
Benefit 4 (Warlord of Skartaris), Defensive Attack, Diehard, Equipment 4 (Sword, Magnum, Shield), Improved Aim, Improved Critical (Gun), Improved Critical (Sword), Improved Defense, Improved Disarm, Improved Initiative, Improved Smash, Inspire, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 6, Teamwork, Tracking

Equipment:
"Automag Pistol" Blast 6 (12) -- (13)

• AE: "Heroic Sword" Strength-Damage +3 (Feats: Improved Critical, Penetrating 4) (8)

"Shield" Enhanced Dodge & Parry 2 (4)

Offense:
Unarmed +11 (+3 Damage, DC 18)
Sword +12 (+6 Damage, DC 21)
Automag Pistol +12 (+6 Ranged Damage, DC 21)
Initiative +7

Defenses:
Dodge +11 (+13 Shield, DC 23), Parry +11 (+13 Shield, DC 23), Toughness +4, Fortitude +6, Will +9

Complications:
Motivation (The Safety of Skartaris)
Relationship (Wife, Daughter, Supporting Cast)- Warlord had a sizeable cast of characters, many of whom are dear to Morgan.
Enemy (Deimos)- Deimos, the belly-shirt-wearing Evil Sorceror of Skartaris, is kind of a dick, and wants to take over everything.
Power Loss (Magnum)- Morgan's trusty magnum is a deadly weapon in a world of bows & arrows, but must be used sparingly, as bullets are tricky to forge now.

Total: Abilities: 68 / Skills: 62--31 / Advantages: 27 / Powers: 0 / Defenses: 16 (142)

-So Travis Morgan ends up thrown into this strange fantasy world of Skartaris, having been a fighter pilot and now spy plane pilot- he and Machiste are quickly enslaved, but team up and fight there way free, each leading their own kingdom as they depose the Sorcerer-King of Thera, Deimos. Morgan finds his daughter, now a sorceress in this strange realm, and makes a series of other allies, and battles a vengeful Deimos and others.

-Travis Morgan is a classic skilled warrior-type in the show, being a strong guy with a good sword & shield (and a trusty magnum!), with a ton of leadership-based Skills. He's actually a LOT tougher and more skilled than the archetype in the M&M "Wizards & Warriors" worldbook, but that's because he's gotta fit into the super-hero world in this one and hold his own. He won't look otherwise out of place teaming with super-heroes, and he's elite by the standards of barbarians.

[Shock]

I had that Warlord action figure. He fit right in with all my He-Man toys (even says it on the package!) and I thought his helmet was badass. I actually never knew he had a gun as I only saw comics at random and the figure didn't come with it.

The world is pretty generic but fills my occasional craving for low fantasy. He could cross over with Conan, Elric, Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser and many others in the genre without any trouble.

[Jabroniville]

TARA MORGAN
Created By: Mike Grell
First Appearance: 1st Issue Special #8 (Nov. 1975)
Role: The Hero's Lady
PL 8 (108)
STRENGTH 2 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 5
FIGHTING 11 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 3

Skills:
Acrobatics 3 (+8)
Athletics 7 (+9)
Deception 3 (+6)
Expertise (Queen) 5 (+8)
Expertise (Soldier) 4 (+6)
Insight 4 (+7)
Intimidation 1 (+4)
Perception 5 (+8)
Stealth 4 (+9)

Advantages:
Accurate Attack, Benefit 4 (Queen of Shamballah), Defensive Attack, Equipment 1 (Sword +3), Improved Critical (Sword), Improved Disarm, Improved Initiative, Ranged Attack 6, Set-Up, Teamwork

Offense:
Unarmed +9 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Sword +11 (+5 Damage, DC 20)
Initiative +9

Defenses:
Dodge +11 (DC 21), Parry +13 (DC 23), Toughness +3, Fortitude +5, Will +7

Complications:
Relationship (Travis Morgan)- The two are married.

