The Age of Wonders Universe

[Libra]

Amusingly enough I actually did produce a brainwave based on the idea of taking Mark Miller's WANTED to pieces, although I'm not sure if it counts as deconstruction so much as it uses the central idea of WANTED to set up a kind of Superhero version of Fables - or if you prefer One Upon a Time - with the maintenance of the Villain's Win Forever status quo taking a good deal more effort than is apparently the case in the comic itself (an effort which would quite probably be fatally handicapped by the abortive Rictus-led coup and the ensuing losses).

Incidentally I theorise that the reason Rictus and his presumably underpowered gang were able to make a serious attempt at Domination would be due to the fact that more powerful supervillains were either busy preventing the Universe from 'snapping back' or obliged to avoid using the powers by virtue of the oldest Law of Comic Book Physics - if there are supervillains using their powers, a superhero WILL show up to stop them.

While this may seem to be rather reaching a little bit far based on small evidence, I must admit that it also stems from a major wish to see all these horrible, horrible individuals get what they deserve - the losing end of a throwdown with a bone fide superhero (ideally thanks to efforts from the local analogues of Jimmy Olsen and his ilk, because while the villains have taken great care to cripple superheroes in their new world, they've probably ignored mere loved ones and non-superhero sidekicks - because the Fraternity are ********) .

[Voltron64]

Hell, it should recognized that Wesley wasn't really standing up for himself or being a man but rather projecting his violent immature fantasies on the rest of the world. A psychopathic manchild pure and simple.

His movie counterpart however, he actually learned to stand up for himself and dare to be badass. (Movie was way better than the comic, IMHO.)

[Charles Phipps]

I used Wanted as the premise for a Mutants and Mastermind game, actually.

The PCs were children of supervillains, alright, however upon discovering the supervillains were in control of the world decided to promptly kick their ass.

Which I think would have made a better comic, personally.

[Libra]

Wasn't the basic premise of Runaways, over at Marvel Comics, actually fairly similar? (Although you do make a very excellent point).

[Phrozen]

Foxfire

Jared Lee Sewell is the newest and probably the most repellent member of The Order. Its not that his personality, he is a fine young southern gentleman. It is his musty smell and appearance which at first glance is repulsive. His hair is slime mold, his skin is covered in various fungi, and he smells like mildew. Jared is the host in a symbiotic relationship with a seemingly alien fungal colony.

Jared was united with the colony which he says is called F'sshanickerl but he calls it Shan,when Jared lost his arm up to his elbow due to a alligator attack. Miles away from help, Jared was sure that he was going to bleed out. Delusional from blood loss and shock, Jared collapsed by a rotted out log filled with foxfire as night fell. He closed his eyes for what he was sure was the last time when a bright light flashed across him coming from the foxfire. He heard a voice in his head that said it could save him if he would accept it and show it the world. Thinking this was nothing more then his mind finally going from loss of blood he accepted. The foxfire then exploded showering Jared with spores. Jared doesn't remember anything else as he passed out.

Waking back up at dawn, Jared saw that he was changed. The voice he had heard the previous night was now in his head. It introduced itself and seemed to have access to Jared's memories. It explained that the union was 'suboptimal' due to Jared's injuries but it did its best to repair his body. Jared's small time town pretty much chased him out due to his new appearance. They believed he was taken over by a demon. Hearing about the order, Jared made his way down to Mexico to join them.

Despite his grotesque appearance his new body has advantages. He is immune to poisons and toxins, he doesn't need to eat or drink but leeches nutrition from decaying matter. He has control of many fungi and his body can produce spores that can stun, cause hallucinations, and poison. He can also grow extra fungal limbs and his body regenerates damage up to new limbs. His DNA is actually a mix of human and several fungal types. Shan will also talk to him and Jared has knowledge seemingly from the from the fungal colony itself. Whether this is from Shan's previous hosts or the colony is much smarter then its biology would indicate is unknown.

[Charles Phipps]

Due to the request to parody Mark Miller!

The Octagon

The Nexus opens to a dizzying array of alternate realities, virtually every single possibility in history or alternate histories or more. This leads to a possibility that the Pendulum is only beginning to explore: time travel. It's not actual time travel since movement between time streams means that any new realities would be different from the one they left. Still, there are realities so similar as to be identical to the past.

