Elephantmen style animal/human hybrids

[TheManagement]

I've been thinking about building an adventure loosely based on the Mappo story in Elephantmen... which btw, if you aren't reading it you should be.
I have no idea what powerlevl I should place the hybrid soldiers at. I plan on giving them some species specific abilities obviously, but they all also have some degree of superhuman strength, durability, and recovery... along with their incredibly rigorous warfare training.
For those of you reading the series, what do you think would be some good stats to start my build at.

[Earth-Two_Kenn]

"I am not an animal."

[Arthur Eld]

I'm not familiar with the setting, but just from what I've read on Wikipedia and your description, I'd say PL 8 sounds about right.

It depends on the feel of the campaign. You could easily run it at PL 10, as well (plenty of mundane 'super'-soldier types fall into that level), but PL 8 lets conventional forces be more of a threat.

[RedBstrd]

I would agree that PL 8 sounds good.

I also agree that Elephantmen is excellent. One suggestion that I have would be to set the game in the same period as the comic. One of the things that makes Elephantmen so good, in my opinion, is the way that it takes the story in a different direction than we expect as the reader. Instead of being a story about the war itself (aside from "War Toys"), it primarily is a story about the rehabilitation of the Elephantmen after a cessation of hostilities. If you set it during the war, you're probably going to have a lot of problems trying to give any of the characters meaningful reasons for human emotions or to give them much of a background. Asking players to think about what the experienced during the war, how they are dealing with integration into human society, what they think about their past, and so on is a good way to add the character development that the comic offers but an adventure set during the war wouldn't be able to deliver as easily.

[TheManagement]

It actually would be taking place in "modern" times, as I set the campaign in the "near future" it's only a few years from now.

My PC's main villain is a mad scientist with his grubby little mits in a bunch of stuff all over the globe. Every now and again, they come up against one of his schemes. What they don't know is that he's slowly been building his base of power in northern Africa, and their final showdown with him will be in the midst of a civil war that he starts.

His soldiers will be based off of the Elephantmen, and my PCs will be directly involved in their rehabilitation.