Jab's Builds: 2nd Edition Stuff (Kept in Reserve)

[Jabroniville]

"Beware the power of BLEEDBALL!"

PENANCE (Robbie Baldwin)
Created by: Steve Ditko
Role: The Psychopath Mega-Bullet
Team: The Shadow Initiative
PL 12 (150)
ST 13 (+1) DEX 16 (+3) CON 14 (+2) INT 8 (-1) WIS 7 (-2) CHA 7 (-2)

Skills:
Acrobatics 2 (+5)
Computers 2 (+1)
Intimidate 8 (+6)
Notice 4 (+2)

Feats:
All-Out Attack, Dodge Focus 2, Power Attack, Rage

Powers:
"Penance Armour" Device 2 (hard to lose) (Feats: Restricted to Masochists/Immune to Piercing) [9]
Protection 5 (5)
Spike Aura 1 (4)

Immunity 5 (Pain Effects) [5]

"Super-Kinetic Storms" Container 20 (Flaws: Limited to When Feeling Pain) [80]
Kinetic Aura 11 (Extras: Area-Burst) (55)
Flight 2 (Flaws: Low Ceiling) (2)
Kinetic Blast 14 (Extras: Autofire) (42) -- (43)
AP: Force Field 6 (Extras: Impervious) (12) -- (100 points)

Saves:
Toughness +2 (+7 Armour, +13 Force Field), Fortitude +5, Reflex +5, Will -1

Combat:
Attack +10, Damage +1 (+11 Aura, +14 Blasts), Defense +8 (+10 Dodge), Initiative +3

Complications:
Guilt (The Stamford Incident)
Responsibility (The Avengers Initiative)

Abilities: 5 / Skills: 16--4 / Feats: 5 / Powers: 94 / Saves: 6 / Combat: 36 (150)

-Okay, so Speedball IS very different from Penance, so he requires a separate build for this era...

-This is pretty much one of the breaking points of Civil War/Initiative/Dark Reign-era Marvel that gets to people. Speedball was never a major, or even popular character, essentially being "The Hawkeye" of a third or fourth-tier book, but everyone kinda liked him and appreciated what he was about. I was never a huge fan, but even I created a rip-off of him for the "Something Unique" fictional universe me and a bunch of internet friends had created eons ago that became one of my most beloved creations. So to see him as Captain Angst, moping over killing hundreds of children, bleeding constantly ("Bleedball" is a popular fan nickname), feeling eternal pain and anguish while Blasting away and smashing people indiscriminately... it was fairly bizarre.

-Turns out he's getting better now, as Marvel's "Heroic Age" tries to swing back into the less-cynical MurderDeathKill-happy way of doing things, so we'll see where this goes.

-Penance is a true heavyweight, effecting a mass Area-Burst Kinetic Aura, IN ADDITION TO a huge Blast that makes him PL 12. He's entirely different from Speedball in every possible way. He doesn't even bounce! His mental stats are a mess, though, so he's not much on the "Role Playing" side of things. He's the epitome of Iron Age storytelling in nearly every regard- he even has spikes on him!

[catsi563]

sweet job, Jab. Now thats what Im talking about. Penance to me is a prime example of how you can make a fairly useless if somewhat interesting character into something more.

The funny part is that as speedball we got glimpses of his true power and potential here and there but for the most part he was just a kinetic perpetual motion machine.

As Penance though he started using his powers in a less ""colorful"" far more directed way and KAPOW! we see how powerhouse he can be.

the moping and angstyness Ill grant you was a little over done, but in a way if you look at it, it was also needed for that character. Speedball really never took anything seriously, and it wasnt untill the damage was shoved in his face that he realized that there were consequences to the actions of himself and others.

In a funny way many superheroes never realized in most stories just how much damage happens when they do battle. a good majority do try their best to avoid the damage but in the end vcity blocks get leveled and the hero shares a sad moment before moving on to the next case.

the only thing that annoyed me was the use of the new warriors in the first place> i enjoyed the hell out of the NWs and for them to be put in that position was unforgivable.

[Horsenhero]

Funny thing, I always liked the original Speedball concept, because not every hero needs to be a total bad-ass waiting to happen. Unfortunately, power creep starts to sneak in and the next thing you know...he's decking Terrax.

Now I thought I hated Penance as a concept and a costume, but, then I saw the latest costume he wears in Avengers Academy and the Penance outfit doesn't look so bad. The original Ditko designed Speedball costume was the best though.