The Octagon comes from a reality where the world is overrun with superheroes. The Nexus powers have been standardized and technology has grown by leaps and bounds. Supervillains have become something of a joke, frequently reduced to wearing themed outfits and getting sent for mental rehabilitation rather than striking fear into the hearts of regular mortals. The Octagon was the last bastion of ambition, cruelty, and greed in a world verging on the Utopian. The Octagon's attempts to overthrow the new heroic order failed miserably.

Every.

Single.

Time.

Finally, the Octagon decided they would venture to another planet Earth where there were no superheroes. Successfully doing so, the Octagon used their advanced technology and superpowers to secretly take over the world. Their infighting proceeded to level half of the planet and kill half of their order. Being supervillains, they didn't really learn their lesson and moved to a time stream just after the Nexi event. Their current plan is to take over the world like they did their last one only moderating themselves.

Yeah, good luck on that.

Ironically, the departure of the Octagon from their home world (known as the Epicverse) resulted in that universe finally achieving universal peace.

The superheroes helped their world become a true paradise and the populace eventually ascended to godhood.

All because they left.

The Octagon is an out-of-context problem for the people of the Post-Nexus world. They're getting used to supervillains and alien invaders. They're NOT used to FOUR-COLOR and Iron Age supervillains straight from comic books. The Octagon come from a reality where tropes have been completely normalized as part of daily life. It's one thing to have a guy blow off a bank vault with eye-beams, it's another for one to attack the bank with a battle zeppelin in Prussian military gear declaring yourself the ULTIMATE MASTER OF ELECTRICITY.

The Octagon are also somewhat more used to Silver Age standards of treating villains versus the more "Golden Age in 2013" treatment they're getting. Heroes aren't really adverse to killing murderers during arrests and using lethal force to defend themselves. As a result, they've suffered more setbacks than they've expected. It doesn't help the Octagon is such a group of psychotic narcissists they tend to dismiss the capabilities of superheroes as well as the regular authorities.

A warning on taking the Octagon lightly, they're not good people. When unchecked by superheroes, their combined hubris killed billions of people.

The majority of the survivors are completely unaffected by this or simply consider it a setback (one best blamed on their fellow supervillains). It won't take them terribly long to adapt to the current age's rules.

The Octagon is a fraternity of supervillains with an eight-member "Board of Directors" with almost a hundred lesser members. It had a much larger number, almost four hundred, when they left their original home world but whenever they don't have superheroes to fight for they turn on each other like craven rats. Mostly because, well, they are. Despite their pretensions of civility, they can be actually quite crude since their bad habits reinforce one another.

The Octagon's current objectives are attempting to spread their subtle influence as much as possible. They have a limited knowledge of the future, one they are making less and likely the more they mercilessly exploit it. They are attempting to actively recruit fellow supervillains while reacting to their early selves with varying degrees of success. At least one of the earlier versions of themselves have been scared into being a superhero by encountering their evil future self. The Octagon's Board is having a jolly good laugh, unaware of the possible repercussions of this.

The group, rather stupidly, believes that it can deal with most of the untrained heroes of this time rather easily. Dakki, for example, summoned a horde of Daemonites from a psychic universe to go kill one such hero and his encounters with them have only resulted in him growing stronger and much quicker than he would earlier.

Both Revered Elder Sung and the Pendulum Board of Directors are aware of the group's existence, also depriving them of one of their chief advantages. Ironically, the Board considers Revered Elder Sung a joke villain (implying he fails miserably in the future).

The current Board of Directors consists of Emperor Dynamus, Lord of Electricity, The Professor, Dakki, the Nine Tailed Fox, Queen Nightmoon, Murdermaster, Cro-Magnus, the Immortal Man, Queen Kali, the Living Goddess, and Atomicus, the Nuclear Ape.

[Voltron64]

Oh boy, these guys are gonna be utterly creamed due to the fact the people of Earth-0 are rather genre savvy. Not to mention give them all the Hannibal Lecture to end Hannibal Lectures.

[Charles Phipps]

The Celestial Commerce Guild

The invasion of the One-Above-All and the incident on Earth-17 caused Earth's governments to become very...cautious about continued exploration of the Nexus. Honestly, this was probably a good thing. There was too much happening on Earth as is. Superpowers, by themselves, were changing all levels of society. They didn't need anyone else complicating things.

Which is when the Celestial Commerce Guild parked a massive spaceship over the Earth's ten largest cities.