Total: Abilities: 58 / Skills: 36--18 / Advantages: 18 / Powers: 0 / Defenses: 14 (108)

-Introduced immediately as Travis Morgan's love interest, Tara Morgan is tall, lithe and athletic like most of Grell's ladies (there's all of one body type for women in Skartaris, honestly). She is the only child of the King of Shamballah, a great city founded centuries ago by Atlanteans. She had initially fallen in love with the son of her tutor, but the boy was banished as this was forbidden. While on a hunting expedition, Tara and some soldiers were attacked by soldiers from Thera- Tara alone escaped, and was rescued from a predatory dinosaur by Morgan, who had just been stranded there. He joins her in opposing the Theran ruler, Deimos, and this sets off the whole Warlord saga.

-Tara becomes Morgan's tutor in both swordsmanship and the ways of Skartaris, helping him adapt quickly. The two fell in love and had a son named Joshua, and she became Queen of Shamballah with her father's death. However, Joshua was taken from them and cloned by Deimos, and the parents were made to believe their son was dead. Their marriage is also strained by Morgan running around Skartaris it free it. Tara even fell into the arms of her old love when Graemore returned, but soon realized her true feelings were with Morgan.

-Tara is smart and savvy, and built like a quicker version of Morgan himself.

[Jabroniville]

MACHISTE
Created By: Mike Grell
First Appearance: Warlord #2 (March 1976)
Role: Warrior King, Black Best Friend
PL 8 (116)
STRENGTH 3 STAMINA 4 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 11 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 4

Skills:
Acrobatics 2 (+5)
Athletics 6 (+9)
Close Combat (Mace) 1 (+12)
Expertise (King) 8 (+10)
Expertise (Soldier) 6 (+8)
Insight 3 (+6)
Intimidation 4 (+8)
Perception 4 (+7)
Stealth 2 (+5)

Advantages:
Benefit 4 (King of Kiro), Defensive Attack, Diehard, Equipment 1 (Shield), Improved Aim, Improved Critical (Mace), Improved Disarm, Improved Smash, Inspire, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 4, Teamwork

Powers:
"Spiked Mace" Strength-Damage +2 [2]

Equipment:
"Shield" Enhanced Dodge & Parry 2 (4)

Offense:
Unarmed +11 (+3 Damage, DC 18)
Mace +12 (+5 Damage, DC 20)
Initiative +3

Defenses:
Dodge +10 (+11 Shield, DC 21), Parry +11 (+12 Shield, DC 22), Toughness +4, Fortitude +7, Will +7

Complications:
Responsibility (Kiro)- Machiste is the king of his own kingdom, which takes him away from Morgan and other adventures, and isolates him from them, too.
Relationship (Mariah Romanova)- The Russian exile Mariah becomes Machiste's lover.
Disabled (One-Handed)

Total: Abilities: 64 / Skills: 36--18 / Advantages: 18 / Powers: 2 / Defenses: 14 (116)

-The Token Black Guy of Warlord, Machiste is set up early as Travis Morgan's first friend, being found among the galley slaves when Morgan is captured and forced to serve about the ship Gyrfalcon. They quickly become friends, and are sold as gladiators, trained by a former fighter named Shebal. Morgan ultimately leads 200 gladiators in a massive revolt, Machiste taking second in command as they depose the Sorcerer-King Deimos. Morgan becomes warlord of Thera while Machiste returns home to Kiro, where he was actually the King! There, he finds a cursed axe that takes possession of his mind- he is unable to let go of the axe, but Morgan finds him there a few issues later. The two do battle as Machiste is becoming more evil and despotic, and Morgan realizes what's going on and cuts off his friend's right hand to free him of the axe's control.