As for what they did to NW...well, it had to be somebody fans cared a little about, so it couldn't be the Rangers or anything. On the other hand, I really liked the NW and them getting screwed over was just the start of what I hated about Civil War.

[Arkrite]

I grew up on New Warriors and Darkhawk.

It's a little disheartening to see how they've been treated. I swear I heard that one of the bigwigs at Marvel literally said he hated them, and Speeball, and killed them off just because of that.

And the extra little boot grind during the Secret Invasion was really bad. "Oops, they might have been skrulls?" "No, they are totally and utterly not skrulls. They are very much dead. And never coming back."

*sigh*

I liked Speedball. I loved the horrible costume, and I loved that he had the power but not the means. I mean, he was almost unstoppable, but he wasn't really good at taking out enemies without a setup or some help. I liked that his home life was horrible, and that being this carefree cheerful bouncing masked marvel made him happy.

Seeing him as Penance just makes me very sad, really, as they've literally tore apart the character I loved and left this stranger in his place.

Of course considering how they've been suddenly trying to boost the survivor's powers it's possible a cosmic New Warriors could be in the mix.

Justice and Firestar, post Avengers training, Nova as Nova Prime (which was and still is just awesome reading) and Darkhawk...

Oi, nevermind on that last one, he needs a reboot to save him from the reboot they gave him. "It was all a dream" was just a horrible cop out.

Still, the build looks good, can't fault that!

[Michuru81]

You are my hero.

[Jabroniville]

As sad as it was for New Warriors fans to watch the team die horribly and have their names dragged through the mud (personally, I enjoyed the 90s series, but wasn't a HUGE huge fan of it- it was nice, decent comic book storytelling that fell into Iron Agey nonsense more than once, but was still pretty four-colour at it's heart, and the characterization of the main team was good. Silhouette sucked, though, and the Chorde/Tai/Folding Circle thing was boring and silly), they at least have some good things: Most every popular character survived (Speedball, Justice, Firestar, Nova; everyone who quit before this), and I think the death toll now sits and two (Microbe & Night Thrasher I), until Reborn-Namorita kicks it (which she probably will). It could be far, FAR worse. Unimaginably worse.

Think... about how ALPHA FLIGHT fans feel.

[Kreuzritter]

this implies alpha flight ever had a warriors level fanbase

[Jabroniville]

"I'm a firestarter! Twisted firestarter!!... no wait."

PRODIGY (Ritchie Gilmore)
Created by: Joseph Harris & Adam Pollina
Role: The Background Guy, The Butt-Monkey
Team: The Heavy-Hitters (Nevada)
PL 8 (89)
ST 16/26 (+3/+8) DEX 18 (+4) CON 18 (+4) INT 10 WIS 10 CHA 12 (+1)

Skills:
Acrobatics 2 (+6)
Bluff 4 (+5)
Intimidate 5 (+6)
Knowledge (Current Events) 2 (+2)
Knowledge (Pop Culture) 5 (+5)
Notice 2 (+2)
Profession (Athletics) 4 (+8) -- Uses Dex

Feats:
Attack Focus (Melee) 4, Dodge Focus 4, Improved Grab, Power Attack, Withstand Damage

Powers:
"Prodigy Armour" Device 7 (hard to lose) [28]
Enhanced Strength 10 (10)
Super-Strength 3 (6)
Protection 4 (Extras: Impervious 5) (8)
Leaping 5 (5)
Speed 3 (3)
Flight 2 (Flaws: Gliding) (2) -- (35 points)

Saves:
Toughness +4 (+8 Armour, +5 Impervious), Fortitude +6, Reflex +6, Will +3

Drawbacks:
Normal Identity (Ritchie Gilmore, Out of Costume) [-3]

Combat:
Attack +4 (+8 Melee), Damage +3 (+8 Armour), Defense +4 (+8 Dodge), Initiative +4

Complications:
Responsibility (Insane Mother)
Guilt (Lying to Penance)
Secret (The Son of Nightmare)

Abilities: 24 / Skills: 24--6 / Feats: 11 / Powers: 28 / Saves: 7 / Combat: 16 / Drawbacks: -3 (89)

-Haha, worst Powersuit EVER. OK, to be fair, Prodigy came about in that cool "Slingers" mini-series Marvel did during the late 90s, after that Spidey arc where he wore four different outfits to disguise his heroic antics when he was wanted for murder. Prodigy was a jock who found the mystically-empowered suit and used it to boss around his teammates and be an utter tool (even attacking Ricochet for taunting him at one point). Eventually he gave up the suit, and the book ended. Fast-forward an entire DECADE, and he's used as an opening shot in the Civil War, being trounced by Iron Man and captured as an early example of what happens to non-Registered heroes.