Nuclear war almost occurred, people rioted in the streets, and others prepared for being lifted off to a heavenly paradise on some distant planet. The world's governments expected a message from a power greater than them by an order of magnitude higher than they comprehend. They got it, alright.

"GREETINGS SAPIENTS! THIS IS THE END...OF HIGH PRICES!"

(Yes, they got it from the Simpsons.)

What followed was King Panda, The Great Bunny, Meganeko and a series of animal people accompanied by the biggest collection of aliens most humans had ever seen outside of the Mos Eisley cantina wheeling out massive series of wares for people to buy. They set up a floating shopping mall outside the city limits and made sure everyone got a chance to move around the Terrasect-based location.

All of the ships linked up to Shopping Mall Planet, which is a pocket dimension containing exactly what it sounds.

Earth's governments were decidedly nonplussed by this action and quickly moved to force the interlopers to re-zone their activities. Not before the globe was swamped with little knickknacks from other realities, however, some of which are dangerous. The Earth's governments did, however, make numerous deals with the Celestial Commerce Guild (as the aliens revealed the name of their organization to be) over the course of the next few weeks.

The Celestial Commerce Guild is a collection of individuals who smell money to be made by exploring the Nexus. It's not a traditional corporation, more like a licensing firm, with thousands of independent contractors. Traders from all over the Nexus deal with the CCG to give them access to gateways and Nexus maps in order to try and hock their wares.

Contrary to the expectations of many, the CCG isn't an evil megacorporation. The Celestial Commerce Guild is made up of numerous different types of individuals ranging from criminals to altruists with most caring very little about morality but lacking actual malevolence.

The CCG *could* ruthlessly exploit the primitives of most worlds they encounter but, just as often as not, they're more likely to try and assist planets in advancing so they can form markets for their goods.

There's also the slight problem that planets tend to vary tremendously in their technology level, not to mention basic physics. The CCG has discovered worlds where chemistry doesn't work the same, magic is everywhere, and even places where thought becomes reality.

As a result, the Celestial Commerce Guild can find itself trading with planets like Earth every bit as often as Star Trek-like worlds.

The effects of the Celestial Commerce Guild's presence on planet Earth has been considerable. King Panda sold the cure for AIDs in exchange for the secret to making Oreos. He's also since gone on to be a reserve member of the Order. Likewise, the villainous Warmonger has gone on to arm the Organization amongst numerous other terrorist groups. The Slug has also become one of the chief figures in Hong Kong crime.

Presently, the Celestial Commerce Guild is forbidden from conducting business anywhere but its embassies and with anyone but licensed representatives of UN nations. Earth-0 businesses proceed to buy material from these representatives and sell it. For the most part, only a small fraction of the Celestial Commerce Guild's inventory has been touched upon as Earth can't afford to purchase anything from its more expensive catalogs. Nevertheless, bizarre trades have resulted in numerous world-changing pieces of technology and art hitting the streets.

It also helps the Celestial Commerce Guild has designated the Earth a "Yellow Trading Zone" which means that while IT is trading with Earth's governments, that doesn't mean that independent traders can't flout the law to do some smuggling. Earth confections, Nexi (which is a form of slavery and illegal), folk art (virtually anything), animal life, and plant material are the chief exports of the planet at present.

[Voltron64]

So, a multidimensional megacorp that's actually pretty much a world-jumping version of a Space Opera Free Trader's Guild?

Nice.

[Charles Phipps]

Foxfire

Jared Lee Sewell is the newest and probably the most repellent member of The Order. Its not that his personality, he is a fine young southern gentleman. It is his musty smell and appearance which at first glance is repulsive. His hair is slime mold, his skin is covered in various fungi, and he smells like mildew. Jared is the host in a symbiotic relationship with a seemingly alien fungal colony..

I like him, he's weird and interesting with a disturbing power yet a genuine source of strength. He'll fit right in with the order.

I wonder what he thinks of the others.

[Phrozen]

Jared is actually a little scared of Shadow Lynx and they tend to avoid each other. The irony is that Jared looks much worse then she does but has kept a much more jovial attitude.

El Grande keeps trying to make him take his vitamins as his complexion is bad and he is obviously suffering. El Grande also keeps asking him if he is actually a 'heel' because he is ugly. Jared doesn't know what that means but knows that El Grande means well. He is obviously delusional but hey Jared talks to a alien fungus all the time so glass houses and all.

