by Defender2.0 » Sun Apr 08, 2007 2:38 am
Jack Wolf
'What's all the rumpus Doc? Prof Psion blow up Allen Street?'
There may be stronger, there may be faster, but when it comes to the men and women of Freedom’s Heroic community, nobody comes tougher than Jack Wolf. From loose canon to seasoned veteran, Jack is a man who’s seen the best and worst Freedom’s had to offer thrown at him and emerged stronger and more assured for it.
For Jack, watching ‘the kids’ come into their own has been an incredible experience. Unlike Duncan Summers’ curriculum at the Claremont Academy, Jack has trained Max, Tesla, Victoria and Chase with a fairly free hand, tailoring his training regimen to compliment their abilities and personal styles to such an extent that it tends to feel a bit less like regimented exercises and more like controlled play. While not hesitant to pull out the ‘angry drill sergeant’ routine when he feels the younger Atoms have royally loused things up, he understands that their family legacy and just being a youngster in the public eye with their kind of power puts pressure enough on their shoulders.
During the Atom Family’s early days Jack fell into the role of the scrapper, always leaping headfirst into combat and extremely protective of Andrea Atom, Alexander’s lovely daughter. While at first their relationship was bickering and somewhat adversarial, as time went by Jack began to realize he truly loved her and cared about her safety. When Mentac came onto the scene Jack was initially pleased; another young man in the group that he could talk to about cars, girls, and bikes. Unfortunately, it didn’t take a genius or a telepath to recognize that Andrea and Mentac were love at first sight. Jack tried to keep his jealousy under wraps, bickering and sniping at ‘Manny’ every chance he got. When it became apparent that Andrea just didn’t see him that way, Jack left the team, putting that period of his life aside and walking away from it without any intention of returning. He created his own team of operatives and operated around the world, though the Wolf Pack’s offices were located in Arcadia. For the right price their services-human or metahuman-could be hired to deal with problems that normal mercenaries or private police forces couldn’t handle. Jack became a harder man as the years went by, colder, more sardonic, and a lot more bitter about things, referring to his time with the Atoms as ‘my Johnny Quest period’.
While originally coming to Doc’s aid as a matter of familial responsibility, Jack slowly came to enjoy the role of parent and mentor, to the point where even if Andrea and Mentac were found, he’d want to stay a part of the younger Atoms’ lives. Of the four he tends to relate most to Max, who he feels he has a lot in common with, encouraging the young man to take command in the field when Jack thinks he can handle it. When the day comes when the older man feels he can step down, he has a growing certainty that Max will handle leading the AF just fine. With Tesla, he respects her intellect and her dedication to science, he tends to worry about her when she’s not within the safety of the Nucleus. Any heroes with romantic aspirations toward the loveliest of the Atom Family will have one hell of a time meeting with Jack’s approval. It’s not impossible, but Tesla reminds him of Andrea a great deal, and that protectiveness of old rears its paternal head whenever some teenaged lothario attempts to put the moves on Tess.
Jack pays especial attention to Victoria, largely because he feels that—like he himself back in the old days—she sometimes gets lost in the shuffle. Doc was the brains, Andrea had the cunning, Mentac had the psychic powers. . .and Jack had his fists and a mouth that often wrote cheques his butt couldn’t cash. With Victoria he does what he can to boost her confidence and make her aware that she is part of the team. He appreciates her bookishness and her abilities do make her a valuable asset when it comes to infiltration, but that never stops him worrying about her when she’s in the field and away from the group. While he encourages all of the kids to be more social, he places especial attention toward Vicki, hoping that she’ll bloom and become less of the bookish wallflower he fears she might become.
Chase. . .Jack is hesitant around Chase. He loves the boy, but he can’t quite relate to him. The kid is scarily smart and has powers that put his old man to shame, and the remembrances of his time with his father make Jack feel more than a little guilty. He knows logically there’s no real reason for him to feel that way, but he does. He should’ve been there to help when Omega attacked, he should’ve been able to do something instead of being half a world away, trying to get there only to arrive too late to do a damned thing. Of the two, it’s often Chase who bridges the gap between them, reminding uncle Jack that he never did anything wrong, that deep down he loved Mentac like a brother, that there wasn’t anything he could do. In the field Jack relies on Chase to be their ‘communications hub/early warning system’, scanning the area for immediate threats while playing switchboard for the five while they’re in dangerous situations.
Jack oftentimes consults with Doc via communicator or ‘in person’ at the Goodman building, but the old man’s current condition makes Jack a little nervous. It isn’t that Jack is suspicious of Dr. Atom, but he’s read enough comicbooks and science fiction novels to realize that being a disembodied intelligence in a computer might not work wonders for Doc’s humanity. He makes sure to engage the older man and keep him grounded in the real world, even falling back into his ‘brat Jack’ persona to keep the elder Atom’s attention focused on the here and now rather than abstract scientific theory. He’s even suggested Doc build an android body for himself so he can be a presence in the world again, to walk amongst people and interact. Dr. Atom has taken this suggestion under advisement, but it remains to be seen if he’ll follow through on it.
While neither the older scrapper nor the mechanical construct would dare to admit it, Jack and ALEX are close friends beneath their constant bickering and back and forth verbal spats. The two often spend time together in their efforts to raise the Atoms properly, ALEX often falling into the role of overprotective mother hen.
