The History of Venture Comics!

Over on another forum, I started work on the publication history of a rival comics company. I hadn’t originally put it here, because I was a bit concerned about ongoing forum concerns about new material, but I think the new stuff is limited enough that it should be okay. (Mods, let me know if this is not the case.)

I’ll be updating twice daily until I catch up to the other forum, after which I’ll start updating five times a week alongside it.

Here is how the exercise plays out:

This game is going to be divided into two Major Phases, each of which is subdivided into Ages. The first phase is the Classic Phase, subdivided into the Golden Age, the Silver Age, and the Bronze Age. The second phase is the Modern Phase, subdivided into the Iron Age and the Diamond Age.

Each phase involves 40 heroes and 36 villains. Unlike previous runs, I’m not fully blocking myself out, because companies duplicate common archetypes. Instead, the following restrictions are in play:

• If I hit any given heroic Background, Power Source, Archetype, or villainous Approach, Archetype, Upgrade or Mastery four times in a given phase, it is blocked out completely, and any result that gets it gets the next available one up instead.
• I can’t have a heroic character duplicate a Background, Power Source, and Archetype combination that already exists in the current phase.
• I can’t have two heroic characters share the same Background and Power Source, Background and Archetype, or Power Source and Archetype within an Age.
• If a heroic character shares two of Background, Power Source, and Archetype with a character from a previous age, they must either be an updated version or a reboot of the previous age’s character. (I am allowed to update or reboot with fewer, but not required.)

Dice totals and Principles may not be quite how you expect them; I’m using a revised character creation process for heroes that I play with at my own tables. Since it’s a rival company, I figure they get rival character generation!

The ages of Venture Comics are as follows:

• The Golden Age (1938 - 1957): Following the development of ten superheroes and nine of their villains.
• The Silver Age (1957 - 1971): Following the development or reboots of twenty superheroes and eighteen of their villains.
• The Bronze Age (1971 - 1986): Following the development of ten superheroes added to their Silver Age counterparts, and nine new villains.
• The Iron Age (1986 - 2004): Following a company-wide relaunch of twenty superheroes and eighteen villains.
• The Plutonium Age (2004-2014): A rather disastrous period of rapid reboots, relaunches, new #1 issues and bad decisions that will not be developed in full.
• The Diamond Age (2014-2022): The slowly growing reboot of the line following a series of disasters between 2004 and 2014 that saw the company nearly fail entirely, which follows a new or revamped set of twenty superheroes and eighteen villains.

In each age, I’ll start with a quick post giving an overview of the situation for Venture Comics. Then I’ll create the heroes, developing them into teams and solo titles, create a set of villains for them, and then write out the comics that they appear in. Venture Comics is a small publisher, which usually only had a single-digit number of comics titles at a time, possibly growing in the Bronze Age before struggling in the 80s. I think this’ll be a fun way to build a setting that I can do other things in later. It is also going to be massive. I’ve already finished the Golden Age, so you’ll be getting that at high speed, and I’m early in the Silver Age as we type.

Venture Comics: The Golden Age

Founded in 1938, Venture Comics initially sought to bring the popular world of pulp magazines to comics. They opened with four titles. Campfire Terrors was a horror comic aimed at preteens and young teens, telling scary stories that weren’t too gruesome. Celestial Travels was a pulpy science fiction anthology in the style of Buck Rogers, with a major character lead and a variety of backup adventures. Cryptic Trails was a classic adventure pulp, frequently about hidden corners of the world and magical or impossible realms hidden just outside the world. And Company Town was a noir anthology about the city of Ferristown, a thinly-veiled Detroit analogue ruled over by a ruthless industrialist with mob ties fairly clearly modelled as a mixture of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison.

The twin pressures of the rise of superheroes and the breaking out of war created pressures on the company, and a fifth title, Covert Tactics, was released in February 1940, alongside the first superhero of the Venture Comics line…

to be revealed later today, when I have time to format it!

For folks who haven’t seen this already, I heartily recommend following the thread. There’s some great content a-coming. Really interesting experiment in making one’s own fictional publishing company and navigating it through the various historical comic ages, and his characters are top notch.

The Penitent

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Real Name: Unknown, First Appearance: Campfire Terrors #12, February 1940
Background: Academic, Power Source: Mystical, Archetype: Close Quarters Combatant
Personality: Stalwart, Principles: Mastery, Veteran

Status Dice: Green d8, Yellow d8, Red d10. Health: 34 [Green 32-25, Yellow 24-12, Red 11-1]
Qualities: Self-Discipline d12, Close Combat d10, Magical Lore d8, Imposing d8, Mysterious Stranger d8
Powers: Awareness d10, Relics (Gadgets) d8, Presence d6, Infernal d6

Green Abilities:

• The Old One-Two [A]: Attack one target using Close Combat. Attack a second target with your Min die.
• Spellcaster [A]: Take any two basic actions using Magical Lore, each using your Min die.
• Terrifying Presence [A]: Attack a minion using Imposing. Whatever that minion rolls as defense Attacks another target of your choice.
• Principle of Mastery [A]: Overcome in a situation in which you use your powers in a new way and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.
• Principle of the Veteran [A]: Overcome a tactical challenge using knowledge of a previous conflict and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.

Yellow Abilities:

• The Darkness Within [A]: Attack using Awareness. Ignore all penalties on this Attack, ignore any Defend actions, and it cannot be affected by reactions.
• Dark Evocations [A]: Boost or Hinder using Infernal, and apply that mod to multiple nearby targets.
• Runic Lore [A]: Overcome an environmental challenge using Awareness. Use your Max die. Either remove any penalty in the scene or Boost equal to your Mid die.

Red Abilities

• Dangerous Artifacts [A]: Attack multiple targets using Relics, using your Max+Min dice. If you roll doubles, take a minor twist or damage equal to your Mid die.
• Mystical Awareness (I): When taking any action using Magical Lore, you may reroll your Min die before determining effects.

Out

• Defend an ally by rolling your single Awareness die.

Background

The Penitent was introduced as a mysterious masked figure in a tattered suit who intervened in a demon summoning to save its innocent victims, condemning the cultists themselves to the flames. His name was not revealed in the Golden Age, but his backstory was laid out as having been an academic who delved deep into forbidden texts in search of wisdom, only to come to the attention of a terrible force that offered him all the knowledge he craved in exchange for his soul. Regretting his decision, he sought to stop other demonic forces from intruding into the world.

The Penitent quickly became a popular character in the pages of Campfire Terrors, appearing as one of the main stories in roughly half of its issues during the Golden Age. He gradually picked up a supporting cast that included a plucky reporter threatened by the dark forces she frequently investigated and a newsboy who was targeted as a human sacrifice in an early story, then stuck around to help the Penitent find cases, but he mostly wandered from location to location fighting largely nameless cultists and demons or saving an innocent from using a magical relic they didn’t understand, occasionally showing up as a surprise in a story that was otherwise heading towards a bad end to save the day.

Behind the Scenes

I considered building into a Gadgeteer instead of a Close Quarters Combatant, and then I realized that this is the Golden Age and we want a character to be good at absolutely everything, so instead of a relic-based Doctor Strange we got some kind of magic brawler who I kind of love.

The Penitent is halfway between a superhero and a classic pulp hero, which seems fitting for the first big hero of the line. I was also kind of shocked that there is no major superhero by that name!

I have a player with this ability that was pleasantly surprised to discover that you don’t actually have to have an environmental challenge in play to use it for the riders. There was a really problematic penalty in effect that no one had a good way to clear before it ruined a key hero turn, and then she looked at her character sheet again and twigged to the fact that the rider amounts to an automatic penalty removal where your dice don’t even matter. It’s no Purification but it sure can be a handy trick to have in your pocket even when there there aren’t e-challenges to deal with.

Always happy to see a player discover a new way to use an ability they’ve been treating as kind of situational.

The Randomizers:
Background 7, 5, 9 [Options: Academic, Law Enforcement, Tragic, Adventurer, Interstellar, Created]
Power Source 2, 7, 5 [Options: Training, Mystical, Relic, Radiation, Artificial Being]
Archetype 4, 4, 5 [Options: Marksman, Blaster, Flyer, Elemental Manipulator, Minion-Maker]
Personality 9, 2, 10 [Options: Natural Leader, Inquisitive, Alluring, Stoic, Nurturing Jaded]

Skybreaker

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Real Name: Lewis Lamont, First Appearance: Cryptic Trails #16, June 1940
Background: Adventurer, Power Source: Relic, Archetype: Marksman
Personality: Natural Leader, Principles: Justice, Veteran

Status Dice: Green d6, Yellow d8, Red d12, Health: 30 [Green 30-23, Yellow 22-12, Red 11-1]
Qualities: Banter d10, Ranged Combat d10, Alertness d8, Fitness d6, Wilderness Explorer d8
Powers: The Spear of Assal d10, Wind d8, Intuition d8, Teleportation d8, Presence d6

Green Abilities:

• Call The Storm [A]: Boost yourself using Wind. That bonus is persistent and exclusive.
• Strike True [A]: Attack using the Spear of Assal. Ignore all penalties on this Attack, ignore any Defend actions, and it cannot be affected by Reactions.
• Feigned Ease [A]: Attack using Banter. Defend using your Min die.
• Principle of Justice [A]: Overcome to stop an act of injustice in progress and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.
• Principle of the Veteran [A]: Overcome a tactical challenge using knowledge of a previous conflict and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.

Yellow Abilities:

• Shining Spear [A]: Attack using Ranged Combat. Boost another hero using your Max die.
• Man of the Woods [A]: Attack or Overcome using Alertness on an environmental target, using your Max+min dice. If you roll doubles, take a minor twist.
• Gale Step [A]: Boost yourself using Teleportation. Use your Max die. Hinder a nearby opponent with your Min die.
• Shield of Winds [R]: When another hero in the Yellow or Red zone would take damage, you may Defend them by rolling your single Wind die.

Red Abilities

• The Final Cast [A]: Attack using the Spear of Assal and at least one bonus. Use your Max+Mid+Min dice. Destroy all of your bonuses, adding each of them to this Attack first, even if they are exclusive.
• Windstorm [A]: Attack up to three targets, one of which must be you, using Wind. Assign your Min, Mid, and Max dice as you choose among those targets.

Out

• Boost an ally by rolling your single Banter die.

With the success of the Penitent, the makers of Venture Comics turned their attention to Cryptic Trails , which was struggling to retain readers as the war ramped up. As it happened, one of the company’s lead writers was an Irish man who drew on his home’s folklore to create Skybreaker. Lewis Lamont was a rugged explorer who discovered a long-forgotten island in the Atlantic, on which was the glowing spear of the Celtic god Lugh. Wielding the spear gave Lewis the power to command the winds, which combined with unerring aim let him face off against the demonic Fomorians who were infiltrating the world to spread hatred and cruelty.

Penitent had been a success, but Skybreaker was a breakout hit - a quippy stone-jawed hero who combined wind magic with marksman tricks to always have a solution to every problem. Within a year, every issue of Cryptic Trails included him in either the lead or as a backup story, travelling around Europe and Africa and fighting against a mixture of Nazi occultists, Italian soldiers, and agents of the dreaded Fomorians and their mysterious leader.

Behind the Scenes

Marvel has Norse gods, DC uses the Greek, and Sentinel Comics prefers Egyptians, so I thought Venture would take a swing at poorly understood Celtic mythology! Relic and marksman made for a good spear-thrower, which also allows for neat wind powers.

Skybreaker as a hero is going to have more supervillain enemies than Penitent, because he’s got a built-in mythology, but the setup still allows for him to fight generic Nazis and random monsters a lot of the time, with occasional appearances by bigger bads.

One thing I’m noticing already is a pull to use very similar Principles; two out of two have the Principle of the Veteran as their Responsibility. Golden Age heroes are a bit… flat isn’t the right word, but they tend to lack the social connections that most Responsibility Principles embody. It feels like it’ll mostly be variations on Detective or Veteran for Responsibility, and variations on Liberty or Justice for Ideals. I’ll keep an eye on that moving forward to try to keep them from being too same-y.

True, but some of them are fanatical enough about secret identities to make Mask reasonable - it never gets to to the outright neurotic level we see in Silver Age Clark’s famed superdickery, but some characters (including indies) made it a big deal. Some gangbuster types could run Underworld instead of Detective. And there were some Sidekicks, some prototypical and often unpowered and uncostumed, others clear knockoffs of Robin.

The Randomizers:
Background 1, 7, 1 [Options: Blank Slate, Criminal, Law Enforcement, Struggling, Dynasty]
Power Source 10, 2, 6 [Options: Training, Nature, Powered Suit, Tech Upgrades, Artificial Being, Cosmos]
Archetype 4, 6, 8 [Options: Marksman, Close Quarters, Flyer, Robot/Cyborg, Psychic, Minion Maker]
Personality 4, 3, 3 [Options: Impulsive, Mischievous, Distant, Stalwart, Analytical]

Flatfoot

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Real Name: Johnny Law, First Appearance: Company Town #19, November 1940
Background: Law Enforcement, Power Source: Artificial Being, Archetype: Robot/Cyborg
Personality: Analytical, Principles: The Law (Honor), Indestructible

Status Dice: Green d10, Yellow d8, Red d8. Health: 30 [Green 30-23, Yellow 22-12, Red 11-1]
Qualities: Close Combat d10, Investigation d10, Criminal Underworld d10, Technology d8, The Artificial Man d8
Powers: Strength d10, Gadgets d10, Lightning Calculator d8, Presence d8, Vitality d6

Green Abilities:

• Created Form (I): Reduce physical damage to yourself by 1 while you are in the Green zone, 2 while in the Yellow zone, and 3 while in the Red zone.
• Vacuum Tubes [A]: Boost yourself using Lightning Calculator. That bonus is persistent and exclusive.
• Hold The Line [A]: Boost yourself using Strength, and Defend with your Min die.
• Principle of The Law [A]: Overcome a situation to uphold the law and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.
• Principle of the Indestructible [A]: Overcome in a situation where you charge headlong into danger and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.

Yellow Abilities:

• Power Kick [A]: Attack using Strength with a bonus equal to the number of bonuses you currently have.
• One-Robot Army [A]: Attack using Lightning Calculator against multiple targets, using your Min die against each.
• Perfect Calculations [R]: After rolling during your turn, you may take 1 irreducible damage to reroll your entire die pool.

Red Abilities

• Superhuman Surge [A]: Overcome using Strength in a situation that requires you to be more than humanly capable, like an extreme feat of strength or speed. Use your Max+Min dice. Boost all nearby allies with your Mid die.
• Reliable Calculations (I): When taking any action using Lightning Calculator, you may reroll your Min die before determining effects.

Out

• Remove a bonus or penalty of your choice.

By 1940, superheroes were in full swing, and every publishing company wanted in. Venture Comics had made a few attempts to introduce new heroes in Campfire Terrors and Cryptic Trails , without much success; Skybreaker and the Penitent were the only ones with a following. Venture Comics’ editor-in-chief decided to branch out, creating a new hero to stand against the forces of crime in the pages of Company Town . As it happened, one of Venture Comics’ new writers had done a few pulp magazine stories about robots, and pitched the idea of a mechanical police officer - the Incorruptible Flatfoot!

The creation of Flatfoot sparked a huge fight in Venture Comics. The main editor for Company Town hated the idea. He had reluctantly agreed to put a hero into the stories, but had envisioned a grim hero in the style of the Shadow or the Spider, not some flamboyant metal man. He argued that it would completely undermine the style of Company Town to have something like that tromping around. In the end, however, he was overruled, and Flatfoot appeared in October of 1940.

Flatfoot was an android crime-fighter created by a well-meaning scientist to be the first in a new line of police officers immune to corruption or leverage by the criminal element. Seeing the dangerous potential of the work, the shadowy master of Ferristown had the scientist killed, but was unable to stop Flatfoot from arresting the assassin. Now, the robot serves on the Ferristown Police Force, standing firm against the crime and corruption of the city due to his encyclopedic understanding of law and order - and his array of gadgets and attachments created by his technician, a young man who served as the student of Flatfoot’s creator.

The metal detective was initially a modest success, but his audience grew over the course of 1941, doing battle with mobsters, goons, corrupt politicians and occasionally mad scientists who would try to build robots of their own. In 1942, Nazi spies were added to his roster of villains, and while Company Town retained some stories of pure crime or hardboiled detecting, the overall tone of the book lightened due to Flatfoot’s presence.

Behind the Scenes

I was planning for my third hero to be a Cryptic Trails character, but Artificial Being jumped out at me, and after a few minutes of research into the state of science fiction robotics in 1940, I decided that Venture Comics can definitely get away with the setting’s first robot superhero. Heck, maybe it’s the presence of Flatfoot that delayed Sentinel Comics getting one for so long!

I know who I want next, but not what, so we’ll see what the dice give me as we head into 1941…

New characters taking over a book and radically altering its tone and even title as time passes is such a Golden Age thing. Just ask the Shield how he feels about that Archie Andrews punk and his crew of delinquents.

I’m quite enjoying these

The Randomizers:
Background 8, 2, 1 [Options: Blank Slate, Criminal, Performer, Struggling, Tragic, Unremarkable]
Power Source 4, 8, 5 [Options: Experimentation, Mystical, Powered Suit, Radiation, Artificial Being, Cursed]
Archetype 8, 3, 2 [Options: Shadow, Powerhouse, Blaster, Flyer, Robot/Cyborg, Sorcerer]
Personality 6, 9, 7 [Options: Distant, Stalwart, Inquisitive, Analytical, Jovial, Cheerful]

Madame Liberty

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Real Name: Marianne Leblanc, First Appearance: Covert Tactics #18, July 1941
Background: Criminal, Power Source: Experimentation, Archetype: Shadow
Personality: Inquisitive, Principles: Mask, Tactician

Status Dice: Green d6, Yellow d8, Red d10. Health: 30 [Green 30-23, Yellow 22-12, Red 11-1]
Qualities: Persuasion d10, Finesse d10, Stealth d8, Close Combat d8, Slippery Spy d8
Powers: Shapeshifting d8, Intuition d8, Agility d8, Presence d8, Deduction d6

Green Abilities:

• Slippery Character (I): At the start of your turn, remove a penalty on yourself.
• Saboteur [A]: Attack using Shapeshifting. Remove one physical bonus or penalty, Hinder a target using your Min die, or maneuver to a new location in your environment.
• Untouchable [R]: When you would be dealt damage, roll a d4 while in the Green zone, d6 while in the Yellow, or d8 while in Red. Reduce the damage you take by the value rolled. Attack another target with that roll.
• Principle of the Mask [A]: Overcome using knowledge from your civilian life and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
• Principle of the Tactician [A]: Overcome when you can flashback to how you prepared for this exact situation. Use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.

Yellow Abilities:

• False Skin [A]: Boost yourself using Shapeshifting. Use your Max die. The bonus is persistent and exclusive.
• Laying Groundwork [A]: Attack or Overcome using Finesse. Boost yourself using your Min die.
• Distraction [R]: When a nearby hero in the Yellow or Red zone would take damage, Defend against that damage by rolling your single Presence die, then redirect any remaining damage to a nearby minion of your choice.

Red Abilities

• Manipulated Backup [A]: Use Shapeshifting to create a number of d6 minions equal to your Mid die. Choose the one same basic action they each perform. They all act at the start of your turn.
• One Last Trick [A]: Overcome using Finesse. Use your Mix+Min dice. Hinder all nearby opponents with your Mid die.

Out

• Choose an ally. Until your next turn, that ally may reroll one of their dice by using a Reaction.

On Bastille Day (July 14th), 1941, Venture Comics took a big swing.

Marianne Leblanc was a petty con artist and pickpocket in occupied France. When she was caught stealing from a Nazi officer, she was arrested and secretly sent to be experimented on by Nazi mad scientists trying to create ‘perfected’ humans. Their experiments were both a massive failure and a huge success; instead of turning Marianne into their vision of a perfect woman, they gave her the ability to reshape her body, becoming anyone she chose. Using her newfound powers to escape, Marianne could have escaped anywhere and lived a life of luxury. Instead, she stayed in France, taking up the cause of resistance as Madame Liberty! Joined by French resistance fighters, she did battle with Nazis, helped civilians escape to safe nations, and fought with both guile and force to slow the Nazi powers and bring freedom to her homeland, while maintaining a cover identity that gathered information from occupying forces.

Madame Liberty was a risky move. A major superhero who wasn’t American, fighting an enemy that the United States technically was not at war with, debuting in the pages of a war comic as a guerrilla and spy, the editors of Venture Comics doubled down by giving her a criminal backstory rather than making her a stalwart hero. Their goal was to show that anyone, no matter their origin, could stand against the rising tide of fascism. This wasn’t entirely altruistic; the editors agreed that they weren’t going to create a wartime hero who could outdo the recently-introduced Legacy, and decided that their only hope was to go an entirely different route.

The risk paid off in a surge of sales for the struggling title. A part of that may have been the comic’s willingness to trend a bit salacious, with both Madame Liberty and her love interest, American spy Rick Wilson, frequently tied up and placed in various Nazi death-traps only to escape through their cunning and determination, or it might simply have been because people liked seeing someone get one over the Nazis through cunning, not just through punching. Soon, Madame Liberty had her own comic, with her appearances in Covert Tactics continuing in back stories to promote the comic’s primary war stories.

Behind the Scenes

I had been planning on having this hero be a French resistance fighter, but when I got the Criminal Background the rest of it basically exploded out fully formed. I particularly like her Red ability to summon a bunch of minions by having previously tricked some group of people into showing up later using her shapeshifting powers; I expect that happened in a number of issues. I toyed with calling her Madame Liberté and going all-in, but this is the 1940s. Even having her not be American is a bit of a stretch, albeit one I am comfortable with.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, Saboteur an amazing Green ability. Untouchable is top tier too, especially if you have good bonuses backing it up.

Yeah, Shadow is a potent Archetype.

The Randomizers:
Background 7, 5, 9 [Options: Academic, Law Enforcement, Tragic, Adventurer, Interstellar, Created]
Power Source 6, 7, 6 [Options: Nature, Relic, Artificial Being, Cursed, Cosmos]
Archetype 7, 6, 4 [Options: Marksman, Close Quarters, Armored, Robot/Cyborg, Sorcerer, Transporter]
Personality 8, 3, 10 [Options: Impulsive, Fast Talking, Alluring, Stoic, Analytical, Apathetic]

The Steward

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Real Name: Mali Xur (alias Max West), First Appearance: Cryptic Trails #31, Oct. 1941
Background: Interstellar, Power Source: Cursed, Archetype: Armored
Personality: Stoic, Principles: Future, Gearhead

Status Dice: Green d6, Yellow d8, Red d12. Health: 36 [Green 36-28, Yellow 27-14, Red 13-1]
Qualities: Science d12, Close Combat d6, Alertness d6, Undercover Alien d8
Powers: Strength d12, Cosmic d10, Vitality d8, Deduction d6, Size-Changing d6

Green Abilities:

• Armored (I): Reduce any physical or energy damage you take by 1 while you are in the Green zone, 2 while in the Yellow zone, and 3 while in the Red zone.
• Corrosive Power (I): Whenever you roll a die’s maximum value, treat that value as 1 higher. Whenever you roll a 1 on a die, treat that die as if it had rolled a 0.
• Heave-Ho [A]: Attack using Strength. Attack a second target with your Min die.
• Shield The Weak [A]: Attack using Strength. Defend another target with your Min die.
• Cosmic Spike [A]: Attack using Cosmic. Ignore all penalties on this Attack, ignore any Defend actions, and it cannot be affected by Reactions.
• Principle of the Future [A]: Overcome using your knowledge of possible futures and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.
• Principle of the Gearhead [A]: Overcome a technological challenge and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.

Yellow Abilities:

• Cosmic Burst [A]: Boost all nearby allies using Cosmic. Use your Max+Mid dice. Hinder yourself with your Min die.
• Cosmic Recovery [A]: Boost yourself using Vitality. Then, either remove a penalty on yourself or Recover using your Min die.

Red Abilities

• One on One [R]: When you are Attacked and dealt damage, you may Attack the source of that damage by rolling your single Strength die, plus the amount of damage you take.
• Scientific Solutions [A]: Overcome using Science. Use your Max+Min dice.

Out

• Defend an ally by rolling your single Science die.

Over the course of 1941, the editors of Venture Comics attempted to introduce several new superheroes to the pages of Campfire Terrors or Cryptic Trails . None succeeded until a young writer pitched a story for Celestial Travels that caught the eye of Cryptic Trails’ lead editor. With a few alterations, the story was made appropriate for an Earth-focused adventure, and the Deputy was born!

Mali Xur was a scout for the Xur’Tani, an obliquely-described species of peaceful aliens who looked for societies in danger from other cosmic forces. Upon landing on Earth, Xur found that his ship was corroding from the planet’s atmosphere, and worse, that he had become infected by Earth organisms. The infection pushed his biology into overdrive, giving him incredible strength and command over cosmic forces, at the cost of shortening his lifespan from over a thousand years to under a century. Crushed by his death sentence, Xur nonetheless decided to stay on Earth and look over the fledgeling species, acting as their assistant to protect them from the many pitfalls that he knew could befall a civilization on the cusp of greatness and from the many predators that exist in the stars. Taking on the identity of a mild-mannered scientist, and using his technological knowledge to easily complete tasks while leaving himself time to fight crime, he became The Steward, assistant to all mankind!

The Steward was depicted as an extremely powerful character, mostly held back by his fear of tainting human society with undue interference. He tried to provide subtle guidance and quiet hope, but moved in against corrupt or cruel elements of humanity and alien forces alike, either with his tremendous strength or with his technological genius. And he was very popular with readers. The unusual step of having the Steward’s powers be a source of tragedy, forever cutting him off from his home, wasn’t heavily delved into, but it added a layer of pathos to the character that proved quite popular.

*Behind The Scenes

I have created anti-Superman.

When I got Interstellar as an option, I thought it was time for the Golden Age to get its first alien. When I hit Cursed right afterwards, I thought, “what curses an alien”, and suddenly the rest just developed. Earth is both a power source and a deadly poison to these people, which is why they don’t send more to get powers.

Mechanically, I’ve made a slightly odd choice by giving the Steward cross-matched d12s. He’s got a single extremely strong die in two traits that rarely cross over, each of which commonly matches with d6s (although his Science will sometimes match with his Cosmic d10.) This means that the Steward is never throwing massive pools, but is consistently throwing decent ones, and his massive Red die means that he is very powerful in the clutch, as well as having a truly ludicrous amount of health.

This picture is a bit more Silver Age than I would have preferred due to the level of detail, but Hero Forge only has so many options, and the difference between Golden Age and Silver Age Superman is the level of detail so I’m sticking with it.

The 12/6 and even 12/8 P/Q die combos are going to produce a lot of very weak Min dice, which come up a lot across your action and reaction abilities and are made even worse by Corrosive Power turning your ones to zeros. On the plus side, Cosmic Burst does benefit from the effect nicely. Definitely feels a bit like Golden Age Clark in that respect, where his outcomes and capabilities were often wildly erratic depending on the writer.

Oh, thank you for catching that! Yes, I’m copying text and missed the delete.

The Min die issue is a problem in Green that i hadn’t fully considered. I may look over and see if one of those two abilities can be swapped for a Max die effect; I don’t recall if there are any applicable offhand.

Edited my earlier reply to reflect your own.

FWIW, I don’t see anything in the way of G that uses Max (it’s one of the few drawbacks to Armored), but the other G die fixer for Cursed lets you reroll any ones that come up on your dice if you want, which would be pretty ideal for manipulating the Min die upward rather than it turning into a zero, while still letting you leave it at a one for Cosmic Burst’s self-hinder. You’d lose a little output off the Max results but you roll the top result on d10 and d12 far less often than the bottom result on a d6. Corrosive Power/Extremes is one of those abilities that I usually see used with either few Min die abilities or ones that tie the Min to self-harm/hinder effects rather than just eking out a bit more when you roll high.

So probably quite a bit better mechanically for this build, but Corrosive Power is a great ability name and the sheer unreliability of your Min dice as-is does feel like wonky Golden Age writing to me.

Yeah, we’ll just call it wonky writing and move on!

The Randomizers:
Background 3, 2, 9 [Options: Criminal, Performer, Academic, Tragic, Dynasty, Adventurer]
Power Source 8, 10, 3 [Options: Genetic, Powered Suit, Tech Upgrades, Supernatural, Cursed, Unknown]
Archetype 7, 7, 2 [Options: Shadow, Armored, Elemental Manipulator, Minion-Maker, Gadgeteer]
Personality 8, 7, 4 [Options: Mischievous, Stalwart, Fast-Talking, Stoic, Nurturing, Jovial]

Kid Liberty

Kid Liberty500×800 349 KB

Real Name: Abe Duncan, First Appearance: Madame Liberty #1, January 1942
Background: Tragic, Power Source: Unknown, Archetype: Gadgeteer
Personality: Fast-Talking, Principles: Liberty, Vengeance (based on Rage)

Status Dice: Green d6, Yellow d8, Red d10. Health: 32 [Green 32-25, Yellow 24-12, Red 11-1]
Qualities: Investigation d10, Banter d8, Technology d8, Conviction d8, Criminal Underworld d6, Just A Kid d8
Powers: Presence d10, Awareness d10, Inventions d10, Animal Control d6, Agility d6

Green Abilities:

• Distraction [A]: Hinder using Presence. Use your Max die, or use your Mid die and make it persistent and exclusive.
• Backpack Of Stuff [A]: Boost using Inventions. Use your Max die, or use your Mid die and make it persistent and exclusive.
• Principle of Liberty [A]: Overcome in a situation in which you are restricted or bound and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.
• Principle of Vengeance [A]: Overcome in a situation where you can fight Nazis and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.

Yellow Abilities:

• Helping Hand [R]: One nearby ally may reroll their dice pool. You lose Health equal to the Min die of the new roll.
• Team Mascot [A]: Boost all nearby allies using Presence using your Max+Mid dice. Hinder yourself with your Min die.
• Jury-Rigged Weapons [A]: Attack using Inventions. Hit one target using your Min die, another target with your Mid die, and Boost using your Max die.

Red Abilities

• Endangered [A]: Boost another hero using Awareness. If that hero has already acted for the turn, use your Max die, and that hero loses Health equal to your Min die. That hero acts next in the turn order.
• Last-Minute Assist [A]: Hinder using Banter. Use your Max+Min dice. Boost yourself or an ally with your Mid die.

Out

• Hinder a minion or lieutenant by rolling your single Investigation die, and increase that penalty by -1.

In January of 1942, Madame Liberty debuted her own comic series, freeing up extra space in Covert Tactics for more traditional war stories and freeing up her to have a larger supporting cast. Along with that supporting cast was a team of American commandos who came to France to help fight the Nazis, bringing support to her existing love interest - and also a new teen sidekick. Abe Duncan was a New York teenager whose family was killed by Nazi submarines crossing the Atlantic. He stowed away on a Navy ship, making his way to France to fight and kill as many Nazis as possible. After saving his life in the pages of Madame Liberty #1, Marianne adopted the boy, sensing that he would keep returning to the battlefield without her support.

Kid Liberty was a popular draw for young boys who imagined themselves as Madame Liberty’s faithful sidekick, saving the day with a well-timed invention or distraction. He was also a source of complications for the up-until-now highly prepared superhero, as his desire for revenge against the Nazis who killed his parents often caused him to jump the gun and rush into situations he wasn’t prepared for. Generally, Venture Comics was able to balance issues in which Kid Liberty saved the day with issues in which he needed to be rescued, keeping him a moderately popular hero instead of a millstone around Madame Liberty’s neck.

Quietly, Kid Liberty also served as an unspoken milestone for the company. The writer for Madame Liberty was himself a New Yorker, and he envisioned Abe as a multiracial child of white and black parents, another way in which he was opposed to the Nazi regime. Given general feelings about inter-racial marriages at the time, he wasn’t able to get this openly stated in the pages of the comics, but occasional hints were dropped, and the artist was encouraged to give Abe a darker skin tone than the French citizens he was surrounded by. Abe’s heritage was an open secret around the Venture Comics offices, one that was always denied in the press.

Behind the Scenes

So here’s something you won’t see much in Sentinel Comics - a teen sidekick!

Technically, Kid Liberty doesn’t have official powers at all, hence his ‘unknown’ Power Source. His inventions are just normal jury-rigged things that work suspiciously well, his personal charisma and awareness are narrative luck, and his animal control is just being good with animals. Between all the Boosts and Hinders, plus the ally-affecting reaction and Red power, this is about as sidekick as you can get in the main core.

Fun fact! Neither Unknown nor Gadgeteer allow for any Athletic powers, so a retcon allows Danny to have a small amount of physical power.

I went with a more focused “Principle of Vengeance”, in part because I didn’t want him to be an ‘angry black guy’ so much as a very focused kid looking for revenge, evoking Robin. I’m hoping to have an alternative style of sidekick down the road, but for now, I quite like Kid Liberty! Who knows how he’ll develop as the ages pass. This is also an attempt to quietly back-date a non-white character who can become a bigger deal down the road, once he’s allowed to actually reveal that.

An aside to Wertham and other critics of sidekick characters:

Wartime comics were full of both regular sidekicks and “young commando” teams who were out fighting the enemy face to face the way young American readers couldn’t in real life, and their existence was largely unquestioned and uncriticized until well after the War. Their success as self-insert characters is hardly surprising given the number of kids whose fathers had been drafted, as well as those whose mothers were now doing home front work. Very disruptive time for US households. No matter how relatively “easy” the nation had it compared to almost anywhere else - barring, perhaps, South and Central America - the wartime kids were simultaneously pressured to be patriotic and hate the Axis at every turn while being denied much meaningful opportunity to demonstrate either quality. Resource drives and victory gardens don’t feel very heroic to a ten year old when Dad is fighting in Europe and Mom has to leave cold suppers to make her night shift at the factory.

These sort of characters only seem inexplicably ill-advised if you willfully ignore the period they were created in and the audience the were written for. Most of them faded away pretty quickly post-War, often along with the books they originated in. No war since then has spawned the kind of national pressures that led created them, making the WW2 sidekicks and informal child soldiers a unique bit of Golden Age weirdness.

Keeping the catching-up train rolling, we come to:

The Randomizers:
Background 10, 1, 8 [Options: Blank Slate, Struggling, Tragic, Unremarkable, Dynasty, Exile]
Power Source 8, 4, 6 [Options: Experimentation, Nature, Powered Suit, Tech Upgrades, Artificial Being, Alien]
Archetype 5, 2, 6 [Options: Shadow, Blaster, Close Quarters, Armored, Flyer, Sorcerer]
Personality 6, 3, 5 [Options: Impulsive, Sarcastic, Distant, Fast-Talking, Inquisitive, Stoic]

Greenheart

Greenheart500×800 422 KB

Real Name: Valeria Tertia, First Appearance: Cryptic Trails #41, August 1942
Background: Exile, Power Source: Nature, Archetype: Armored
Personality: Sarcastic, Principles: Equality, Mastery

Status Dice: Green d8, Yellow d8, Red d10. Health: 32 [Green 32-25, Yellow 24-12, Red 11-1]
Qualities: Imposing d10, Close Combat d10, Fitness d8, Conviction d8, Survivalist d8
Powers: Strength d10, Plants d8, Animal Control d8, Presence d8

Green Abilities:

• Hardy (I): Reduce any physical or energy damage you take by 1 while you are in the Green zone, 2 while in the Yellow zone, and 3 while in the Red zone.
• Shrug It Off [A]: Attack using Strength. Recover Health equal to your Min die.
• Terrifying Roar [A]: Attack using Imposing. Ignore all penalties on this Attack, ignore any Defend actions, and it cannot be affected by Reactions.
• Verdant Shield [A]: Attack using Plants. Defend another target with your Min die.
• Grasping Vines [A]: Hinder using Plants. Use your Max die. You may split that penalty across multiple nearby targets.
• Principle of Equality [A]: Overcome to protect the rights of the underprivileged and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.
• Principle of Mastery [A]: Overcome in a situation that uses your powers in a new way and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.