Jared has a secret crush on Dark Sun though fears she would reject him due to his looks. Shan on the other hand does not like her as 'dead things should rot, keep the cycle going.'

Mister Arcane can sense that there is something alien about Jared and not just he is a walking bunch of fungus. Jared is creeped out around the man. Magic is just not something he is ready to accept.

Mister King is probably Jared's favorite person in the world. He accepted him even with his looks. (Jared counts it a victory if someone is able to keep from puking on first sight.) He would literally do anything for the man.

[Charles Phipps]

The Ostiliroths

The Ostiliroths are one of the most disgusting races in the universe. They are thick, slimy, tentacle-covered creatures who bear an uncomfortable similarity to shoggoths. Worse, their natural forms smelled like a mixture of rotten seafood and sulfur. It doesn’t help they’re ridiculously powerful psychics and shape-shifters, naturally inclining humanoids to want to blast them out of existence.

Hailing from the Death Zone, the ostiliroths evolved in a profoundly alien environment where the laws of physics constantly shifted. Nexus energy soaked them from day one, giving them a host of powers but leaving them far removed from most species. They breached the Nexus early but didn't find a comfortable reception. Races which encountered them believed they were a species of Lovecraftian abomination, desiring to devour their souls and engage in tentacle-rape.

This is partially due to the fact that ostiliroths naturally produce a psychic aura about themselves which functions like pheromones. It causes any human reaction to become enhanced around them. Given most humans find Ostiliroths disgusting, most of their early encounters with mankind involved violence.

The irony is that Ostiliroths are a largely pacifistic people who prefer talk to murder. Their culture is about as far from Lovecraftian as possible, being based on arguing and deal-making. Communication skills are taught alongside reading and mathematics with a strong emphasis on wit. The usual ostiliroth hero is more likely to be a trickster than an overtly violent figure.

Eventually, the Shoggoths encountered the Deathmongers who were a nomadic race of near-humans not inclined to kill them at first sight. The Deathmongers pointed out their image problem and that they had an obvious solution to it. If people didn't like their natural forms, just assume another one.

Initial experiments with shape-shifting proved spotty. If there was one thing worse than being a disgusting tentacle monster, it was being a tentacle monster which could assume the form of a friend or relative. After much deliberation, the Grand High Council of Passive-Aggressive Arguers determined that they needed to assume forms which would be different enough to mark them as a separate species but not so alien as to be repulsive.

Encountering a pair of time-traveling con-men, they were exposed to visual media called cartoons. Noticing the similarity of their own trickster heroes to figures depicted in these stories as well as the instinctive trust humans had for them--they realized they had their answer. They would become anthropomorphic animal men.

Seriously.

Assuming the form of bipedal rabbits, mice, bears, tigers, and other creatures; the ostiliroths found their reaction from humans drastically changed. People found them strange but not repulsive. Even discovering that the ostiliroths had nastier forms didn't do much to affect their initial positive opinion. This has allowed the ostiliroths to become the richest species in creation.

Founding the Celestial Commerce Guild with the Deathmongers and inviting many of their early partners into the organization, the ostiliroths form the backbone of interstellar trade. Partially due to the reception they received from other races, the Celestial Commerce Guild is open to all species everywhere despite the predominance of ostiliroths in it. Due to the fact ositiliroths reproduce asexually and in communal pools, dynasties are nonexistent and all new members of the race come into the guild hungry for glory.

It should be noted not all ostiliroths prefer trickery to violence or trade to conquest. There's just as much diversity amongst their species as there is for humanity. Likewise, some ostiliroths prefer human-like forms to anthropomorphic animals. A few even "go native" adopting the local customs from food to sexuality. These ostiliroths are considered a little...weird.

King Panda a.k.a Captain OZ a.k.a Superior Trader Onzai

Superior Trader Onzai a.k.a Captain Oz is a hard-drinking (he prefers ammonia), hard-fighting, arrogant ship-captain who flies around in a 16th century magical Chinese junk. Something he insists is the fastest ship in the CCG. Given the thing’s inter-dimensional hopping ability means it can function like a TARDIS, this is technically true even if the thing's travel speed is ridiculously slow compared to an F16.

He won it in a card-game from an Earth-17 wizard.