Jack is fairly ambivalent toward Cosmo. Oh, the creature’s cute enough ‘n all and it’s ability to teleport away from danger and come back with a needed item or cell key is handy enough, but then there are the whoopee cushions that always end up beneath Jack’s seat on the Sky-Car, or in his easy chair in the Goodman building. Or the sandwiches he’s sitting down with to eat before a big game that mysteriously disappear off the plate. . .someday he and Chase are gonna have a good, long talk about Moon Monkey Dos and Don’ts.
In combat, Jack may be older but he’s no less formidable. Villains like the Factor Four and Professor Psion tend to underestimate the ‘lowly mortal’ among the Atom Family, to their inevitable detriment. A trained fighter and excellent marksman, he’s a quick hand with his hand-plaster or pulse rifle. He once held his own in an extended brawl with Granite using Doc Atom’s ‘Quantum Gauntlets’ to pummel the rocky giant into unconsciousness. No longer the hotheaded young man who leapt into battle at the drop of a hat, Jack is an older and cannier warrior who can not only hold his own, but strategize, utilizing his skills and the rest of the Atom Family’s to get the job done quickly and efficiently.
When it comes to the inevitable media spotlight, Jack tends to hang back and let Max or Tesla be the group’s spokesman. He has. . .issues. . .with the media, and his tendency to speak his mind and be completely forthright about his opinion on anything and everything without sugarcoating has occasionally rubbed some people the very wrong way. While he has an amicable enough relationship with Commissioner Kane, his enmity with Bill ‘Bulldog’ Maddicks has become the stuff of Freedom legend, initial bickering between the ‘interfering flatfoot’ and the ‘mercenary punk’ leading to a knock-down drag-out brawl between the two men when Maddicks referred to the Atoms as ‘well-meaning freaks.’ It was only Wolf’s past record of saving Freedom time and again that kept formal charges from sticking, and on the occasions when the Atoms and the STARS squad have crossed paths Max and Maddicks’ immediate lieutenant have often active as liaisons, keeping the two men well apart.
Roleplaying hints: When playing Jack, keep in mind that this guy was part of the original ‘First Family of Freedom’. He’s been everywhere and seen everything at one point or another, so anything the multiverse can throw at Freedom City is just another day at the office for him. He’s a fighter, but he doesn’t go looking for trouble, having mellowed a great deal as a parent and leader of the Atom Family in the field. He is completely and utterly loyal to the Atoms and would walk into Hell if he had to in order to save them. Heroes who encounter the Atom Family and need someone from ‘the old days’ who might have some knowledge about a given villain or crisis from the past would do well to talk to Jack. He can also make a great trainer for beginning heroes who don’t want to be a part of the Claremont Academy. Unlike Duncan Summers, Jack isn’t so strict or demanding of any protégés that come his way, and is more than willing to help them learn to use their powers if they have ‘the Right Stuff’. Unlike most heroes in Freedom, Jack is a down to earth and level-headed guy who could just as easily be encountered in a bar throwing darts as he could be in the latest interdimensional crisis. Play up his normalcy as an island of humanity in the midst of superhuman strangeness. Jack could also be a mentor to adventurers (powered or otherwise) from his days with the Wolf Pack; he parted amicably with the old group and left the lion’s share of the company to his old partners. Some of them have since settled down or were raising children when he left. He could very well be ‘Uncle Jack’ to a whole new team of heroes arriving in Freedom.
Wolfjack
'Awwwoooooooo. . .'
OR
'All will bow before me, and this planet shall become the throneworld of the Empire of the Wolf!'
Wolfjack was created by Lady Lunar’s abuse of the Moonstone; an effort to create a relentless killer that the Atoms would not dare strike down as he was one of their own by binding an ancient lupine ‘psychic presence’ from the stone into Jack’s body. Wolfjack is a snarling insensate beast most of the time, though lately a disturbing wrinkle has occurred the last few times Jack has changed involuntarily into the beast. Wolfjack’s intelligence has jumped up to near-genius levels and he is a cunning and evil creature indeed, scheming of a way to make all of mankind his wolfkin and rule the world as its Lord Lupine. He detests his human self and hates the Atoms with a passion. The last time Wolfjack emerged he chased a lone Chase Atom through the Nucleus, stopped only when Chase trapped him and used the Moonstone to exorcise the werewolf seemingly forever. Wolfjack’s hatred and bile for the Atoms is matched only by his odd devotion to Lady Lunar. What a mate she’ll make. . .once he’s used to Moonstone to make her into a beast like him, of course. . .
Roleplaying hints: Wolfjack is highly unstable, physically and mentally. His stats can alter depending on what version you’d prefer; rampaging beast or brutal, cunning schemer. The werewolf is either on a rend and tear rampage, or out to obtain the power of the Moonstone to stabilize his transformation and use its power to make the Earth a wolf-world. He loathes the Atoms with a passion and would gladly rend them to shreds, were it not for the presence of Jack Wolf in his mind restraining him from doing anyone any real harm. On occasion, Jack’s personality has emerged in control of the werewolf’s powerful form, but this is a rare instance indeed, and Jack has no desire to retain that power any longer than necessary to be returned to human form.
Last edited by
Defender2.0 on Sun Apr 08, 2007 11:44 am, edited 2 times in total.
" We believe in heroes because, ultimately. we believe in ourselves. " -Jack Kirby.