-From there, he sorta acts like a tool again, being angry and defiant, challenging people constantly, getting drunk and belligerent, and finally being attacked and captured by Norman Osborn's goons when he acts out AGAIN, once he's Registered. It's kind of... interesting to see such an unlikeable hero, I will say. Using a D-league hero makes it easier to pull off, I guess.

-Like I said, the Powersuit is hilariously weak, even compared to weak Spider-Man villains. Any Iron Man opponent would laugh at this. He's a balanced PL 8 regardless, but is REALLY cheap since he lacks most Mental Abilities and only has the most basic Powersuit-type stuff (Gliding, Leaping, Bulletproof, Semi-Strong). It kind of suits him, as he's been a complete pushover to every single hero that's come down the pike.

[Jabroniville]

And here I thought the "Super-hero in regular clothing" fad went out with the 1990s.

DEBRII (Deborah Fields)
Created by: Zeb Wells & Scottie Young
Role: The Backgroundiest of Background Characters
Team: The Avengers Resistance
PL 7 (65)
ST 10 DEX 14 (+2) CON 12 (+1) INT 10 WIS 10 CHA 11

Skills:
Bluff 4 (+4)
Notice 2 (+2)
Profession (Soldier) 2 (+2)

Feats:
Attack Focus (Ranged) 2, Dodge Focus, Power Attack

Powers:
"Debris Blast" Blast 6 (Extras: Autofire) (18) -- [21]
AP: "Debris Burst" Blast 7 (Extras: Area-Burst) (Flaws: Touch Range) (14)
AP: Telekinesis 8 (Feats: Precise) (17)
AP: Blast 8 (16)
"Debris Field" Force Field 7 [7]

Saves:
Toughness +1 (+8 Force Field), Fortitude +3, Reflex +4, Will +2

Combat:
Attack +4 (+6 Ranged), Damage +0 (+6 Autofire, +8 Blast), Defense +5 (+6 Dodge), Initiative +2

Complications:
Responsibility (The Avengers Initiative/Resistance)

Abilities: 7 / Skills: 8--2 / Feats: 4 / Powers: 28 / Saves: 6 / Combat: 18 (65)

-Holy cow Debrii sucks. I mean, really, talk about giving barely any thought to a character. She was a "Sarcastic bitchy black woman" stereotype in the New Warriors' "Reality TV" series with led to Stamford, except by some luck of the draw she ended up leaving before the Stamford Incident (meaning that Incident killed three super-heroes in total: Namorita- who is kinda back now, Night Thrasher- who got quickly replaced by a mysterious brother who is the same, and Microbe- a newly-introduced loser... and they wonder why fans didn't 'get' the scope of the tragedy). Her powers are the most original thing about her, and she's just another Telekinetic with a twist- a focus on massive fields of debris and assorted stuff to throw around or use as a force field. Why she got to hang around the ENTIRE Initiative series in such a background role I didn't even remember her most of the time is eluding me, but at least she eventually quit the Resistance and moved away because she was 'tired of it' (writer code for "we hate this character and wanted to get rid of her without seeming racist/sexist by stuffing her into the refridgerator").

-A low-powered PL 7, she's REALLY cheap on points, and has a few Blasts and a Force Field up, but is otherwise no major threat. Low-level Autofires and Bursts aren't the stuff of legend, but she could handle some minions, or maybe a Dark Rider or something. But that's it. She's overall really crummy.

[Horsenhero]

this implies alpha flight ever had a warriors level fanbase

Alpha Flight "could" have been good and "could" have had a decent fanbase, except...1) starting with John Byrne, every writer on the series seemed to make it their personal mission to decimate the fans' favorite characters and replace them with lame ones, with bad costumes, and 2) most of the stories kinda sucked and 3)...nope. There is no three, the first two points cover pretty much all of it.

And Omega Flight? That's right folks, step right up and see a Canadian super-hero team, mostly made up of US cast offs and a space-alien Thor-guy. Again...kill the good characters and replace them with crap. Except Beta Ray Bill...he can stay.