Yellow Abilities:

• Brutal Assault [A]: Attack using Strength. Use your Max+Min dice. Then gain a Boost using your Mid die. The target of the Attack gains a bonus of the same size.
• Predator’s Strength [R]: When you defeat a minion, roll that minion’s die and Boost yourself using that roll to create a bonus for your next action.

Red Abilities

• Return The Blow [R]: When you are Attacked and dealt damage, you may Attack the source of that damage by rolling your single Strength die, plus the amount of damage you take.
• One-Woman Army (I): You have no limit on the number of Reactions you can take. Each time you use a Reaction after the first one each time, take 1 irreducible damage or take a minor twist.

Out

• Hinder an opponent by rolling your single Quality die.

The next hero to gain a following for Venture Comics was unveiled in the pages of Cryptic Trails in 1942. Valeria Tertia was a scion of a Roman expedition to North America that discovered a mystical realm deep within the Appalachian mountains. There, the True Roman Empire endured, hiding from the world and scorning its new scientific and cultural developments. Only first-born sons of the leading families were allowed to take the Trials of Gaia, developing powers over nature which were used to protect and hide the Empire. Valeria was neither first-born, nor a son, nor a member of the leading families, but she secretly undertook the Trials anyway - and not only did she pass, she excelled, gaining mastery over plants and animals and incredible physical strength.

In response to this affront, Valeria was exiled from the Empire, sent out into the world. There, she found a society that was much like the one she had left behind, filled with inequality and injustice. But after she was taken in by a group of young women working at a local munitions factory, she resolved to protect her new home, taking up arms as the Mighty Greenheart!

Greenheart was a bit of a shift for Venture Comics, a particularly sardonic and slightly reluctant hero more likely to frighten criminals into fleeing than deliver a heroic speech. Despite this (or perhaps because of it) she resonated with many young men and women, becoming a staple of the line. She picked up a teen sidekick of her own, as this was becoming more common - a girl named Mandy Murphy who saw through her paper-thin disguise and offered to help her navigate the world, even claiming her as a cousin, and who fought crime as Greensleeves when Valeria couldn’t stop her. Greenheart also saw the first crossover in Venture Comics early in her run, when she and Skybreaker faced off against a Fomori-possessed Roman champion in Cryptic Trails #45 .

Behind the Scenes

Our first doubled trait! I’m trying not to double much in this age, since there are only ten heroes, but while I could have gone with Flyer it didn’t quite match the image that was building up in my mind.

Thematically, I have followed anti-Superman by creating anti-Wonder Woman; an exile from a mysterious Roman realm that is not feminist, coming to the world and discovering that it is also not feminist.

Mechanically, Greenheart is moderately good, but becomes a beast in Red, especially against minion-heavy scenes. Whenever anyone attacks her, she can take a damage for a massive counter-attack, and if they were a minion and the counter-attack beats it she can Boost, and then she can burn all her boosts on an Attack/Recovery combo if she’s still alive. I also like the idea of a defense-ignoring attack that is just “scare someone off”.

Shrug It Off coupled with good bonus generation (either from yourself or ally support) is such a good Recovery combo. I’m always kind of surprised when it doesn’t show up on Armored archetype heroes, but you do need the bonuses for it to really pay off.

Principle of Mastery with such a diverse array of powers ought to be very easy to apply to challenges unless you’re somewhere with no biome at all - which usually involves hard vacuum.

The Randomizers:
Background 4, 6, 4 [Options: Military, Upper Class, Struggling, Unremarkable, Interstellar]
Power Source 6, 1, 6 [Options: Accident, Nature, Relic, Artificial Being, Cosmos]
Archetype 8, 4, 4 [Options: Marksman, Flyer, Psychic, Minion-Maker]
Personality 7, 2, 8 [Options: Natural Leader, Stalwart, Fast-Talking, Inquisitive, Alluring, Jovial]

Cormorant

Cormorant537×620 337 KB

Real Name: Wayne Alton, First Appearance: Cryptic Trails #49, April 1943
Background: Upper Class, Power Source: Relic, Archetype: Flyer
Personality: Jovial, Principles: Sidekick, Compassion

Status Dice: Green d6, Yellow d8, Red d10. Health: 28 [Green 28-22, Yellow 21-11, Red 10-1]
Qualities: Persuasion d10, Close Combat d10, Fitness d8, Creativity d6, Child of Wealth d8
Powers: Radiant d10, Flight d10, Awareness d8, Water d8, Swimming d6

Green Abilities:

• The Answerer (I): Whenever you Attack an enemy that has inflicted a penalty on you, treat that penalty as if it were a bonus for the purpose of that Attack.
• Shining Strike [A]: Attack using Radiant. Defend against all Attacks against you using your Min die until your next turn.
• Storm’s Evasion [R]: When you are Attacked while Flying, you may Defend yourself by rolling your single Flight die.
• Principle of the Sidekick [A]: Overcome a challenge that has already flummoxed a more senior teammate and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.
• Principle of Compassion [A]: Overcome to connect with an individual on a personal level and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.

Yellow Abilities:

• Light of Judgement [A]: Attack using Radiant. Use your Min die. Take damage equal to your Mid die, and one nearby ally Recovers Health equal to your Max die.
• Tidal Surge [A]: Boost yourself using Water. Use your Max die. Hinder a nearby opponent with your Min die.
• Gifts of the Sea God [A]: Boost using Radiant. Apply that bonus to all hero Attack and Overcome actions until the start of your next turn.

Red Abilities

• Moonlit Flight [A]: Boost yourself using Flight. Use your Max+Mid dice. Then, you may end up anywhere else in the scene, avoiding any dangers between your starting and ending locations.
• Divine Aura (I): If you would take Radiant damage, ignore that damage and Recover that amount instead. Use the value of the damage to Boost yourself.

Out

• Defend an ally by rolling your single Persuasion die.

By 1943, sidekicks were all the rage at Venture Comics. Flatfoot had picked up a teen engineer in place of his original assistant, the Steward and Greenheart each had plucky would-be reporters following them around, and of course Kid Liberty was a wild success. However, Skybreaker had failed to develop a proper sidekick. An early attempt, a young boy named Dickie Lewis who followed Skybreaker around, had only lasted three stories before vanishing, and the editors pressured the series writer to try again in advance of Issue #50.

Instead of creating yet another ordinary teenager with pluck and grit, the writers tried something different. Wayne Alton was the heir to the Alton family fortune, a lackadaisical teenager unconcerned with the perils of war - until his friends were tempted by a gentlemen’s club that turned out to be a Fomori front, corrupting the heirs of American industry towards fascism and the Nazi cause. Skybreaker investigated the club, and as he was attacked and in danger of being overwhelmed, Wayne grabbed the old sword the cult had been using as a focus for their magic and tried to help.

The sword turned out to be Fragarach, divine sword of the sea god Manannán mac Lir, and Wayne was empowered with the might of the sea and storm, becoming the superhero Cormorant! Helping Skybreaker, he swore to devote his wealth to fighting fascism, taking up his place as Skybreaker’s sidekick and financial supporter.

Cormorant was a different sort of sidekick, his powers directly tied into Skybreaker’s own mythos, nearly a hero in his own right already. He proved decently popular, expanding the roster of Skybreaker’s stories and providing an excuse for expanding the hero’s activities around the globe. Why exactly a sea god allowed his champion to sprout wings whenever he drew his sword was left to the imagination of the reader, but most assumed it had to do with ocean birds somehow.

Behind the Scenes

Theoretically, everyone has sidekicks, but most of those sidekicks aren’t also heroes! I wanted at least two sidekicks in the Golden Age, and was going to go with either Skybreaker or Greenheart for our second; getting Relic gave me the idea for a second god-weapon empowered hero in the same storyline.

And Upper Class means that we can give Principle of the Sidekick to one of our Golden Age heroes, so here it is!

I’ve got a PC in one of my groups who’s explicitly the (Principled) Sidekick of another PC who has Principle of the Mentor. The synergy between the two is pretty hilarious, they’ve been keeping track of which of them has gotten to use their Principle more often because of the other one screwing up. Last I checked the Mentor was ahead 13-11, so holding on to his dignity by a narrow margin.

That Light of Judgement/Divine Aura combo is the game’s best healing trick, bar none. A player running it is likely to look for opportunities to justify spending 4HP to bump the Red component to Yellow for an issue, but it’s solid even without that.

Now that’s a good combination! Nice.

The Randomizers:
Background 3, 6, 1 [Options: Blank Slate, Performer, Military, Upper Class, Law Enforcement, Tragic]
Power Source 3, 5, 2 [Options: Training, Genetic, Mystical, Relic, Powered Suit]
Archetype 3, 5, 8 [Options: Physical Powerhouse, Blaster, Flyer, Sorcerer, Transporter]
Personality 2, 10, 8 [Options: Natural Leader, Fast Talking, Alluring, Nurturing, Apathetic]

Night Rider

Night Rider500×800 317 KB

Real Name: Evie Nelson, First Appearance: Campfire Terrors #61, March 1944
Background: Performer, Power Source: Training, Archetype: Sorcerer
Personality: Alluring, Principles: Family, Magic

Status Dice: Green d6, Yellow d8, Red d10. Health: 32 [Green 32-25, Yellow 24-12, Red 11-1]
Qualities: Acrobatics d10, Investigation d8, Insight d8, Magical Lore d8, Lifelong Carnie d8
Powers: Agility d10, Awareness d10, Illusions d10, Postcognition d8, Presence d6

Green Abilities:

• Hall of Mirrors [A]: Hinder using Illusions. Use your Max die. If you roll doubles, also Attack using your Mid die.
• Stunning Kick [A]: Attack using Agility. Hinder the same target using your Min die.
• Principle of Family [A]: Overcome in a situation where you have been given advice by your circus family and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.
• Principle of Magic [A]: Overcome against a mystical force and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.

Yellow Abilities:

• Double Takedown [A]: Destroy one d6 or d8 minion. Roll that minion’s die as an Attack against another target.
• Saw It Coming [A]: Boost yourself using Awareness. That bonus is persistent and exclusive. Then, Attack using your Min die. You may use the bonus you just created for that Attack.
• Flowing Stance [R]: When you are attacked by a nearby enemy, the attacker also takes an equal amount of damage.

Red Abilities

• Exploit Vulnerability [A]: Attack using Awareness. Use your Max+Min dice. Ignore all penalties on this attack, ignore any Defend actions, and it cannot be affected by Reactions.
• Flickering Spells (I): Whenever you Attack a target with an action, you may also Hinder that target with your Min die.

Out

• Boost an ally by rolling your single Illusions die.

While most of their other comics were rolling in heroes, Campfire Terrors remained an outlier for Venture Comics; aside from the Penitent, who remained a popular and powerful character, none of the attempts to introduce new characters to the pages of the comic had stuck. Then, in 1944, the editors made one last attempt, and this one struck gold. Evie Nelson was a trained tightrope walker from a circus family, whose parents were killed by vampires. Dedicating herself to justice, Evie trained her body and mind, learning magical arts and steeling herself to become the Night Rider, taking her name from circus workers who would go out at night and destroy each others’ advertising. The Night Rider was a travelling monster hunter who used her circus activities to spot monstrous enemies lurking in the towns she visited. Her mystical illusions could confuse the creatures’ thralls, turning them against each other, and she knew how to investigate crime scenes and discover hints of creatures’ presence, before using their weaknesses to destroy them.

Night Rider was a solid hit, facing off against both supernatural monsters and the occasional crooked gang terrorizing small towns. She had a consistent supporting cast made up of her carnival allies, and was soon a stalwart in the comic’s pages, becoming more popular even than the Penitent. The editors of Venture Comics began discussing spinning her off to her own circus-themed title, with side stories about other members of her troupe, but unfortunately, time was not on her side…

Behind the Scenes

Fun weirdness - Power Source, Archetype, and Personality had the third die I rolled be equal to the sum of the other two.

I like the idea of a training-based hero who also has real magic that they learned, so when I got that opportunity I jumped at it. Lots of tricky illusions combined with skilled circus tricks, and this feels like a comic I’d enjoy reading! I almost didn’t call her Night Rider because of, you know, Knight Rider. But it’s a circus-themed name, it fits the style and her goals, and fuck it, why not. In this universe, maybe Knight Rider was loosely inspired by her.

Always liked this character concept. You remind me I have to finish an environment she partly inspired.

So what’s your take on this one - if you assign an exclusive bonus (either a P+E or one from hero points) to use this ability, can you wind up using it and the new P+E it generates? At the point you have to assign the mod everything’s working RAW, then you roll your pool, decide if you want to stick the pre-existing bonus on the Boost or the Attack part of this, Boost accordingly, then make your Attack where you’re explicitly allowed to use the brand-new bonus. It doesn’t mention how that functions with the usual exclusivity lockout, but my best guess is that it overrides it due to special case > general case. But I could see arguments the other way.

Do you play it allowing a double-up like that (making it a more useful ability to repeat, if nothing else) or not? IME it’s not OTT either way, although I usually go for the more permissive option.

Your dice weirdness in this project is really quite impressive.

It’s never come up in-person for me. My instinct would be that if you applied a previous persistent-exclusive to the roll, and then you got this one, you would be able to replace the original bonus with the new one, but you still wouldn’t be able to stack the bonuses.

However, if a player really wanted to do it and felt strongly, I think I’d let them; it’s a Min die Attack as a rider (no pun intended) on a persistent-exclusive in Yellow that doesn’t use your Max die, it’s not going to be the end of the world to give it an extra +2 or +3 if for some reason you’re burning actions to stack persistent/exclusive boosts before the previous one is destroyed or removed by enemies.

And today we wrap up our Golden Age heroes and start in on the villains! By my count, the Golden Age should wrap up about the end of the week, at which point I will be slowing down to daily updates so that anyone interested in conversation has more time (other than Rich, who is on the ball!) and once we catch up fully, it’ll slow down again to M-F updates.

The Randomizers:
Background 2, 7, 7 [Options: Criminal, Law Enforcement, Tragic, Interstellar, Anachronistic]
Power Source 3, 5, 5 [Options: Genetic, Mystical, Powered Suit, Tech Upgrades, Genius]
Archetype 5, 8, 1 [Options: Speedster, Blaster, Close Quarters Combatant, Flyer, Elemental Manipulator, Transporter]
Personality 10, 7, 2 [Options: Natural Leader, Stalwart, Inquisitive, Alluring, Nurturing, Naive]

Revenant

Revenant600×804 394 KB

Real Name: Henry Fletcher, First Appearance: Company Town #118, January 1949
Background: Anachronistic, Power Source: Genetic, Archetype: Close Quarters Combatant
Personality: Stalwart, Principles: Immortality, Underworld

Status Dice: Green d8, Yellow d8, Red d8. Health: 30 [Green 30-23, Yellow 22-12, Red 11-1]
Qualities: History d10, Close Combat d10, Stealth d8, Persuasion d8, Cover Identities d8
Powers: Vitality d10, Strength d8, Awareness d8, Presence d6

Green Abilities:

• Ancient Recall [A]: Boost yourself using History. That bonus is persistent and exclusive.
• Boxing Stance [A]: Defend using Vitality. Attack using your Min die.
• Flexible Stance [A]: Take any two basic actions using Awareness, each using your Min die.
• Power Stance [A]: Attack using Close Combat. Use your Max die.
• Principle of Immortality [A]: Overcome a situation involving your physical condition and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.
• Principle of the Underworld [A]: Overcome a problem related to your knowledge of the criminal underworld or using one of your contacts and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.

Yellow Abilities:

• The Immortal Man [A]: Boost yourself using Vitality, then either remove a penalty on yourself or Recover using your Min die.
• Age and Treachery [A]: Attack using Close Combat. Ignore all penalties on this Attack, ignore any Defend actions, and it cannot be affected by Reactions.
• Danger Sense [R]: When damaged by an environment target or surprise Attack, Defend by rolling your single Awareness die.

Red Abilities

• Impossible Recovery [A]: Hinder yourself using Vitality. Use your Min die. Recover health equal to your Max+Mid dice.
• Super-Senses (I): When taking any action using Awareness, you may reroll your Min die before determining effects.

Out

• Defend an ally by rolling your single Vitality die.

By January 1949, the world was changing. Superheroes were falling out of fashion, war in Korea loomed, and the editors of Company Town saw a chance to return the comic to the dark roots that had been largely upended by the addition of Flatfoot to the comic’s pages. Inspired by the recent successful launch of the Wraith in the pages of Sentinel Comics, they proposed a new hero be added to the comic - someone who would fight criminals on their own terms, attacking cowardly mobsters in the name of the innocent.

Their proposal was Revenant, and he would prove to be a very popular but short-lived entry into the Golden Age of Venture Comics.

Revenant’s real name was Henry Fletcher, a man living in Renaissance England who, upon dying of plague, found himself miraculously returned to life. Over the centuries, Fletcher would continue to die on a regular basis, each time reviving within hours to continue his travels. Eventually, Fletcher came to America, and found himself in Ferristown. Unable to sign up for the war due to lacking citizenship papers, he instead saw the criminal element preying on those who were left behind, and took up arms as the Revenant, striking from the shadows to undo criminal conspiracies and protect the people of the city.

Revenant had false identities around the city, which he used to gain access to criminal organizations and destroy them from within, using centuries of knowledge to take on whatever role was needed for the night. Many of his stories ended with him gunned down by criminals, only to rise and take revenge, a terrible spectre that stalked the night. Although his stories were taking place in the same city as Flatfoot’s, the two heroes never met; Revenant focused on the poorest and most vulnerable districts, while Flatfoot’s stories were brighter and more hopeful.

Revenant was largely a pulp-horror throwback with superhero leanings, and his presence in the pages of Company Town helped to bring the title back towards tales of grim corruption and political brutality. The editors might not have been as thrilled about this fact if they knew what was on the horizon, but for the time being, he was another successful entry in the history of Venture Comics.

Behind the Scenes

When I got Anachronistic, I had planned to make an actual vengeful ghost, but then Genetic popped up and the idea of making an immortal guy seemed kind of fun. There are a couple of similarities with Haka here, and I bet fans of Sentinel Comics claim that Revenant’s immortal nature was obviously just copying Haka, but in the metaverse it’s probably a coincidence, especially since they aren’t otherwise similar.

There are a couple Revenants in comics in the real world, with my favorite being the Batman-alike of PS238; this Revenant is quite different from him, too, but in the world of Venture Comics, that Revenant probably had a different name. The Bat, perhaps.

Well, I do have the thread on my email notifications.

FWIW, the PS238 Revenant originated from an old short story called Peer Review by Michael Stackpole. It was first printed in an anthology called Superheroes, but I believe it was brought back in a 2014 anthology just called Heroes! The text-only Revenant is pretty similar to the one we see in the webcomic but the setting is quite a bit different in tone and scope.

Today also marks one year since PS238 last updated, and it’s finally getting deleted from my favorites list so I stop compulsively checking the site. A very disappointing non-ending to what had been a pretty fantastic comic/webcomic. At least Edison Rex had the decency to just stop at the end of an issue, even if it was a bit of a cliffhanger. Sigh.

Randomizers:
Approach: 9, 1, 7 [Options: Relentless, Focused, Mastermind, Specialized, Overpowered, Dampening*]*
Archetype: 2, 6, 4 [Options: Inventor, Guerilla, Overlord, Inhibitor, Squad*]*
Upgrade: 9, 1, 7 [Options: Defense Shield, Mook Squad, Quality Upgrade*]*
Mastery: 12, 2, 2 [Options: Malice, Behind The Curtain*]*

Mr. Ferris

Ferris500×795 347 KB

Real Name: Hank Ferris, First Appearance: Company Town Issue #1, May 1939
Approach: Mastermind, Archetype: Inventor
Upgrade: Mook Squad, Mastery: Behind The Curtain

Status Dice: 4+ Inventions: d12, 2-3 Inventions: d10, 1 Invention: d8, no Inventions: d6. Health: 30+5H [Green I-J, Yellow L-M, Red N-O]
Qualities: Technology d10, Imposing d8, Criminal Underworld d8, Insight d8, Stealth d8, Business Magnate d8
Powers: Inventions d12, Presence d10, Deduction d8

Abilities:

• Respectable Businessman [A]: Hinder all opponents who can see or hear you using Imposing. Boost yourself using your Max die.
• Cutting-Edge Science [A]: Boost yourself using Technology and use your Max die. Either make that bonus persistent and exclusive, or Boost yourself again using your Min+Mid dice.
• Capable Creator (I): Whenever you create a bonus, increase that bonus by 1.
• Defensive Infrastructure [R]: Discard one of your bonuses to Defend against all Attacks against you until your next turn, using that bonus value as the Defend result.
• (U) Hired Goons [A]: Replenish the number of Company Men up to the number of heroes.
• (U) Master Behind The Curtain (I): As long as you are not directly involved in the fray and are using your influence indirectly, automatically succeed at an Overcome to manipulate a situation.

Common Scene Elements:

• Company Men: d8 Minions. As a reaction, they can step their die down, then roll it to Defend a superior.
• Enhanced Soldiers: d8 Lieutenants. When they save against physical damage, they get +1. They also count as an Invention for Mr. Ferris’s status dice.
• A Hostile Environment: Mr. Ferris is rarely found anywhere in which he does not control the situation.

The first supervillain introduced in the pages of Venture Comics, unusually, predated all of its heroes, although his rise to comics villainy wasn’t immediate.

One of the initial Venture Comics titles was Company Town , a dark noir anthology series. The main writer for Company Town envisioned it as being united not by protagonists, but by its antagonist , Hank Ferris. Growing up on a farm in Michigan, Ferris developed unspecific mining and industrial equipment, founding a small factory that turned into a large factory which then grew up a small town around itself. During the Depression, Ferris made mob ties and expanded his influence, leading to several towns in the region amalgamating into the city of Ferristown. He controlled the mob, the police, the politicians and industry. His fingers were in every pie, and while individual stories sometimes ended in setbacks for him, he never seemed to suffer consequences.

The introduction of Flatfoot shifted the focus of Company Town , and in turn the focus of Mr. Ferris. Increasingly, his plots involved more and more extravagant scientific inventions, attempts to duplicate Flatfoot’s robot brain, and significant setbacks as Flatfoot cleaned the town of crime. The primary editor of Company Town was absolutely distraught by this change, and over the course of Flatfoot’s adventures, Ferris faded further into the background. He began to make appearances again during the Revenant’s run in Company Town, occasionally appeared in crossover stories, but his impact on the storyline was weakened and by the mid-1950s it was unclear whether he still controlled the town.

Behind the Scenes

Narratively, Mr. Ferris is halfway between Lex Luthor and the Kingpin; a criminal industrialist who is on the front lines of his own inventions, but who also uses leverage to get what he wants and is heavily involved in traditional criminal activities. This makes him a bit more hands-on than your typical mob boss, but he still owns the city.

Mechanically, Ferris is not a very dangerous opponent alone, but he’s an absolute nightmare in a scene where the heroes are trying to get something else done. His typical strategy will be to open up with some cutting-edge science to get the boost, then use his monologues and insights to throw the heroes off their game, Hindering everyone to weaken their ability to Overcome while building Boosts to enhance his status dice and Defend himself. He doesn’t typically fight directly, and if his minions are overcome and the heroes are focusing on him instead of the scene he’s going to beat a hasty retreat (although if the heroes don’t have good area attacks and he’s ultimate, he could delay indefinitely by creating new Company Men.

A classic Approach/Archetype pairing with a massive Boost game, and if he’s got a Bully ally around with the “make all penalties bigger” the Hinders get real scary too. Having a menacing legbreaker bodyguard around when he expects trouble seems in character for Mister Ferris.

Always amused me that Inventor Boosts can be handed out to allies like candy, but Masterminds horde theirs so hard they make Smaug look generous.

Randomizers:
Approach: 4, 8, 2 [Options: Skilled, Squad, Disruptive, Mastermind, Overpowered, Tactician*]*
Archetype: 1, 1, 6 [Options: Predator, Inventor, Overlord, Formidable, Domain*]*
Upgrade: 11, 2, 2 [Options: Hardier Minions, Power Dampening Field*]*
Mastery: 7, 4, 9 [Options: Mysticism, Enforced Order, Superiority*]*

Iron Will

iron will600×818 361 KB

Real Name: Colonel Wilhelm Eisenfalle , First Appearance: Madame Liberty #5, May 1942
Approach: Disruptive, Archetype: Overlord
Upgrade: Hardier Minions, Mastery: Enforced Order

Status Dice: 9+ Minions: d12, 5-9 Minions: d10, 3-4 Minions: d8. 1-2 Minions: d6. 0 minions: d4. Health: 35+5H (Upgraded Health 40+5H)
Qualities: Insight d10, Imposing d8, Stealth d8, Nazi Commander d8
Powers: Suggestion d10, Awareness d10, Agility d8, Presence d8

Abilities:

• Eye of Chaos [A]: Hinder multiple targets using Insight. You and any nearby allies Defend using your Max die.
• Hypnotic Oppression [A]: Attack using Suggestion. Use your Max die. A target dealt damage this way Attacks an ally by rolling their single largest power die.
• Collaborators [A]: Use Insight to create a number of minions equal to the value of your Max die. The starting die size for those minions is the same as the size of your Min die.
• Human Shields [R]: Redirect an Attack to one of your minions.
• (U) Fanatical Soldiers [A]: Choose one group of minions in the scene. Upgrade their dice one size (maximum d12.)
• (U) Mastery of Enforced Order (I): If you have complete control over your immediate surroundings, automatically succeed in an Overcome to organize rabble to accomplish a task.

Common Scene Elements:

• Nazi Goosesteppers: d6 minions who gain +1 to all of their rolls as long as at least (H) of them are in play.
• Conscripted Civilians: d6 minions who deal 1 psychic damage to any hero who defeats them.
• Scene Challenges: Iron Will is often accompanied by scene challenges to get potential civilians to safety, lest they become more brainwashed minions.

As Madame Liberty’s solo comic took off, the writers of Venture Comics struggled to find an interesting nemesis - someone who would test her to her limits. After a few failed attempts to throw various Nazis and collaborators at her, one writer hit on striking her where she was most vulnerable, and thus Iron Will was created!

Wilhelm Eisenfalle was a Nazi officer, a believer in the Reich placed in charge of pacifying the French countryside. A master of the hypnotic arts, he could reach into a person’s mind and pull out their fears and secrets, manipulating them to serve him. His compelled minions were all convinced that if they didn’t follow his orders, they and their loved ones would suffer horribly, and it only took him moments to twist the minds of most of his victims. In his first appearance, he took control of much of Madame Liberty’s resistance cell, turning them against the heroine. She managed to fight through, disguising herself as a Nazi officer and attacking him aboard his zeppelin, at which point he seemed to fall to his death.

Of course, he survived, and returned to face off against her multiple times in the next few years. Iron Will’s plots ranged from corrupting workers to press them into service building Nazi war machines to turning loyal agents into fifth column spies; everywhere he went, entire towns would turn against the cause of liberty. Each time, Madame Liberty was able to undermine and stop him, but often only with civilian casualties. After World War II, many readers expected that he would not be seen again, but he resurfaced in 1948 as a Soviet agent, having seamlessly turned his coat to support the Stalinst cause and facing off against Madame Liberty in occupied Berlin.

Behind the Scenes

You’ve got to have a monstrous Nazi villain in the Golden Age. For this one, I hit Disruptive immediately, and I liked the idea of a hero and villain that fight each other indirectly, with Iron Will reaching out to control minions as Madame Liberty hides herself among them and tries to reach him. He’s a real nasty piece of work, and whoever he works for, he’ll still be just as awful. He is loosely inspired by Hatemonger from Marvel Comics, but instead of just turning people evil, he forces them to collaborate against their will, which is almost worse.

Mechanically, he’s also a piece of work! He just swarms the battlefield with minions who are the people you’re trying to protect, and if he starts with a group of minions in play he can really dial it up fast.

There’s a running gag in one of the games I play in where a villain with that ability has wound up on one hero’s nemesis list because she never, ever chooses him as a target for her version of that ability, which has become her go-to when facing us. His best power dice is a d8 and she always does better on the rider hitting someone else, but narratively it’s because she’s utterly contemptuous of his feeble powers and enjoys telling him so at every opportunity. Lot of bad blood between those two after crossing paths three or four times.

Predictably, two of the other players ship them.

Quick evening update!

The Retriever

Retriver by Spatula509×638 280 KB

Real Name: n/a, First Appearance: Flatfoot Adventures #13, 1943
Approach: Relentless, Archetype: Inhibitor
Upgrade: Group Fighter, Mastery: Profitability

Status Dice: 3+ heroes with at least one penalty d10, 1-2 heroes with at least one penalty d8, 0 heroes with at least one penalty d6. Health: 30+5H (Upgraded 50+5H)
Qualities: Close Combat d10, Alertness d8, Conviction d6, Rubber Body d8
Powers: Elasticity d10, Vitality d8, Awareness d6

Abilities:

• Capture Cords [A]: Attack and Hinder using Close Combat. If the target has: a d6 or less status die, use your Max+Min dice; a d8 status die, use your Max die; larger than a d8, use your Mid die.
• Wrap-Around [A]: Hinder using Elasticity. That penalty is persistent and exclusive. As long as that penalty is in play, reduce damage dealt to you by 1 and whenever you are dealt damage, the target with this penalty takes 1 irreducible damage.
• Constrict [R]: When Attacked by someone with a penalty you created, Defend by rolling your single status die, and the attacker also suffers that much damage.
• Slingshot [R]: When an opponent moves away from you, you may follow them and use your single status die as a Hinder against them.
• (U) Group Fighter (I): When you take an action that lets you make an Attack, also make an Attack using your Mid die.
• (U) Master of Profitability (I): If you have access to great wealth and other resources, automatically succeed at an Overcome to leverage those resources to get even richer, no matter who else pays the price.

Common Scene Elements:

• A challenge related to a captive or fragile object already in the Retriever’s grasp
• An unpredictable environment created by the Retriever to cover its tracks
• An allied villain or set of lieutenants hired to accompany the Retriever

By 1943, Flatfoot had already done battle with a few thematic crime lords, mad scientists, and Nazis, typically simply smashing them with his tremendous strength. The Retriever was created to be something more difficult to face. In its first appearance, it was an eight-foot tall rubber robot that moved easily through the streets, kidnapping the mayor of Ferristown for ransom. Flatfoot hunted down the Retriever and defeated its master, another mad scientist of no particular renown.

But the Retriever proved surprisingly popular with fans, and the writers of Flatfoot Adventures decided to play into that. The robot returned a year later, under the control of a criminal gang that had unearthed it in the scientist’s belongs and were using it to steal rare artwork. Once again Flatfoot was unable to fight it directly, having to find ways to recover its stolen goods first. This proved to be a trend for the next decade; every year or two, a new villain would discover the Retriever and gain control of it, using it to kidnap or steal. Once, the mysterious Mr. Ferris even used the Retriever in an attempt to retrieve Flatfoot himself!

As a powerful threat with minimal motivations of its own, the Retriever was a phenomenally popular villain, showing up to face other heroes outside of Flatfoot’s own comics and rarely needing much explanation for how it got somewhere. It also served as a useful foil for the robotic hero, having no desires beyond what its creators asked of it, and no adherence to any law but its own.

Behind the Scenes

Look, if I get a villain who relentlessly tracks people down and also can tether them to itself, you better believe I’m going to create a giant rubber robot that wraps around its victims and carries them off.

It’s both goofy and kind of creepy. I’m not at all surprised that it was a popular baddie.

This is a situation where the random factors worked against me a bit. The Group Fighter upgrade gives it the power to brush off people who aren’t its primary target, but it wouldn’t have been my first choice if I was building a capture robot from scratch. Similarly, Profitability kind of works for something that is often just stealing to improve the wealth of its owners, but it gives a slightly different tone than if I’d gotten Annihilation or Mercenary.

The Retriever’s portrait was done by user Spatula on another forum; I had put a design together, but it was much more Silver Age and Spatula’s revision was a delight.

Yeah, that final version of the figure really knocked it out of the park. Think this my favorite of the Golden Age baddies, both concept and looks. Hopefully he makes a return in later eras - one advantage to robots is that they’re even more immune to aging than regular comic book characters.

I mean, I’ve already got a Silver Age picture for it, so I cannot imagine not finding a way to use it.

Randomizers:
Approach: 9, 4, 7 [Options: Underpowered, Focused, Specialized, Generalist, Ninja, Dampening]
Archetype: 1, 5, 3 [Options: Predator, Bruiser, Guerilla, Indomitable, Formidable, Inhibitor]
Upgrade: 4, 9, 7 [Options: Villainous Vehicle, Quality Upgrade, Defense Shield]
Mastery: 2, 2, 12 [Options: Behind the Curtain, Malice]

The Huntsman

Huntsman510×846 451 KB

Real Name: Desmond Reed (no longer), First Appearance: Cryptic Trails #20, Oct 1940
Approach: Dampening, Archetype: Formidable (Fae Weaknesses)
Upgrade: Villainous Vehicle, Mastery: Malice

Status Dice: No Weakness Penalties d12, Mitigated Penalties d8, Penalties d4. Health: 50+5H (Upgraded 65+5H)
Qualities: Ranged Combat d10, Imposing d8, Magical Lore d8, Master of the Hunt d8
Powers: Presence d10, Awareness d8, Vitality d8

Abilities:

• Howl of Terror [A]: Hinder multiple targets using Presence. While a hero has this penalty, reduce all their power dice by one size.
• The Lion Fears Not The Lamb [R]: When Attacked by a hero with a penalty, ignore their damage and remove a penalty on that hero.
• Flush Out The Prey [A]: Boost using Awareness and use your Max die. That bonus is persistent and exclusive. Also Attack with your Mid die.
• Lord of the Hunt [A]: Take any basic action and use your Max die.
• (U) Night Mare (I): The Night Mare is a d10 lieutenant with the following abilities:
  • Sturdy (I): When rolling a damage save, add 2 to the result
  • The Wild Hunt (A): Add minions to an existing group equal to half (rounded down) the Night Mare’s current die size. These minions are of a size equal to the highest die size already existing in the group. If the Night Mare has a bonus or penalty, adjust the number of minions created by that amount and then remove that mod.
  • Aura of Fear (I): To attack the Night Mare, a hero must make an Overcome action in order to face it.
• (U) Master of Malice (I): When you take an action to demonstrate or indulge in cruelty, automatically succeed at an Overcome to inflict pain or fear.

Common Scene Elements:

• The Wild Hunt: d8 Minions who gain +1 against anyone with a mental penalty
• Investigation: Challenges to discover and exploit the Hunstman’s weaknesses.
• Fae Magics: An environment twisted by nightmare magic

Skybreaker’s first major villain proved to be one of his most enduring. The Huntsman was introduced in the third Skybreaker story, in October 1940. He was a British aristocrat who made a pact with the Fomori for fae power, taking on the mantle of the Wild Hunt in order to stalk and kill innocent people without fear of consequence. In return, the Fomori demanded that he hunt Skybreaker. They played a game of cat and mouse, with Skybreaker unable to stop the villain until he reached his manor and uncovered his true name. With its power, he was able to banish the Huntsman to the Dark Sea, seemingly forever.

But a year later, the Huntsman returned, now twisted by his time in the darkness, armed with a deadly Night Mare and at the head of the Wild Hunt. This time, his power was even more unmatched, and his name had been cast into the Well of Shadows, rendering it powerless against him. Skybreaker was forced to discover his new weakness in order to find a way to strike him down.