-Machiste shaves his head to better fit the crown of Kiro and thus gains his signature look- a muscular bald black dude with a spike-studded mace. In the same story, Machiste is introduced to his love interest- an exiled Russian archaeology student & Olympic fencer named Mariah Romanova. I've honestly not seen Machiste in any of the comics I have, so he kinda disappears around the Warlord #30-60 stretch, but apparently he & Mariah are tossed back in time to the "Age of the Wizard Kings" in Skartaris. While stranded there, Machiste & Mariah become lovers. When they return home, they join Morgan's war against "New Atlantis". There is tension when Mariah later throws herself at Morgan when Tara (Morgan's wife) dies, but they make amends. Years later, Machiste is seen as the ruler of a land that Bane wishes to conquer for the United States of America- he is forced to team up with Deimos to repel the invaders.

-Ultimately, Machiste comes off as an important early character who is less so later, but is the only real challenge to Morgan as far as "Manliest Warrior in Skartaris" goes, as everyone else is either female or a wizard. Sort of the kind of "Sidekick" character you see often in fiction from around the '80s, where there's a "Black Best Friend" who is only slightly lesser than the main hero. As such, he's a PL 8 version of Morgan, lacking his spy capabilities, technological skill, and more.

[Ken]

Puts a new meaning to whacking oneself off.

[Sidney369]

I got Grell to sign this Who's Who page at a con a couple of years back. He told me that the colourist messed up because her "bikini" should have been brown instead of pink.

(Also, she has Mariah's complications, presumably due to a templating fail.)

Shouldn't Machiste have a complication involving his missing hand?

[Jabroniville]

MARIAH ROMANOVA
Created By: Mike Grell
First Appearance: Warlord #6 (May 1977)
Role: Russian Ex-Pat, Lady Swordfighter
PL 8 (99)
STRENGTH 2 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 5
FIGHTING 9 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 3 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 3

Skills:
Acrobatics 3 (+8)
Athletics 7 (+9)
Close Combat (Sword) 2 (+11)
Deception 3 (+6)
Expertise (Archaeology) 5 (+8)
Expertise (Soldier) 3 (+6)
Insight 3 (+5)
Perception 4 (+6)
Stealth 2 (+7)

Advantages:
Accurate Attack, Defensive Attack, Equipment 1 (Sword +3), Improved Critical (Sword) 2, Improved Disarm, Improved Initiative, Ranged Attack 4, Set-Up, Teamwork

Offense:
Unarmed +9 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Sword +11 (+5 Damage, DC 20)
Initiative +9

Defenses:
Dodge +11 (DC 21), Parry +13 (DC 23), Toughness +3, Fortitude +5, Will +6

Complications:
Motivation (Adventure)- Mariah left a relatively safe, scholarly existence to fight dinosaurs and shit in the wild land of Skartaris.
Relationship (Machiste)- The Russian exile Mariah becomes Machiste's lover.

Total: Abilities: 54 / Skills: 32--16 / Advantages: 13 / Powers: 0 / Defenses: 16 (99)

-Man, how many freaking characters had this eyeshadow in the 1970s-80s? I swear I've seen this 4-5 times- Dazzler, Diamond Lil, that chick from Crystar, etc. It's so distinctive yet utterly dated and it's all over the place.

-Mariah Romanova is an interesting sort, as far as backstory goes- she's one of a handful of people from the surface world who ended up in Skartaris, having followed Travis Morgan there. She was an Olympic fencer from the U.S.S.R. who quit and went into archaeology, discovering Morgan when he popped up in Peru for whatever reason. Fascinated by his stories, she decided to have some adventure, and FOLLOWED HIM. Considering this is a place where the saying is "Those who don't watch their guard will soon end up very dead" I question the wisdom of that choice, but at least she has some combat training (... provided she doesn't fight any enemies that can move in at more than one dimension).

-After initially crushing on Morgan, Mariah ends up being the love interest for Machiste (and this was back when white woman/black man wasn't that typical a coupling in comics). Apparently later she went after Morgan again, but I dunno.