[Woodclaw]

this implies alpha flight ever had a warriors level fanbase

Alpha Flight "could" have been good and "could" have had a decent fanbase, except...1) starting with John Byrne, every writer on the series seemed to make it their personal mission to decimate the fans' favorite characters and replace them with lame ones, with bad costumes, and 2) most of the stories kinda sucked and 3)...nope. There is no three, the first two points cover pretty much all of it.

And Omega Flight? That's right folks, step right up and see a Canadian super-hero team, mostly made up of US cast offs and a space-alien Thor-guy. Again...kill the good characters and replace them with crap. Except Beta Ray Bill...he can stay.

My personal thought about Alpha Flight was that no author was ever able to gave the team a proper angle. Usually there were to line of thought: those who consider Alphe the poor men X-team since they were created on X-Men; and those who considered them the Canadian Avengers (where Canada means like the U.S. but more peaceful and with less cities).
Those poor guys never really had a chance to develop a identity as a team.

[Thorpacolypse]

One question on Debrii, Jabroni. Unless I read the Wikis wrong and remember the comics she was in differently, shouldn't she have a Power Loss: Requires little crappy objects to fling around, or something like that?

She does suck, though. I never liked her character or even liked to dislike her character. I love Prodigy, though. He's a jerk you can get behind.

[Jabroniville]

One question on Debrii, Jabroni. Unless I read the Wikis wrong and remember the comics she was in differently, shouldn't she have a Power Loss: Requires little crappy objects to fling around, or something like that? :wink:

She does suck, though. I never liked her character or even liked to dislike her character. I love Prodigy, though. He's a jerk you can get behind.

I was thinking about it, but there's almost ALWAYS stuff floating around. Garbage cans, sand, dirt, trees, what have you. I can think of barely any situations (an empty room?) where she wouldn't have SOMETHING to use. Maybe for the Force Field or something (it'd have to be tough objects or something). She seemed weak and cost-efficient enough already, so I didn't want to get any more punishing on her.

[Jabroniville]

(Blue Eagle & Ms. America are flying; The Revolutionary has the sword & gun; Whiz Kid has the visor; Hope is the blue girl; Iceberg is the ice-guy; 2-D is in 2-D)

THE LIBERTEENS
Created by: Dan Slott, Christos Gage & Patrick Scherberger
Role: Background Fodder
-The Liberteens are one of the many Initiative teams out there, created as basically a one-shot showing off what some of the teams were capable of, and that there was now a "Skrull in Every State", as their leader Revolutionary was revealed to be a Skrull. They were depicted as some goofy, catchphrase-spouting teenagers, but their real-life personas were that of a bunch of partying horn-dogs. In addition, the team was mainly inspired by members of the Liberty Legion, a grouping of 1940s-era failed concepts into a retroactive storyline by (who else?) Roy Thomas. Thomas, being an obsessive continuity-porn addict, retconned some stuff into them, and the Liberteens each take a bit from a single member.

-They mainly exist as a pack of PL 6-7 generic filler heroes that are the heroic version of cannon fodder, though to my knowledge, none have died. They were powerful enough to take out some terrorists and beat a Flag-Smasher (could've been any one of them), and help finish off the Revolutionary-Skrull, and that was the last we've seen of them. No idea if any of them are around post-Initiative. I was gonna go PL 6 with the lot of them, but they DID disable a rather large group of Mooks pretty quickly, so I'll be nice and go a bit higher with some.

THE REVOLUTIONARY
Inspired By: The Patriot (Cap rip-off who was retconned into being the third Captain America)
PL 7 (101)
ST 14 (+2) DEX 18 (+4) CON 16 (+3) INT 10 WIS 12 (+1) CHA 16 (+3)

Skills:
Bluff 4 (+4)
Knowledge (Pop Culture) 4 (+4)
Notice 4 (+5)
Profession (Soldier) 4 (+4)

Feats:
Attack Focus (Melee) 2, Defensive Roll, Dodge Focus 2, Equipment 3 (Sword & Gun), Improved Critical (Sword), Improved Disarm, Move-By Action, Power Attack, Teamwork

Equipment:
"Magnum Pistol" Blast 6 (12) -- (13)
AP: "Fancy Sabre" Strike +3 (Feats: Mighty, Improved Critical, Penetrating 5) (10)

Saves:
Toughness +3 (+4 D.Roll), Fortitude +4, Reflex +5, Will +3

Combat:
Attack +7 (+9 Melee), Damage +2 (+5 Sword, +6 Magnum), Defense +6 (+8 Dodge), Initiative +4

Complications:
Responsibility (The Avengers Initiative)

Abilities: 26 / Skills: 16--4 / Feats: 13 / Powers: 28 / Saves: 3 / Combat: 26 (101)

-The Revolutionary is the best of his team, which just goes to show you how terribly lame they all are. He's a Weapon Fighter build, focusing on being athletic and very hard to hit... but he's only PL 7 offense/PL 6 defense, so he's a complete pushover to anyone who has the slightest amount of capability.