This remained the pattern throughout the Golden Age. Every so often, the Huntsman would escape from his eternal prison, able to persist in the real world only for as long as he could hunt and kill innocents. Each time, Skybreaker stood in his way, discovering his latest vulnerabilities and sending him back into the darkness. Sometimes he would be part of a larger Fomori plot, but often he was guided only by his own cruelty and desire to bring harm to the world that he felt owed him.

Behind the Scenes

So, it looks like at some point, there was an update to the Sentinel Comics RPG corebook, because I recall Formidable not specifying that penalties needed to be related to your weakness before, and now it does. I prefer that, and it gives us a proper Skybreaker enemy - someone almost unstoppable until you figure out how to deal with them, at which point they become very vulnerable.

The Night Mare might be legitimately unfair; hard to target, hard to kill, and it can spawn minions at a frankly rough rate if it wants to. You would need some good tricks to take it head-on.

Narratively, the Huntsman falls into the Golden Age “this guy is bad because he is bad” shtick, but in a way that leaves a lot of story open. He might end up being Venture Comics’ version of the Joker.

I’ve run that same villainous vehicle build in the past. It’s not as bad as it looks on paper, assuming your heroes have decent Hinder abilities and you don’t go nuts Boosting it with (say) minions.

The wording on Minion Deployment/Wild Hunt needs errata. The current phrasing works incorrectly with persistent mods, which shouldn’t be removed after using the ability.

Like the custom Mastery, very good fit.

My read was that Minion Deployment kills the boost even if it’s persistent, in order to prevent a persistent boost from allowing you to spawn an awful number of minions on a regular basis.

It probably doesn’t come up often; the Huntsman, ironically, has one of only two villain abilities in the core book that can give someone else a persistent-exclusive bonus (the other is in Inventor).

The problem is that also lets it kill both persistent penalties and two-use penalties bought with a minor twist. The former are about the same rarity for heroes as P+E any-target bonuses are for villains (Gadgeteer and Reality Shaper IIRC) , but the latter come up pretty regularly IME - especially against lieutenants, who tend to be durable enough to merit a multi-use penalty that will both nerf their turn’s action and hurt their next save - or their two next save if the timing works out that way. Hero abilities (particularly in Green) are modest enough that risky basics Hinders aren’t an implausible choice at all. Villain abilities are often so strong that a risky basic feels like a poor choice even with their different rules for paying that minor twist cost - ie killing a minion as the twist.

“Keep them occupied, fool!”
“Please, master, no…aaah!”

TL;DR Eating two-use mods probably hurts heroes more than it restrains villains.

Ohhh. I did not think of that. Yeah, that’s probably a problem in need of errata.

It’s easy to forget if you don’t see it in use regularly - which only one of the three groups I’m currently involved with really does. The GM usually doesn’t need it for villains, although some Predator builds who don’t have access to a P+E Hinder from their Approach might be better off twisting for a basic two-use penalty than playing the “initiative lottery” and hoping it goes in their favor. Depends on how good the heroes are at clearing mods.

Heck, I’m not even sure RAW says a two-use mod requires you to clear it twice. It doesn’t explicitly say that under the “Getting Rid Of Mods” section, although it’s kind of implied. So that’s probably better off getting errata as well to add a clause about it, rather than leaving it to a FAQ. FAQs suck, they usually mean your rules weren’t as clear as they could have been.

But that’s getting far afield off topic here.

Only slightly more on topic, that second ability reminds me that one of the campaigns I play in has an NPC hero duo called the Lion and the Lamb, who are pretty much Hawk and Dove expies.

Randomizers:
Approach: 2, 8, 5 [Options: Skilled, Bully, Focused, Mastermind, Overpowered, Creator]
Archetype: 4, 4 6 [Options: Guerilla, Overlord, Inhibitor, Squad, Titan]
Upgrade: 1, 8, 8 [Options: Mook Squad, Quality Upgrade]
Mastery: 4, 11, 3 [Options: Conquest, Enforced Order, Unfathomable]

Urak, the Prince of Rot

Urak by TheStray7798×702 61.2 KB

Real Name: Urak, the Prince of Rot, First Appearance: Campfire Terrors #28, May 1941
Approach: Overpowered, Archetype: Titan
Upgrade: Mook Squad, Mastery: Unfathomable

Status Dice: Unmarked d12, First Challenge d10, Second Challenge d8. Health: 65+5H
Qualities: Imposing d8, Alertness d6, Demon God d8
Powers: Toxic d12, Strength d10, Telepathy d10

First Challenge: Uncover the Summoning Ritual [ ][ ]
Second Challenge: Disrupt the Summoning Ritual [ ]

Abilities:

• Fleshcrafter (I): At the start of the action scene, gain a persistent, exclusive “Screaming Flesh” bonus rated at +1. This bonus is indestructible and remains if reduced to 0; if it would be destroyed, removed, or turned into a penalty, set it to 0.

Urak has a personal Challenge track. Whenever a nearby minion dies, increase the track by 1. Then, if the track is equal to or greater than the current Screaming Flesh bonus, erase the track and increase the bonus by 1, to a maximum of +5.

• Your Efforts Are Meaningless [R]: When attacked by a roll that includes doubles, remove one of the successes from the Summoning challenge.
• Untouchable (I): Reduce all damage taken by 6 if you have a d12 status die, 4 if you have a d10 status die, or 2 if you have a d8 or lower status die.
• Rot and Ruin [A]: Attack multiple targets using Toxic and use your Max die. Hinder each target using your Mid die.
• Imbue Corruption [A]: Boost using Telepathy. Recover Health equal to your Max die. Each of your nearby allies Recovers Health equal to your Min die. Each of your nearby minions and lieutenants whose die sizes have degraded are increased one die size.
• (U) The Cult: Replenish your Imbued Cultists up to the number of heroes.
• (U) Master of the Unfathomable: As long as you are in a situation involving eldritch or disturbing forces, automatically succeed at an Overcome to spread your power and essence into the world.

Common Scene Elements:

• Imbued Cultists: Imbued Cultists are d8 minions. When they take an Attack or Hinder action they can roll twice and take the better result, but if they do, they take 2 damage afterwards.
• Cult Leaders: Cult leaders are d8 lieutenants who can step down the die size of a nearby allied minion after rolling to add +1 to the result of any magical action they take.
• Opposed Challenges: In most major battles against Urak, the heroes must complete challenges to seal the pathways to the Realm of Rot before Urak and his cultists are able to force them permanently open and manifest.

The Penitent fought many demonic cults across the Golden Age, but none were so terrifying as the Rot-Bringers. These monstrous cultists worshipped the terrible rot-god Urak, who gifted them with diseased magic that brought them power at the cost of their own health, slowly consuming them until they were more demon than human, at which point they were pulled into his terrible Realm of Rot to merge with his flesh.

Urak was always seeking to spread his influence to Earth, looking for ways to overcome its mystical protections and infect new lands. In his first appearance, a group of cultists succeeded in summoning a towering avatar of the Prince of Rot, who began to consume a small town until the Penitent was able to break the seals that were holding him present, banishing him and his most infected worshippers back to his diseased realm. He would not appear often after that, but it was a rare year in which some manifestation of Rot didn’t make its way into the pages of Campfire Terrors, either for the Penitent to stop directly, or as a cautionary tale about seeking power without understanding its source. Urak also served as a key antagonist in a 1944 crossover between the Pentient, Skybreaker, and Coromorant, in which the three heroes joined forces to save an old Irish castle from the Realm of Rot.

Behind the Scenes

I have rolled a double on one of my 3d12 sets for every fucking villain to date. This seems very unlikely.

Urak’s HeroForge portrait was created by user TheStray7, who is an absolute master of HeroForge. Look at that thing. That is a printable mini, it’s wild.

I’ve stretched a bit by giving Urak a unique Titan-based ability to absorb dying minions into his flesh, growing stronger as his cult falls and he devours their bodies. It certainly makes him a horrific foe; you need to fight against his summoning rituals, while your attacks may help him continue to manifest into the world. I suspect he is not typically present in scenes where you want to win by punching him to death, as it would be nigh-impossible. Instead, you try to delay him while you resolve the underlying summoning issue.

And there is no way this horror makes it past the Comics Code. If a Silver Age Urak appears, he’s going to have to be scaled back at least to Dormammu levels.

He does make that HeroForge program do some impressive stuff, no two ways about it.

Do his lieutenants dying count toward his Fleshcrafter bonus or is it really just minions, ie how much does he really care about cult leaders?

I didn’t want to give a blanket ability to absorb lieutenants, because lieutenants in Sentinel Comics are often people important enough that you don’t want to just let them get eaten.

I would assume that, narratively, cult leaders will also get absorbed if they get killed as a rule, especially since they’re halfway to being part of him already. Mechanically, it would depend on the circumstances.

Since we’re coming up on the weekend and I have a busy evening (and don’t want to forget again), I’m dropping our next buddy early!

Randomizers:
Approach: 8, 6, 1 [Options: Relentless, Disruptive, Focused, Mastermind, Specialized, Ninja]
Archetype: 5, 3, 3 [Options: Bruiser, Indomitable, Inhibitor, Fragile]
Upgrade: 8, 8, 4 [Options: Villainous Vehicle, Quality Upgrade]
Mastery: 11, 9, 2 [Options: Behind the Curtain, Superiority, Unfathomable]

Scion

Scion482×685 296 KB

Real Name: Emilia Van Horne, First Appearance: Champions of Truth #14, June 1944
Approach: Ninja, Archetype: Fragile
Upgrade: Quality Upgrade, Mastery: Unfathomable

Status Dice: Green d10, Yellow d8, Red d6. Health: 15+5H (Upgraded 35+5H)
Qualities: Stealth d10, Close Combat d10, Investigation d8, Magical Lore d8, Scion of Power d8
Powers: Invisibility d10, Agility d10, Wall-Crawling d8, Awareness d8, Presence d6

Abilities:

• Assassinate [A]: Attack using Close Combat. Hinder that target using your Max+Min dice.
• Fade Away [R]: When attacked, Defend yourself by rolling your single Stealth die. Boost yourself with the amount of damage reduced.
• Curse [A]: Attack using Magical Lore. Then remove all bonuses from that target.
• Shifting Priorities [A]: Attack using Stealth and use your Max die. If you are at full Health, this Attack deals irreducible damage and cannot be reacted to. If you are in the Green zone but not at full health, Defend yourself with your Min die. If you are in the Yellow zone, Boost yourself with your Min die. If you are in the Red zone, Recover Health equal to your Min die.
• (U) Quality Upgrade (I): Increase Stealth and Close Combat to d12, and Investigation and Magical Lore to d10.
• (U) Master of the Unfathomable (I): If you are in a situation involving eldritch and disturbing forces, automatically succeed at an Overcome to do the bidding of a being beyond human concerns.

Common Scene Elements:

• Summoned Horrors: d8 Lieutenants. When they Attack an enemy, they also apply a -1 penalty due to psychic horror.
• Civilian Targets: Critical civilians that Emilia is targeting for sacrifice; the heroes must race to save them first.
• Paid Distractions: Minions or challenges that exist solely to slow the heroes and keep them away.

Despite her popularity, the writers of Greenheart found that it was difficult to create interesting opponents for her that wouldn’t simply end up dead at the end of a storyline. A few attempts were made to create interesting criminal geniuses or Roman champions from her homeland seeking to defeat her and ‘prove’ their ideology superior, but they lacked the charm and wit to be proper foils. In 1944, the writers of Champions of Truth hit on a different approach. Rather than threatening Greenheart with yet another man seeking to oppress women, they created a woman who was everything that Greenheart was not, and who had found a much darker way to live in a man’s world.

Emilia Van Horne was the only child of a wealthy family who could trace their lineage back to the dawn of America. She grew up with every privilege, but one night she learned her family’s dark secret - the nameless eldritch god that they served. Through ritual human sacrifice, the Van Hornes ensured their own prosperity, and Emilia’s firstborn would be the next given up.

Instead, Emilia put together a different plan. She learned the dark magics of her family, and used them to sacrifice her politically-arranged husband on their wedding night. Then she killed her father, took control of the family business, and set about arranging more sacrifices to bolster her personal and societal power. After all, if one death each generation could bring this much wealth, what could she do with more? She targeted the poor and vulnerable, who would not be missed - and when she targeted a young woman working at a munitions factory, planning to cover the death as part of an accident, she came into contact with Greenheart.

Emilia possessed terrible powers that made her a dangerous threat to Greenheart. She could pull the world around her, fading out of existence and slipping into locked places. She could scuttle up walls like a lizard, strike from the shadows, and call up horrific demons inspired by Gothic fictions. In most of her stories, she would be in the middle of a long-form ritual, only for Greenheart to discover it, hunt her down, and defeat her. Each time, she seemingly died, only to be saved by the grace of her dark patron.

Scion’s fourth appearance was a 1948 crossover between Greenheart and the Penitent, in which she indicated that she recognized the latter hero. Whatever thread was planned never came to pass; it was their only interaction in the Golden Age.

Behind the Scenes

Six! Six times in a row that one of those 3d12 spreads rolled doubles! Once I hit the Silver Age, I may add a rule that if I roll doubles there, I reroll the double; it gets oddly limiting to only have two choices.

I wanted a good Greenheart villain, and when I got Ninja and Fragile it created an interesting combination - a villain who is absolutely devastating until you can pin her down, at which point she gets battered to death. Upgraded Scion is much more dangerous, between higher dice and enough health to survive a couple bad turns. In general, she’s utterly devastating in single combat, but vulnerable to being surrounded and found out.

Narratively, we’re leaning on pulp era again, and drawing a little bit on the Lovecraftian (although in 1944, Lovecraft was not yet a particularly popular author, he was just known enough that it’s possible that one of the writers of Scion read a bit of his work and integrated it for this unknowable god.) This also acts as a counterpoint to a more traditionally demonic force in Urak, which combined with the Fomori creates three different styles of dark forces active in the Venture Comics setting. This is probably not an issue in the Golden Age, but it’s going to make for some fun myth-weaving down the line.

Randomizers:
Approach: 7, 2, 5 [Options: Skilled, Bully, Focused, Specialized, Tactician]
Archetype: 5, 6, 4 [Options: Guerilla, Indomitable, Overlord, Loner, Squad, Domain]
Upgrade: 8, 4, 5 [Options: Villainous Vehicle, Power Upgrade, Quality Upgrade]
Mastery: 11, 9, 9 [Options: Superiority, Unfathomable]

Overlord Trake

Trake482×687 350 KB

Real Name: Trake , First Appearance: Champions of Truth #19, November 1944
Approach: Bully, Archetype: Overlord
Upgrade: Power Upgrade, Mastery: Superiority

Status Dice: 9+ Minions: d12, 5-9 Minions: d10, 3-4 Minions: d8. 1-2 Minions: d6. 0 minions: d4. Health: 35+5H (Upgraded 55+5H)
Qualities: Ranged Combat d8, Deep Space Lore d8, Uranian Warlord d8
Powers: Nuclear d10, Speed d8, Gadgets d8

Abilities:

• Crush The Weak [A]: Attack using Nuclear and use your Max die. Also Hinder that target: if the target has a d6 or less status die, use your Max+Min dice; if the target has a d8 status die, use your Max die; and if the target has larger than a d8, use your Mid die.
• Radium Burns (I): Whenever you or your nearby allies Hinder, increase the penalty by 1.
• Defend Me [R]: Redirect an attack to one of your minions.
• Lead from the Back [A]: Attack using Nuclear and use your Max die. Defend against all attacks against you until the start of your next turn using the number of your minions.
• Radioactive Eruption [A]: Roll all your minion dice and combine the result to Boost. Attack using Nuclear and use that bonus.
• (U) Power Upgrade (I): Increase all of Trake’s power dice by one size, reflecting the apogee of Uranian nuclear capabilities.
• (U) Master of Superiority (I): As long as you are manifesting effects related to a power you have at a d12 (i.e. your Nuclear power unless it’s been reduced), automatically succeed at an Overcome involving usage of those powers.

Common Scene Elements:

• Uranian Dropships (d10 Lieutenants; can take an action to roll their status die and then deploy Uranian Soldier minions equal to the Boost/Hinder result.)
• Uraniam Soldiers (d6 minions that don’t step down when they save against energy damage.)
• A City In Chaos environment with civilians in danger and Uranian forces invading.

Over the course of his publications, the Steward primarily interacted with human evils, acting in his purview to help the innocent of Earth rise above its worst elements, but as an alien protector, he occasionally tangled with other alien forces who wished to exploit or conquer the planet. The most enduring of these forces would be the Uranians, and their terrible Overlord Trake.

Hailing from the planet Uranus, the Uranians were a human-like alien race who exuded radiation, who mined the planet’s depths for radioactive materials to maintain their civilization. Upon discovering that humanity was on the verge of unlocking the power of the atom, the Uranians decided to invade and claim it for themselves, only to be foiled by the power of the Sentry. Just over a year later, the Uranians returned, this time with a powerful champion of their own - Overlord Trake. The Overlord was in charge of Uranus’s military forces, a vain and cowardly combatant who disdained both his own soldiers and the civilians of Earth, monologuing about his nuclear might and using his own tremendous radioactive power to assault Earth’s major cities.

The Steward found Trake a difficult foe; in addition to his raw power, nuclear energies played havoc with the Steward’s own abilities, giving him bursts of power followed by exhaustion. He was only able to defeat Trake’s invasion with the help of the people of Earth that he had been working alongside, their own spirits proving up to the challenge.

Trake and the Uranians would appear twice more in 1945 before the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshimi and Nagasaki, and the subsequent slowly rising awareness of the cost of doing so, made radioactive invaders less entertaining for a time. They would eventually return in 1949, as fears of Soviet nuclear power rose, in the pages of Flatfoot Adventures, as Flatfoot and the Steward joined forces to repel Overlord Trake’s attempt to conquer Ferrisville. This crossover, initally an attempt to return attention to the struggling pages of Champions of Truth , proved useful for Trake and the Uranians; while they would not appear as Steward foes again in the Golden Age, they continued to appear sporadically over the next few years as enemies of Flatfoot.

Behind the Scenes

Seven in a row. This is getting ridiculous. By my math, the chances of getting doubles on one of two pairs of 3d12 are just about 40%. The chance of that happening seven times in a row is about 0.16%. Wild.

Trake gets to be one of those villains who slips from their intended hero over to someone else. I basically built him because if we have an anti-Superman, we need an anti-Zod; a coward of a leader who hides behind his troops while spouting off about how great he is. Trake, notably, is an Overlord with no inherent ability to deploy minions, coupled with a lot of abilities that depend on having minions. He’s thus limited to whatever the environment or his lieutenants can produce, which means that as his forces go down, he gets less dangerous. This is doubly true against heroes whose status dice go up as the scene tracker advances, who become less vulnerable to his main non-minion move.

Obviously no aspect of the Uranians is scientifically accurate. They’re more based on the bevy of alien races that Zatara and Wonder Woman fought, all of which were basically “like people, and we’re not making much effort between issues to keep them consistent.” I spent a bit of time looking up when radiation started becoming a thing in comics; the first radiation-powered hero doesn’t seem to have appeared until 1945, but the first nuclear villains were popping up as early as 1941, when Superman fought against a radiation-powered scientist.

Cool. Is the connexion betwixt the Uranians having radiation powers and the element uranium being radioactive intentional?

Yep! Someone thought they were very clever (that someone was me, if we’re being honest, but I love the idea of a Golden Age writer just nodding thoughtfully to himself. “Uranium, Uranus. Probably Uranus has a lot of uranium, we’ll go with that.”)

Randomizers:
Approach: 7, 2, 3 [Options: Skilled, Prideful, Bully, Focused, Specialized, Overpowered]
Archetype: 6, 1, 2 [Options: Predator, Inventor, Bruiser, Overlord, Formidable, Inhibitor]
Upgrade: 12, 5, 12 [Options: Power Upgrade, Brainwashing Zone]
Mastery: 1, 5, 3 [Options: Annihilation, Conquest, Mad Science]

Doctor Freak

Dr Freak519×840 342 KB

Real Name: Joseph Ford, First Appearance: Twilight Carnival #14 , Sep 1946
Approach: Prideful, Archetype: Predator
Upgrade: Brainwashing Zone, Mastery: Mad Science

Status Dice: 0-1 Engaged Opponents d10, 2-3 Engaged Opponents d8, 4+ Engaged Opponents d6. Health: 40+5H (Upgraded 50+5H)
Qualities: Magical Lore d10, Science d10, Investigation d8, Conviction d8, My Latest Enhancements d8
Powers: Monstrous Enhancement d10, Deduction d10, Gadgets d10, Vitality d8

Note: Monstrous Enhancement is a Hallmark power that represents of the different monster strengths and weaknesses that the doctor possesses in each appearance.

Abilities:

• Study The Beast [A]: Hinder using Deduction. Use your Max die. That penalty is persistent and exclusive.
• Extract Essence [A]: Attack one target using Gadgets and use your Max+Min dice. If that Attack causes the target to change zones, Boost using your Mid die. That bonus is persistent and exclusive.
• Mystical Countermeasures [R]: When Attacked, roll your single status die. Hinder the Attack using that result, and deal damage to the attacker equal to that penalty.
• Exult In Power [A]: Hinder multiple targets using Monstrous Enhancement. Use your Max die. Attack any target that gains a penalty in this way that already had one penalty from you, using your Mid+Min dice.
• (U) Zone of Confusion (I): While the scene is in the Green zone, all heroes’ quality dice at d8 or above are reduced one size. In the Yellow zone, all heroes’ quality dice at d10 or above are reduced two die sizes. In the Red zone, all heroes’ quality dice are treated as if they are d4. Heroes may remove this ability with three Overcome successes. If a hero takes a minor twist, the hero must lose access to a quality entirely until this ability is removed. If a hero is knocked out while this ability is active, you may create a new minion using the hero’s highest power die to represent the controlled version of that hero.
• (U) Master of Mad Science (I): As long as you have access to materials, you can automatically succeed when Overcoming a challenge by using scientific principles and inventions.

Common Scene Elements:

• Wild monsters that Doctor Freak has flushed out of hiding; these act as d8 or d10 lieutenants who are threats to both him and the heroes, usually with a variety of special abilities that he seeks to claim.
• A group of compelled monstrous minions; these act as d6 or d8 minions who gain +1 to a single action (usually Attack.)
• If confronted in his lair, a hostile Environment built around his subjects and experiments.

Night Rider’s early foes were made up of various monsters and ghouls that haunted the night, but what would prove to be her most pervasive enemy was originally intended as a one-off introduction of a rival monster hunter. Doctor Freak was introduced in an early issue of Twilight Carnival as the owner of another circus, a mad scientist named Joseph Ford who sought to capture monsters in order to extract their essence and remake himself into a perfected human. Of course, the operation went wrong, and the half-turned monstrous doctor rampaged through the local town before Night Rider was able to defeat him, seeming to leave him dead.

But the concept of a mad scientist rival to Night Rider was too tempting for the writers of Twilight Carnival to pass up on, and soon enough Doctor Freak was back to his old tricks, disturbing an ancient and previously peaceful nest of insect-beasts and forcing Night Rider to save locals from the riled-up monsters while also stopping Freak from turning himself into a massive centipede monster. Soon enough, Doctor Freak was a common threat introduced to up the stakes of whatever monster Night Rider was investigating. Each time, his latest monstrous enhancements gave him a new set of powers and a slightly different appearance, and each time, he was defeated and seemed to be dead before his body vanished mysteriously. In the span of eight years, Night Rider would face Doctor Freak eighteen times, occasionally joining forces with Penitent or Greenheart to thwart his schemes, but never able to put a final end to his search for the ultimate monstrous form.

Behind the Scenes

Eight for eight. I am deeply beginning to suspect the capabilities of the die roller I am using. I am officially ruling, starting in the Silver Age, that I will be rerolling doubles for Upgrades and Masteries only.

A lot of the time, it’s the upgrades and masteries that decide what form a villain will take. I wanted a Night Rider villain, and when I saw Mad Science plus brainwashing, the idea of a villain who goes after monsters to take their power popped fully-formed into my head. Doctor Freak is another nasty bad guy who would need some pretty major revisions to make it into the Silver Age, but the same is true of his nemesis so we’ll see what happens.

Mechanically, Doctor Freak is a moderate threat; he’s not the nastiest thing out there, but he can stack Boosts and Hinders to make your life miserable if you let him. When he picks a target he can Hinder everyone else while he smashes the hell out of them through stacked penalties. With that said, if you’ve got a group that can tank the penalties, he’s not so tough.

I think I’d let his upgrade affect lieutenant-grade monsters in the scene the same as it does heroes, giving the players an additional headache in that beating down a hostile monster will spawn an obedient minion version of it for the Doc. Might also give him more motivation to deal with a monster himself (since they’re hostile to him too) so he can tame the beast. If Extract Essence counted degrading a monster’s die size as “changing zones” he’d even get a P+E bonus out of the deal when it fails a save. Narrative ability tweaks are fun.

Also love the concept, as I’m a big fan of freakish chimerical mutants and mad science self-experimentation.

Now that is an awesome villain.

Sure is, isn’t he? The minis modeler in me really likes the idea of a baddie with a different set of weird grafts every time they appear.

And our final Golden Age character! Tomorrow, I’ll update the timeline and our first character of the Silver Age, and then it’s on to single updates each day.

Randomizers:
Approach: 10, 4, 5 [Options: Underpowered, Bully, Overpowered, Generalist, Ninja, Adaptive*]*
Archetype: 3, 5, 1 [Options: Predator, Bruiser, Guerrilla, Indomitable, Overlord, Inhibitor]
Upgrade: 7, 12, 5 [Options: Power Upgrade, Quality Upgrade, Brainwashing Zone]
Mastery: 5, 1, 4 [Options: Annihilation, Enforced Order, Mad Science]

Mary Molotov

Mary Molotov520×863 361 KB

Real Name: unknown, First Appearance: Company Town #123, June 1949
Approach: Underpowered, Archetype: Indomitable
Upgrade: Quality Upgrade, Mastery: Annihilation

Status Dice: d8. Health: 30+5H (Upgrade 50+5H)
Qualities: Stealth d10, Criminal Underworld d8, Investigation d6, Bombmaker d8
Powers: Fire d8, Intuition d6, Agility d6, Gadgets d6

Abilities:

• Distracting Blast [A]: Attack multiple targets using Stealth. Defend against all Attacks against you until your next turn using your Min die.
• Point-Blank Explosion [A]: Attack using Fire. Use your Max+Mid dice. Take irreducible damage equal to your Min die. If you roll doubles, you cannot use this ability again for the rest of the scene.
• Decoys [R]: When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling your single Intuition die. If your roll reduces the damage to exactly 0, Recover Health equal to the damage reduced, Boost using that amount, and Hinder the source of the Attack using that amount.
• Sabotage [A]: Attack multiple targets using Stealth. Hinder those targets using your Min die.
• Informants [A]: Boost yourself using Criminal Underworld and use your Max die. That bonus is persistent and exclusive.
• (U) The Big Plan (I): Upgrade all of your Quality dice by one step.
• (U) Master of Annihilation (I): If you can cause massive collateral damage without regard for casualties, automatically succeed at an Overcome where a show of overwhelming force can solve the problem.

Common Scene Elements:

• A Hidden Explosives set of challenges that will cause substantial damage if not found and disarmed, often accompanied by a Hidden Mastermind challenge to find Mary herself.
• An environment representing buildings rocked by explosions and frightened civilians.
• Hired goons (d6 or d8 minions) operating at the behest of Mary’s current employer.

As a grim avatar of vengeance, Revenant didn’t have a great many recurring villains; most of his foes tended to die in their first appearances, and not very many of them were colourful enough to be worth reviving. However, he did have one villain who made enough of a name for herself to endure - Mary Molotov.

In her first appearance, Mary was a professional arsonist working for the shadowy Mr. Ferris, who set fire to tenement buildings in order to clear the way for new construction. The Revenant learned of her plot, discovered her masquerade as a local janitor, and cornered her in one such building after evacuating it to force her to disarm her charges; instead, she gleefully set them off, happy to die if it meant taking the only person who had ever unmasked her with her. Revenant, of course, survived the fire, and was able to evacuate the people still trapped in the building, but was forced to leave Mary to burn.

Readers were thus quite unsurprised when Mary returned six months later, somehow uninjured with the excuse of ‘having had an escape tunnel dug’. This time, she was setting explosives to kill advocates and politicians seeking to clean up the neighbourhood. After two successful assassinations, Revenant disguised himself as the third target and drew her out, but while he was able to stop her bombs, the woman he captured turned out to be a decoy blackmailed into setting the charges and Mary escaped once again.

The editor of Company Town was leery of overusing her, given her destructive tendencies, and saved her for key moments when they wanted to push sales. Over the course of five years, Revenant faced off against Mary Molotov only four times, each one accompanied by destruction and devastation. The third of those events featured a 1952 crossover with Madame Liberty, and there was discussion behind the scenes of having Mary make a solo appearance in Madame Liberty’s stories; this did not transpire in the Golden Age…

Behind the Scenes

Mary Molotov is a classic Golden Age villain, combining a straightforward approach with a criminal motivation for the grimy setting of Company Town. I like the idea of an Underpowered villain who’s just got bombs ready to take down heroes to try to stop her, and her goal is straightforward: set fires or blow things up for money. With several “hit everyone with bombs, do a secondary thing” abilities, she’s mostly going to lurk around, set off explosives, and try to avoid consequences until she’s brought in.

As a very late addition to the Golden Age, Mary’s timeline here is pretty short, but as someone that blows up buildings, she could easily get a Silver Age facelift with downgraded lethality.

And, at the very finish line, we got a character who didn’t have doubles in their Upgrade or Mastery!

Both her motif and her famously-Russian last name might have been a problem when McCarthy’s personal power and paranoiac lunacy reached its heights over the five years following her introduction. OTOH, it might also have made her even more popular as she’s very much the murderous bomb-throwing saboteur stereotype so many people though “commies” were during the craze. Did her few later Golden Age appearances push her down a more explicitly “Soviet agent” route than her initial “cynical crime and capitalism” style? That would be playing to popular trends.

Well, we will see in a couple of weeks, because I have just written her Silver Age counterpart. What I will say not to spoil it - my historical understanding is that because of their use by Finnish soliders and civilians fighting against the Soviets, Molotov cocktails are publicly associated more with rioters and “anarchists” than with Soviets, and I think that was always true? Mary’s Golden Age appearances were very “will do anything to do anyone for money”, so one of them may have involved the Soviets trying to destabilize something or someone, but she definitely stayed mercenary to the end.

edit Actually, looking at my dates, Mary’s last Golden Age appearance was in 1953, just as the McCarthy stuff was reaching its peak, so it’s possible that the editors decided to give her a couple of years off right before everything went wrong.

Speaking of the end…

History of Venture Comics: The Golden Age

Pt. 1: The War Years (1938-1945)

Over the course of the Golden Age, Venture Comics set out its stake as a bustling, successful comics publisher. While Celestial Travels largely avoided any superhero stories, staying a science fiction comic for the duration of the Golden Age, the war years saw their portfolio grow from five comics in 1940 to nine titles by 1945.

Madame Liberty and Flatfoot Adventures were the first titles added, both in 1942. Madame Liberty and Kid Liberty would continue to appear in Covert Tactics from time to time, but became largely focused on her own title, while Flatfoot would continue to make regular appearances in Company Town in addition to his own work. In 1943, Champions of Truth was launched, with either Greenheart or the Steward taking on the primary story, and the other often appearing in a backup story in the same issue. This left Skybreaker and Cormorant to return to being the primary heroes of Cryptic Trails, along with occasional stories of lost kingdoms and mysterious orders. Finally, 1945 saw the debut of Twilight Carnival, which used the Night Rider’s carnival as a backdrop for her own adventures, as well as for the stories of people whose lives the carnival passed through.

The war years also saw a handful of early crossovers between heroes, beginning with Greenheart and Skybreaker in 1942 but continuing over the next few years. The Penitent crossed over with Skybreaker, Greenheart, and Night Rider on various occasions, Madame Liberty also joined forces with both Skybreaker and Flatfoot in one story each, Greenheart met up with Skybreaker twice and the Steward three times.

One minor spat with a rival company broke out in 1942, with the temporary addition of the Celestial Commodore to the pages of Celestial Travels. The Celestial Commodore was a bumbling idiot from England who found himself on an alien world and tried to civilize the natives, only to be humiliated again and again as it became clear that they were much more advanced than he was. He was also a clear parody of Cosmic Tales’ Captain Cosmic; the rumour was that the lead editor of Venture Comics felt that the [C][T] title structure was official branding of Venture Comics, and Cosmic Tales was an attempt to steal their thunder. The Celestial Commodore vanished after three stories spaced out over the year, and the spat faded into history with no legal action taken between Venture Comics and Sentinel Comics.

Pt. 2: The Post-War Years (1946-1953)

The end of the war marked the beginning of a decline in superhero comics. At first, Venture Comics tried to ride the wave. With the Germans defeated, Madame Liberty spent 1946 hunting down Nazi war criminals before turning her attention to protecting Europe from the Soviet scourge (to mixed responses from both fans and her own writers.) The Revenant was introduced to return Company Town to its pulp roots, and Flatfoot faded out of that comic. Starting in 1949, the writers of Flatfoot Adventures (as a favour to the long-struggling editors of Company Town) quietly started referring to Flatfoot’s home city as “Ferrisville” rather than “Ferristown”, with no formal indication given about whether Flatfoot and Revenant were operating in the same city.

By 1950, it was clear that sales were struggling. Despite a few attempts in 1949 to draw attention to the title via crossovers with more popular comics, Champions of Truth was cancelled in August; Greenheart returned to the pages of Cryptic Trails, which she slowly took over from Skybreaker and Cormorant, and the Steward mostly faded away; his final appearance in the Golden Age was in an unremarkable story in Celestial Travels in 1952. Covert Tactics shifted focus, with its final story involving superheroes being a minor Kid Liberty adventure in 1950, and became a comic focused on the Korean War. Skybreaker and Cormorant themselves saw their final adventure in 1953, defeating a major Fomori outbreak and implying that they may have defeated the Fomori forever.

But worse was on the horizon.

Pt. 3: The Comics Code (1954-1957)

Venture Comics’ editors had hoped that their recasting of Madame Liberty as an icon of patriotism against the Red Menace would shield them from Congressional inquiry. They were wrong, and were swept up in the same wave of histrionics that marked the era. Greenheart was an unapologetic Italian foreigner corrupting the youth of America! The Night Rider was a criminal carnie invoking demonic forces! The Penitent was depicting horrors that would scar young minds! Madame Liberty was travelling alone with a teen boy, putting him in danger and possibly exposing him to lewd behaviour! And worst of all, Company Town portrayed a city in which the police and political structures were the enemy of god-fearing people, undermining faith in American institutions!

The introduction of the Comics Code was a devastating blow to Venture Comics. Campfire Terrors, Company Town, and Twilight Carnival were cancelled overnight in September 1954, signalling the end of the Penitent, Night Rider, and Revenant. Cryptic Trails struggled on for almost a year, but the constantly-shifting adjustments to Greenheart in an effort to meet the approval of the Code were wildly unpopular. The title ended with Issue #170 in May 1955. Madame Liberty continued on, but Kid Liberty was returned to the United States to resume his schooling under the supervision of an old friend, making occasional appearances when his mentor visited him. The only hero to make it through the period mostly unchanged was Flatfoot, and even he was now fully morphed into a patriotic and pro-police figure compared to his earlier, more nuanced portrayal of police corruption.

By the close of the Golden Age, Venture Comics was down to four titles. Celestial Travels and Covert Tactics had eschewed superheroes in favour of more popular genres, while Madame Liberty and Flatfoot Adventures persisted. The publisher was struggling, and it was clear that something needed to change. But what?