King Panda is actually staying on Earth-0 because of the fact he’s in deep doo-doo with the CCG and on the run from several interdimensional crime-syndicates. Something about a princess, a farm boy, and dumped cargo. He’s attempting to make money by fighting in the UFFC, advertising, and numerous get-rich-quick schemes which invariably blow up in his face. Even if the CCG accepted Earth currency, King Panda invariably loses his profits before making any headway in getting his name cleared.

Something about being a compulsive gambler, gluttonous eater, and all-round greedy son-of-a-gun.

Despite the fact he has the power to generate fire, telekinetically move ridiculous things, fly, and turn insubstantial in addition to his shape-changing powers--King Panda is a somewhat ineffective superhero because he’s just not that smart. He’s not even a real member of the Order, he just shows up for missions because they're famous and that's good for business.

Also, he wants to help. He'd never admit it, though.

King Panda is currently riding a wave of public approval due to the fact he brought the cure for one of Earth’s most virulent plagues with him from his last stop. He traded it for the recipe for Oreos, not realizing you can't copyright a food product. Or, you know, the ingredients being listed on the back of every package.

He was actually being kind--he just didn't have to be THAT kind.

As you might guess, King Panda is not a very good trader and needs a manager. Despite being a lovable giant bear...person...King Panda has made a number of enemies. Not the least bit being The Divine Leader who, I kid you not, has a death mark on the guy.

As Mister Arcane would say, "Sweet Buddha, who the hell wants to kill a giant panda? That's Cobra Commander-esque villainy."

[Phrozen]

I am guessing that Ostil's true form triggers the 'kill it with fire' reaction in most species. Even Shan finds it loathsome and it is a bunch of mold.

[Libra]

Emperor Dynamus, Lord of Electricity

The reason Dynamus, Emperor of Electricity, Master of Disaster, Sultan of Supervillains is the most powerful and ambitious supervillain left on the Octagon's roster is brutally simple - he can remember the days when he was a z-list schlub wasting A-list powers on trying to make sure a wisecracking, do-gooding, costumed **** died in screaming agony for always trying to get in his way and always WINNING. He is NEVER going back to that life and he doesn't care who he has to maim, fry or cheat to make sure he stays away from it.

Having been liberated from his endless cycle of crime-capture-humiliation at the hands of a certain superhero, the former Dynamo has found his reputation growing by leaps and bounds as other supervillains realised that, absent someone who knew EXACTLY what buttons to hit, Dynamo wasn't stupid enough to handicap his deployment of possibly-Godlike superpowers of the electrifying sort - quite frankly this realisation was usually the last thing that passed through the minds of those who stood in his way on the path to power.

As his reputation and the sophistication of his power-use grew, so did Dynamo's ambition (hence his creation of new titles) and that might yet prove his weakness - or provide further fuel for his meteoric rise to power (and by meteoric I mean 'closely resembling a heavenly body capable of making ALL life on this planet go the way of the dinosaurs').

Still, no matter how high he climbs, Dynamus will ALWAYS look like an idiot because the man quite frankly has no taste when it comes to costumes (and no sense when pressed with this fact, amongst other obscure vulnerabilities).

The Professor

Back on the Earth he called his own, The Professor realised that he HATED the caped do-gooder who'd made The Prof's city his own through various deeds of kindness and public service when the press started calling HIM 'The Man of Tomorrow' as if an accident of superhuman genetics mattered more to the Destiny of Humanity than the deliberate manipulation of Human Potential to achieve the peaks The Professor had planned for it, as if pedantic morality mattered more than real achievement, as if people mattered more than Purpose in the short term!

So this Professor had hated The Hero for just as long as they had been familiar with one another, but he only decided to become REALLY serious about killing every single mother-loving one of that walking advertisement for pantyhoses' disciples when his self-diagnosis of Motor Neuron Disease was confirmed. After that he stopped fooling around, started building the Legion and organising the coup which would wreck the world The Heroes had built, then remake it in the fashion he desired.

For decades he worked, plotted and planned, teaching the most promising villains efficiency and indoctrinating them in the ideology that would shake their World to it's foundation, just waiting for the Crisis that would hand them the opportunity to make fate their comfort woman. The Plan failed, but The Professor decided that enough damage had been done to satisfy him in his retirement on another Earth, secret master of a World where opposition fit to defy Humanity's destiny would never develop.

He was poised to become a benevolent mentor to Humankind, acting in secret to make them all they could be - then his fellow 'retirees' began to screw the pooch, pupped a set of problems that forced them to head off on their travels again AND DRAGGED HIM ALONG.