2-D
Inspired by: The Thin Man (nobody one-shot, actually pre-dating Plastic Man, but retroactively added to the Liberty Legion)
PL 6 (79)
ST 12 (+1) DEX 14 (+2) CON 14 (+2) INT 16 (+3) WIS 12 (+1) CHA 10

Skills:
Bluff 4 (+4)
Knowledge (Pop Culture) 2 (+5)
Knowledge (Physical Science) 2 (+5)
Notice 2 (+3)
Profession (Soldier) 2 (+5)

Feats:
Attack Focus (Melee) 4, Improved Grab, Improved Grapple, Improved Pin

Powers:
"Flat, Elastic Body" Alternate Form 7 (Feats: Innate) (Extras: Continuous) (Flaws: Permanent) [36]
Insubstantial 1 (Feats: Selective) (Flaws: Limited by Width) (5)
"Standing Sideways" Invisiblity 8 (Flaws: Limited to One Side) (4)
Protection 5 (Flaws: Limited- Physical Attacks Only) (3)
Immunity 5 (Falling Damage) (5)

Elongation 8 (Feats: Dynamic) (9) -- (17)
Dynamic AP: Morph 2 (Flaws: Shapes Only, Retains Colours) (1)
Dynamic AP: Flight 2 (Flaws: Gliding) (2)
Dynamic AP: Super-Strength 2 (4)
Dynamic AP: "Elastic Snap!" Strike 5 (Feats: Extended Reach 2) (7)
-- (34 points)

Saves:
Toughness +2 (+7 Flat Form), Fortitude +3, Reflex +3, Will +2

Combat:
Attack +3 (+7 Melee), Damage +1 (+5 Snap), Defense +3 (+5 Dodge), Initiative +2

Complications:
Responsibility (The Avengers Initiative)

Abilities: 18 / Skills: 12--3 / Feats: 7 / Powers: 36 / Saves: 3 / Combat: 12 (79)

-2-D is essentially the same as Flatman, but worse in every way. He's also his team's "Smart Guy", but was obviously never really shown doing anything particularly smart in his two panels.

BLUE EAGLE
Inspired by: Red Raven (failed one-shot Hawkman rip-off who became a recurring "going crazy" super-villain)
PL 6 (61)
ST 12 (+1) DEX 16 (+3) CON 14 (+2) INT 10 WIS 10 CHA 12 (+1)

Skills:
Bluff 4 (+5)
Notice 2 (+2)
Profession (Soldier) 2 (+2)

Feats:
Dodge Focus 2, Equipment 3 (Twin Automatic Pistols 5- Autofire), Move-By Action

Powers:
"Blue Winged Harness and Body Armour" Device 2 (hard to lose) [8]
Flight 4 (Drawbacks: Power Loss- Winged) (7)
Protection 2 (2)

Saves:
Toughness +2 (+4 Harness), Fortitude +3, Reflex +3, Will +3

Combat:
Attack +7, Damage +1 (+5 Automatic Pistols), Defense +6 (+8 Dodge), Initiative +3

Complications:
Responsibility (The Avengers Initiative)

Abilities: 14 / Skills: 8--2 / Feats: 6 / Powers: 8 / Saves: 5 / Combat: 26 (61)

-Blue Eagle's a "Flying Guy", inspired by the Red Raven, who actually had quite the post-Golden Age career, despite me never having heard of him. He was an "avian" guy from the Bird-People, an offshoot of The Inhumans, who kind of... did stuff, and were always in suspended animation or something, and it led Red Raven to brawl with various heroes (a solo Angel of the X-Men, Namor the Sub-Mariner), and doing some of that "nobody other than Roy Thomas gives a crap about any of this" ret-conning, up to and including have a daughter and faking his own death. Amazingly, Red Raven pre-dates Captain America, and is thus the first Marvel hero to debut in his own comic. Alone, Blue Eagle never really did anything but "Shoot to disable" a bunch of jetpack-using terrorists.