“Mary Molotov” is a great name. : )

FWIW, the Molotov cocktail is indeed Finnish (and a reference to the Soviet foreign minister during the Winter War), but the weapon was enthusiastically adopted (with its original name intact) by the Soviet army, where they served to kill a fair few Nazi invaders just a few years later. So it manages to be associated with both the Finns and the Soviets to some degree, and remains popular with rioters and firebugs to this day.

As it should.

The Randomizers:
Background 2, 7, 7 [Options: Criminal, Law Enforcement, Interstellar, Anachronistic]
Power Source 2, 3, 2 [Options: Training, Genetic, Experimentation, Mystical, Artificial Being]
Archetype 2, 1, 7 [Options: Speedster, Shadow, Physical Powerhouse, Armored, Flyer, Elemental Manipulator]
Personality 10, 9, 1 [Options: Lone Wolf, Inquisitive, Alluring, Stoic, Jaded]

Skybreaker (II)

Skybreaker II520×744 360 KB

Real Name: Cooper Cullen, First Appearance: Venture Into The Unknown #2, February 1958
Background: Anachronistic, Power Source: Mystical, Archetype: Physical Powerhouse
Personality: Inquisitive, Principles: Time Traveller, Indestructible

Status Dice: Green d6, Yellow d8, Red d12. Health: 32 [Green 32-25, Yellow 24-12, Red 11-1]
Qualities: Fitness d10, Ranged Combat d10, Magical Lore d10, Leadership d10, Ancient Demigod d8
Powers: The Spear of Assal d10, Strength d8, Weather d8, Presence d8, Awareness d6

Green Abilities:

• Skin Like Iron (I): Reduce any physical or energy damage you take by 1 while you are in the Green zone, 2 while in the Yellow zone, and 3 while in the Red zone.
• Spear-Wielder [A]: Attack using the Spear of Assal and use your Max die.
• Principle of the Time Traveller [A]: Overcome using knowledge of your home era and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.
• Principle of the Indestructible [A]: Overcome in a situation in which you charge headlong into danger and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.

Yellow Abilities:

• Power of the Gods [A]: Overcome an environmental challenge using the Spear of Assal. Use your Max die. Either remove any penalty in the scene or Boost equal to your Mid die.
• Gather The Storm [A]: Boost or Hinder using Weather, and apply that mod to multiple nearby targets.
• Issue Challenge [A]: Attack using Presence. The target of that Attack must take an Attack action against you as its next turn, if possible.

Red Abilities

• In the Clutch (I): When you use an ability action, you may also perform any one basic action using your Mid die on the same roll.
• The Final Cast [A]: Attack using the Spear of Assal and at least one bonus. Use your Max+Mid+Min dice. Destroy all of your bonuses, adding each of them to this Attack first, even if they are exclusive.

Out

• Choose an ally. Until your next turn, that ally may reroll one of their dice by using a Reaction.

The release of the new Freedom Five in 1957 heralded a new wave of interest in superheroes. Seeing an uptick in sales for Madame Liberty and Flatfoot Adventures, the editors of Venture Comics decided to risk launching a new title, which would test new heroes and adventures. Their first issue was forgettable, but in Issue #2, they breathed new life into an older hero, both figuratively and literally.

Rhonda Randall was an unassuming historian at the Grovedale Museum of Culture who received an anonymous donation of a beautiful golden Celtic spear on the same day that a group of armed robbers attempted to steal the collection for their own purposes. As Rhonda faced certain death, a sealed tomb that had been in the museum’s collection for decades cracked open, and the Celtic hero Cu Chulainn emerged, confused and very much alive! He took up his spear and easily defeated the robbers, and then admitted that he had no idea where he was or what was happening.

With Rhonda’s help, the hero took on the alias of Cooper Cullen, a mild-mannered assistant at the museum, while he explored this strange new world he had found himself in. Soon enough, he was tangling with mystical threats and ancient enemies, including the magical villain who had tried to steal the spear in the first place, as the heroic Skybreaker!

The new Skybreaker was more targeted at young audiences, calling up storms to slow enemies or hitting them with the shaft of his spear rather than killing. He had a zest for life and an endless curiousity about the modern world that led to lighthearted hijinks and heroic escapades, and his supporting cast of museum associates gave him a secret identity that he and Rhonda frequently struggled to keep concealed. It wasn’t entirely clear whether this Skybreaker was in the same continuity as the previous one; the writer of the first issue hinted that the Spear of Assal had been donated to the museum by an anonymous source, which may have been Lewis Lamont or may have been unconnected.

All in all, Skybreaker was a grand success, heralding the start of a new age for Venture Comics, and June saw the launch of Skybreaker Stories to bolster their titles.

Behind the Scenes

So, I was pretty sure that I wanted Venture to echo DC by having their first big hero of the Silver Age be a revamp of either Skybreaker, Greenheart, or Steward. The first randomizer immediately made me choose between the first two and the third, and when I went with Anachronistic, I ended up with a set that could have been used for either Skybreaker or Greenheart. I’ve tentatively gone with Skybreaker, and hopefully it’ll be interesting.

A ginger! Have I ever mentioned how much Marvel’s blonde Thor irritates me?

Interesting display of comic color theory at work here. He’s gone to the three primary colors (counting the hair) and immediately seems to look friendlier and more obviously heroic than his Golden Age ancestor despite still carrying a giant pig-sticker.

Cu Chulainn, woot!

I wonder if they did that for trademark reasons. Probably not.

Hmm, I dunno, Skybreaker I’s golden-ish get-up looks pretty heroic to me. But yeah, II’s brighter colours definitely make him look more superheroic.

Yeah, the general goal was for Skybreaker I to look dashing, whereas Skybreaker II looks friendly. And a little bit cocky. Because he’s definitely a little bit cocky, he’s Cu Chulainn! (Well, a version of Cu who’s been made more G-rated for the Silver Age, anyway.)

I don’t mind blonde Thor, but God of War Thor is definitely the superior version!

wow, a whole-ass Cu Chulainn for a hero reboot that’s wild!

The Randomizers:
Background 2, 1, 3 [Options: Blank Slate, Criminal, Performer, Military, Academic, Upper Class]
Power Source 10, 8, 3 [Options: Genetic, Powered Suit, Tech Upgrades, Supernatural, Cursed, Unknown]
Archetype 5, 4, 6 [Options: Blaster, Close Quarters, Armored, Elemental, Robot/Cyborg, Sorcerer]
Personality 1, 2, 6 [Options: Lone Wolf, Natural Leader, Impulsive, Distant, Stalwart, Fast-Talking]

Captain Bolt

Captain Bolt A520×870 335 KB

Real Name: Captain Ian Blake, First Appearance: Venture Into The Unknown #5, May 1958
Background: Military, Power Source: Powered Suit, Archetype: Blaster
Personality: Distant, Principles: Dependence, Electromagnetism

Status Dice: Green d10, Yellow d8, Red d8. Health: 28 [Green 28-22, Yellow 21-11, Red 10-1]
Qualities: Ranged Combat d10, Leadership d8, Alertness d8, War Veteran d8
Powers: Power Suit d10, Electricity d10, Flight d8, Part Detachment d8, Vitality d6

Green Abilities:

• Environmental Systems (I): Reduce energy damage you take by 1 while you are in the Green Zone, 2 while in the Yellow zone, and 3 while in the Red zone.
• Shock Gauntlets [A]: Attack using Electricity. Hinder using your Min die.
• Press the Charge [A]: Attack using Power Suit. If you Attacked or Hindered that target in your previous turn, use your Max die in this Attack.
• Principle of Electromagnetism [A]: Overcome a challenge involving electromagnetism and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a hero point.
• Principle of Dependence [A]: Overcome in a situation that your exosuit was specifically designed for. Use your Max die. You and your allies gain a hero point.

Yellow Abilities:

• Swarm Punch [A]: Attack up to three different targets using Part Detachment. Apply your Max die to one, your Mid die to another, and your Min die to the third. If you roll doubles, take a minor twist or take irreducible damage equal to that die.
• Charge Up [A]: Boost yourself using Power Suit. Use your Min+Mid dice. That bonus is persistent and exclusive.
• Lead By Example [A]: Attack using Power Suit. Use your Max die. If you choose another hero to go next, Boost that hero using your Mid die.

Red Abilities

• Electromagnetic Blast [A]: Attack multiple targets using Power Suit, using your Max+Min dice. If you roll doubles, take a minor twist or energy damage equal to your Mid die.
• Explosive Detachment [A]: Use Part Detachment to create a number of d6 minions equal to your Mid die. Choose the one same basic action that they each perform. They all act at the start of your turn.

Out

• Boost an ally by rolling your single Red status die.

With the success of Skybreaker, the makers of Venture Comics started looking for their next big break. Inspired by the success of the Freedom Four, they set about designing their own team of heroes, a group of four patriotic defenders of liberty. In their zeal to copy the success of the Freedom Four, the editors leaned on the writers to echo some of their powers and backgrounds, especially the inclusion of a patriotic military officer in a powered suit to show support for the troops, but also demanded that he be highly distinct from Bunker. Faced with an impossible challenge, the writers leaned into it, and produced Captain Bolt.

First Lieutenant Ian Blake had been a Korean war hero, a skilled pilot who suffered a serious spinal injury while flying a rescue operation for an American retreat. Honourably discharged, he was approached a few years later to take part in a highly secret experimental program to create an electromagnetic flight suit. The experiment was a mixed success; the suit was too complex for most pilots to manage, and of the candidates, only Blake was able to make effective use of it. Promoted and reinstated as the leader of a new team of government-funded heroes, he became Captain Bolt, leader of the Vanguards! His ‘electromagnetic’ suit allowed him to fire off and remote control sections of his armor, manipulate electrical currents, and whatever else the writers thought electromagnetism should be able to accomplish in the moment.

Captain Bolt provided a few new approaches for the writers of Venture Comics. As a patriotic war hero who was also one of the war wounded, he allowed Venture to thread the needle between supporting the military and touching on the horrors of war. Dependent on his power suit to walk, Bolt’s suit became a potential weakness for enemies to exploit as well as a powerful tool. Captain Bolt also continued a Venture Comics tradition of moderately secret identities; his military backers and teammates knew who he was, but the classified nature of the project meant that even his family wasn’t allowed to know his secret, believing that he was working on training projects for new air force pilots.

As leader of the Vanguards, Captain Bolt would fight criminals, super-scientists, and a terrible new threat from another world…

Behind the Scenes

So we’re starting up our team. A Military Power Suit character was a bit of a challenge, in that I wanted to make it noticeably distinct from Bunker. I love the idea of a Part Detachment character in a power suit, and if I’d gotten different Archetype options I might have leaned into that further, but Blaster and leaning into electromagnetism works, too.

This guy also has tremendous Bronze Age opportunities once writers with actual experience with disability and mobility aids get hold of him.

Perfect. : D

Perfect indeed. As the saying goes, the (comic book) science checks out.

The character concept in general has lots of potential going forward, and is pretty distinct from both Bunker (who’s a freak by IRL comic standards - he’s closer to Marvel’s New Universe Spitfire than anything) and Iron Man. More of a whiff of Absolute Zero if anyone, what with the impossible comic book science thing and reliance on the suit to deal with a medical condition as such a big features.

Inevitably reminds me of the obscure 90s TV show M.A.N.T.I.S., which also had a partially paralyzed protagonist who relied on his suit for mobility.

The Randomizers:
Background 6, 7, 8 [Options: Upper Class, Law Enforcement, Struggling, Medical, Interstellar, Retired]
Power Source 8, 5, 6 [Options: Mystical, Nature, Relic, Tech Upgrades, Cursed, Alien]
Archetype 9, 10, 5 [Options: Blaster, Elemental Manipulator, Robot/Cyborg, Minion-Maker, Wild Card, Divided]
Personality 2, 10, 6 [Options: Natural Leader, Distant, Fast Talking, Alluring, Nurturing, Cheerful]

Doctor Cosmos

Doctor Cosmos538×873 418 KB

Real Name: Diane Shulman, First Appearance: Venture Into The Unknown #5, May 1958
Background: Medical, Power Source: Relic, Archetype: Elemental Manipulator
Personality: Cheerful, Principles: Whispers, Exorcism

Status Dice: Green d10, Yellow d8, Red d8. Health: 30 [Green 30-23, Yellow 22-12, Red 11-1]
Qualities: Medicine d10, Conviction d10, Finesse d8, Science d6, Alertness d6, Dimensional Receiver d8
Powers: Cosmic d10, Absorption d10, Intuition d8, Flight d6

Green Abilities:

• Commune [A]: Boost yourself using Cosmic. That bonus is persistent and exclusive.
• Cosmic Shield [A]: Defend using Cosmic. Use your Max die. Boost using your Min die.
• Energy Drain [A]: Hinder using Absorption. Attack using your Min die. If you are in the Red zone, you may apply the penalty to any number of nearby targets.
• Principle of Whispers [A]: Overcome against a challenge that involves information that you have no real way of knowing and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.
• Principle of Exorcism [A]: Overcome entities or elements from another dimension and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.

Yellow Abilities:

• Cosmic Alignment (I): If you would take Cosmic damage, reduce that damage to 0 and Recover that amount of Health instead.
• Triage [A]: Attack using Cosmic. Use your Min die. Take damage equal to your Mid die, and one nearby ally Recovers Health equal to your Max die.
• Right Place, Right Time [R]: When another hero in the Yellow or Red zone would take damage, you may Defend them by rolling your single Intuition die.

Red Abilities

• Cosmic Eruption [A]: Attack using Cosmic. Use your Max+Mid dice.
• Battlefield Medicine (I): When taking any action using Medicine, you may reroll your Min die before determining effects.

Out

• Boost an ally by rolling your single Absorption die.

The second member of the Vanguards was Doctor Cosmos, created as a foil and alternate to Captain Bolt. Diane Shulman was a civilian doctor who was working one day when a badly burned man was brought in clutching a mysterious glowing red orb. When she tried to take it from him so that she could work, the orb merged with her, showing her visions of another world and granting her access to the fabric of the dimensions! The military responded not long afterwards, and upon discovering that the alien orb was bonded to Diane, formally requested that she join them in protecting the Earth from extraterrestrial invasion. She was uncertain at first, but was too curious about the nature of this new reality to say no.

Doctor Cosmos often acted as the conscience of the Vanguards, speaking up when she saw injustices being committed. Her newfound cosmic awareness gave her impossible insights into dimensional rifts and dangers, which was critical when dealing with the team’s Jotari foes - the same aliens who had constructed the orb that had bonded with her. She also monitored the vitals of the team’s other three members, each of whom had their own reasons to need medical support, acting as an official doctor who knew all of their classified needs.

Behind the Scenes

I’m stretching the nature of Relic a bit, which is good because this makes three of the four Relic-users I can have for this phase. I really wanted someone with a healing Ability, and I’ve already done a Medical/Alien character, so using Relic seemed like a good plan, and then I picked up Elemental Manipulator and suddenly instead of burning herself out to save others, she just turned into a Cosmic healing spigot in Yellow. Good for her!

Header fluff text on Relic is “An object (or collection of objects) of mystical significance either grants you powers or altered you to give you powers.” Not seeing how a mysterious alien cosmic-awareness orb granting you powers doesn’t fit that “altered you” bit. Unless it’s the mystic thing bothering you, in which case I invoke the “any sufficiently advanced tech is indistinguishable from magic” clause - and point at Deadline, whose stolen gadget that wound up with Chokepoint was more mystic than hard science.

Rock-solid healer ability combo as always. Assume you skipped on taking the actual Eruption Red ability for variety, since it’s usually seen in this kind of Recovery build.

Yeah, that’s essentially the uncertainty, and yeah, I ultimately decided to go ahead with it for the reasons you outlined!

And yes, I avoided Eruption because it seemed a bit too good for her, and I wanted to give a bit more variety to the doctor instead.

Mr. Infinity

Mr Infinity514×795 346 KB

Real Name: Reggie Zhang, First Appearance: Venture Into The Unknown #5, May 1958
Background: Struggling, Power Source: Experimentation, Archetype: Speedster
Personality: Impulsive, Principles: Everyman, Speed

Status Dice: Green d6, Yellow d8, Red d10. Health: 32 [Green 32-25, Yellow 24-12, Red 11-1]
Qualities: Insight d10, Close Combat d8, Finesse d8, Investigation d8, Alertness d6, Winsome Smile d8
Powers: Intangibility d10, Speed d10, Awareness d8, Vitality d6

Green Abilities:

• Unstoppable (I): At the start of your turn, remove a penalty on yourself.
• Disrupt [A]: Attack multiple targets using Speed. Use your Min die. Hinder each target equal to your Mid die.
• Race Through [A]: Attack using Intangibility. Defend yourself using your Min die.
• Principle of the Everyman [A]: Overcome when using a bonus made by another hero and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.
• Principle of Speed (I): When you successfully Overcome, you may end up anywhere in the current environment. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.

Yellow Abilities:

• Flickering Form [A]: Boost yourself using Intangibility. Use your Max die. That bonus is persistent and exclusive.
• Evasive Trick[R]: When a nearby hero in the Yellow or Red zone would take damage, Defend against that damage by rolling your single Agility die, then redirect any remaining damage to a nearby minion of your choice.
• Up Close And Personal [A]: Attack using Close Combat. Use your Max die. If you roll doubles, use Max+Min instead.

Red Abilities

• The Right Words At The Right Moment [A]: Hinder using Insight. Use your Max+Min dice. Boost yourself or an ally with your Mid die.
• Out of Phase [A]: Defend using Intangibility with your Max+Mid dice against all Attacks against you until your next turn.

Out

• The hero who goes directly after you may take 1 damage to reroll their dice pool.

While the editors of Venture Comics were leery of imitating either Legacy or the Wraith for their new superhero team, the much more recently-introduced Tachyon’s speedster abilities were of interest, and the writers were instructed to include someone fast on the team for comedy purposes. They reluctantly leaned into it, creating Mr. Infinity.

Reggie Zhang was a struggling college dropout who enlisted in the military to support his elderly parents. His keen eye and instinctive courage and kindness caught the eye of an official when he got in a fight protecting a fellow recruit, and he was offered a chance to take part in high-paying equipment experiments rather than having to become an infantry grunt. He leaped at the chance, but the experiments were interrupted by a Jotari attack when the dimensional energies the scientists were experimenting with accidentally opened a portal to their alien realm, fusing Reggie’s equipment with his body and transforming him! Able to pass through matter and rapid-skip across vast distances, Reggie had become Mr. Infinity, a cosmic-charged speedster who could get past any obstacle.

As Mr. Infinity, Reggie was the team’s firebrand, a friendly but impulsive young man who was the first to charge into danger to help others and the last to leave. He also acted as the team’s social glue, recognizing his friends’ personalities and helping them to understand each other, and while he was an incorrigible romantic, he was never portrayed as a playboy. The classified nature of his work meant that Reggie couldn’t tell his parents what he did, which often created social stress and plots in which they expected him for various important family events which he had to miss due to alien invasions or rampaging robots, but he was a character who always smiled through his problems.

Behind the Scenes

I was not initially planning to have two characters on the team who aped Freedom Five members, and I almost went Shadow instead to have an insubstantial character who literally faded into the background, but the idea of someone who really leans into the “so fast he can clip through walls” aesthetic was too good to pass up. Reggie is a little bit Flash and a little bit Human Torch, but I like the idea that the young guy of the group is actually the one who’s best at social awareness and understanding.

Mechanically, Principle of the Everyman is strong in this group; Reggie can take advantage of Captain Bolt’s Lead By Example to Overcome almost anything, or can make use of Doctor Cosmos’s Cosmic Shield to jump out from cover and solve problems… and our last character can also Boost his Overcomes effectively, as we’ll see tomorrow.

And of course, he’s the Silver Age’s first non-white superhero for Venture Comics. Compared to the real world, Mr. Infinity is a couple of years behind Jimmy Woo, but he’s also going to be more high-profile.

The Randomizers:
Background 7, 9, 6 [Options: Upper Class, Law Enforcement, Tragic, Medical, Retired, Created]
Power Source 6, 6, 7 [Options: Nature, Relic, Artificial Being, Cursed, Cosmos]
Archetype 1, 8, 2 [Options: Speedster, Shadow, Powerhouse, Flyer, Elemental Manipulator, Robot/Cyborg]
Personality 6, 6, 6 [Options: Distant, Nurturing, Cheerful]

Partisan

Partisan509×849 427 KB

Real Name: Gyleb Jotu-Kal, First Appearance: Venture Into The Unknown #5, May 1958
Background: Upper Class, Power Source: Cosmos, Archetype: Physical Powerhouse
Personality: Nurturing, Principles: Defector (Underworld), Strength

Status Dice: Green d6, Yellow d6, Red d12. Health: 34 [Green 34-26, Yellow 25-13, Red 12-1]
Qualities: Fitness d10, Close Combat d8, Banter d8, Jotari Prince d8
Powers: Strength d10, Size Control d10, Telepathy d10, Intuition d8, Vitality d8

Green Abilities:

• Extradimensional Flesh (I): Reduce any physical or energy damage you take by 1 while you are in the Green zone, 2 while in the Yellow zone, and 3 while in the Red zone.
• Display of Strength [R]: When you eliminate a minion with an Attack using Strength, Recover Health equal to your Min die.
• Principle of the Defector [A]: Overcome a problem related to knowledge of the Jotari or using your Jotari contacts and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.
• Principle of Strength [A]: Overcome using brute force and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.

Yellow Abilities:

• Smash [A]: Attack using Close Combat and use your Max die.
• Telepathic Organization [A]: Attack using Telepathy. Boost all nearby heroes taking Attack or Overcome actions using your Min die until your next turn.
• Grab and Toss [A]: Boost or Hinder using Size Control and apply that mod to multiple close targets.

Red Abilities

• Titanic Form [A]: Choose three basic actions. Use Size Control in your pool and take one action with your Max die, a different action with your Mid die, and a third action with your Min die.
• Mental Twining [A]: Attack using Telepathy. Use your Max+Mid+Min dice. Take a major twist.
• Interpose [R]: When an opponent Attacks, you may become the target of that Attack and Defend by rolling your single Fitness die.

Out

• Boost an ally by rolling your single Fitness die.

While all of the Vanguards were popular, it was their final member that catapulted the team to the top of Venture Comics’ sales. Gyleb Jotu-Kal was a prince of the Jotari Authority, an extradimensional empire that ruled over a dozen dimensions, and a secret rebel against the rigid authority of the cosmically-powered Jotari High Families. When he learned that the Jotari were planning to invade a thirteenth world that had recently begun dimensional experiments on a Jotari Cosmic Probe, he and a small band of rebels defected, racing to warn the Earth of the danger that faced them.

In Venture Into the Unknown #5, Gyleb made dimensional contact with Doctor Cosmos, and Earth’s heroes were on-hand when he and a few of his friends punched through the dimensional barrier with a Jotari war force in hot pursuit. After a brief period of confusion, the heroes joined forces with Gyleb to drive the Authority off, and the alien prince requested asylum from the U.S. government. After some consternation, Gyleb and his fellow rebels were accepted as refugees, and Gyleb joined the newly-formed Vanguards to help explain their dimensional technology and serve on the front lines against Jotari incursions, taking on the callsign of Partisan.

The Jotari allowed Venture Comics to make thinly-veiled references to the Soviet Union, with Gyleb serving as a tool to humanize the species and open up the door to undercover stories in which he returned home to gather information and funnel American support to Jotari rebels. His existence was heavily classified by the government to avoid a panic, and he was forced to disguise himself when in public, but his ultimate goal was always to free his people from the Authority and institute a democratic revolution.

The combination of military support, democratic fervour, and cosmic issues proved popular, and Vanguards! was launched in November, instantly shooting up to the top of Venture Comics’ lines. The Vanguards began to appear in other stories, crossing over with existing comics, including a popular storyline in 1960 in which Partisan deliberately approached Madame Liberty for her expertise in fighting against oppressive regimes.

Behind the Scenes

I wanted an upper class alien, basically.

Gyleb is a little bit Martian Manhunter and a little bit New Gods, but mostly he’s here to be a surprise link between the various dimensional experiments and military backing that the other three heroes represent. I started planning him basically as soon as I got Doctor Cosmos’s background, and I think I like how he turned out. The “Underworld” Principle adapts perfectly to a defector who still has contacts in his old government, and Gyleb also gets to be the team muscle, smashing his way through problems when he’s not telepathically organizing his allies.

I don’t want the Jotari to all have superpowers, so we have a situation in which only a few of them are cosmically-empowered. I think that in the early Silver Age, at least, this isn’t deeply examined, aside from saying “the High Families have powers and the other Jotari don’t”; later, there may be some political questions about how and why this happened, and whether powers are being deliberately withheld from the populace to control them.

Interesting team. Did any of the members get a solo book during the Silver Age, or were they mostly a group with (I’m sure, given their book’s popularity) guest appearances (solo or as a quartet) elsewhere?

None of the Vanguards get solo books in the Silver Age (at least, I don’t think so, I haven’t filled in the whole timeline yet) but they definitely have crossovers where only one of them shows up to help another hero (especially in a book that will be revealed shortly), and I expect some of them have solo stories in Venture into Mystery or Celestial Travels from time to time.

The Randomizers:
Background 8, 1, 2 [Options: Blank Slate, Criminal, Performer, Struggling, Tragic, Unremarkable]
Power Source 9, 2, 4 [Options: Training, Experimentation, Nature, Radiation, Supernatural, Cursed]
Archetype 9, 4, 2 [Options: Shadow, Marksman, Close Quarters Combatant, Elemental Manipulator, Sorcerer, Psychic]
Personality 2, 5, 3 [Options: Natural Leader, Impulsive, Sarcastic, Stalwart, Fast Talking]

Greenheart (II)

Greenheart II500×750 402 KB

Real Name: Val Turner, First Appearance: Venture Into The Unknown #16, Apr 1959
Background: Blank Slate, Power Source: Nature, Archetype: Psychic
Personality: Sarcastic, Principles: Equality, Flora

Status Dice: Green d8, Yellow d8, Red d10. Health: 30 [Green 30-23, Yellow 22-12, Red 11-1]
Qualities: Close Combat d10, Creativity d8, Imposing d8, Wilderness Expert d8
Powers: Plant Control d10, Animal Control d10, Remote Viewing d8, Strength d8, Presence d8

Green Abilities:

• Grasping Vines [A]: Hinder using Plants. Use your Max die. You may split that penalty across multiple nearby targets.
• Allies of Nature [A]: Boost using Remote Viewing. Apply that bonus to all hero Attack and Overcome actions until the start of your next turn.
• Bestial Instincts [R]: After rolling during your turn, you may take 1 irreducible damage to reroll your entire die pool.
• Principle of Equality [A]: Overcome to protect the rights of the underprivileged and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.
• Principle of Flora [A]: Overcome with the aid of local flora and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.

Yellow Abilities:

• Animal Friend [A]: Gain a d8 minion. It takes its turn before yours, but goes away at the end of the scene. You may only have one such minion at a time.
• Power of the Green [R]: When you defeat a minion, roll that minion’s die and Boost yourself using that roll to create a bonus for your next action.
• Through the Cracks [A]: Overcome using Remote Viewing and use your Max+Min dice. You do not have to be physically present in the area you are Overcoming.
• Nature’s Swarm [A]: Attack multiple targets using Animal Control and use your Min die.

Red Abilities

• Eruption of Green [A]: Hinder any number of targets in the scene using Plant Control. Use your Max+Min dice. If you roll doubles, also Attack each target using your Mid die.
• Subsumed in the Pack (I): When you use an ability action, you may also perform any one basic action using your Mid die on the same roll.

Out

• Hinder an opponent by rolling your single Imposing die.

Having successfully introduced a new Skybreaker and developed a team of superheroes, and with a variety of unsuccessful or minor breaks under their belts, the Venture Comics team decided to take another crack at re-introducing a Golden Age hero to their lineup. Their hero of choice was the perennial favorite, Greenheart. Having taken four years away after a few false starts, Venture Comics decided to go to the heart of the character, stripping away some of the mythology in favor of a back to the basics approach that upheld the character’s style.

While hiking in the woods near the Grovedale Dam, a group of young women were held up by a group of criminals who had escaped from the nearby prison. Before anything bad could happen, the woods themselves came alive, the plants tying up the criminals, and a woman dressed in green emerged from the underbrush before vanishing into the night. One of the girls, Ginnie Turner, became curious about this mysterious figure, and began to explore the woods at night. When she was attacked by a wild wolf, the stranger returned, calming the beast and saving Ginnie.

The woman introduced herself as Val. She had no memory of her life or her origins, and claimed to be “Of the Green”, but was curious about Ginnie and her life. Ginnie brought her back to her college, introducing her as her distant cousin Val Taylor, and began to introduce her to modern life. Val was curious and forthright, with a tremendous ability to command plants and animals and an unbending willingness to intervene to help others; soon, Ginnie made her a costume to disguise herself and fight crime as Greenheart!

It was deeply unclear whether Greenheart was the same Valeria Tertia from the Golden Age, with her past a mystery that the writers had no interest in exploring, instead using her lack of memories to introduce her to the world fresh, fighting against super-criminals and, as time went on, magical or alien foes. Greenheart also returned a feminist slant to her stories, although these were initially subtle to avoid public pressure. As public support for second-wave feminism grew, Greenheart became more outspoken, and while the character’s popularity was limited at first, she made an increasing number of appearances in both Venture into the Unknown and becoming a member of the soon-to-be-established Champions of Truth in 1961, before finally heading a new title, Into the Green, in 1963.

Behind the Scenes

Greenheart is back, baby!

I started with Blank Slate because it was new, and then I hit Nature and the idea of a blank slate Greenheart jumped up. This is a very different approach, leaning farther into plant and animal control and less into her personal punching power, but she’s still got good cross-capabilities. A lot of the time, she’ll use her Plant and Animal Control with either Creativity or Imposing, but sometimes she’ll just enhance her combat abilities directly.

I’m trying to figure out exactly when the details about the new Champions of Truth will come up; I’m guessing it’s “once I have enough heroes to fill the team out” which will be… soon? I need to figure out who’s actually going to be members. Will Madame Liberty and Flatfoot join in? Definitely Greenheart and Skybreaker. Probably someone else.

I’m thinking that I am going to do a few divisions to keep myself interested, writing the first ten heroes, then nine villains and a short first-half history of titles, and then the second ten heroes and nine villains along with the height of the Silver Age.

MInor editorial point - those are all meant to be “Plants” from the Materials power set, right? Always thought it was odd to stick Animal Control under Psychic while Plants was Material myself, but it does let life-manipulator types access a new set of Red zone abilities.

Nice to (maybe) see Val back in a new form. Wonder if future writers will make her connection to the GA version explicit, perhaps by exploring the Roman mythical side of things? An encounter with the River Styx would be a good way to wind up as a Blank Slate.

Aren’t you missing a second green ability from the Psychic archetype? (Also, technically, the green Psychic abilities have to use a Psychic power, which Plants isn’t, but who cares).

Maybe it was intended to use Animal Control?

I’d forgotten Psychic got two Greens and two Yellows. That’s pretty strong.

Good points all around; I will have to make a few small adjustments. I totally forgot that the Greens have to be psychic powers; I may just call that my retcon for her instead of boosting her Red die, because I do like her leaning on plant powers a bit more than animal powers.

The Randomizers:
Background 6, 8, 5 [Options: Academic, Upper Class, Struggling, Dynasty, Medical, Interstellar]
Power Source 6, 4, 3 [Options: Genetic, Experimentation, Nature, Relic, Radiation, Tech Upgrades]
Archetype 3, 5, 1 [Options: Speedster, Physical Powerhouse, Marksman, Blaster, Close Quarters, Flyer]
Personality 3, 6, 10 [Options: Impulsive, Distant, Inquisitive, Alluring, Analytical, Cheerful]

Neutrino

Neutrino527×871 391 KB

Real Name: Scott Griffin, First Appearance: Celestial Travels #250, Nov 1959
Background: Interstellar, Power Source: Radiation, Archetype: Blaster
Personality: Analytical, Principles: Space, Humanity

Status Dice: Green d10, Yellow d8, Red d8. Health: 28 [Green 28-22, Yellow 21-11, Red 10-1]
Qualities: Science d12, Ranged Combat d10, Alertness d8, Deep Space Lore d6
Powers: Nuclear d10, The Aurora Borealis d8, Vitality d6, Inventions d6

Green Abilities:

• Raw Power (I): Whenever you roll a 1 on one or more dice, you may reroll those dice. You must accept the results of the reroll.
• Nuclear Spread [A]: Attack multiple targets using Nuclear. Use your Min die against each.
• Scientific Approach [A]: Attack using Inventions. Ignore all penalties on this Attack, ignore any Defend actions, and it cannot be affected by Reactions.
• Principle of Space [A]: Overcome while in space and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.
• Principle of Humanity [A]: Overcome an alien dilemma using knowledge of human culture and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.

Yellow Abilities:

• Gamma Ray Burst [A]: Attack using Nuclear. Hinder the target using your Max die.
• Font of Power [R]: After rolling during your turn, you may take 1 irreducible damage to reroll your entire die pool.
• Bombardment [A]: Attack using the Aurora Borealis. Use your Mid die against each target. Take irreducible damage equal to your Mid die.
• Inner Fusion (I): If you would take Nuclear damage, instead reduce that damage to 0 and Recover that amount of Health.

Red Abilities

• Scientific Prodigy (I): When taking any action using Science, you may reroll your Min die before determining effects.
• Remote Shuttle [A]: Attack multiple targets using the Aurora Borealis. Use your Max die. Hinder each nearby opponent with your Mid die. After using this ability, you and up to two allies may end up anywhere in the scene, even outside of the action.

Out

• Remove a bonus or penalty of your choice.

After twenty years of humming along, occasionally publishing minor superhero stories but largely avoiding the craze, Celestial Travels finally succumbed to the superhero bug in 1959 with the publication of Neutrino! Initially pitched as a general pulpy science-fiction story, Neutrino was genius astronaut Scott Griffin, whose experimental rocket ship not only sent him into orbit, but catapulted him to a faraway star, bathing him in cosmic radiation that charged up his body and gave him superhuman abilities. Scavenging alien technology to upgrade his rocket, the Aurora Borealis, Neutrino began the long journey back to Earth, stopping intergalactic villains and helping innocents along the way, working alongside whichever local heroes he meets.

Neutrino was not intended to take over Celestial Travels, but audiences loved his concept, and by the end of 1960 he was in every issue, usually as the main character but sometimes with a small backup story. He had little interaction with the rest of Venture Comics for some time, due to being in a far-flung corner of the galaxy and theoretically years from Earth, and the writers had little plan to integrate him, but occasionally members of alien species that appeared elsewhere would meet him - including both Uranian soldiers, who caused trouble in attempts to steal his experimental fusion drive, and Xur’Tani scouts who would help him in his fights to protect worlds from alien threats.

Behind the Scenes

A space hero and a nuclear hero, both showing up just in time for the space race! Neutrino is very much a pulp hero in a Silver Age world, introduced to comics around the same time as Green Lantern in our own setting. I expect that at some point in the bronze age he gets back to Earth, but right now he’s just sailing the solar winds and capitalizing on people’s growing fascination with space.

Scott has a unique Esoteric Principle based on a couple of existing one; in this case, I’m calling it the Principle of Humanity, but the more general version is the Principle of the Outsider, which I’m not sure whether I’m allowed to post here so I’m going to err on the side of caution.

Some serious dice-fixing on this guy.

Also, I am once again struck by the fact that Hero Builder offers quite an array of nifty footwear options. The Silver Age characters have been getting some prime examples.

I think you left out “multiple targets” right after the word Attack, assuming that’s the Yellow
Blaster ability keyed to your Signature Vehicle.

What about using Remote Viewing? She can “see through the trees” (and the animals/insects/etc.) around her to coordinate her allies’ actions? Assume the other Psychic Green is going to be the dice-fixer?