-Mariah is a pretty smart, scholarly type, and specializes as a PL 8 Swordfighter leaning towards accuracy and proficiency over brute force. Really she's just like Tara Morgan since they have basically the same build and concept, but whatever.

[Goldar]

Hmmmn, Romanova. Any relationship to Natasha?

[Shock]

Hmmmn, Romanova. Any relationship to Natasha?

She's Romanoff not Romanova.

[Ken]

Hmmmn, Romanova. Any relationship to Natasha?

She's Romanoff not Romanova.

"Romanova" is the feminine form of "Romanoff". Mike Grell apparently knows or cares more about Russian naming conventions than Stan Lee did.

[Goldar]

Hmmmn, Romanova. Any relationship to Natasha?

She's Romanoff not Romanova.

"Romanova" is the feminine form of "Romanoff". Mike Grell apparently knows or cares more about Russian naming conventions than Stan Lee did.

Exactamundo!!

Hence my asking, "Any relation to Natasha?"

[Ken]

A female, ginger, Russian ex-patriate who wears black? Maybe.

[catsi563]

Possibly distant cousins several times removed. Natasha is older than she looks so its plausible she has extended family out there

Also eastern Europeans have a lot of those extended family's cousins or aunts or uncles or so on several times removed

[Jabroniville]

Who let 13-year old me design a character?

SHAKIRA
Created By: Mike Grell
First Appearance: Warlord #32 (April 1980)
Role: Quirky Catgirl
PL 8 (112)
STRENGTH 2 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 5
FIGHTING 10 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 0 AWARENESS 1 PRESENCE 1

Skills:
Acrobatics 7 (+12)
Athletics 9 (+11)
Deception 3 (+5)
Expertise (Survival) 9 (+10)
Insight 3 (+4)
Intimidation 4 (+5)
Perception 7 (+8)
Stealth 6 (+11, +15 Cat Size)

Advantages:
Accurate Attack, Defensive Attack, Equipment 1 (Knives +1), Improved Critical (Knife), Improved Disarm, Improved Initiative, Ranged Attack 6, Set-Up, Teamwork

Powers:
"Cat Form" Morph 1 (Feats: Metamorph) [6]

Offense:
Unarmed +10 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Knife +10 (+3 Damage, DC 18)
Initiative +9

Defenses:
Dodge +11 (DC 21), Parry +13 (DC 23), Toughness +3, Fortitude +5, Will +6

Complications:
Relationship (Travis Morgan)- Shakira appears to have a bit of a capricious crush on Morgan at times.

Total: Abilities: 48 / Skills: 48--24 / Advantages: 18 / Powers: 6 / Defenses: 16 (112)

-The weirdest character in Warlord's cast is the quirky catgirl Shakira- a beautiful, flighty woman in a fur bikini who transforms into a tiny black cat. This power proves extremely useful repeatedly, as this is a land where stealth is as important as ass-kickery, but Shakira is doomed to also have a cat's personality: she is mercurial, hard to read, aggressive, and both needy and independent at the same time. Ya know, as opposed to other women!

-In any case, Shakira meets Travis Morgan while she is the slave of Amarant, Queen of the Titans (.... damn I need to read that issue). Morgan helps her survive after a gladatorial battle and their captors are killed- she thus joins the cast five years into the comic's run. Exactly how she gained her powers is a mystery, but they do find a woman named Tamara who resembles Shakira and was a were-tigress- Tamara explains that her uncle was an alchemist who abducted women and turned them into cats. Tamara darkly suggests that the transformations would inevitably lead to the tame feline later turning into a savage beast, explaining that she had in the end killed her own uncle.

-Shakira is a funny one, because she's not a frontline fighter like the others- I can't even find pictures where she's holding a weapon. And she doesn't even transform into a PANTHER- she just turns into a small black housecat! But this makes her excellent at stealth, which is very important in a land where being observant is more important than being tough. She's a PL 6.5 knife-fighter who is a PL 8 defensive character.