ICEBERG
Inspired by: Jack Frost (short-lived Stan Lee creation that also saw modern-day comics as a Nordic Spirit)
PL 7 (80)
ST 16/30 (+10) DEX 10 CON 14 (+2) INT 10 WIS 10 CHA 12 (+1)

Skills:
Bluff 4 (+5)
Notice 2 (+2)
Profession (Soldier) 2 (+2)

Feats:
Attack Focus (Melee) 2, Dodge Focus 2, Power Attack

Powers:
"Ice Form" Alternate Form 9 [45]
Enhanced Strength 14 (14)
Super-Strength 5 (heavy load: 24 tons) (10)
Protection 7 (Extras: Impevious 4) (11)
Immunity 10 (Cold Effects) (10) -- (45 points)

Saves:
Toughness +2 (+9 Ice Form), Fortitude +4, Reflex +2, Will +2

Combat:
Attack +2 (+4 Melee), Damage +3 (+10 Ice Form), Defense +3 (+5 Dodge), Initiative +0

Complications:
Responsibility (The Avengers Initiative)

Abilities: 12 / Skills: 8--2 / Feats: 5 / Powers: 45 / Saves: 6 / Combat: 10 (80)

-Iceberg has one of the best power showings of his group- ripping the top off of a tank while dissing the bad guys. He's an unusual creation- an "Ice Guy" who is actually just a Powerhouse instead of a Freeze/Power Feat-based type of guy. It's a little hard to figure him out precisely (that strength feat is a bit beyond Spider-Man, and around where guys like Rage are, but probably below Rogue), so he's a VERY inaccurate Powerhouse that ends up at PL 7. His accuracy is so bad he's practically a common Thug, but that seems about right for what this group was capable of. I'm actually interested enough in this idea ("Ice Guy Turned Powerhouse") that it would make a pretty cool fully-fleshed out concept, honestly.

WHIZ KID II
Inspired by: The Whizzer (hee hee- the infamous pee-coloured Flash rip-off)
PL 7 (83)
ST 12 (+1) DEX 16 (+3) CON 14 (+2) INT 10 WIS 10 CHA 12 (+1)

Skills:
Bluff 4 (+5)
Notice 2 (+2)
Profession (Soldier) 2 (+2)

Feats:
Accurate Attack, Dodge Focus 4, Evasion, Move-By Action

Powers:
Super-Speed 6 (Drawbacks: Reduced Imp.Initiative -4) (26) -- [29]
AP: Air Control 7 (14)
AP: "Whirlwind Attack" Strike 6 (Extras: Targetted Area-Burst, Selective) (Flaws: Touch Range) (12)
AP: Spinning 5 (Flaws: Distracting) (5)
AP: "Takeaway" Strike 6 (Extras: Targetted Area-Burst, Selective) (Flaws: Touch Range, Limited to Disarm +0) (12)

Saves:
Toughness +2 (+7 Spinning), Fortitude +3, Reflex +7, Will +2

Combat:
Attack +6, Damage +1 (+6 Attacks, +7 Air Control), Defense +6 (+10 Dodge), Initiative +11

Complications:
Responsibility (The Avengers Initiative)

Abilities: 14 / Skills: 8--2 / Feats: 7 / Powers: 29 / Saves: 7 / Combat: 24 (83)

-Whiz Kid's your everyday speedster character (originally showing up in She-Hulk as a messenger for her law office), but she actually got some play during "Secret Invasion"- as a speedster, she was important in getting from place to place without taxing Devil-Slayer's teleportational powers, and as such, she helped save the day at the end, nearly dying to suck out all the Human-killing Poison Gas that the Skrulls whipped at the heroes during their big, climactic fight. She's got a couple of APs attached to her Super-Speed power (with my requisite lowering of the Improved Initiative because that's just silly), and she goes to PL 7 if she uses Air Control or Spinning (which is Distracting, so it still lowers her defense). Whiz Kid I was an X-Factor associate who could build any kind of machines with his mind.