Yeah, Neutrino is a master of high results. There’s some interesting timing; I believe that since Raw Power doesn’t let you do a second reroll, you can use it after Font of Power and Scientific Prodigy, but not before either. Meanwhile, Font of Power and Scientific Prodigy can be used in any order. It cuts down on special actions, but it’s great for Overcomes. And yeah, there was supposed to be a “multiple targets” in there.

Also, Greenheart is now updated; thanks for the Remote Viewing suggestion!

The Randomizers:
Background 6, 5, 5 [Options: Academic, Upper Class, Unremarkable, Dynasty, Retired]
Power Source 7, 7, 4 [Options: Experimentation, Relic, Supernatural, Alien, Extradimensional]
Archetype 6, 5, 5 [Options: Blaster, Close Quarters Combatant, Robot/Cyborg, Sorcerer, Wild Card]
Personality 4, 8, 6 [Options: Mischievous, Distant, Fast Talking, Alluring, Nurturing, Decisive]

Fission

fission450×662 276 KB

Real Name: Trevor Finn, First Appearance: Vanguards #16, Feb 1960
Background: Unremarkable, Power Source: Extradimensional, Archetype: Wild Card
Personality: Decisive, Principles: Loner, Hero

Status Dice: Green d8, Yellow d8, Red d10. Health: 32 [Green 32-25, Yellow 24-12, Red 11-1]
Qualities: Fitness d12, Alertness d10, Insight d8, Personal Teamwork d8
Powers: Duplication d10, Awareness d10, Cosmic d6, Shapeshifting d6, Strength d6

Green Abilities:

• Shake It Off [R]: When you would take damage that would change your zone, Defend against that damage by rolling your single Fitness die.
• Muscle Through [A]: Take any two different basic actions using Fitness, each using your Min die.
• Pile On [A]: Boost or Hinder using Duplication. Use your Max die. If you roll doubles, you may also Attack using your Mid die.
• Principle of the Loner [A]: Overcome when doing something different from the rest of your team and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
• Principle of the Hero [A]: Overcome in a situation in which innocent people are in immediate danger and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.

Yellow Abilities:

• Oversplit [A]: Attack multiple targets using Duplication. Then, take irreducible damage equal to the number of targets hit.
• Get Too Close [A]: Attack using Awareness. Use your Max die. Hinder that target with your Mid die. Hinder yourself with your Min die.
• Cosmic Duplicate [A]: Use a Green action ability of a nearby ally (using the same size power and quality dice they would use.)

Red Abilities

• Hit The Wrong Double (I): Once per issue, if you would go to 0 Health, roll Fitness + Duplication + Red Zone. Your Health becomes that number.
• Spread Out [A]: Choose three basic actions. Use Duplication in your pool and take one action with your Max die, a different action with your Mid die, and a third action with your Min die.

Out

• Boost an ally by rolling your single Duplication die.

Early in 1960, the writers of Vanguards idly introduced a couple of new characters to the series, with the vague idea that they might be added to the team. The first of these characters was Fission. Trevor Finn was a mild-mannered, unassuming guy who was on vacation in the fictional Caribbean island of Santa Juanita, when it was rocked by a Jotari attack - the Jotari were in search of an alien spaceship of unknown origins that would help them break down the dimensional barriers between worlds. Trevor was one of two people caught near the spaceship as the Jotari tried to activate it, and fell through a portal in space; he came out as three people!

Discovering that he had the power to create cosmic spacetime fragments of himself, Trevor joined the battle against the Jotari. Many of his fragments took on the aspects of the other Vanguards, deploying shadows of their own abilities against the enemy, and Trevor helped to save the day. Afterwards, he and his partner agreed to stay in touch, staying in the area to protect the ship from dangerous forces. The plan was for the two of them to join the Vanguards, but the editors of Venture Comics had other ideas; they were looking to expand their titles, and they thought these two might be interesting choices.

For his part, Fission was a robust hero but an uncertain person. He would dive into trouble without hesitation, but also without coordination or reliance on others, too afraid of getting his friends or partners hurt. As a big, shy person, he was part of several romantic triangles, each of which involved him being too nervous to respond to very obvious romantic gestures, only to then have to save a potential romantic partner when she was put in danger by Jotari activity!

Behind the Scenes

There’ll be more about Fission once his partner is written up. For now, look at this lug!

Fission is probably this line’s version of Spider-Man, with his uncertainty and belief in his own responsibility coupled with a tendency to do things himself and a disastrous romantic life. He, however, has a partner to try to shake him out of it (spoiler alert: it doesn’t work.)

Any resemblance between his outfit and a Vault Dweller uniform is purely coincidental.

What a neat build. Love the concepts behind the abilities, their names really sell what’s going on with them. Don’t think I’ve ever seen a d12 Fitness before on a hero. Going to get a fair amount of mileage out of that Green reaction, especially if teamed up with someone who can get you healed back up a zone now and then.

The Randomizers:
Background 2, 2, 7 [Options: Criminal, Military, Law Enforcement, Tragic, Adventurer]
Power Source 2, 4, 4 [Options: Training, Experimentation, Nature, Power Suit, Alien]
Archetype 1, 7, 8 [Options: Speedster, Armored, Flyer, Elemental Manipulator, Wild Card]
Personality 2, 4, 3 [Options: Natural Leader, Impulsive, Mischievous, Sarcastic, Distant, Stalwart]

Wavelength

Wavelength501×790 344 KB

Real Name: Celeste Ortiz, First Appearance: Vanguards #16, Feb 1960
Background: Adventurer, Power Source: Alien, Archetype: Flyer
Personality: Impulsive, Principles: Defender, Justice

Status Dice: Green d6, Yellow d8, Red d10. Health: 32 [Green 32-25, Yellow 24-12, Red 11-1]
Qualities: Alertness d10, Banter d10, Acrobatics d8, Deep Space Lore d8, Action Archaeologist d8
Powers: Teleportation d10, Flight d8, Presence d8, Deduction d8, Gravity d6

Green Abilities:

• Grab and Drop [A]: Attack a minion using Flight. Use whatever that minion rolls for its save as an Attack against another target of your choice.
• Strike and Vanish [A]: Attack using Teleportation. Defend against all Attacks against you using your Min die until your next turn.
• Principle of the Defender [A]: Overcome a situation that requires you to hold the line and use your Max die OR use your Mid die and Defend with your Min die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
• Principle of Justice [A]: Overcome to stop an act of injustice in progress and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.

Yellow Abilities:

• Teleport Strike [A]: Attack up to three targets using Teleportation. Apply your Min die to each of them.
• Speechify [A]: Boost all nearby allies using Presence. Use your Max+Mid dice. Hinder yourself with your Min die.
• Evasive Action [R]: When you are Attacked at close range, Defend yourself by rolling your single Teleportation die.

Red Abilities

• Long-Distance Teleport [A]: Boost yourself using Teleportation. Use your Max+Min dice. Then, you may end up anywhere else in the scene, avoiding any dangers between your starting and ending locations.
• Last Stand [A]: Make a basic action using Banter. Use your Max die. All other heroes who take the same basic action on their turn against the same target receive a Boost from your Mid+Min dice.

Out

• The hero who goes directly after you may take 1 damage to reroll their die pool.

Alongside Fission came Wavelength! Celeste Ortiz was an archaeologist investigating mysterious ruins that didn’t line up with any Earth culture. Ostracized for her belief that they constituted proof of alien activity, her journeys took her to Santa Juanita, where she discovered an ancient alien ship buried in a mountainside. Her investigation accidentally activated the ship, which sent out a beacon that was intercepted by the Jotari, leading to their attempt to claim it.

Celeste tried to marshal the alien ship’s defenses, and instead merged with it, developing an incredible command over gravity. She could create and step through portals, manipulate gravity around herself to fly, and even control gravity in small ways in the area around herself! She joined the battle against the Jotari and helped the Vanguards save the day, and then committed to staying in Santa Juanita and studying the alien ship, ensuring that it didn’t do anything else that caused a problem.

Fission and Wavelength, after their initial appearance in Vanguards, appeared in Venture Into Mystery for three issues to confirm their popularity before receiving a bimonthly comic, The Reactors, starting in January of 1961. The editors of Venture Comics had expected that Fission would be the breakout success of the pair, but it turned out to be Wavelength who got most of the attention - a fierce and intelligent archaeologist in the style of Alan Quartermain, who jumped into danger without a second thought and acted as a shoulder for Fission to cry on. Despite the hopes of some fans, Wavelength never demonstrated any romantic interest in her partner, treating him as a little brother that needed to be looked after.

Behind the Scenes

And there we go! Duplication and teleportation creating a duo that can’t be stopped. I mean, they can be stopped. But it’s hard.

I considered making Wavelength a Speedster, but I like the idea of leaning into gravity powers instead. This version of her uses gravity abilities as a minor aside to her main tricks of bamphing around and flying through the air, but I could imagine a more gravity-focused elemental manipulator archetype instead.

I looked up whether “ancient aliens” were a thing in 1960, and the answer is “yes, but she’s really ahead of the curve”. It’s a relatively small idea right now, picking up steam in the late 60s, which will probably make her briefly more popular and then more laughable unless the editors shift some things around.

The Randomizers:
Background 9, 10, 6 [Options: 6, 9, 10, 15, 16, 19]
Power Source 4, 1, 6 [Options: Accident, Experimentation, Mystical, Nature, Relic, Tech Upgrades]
Archetype 7, 1, 1 [Options: Speedster, Shadow, Armored, Flyer, Sorcerer]
Personality 4, 3, 6 [Options: Impulsive, Mischievous, Distant, Stalwart, Inquisitive, Alluring]

Wonderer

Wonderer500×800 350 KB

Real Name: Barqan the Wise, First Appearance: Venture into the Unknown #47, Oct 1960
Background: Otherworldly, Power Source: Mystical, Archetype: Sorcerer
Personality: Mischievous, Principles: Spirit, Magic

Status Dice: Green d8, Yellow d8, Red d8. Health: 32 [Green 32-25, Yellow 24-12, Red 11-1]
Qualities: Magical Lore d10, Fitness d10, History d10, Creativity d8, Djinn d8
Powers: Transmutation d12, Weather d8, Shapeshifting d8, Presence d6, Teleportation d6

Green Abilities:

• Petrify [A]: Hinder using Transmutation. Use your Max die. If you roll doubles, also Attack using your Mid die.
• Storm [A]: Attack multiple targets using Weather, applying your Min die against each.
• Principle of the Spirit [A]: Overcome in a situation where your spiritual nature comes in handy and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
• Principle of Magic [A]: Overcome against mystical forces and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.

Yellow Abilities:

• Spread Confusion [A]: Boost or Hinder using Shapeshifting, and apply that mod to multiple nearby targets.
• Wish Granted [A]: Overcome an environmental challenge using Transmutation. Use your Max die. Either remove any penalty in the scene or Boost equal to your Mid die.
• Monkey’s Paw [A]: Destroy all bonuses and penalties on a target. Then, Hinder that target using Transmutation, using your Max die.

Red Abilities

• Turn To Mist [R]: When you are Attacked and dealt damage, you may ignore that damage completely. If you do, treat the value of the damage as a Hinder action against you instead.
• Magical Prodigy (I): When taking any action using Magical Lore, you may reroll your Min die before determining effects.

Out

• Hinder an opponent by rolling your single Transmutation die.

Some of the older editors of Venture Comics had missed their magical adventures; while Skybreaker was still theoretically using magic, it was thin on the ground in the Silver Age. On a whim, they put out a call for pitches for magical adventures, putting the three best into the last three issues of Venture into the Unknown in 1960. Two of these promptly vanished into the depths of Venture Comics history, but the first, the Wonderer, was a smash hit.

Kamil El-Masry was a lonely boy living in Ferrisville, who happened across an old lamp on the banks of the river. Knowing the stories of such lamps, he immediately rubbed it, and smoke poured out, revealing the form of a djinn! The djinn introduced himself as Barqan the Wise, and offered Kamil one wish in exchange for his freedom. Kamil promptly wished for a friend. Touched by the boy’s innocence and loneliness, Barqan pledged to be his friend for as long as he was needed, taking him on a magnificent adventure - and, along the way, stopping a bank robbery with his magical powers. The combination of whimsy, creativity, and heroics was well-received, and Barqan was chosen to occupy a bi-monthly slot alternating with the Reactors beginning in February of 1961.

Barqan, or as he called himself when disguised as a hero, “The Wonderer”, was a powerful magical being, a wise but playful sort who, it was later revealed, often deliberately shut himself in a lamp to see how people would respond to being offered a chance at a wish. When their wishes were kind or good, Barqan would intervene to make their lives better; when they were cruel or greedy, Barqan would twist their wishes into an ironic (but not cruel) comeuppance. Above all else, the djinn wanted to believe in the best in people, despite the temptations that he offered, and always gave his subjects a chance to turn things around.

Throughout his adventures, Barqan continued to spend time with Kamil, often rescuing him from other Ferrisville villains, and working alongside other heroes to keep the world safe as one of the Champions of Truth!

Behind the Scenes

Oh hey, it’s a genie who isn’t evil!

Otherworldly is one of those backgrounds I’m liable to get so rarely that I had to jump on it, and then I kept getting the most magical options so I just really, really leaned into it for a classic wish-granting pal who is definitely safe to be around. Had I gotten the numbers, I would have gone straight for Reality Shaper, but Sorcerer works just fine. If Barqan had been created in the Golden Age his ironic wishes would have been a hell of a lot nastier when deployed against the unrighteous, and that may happen to him when the Iron Age rolls around, but for now he’s a playful friend sort of djinn rather than a vengeful monster sort of djinn.

Principle of the Spirit is just Principle of Undeath with some minor flavour adjustments.

Next, we’ll start in on nine villains for these heroes and groups (plus maybe one each for Madame Liberty and Flatfoot, since they’re still around and un-rebooted) and then a short history of the first few years of the Silver Age.

As a big fan of the old Shazzan cartoon, I naturally approve of this character concept.

Nice theming on the abilities there.

Randomizers:
Approach: 9, 1, 4 [Options: Relentless, Underpowered, Bully, Specialized, Overpowered, Creator]
Archetype: 1, 6, 6 [Options: Predator, Overlord, Formidable, Legion]
Upgrade: 12, 7, 10 [Options: Malice, Mysticism, Total Chaos]
Mastery: 12, 9, 6 [Options: Brainwashing Zone, Quality Upgrade II, Power Upgrade I]

Mary Molotov II

Mary Molotov II500×800 305 KB

Real Name: unknown, First Appearance: Skybreaker Stories #4, Sep 1958
Approach: Underpowered, Archetype: Formidable (Needs Equipment)
Upgrade: Power Upgrade I, Mastery: Total Chaos

Status Dice: Fully Equipped: d12. Equipment Damaged, but with bonuses to offset: d8. Unarmed: d4. Health: 35+5H (Ultimate: 55+5H)
Qualities: Creativity d10, Stealth d8, Banter d6, Explosives Expert d8
Powers: Signature Weapons (Explosives) d8, Presence d6, Lightning Calculator d6, Invisibility d6

Abilities:

• Wall of Fire [A]: Attack multiple targets using Creativity. Defend against all Attacks against you until your next turn using your Min die.
• Shaped Charges [A]: Attack using Explosives. If you roll doubles, add that value to your Attack. If you roll triples, add all three dice to your Attack.
• The Getaway (I): When the scene tracker changes zones, create a simple Challenge: “Mary is Missing”, and roll her single Stealth die, Recovering that much Health. Until the challenge is resolved, Mary Molotov cannot be targeted by hero abilities, and at the start of each of her turns, roll her single Stealth die and Recover that much health.
• The Big Guns [A]: Boost using Explosives and use your Max die. That bonus is persistent and exclusive. Also Attack with your Mid die.
• Got The Wrong Girl [A]: Boost using Invisibility and use your Max+Min dice. Remove all penalties on yourself.
• (U) Power Upgrade (I): Increase all of your Power dice by one step. Gain 20 Health.
• (U) Master of Total Chaos (I): If you are in a situation where everything is spiralling out of control, automatically succeed in an Overcome to accomplish a task by throwing out the rules.

Common Scene Elements:

• A Complex Explosives staged challenge; it allows Mary to take an Overcome each time the Scene Tracker advances to attempt to advance it again. If partially resolved, she tests with her Min die, and if fully resolved she is stuck.
• An environment representing buildings rocked by explosions and frightened civilians.
• Lieutenants representing her bomb-loving followers, usually taking the form of d8 lieutenants who can take a reaction and roll one of their dice, swapping the result for one of Mary’s dice on an action.

The rush to get Skybreaker to print meant that the writers of Skybreaker Stories weren’t actually sure what enemies to set against him in his early issues. They had a looming, shadowy villain who had tried to steal his spear, they had a few bank robbers and mad scientists, but they were still worried that bringing in the Fomori again would be seen as too demonic by the Comics Code. Glancing through their archives, one writer ran into a popular character who hadn’t been used in a few years, and tossed a new Mary Molotov into a Skybreaker story, to the surprise and delight of readers.

The new Mary Molotov was quite a bit different from her predecessor in substance, while being nearly identical in style. Rather than being a hired gun for criminal interests, she was a grand performative villain, entranced by explosions and power, who came to Grovedale following rumours of Skybreaker and his amazing might. Mary deliberately set up a massive series of explosions to lure Skybreaker out, simply to watch him in action, and while he was able to stop her before anyone was hurt, she detonated a few buildings along the way, while Skybreaker tracked down what he thought was her and turned out to be a mixture of innocent bystanders and henchfolk enraptured by her performative explosions.

Mary was thrown in jail, but of course was able to escape shortly afterwards by jury-rigging a bomb out of cafeteria materials, and she would return to be a thorn in Skybreaker’s side for years to come. With no motivation or ideology beyond a desire to see things explode, she sometimes partnered with other villains to acquire supplies, facing off against Flatfoot, Madame Liberty, and the Vanguards, but she always looped back around to Skybreaker, entranced by his might and the style with which he fought her bombs. It was a one-sided romance; Skybreaker had no eyes for her. But it persisted throughout the Silver Age.

Behind the Scenes

singing You gotta have bombs! All you really need are bombs! When the odds are saying you’ll never win, that’s when the grin, should come! But you gotta have bombs!

Once again, I wasn’t planning on opening the age with a revamp, but the idea of a character who was both Underpowered and Formidable stuck with me, and the Master of Total Chaos seemed like it would align beautifully with Mary Molotov (the alternative was to stick with Formidable and Malice and create a new incarnation of the Huntsman.)

This version of Mary doesn’t have any direct defenses, but her custom Underpowered-based ability to slip away and heal when the scene tracker changes means that you have to pin her down fast and get her gear away from her. Without her bombs, she’s mostly harmless, but with them she throws up some wild damage, especially if she can put together a Max die persistent-exclusive Boost using a D12 - and of course, if you do pin her down, you may have the wrong Mary and need to start over.

This is also where I noticed a tiny flaw in my randomization system which probably I should have thought of earlier. While d10, d8, d8 works great for randomizing 1-18, it turns out that with my house rules, d8, d6, d6 has the potential to produce a result of 15 or 16 on a 1-14 scale. Doesn’t come up a lot. Such is life.

Interesting approach to the Formidable status die thing. Makes sense for someone so equipment dependent.

Yeah, I like the idea of someone who has immensely high dice while they’ve got access to their arsenal, but their arsenal is kind of their whole deal.

And speaking of people who really only do one thing, but boy do they do it:

Randomizers:
Approach: 4, 6, 1 [Options: Relentless, Underpowered, Bully, Disruptive, Focused, Overpowered*]*
Archetype: 2, 5, 6 [Options: Inventor, Indomitable, Overlord, Formidable, Inhibitor, Domain*]*
Upgrade: 12, 3, 4 [Options: Group Fighter, Villainous Vehicle, Brainwashing Zone*]*
Mastery: 8, 2, 9 [Options: Behind the Curtain, Profitability, Superiority*]*

Mindscape

Mindscape500×800 340 KB

Real Name: Volen Jotu-Kal, First Appearance: Vanguards #1, Nov 1958
Approach: Focused, Archetype: Domain
Upgrade: Brainwashing Zone, Mastery: Superiority

Status Dice: Based on environment minions, lieutenants, and/or challenges. 3+: d10. 1-2: d8. None: d6. Health: 45+5H (Upgraded: 55+5H)

Qualities: Conviction d10, Otherworldly Mythos d8, Persuasion d8, Jotari Prince d8
Powers: Suggestion d10, Illusions d10, Vitality d8, Telepathy d8

Abilities:

• Society Spurns You [A]: Hinder multiple targets using Conviction. You and any nearby allies Defend using your Max die.
• Your Thoughts Betray You [R]: When Attacked by a hero with a penalty, that hero takes damage equal to the size of that penalty.
• Their Minds Are Mine (I): Ignore damage from an environment source during the environment’s turn.
• The World Reformed [A]: Activate one of the environment’s twists in its current zone or one zone closer to red.
• Brain Frenzy [A]: Roll any number of environment minion dice. Attack every target in the scene other than yourself with those dice. Remove those minions.
• (U) A World of Subservience (I): While the scene is in the Green zone, all heroes’ quality dice at or above d8 are reduced one size. In the Yellow zone, all heroes’ quality dice at or above d10 are reduced two sizes. In the Red zone, all heroes’ quality dice are treated as if they are d4.

Heroes may remove this ability with three Overcome successes. If a hero takes a minor twist, the hero must lose access to a quality entirely until this ability is removed. If a hero is knocked out while this ability is active, you may create a new minion using the hero’s highest power die to represent the controlled version of that hero.

Common Scene Elements:

• An environment representing a community trapped within Mindscape’s power.
• A fellow Jotari villain or group of lieutenants, who act as the muscle for Mindscape’s plots.
• A multi-step Challenge hiding Mindscape, which must be overcome to target him or his brainwashing field.

After two appearances in Venture into the Unknown, the Vanguards exploded into their own comic in November 1958. For their first appearance, their writer was determined to write a story that would draw readers and make a huge splash, and he went all-in with the introduction of Partisan’s older brother and crown prince of the House of Jotu-Kal, Mindscape!

In his first appearance, Mindscape used his phenomenal telepathic abilities to infiltrate the Vanguards’ base, gradually bringing the staff under his sway as he constructed an illusory threat for the Vanguards to face. His goal was to terrorize the base into fearing the Jotari, weakening resistance and causing them to turn on his brother. Volen had next to no physical might, but he was a clever manipulator who tricked the Vanguards into fighting each other, used their friends as weapons, and nearly managed to set off a bomb that would wipe out their base. In the end, Partisan was able to overcome his illusions, and once he was revealed he was forced to flee back through the portals.

Mindscape would return to face the Vanguards many times over the course of the Silver Age. His telepathic powers, implied to be the method by which the Jotari elite maintained control over their lower classes, made him a force to be reckoned with, often in conjunction with some other Jotari plot or military force. He would take control of human communities by giving them dreamlike lives as long as they surrendered their wills, construct elaborate fantasies to ensnare important targets, and above all sneer about his mastery and superiority over weaker minds. In one particularly notable crossover in the pages of Venture Into The Unknown #50 in 1963, Mindscape and Iron Will joined forces to crush the spirit of humanity; of course, the two mind-controlling villains simultaneously betrayed each other, allowing Madame Liberty and the Vanguards to defeat them with ease.

Behind the Scenes

The Vanguards need their own Doctor Doom, and here he is!

Mindscape really only has one trick, but boy does he have it in spades: Turbocharge the environment using The World Reformed, and then Hinder the heroes so that they can’t deal with the problems that the environment is popping off, until things get big enough to overwhelm the heroes with a mob of angry, mind-controlled minions. He’s sort of the opposite of Iron Will in many ways, crafting elaborate dream worlds that ensnare targets and make them lash out at anyone who would disrupt the dream.

Mechanically, Domain and Focused aren’t really in alignment; Domain’s reliance on the environment makes it work best with villains who have lower dice pools, whereas Focused gives you one extremely powerful die pool and calls it a day. But with the right environment, I think he’s pretty devastating.

That should be “Spurns” I think.

More importantly, you’ve taken two of your abilities from the Disruptive approach, not Focused (which appears on the page directly below it). Focused would also have a third ability, and as you said isn’t a great mesh with Domain - but most approaches really aren’t anyway. The best I could do with the pairing was the Green Queen, and she only sort of works thanks to her custom environment.

Probably easiest to just switch to Disruptive, which is on your randomizer list anyway and does offer that group Hinder ability, which is pretty important for him.

you really get a sense of the threat he poses this is one that would make a good Sentinels deck!

Oh, man. Yeah, I’ll take a look. I feel bad losing the high dice but that is a big mistake I made.

Well, you could stick with Focused, drop Society and Your Thoughts and replace them with three new abilities. Focused does have a very good defensive reaction in Sympathetic Shield, but the rest of the list is mostly offensive or energy/element related stuff that aren’t great with Domain. Defensive Charging maybe fits the concept if you can spare the actions you want to spend on environment manipulation.

OTOH, Disruptive’s got a great dice pool itself. No d12 power, but in every other way it’s a better mix than Focused.

Yeah, I think I will go ahead and stick with Disruptive. I’ll edit Mindscape shortly. In the mean time…

Randomizers:
Approach: 5, 3, 4 [Options: Prideful, Underpowered, Bully, Focused, Mastermind, Specialized*]*
Archetype: 3, 5, 2 [Options: Inventor, Bruiser, Indomitable, Formidable, Inhibitor*]*
Upgrade: 12, 6, 8 [Options: Brainwashing Zone, Power Upgrade II, Quality Upgrade II*]*
Mastery: 5, 9, 3 [Options: Conquest, Mad Science, Superiority*]*

Dauphin de Sabre

Dauphin500×800 434 KB

Real Name: Louis de Richemont, First Appearance: Madame Liberty #207, March 1959
Approach: Specialized, Archetype: Bruiser
Upgrade: Power Upgrade, Mastery: Conquest

Status Dice: Green d6, Yellow d8, Red d10. Health: 40+5H [Calculate zones using p.239]
Qualities: Close Combat d12, Imposing d8, Born to the Purple d8
Powers: Strength d10, Presence d8

Abilities:

• Take Them Down [A]: Attack using Close Combat against one target with your Max die, another with your Mid die, and a third with your Min die.
• Strike Fear [A]: Attack one target using Imposing and use your Max+Min dice. The target cannot Defend or use reactions against this attack.
• Overwhelm [A]: Attack using Strength. If you are Green status, use your Max die. If you are Yellow status, use the Max+Min dice. If you are Red status, use Max+Min against one target and Mid against another.
• Face Me [R]: Defend against an Attack where you’re the only target by rolling your single Close Combat die. One other nearby target takes an amount of damage equal to the damage reduced.
• Untouchable (I): Reduce damage taken by physical and energy sources by 1 while in the Green zone, 2 in the Yellow zone, and 3 in the Red zone.

Common Scene Elements:

• A squad of superhuman-worshipping soldiers (D8 minions who get +1 to saves as long as they are near the Dauphin.)
• Opposed challenges representing the innocents that the Dauphin is attempting to take command of.
• Members of the Dread Dynasty, each of whom is a d8 or d10 lieutenant with a super-powered ability. They include:
  • Duke Pike (d10): The duke’s metal skin reduces physical damage by 2.
  • Countess Kunai (d8): The countess can Attack two near enemies with a single action by flinging energy spikes.
  • Lady Battleaxe (d10): When Lady Battleax Attacks a target by shaping stone, she also Hinders them using the final damage taken as her result.
  • Baron Khopesh (d8): The Baron’s quick speed and flexibility allows him to Boost as a reaction when he successfully saves against damage, using his roll as the result.

While Madame Liberty continued to fight Soviet agents in Europe in the Silver Age, her enemies also became gradually more exaggerated and flamboyant. The first, and most enduring, grand example of this was the emergence of Dauphin de Sabre and the Dread Dynasty!

Dauphin de Sabre was at once a monarchist and a powered supremacist. He claimed to be a French nobleman who could trace his lineage back to the kings of France, and who had developed superhuman strength after experimenting in “bringing out the inner purity of his noble bloodline” - this series of experiments may have also driven him mad with power. Gathering a group of super-powered people who also claimed to be able to trace back noble lineages from around the world, he declared himself the new King of France, and embarked on a campaign of conquest!

Madame Liberty was able to infiltrate the Dread Dynasty by forging an aristocratic background, getting close enough to undermine de Sabre’s plot and leave him to be arrested for his crimes against the state, but some members of the Dread Dynasty escaped, and successfully broke him out of jail in the following year. What followed was a series of schemes and plots by the Dauphin and his followers to ‘prove’ that noble blood was inherently more powerful than common democracy and deserved to rule. Madame Liberty was rarely strong enough to face the Dauphin and his followers directly, bringing in her own allies or sabotaging his plans instead. Her status as a commoner with amazing powers vexed the Dauphin greatly, and on at least two occasions he tried to convince her and himself that she was, in fact, of noble blood - a claim that she found laughable. The second time, in 1967, was also the only time that the Dauphin and Madame Liberty worked together in the Silver Age, opposing a Soviet super-soldier program that both of them hated for very different reasons.

Behind the Scenes

I mostly just wanted an excuse to write a bunch of minor lieutenants, and here it is! I was trying to figure out a theme, and I got to “Noble Title + Weapon”; for a minute, my plan was that these guys thought that having super powers meant you deserved to be nobility, but that’s a very well-trod path in comics, so I took a last-minute swerve into “being nobility means you deserve to have super-powers.”

Since Madame Liberty has already fought racial supremacists, this one went a slightly different route - de Sabre believes that the nobility of every country is superior. He’s not racist, he’s classist. Very, very, very classist.

The Dread Dynasty don’t literally have weapon powers; they just take whatever names best fit the powers they have, and a lot of the time it’s a real stretch.

Heh, weird synchronicity. I feel like Baron Bowman (whose claim to nobility is patently absurd and whose gimmicks are all tech and not the innate power of superior breeding) would have issues with this group even if he wasn’t a rabid anglophile. Of course, we all know how well swords and lances versus arrows worked out for the French at Agincourt.

I really thought just from the figure that this guy was going to be Christopher challenging people to a fencing duel.

That is wonderful timing.

Yeah, I expect that the Baron and the Dauphin would not get along well. He might be particularly angry at Duke Pike, who is British nobility and has chosen to follow a gasp Frenchman. But if they do get into a fight, Baron Bowman may discover that the Dauphin has hired the services of…

Randomizers:
Approach: 3, 8, 7 [Options: Prideful, Focused, Mastermind, Overpowered, Generalist, Adaptive]
Archetype: 8, 2, 5 [Options: Inventor, Indomitable, Formidable, Inhibitor, Squad, Fragile]
Upgrade: 8, 2, 10 [Options: Hardier Minion, Quality Upgrade II, Calming Aura]
Mastery: 8, 9, 6 [Options: Mercenary, Profitability, Superiority]

Red Herring

Red Herring500×800 286 KB

Real Name: Wouldn’t You Like To Know, First Appearance: Venture into the Unknown #21, Sep 1959
Approach: Adaptive, Archetype: Inhibitor
Upgrade: Calming Aura, Mastery: Mercenary

Status Dice: 3+ Heroes with at least one penalty: d10. 1-2 heroes with at least one penalty: d8. No heroes with penalties: d6. Health: 25+5H (Upgraded 35+5H)

Qualities: Technology d10, Persuasion d8, Finesse d8, Master of Disguise d8
Powers: Inventions d10, Illusions d8, Precognition d8, Agility d6

Abilities:

• Masked Villain (I): At the start of the action scene, you are perfectly disguised as another character. While disguised, you have access to one of their power dice (at d10) and one of their abilities using that power. As a reaction, you may cast off your disguise to negate one Attack or Hinder against you, then roll your Precognition die and recover that much Health. Then lose this ability for the remainder of the scene.
• Go All-In [A]: Lower two of your powers by one die size each. Increase one of your other powers to d12. Then take a basic action using that power.
• What Will He Do Next [A]: Boost using Inventions and use your Max die. Attack with your Mid die. Defend with your Min die.
• Planned For That [A]: Select a nearby target. Either turn all bonuses on that target to equivalent penalties, or move a penalty from that target to another target you can see.
• Spring The Trap [A]: Hinder using Inventions against multiple targets and use your Max die. Attack one of those targets with your Mid die.
• (U) Playing The Minor Leagues (I): The heroes act as being in the Green zone for status die, access to abilities, and for the purpose of all abilities. Heroes may remove this ability with three Overcome successes, recognizing the true threat at play. If a hero takes a minor twist, you may use a reaction to Hinder them by rolling your single Illusions die.
• (U) Master Mercenary (I): If you have been given a contract to perform a specific task, automatically succeed at an Overcome in a situation where the difference is getting paid and not getting paid.

Common Scene Elements:

• A trap-filled environment that favours Hindering heroes.
• A multi-step challenge deployed when the Red Herring is revealed to stop his current distraction before someone gets hurt.
• Minions who belong to whichever villain the Red Herring is currently impersonating.

As Venture into the Unknown continued, it produced more misses than hits; characters who would appear once or twice, before vanishing into obscurity as their concept was exhausted. One of these was the superhero known as Agent Apollo of AEGIS (the Agency for the Enforcement of Global Information Security), a super-powered copy of recently-popular secret agent James Bond, working for a secret agency whose agents all had Olympus-themed code names.

Agent Apollo went nowhere. First introduced in Venture into the Unknown #14, in which he faced off against an even more forgettable mad scientist, the editors decided to give him one more chance to see if he would build up steam. Intent on crafting a story that would resonate for his beloved super-agent, the writer set him up against a devilish villain who concocted an entire fake death ray plot in order to keep Agent Apollo from discovering his true intention - keeping the agent busy while his nemesis, Dr. Destructo, kidnapped the President!

Agent Apollo and Dr. Destructo were never seen again. But, to the surprise of both the writer and his editors, fans wrote in to ask whether the secondary villain, the Red Herring, would ever come back! The fake death ray was a huge hit, and the fans loved the cunning villain, who had masqueraded as Dr. Destructo for half the issue before revealing himself and escaping.

Never ones to miss an opportunity, the Venture editors jumped on it, and the Red Herring made his next appearance in the pages of Flatfoot Adventures near the end of the year. Soon, he was popping up once or twice a year, always in a different comic, never advertised as present and always pretending to be a new or existing villain for a major hero to face. Each time, his scheme was merely a distraction, albeit a potentially dangerous one, hired by another villain to buy time for their own scheme to progress. Often, he was the first part of a two-parter, allowing a villain to accomplish a goal without the hero needing to fail directly.

As a supervillain not attached to any specific hero, the Red Herring rapidly became a fan favourite across the pages of Venture Comics, and the editors were required to put a rule in place that no given hero could face him more than once in a three-year stretch, and coordinate to make sure that he didn’t show up in two comics in the same month. The joke didn’t work if he was around too often, after all.

Behind the Scenes

Heroes hate this one trick.

In truth, Red Herring isn’t the best villain unless you build the right environment for him, but that feels appropriate. Inhibitor is a tricky archetype, because most of the penalties your villain creates are going to go away the next time a hero acts. Unless you have a way of staggering when penalties hit heroes, the Inhibitor is stuck with a low status die. But the Red Herring’s powers make him an annoying villain to face, able to bounce back from the big hit you intended to land and then turn all your bonuses into penalties on you. He gets much, much worse as an ultimate foe, using his disguise to lull heroes into thinking they know what’s going on, hitting them with Hinders as they try to figure out the truth, and then popping out to cackle with glee. Your players will really, really enjoy punching him in the mouth. I have used this guy in other superhero settings, and my players grew to gleefully loathe when I’d be halfway through a monologue and suddenly my register would go nasal and the villain would announce some variation on “you have fallen prey to The Red Herring!”

Masked Villain is both a stronger and weaker version of “Powerful Imitation”, trading versatility for a one-time grand reveal that gets you a bit back in the game.