He's been in a mood even more fulminating than usual ever since and has decided to build a better Octagon - an ambition he disdains to share with his 'colleagues' - and KILL these do-gooding superhuman ***** (who keep shoving themselves onto the Media and offending his sensibilities in the process) before they can become a bigger problem or worse yet start wearing costumes.

Except Adonis, whom he plans to keep alive as his very own performing monkey.

Dakki, the Nine Tailed Fox

In Japanese lore there are two types of Kitsune, foxes possessed of a spirit, an intellect, a genius which some claim to be divine and some merely supernatural - the zenko 'The Good' in service to the God Inari (wise, benevolent) and the yako loosely translated 'common or garden' (mischevious or downright malevolent).

Then there's Dakki, nine-tailed, nine hundred years young, d--- near Omniscient with fur as golden as a ripe summer field and a space as black as the void where his heart ought to be; it's not that she's Evil per se, just as heartless as an underfunded government bureaucrat when it comes to satisfying a distinctively warped sense of humour. How much of a pain in the neck is he? Well quite frankly every other Kitsune in existence petitioned the Kami Inari Okami to rid them of this 'Dangerous Nuisance'.

Cast out from the Home Islands of Japan, Dakki took to wandering for all of five years before she chanced upon an entire continent which he could call her own and quickly set to making it his own; the natives have walked quietly around Coyotes ever since, because Dakki is a slippery liar, difficult to disprove and in North America foxes don't tend to have golden fur.

It was all PERFECT (except for the humiliating mistakes any Coyote suffers, but Dakki has no sense of shame, so that was alright then) until that dunderheaded Norski turned into a demigod of the Asatru and started making Dakki the butt of the Joke (well, actually just beating him physically AND intellectually, but Dakki hated the thunder-headed pain in the tail anyway!). To cut a long story short, she's been riding the coat-tails of whichever superhuman promises the most amusement ever since and sees no reason to stop now.

Queen Nightmoon:

Queen Nightmoon has come a long way since the days when she turned tricks and almost as far from the day when she started playing them, but she's still the same slightly-kinky kleptomaniac she's always been (give or take a soul). Now she's Queen of any Thieves she can't be bothered to rob blind and one of the most dangerous supervillains on any World.

But she's not as contented as she wants to be - she's heard all the sensible advice The Professer could be bothered to hand out on the Homeworld and the Old World, taken pride in killing the King Freak who queered the pitch for everyone on their Conquest (with not a little satisfaction over an old score with that grinning fool paid in full) and proven herself a match for every super she's met on this world to date.

But whatever potential for good she used to have has withered over long years with Harlequins from Hell, away from the caped crusaders she used to swing with (and occasionally take a swing AT, just to keep them on their toes): where once there was the spark of something better deep inside her, now there's only a faint hope, a fool's hope - and no one hates feeling like fortune's fool more than the woman who calls herself Queen Nightmoon.

Murdermaster

Murdermaster (it's a title, not a name, but it gets attention and you're about to learn why that matters) didn't begin his career as the most lethal Assassin alive, but in an odd sort of way working as a cubicle rat provided half the training he'd need to become the most dangerous mother-lover you never see coming. It obliged him to erase (or conceal) any distinguishable personality, emotion or genuine conviction, do his job without thinking or flinching, plan in advance and gather information.

It also generated a furious desire to do pursue ANY option which would allow him to get the **** out of this line of work to the hilt and a seething mass of fury against all existence which he can tap when the Job at hand gets a touch dangerous or if he just needs to kill an entire civilisation.

But it was his second course of on-the-job training that taught him how to use all this to become a deadly, murderous and lethal son of the gun/knife/anything he can get his hands on, includng nails - no, I mean fingernails, not necessarily his own. The job the mysterious woman who'd shown up in his old existance one day and left the trail of corpses to his new life as the agent of The Killers, an organisation which killed the Bad People who were targetted by a loom which wove the tapestry which is also The World (the crowd his father ran with before he dropped dead from an impossible bullet).

Given the choice between being a decent nobody and an Assassin with a capital 'A' (and a couple of other letters) our rat decided to grown fangs and claws, setting himself to surviving the ensuing training (just the right fraction of a degree less painful than continuing in that accursed cubicle), then killing anyone he was told to kill with professional disinterest.