HOPE
Inspired by: Blue Diamond (short-lived super-dense Golden Ager)
PL 7 (78)
ST 10/26 (+8) DEX 14 (+2) CON 14 (+2) INT 10 WIS 10 CHA 12 (+1)

Skills:
Bluff 4 (+5)
Notice 2 (+2)
Profession (Soldier) 2 (+2)

Feats:
Attack Focus (Melee) 2, Dodge Focus, Power Attack

Powers:
"Diamond Form" Alternate Form 9 [45]
Density 8 (24)
(Strength +16, +4 Imp. Toughness, +2 Immovable & Super-Strength)
Super-Strength 2 (total 4) (4)
Protection 4 (Extras: Impervious) (8)
Immunity 9 (Life Support) (9) -- (45 points)

Saves:
Toughness +2 (+10 Diamond Form), Fortitude +4, Reflex +3, Will +2

Combat:
Attack +3 (+5 Melee), Damage +0 (+8 Diamond Form), Defense +3 (+4 Dodge), Initiative +2

Complications:
Responsibility (The Avengers Initiative)

Abilities: 10 / Skills: 8--2 / Feats: 4 / Powers: 45 / Saves: 5 / Combat: 12 (78)

-Hope (based on The Blue Diamond, one of the more unique Golden Age heroes- a super-density guy) is a blue diamond-like girl, shown with some Super-Strength and durability (enough to allow her to easily survive a Gravity-assisted super-dive onto the Revolutionary-Skrull, killing him on impact). She's kind of the opposite of Iceberg, being tougher than she is strong, and she's PL 6.5 offense, PL 7 on defense.

MS. AMERICA II
Inspired by: Miss America I (Marvel's longest-lived Golden Age female heroine)
PL 7 (85)
ST 28 (+9) DEX 14 (+2) CON 28 (+9) INT 10 WIS 10 CHA 12 (+1)

Skills:
Bluff 4 (+5)
Notice 2 (+2)
Profession (Soldier) 2 (+2)

Feats:
Dodge Focus 2, Power Attack, Withstand Damage

Powers:
Super-Strength 5 (heavy load: 20 tons) [10]
Impervious Toughness 4 [4]
Flight 4 [8]

Saves:
Toughness +9, Fortitude +9, Reflex +3, Will +2

Combat:
Attack +5, Damage +9, Defense +3 (+5 Dodge), Initiative +2

Complications:
Responsibility (The Avengers Initiative)

Abilities: 38 / Skills: 8--2 / Feats: 4 / Powers: 22 / Saves: 3 / Combat: 16 (85)

-Ms. America is a new version of the first, a Golden Age heroine who was bumped from covery duty on her own series after issue #2 (at which point it became a standard teenage girls' magazine... alongside Miss America strips and Patsy Walker's debut), but she did get on some random super-teams back in the day as well. The new version didn't really do much other than fly once, and then take Flag-Smasher's best attack head-on, ignoring the big mace like it was nothing, and then knocking his ass out. It's good enough to get her a solid PL 7 status, as she's got your standard boring Flying Brick power-set firmly in place.

[Jabroniville]

Okay, that does it for the FIRST half of the "Initiative" builds, and I figured since it's such a big haul, and two people specifically requested this team, I'd make some more "2nd Edition Retirement Tour" builds for them-

THE THUNDERBOLTS:

So this was an interesting comic book series. It debuted in 1997, a product of the Post-Onslaught-era of Marvel, when the Avengers and Fantastic Four were dead, leaving nobody as the "main" heroes of the Marvel Universe (since Spidey & the X-Men were most often seen as outlaws or troublemakers to the public). So in their place, a new team of heroes was created- The Thunderbolts! Created by Kurt Busiek (yet to take over the Avengers book) and Mark Bagley (post-New Warriors and Spider-Man), they seemed to be a pretty mediocre team, not unlike DC's failed Power Company years later (also done by Busiek). Pretty generic powers, some silly names and late-90s-ish stuff going on...

And then that first issue came out, after a guest-shot in a Hulk story. Standard super-hero stuff, right until the very end: when it was revealed that the ENTIRE TEAM- Citizen V, Atlas, etc., were actually the MASTERS OF EVIL is disguise, with BARON FREAKING ZEMO as their leader "Citizen V", using the "Thunderbolts" as a cover story to allow them to operate in broad daylight and gain massive power while all the "good" heroes were dead! To say this was shocking was an understatement, as Wizard basically blew it's wad over it, and fans still talk about it to this day as one of the greatest swerves every. It's rather unsurpassable in these days of supreme internet coverage, and was greatly helped by the fact that these characters were all minor-league.