Fan of a Pup Named Scooby Doo, are you? Fred Jones will see through Masked Villain every time.

If you want lasting penalties as an Inhibitor they’re easy enough to get. There are two perfectly decent abilities that grant P+E penalties on their own list and that strong multi-target Hinder option you took that makes it hard for teams to Boost/Overcome to clear each other of penalties, plus whatever their approach offers. You can also take twists to turn temporary penalties into two-use versions - that trick works even with ability Hinders, not just basic actions.

Huh! That is actually one of the few Scooby shows I’ve never watched. Didn’t know the reference there.

I hadn’t thought about villains taking twists to make their Hinders two-turn. It’s a good plan!

If you enjoy most of the franchise, you might want to give it a shot. When it was on the air way back when I took one look and never watched it because I erroneously assumed it was just another of those “de-aged character cartoons” that were something of a rage in that era, all of which turned me off big time. Eventually took another look after seeing some positive reviews and was pleasantly surprised to discover it was a lot more self-aware than expected, had some decent writing and knew how to tell a joke. Still more for kids than adults, but not to a painful degree. At this point I’d rate it in the top three or four Scooby series in the whole franchise, which is pretty high praise.

Some builds can really wind up depending on it regularly, particularly in the face of serious minion-sweeping tricks. The fact that one villain twist option is to sacrifice a minion or degrade a lieutenant makes it easier for “summoner” minions to opt into if they can justify it narratively. Better to lose one lackey for sure to extend penalty protection on the rest, after all. Predators (who lack a native way to get a P+E penalty out) can also wind up relying on it for some of their best abilities…

I saw the villain’s name and immediately thought “Fred’s gonna be so mad lol” XD

It’s a memorable running gag, to be sure.

There’s clearly room for some particularly thick headed hero to constantly accuse other villains of actually being Red Herring in disguise once the schtick is firmly established. Also probably a Halloween story where Red Herring disguises become a short-lived fad, confusing the situation even further.

Randomizers:
Approach: 5, 6, 5 [Options: Bully, Disruptive, Overpowered, Generalist, Adaptive]
Archetype: 1, 2, 5 [Options: Predator, Inventor, Bruiser, Indomitable, Overlord, Formidable]
Upgrade: 7, 2, 8 [Options: Hardier Minions, Quality Upgrade I, Quality Upgrade II]
Mastery: 3, 8, 12 [Options: Conquest, Profitability, Malice]

Doctor Freak

Dr Freak II500×800 338 KB

Real Name: Joseph Ford, First Appearance: Venture into the Unknown #24, Dec 1959
Approach: Generalist, Archetype: Predator
Upgrade: Hardier Minions, Mastery: Malice

Status Dice: 0-1 Engaged Opponents: d10. 2-3 engaged opponents: d8. 4+ engaged opponents: d6. Health: 40+5H (Upgraded 45+5H)

Qualities: Science d10, Close Combat d8, Imposing d6, Monstrous Enhancements d8
Powers: Toxic d10, Inventions d8, Deduction d8, Vitality d6

Abilities:

• Theft of Essence [A]: Hinder multiple nearby targets using Toxic. Boost yourself using your Max die.
• Surge of Power [A]: Attack using Science. Use your Max die. Recover Health equal to your Min die.
• Leave Them Open [A]: Hinder using Toxic. Use your Max die. That penalty lasts until your next turn, and while that penalty lasts, that hero cannot use reactions and cannot benefit from Defend actions.
• Study The Prey [R]: When Attacked, roll your single status die. Hinder the Attack using that result, and deal damage to the attacker equal to that penalty.
• (U) Field Enhancements (I): When you enter the scene with minions, or deploy minions using your own abilities or the environment, increase them by one die size to a maximum of D12.
• (U) Master of Malice (I): When you take an action to demonstrate or indulge in cruelty, automatically succeed at an Overcome to inflict pain or fear.

Common Scene Elements:

• Packs of tamed monsters (d8 minions who each get +1 to either Attack or Hinder.)
• A powerful monster villain that Doctor Freak intends to test the capabilities of.
• A hostile environment that has been prepared for the hunt, including the ability to spawn new monsters.

By December of 1959, Greenheart had three stories under her belt, but had yet to develop a compelling foe. Two attempts to introduce new villains had been modest successes, but no one was clamouring for them back, and the writers were reluctant to re-introduce the more horrifying mystical foes that she had fought in the Golden Age. Instead, they looked at villains who had excelled in crossovers with her, and hit upon the perfect solution, someone who could be toned down without losing his essential drive - Doctor Freak.

The new Doctor Freak was still Dr. Joseph Ford, but his self-experimentation was toned down and he was slightly less grotesque in appearance. Instead, he tracked down super-powers in order to extract and study them, creating hybrid beasts that did his bidding in his search for the ultimate set of powers. He arrived in Grovedale at the head of a pack of chimeric animals, hoping to hunt Greenheart and take her powers for his own. Despite his best efforts, she was able to evade him and turn his chimaeras against him with her power over nature, and he was forced to flee, vowing that he would take her powers for himself.

This would become a theme with Doctor Freak. His new drive in life was to assemble the powers of superheroes, using them to create new monsters. The methodologies were much more sanitized, using hair samples and glowing liquids rather than grotesque surgeries, but the essential concept was the same, and Doctor Freak would become a truly dangerous foe not only to Greenheart, but to many of her allies, appearing as the first villain to challenge the Champions of Truth in 1961.

Behind the Scenes

We have our second re-imagining of a Golden Age villain. Doctor Freak gets to be the “I will have what was yours” guy, probably constructing a lot of cool monsters over the years (some of whom will go on to become their own villains, I’d bet.) He’s a lot less gross now, and he probably doesn’t personally transform as often in the Silver Age, but there’s still room for him to go back to his creepier self in a future age.

Also, eagle-eyed readers may notice that I’m using a houseruled form of Hardier Minions. I’m not a huge fan of the original upgrade; I don’t think it provides enough bang for its buck. This version, while less spammable, seems just enough stronger to be worth an Ultimate.

The two minion-related upgrades both feel subpar, frankly - especially in light of them providing low or no Health bonus. Spending precious villain actions when no other upgrade does that (even the defense field’s action and reaction are entirely optional and can easily be skipped) just spoils their utility for many villains.

Which is a shame, since they’re fine idea narratively. Just poorly executed.

Nice to see Doctor Freak back, regardless.

Agreed - I’m not as down on Mook Squad, because if heroes don’t have good area attacks it is a pretty good use of action economy, pulling out four or five D8 actions using a single one of your own and forcing the heroes to deal with that situation. It’s really variable, though, because if the PCs have a good squad-clearing hero you’re probably just trading one villain action for one hero action and that’s a bad trade.

Hardier Minions is a lot worse. Mechanically, you’re essentially giving a +1 permanent bonus to a single group of minions at the cost of an action. Given minion lifespans, you’re better off to just use a group Boost. The lack of health bonus is icing on the cake. I figured making it a one-time permanent effect for all your minions would be a much more viable approach, although they’re still vulnerable to getting wiped out.

Mook Squad at least provides villains who aren’t Creator/Legion/Overlord types with a way to throw some more minions into a scene, which opens up some options that wouldn’t exist.

Hardier Minions doesn’t do much even if the minions you’re enhancing have abilities that care about die sizes or something similar. Be a lot more interesting and impactful if it let you bump up one or more (probably H/2 for consistency) lieutenants as an alternate option.

Randomizers:
Approach: 9, 3, 1 [Options: Relentless, Prideful, Underpowered, Specialized, Overpowered, Generalist]
Archetype: 4, 6, 3 [Options: Bruiser, Guerilla, Overlord, Formidable, Loner, Squad]
Upgrade: 8, 1, 4 [Options: Mook Squad, Villainous Vehicle, Quality Upgrade II]
Mastery: 8, 9, 2 [Options: Behind the Curtain, Profitability, Superiority]

Subjugator

Subjugator500×800 337 KB

Real Name: Kula Rikel, First Appearance: Celestial Travels #253, February 1960
Approach: Prideful, Archetype: Squad
Upgrade: Villainous Vehicle, Mastery: Profitability

Status Dice: No Other Villains d6, 1-2 Other Villains d8, 3+ Other Villains d10. Health: 30+5H (Upgraded 45+5h)
Qualities: Ranged Combat d10, Alertness d10, Imposing d8, Conviction d8, Cosmic Pirate d8
Powers: Sonic d10, Density Control d10, Presence d10, Flight d8

Abilities:

• Quick Draw [R]: When a nearby hero rolls a 1 on one of their dice during their turn, roll your single Alertness die as an Attack against them.
• Shake Down [A]: Attack one target using Sonic and use your Max+Min dice. If that Attack causes the target to change zones, Boost using your Mid die. That bonus is persistent and exclusive.
• Get In There [A]: Boost using Imposing. Boost another target using your Max die, and use your Min die to Defend against all Attacks against you until your next turn.
• Head of the Pack (I): Increase damage you deal by the number of nearby non-minion allies.
• (U) The Rabid Rover (I): Subjugator’s powerful starship acts as a d10 lieutenant with three abilities:
  • Bombardment [A]: Attack all heroes with this vehicle’s roll. Use this ability only if the vehicle is below its starting die size or the scene is in the Red zone.
  • Spacefaring (I): To attack this vehicle, the hero must make an Overcome action in order to get close enough to it.
  • Fly Away [R]: When Subjugator is Attacked, roll the Rabid Rover’s die. If it rolls higher than Subjugator’s current Health, both Subjugator and the Rabid Rover escape the scene.
• (U) Master of Profitability: If you have access to great wealth and other resources, automatically succeed at an Overcome to leverage those resources to get even richer, no matter who else pays the price.

Common Scene Elements:

• Fellow Starbooters, frequently including:
  • Ragewine, a Focused/Bruiser villain who uses his powerful psychic abilities to batter the minds of enemies.
  • Killzone, a Generalist/Indomitable villain who is nearly indestructible.
  • Catalyst, a Leech/Inhibitor who turns gaseous and spreads poison in her wake.

The nature of Neutrino’s journeys meant that he didn’t run into the same villain repeatedly often in his first few years of comics. Most of his opponents were local warlords or cosmic scientists, and once they were dealt with, he was on to the next planet. However, he managed to acquire a few reoccuring villains, and the first major one of these was Subjugator.

Introduced in Neutrino’s third appearance, Subjugator was the leader of the Starbooters, a pirate crew with a particular theme. Rather than using squads of pirates to cow spaceships and stellar outposts, Subjugator had gathered a crew made up of a handful of immensely powerful individuals. The Starbooters would drop into a location, take whatever they wanted before the locals could organize enough of a force to stop them, and leave with the goods. With no concerns for collateral damage and no compunctions about displays of violence, they terrorized the local spaceways.

In her first appearance, Neutrino happened to be on a space station the Starbooters attacked. He was able to rally the locals, separating and taking down the Starbooters one at a time and forcing Subjugator to flee. The pirate captain was not gone for long, however, breaking her crew free of the prison planet they were contained on and gathering new allies, and soon she and Neutrino were clashing across the cosmos. The exact makeup of the Starbooters varied from appearance to appearance, but several common ones recurred throughout the Silver Age, and Subjugator was always in charge (aside from a single storyline late in the Silver Age in which another Starbooter attempted to overthrow her, and Neutrino was forced to intervene in a Starbooter civil war that threatened to destroy a peaceful moon!)

Behind the Scenes

The big trick with writing a Squad villain when you have limited villain slots is that, by necessity, they need to be accompanied by at least two and possible more other villains. This is actually my general dislike for them overall; villains are such a big deal that having one that requires most of the scene elements in an action scene to be full villains really limits what else you can do.

But from time to time they work, and here’s the result! A shifting team of powerful super-pirates, who plunder the spaceways in search of interstellar treasure. They also allow for action scenes of ship-to-ship combat or closing in, which can be a lot of fun.

One workaround to the squad problem you mentioned is to use the full squad (usually meaning 3-4 total villains, maybe even more if H=6+ (ie you have a big group) mostly for scenes intended to be difficult. That gives you H scene elements that should be mostly difficult, but the trade-down rules let you swap in two moderate scene elements in a place of one difficult. One upgraded villain is difficult by itself, which lets you trade for two basic villains if you want numbers. With H=4 a difficult scene could comfortably include an environment, four basic villains (taking the equivalent of two traded-down difficult slots) and a challenge of some kind.

There’s lots of other mixes you could use. Having Subjugator upgraded so she takes a full difficult slot by himself with 3 moderate villains and a moderate element worth of minions and an spaceship-themed environment would make her feel like the leader of a pirate crew, or you even squeeze in another villain or two by making “trading down” the environment or challenge to just moderate level.

Scenes with lots of villains tend to feel really combat focused if they all stick to using their abilities all the time, but you could include environmental distractions or challenges that encourage them to spend actions not beating on the heroes, and there’s always narrative stuff like clashing personalities leading to wasted time or actual infighting, the hypnotic appeal of the villainous monolog, or heroic allies showing up unexpectedly.

You can also just cope with a lackluster status die and use a Squad villain with minions and lieutenants. Even rolling a d6 status they have some great support abilities, both of Subjugator’s ones work dandy with lieutenants. She’d actually get more bonus damage off being Head of the Pack to a big mob of lieutenants, perhaps using the same element trade-down thing to put out a bunch d8 easy lieutenants in a moderate scene or d10 ones in a difficult.

Subjugator is a she, but otherwise that all makes a lot of sense!

Whoop, edited to correct that. Misgendering fictional characters is still misgendering.

I find it interesting that we both made our space pirate captains female. I’m going to choose to credit Anne Bonny for that in my case.

Randomizers:
Approach: 3, 8, 2 [Options: Skilled, Prideful, Bully, Mastermind, Overpowered, Generalist]
Archetype: 6, 3, 2 [Options: Inventor, Bruiser, Indomitable, Overlord, Inhibitor, Loner]
Upgrade: 1, 12, 7 [Options: Mook Squad, Quality Upgrade, Brainwashing Zone]
Mastery: 2, 10, 8 [Options: Behind the Curtain, Profitability, Total Chaos]

Steeldriver

Steeldriver500×800 338 KB

Real Name: Hank Ferris Jr., First Appearance: Flatfoot Adventures #214, April 1960
Approach: Skilled, Archetype: Inventor
Upgrade: Mook Squad, Mastery: Profitability

Status Dice: 4+ Inventions: d12, 2-3 Inventions: d10, 1 Invention: d8, no Inventions: d6. Health: 25+5H
Qualities: Technology d10, Ranged Combat d10, Leadership d8, Criminal Underworld d8, Alertness d8, Wealthy d8
Powers: Inventions d10, Lightning Calculator d8, Presence d6

Abilities:

• Power Suppressors [A]: Hinder using Technology and use your Max+Min dice. This penalty is persistent and exclusive.
• Refraction Field [R]: When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling your single Ranged Combat die. Deal that much damage to another target.
• Deploy Augments [A]: Boost using Inventions and use your Max die, also Boost with your Mid die, and either make one of those bonuses persistent and exclusive or Attack with your Min die.
• Technological Assault [A]: Attack using Inventions and at least one bonus. If you have multiple bonuses, you may also Attack another target using the Min die and one other bonus, and may also Attack a third target using the Max die and a third bonus.
• (U) The Company Provides [A]: Replenish your Company Men up to the number of heroes.
• (U) Master of Profitability (I): you have access to great wealth and other resources, automatically succeed at an Overcome to leverage those resources to get even richer, no matter who else pays the price.

Common Scene Elements:

• Company Men: d8 Minions. As a reaction, they can step their die down, then roll it to Defend a superior.
• Black-Market Scientists: d10 Lieutenants. When they Boost or Hinder using technological means, they increase the final bonus or penalty by 1. If they fail a damage save, they are stepped down twice.
• Target-Rich Environments: Steeldriver often attacks rival labs, warehouses, and other locations filled with technology to plunder.

Of Venture’s Golden Age heroes, Flatfoot was the easiest to translate into the more lighthearted tone of the Silver Age. Under his watchful eye, Ferrisville became increasingly bright and pleasant even when drawn, a safe community that relied on the automated constable for its prosperity. Along the way, his opponents also became gradually more Silver Age, with broader plots and more direct action scenes.

Mr. Ferris, who had initially been Flatfoot’s nemesis, had entirely disappeared by 1960, but a new writer to the series thought that Flatfoot needed a nemesis who was more personal, a brilliant inventor with criminal ties who could bring back some of that flair without delving too far into Comics Code-violating storylines. His contribution was Steeldriver.

Hank Ferris Jr. was the son of a prominent, and now extremely reclusive, business magnate. His company had been ruined when it was revealed that they had criminal connections, and much of his family fortune was in ruins. Driven by a desire for revenge, Ferris began constructing weapons of war, selling them on the black market as he looked to build devices that could take down the mechanical man who had ruined his family name - the unflagging Flatfoot! Taking on the mantle of Steeldriver, Ferris set about rebuilding his father’s criminal empire, but he was a much more hands-on villain, taking to the field accompanied by his Company Men and his skilled technologists, robbing other scientists for their discoveries and selling them to whomever would pay.

Flatfoot clashed with Steeldriver many times, but he always found a way to escape at the last moment. His attempts to rebuild were constantly stymied, but each time, he returned with a new plot, new gear, and a new set of henchmen who would help him in his criminal endeavors. Steeldriver was soon a new driving force in crime, always defeated, but never truly stopped.

Behind the Scenes

I had a variety of potential plans to reboot Ferris in the Silver Age, but the big advantage of this one is that when we hit the Bronze Age, both Ferrises can start to operate either together or apart as a cool super-crime family. Steeldriver is a devastating threat to a lone hero, and like his father, his Company Men can protect him while he builds up the inventions necessary to get a good status die. Technological Assault isn’t actually that strong, but I love it thematically so it stays in, and really with the benefits from his Skilled side I don’t think I want him that much stronger!

Yay, Ferris is back with a legacy entry. And just look at those awesome chunky boots! Another win for that hero creator software.

Compared to the other big Inventor offensive move Empowered Destruction, it’s got the advantage of only eating a minimum of two bonuses (assuming you have a 3rd P+E one) to get maximum use out of it. Its damage output isn’t sterling if you only have two targets but at that point shooting one (or even two) of your own allies to put the Max on a hero might be worth doing. And it doesn’t eat all of your bonuses and leave you with a terrible status die like ED does, although handing out P+E Hinders will help with that too. Your mods don’t have to be on you to fuel that status die, after all.

I think my main issue with it is that, as a rule, villains get abilities that are slightly stronger than hero abilities, to make up for the fact that their abilities don’t grow in strength and they’ve got action economy issues. But Technological Assault is weaker than the equivalent Green move in Robot/Cyborg, and much weaker than most villain multi-attack powers, which would just hit more than one person using a single die and thus a single bonus. It’s particularly an issue for Inventor, who needs those bonuses for their status die and thus is likely to have to take twists to keep them or else have their status die drop.

I think what I would have liked, as a contrast, is to have Technological Assault let you attack people that way, but any bonus that would be spent is reduced by 1 instead, or you only have to remove one bonus even if you use three, or something like that.

Sure, it’s definitely inferior to many offensive villain abilities, and at best barely on par with Something For Everyone off Robot/Cyborg. Usually better to go looking at the Approach for a strong Attack ability if you don’t want ED (which is even worse for yours status die, but often a KO on whoever eats it), but sometimes it’s all you’ve got to choose from. At least Inventor has two other rock-solid abilities with Min Attack options bundled with serious mod generation, so you can throw some minor damage while playing to your strengths - and status die needs.

Some Inventors can really benefit from having some small minion Boosts on them. It won’t help their status die, but they can fuel shots with ED or Tech Assault just as well as anything and minion actions are frequently a plentiful resource.

Randomizers:
Approach: 6, 2, 8 [Options: Skilled, Disruptive, Mastermind, Overpowered, Ninja]
Archetype: 4, 4, 1 [Options: Predator, Guerilla, Indomitable, Inhibitor, Titan]
Upgrade: 2, 1, 4 [Options: Mook Squad, Hardier Mooks, Villainous Vehicle]
Mastery: 7, 4, 10 [Options: Enforced Order, Mysticism, Total Chaos]

Ignition

Ignition500×800 340 KB

Real Name: Indira Seth, First Appearance: Reactors #3, May 1961
Approach: Disruptive, Archetype: Guerrilla
Upgrade: Hardier Minions, Mastery: Mysticism

Status Dice: 4+ Engaged Opponents d10, 2-3 Engaged Opponents d8, 0-1 Engaged Opponents d6. Health: 40+5H (Upgraded 45+5H)

Qualities: Persuasion d10, Science d8, Ranged Combat d8, Cult Leader d8
Powers: Fire d10, Suggestion d10, Intuition d8, Agility d8

Abilities:

• Heat Shimmer [A]: Attack multiple targets using Ranged Combat. Use your Min die. Hinder each target with your Max die. If one of those targets rolls doubles on their next turn, they take damage equal to the penalty.
• Fires of Rage [A]: Attack using Fire. Use your Max die. A target dealt damage this way Attacks an ally by rolling their single largest Power die.
• Enflamed Passion (I): At the start of your turn, gain a bonus equal to the number of opponents that Attacked you since your last turn.
• Confusion [R]: Defend against an Attack by rolling your single status die. Deal that much damage to a different nearby target.
• (U) Wreath in Flames (I): When you enter the scene with minions, or deploy minions using your own abilities or the environment, increase them by one die size to a maximum of D12.
• (U) Master of Mysticism (I): If you have access to proper materials, automatically succeed at an Overcome in a situation involving harnessing magical forces.

Common Scene Elements:

• Flamebright Soldiers: d8 minions who are immune to fire damage.
• Flamebright Sentinels: d8 robotic minions who, when they Boost, also Attack with a value of the bonus created.
• An environment primed to become an interdimensional gateway.

The first few Reactors stories followed a fairly similar pattern. A dangerous mad scientist, mercenary, or Jotari patrol discovered the existence of the mysterious alien ship under Santa Juanita, they attempted to claim it, and Fission and Wavelength found a way to defeat them and hand them off to the authorities.

At first, Ignition appeared to be cut from the same cloth. Brilliant engineer Indira Seth was working on interdimensional theory when she accidentally tore open a tiny portal to another realm, and was bathed in cosmic flames. She learned of the existence of the Reactors and their ship, and sent a team of mercenaries to claim it - all of them had fire powers of their own, enhanced by their specially-designed gear. As usual, they were defeated.

However, in the coda of her first appearance, Ignition revealed a twist. She wasn’t simply a scientist seeking access to other planes. She believed that a mystical spirit of flame had entered her when she parted the veil, and that the crashed ship was the key to accessing magical realms and bringing them back to earth! Ignition founded Flamebright, a secretive organization that sought to bring the Light of Truth to humanity, each one implanted with a tiny spark from the dimensional rift. Unlike earlier foes, Ignition’s magic made her impossible to contain, and she escaped her first few adventures. Sometimes, she would try to claim the ship, while other times she would attempt to develop a new way of opening a much larger, more powerful rift to the All-Consuming Light. On top of that, the mystical nature of her flames meant that she could burn not just matter, but emotions and thoughts, inspiring people or driving them to rage or passion, turning them against each other.

In a classic Silver Age twist, Indira Seth met Trevor Finn after one of her earlier appearances, and the two developed romantic sparks. Neither was aware that the other was their super-powered foe (despite how flimsy both of their disguises were), and several dates were interrupted as both of them snuck off to transform and battle each other!

Ignition created a new field of dangers for the Reactors, aligning their technological adventures with a mystical element and suggesting that the line between the two, in the Venture Comics universe, was thin. The exact nature of the realm she sought to reach was not, at this time, fully explained, but some readers began to suspect that there was more to it that Ignition believed…

Behind the Scenes

When I hit Mystical I wanted to claim it, since it’s the only Mastery I haven’t grabbed, but I wasn’t sure how to line everything up until I hit “cult leader that gets in your face and sets you on fire.” Ignition was also almost a Wonderer foe, but the idea of dimensional travel being both a technological and a mystical thing lines up with a lot of the Golden Age wibbly magic of Venture Comics, and aligns with Doctor Cosmos and her mystical probe-orb. The bit with Ignition and Fission having romance was mostly just too funny not to include. I think this is the first Venture Comics villain who is actually in a relationship with a hero? Mary Molotov is flirtatious, and the Dauphin made a few passes at Madame Liberty, but neither of those were requited.

If this were my campaign I’d think Infernovox had been shedding sparks and embers again.

Flimsy? How could anyone possibly tell their real identities with that eyewear on?

innocent whistling Are you suggesting this setting is going to have two all-consuming demon forces in it?

One’s probably sufficient, but you never can tell when a spare might come in handy. Maybe there’s a company crossover in the future?

oh man, I really like her burning thoughts and emotions? secret love interest for the one of the heroes? excellent work

Randomizers:
Approach: 5, 4, 5 [Options: Underpowered, Bully, Specialized, Overpowered, Adaptive*]*
Archetype: 3, 5, 4 [Options: Bruiser, Guerilla, Indomitable, Formidable, Inhibitor, Loner*]*
Upgrade: 8, 11, 12 [Options: Quality Upgrade II, Power Dampening Field, Brainwashing Zone*]*
Mastery: 12, 11, 10 [Options: Total Chaos, Unfathomable, Malice*]*

Avarice

Avarice500×800 307 KB

Real Name: Paxton Powell, First Appearance: Wondrous Adventures #5, Oct 1961
Approach: Bully, Archetype: Loner
Upgrade: Power Dampening Field, Mastery: Total Chaos

Status Dice: No other villains: d10. 1-2 other villains: d8. 3+ other villains: d6. Health: 35+5H (Upgraded 45+5H)

Qualities: Magical Lore d8, Criminal Underworld d8, Energy Vampire d8
Powers: Absorption d10, Cold d8, Vitality d8

Abilities:

• What’s Yours Is Mine (I): When you Hinder one or more targets with Absorption, use the combined penalties applied as a Boost action for yourself.
• Steal Energy [A]: Attack using Absorption and use your Max die. Also Hinder that target: if they have a d6 or less status die, use your Max+Min dice, if they have a d8 status die, use your Max die, and if they have larger than a d8, use your Mid die.
• Overarching Drain [A]: Hinder multiple targets using Absorption. Recover Health equal to the number of targets Hindered this way.
• Draw From Your Friends [R]: When a non-minion ally in the scene is defeated, roll your single Magical Lore die as a Boost for yourself.
• (U) Power Dampening Field (I): While the scene is in the Green zone, all heroes’ power dice at D8 or above are reduced one size. In the Yellow zone, all heroes’ power dice at D10 or above are reduced by two die sizes. In the Red zone, all heroes’ power dice are treated as if they are D4. Heroes may remove this ability with three Overcome successes. If a hero takes a minor twist, the hero must lose access to a power entirely until this ability is removed.
• (U) Master of Total Chaos (I): If you are in a situation where everything is spiralling out of control, automatically succeed in an Overcome to accomplish a task by throwing out the rules.

Common Scene Elements:

• A fellow villain that he is reluctantly working with.
• A squad of skilled goons whose sole purpose is to act as distractions (D8 minions who get a +1 to Hinder rolls.)
• An environment already thrown into disarray.

By late 1961, the Wonderer was a well-established hero in Venture Comics, with six solo appearances, a crossover, and six issues with the Champions of Truth under his belt. He had battled a handful of mystical foes and a few criminal masterminds who he brought low with his cunning, and the writer decided to start branching out his story by hinting at a larger world of magic and mystery. They began with Avarice.

Paxton Powell was a successful businessman frustrated by a lack of opportunities and advancement within his community, who made a deal with a mystical being implied to be another djinn like Wonderer, but potentially more powerful. Paxton unwisely wished to “have it all”, and was promptly cursed with the need to absorb energy to survive, slowly draining all of the energy around him. Overcome with rage, he immediately drained the djinn who had granted his wish, swallowing him up and gaining his magical force, if not his precision. Taking on the name Avarice, Paxton decided to seek out revenge on the world for not recognizing his genius, using his newfound powers to wreck havoc and gathering a gang of criminal followers impressed by his might and power. When he came after Kamil’s neighbourhood, the Wonderer got involved, and after a bitter battle Avarice was trapped in a magical pocket realm - one which he soon escaped, his desire for revenge turning against Wonderer specifically.

Avarice was a fairly straightforward foe. His raw ability to absorb energy, leaving the world dark and cold in his wake, left him immune to much of Wonderer’s magic, and he had no goals beyond creating chaos and absorbing power as a form of revenge. He often worked as muscle for another villain, helping them to achieve their goals in exchange for the power to wreak havoc, and he seemed to be unkillable. He was put in jail a few times, but always managed to find a way out when enough power was smuggled to him to break free, and he had more than a few gleeful monologues that made him a fan-favourite villain for Wonderer or the Champions of Truth.

Behind the Scenes

Sometimes it’s nice to be direct.

I haven’t done a lot of “like the hero, but backwards” characters, and I’m continuing the trend here. Paxton is a thematic foil for Wonderer, being the result of a poorly-thought out wish that ended up being a bad call for the djinn, not just the wisher, but hes’ not an opposite. Loner is always a weird one, because if your loner works alone they’re just “person with a d10 status die”. So Avarice usually works with someone else, he just doesn’t work well with them.

Bully gets almost no qualities; I would have given him Close Combat if I had the chance, but he’ll have to use Energy Vampire for it.

This is a homebrew ability, right?

Yeah, that archetype’s thin on dice. Pretty much have to make the RP quality do some heavy lifting, but I suppose that’s what it’s for.

rarely if ever have I seen a genie wish turnaround get turned back around on them!

Oh, yes, that was a homebrew I forgot to tag. I think it’s okay power-wise, but it is possible that it should be a reaction.

I feel like it happened semi-regularly on I Dream of Jeannie, but my memory may be failing me. Also the Weird Science TV show, which insisted on calling her a “magic genie” at least some of the time. Admittedly, they didn’t wind up getting absorbed in those cases…

I think it’s fine as-is. At most you’ll get a +4 from a big multitarget Hinder that hands out a total of -12 in penalties (so probably four targets at -3 or six at -2 - not all that easy), and a single target Hinder will never generate more than a +2 rider bonus and even that calls for a -4 penalty, which is no easy feat. That’s not good enough to merit burning a reaction, I’d think.

Okay, that was my initial thought, but I’m glad to have it confirmed by another expert. I do think I’ll add a caveat that you have to do it with an action - I can imagine a build using Hinder reactions or ally actions that give you a Hinder that gets out of hand in terms of how many Hinders get turned into Boosts in a round.

And now…

History of Venture Comics, Pt. 4: Dawn of the Silver Age (1958-1961)

In many ways, the Silver Age of Venture Comics was defined by Venture into the Unknown. Anthology comics were nothing new, but in the early days, Venture was specifically looking for stories that they could spin off into new adventures to revitalize the company. Venture into the Unknown featured the company’s first in-depth letters page; while earlier comics had included occasional letters, this one encouraged readers to write in to talk about the stories they particularly enjoyed or wanted more of. It wasn’t entirely clear, in 1958, how successful Venture into the Unknown was going to be at its primary purpose. Out of twelve initial issues, only two titles were launched - Skybreaker Stories and Vanguards! Both of these titles had featured two issues in Venture into the Unknown, but the other eight featured a slate of heroes that were less popular. It was here that it became standard practice to give a second issue to a hero that Venture wasn’t sure about, to let them have a chance to build an audience.

1959 and 1960 saw Venture Comics continue to grow, with the Dread Dynasty kicking off a revitalization of Madame Liberty’s struggling line, the return of Greenheart drawing sales, and Flatfoot’s new villains giving him a stronger image and personality. Even Celestial Travels gave in to superhero fever, featuring a consistent hero for the first time. 1960 also saw a rising tide of crossovers, as Venture Comics began to knit their loose arrangement of heroes closer together and actually have them occupy a shared world, all of which led to the launch of the Champions of Truth.

In 1961, Venture Comics’ lines were doing well, but due to some publication issues, were currently limited to eight titles per month. As a test, Venture Comics used two of those eight slots to launch bi-monthly titles while they worked on getting more space on the shelves, seeing whether releases every other month might support some of their popular, but less critical lines. The Reactors and Wondrous Adventures released opposite each other, and Venture into the Unknown was cut back to bi-monthly to make room for a new line, Champions of Truth.

Champions of Truth debuted with an attack by the malevolent Doctor Freak and his Freak Army on the city of Grovedale, in search of Greenheart’s magic. Fearing that they would not be able to stop him alone, Wonderer’s friend Kamil wished for heroes to gather to save him, and Wonderer’s power drew Madame Liberty, Flatfoot, and Skybreaker together from their respective homes to save the day! The heroes vowed that whenever there was danger that threatened the world, they would come together again, knowing that Wonderer’s power could make it happen. They also promised to stay in contact, and over the next few years each of the five began to appear more frequently in one another’s stories.

The Champions of Truth were not quite the Freedom Five. They assembled when there was danger, and then returned to their lives. Occasionally, Wonderer’s magic would draw out a different hero whose powers were necessary to save the day - a member of the Vanguards or the Reactors, or one of the later heroes who were soon to appear. But the core membership was generally those five, and they were a popular draw for the readers of Venture Comics. Other superhero crossovers became commonplace in Ventures into the Unknown, which began to feature more unusual crossovers and fewer new introductions. In 1961, only one of its six issues featured an attempt at a new hero, who promptly vanished; the others featured two Greenheart stories, a crossover between Greenheart and Wonderer, a solo adventure featuring Captain Bolt, and a crossover in which Doctor Cosmos and Wavelength explored a pocket dimension that proved surprisingly popular, setting up future tales of the two heroines absent their respective teams.

Maybe just add an “On your turn, when you Hinder…” clause like Adaptive’s “Diversity Through Adversity” uses? That would lock out off-turn actions and most reactions nicely, and has the merit of being brevity. As I’ve said elsewhere the Adaptive ability can be a bit much when used as written but I don’t think that’s an issue here.

More dignified than having to hitch a ride in a Green Lantern bubble and less restrictive than Justice League teleporters.

You just know there have to be stories where some nefarious type manages to take the Wonderer out of action first, or redirect his summons to someplace inconvenient, forcing the team to have to work harder to unite.

The Randomizers:
Background 10, 2, 10 [Options: Criminal, Unremarkable, Adventurer, Former Villain]
Power Source 11, 2, 3 [Options: Training, Genetic, Mystical, Supernatural, Cursed, Genius]
Archetype 8, 2, 3 [Options: Shadow, Powerhouse, Blaster, Flyer, Robot/Cyborg, Sorcerer]
Personality 5, 1, 8 [Options: Lone Wolf, Sarcastic, Distant, Fast Talking, Inquisitive, Analytical]

Big Brain

Big Brain500×800 352 KB

Real Name: Anton Petrov, First Appearance: (As Professor Puppet) Madame Liberty #234, June 1961. (As Big Brain) Covert Tactics Vol 2. #1, March 1962.

Background: Former Villain, Power Source: Genius, Archetype: Robot/Cyborg
Personality: Analytical, Principles: Discovery, Tactician

Status Dice: Green d10, Yellow d8, Red d6. Health: 30 [Green 30-23, Yellow 22-12, Red 11-1]
Qualities: Technology d10, Alertness d10, Conviction d8, Science d8, Reformed Revolutionary d8
Powers: Power Suit d12, Robotics d10, Lightning Calculator d10, Strength d6, Awareness d6, Flight d6

Green Abilities:

• Initial Loadout [A]: Boost yourself using Power Suit. That bonus is persistent and exclusive.
• Deploy Servitors [A]: Attack using Robotics with a bonus equal to the number of bonuses you currently have.
• Principle of Discovery [A]: When you’re on the forefront in making a discovery or invention and take an Overcome action to further your knowledge, use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
• Principle of the Tactician [A]: Overcome when you can flash back to how you prepared for this exact situation. Use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.