Then the Killers started turning on themselves and quickly finished themselves off (in a few cases with more than a little help from the latest Murdermaster, although he mostly acted in self-defence - except when he took great satsfaction in blowing the brains of that lying **** of a mentor out the back of the skull that held them). He'd learned a few lessons and become a slightly bigger man.

At this point, things took a detour into the funny pages, when the bigger fish who'd kept the Killers in work and whose cosy little vision of Continuity The Killers had kept alive (in the teeth of pathological rivalry and endemic treachery) turned up at his door, superpowers and all, demanding that he get back to work - then the Costumed response showed up and told them to **** off so they could set to getting their God-King on.

At this point a lot of villains died (with some help from Murdermaster), Retirement went out the trapdoor and the Octagon had to go on their travels, Murdermaster trailing in their wake due to his awakening appreciation for the fine art of supervillainy and the thrill of putting an entire dimension in time and space between him and that CUBICLE. He hasn't been bored since.

Cro-Magnus, the Immortal Man

Cro-Magnus is a survivor; all he's ever bothered to worry about is where the next meal is coming from and who or what he'll have to kill to get it. No, seriously, he has never even troubled himself with bothering to work out just how the heck he's lived such long, long time and generally prefers no to think about it (since ruminative contemplation will tend to get you killed or worse when it's just your reflexes between you and another annoyingly-long period of regeneration).

Don't mistake me, he's far from being an idiot (he's invulnerable to age, not immortal) and has put into effect plans cunning enough to leave Caesar (Julius AND Augustus), Sun Tzu, Bismark and an extensive list of other luminaries past and present to their deaths while he wandered off to live another day - not to mention put many a persistent threat in their graves - but when you come down to it, Cro-Magnus is overjoyed to be handed the title of Eternal Henchman (since when you're as big, strong and sneaky as Cro' you get all the power the master can wield with neither the responsibilities or the big old target painted on you in letters of FIRE). Still, the upsetting of that cosy little applecart of an Earth so recently left behind continues to bother him.

If you keep bothering Cro' for long enough, Bad Things happen - just ask the Roman, Aztec and British Empires (amongst others).

Queen Kali, the Living Goddess

Born with more arms than an octopus and slightly fewer limbs than a caterpiller, the girl who decided to call herself 'Queen Kali' when she became a woman was taught how remarkable she was from an early age, indoctrinated in the theology of the Hindu Goddess she increasingly resembled and taught all she would need to know in order to become an avatar as prone to deeds fearsome and acts benevolent as the Goddess she would represent on Earth.

Then she developed a will of her own, cried "To ---- with that" and decided to manipulate her more impressionable followers into becoming a cult and helping her kill those that displeased her, possibly taking over the world in the process. Queen Kali, you see, is not a big fan of benevolent maternal 'Goddesses' but is remarkably keen on Heavy Metal Devastation with a side of Hindu Theology.

She's been wreaking havoc (intelligently and on occasion just for fun) ever since.

Atomicus, the Nuclear Ape

The forebears of the Nuclear Ape were bred in lab, created artificially to be capable of pressing the buttons on a multi-billion dollar spaceship in just the right order over an extended period time without panicking or weakening; the genetic engineering project worked even better than expected, but the spaceship didn't (mostly because the boffins who calculated the likely radiation output dropped a few decimal points in the process). The Intelligent apes were donated to various captive breeding programmes and sanctuaries, where most were more than smart enough to conceal just how smart they really were, enjoying life to the full and then some as a result.

Then there was Descartes, who decided that a lifetime of all the females he could cope with was too much a waste of his BRILLIANT potential to be tolerated, escaped with ease and grace, then discovered that being much more intelligent than all of the inhabitants of an average room was a lot less fun when you couldn't express your superiority in language comprehensible to Humans.

Cursing fluently in chimp while Humans listened in bewilderment, Descartes built himself a voice generator, branded himself Atomicus and has never really looked back ever since; these Humans are going to do things HIS way in the end and he's going to maul, insult or ignore their Human Rights in the process.

Don't let the name fool you - he's more of a simian Stalin than he is a Ming the Merciless as a monkey.

Oh and for pity's sake don't call him a monkey; he gets so PEDANTIC about correcting you before he kills you in a horrible, horrible manner not at all befitting his sophistication.

[Libra]

Ha! - It looks as though I had a contribution to this fine setting simmering in me after all.