Something about those C & D-leaguers, y'know? Everyone who's visited my thread has noticed I have an absurd fondness for these types of guys, even when they out-and-out SUCK, because they often have great potential. Writers of guys like Batman & Nightwing are HEAVILY limited by the almighty Bat-editors, who are answerable to the heads at Warner Bros. themselves, who won't take kindly to massive changes in their most marketable gimmicks. Even the Avengers are given to tight controls, and the Teen Titans book has been ruined time and again by various editors undercutting the writers' wishes (alongside crappy writing in general) by killing and un-killing certain characters, and forcing people into different books.

But D-Leaguers? They're fine and open to any and all use. Want to kill someone like Blackwing or Zzzax? Go ahead! Because these guys are so minor, the storytelling options just FLY open. It's what can make teams like X-Force and X-Factor more interesting than the big-league X-Men- people can change, grow and even die casually and you know they won't just pull a Superman/Cap/Batman and bring them back within a couple years- there's actually a really good chance someone's toast for GOOD. And so The Thunderbolts was perfect- every character other than Zemo was a minor-league nobody villain who was almost completely forgotten about. The villainous Giant-Man guy? Moonstone, a sub-par generic female villain, so minor even Mark Gruenwald didn't bother to flesh out her character in his Captain America book when he was able to use her? The Beetle? These guys were total blank slates, easy to write over, change and alter the personas of, and IT DIDN'T MATTER. This freedom can create some of the best stories in comics.

The History of the Book:
It seems to have a pretty small, but quite vocal fanbase, who really liked these characters, and hated what eventually became of most of them. It went on as "Fake super-heroes for a while", before a Stockholm Syndrome-type of thing went on, and the age-old "Falling in LOVE with you wasn't part of the plan!" trope (replacing "you" with "being a hero") came into play, resulting in a team of repentant (and semi-repentant) super-villains trying to make their way. Busiek's always great for plotting, and you can't ask for a more comic-booky art style than Bagley, who's truly one of the greats for shear colourful, crisp art and expressive faces. Fabian Nicieza took over a bit later, and he's one of my favourites of writing minor-type storylines with D-leaguers very well- a truly under-rated guy.

The book kicked along, semi-popular but never huge, for a long time, before the typical crappy editorial interference kicked in. A HORRIBLE run featuring a bunch of super-villains fighting in some kind of Fight League failed miserably (featuring none of the T-Bolts cast), and we got another bunch of books written by Warren Ellis and others, showing ACTUAL super-villains under the government's control doing stuff during the whole "Civil War" crisis. The jury's still out on that stuff, but I was never overly interested.

But a confession: I've never read the series . I think I flipped through it back in the day once or twice, but I completely missed out on the entire thing. It's not that I was uninterested- I was just out of comics COMPLETELY at that point in time. I got into comics in the early-90s on a big level (after being that kid who tried to join in on comics discussions, but didn't really know what it was about because I didn't have many), around the early days of the "X-Men" adjectiveless series, right before the Image X-odus. I stuck around for about three or four years (X-Men & X-Force had hit the 30s & 40s by then) before dropping out due to lagging interest. I still LIKED comics, but I'd basically grown out of them, and it was long before the Trade Paperback market exploded. In the early 2000s, I got back into comics in a BIG way, as I finally started collecting Wizard Magazine and got onto the WizardWorld Boards, where I did some research and found out about all sorts of old storylines I'd missed (something called "Watchmen", you say? That might prove interesting. Oh, a book called "The Dark Knight Returns" is okay? I'll check it out!).

So I missed out on the Onslaught saga (I Byrne-stole some books off the rack, ie. just read them there in the store, so I KINDA knew what was going on), Heroes Reborn, etc., and so this entire run of "Thunderbolts" was lost on me. So some of these builds may be off by a bit, as they're entirely Wiki-fueled (or using that Handbook-y site, or my Marvel SAGA-system RPG-book which has some T-Bolts builds in it as well). Just let me know if I've missed anything.

Here's the Roster (keeping to the 'classic' line-up mostly, plus some added guys from a few eras. Don't think I'm missing anyone important who I've already built):
Citizen V (aka Baron Zemo II)
Meteorite (aka Moonstone)
Techno (aka Fixer)
Mach-1 (aka The Beetle)
Songbird (aka Screaming Mimi)
Atlas (aka Goliath)
Jolt
Charcoal
Ogre
Cardinal
Blackheath (aka Plantman)
Man-Killer
Cyclone
Photon
Speed Demon
Joystick
Radioactive Man