Yellow Abilities:

• Reinforce (I): Reduce the amount of physical damage taken by 2 while you are in the Yellow zone and 3 while you are in the Red zone.
• Automated Countermeasures [R]: When you are attacked, first roll your single Power Suit die. Defend yourself with that roll. Then, Boost yourself using that roll.
• I’ve Figured You Out [A]: Attack using Lightning Calculator. Then, if the target of the Attack survived, also Attack that target with your Max die. Otherwise, Recover an amount of Health equal to your Min die.

Red Abilities

• Vent Plasma [A]: Attack multiple nearby targets using Power Suit. Use your Max+Mid dice. Take irreducible damage equal to your Min die.
• Stroke of Genius [A]: Overcome using Alertness. Use your Max+Min dice. Hinder all nearby opponents with your Mid die.
• Robotic Pile-On [A]: Remove a bonus on a target. Hinder that target using Technology. Use your Max die, and the penalty is persistent and exclusive.

Out

• Remove a bonus or penalty of your choice.

In 1962, as they worked to expand their publication lines, the eyes of Venture Comics were on their least profitable titles. A dip in sales had left Covert Tactics on the bottom rung, and the idea was floated to introduce a new team of war-based superheroes who would help fight for the ‘cause of liberty’ in various conflicts. The editors sat down to figure out who could be drawn into the titles, and who should be created for them, and a new idea emerged.

A year before, Madame Liberty had undertaken a two-part adventure in which she did battle with a young Russian genius, Anton Petrov, who was deploying various remote-controlled robots to destabilize West Berlin under the moniker of “Professor Puppet.” After stopping Professor Puppet’s Mayhem Manikins, Madame Liberty discovered that Petrov was a disembodied brain, his seemingly human body just a robotic duplicate after he nearly died in an accident while being forced to develop weapons for the Soviets. She was able to convince the young man to defect to the West and disband his robot army.

Petrov would go on to be the driving force behind a new team as, during his debriefing, he revealed a vast network of Soviet super-science projects being developed, many of them ready to be deployed secretly on the front lines of various puppet conflicts. A team of NATO heroes was formed to follow Petrov’s leads and take down the Soviet network, along with attempts to rescue or convert Soviet scientists. Petrov himself joined the team as Big Brain, providing information, support, a powerful power suit that mimicked a human body and a fleet of tiny robots to act alongside the team from a safe distance.

While Covert Tactics was a borderline-jingoistic product, Petrov himself allowed the writers to retain a level of sympathy for those trapped in autocratic regimes, and the battlefronts on which the team often took part led to conversations about the horror of war that came close to violating the Comics Code on several occasions. A two-parter in late 1965 that was deeply critical of American involvement in Vietnam was shelved after heavy pressure from the CCA, leading to a growing resentment of the authority by the writers that never went away.

Behind the Scenes

I had planned to kick of Covert Tactics with the team’s leader, but I may never get another shot at Former Villain so I’m going for it now.

Petrov joins the grand tradition of scientists who are really just brains in jars, which go back as far as the 1940s are and just weirdly common in comics. Usually, they’re bad guys, which is why this one was a bad guy, for like two issues. Genius and Robot/Cyborg are also a great mix because he can Boost as a reaction every round, rapidly charging up his primary attack by grabbing small boosts that he doesn’t need to use. If he can get an ally who also gives out boosts, he can get some truly wild Attack bonuses going very, very fast, and a persistent-exclusive bonus in Green using d12+d10+d10 is going to be a nice touch.

Unless the Red Herring pops up and turns a bajillion bonuses into penalties, of course. But what are the chance of those two meeting?

Love the concept, but I can’t figure out where you’re getting those P/Q dice from. There’s no source of a d12 at all and there’s an extra d6 that can’t be a retcon since you’ve got three Reds.

By my math, you should have these to spend each step:

Background: Q 10, 8
Power Source: P 10, 8, 8, plus a bonus Info/Mental Q 10
Archetype: 10, 6, 6 with one committed to a P, the others either P/Q, plus a Technological P 10
Personality RP Q 8

The lack of a d12 also lowers your Health by 2 despite the archetype’s special rule for calculating it.

I mentioned this at the top of the thread, but I’m not using the corebook when I generate heroes; I’m using the houseruled version of character creation I use in my own games. I didn’t write it up in detail, because of forum rules. The short version is that my houseruled Former Villain gives d12, d6, d6 as its power source dice.

Fair enough. I’ll stop worrying about it, then.

The Randomizers:
Background 3, 3, 9 [Options: Performer, Upper Class, Tragic, Adventurer, Medical]
Power Source 2, 8, 4 [Options: Training, Experimentation, Nature, Powered Suit, Tech Upgrades, Artificial Being]
Archetype 3, 2, 6 [Options: Shadow, Powerhouse, Blaster, Close Quarters, Flyer, Elemental Manipulator]
Personality 5, 4, 10 [Options: Mischievous, Sarcastic, Inquisitive, Alluring, Decisive, Jovial]

Corporal Liberty

Corporal Liberty500×800 289 KB

Real Name: Abe Duncan, First Appearance: (As Corporal Liberty) Covert Tactics Vol 2. #1, March 1962.
Background: Tragic, Power Source: Training, Archetype: Shadow
Personality: Decisive, Principles: Liberty, Powerless

Status Dice: Green d8, Yellow d8, Red d10. Health: H [Green I-J, Yellow L-M, Red N-O]
Qualities: Investigation d10, Acrobatics d10, Stealth d8, Banter d8, Field Inventor d8
Powers: Deduction d10, Gadgets d10, Agility d8, Invisibility d8, Presence d6

Green Abilities:

• Reach the Target [A]: Attacking using Gadgets. Remove one physical bonus or penalty, Hinder a target using your Min die, or maneuver to a new location in your environment.
• Deflect [R]: When you would be dealt damage, roll a D4 while in the Green zone, D6 while in the Yellow, or D8 while in Red. Reduce the damage you take by the value rolled. Attack another target with that roll.
• Principle of Liberty [A]: Overcome in a situation where you are restricted or bound and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
• Principle of the Powerless [A]: Use your knowledge of the limitations of super powers in an Overcome action and use your Max die You and each of your allies gain a hero point.

Yellow Abilities:

• Trained For This [A]: Boost yourself using Deduction. That bonus is persistent and exclusive. Then, Attack with your Min die. You may use the bonus you just created on that Attack.
• Bag of Tricks [A]: Attack using Gadgets. Use your Mid die to Attack one extra target for each bonus you have. Apply a different bonus to each attack.
• Steps in the Road [A]: Attack or Overcome using Deduction. Boost yourself using your Min die.

Red Abilities

• Cunning Fighter (I): Whenever you Attack a target with an action, you may also Hinder that target with your Min die.
• Weak Point [A]: Attack using Deduction. Use your Max+Min dice. Ignore all penalties on this attack, ignore any Defend actions, and it cannot be affected by Reactions.

Out

• Boost an ally by rolling your single Deduction die.

Having settled on the team’s motivating force, the writers of Covert Tactics needed a team leader. Their thought was that this should be someone who could serve as a foil for Petrov - an American tactician and soldier who could match Petrov’s genius, but in a different way. Then someone in the writer’s room said, “Hey, it’s been a few years since Kid Liberty was in anything.”

And thus, Corporal Liberty was born.

Abe Duncan was aged up to his mid-twenties and set up as a recent college graduate approached by the U.S. military to lead Covert Tactics due to his experience in fighting authoritarian regimes. He was given full decision-making authority on the team’s members, and while not all of his choices were ones the military approved of, he was able to get them through. Abe deliberately reached out to overlooked and underappreciated people both within and beyond the military for his core squad and his support team, building a group whose primary goal would be saving lives, not serving the state.

Abe and Anton clashed frequently; the two had very different attitudes towards how to approach danger and the relative benefits of discovery. But their shared connection to Madame Liberty and their shared understanding of living under occupying states (left somewhat vague for Abe, since his current age didn’t remotely work for someone who had been a teenager in World War II) meant that even when they fought, they respected each other. And the other team members Abe would bring in would help cement Covert Tactics as a highly popular title for Venture Comics…

Behind the Scenes

I think we all knew this was going to happen.

I specifically blocked off Kid Liberty for Covert Tactics, on the theory that I would have five tries to build him. Full disclosure: this was not the second attempt, it was the third. I’ve re-arranged the five members of this team so that their introductions will flow a bit more smoothly.

Mechanically, Training/Shadow is a true classic, which also means that Corporal Liberty is a lot like Wraith in terms of qualities and powers - although he only shares one Green and one Yellow ability with her, so there’s some distinction there. Corporal Liberty is still a gadget-maker, using his Field Inventor trait, but he’s a lot less focused on it than he used to be, focusing on investigation and up-close combat. He doesn’t literally have the power to turn invisible, it’s just a representation of his stealth not quite following logic.

The Randomizers:
Background 3, 8, 4 [Options: Performer, Military, Law Enforcement, Struggling, Dynasty, Adventurer]
Power Source 4, 4, 6 [Options: Experimentation, Nature, Powered Suit, Tech Upgrades, Alien]
Archetype 3, 1, 6 [Options: Speedster, Powerhouse, Marksman, Close Quarters, Armored, Elemental Manipulator]
Personality 9, 2, 6 [Options: Natural Leader, Distant, Fast Talking, Inquisitive, Stoic, Jovial]

Pulsejet

Pulsejet500×800 315 KB

Real Name: Kelly Taggart, First Appearance: Covert Tactics Vol 2. #1, March 1962.
Background: Military, Power Source: Tech Upgrades, Archetype: Elemental Manipulator
Personality: Jovial, Principles: Order, Flame

Status Dice: Green d6, Yellow d8, Red d10. Health: 30 [Green I-J, Yellow L-M, Red N-O]
Qualities: Ranged Combat d10, Finesse d10, Self-Discipline d8, Alertness d8, Air Corps d8
Powers: Fire d10, Speed d8, Flight d8, Sonic d8

Green Abilities:

• Rapid Tactics [A]: Boost using Speed, assigning your Min, Mid, and Max dice to 3 different bonuses, one of which must be given to an enemy.
• Sonic Boom [A]: Defend using Sonic. Use your Max die. Boost using your Min die.
• Light It Up [A]: Attack using Fire. Use your Max die. Take damage equal to your Min die.
• Principle of Order [A]: Overcome a challenge where you can organize other people. Use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
• Principle of Flame [A]: Overcome a challenge involving flame and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.

Yellow Abilities:

• Fireburst [A]: Attack multiple targets using Fire. Take damage equal to your Max die.
• Internal Combustion [R]: When Attacked, treat the amount of damage you take as a Boost action for yourself.
• Heat Sinks (I): When you would take damage from Fire, you may Recover that amount of Health instead.

Red Abilities

• Jetfuel (I): If you would take Fire damage, ignore that damage and Recover that amount instead. Use the value of the damage to Boost yourself.
• Sonic Firebreak [R]: When multiple nearby heroes are Attacked, you may take all of the damage instead. If you do, roll your Speed die + Red zone die and Defend against the Attack by the total.
• Combustion [A]: Attack using Ranged Combat. Use your Max die. Remove any number of penalties from the target. Add your Min die to the Attack each time you remove a penalty.

Out

• Defend an ally by rolling your single Finesse die.

Tasked with creating a military-adjacent superhero team that would be highly distinct from the Vanguards, one of the goals of the creators of Covert Tactics was to underline that this team wasn’t just an American group, but an international one. Pulsejet served as one of the two team members who underlined this fact, as a member of the Women’s Royal Air Force in Britain.

Flight Lieutenant Kelly Taggart was a decorated pilot in the WRAF, who despite not technically being allowed to fly combat operations had several dozen supply flights over dangerous territory on her record by the age of 24. However, she was stymied by the inability to fly combat missions and a desire to do more.

Corporal Liberty recognized a kindred spirit in Taggart, someone whose inclusion on the team would be respected by his NATO backers but who would be able to operate at a distance. He chose her as the team’s official pilot, and pulled strings for her to acquire an experimental jetpack and flamethrower system that allowed her to fly through the air, shape flames, and turn heat into energy. As Pulsejet, she could fly the team to their destination, and then deploy from the air to support them.

Taggart was a firm supporter of Covert Tactics, but often clashed with the other members. She had risen through the military based on a strong belief in order and the proper chain of command, and the much more freewheeling nature of her teammates often drove her to distraction. At the same time, she was a friendly face and a good soldier, and was close with the team’s entire support staff.

Behind the Scenes

Another classic energy build that sets everything on fire and then uses that fire to keep getting stronger. One thing that this build technically allows, and I would use sparingly, is for Pulsejet to enter Red, hit every nearby enemy and friend with flame, and then shove herself in the path of that flame to cover her friends, deal a truly massive amount of fire damage to herself, heal fully, and put together a free +4 Boost.

Narratively, Pulsejet is set up to be a foil to both Corporal Liberty and Big Brain; she’s the most aggressively military-minded member of the team, and the one who sometimes has to remind the others what their actual purpose is. This is in part to distinguish her from the Human Torch; she’s fired up, but she’s no hothead, and operates much more on a controlled burn.

In the long run, I suspect that Pulsejet’s experimental tech is going to have some permanent effects, possibly including not needing it any more. Her Principle would seem to indicate that.

The Randomizers:
Background 5, 6, 1 [Options: Blank Slate, Academic, Upper Class, Law Enforcement, Dynasty]
Power Source 7, 6, 1 [Options: Accident, Nature, Relic, Powered Suit, Cursed]
Archetype 8, 4, 3 [Options: Powerhouse, Marksman, Armored, Flyer, Sorcerer, Psychic]
Personality 5, 2, 4 [Options: Natural Leader, Mischievous, Sarcastic, Distant, Stalwart, Inquisitive]

Irogane

Irogane500×800 311 KB

Real Name: Naomi Kimura, First Appearance: Covert Tactics Vol 2. #1, March 1962.
Background: Dynasty, Power Source: Accident, Archetype: Armored
Personality: Sarcastic, Principles: Justice, Mastery

Status Dice: Green d8, Yellow d8, Red d10. Health: 34 [Green 34-26, Yellow 25-13, Red 12-1]
Qualities: Close Combat d12, Banter d10, History d8, Fitness d6, Lifelong Training d8
Powers: Metal d12, Awareness d6, Presence d6, Strength d6

Green Abilities:

• Metal Skin (I): Reduce any physical or energy damage you take by 1 while you are in the Green zone, 2 while in the Yellow zone, and 3 while in the Red zone.
• Patina [R]: When you change personal zones, you may Boost by rolling your single Metal die.
• Overwhelming Assault [A]: Attack using Metal. Attack a second target with your Min die.
• Finishing Blow [A]: Attack using Metal. Recover Health equal to your Min die.
• Spot Danger [A]: Attack using Awareness. Defend another target with your Min die.
• Principle of Justice [A]: Overcome to stop an act of injustice in progress and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
• Principle of Mastery [A]: Overcome in a situation that uses your powers in a new way and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.

Yellow Abilities:

• Inspire [A]: Boost any number of nearby targets using Presence. Use your Max die.
• Crush [A]: Attack using Metal. Hinder that same target using your Min die.

Red Abilities

• Metallic Eruption [A]: Hinder any number of targets in the scene using Metal. Use your Max+Min dice. If you roll doubles, also Attack each target using your Mid die.
• Take the Hit [R]: When an opponent Attacks, you may become the target of that Attack and Defend by rolling your single Close Combat die.

Out

• Hinder an opponent by rolling your single Close Combat die.

While the writers of Covert Tactics knew that they were making stories mainly for kids, they also intended to push the team to the edge of what they could get away with, and it turned out that Naomi Kimura was exactly on that line. Naomi’s father, Tetsu Kimura, was secretly the Tengu Warai, the last of a long line of protectors of the common folk in Japan, forced to flee the country in 1936 to avoid being captured and executed by the Imperial military. In America, he met a fellow emigree and fell in love, and Naomi was born in 1939. Then, for reasons that were not written as entirely clear, her family left their jobs and moved to New York, where her father found work as a security guard. Naomi herself was determined to prove herself as a loyal American, learning combat techniques from her father at night and working as a military aide during the day.

All this culminated in Naomi uncovering a Soviet super-science plot to create undetectable super-soldiers, and making the mistake of checking it out personally. In the ensuing fracas, a container of specially-treated metal broke, dousing her in liquid silver and coating her from head to toe. When she recovered, she discovered that her skin was still silvery, and that she could extrude metal from her body and use thin tendrils of it to command and reshape other metal objects and structures. While the military debated what to do about the situation, Corporal Liberty reached out about the possibility of adding Naomi to his team. Madame Liberty had worked with the Tengu Warai in the past, and Abe believed Naomi would be a huge asset. Relieved to have the situation in hand, she was recruited into Covert Tactics as their fourth member, Irogane!

Once again, Irogane brought a new perspective to Covert Tactics, having grown up in a society that she loved, but which left her ostracized. Naomi and Abe bonded quickly, with hints of romance between them, and she had a playful relationship with Anton; her friendship with Kelly was more prickly, with the two not always seeing eye to eye, but she respected Pulsejet’s determination to do the right thing.

Irogane’s creator had intended for her to have grown up in a Japanese internment camp during the second World War, but the Comics Code censors absolutely refused to allow it, and required substantial revisions in order to make the character publishable. This left Covert Tactics in a shaky place, with extra attention being paid to their plots and characters.

Behind the Scenes

Irogane is a tank. Between her damage reduction, her massive health, and her ability to heal on a Green action, she can bounce back and forth between Green and Yellow for a while, picking up extra boosts for herself or her allies. Her primary downside is that because she’s built using two different d12, d6, d6 steps, she is really bad at every power except Metal. When she inspires she can get away with having a Max die, so it won’t hurt as badly, but if she Spots Danger she’s going to need to rely on the bonuses she generates and if something shuts down or interferes with her main power she’s in trouble.

The first draft of Irogane explicitly stated that she grew up in a Japanese internment camp. After some discussion, though, I’ve been convinced that the Comics Code would not let someone get away with mentioning Japanese internment prior to 1971, even in passing. As a result, the specific events of Irogane’s past got sliced up by the censors and won’t be back for a while, ironically mirroring our discussion.

The Randomizers:
Background 8, 8, 7 [Options: Law Enforcement, Struggling, Retired, Created, Exile]
Power Source 4, 3, 3 [Options: Genetic, Experimentation, Nature, Relic, Cursed]
Archetype 2, 1, 2 [Options: Speedster, Shadow, Physical Powerhouse, Marksman, Psychic]
Personality 7, 4, 10 [Options: Mischievous, Stalwart, Alluring, Stoic, Decisive, Naive]

The Steward

Steward II500×800 356 KB

Real Name: Mali Xur / Max West, First Appearance (Return): Covert Tactics Vol 2. #1, March 1962.
Background: Retired, Power Source: Cursed, Archetype: Physical Powerhouse
Personality: Stoic, Principles: Peace, Mentor

Status Dice: Green d6, Yellow d8, Red d10. Health: 34 [Green 34-26, Yellow 25-13, Red 12-1]
Qualities: Science d12, Close Combat d10, Insight d8, Fitness d6, Alien Scout d8
Powers: Strength d12, Cosmic d6, Size-Changing d6, Presence d6

Green Abilities:

• Hard-Won Experience (I): Whenever you roll a 1 on one or more dice, you may reroll those dice. You must accept the results of the reroll.
• Armored (I): Reduce any physical or energy damage you take by 1 while you are in the Green zone, 2 while in the Yellow zone, and 3 while in the Red zone.
• No Fancy Moves [A]: Attack using Close Combat and use your Max die.
• Principle of Peace [A]: Overcome a situation with serenity instead of violence and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
• Principle of the Mentor [R]: Before a nearby ally rolls to Overcome, you may Boost their Overcome result with your sole status die. If they take a twist from the Overcome, you take a minor twist as well. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.

Yellow Abilities:

• Draw Fire [A]: Attack using Strength. The target of that Attack must take an Attack action against you as its next turn, if possible.
• Cosmic Burst [A]: Boost all nearby allies using Cosmic. Use your Max+Mid dice. Hinder yourself with your Min die.
• Cosmic Recovery [A]: Boost yourself using Strength. Then, either remove a penalty on yourself or Recover using your Min die.

Red Abilities

• Burn the Candle [A]: Overcome using Strength in a situation that requires you to be more than humanly capable. Use your Max+Min dice. Boost all nearby allies with your Mid die.
• Ancient Scientist (I): When taking actions using Science, you may reroll your Min die before determining effects.
• Talk Down [A]: Hinder using Insight. Use your Max+Min dice. Boost yourself or an ally with your Mid die.

Out

• Defend an ally by rolling your single Close Combat die.

The final member of Covert Tactics caught readers entirely off-guard, and sparked a fierce debate in the editors’ room of Venture Comics. The Steward was, at this point, a forgotten character, a Centurion rip-off that had vanished from comics a decade before with no fanfare or concern. He was an alien, at odds with the war themes that were still meant to be the core of the comic, and the editors were very worried that he would sink the comic. But the writers laid out their thoughts, and managed to squeeze him in.

Abe Duncan found Mali Xur in Nigeria, having hung up his cape and instead working to help a single village. The hero had aged greatly since his glory days, the disease within him continuing to weaken him even as his powers grew even stronger. Corporal Liberty told him that he needed someone on the team who could be a guiding light - all of the existing members had military backgrounds and personal tragedies, and someone needed to teach them. He’d considered talking to his own mentor, but he knew that she was busy in Germany. But there was no one whose heart he respected more than the man who had chosen to make Earth his home.

Mali Xur was old. He was tired. He had seen a global war despite his best efforts, and the horrors that followed it. But touched by Abe’s faith in him, he dusted off his suit and became the Steward once more, offering words of advice and hope to the members of Covert Tactics. More than once, his quiet wisdom was the difference that convinced one of their targets to come with them, and when the chips were down, he was still able to throw down with the best of them - if for shorter lengths of time than before.

Behind the Scenes

And with that, Covert Tactics resurrects not one, but two heroes of the Golden Age, making them both older and wiser versions of themselves. There is some overlap mechanically between the Steward and Irogane, but I think it’s broad enough to work, and I love the idea of four young heroes and one old man trying to keep them from running face-first into disaster.

I have created an alternative game text for Principle of the Mentor, which I think applies really well to the sort of mentor who hangs back and gives support and advice rather than showing by example. There was some discussion about this - what do people think about a reaction Principle?

Well, Speed already establishes that Principles don’t always need to be Action abilities, and Reactions are more limited and “cost” more than Innate (or Inherent - I can never recall what I actually stands for) abilities. Seems pretty strong to reactively add ~+2 to ally Overcomes but you’ll also be subject to mods that can make that less predictable than it already is. Certainly flavorful. Maybe deserves some thought about its own suggested twists rather than using the book ones for Mentor straight.

If you wanted to tone it down some, require it to be used before the ally rolls their die pool (which comes after the point where they commit to Overcoming) and have Steward separately suffer the same level of twist the ally does, if any. That puts a lot more twist-risk into it that both parties are largely evading otherwise - by choosing to react after the die roll he can just skip it if the ally whiffs so badly the Boost won’t save the situation.

That’s the only thing I can see being a balance issue - which could be pretty impactful if you have that Athletic Red ability that gives you multiple reactions and the team needs to do a bunch of last-minute Overcomes. If things reach that point it ought to be feel risky even with a wise mentor around to help.

Hmmm… yeah, I think moving it to before is a good idea. I’m not as sure about the twist from a cost perspective, but maybe if it’s limited… okay, how about this:

Principle of the Mentor [R]: Before a nearby ally rolls to Overcome, you may Boost their Overcome result with your sole status die. If they take a twist from the Overcome, take a minor twist. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.

Seems reasonable. The odds of the ally rolling a Major twist result after the bonus from the reaction are very low anyway, unless there’s an absolute pile of penalties in opposition - in which case maybe finding someone else to Overcome seems like a better idea to me.

You’d be surprised! Assuming no bonuses or penalties, the chance of a major twist on a Mid die Overcome with d8, d8, d10 and a d8 Status die providing a Boost is actually about 7%, or one in fourteen. Rare, but not nearly unheard of!

Obviously, chances drop as the dice sizes grow and if the other hero is using a Max die effect it goes down dramatically, but if they’re using a Max die Overcome they probably don’t need the help.

Just under a 1-in-14 chance qualifies as pretty darn rare to me, and that all assumes no other dice-fixing, reactive reroll abilities, etc. Also kind of rare to see actual Mid die Overcomes happening IME, between Principles and various other Overcome abilities (which are rarer than I’d like). Most common in smaller groups where there are just plain fewer of those around, of course. Even then you could always just shrug, do a risky basic Overcome using your Max die and hope you didn’t just pay a minor twist for the privilege of taking another minor twist.

I notice people tend to reach for dice-fixer abilities more when they’ve got middling-poor die sizes, but of course they aren’t always an option in character gen aside from a few Reds.

“If they take a twist from the Overcome, you take a minor twist as well.” would be my let’s-avoid-clarifications edit.

Done!

The Randomizers:
Background 7, 7, 3 [Options: Performer, Law Enforcement, Unremarkable, Interstellar, Anachronistic]
Power Source 2, 8, 1 [Options: Accident, Training, Genetic, Powered Suit, Radiation, Tech Upgrades]
Archetype 2, 2, 8 [Options: Shadow, Marksman, Flyer, Robot/Cyborg, Psychic]
Personality 10, 4, 8 [Options: Mischievous, Fast Talking, Alluring, Nuturing, Decisive, Apathetic]

The Drifter

Drifter500×800 373 KB

Real Name: Zeke Jones, First Appearance: Venture into the Unknown #47, September 1962
Background: Unremarkable, Power Source: Genetic, Archetype: Psychic
Personality: Apathetic, Principles: Levity, Immortality

Status Dice: Green d6, Yellow d8, Red d10. Health: 32 [Green 32-25, Yellow 24-12, Red 11-1]
Qualities: Banter d10, Finesse d8, Self-Discipline d8, Carefree Roamer d8
Powers: Presence d10, Precognition d10, Telekinesis d10, Agility d8, Teleportation d6

Green Abilities:

• Quip [A]: Attack using Banter. Other nearby heroes in the Yellow or Red zone Recover equal to your Min die.
• See the Path [A]: Boost using Precognition. Apply that bonus to all hero Attack and Overcome actions until the start of your next turn.
• Secret Power [R]: After rolling during your turn, you may take 1 irreducible damage to reroll your entire dice pool.
• Principle of Levity [A]: Overcome a dire situation where your jokes prevent demoralization and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
• Principle of Immortality [A]: Overcome a situation involving your physical condition and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.

Yellow Abilities:

• Seen It All [R]: When damaged by an environment target or a surprise Attack, Defend by rolling your single Agility die.
• The Look [A]: Attack multiple targets using Presence, using your Min die against each.
• Pratfall [A]: Attack using Telekinesis. Either Attack one target and use your Max die, or two targets and use your Mid die against one and your Min die against another.
• It Was All You [R]: After an ally rolls dice to take an action for their turn but before using the result, Boost that ally’s roll using your single Precognition die.

Red Abilities

• Get Involved [A]: Attack using Telekinesis. Use your Max+Mid+Min dice. Take a major twist.
• Set Them Up, Knock Them Down [A]: Boost another hero using Precognition. If that hero has already acted for the turn, use your Max die, and that hero loses health equal to your Min die. That hero acts next in the turn order.
• How…? (I): At the start of your turn, change any penalty into a bonus.

Out

• Remove a bonus or penalty of your choice.

By late 1962, Venture Comics was on the verge of resolving their publication issues and expanding their list of titles once again. In addition to looking at turning a couple of their bi-monthly titles back into monthlies, this meant introducing new characters and working to get them some traction. One writer suggested a superhero with a bit more comic flair than the Venture Comics standard, quickly sketching out a story about someone who didn’t want to be a hero but who kept getting involved anyway, stopping villains and solving problems without anyone even knowing he was there. After a few passes, the Drifter was born.

Zeke Jones was, to all appearances, a nobody; a slightly bored, quip-prone guy who moved around a lot, taking odd jobs and keeping his head down. He’d make friends everywhere he went, but he never stayed long and he never got involved. This was because Zeke Jones was also an immortal psychic from an ancient mystical bloodline of champions, able to peer into people’s minds, reshape the world with a thought, see the future at a glance and even slip from place to place without covering the ground in between. But Zeke didn’t want to use his vast powers. He didn’t want to be someone special. So he ran away, and spent the next several centuries experiencing the world, enjoying it, and generally being a laid-back and friendly guy who’d lend a hand in little ways.

Except that big things had a way of crossing Zeke’s path, and while he hated getting involved, he’d hate it more if someone got hurt while he was there to stop it. So when supervillains threatened his latest home, he would use his precognitive abilities, telekinesis, and even mind control to inspire the locals to fight back and protect them from harm, easily scattering villains. Zeke often crossed paths with other heroes, who generally mistook him for one of the civilians they were trying to rescue, and he helped them out in the same way. The only one who seemed to know who he was was the Wonderer, although the exact details of their prior connection weren’t clear; after a crossover with the Champions of Truth in 1964, the Wonderer privately approached Zeke and let him know that he was glad Zeke was doing well, and the two went out to chat about ‘the old days’ together. Wonderer also made it clear in that issue that he wasn’t planning to tell his allies about Zeke, letting his friend make the decision about revealing himself in his own time.

Technically, the Drifter would not get his own comic in the Silver Age. Instead, he was prominent in the now-monthly Wondrous Adventures, usually but not entirely in backup stories, as well as making appearances in both Into the Green, Venture into the Unknown, and occasionally Champions of Truth.

Behind the Scenes

This one went through some changes.

When I started with Unremarkable I was initially planning on making Venture’s first comedy character, and my image was that he was a jokey acrobatic who humiliated villains and goofed off a bunch. Then I gradually changed, bit by bit, until we got to “slightly goofy guy who’s secretly extremely powerful but also doesn’t want to get involved or do anything, really.” In many ways, I have created the anti-Scholar, and I suspect the writers of the Drifter were at least a little bit inspired by that particular hero.

I think my favourite part of this character is that it is, in fact, possible to play him fully effectively in an action scene without any other hero realizing that he’s present. It would be a pain in montages; you’d probably need some situation in which everyone thinks he’s part of their team’s support staff, but he’s secretly the psychic powerhouse.

You’re missing a green psychic ability again.

Every time!

I will fix that shortly.

The pie is an interesting touch, especially with an ability named Pratfall. You know someone’s face-planting in that thing. Must be fresh out of the oven too, Max die damage and all. Or maybe they’re just allergic.

In montage scenes he’s just that background figure the readers doesn’t notice until someone points him out.

One of my groups has a shapeshifter hero who spends part of most fights disguised as a innocent victim via Overcome, quietly evacuating all the real civilians via teleportation.

what a cool idea

The Randomizers:
Background 7, 1, 8 [Options: Blank Slate, Law Enforcement, Struggling, Tragic, Retired]
Power Source 5, 2, 6 [Options: Training, Mystical, Nature, Relic, Powered Suit, Supernatural]
Archetype 5, 8, 2 [Options: Shadow, Blaster, Armored, Flyer, Robot/Cyborg, Transporter]
Personality 10, 3, 2 [Options: Natural Leader, Impulsive, Sarcastic, Alluring, Nurturing, Analytical]

Reverie

Reverie500×800 396 KB

Real Name: Charlotte Williams, First Appearance: Liberty’s Dream #1, June 1963
Background: Law Enforcement, Power Source: Supernatural, Archetype: Transporter
Personality: Natural Leader, Principles: Reckoning, Whispers

Status Dice: Green d6, Yellow d8, Red d10. Health: H [Green I-J, Yellow L-M, Red N-O]
Qualities: Investigation d10, Acrobatics d10, Insight d10, Fitness d6, Otherworldly Lore d6, Sworn Protector d8
Powers: Illusion d10, Deduction d10, Teleportation d10, Radiant d8, Vitality d6

Green Abilities:

• Portal Drop [A]: Attack using Teleportation. Either Hinder your target with your Min die or move them elsewhere in the scene.
• Shimmering Veil [A]: Attack using Illusions. Defend against all Attacks against you using your Min die until your next turn.
• Principle of the Reckoning [A]: Overcome when you are repaying a favour or avenging a slight and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
• Principle of Whispers [A]: Overcome against a challenge that involves information that you have no real way of knowing and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.

Yellow Abilities:

• Sow Chaos [A]: Attack multiple targets using Illusion. Use your Min die against each.
• Wrapped In A Dream [A]: Boost or Hinder using Illusions, and apply that mod to multiple close targets.
• The Underhill [R]: When a nearby ally would take damage, Defend that ally by rolling your single status die, and move them elsewhere in the same scene.

Red Abilities

• Shadows Strike [A]: Hinder using Illusions. Use your Max+Mid dice. If you roll doubles, also Attack the target using your Mid+Min dice and take damage equal to you Min die.
• Prepared for Anything [A]: Boost using Deduction and use your Max die. Defend against all Attacks against you using your Mid die until your next turn. Note your Min die result: as a Reaction, until your next turn, you may Hinder an attacker using that result.

Out

• Boost an ally by rolling your single Investigation die.

By 1963, the civil rights movement was in full swing in the United States. Venture Comics had staked out their position on the matter with Covert Tactics, an integrated military-affiliated team with a Black leader (and which was thus not sold in much of the American south), but with new titles opening up, the editors agreed to take a stronger stance.

Charlotte Williams was a Ferrisville defense attorney who became involved in a case in which her defendant, an older man and pillar of the community, was accused of what seemed to be an open-shut robbery case. Finding inconsistencies, she investigated further, and was swept into a realm of magic, discovering that the crime had been committed by Unseelie fae aiming to ruin her client as a prank; when she fought back, another faerie (Robin Goodfellow) came to her aid, promising her access to fae magic so long as she swore an oath to protect the innocent and vulnerable. Charlotte swore it without hesitation, and challenged the dark fae for her client’s safety. When she won, the evidence indicting him vanished, and he was set free - but Charlotte learned that powerful people were swearing fae oaths for their own ends. She began working to undermine the dark fae, protect the people of her community, and fight for justice and equality as the superhero Reverie. Robin Goodfellow, through the power of her oath, continued to talk with her, giving her advice and knowledge and only occasionally tricking her as a joke.

When Reverie was first introduced, she sparked a fierce fight between the Code’s censors; many of her foes were white men using fae pacts to empower themselves at the expense of poor communities, and the censors were suspicious that this was violating their standards. The editors of Venture Comics, still smarting over the Irogane situation, argued strenuously that the people Reverie was taking down were neither law enforcement nor government, and because they were being defeated summarily they were not benefiting from their power. They challenged the censors to say outright that Reverie was being challenged because she was a black woman fighting segregationists, and narrowly won.

Liberty’s Dream was not one of Venture Comics’ top sellers. Like Covert Tactics, many stores in the South refused to carry it outright, and many others claimed there was ‘no market’ for it. But it maintained a steady readership, and brought early Black writers to Venture Comics.

Behind the Scenes

So, one rough fact I learned while writing this is that the first full-time Black comic writer at either Marvel or DC was not hired until 1979 and did not become a full-time writer until the mid-80s. I had expected that Black writers would pre-date Black characters, but apparently not. Well, this is an alternate history and thanks to Sentinel Comics we already know that Reverie isn’t the first Black superhero in the meta-setting (that honor goes to Black Fist, over ten years earlier) so we can have these writers start appearing 10-15 years earlier too.

I finally get a Supernatural character and a Transporter at the same time. Reverie is tying us back into Celtic myth, although hers is less well-defined and more Shakespearean, and I expect that she’ll end up loosely connected to Skybreaker and possibly the Fomori as we enter the Bronze Age. For now, she’s a mixture between Daredevil and John Constantine, using legal skills and dangerous pacts to protect the innocent.

I’ve also given Reverie a unique Principle, as follows:

Principle of Reckoning
During Roleplaying: You believe that both good deeds and bad should be repaid in kind. You can always remember what you are owed.
Minor Twist: What slight do you need to account for?
Major Twist: What favour has just come due?

Principle of Reckoning [A]: Overcome when you are repaying a favour or avenging a slight and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.

Identity is a tricky category to write Principles for, but I think this falls into behaviour and treating people rather than ideals and goals. Hard to say, really.

Solid character concept, and I would absolutely have read that book as a kid if it existed IRL. Then again, I read essentially everything published with a female lead up into the 80s, something I never really noticed until a decade ago. Just always assumed there were more out there that kid me hadn’t seen or liked, which wasn’t actually the case.

If it helps any, you might want to read Invisible Men for a history of Golden Age Black comic creators who’ve been largely ignored by most of the industry. Many of them were both artist and writer for their works, and they vastly predate anything the Big Two did to diversify their staffs. There were even early attempts to form a Black-owned publishing house aimed at Black audiences, although they were stymied almost immediately by racism. There’s a decent review/synopsis here and the book should be available through the US inter-library loan system even if your local branches don’t have it. Well worth a look, even if just makes DC and Marvel look even worse by comparison.

Or “What favor do you need to repay?” if both good deeds and bad need to be repaid in kind.

I’m pretty much convinced the categories for Principles only exist to (somewhat arbitrarily) divide them up into digestible chunks rather than confronting players with a single giant list to choose from. One of the things I’m most likely to okay as a GM is a player request to take a Principle that’s technically an illegal choice for them but fits their concept.

I can also see the choices that Sentinel Comics made in response to Venture Comics. Sentinel took longer to introduce The Fey Court and they are less Shakespearian dark whimsy but darkly capricious and closer classical Celtic mythology.

I can see the intercompany crossover between Wonder and Scholar being a classic for decades.

I can also see modern, gritty, but not grim dark comics, where Ignition figures out Fissions secret ID and is still looking to make out with him even with the complexities of working at cross purposes. I collected the Ryan Choi Atom run and his thing with Giganta.

That was good stuff. My favorite Atom stories outside of Sword of the Atom (because Gil Kane doing Ray as a Burroughs hero is pretty much my idea of perfection). Plus Cheatin’ Jean established her as awful long before she murdered Sue Dibny.

I like some of the comics where Ray gets attacked and pulls a sword out of his belt. Surprise I have another skill set I don’t talk about often.

Ooh, that sounds awesome, and I am absolutely going to pick it up (although, being Canadian, we don’t have a great inter-library loan system. But I bet I can find it.)

The Randomizers:
Background 1, 8, 5 [Options: Blank Slate, Academic, Upper Class, Struggling, Tragic, Medical]
Power Source 7, 4, 3 [Options: Genetic, Experimentation, Relic, Tech Upgrades, Supernatural]
Archetype 5, 7, 1 [Options: Speedster, Blaster, Close Quarters, Armored, Flyer, Psychic]
Personality 1, 6, 6 [Options: Lone Wolf, Distant, Stalwart, Nuruturing, Cheerful]

Nucleon

Nucleon(1)500×800 362 KB

Real Name: Faith Evans, First Appearance: (As Faith Evans) Reactors #12, November 1962. (As Nucleon) Reactors #42, July 1965.
Background: Academic, Power Source: Experimentation, Archetype: Psychic
Personality: Lone Wolf, Principles: Lab, Cosmic

Status Dice: Green d8, Yellow d8, Red d10. Health: 30 [Green I-J, Yellow L-M, Red N-O]
Qualities: Science d12, Otherworldly Mythos d8, Self-Discipline d8, Professor d8
Powers: Cosmic d10, Postcognition d8, Telepathy d8, Lightning Calculator d6, Intangibility d6

Green Abilities:

• Cosmic Unity [A]: Boost using Telepathy. Apply that bonus to all hero Attack and Overcome actions until the start of your next turn.
• Universal Knowledge [R]: After rolling during your turn, you may take 1 irreducible damage to reroll your entire dice pool.
• Cosmic Fusion (I): When you are Boosted, increase that bonus by +1. Then, if that bonus is +5 or higher, take damage equal to the bonus and remove it.
• Principle of the Lab [A]: Overcome while in a familiar workspace or when you have ample research time. Use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
• Principle of Cosmic Forces [A]: Overcome a challenge involving cosmic energies and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.

Yellow Abilities:

• Postcognitive Understanding [R]: After an enemy rolls dice to take an action for their turn but before using the result, Hinder that enemy’s roll using your single Postcognition die.
• Telepathic Dissonance [A]: Attack using Telepathy and use your Max die. Hinder the target with a persistent and exclusive penalty using your Min die.
• Power Overwhelming [A]: Boost yourself using Cosmic. Use your Max die. That bonus is persistent and exclusive.
• Pass Through [A]: Attack a minion using Intangibility. The result of the minion’s save Attacks another target of your choice.

Red Abilities

• Cosmic Strike [A]: Attack using Cosmic. Use your Max+Mid dice.
• Exploit Vulnerability [A]: Remove a bonus on a target. Hinder that target using Science. Use your Max die, and that penalty is persistent and exclusive.

Out

• Boost an ally by rolling your single Science die.

By the end of 1964, it was becoming obvious that while Into the Green, Liberty’s Dream, and Wondrous Adventures were all doing well as monthly titles, The Reactors was struggling. Readers felt that the adventures facing the duo were too similar, and while they’d been willing to check it out every other month, as a monthly title sales were dropping slowly but steadily. Rather than cancelling the comic and replacing it with something new, the editors decided to try and shake things up by adding a third hero to the team. The result was Nucleon.

Faith Evans was a researcher obsessed with cosmic forces and the paranatural, and who had made a few appearances in The Reactors as a minor civilian antagonist trying to prove the existence of an underground spaceship in Santa Juanita. Early in 1965, she returned a third time, witnessing the Reactors and Doctor Cosmos stopping an alien invasion, and she secretly recovered a piece of cosmic debris from their wreckage of their fight.

In Reactors #42, using the cosmic fragment and the information that she had gathered, Faith attempted to reproduce the conditions that had created Doctor Cosmos, and in the process tore a hole in the fabric of reality and began to unspool from existence. The Reactors responded, barely managing to save the day, and Faith exerted all of her power to help them, and to make up for the damage she had caused; all three nearly died, but the rift was ultimately sealed. In the aftermath, she discovered that while she hadn’t developed the same powers as Doctor Cosmos, she had accidentally retained a connection to the universe that she couldn’t fully control, her mind and body occasionally lost in contemplation. Joining the Reactors as Nucleon, she pledged to help protect the ship that she had intended to reveal, and to keep anyone else from making her mistake.

As a member of the team, Nucleon was brusque and aloof, certain that she knew more than her teammates even as she struggled to remember that her hubris had nearly killed all three of them. Her scientific genius, coupled with Wavelength’s historical brilliance and Fission’s easygoing nature, allowed the Reactors to begin to study their ship in more depth, learning about its nature and the forces that it seemed to be keeping in check. The new Reactors had more soap opera between team members, and more exploration of other realms using the power of their ship, which served to keep the title afloat for a few more years.

Behind the Scenes

I was aiming for someone who would balance Fission and Wavelength by providing Hinders and group effects, and I think it was moderately successful. Nucleon isn’t particularly effective in Green, but can take strong basic actions or support; in Yellow, she forgets that she’s supposed to be a team player and starts getting in the bad guys’ faces instead, powering herself up and messing with enemies directly.

Misnaming error, for your eventual editing pass.

I need to get better at doing those editing passes earlier!

The Randomizers:
Background 8, 8, 10 [Options: Struggling, Unremarkable, Created, Exile]
Power Source 2, 3, 2 [Options: Training, Genetic, Experimentation, Mystical, Artificial Being]
Archetype 1, 5, 5 [Options: Speedster, Blaster, Close Quarters, Robot/Cyborg, Wild Card]
Personality 9, 3, 7 [Options: Impulsive, Stalwart, Inquisitive, Alluring, Nurturing, Cheerful]

Flatfoot

Flatfoot II500×800 384 KB

Real Name: James Lawson, First Appearance: Flatfoot Adventures #300, July 1968
Background: Created, Power Source: Artificial Being, Archetype: Robot/Cyborg
Personality: Cheerful, Principles: Justice, Strength

Status Dice: Green d10, Yellow d8, Red d8. Health: 30 [Green 30-23, Yellow 22-12, Red 11-1]
Qualities: Close Combat d12, Investigation d8, Criminal Underworld Knowledge d8, Alertness d6, Undercover Robot d8
Powers: Strength d10, Gadgets d10, Electricity d10, Lightning Calculator d8, Presence d6

Green Abilities:

• Calculate Outcomes [A]: Boost yourself using Lightning Calculator. That bonus is persistent and exclusive.
• Metal Frame (I): Reduce the amount of physical damage taken by 1 while you are in the Green zone, 2 while in the Yellow zone, and 3 while in the Red zone.
• Precise Action (I): Whenever you roll a 1 on one or more dice, you may reroll those dice. You must accept the result of the reroll.
• Principle of Justice [A]: Overcome to stop an act of injustice in progress and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
• Principle of Strength [A]: Overcome using brute force and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.

Yellow Abilities:

• The Long Arm Of The Law [A]: Attack using Strength with a bonus equal to the number of bonuses you currently have.
• One-Robot Army [A]: Attack using Strength against multiple targets, using your Min die against each.
• Charge Up (I): When you would take damage from electricity, you may Recover that amount of Health instead.

Red Abilities

• Unstable Core [A]: Attack up to three targets, one of which must be you, using Electricity. Assign your Min, Mid, and Max dice as you choose among those targets.
• The State of Progress [A]: Overcome using Strength in a situation that requires you to be more than humanly capable. Use your Max+Min dice. Boost all nearby allies with your Mid die.

Out

• Boost an ally by rolling your single Gadgets die.

The exact end of the Silver Age is a matter of some debate among comics historians, but the beginning of the shift for Venture Comics is generally agreed to have taken place over the years of 1968 to 1970, and to have focused on three key moments that predicted the age to come. The first of these three occurred in May and June of 1968, with the Death of Flatfoot two-parter!

Throughout 1968, writers had begun introducing moments in which Flatfoot’s vacuum tubes and pistons failed at unexpected moments. With the scientist who had created him long dead, the robot officer’s many repairs were threatening to give out, and Flatfoot’s villains noticed his weakness and began to take advantage. Finally, in a grand confrontation with Steeldriver in Flatfoot #299, the unthinkable happened. Flatfoot’s servos collapsed in the middle of the fight, allowing Steeldriver to smash through Flatfoot’s chest, seemingly destroying the robot.

Flatfoot #300 was billed as “The Death of Flatfoot”, with the company claiming that while “something” was in the future, this was the final issue of Flatfoot Adventures. The first half of the issue seemed to support this, featuring various heroes mourning the fallen robot, and pledging to carry on in his stead. Madame Liberty and Covert Tactics tracked down Steeldriver and reclaimed his stolen goods, and the city of Ferrisville held a public funeral for their fallen hero.

And then, of course, he came back.

Flatfoot’s human friends had been working tirelessly on the robot’s chassis, begging and borrowing parts from his fellow heroes, drawing on insights from Neutrino, Big Brain, and Nucleon, and doing everything in their power to repair and upgrade him. At the end of the issue, they were successful - the combination of his original chassis and the upgrades from his allies brought Flatfoot back to life, more human-looking than ever, armed with an upgraded electro-positronic core and the latest in artificial circuitry.

The new Flatfoot decided that he would work undercover. The limelight had served him well, but it had also left him vulnerable. Now, as James Lawson, he enrolled in the police force of Ferrisville undercover, fighting crime at night as the mysterious new Flatfoot, a hero that most believed to be someone taking up the former robot’s legacy in the newly-launched pages of The Fearless Flatfoot.

Behind the Scenes

I wasn’t sure if there was going to be a reboot for either Flatfoot or Madame Liberty in the Silver Age, but right at the end we hit one that was a little too on the nose to do otherwise. Electric Flatfoot is a little bit reminiscent of the “lightning Superman” arc, but he’s coming out of the gate more focused, more secretive, and less inspirational.

Robot/Cyborg is actually a poor match for Artificial Being, relying on other heroes to give you the Boosts that your neatest abilities make use of. But I can live with that, this is a Flatfoot who relies a bit more on his friends to get things done.

Even without random super-geniuses and alien tech the real world had largely completed the switchover from vacuum tubes to transistors by the early 1960s. If Flatfoot was still running on them in '68 he was definitely in need of a refit no matter how his servos were doing. The advantages of solid-state electronics are huge, which is why vacuum tubes are used mostly in fairly specific roles these days. Microwave oven magnetrons for ex, and a bunch of radio, radar and medical applications, particle accelerators, fusion research - and the music and film industry , where the tubes produce a “warmer” audio tone that many artists/SFX guys prefer.

Oh yeah, definitely. I believe the timeline worked something like this: in the 40s and early 50s, Flatfoot talks a lot about his vaccuum tubes and their amazing power. In the mid-50s and early 60s, the comics almost never talk about his vital components at all (and when they do it’s probably often contradictory), and then as the character is getting on and editorial wants a reboot, a cunning writer decides to thematically connect the fact that Flatfoot is getting a bit old with the fact that his parts are now deeply outdated.

I love the story of his death and return. What an iconic character!

Good opportunity to boast about all the things Flatfoot can do with his new transistors. I mean, it worked for Marvel with early Iron Man stories. Pretty much could do anything with transistors for a few years there, kind of like Superman’s “X-Ray” vision did anything the plot required.

“It wasn’t a wizard, it was transistors!”

The Randomizers:
Background 4, 3, 8 [Options: Performer, Military, Law Enforcement, Struggling, Dynasty, Adventurer]
Power Source 6, 2, 5 [Options: Training, Mystical, Nature, Relic, Powered Suit, Supernatural]
Archetype 10, 8, 4 [Options: Marksman, Flyer, Robot/Cyborg, Sorcerer, Minion-Maker, Reality Shaper]
Personality 7, 8, 8 [Options: Stalwart, Fast-Talking, Jovial, Cheerful, Apathetic]

Veilwalker

Veilwalker500×800 326 KB

Real Name: Karita Denton, First Appearance: Dark Rivers #1, 1969
Background: Performer, Power Source: Supernatural, Archetype: Reality Shaper
Personality: Fast-Talker, Principles: Family, Mastery

Status Dice: Green d6, Yellow d8, Red d10. Health: 28 [Green 28-22, Yellow 21-11, Red 10-1]
Qualities: Finesse d10, Magical Lore d10, Banter d8, Alertness d6, Comanche Magician d8
Powers: Awareness d10, Necromancy d10, Shapeshifting d10, Transmutation d10, Postcognition d6

Green Abilities:

• Now You See Me [A]: Hinder using Necromancy. That penalty is persistent and exclusive.
• Now You Don’t [A]: Attack using Transmutation. You may move the target of that Attack anywhere else nearby. If the target goes next, you decide who takes the next turn after that.
• Principle of Family [A]: Overcome in a situation where you have been given advice from a family member and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
• Principle of Mastery [A]: Overcome in a situation that uses your powers in a new way and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.

Yellow Abilities:

• Alter Self [A]: Boost yourself using Shapeshifting. Use your Max die. That bonus is persistent and exclusive.
• Part the Veil [A]: Boost or Hinder using Awareness, and apply that mod to multiple close targets.
• Rewind Time [R]: One nearby ally may reroll their dice pool. You lose Health equal to the Min die of the new roll.

Red Abilities

• Summon the Dead [A]: Use Necromancy to create a number of d6 minions equal to your Mid die. Choose the one same basic action that they each perform. They all act at the start of your turn.
• Out of Phase [R]: When you are Attacked and dealt damage, you may ignore that damage completely. If you do, treat the value of the damage as a Hinder action against you instead.
• Rewrite Reality (I): At the start of your turn, change any penalty into a bonus.

Out

• Hinder a minion or lieutenant by rolling your single Magical Lore die, and increase that penalty by -1.

The last hero introduced in the Silver Age of Venture Comics was also a sign of the beginning of its transition into the Bronze Age. With several titles being shuffled around in the aftermath of Dimensional Devastation, the editors of Venture Comics hit on a concept that they felt was a sure hit. Instead of debuting their newest hero in the pages of Venture into the Unknown, they launched her directly in her own title, Dark Rivers, at the start of 1969.

Karita’s father was a young Comanche code talker in World War II, and she grew up on stories of his adventures. Flamboyant and cheerful, the teen worked part-time as an assistant to the buffoonish and overbearing Mercator The Magnificent, a moderately successful stage magician. She was a quick learner, picking up many of his tricks - while he was a jerk, Mercator was also dedicated to teaching her properly.

Then one day, while practising her tricks, Karita accidentally completed a mystical ritual - the props that Mercator had gathered for his latest set had, entirely unbeknownst to him, contained actual magical objects that were still charged. Falling into a spiritual world, Karita was forced to test her wits against various mystical forces, using her stage tricks and quick thinking to outwit them and save herself. When she returned to Earth, she was startled to realize that the various spirits she had bested had given her parts of their own powers as a reward, and became determined to treat them with respect.

Taking on the mantle of the Veilwalker, Karita found that the mystical world was in disarray, its protectors apparently long vanished, and began to work to protect the worlds of the living and the dead, safeguarding them from other dark wizards and spirits while keeping her secret role as Mercator’s assistant. Veilwalker’s stories also asked - why was the mystical world in disarray? Why were its champions, aside from Wonderer, all extremely recent arrivals on the superheroic scene? This question would not be answered in the Silver Age, but it hung over Veilwalker’s early stories…

Behind the Scenes

We almost got out of the Silver Age without a magician, and we could not have that. We also almost got out of the Silver Age without a key teen hero, so I went two for two.

I almost chose Training to create a stage magician who just pretended to have magic, but i have a fondness for situations in which someone was an actual stage magician, and this back-doored them into getting real magic. Veilwalker gets to do this; she’s been raised to respect the supernatural, and then discovers that she can control it. She’s not too beefy, but that’s fine because if she gets into Red she is going to start solving problems with horrific speed, able to soak hits, turn the penalties into bonuses, and then summon hordes of the dead to harry her foes.

Interestingly, the Comics Code forbids the walking dead, vampires, ghouls, and werewolves, but not ghosts (as long as they aren’t portrayed luridly.) So Veilwalker is okay to summon ghosts as long as they’re not drawn as being particularly creepy. She doesn’t literally raise the dead, and I suspect some early stories make it clear that most people don’t become ghosts and she can’t actually bring anyone who isn’t already a ghost back from the afterlife, for Comics Code reasons as well as simple narrative ones.

Randomizers:
Approach: 3, 2, 1 [Options: Relentless, Skilled, Prideful, Underpowered, Bully*]*
Archetype: 1, 2, 1 [Options: Predator, Inventor, Bruiser, Domain*]*
Upgrade: 9, 12, 3 [Options: Group Fighter, Defense Shield, Brainwashing Zone*]*
Mastery: 5, 7, 2 [Options: Behind the Curtain, Mad Science, Mysticism*]*

The Retriever

Retriever521×852 360 KB

Real Name: , First Appearance: (Second Form) Flatfoot Adventures #226, May 1962
Approach: Relentless, Archetype: Predator
Upgrade: Defense Shield, Mastery: Mad Science

Status Dice: 0-1 Engaged Opponents d10, 2-3 Engaged Opponents d8, 4+ engaged opponents d6. Health: 35+5H
Qualities: Close Combat d10, Technology d8, Investigation d6, Rubber Body d8
Powers: Elasticity d10, Inventions d8, Awareness d6

Abilities:

• Surveillance Systems [A]: Boost yourself using Inventions. Use your Max die. That bonus is persistent and exclusive. Defend using your Mid die against all Attacks until the start of your next turn.
• Capture Cords [A]: Attack and Hinder using Close Combat. If the target has: a d6 or less status die, use your Max+Min dice; a d8 status die, use your Max die; larger than a d8, use your Mid die.
• Constrict [A]: Attack using Technology. Use your Max die. If the target does not Attack you on their next turn, Hinder them using your Mid die.
• Rubber and Glue [R]: When Attacked, roll your single status die. Hinder the Attack using that result, and deal damage to the attacker equal to that penalty.
• (U) Defense Shield (I): You cannot be damaged by anyone except yourself until the defense shield is destroyed. The defense shield has 40 Health, or can be deactivated with three Overcome successes. If a hero takes a minor twist working on the shield, you can make an Attack as a reaction by rolling your single Elasticity die.
• (U) Reestablish Shield [A]: Overcome using Inventions. Use your Max die. On a success, remove one success from the deactivating challenge. Alternatively, instead of an Overcome, use the Max die to Recover that much of the defense shield’s Health. This ability cannot be used if the defense shield has been completely removed.
• (U) Master of Mad Science (I): As long as you have access to materials, you can automatically succeed when Overcoming a challenge by using scientific principles and inventions.

Common Scene Elements:

• A challenge related to a captive person or unstable device already in the Retriever’s grasp
• An unpredictable environment created by the Retriever to cover its tracks
• A group of lieutenants or minions acting as support to draw away heroes.

In 1962, the classic Flatfoot villain the Retriever received a design upgrade, inspired by the spacesuits first unveiled the year before. Along with this upgrade, the Silver Age saw a slight shift in the Retriever’s operations. Where before, each Retriever story opened with the robot having been found or activated by a new villain, in the start of the story the robot simply lumbered up to Steeldriver, and with its new voicebox demanded a task. Never one to look a gift robot in the mouth, Steeldriver immediately sent the Retriever and a crew of Company Men to assault Ferris Chemicals, a plant which had once belonged to his father. Once again, Flatfoot intervened and saved the neighbourhood from a potential chemical explosion, but the Retriever was able to escape with a selection of chemicals which Steeldriver then used in his newest plot in the next issue.

This would prove to be the Retriever’s new modus operandi for the next several years. No longer a mere machine, the constant conflicting upgrades from dozens of villains had left it with a desire to serve and the ability to upgrade and maintain its own parts. The capturing robot was stealthier, now, prone to ambushes rather than fighting off groups while grabbing its prey. It continued to lack goals of its own beyond “find someone who wants a thing, get the thing, find someone else”, and it moved on regardless of whether its mission succeeded or failed. It proved a dangerous threat primarily to Flatfoot, but also appearing in issues of Covert Tactics and The Reactors as it worked for other super-science villains, somehow finding ways to travel around the world.

Behind the Scenes

Spoiler:
I had a Silver Age Retriever model, so I knew this was going to happen; I was just waiting for the right combination of effects. This set gave me the Approach, Archetype, and Upgrade that I wanted and then absolutely threw me with three very odd Masteries - and so the idea of the Retriever being able to mad science itself was born! This robot is still not an Omnitron or an Ultron, but it’s probably not a great sign that it’s messing with its own parts.

Be interesting to see it occasionally pick on a new “employer” who’s not a supervillain. Having it march up to some innocent civilian and ask them what they want has some potential for stories where the heroes have to stop it from fulfilling the order of (say) some kid who wanted an ice cream cone (Retriever lugging around a whole ice cream truck with the music still playing) or an unhappy wife who told it she wants her absconding husband back (“I AM LOOKING FOR SAMUEL CONNOR”). Or maybe you do something poignant like a widow who just wants her husband back, although the rubbery lunkhead might just dig up his coffin.

It might even approach a hero, mightn’t it? Especially a shady-seeming vigilante/antihero type. What could possibly go wrong with asking Retriever to bring you that villain you’ve been having trouble tracking down?

Okay, that one is definitely canon. I love the other ideas; the widow might need to wait for the Bronze Age, so we’ll see where the Retriever develops, but there’s a strong throughline of “hero makes impulsive mistake, has to fix it” in the Silver Age (or, for that matter, for a non-powered member of the hero’s social circle to try to use the Retriever.)

I am now imagining a story in which Ignition demands that the Retriever grab Fission for her, and it goes and gets Trevor Finn because it’s a big perfect robot that easily sees through secret identities, but she still doesn’t figure out what’s up and instead pretends to be Indira to help Trevor ‘escape from Ignition’ and at the end of the issue neither of them are aware of the other one somehow.

If you wanted to be deep (definitely not in Silver Age, but maybe later) the widow (or any similar “I want someone dead back” request) could be played more straight, with Retriever trying some mad science thing, failing, and having an epiphany that moves its kludged accidental AI forward toward real personhood, for good or ill.

Indira and Trevor (or their alter egos, anyway) are developing into a fine anime couple. The kind where the audience spends all season yelling “just kiss already!” and then gets a cliffhanger in the last episode that never gets resolved because there’s no second season.

Imagine my surprise at seeing the villain name, going, “Oh, they’re gonna want to change that, there’s already a character called that,” and then realizing it’s your own character >_< ignore me lol

It’s even the original image for him, but one of the readers on the site it was first posted to threw together the more Golden Age design on Hero Creator and this one got repurposed for Silver Age. Everyone’s favorite rubber robot.

Randomizers:
Approach: 2, 1, 4 [Options: Relentless, Skilled, Prideful, Underpowered, Bully, Disruptive]
Archetype: 8, 1, 1 [Options: Predator, Inventor, Inhibitor, Loner, Domain]
Upgrade: 10, 1, 12 [Options: Mook Squad, Calming Aura, Brainwashing Zone]
Mastery: 10, 11, 3 [Options: Conquest, Total Chaos, Unfathomable]

Dr. Roach

Dr Roach500×800 356 KB

Real Name: Perry Planetta, First Appearance: Covert Tactics Vol. 2 #8, Oct 1962
Approach: Underpowered, Archetype: Domain
Upgrade: Brainwashing Zone, Mastery: Conquest

Status Dice: Based on environment minions, lieutenants, and challenges. 3+: d10, 1-2: d8, 0: d6. Health: 45+5H (Ultimate 55+5H)

Qualities: Science d10, Ranged Combat d10, Stealth d8, Fitness d8, Imposing d8, Swarm Tactics d8
Powers: Insect Control d10, Electricity d8, Vitality d6

Abilities:

• Swarm Like Locusts [A]: Remove any number of environment-created bonuses. For each bonus removed, you may Attack one target using your Mid die, using a different bonus against each.
• Ants In Your Pants [A]: Hinder multiple targets using Science and use your Max die. If you roll doubles, also Attack each target with your Mid die.
• Entomophobia [A]: Activate one of the environment’s twists in its current zone or one zone closer to red.
• Mass Panic [A]: Roll any number of environment minion dice. Attack every target in the scene (other than yourself) with those dice. Remove those minions.
• Can’t Crush A Roach [R]: When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling your single Fitness die. Deal that much damage to another target.
• (U) Panic Electro-Generator [A]: While the scene is in the Green zone, all heroes’ uality dice at d8 or above are reduced one size. In the Yellow zone, all heroes’ quality dice at d10 or above are reduced two die sizes. In the Red zone, all heroes’ quality dice are treated as if they are d4.

Heroes may remove this ability with three Overcome successes. If a hero takes a minor twist, the hero must lose access to a quality entirely until this ability is removed. If a hero is knocked out while this ability is active, you may create a new minion using the hero’s highest power die to represent the panicking version of that hero.

• (U) Master of Conquest (I): As long as you are in command of your own forces, automatically succeed at an Overcome involving seizing an area or capturing civilians.

Common Scene Elements:

• An environment featuring people freaking out about all the bugs, with challenges to deal with panicking civilians, uncontrolled environment minions, and bonuses to insect-based tactics and attacks.
• Swarms of insects under Dr. Roach’s control: d6 Minions. When they Attack or Hinder they apply half the result, rounding down, to a second nearby target.
• Shockroachs, Dr. Roach’s mercenary shock troops: d8 Minions who are immune to electrical damage and Hinders due to their insulated suits (which also protect them from their patron’s Panic Electro-Generator.

The early run of Covert Tactics was a mixture of successful extractions and operations in which it became clear that their target did not want to be saved and had to be fought. But in their first year, none of their targets proved to be odder than the Shockroach.

A scientist hired by the small central Asian nation of Juristan, Perry Planetta was instructed to develop a device that could command the brains of civilians in order to help suppress a series of populist uprisings, in the hopes that the reigning dictator could retain power. When Perry found that his device wasn’t able to control anything more complicated than an insect, he rolled with it, took control of the nation’s insects, and promptly installed himself as the new President for Life. Entering the area to save him, Covert Tactics immediately found themselves in a fight for their lives against swarms of insects, Anti-Revolutionary guards, and the low-power fear waves rippling through the countryside, rendering the populace afraid to fight back. These challenges weren’t enough to actually stop the heroes, however, and by the end of the issue Planetta was overthrown and power restored to the people.

This wasn’t the end of Dr. Roach, however. His dreams of owning his own country had been whetted, and he continued to appear on a regular basis, attacking tiny island nations or out of the way towns and holding them hostage as he declared a new age of Science and Reason! Each time, he had a new method to control his insect minions and a new squad of mercenary troops, and each time he was summarily defeated by Covert Tactics and either jailed or forced to flee with nothing more than the clothes on his back.

Behind the Scenes

One drawback of only writing up one or two villains for each hero is that I feel obliged to write their dramatic opposites, the Lex Luthors and Doctor Dooms of the setting. There’s less room for those villains who are both very enduring and entirely goofy. So I had to include at least one in the Silver Age; I’m hoping to get a few more in as we work through the second half of our villains.

Anyway, this guy dresses like a giant bug and uses electronic waves to control insects and somehow makes that part of plans to take over cities and he expects you to treat him very seriously because he is a proper scientist thank you very much. And to be fair, I would not want to be covered in insects, so there’s that. The gritty reboot of this weirdo is probably going to be kind of horrific, although it would also be funny if he just never gets a gritty reboot, and even in the Iron Age is just kind of miffed at the idea that he might be horrifying.

Pretty sure Doc Roach (you know he’s going to wind up being called that) there is using the Skilled approach, not Underpowered. You’re also missing a Domain ability, it’s one of the oddballs that gives you three instead of two.

There’s got to be a tongue-in-cheek story down the road where the fine people of Juristan come to the heroes asking for help locating Doc. They aren’t holding a grudge, they actually want to invite him back and offer him a position as Minister of Pest Control. Turns out their most valuable crops are being eaten as fast as they grow them and the current regime’s best idea for a fix is to install a supervillain as a cabinet minister. Do the heroes try to talk them out of it? Does Doc take them up on the offer? How do both the heroes and Doc feel when the pests turn out to be the product of an expensive genetic engineering process? What do the heroes do when they discover the “valuable crops” are the kind that make a certain white powder and the pests were part of a very, very dark gray operation by the US government to cut off the supply at the source? Does Doc Roach wind up on the side of the angels for once, or does he sign a deal with an agency that doesn’t officially exist for backing to take over Juristan as dictator again, with the proviso that he keeps the drug trade out of the territory and maybe do a little consulting work on optimizing deployment of similar covert insectile bioweaponry?

There’s a cynical late-Reagan Era story for you, and one that could lead to the horrific reboot of Doc Roach.

I don’t know if you’re just going for alliteration with the name, or if there’s supposed to be any implied nationality or reference there. Perry doesn’t sound very central Asian, unless it’s been Westernized. Then again, you did say he’s a scientist for hire. The first Planetta I found Googling was an Austrian Nazi.

Given the bug motif, I personally would have gone with Gregory Samson or the like. Maybe first name Franz if you wanted him to be European and not too on the nose. Still a really cool character! Good job!

He is indeed Skilled; I swapped him and forgot to adjust the title. Thanks. And I’ll go and give him another ability shortly.

I do a lot of adjustments on these characters, editing becomes an issue!

And boy, that does sound like a great Iron Age story for him!

Periplaneta is the scientific name for one of the largest families of cockroaches, which is where the name comes from; it’s a silly cockroach pun. Dr. Roach is indeed white and American; he was not a local of Juristan.

Hoo boy, do I know that feeling.

Oh, I didn’t think to put the two together. polite applause

And the Shockroach is just chef’s kiss!

There is nothing not to love about this guy. XD

I hope his gritty reboot goes the Shin Kamen Rider route.

Randomizers:
Approach: 6, 5, 1 [Options: Relentless, Bully, Disruptive, Focused, Generalist]
Archetype: 2, 1, 2 [Options: Predator, Inventor, Bruiser, Guerilla, Legion]
Upgrade: 9, 10, 2 [Options: Defense Shield, Calming Aura, Hardier Minions]
Mastery: 1, 2, 4 [Options: Annihilation, Behind the Curtain, Enforced Order]

Poison Pen

Poison Pen500×800 273 KB

Real Name: Penny Sterling, First Appearance: Wondrous Tales #18, August 1963
Approach: Disruptive, Archetype: Legion
Upgrade: Calming Aura, Mastery: Behind the Curtain

Status Dice: 9+ minions d4, 5-8 minions d6, 3-4 minions d8, 1-2 minions d10, No minions d12. Health: 15+5H (Upgraded 25+5H)

Qualities: Insight d10, Technology d8, Finesse d8, Industrial Espionage d8
Powers: Robotics d10, Presence d10, Agility d8, Awareness d8

Abilities:

• Sow Chaos [A]: Hinder multiple targets using Insight. You and any nearby allies Defend using your Max die.
• Sabotage [A]: Attack multiple targets using Technology. Use your Min die. Hinder each target with your Max die. If one of those targets rolls doubles on their next turn, they take damage equal to the penalty.
• Deploy Pen Pal [A]: Add two minions of size equal to one die size lower than your current status.
• Decoy Pen Pal [R]: When you are Attacked or Hindered by a non-Psychic effect, create a minion of a size equal to your current die type and redirect the effect to them. You may move elsewhere in the scene.
• Crossed Feeds (I): Whenever multiple Legion minions all take the same action against the same target, you must roll all of their dice at the same time and use the lowest rolling die amongst them for each minion’s result on that action.
• (U) In Plain Sight (I): The heroes act as being in the Green zone for status die, access to abilities, and for the purposes of all abilities. Heroes may remove this ability with three Overcome successes. If a hero takes a minor twist, you may use a reaction to Hinder them by rolling your single Presence die.
• (U) Master Behind the Curtain (I): As long as you are not directly involved in the fray and are using your influence indirectly, automatically succeed at an Overcome to manipulate a situation.

Common Scene Elements:

• A high-tech lab or business office in the throes of chaos.
• Challenges related to the things that Pen is here to steal.
• Wiltman and Chambers, Private Eyes. A pair of D8 Environmental Lieutenants with the following ability: When you take damage, before rolling to save, halve the damage (rounding up) and apply the other half as a Hinder against you.

The Drifter’s first few supervillains were fairly direct criminals and mad scientists, intent on wrecking havoc and frustrated and confused by their coincidental failures. But it wasn’t long into his tenure that the writers of Venture Comics decided to dial things up, creating a level of chaos that would make it difficult for him to save the day while staying anonymous. The result was Poison Pen.

Penny Sterling was a brilliant roboticist whose work was stolen from her by local business magnate Howard McPherson. Vowing revenge, Penny developed even more advanced robots, sending robotic infiltrators into McPherson Industries to ruin the company and steal back her technology. As it happened, McPherson quickly became aware of something going wrong, and ‘brilliant’ detectives Wiltman and Chambers arrived to try and suss out the saboteurs just as the Drifter started working there as a janitor.

The Drifter quickly identified the robot duplicates, using his abilities to foil their attempts at sabotage, quietly led Wiltman and Chambers to proof of McPherson’s thefts, and simultaneously revealed Sterling and prevented her from destroying the company and putting its employees out of work. Both Sterling and McPherson ended up in jail… except that at the end of the issue it was revealed that the Penny who had been arrested was, herself, a robot duplicate!

This began the saga of Poison Pen. Poison Pen would build robots, infiltrating businesses, homes, and events with the goal of stealing riches and bringing ruin to successful individuals who might or might not deserve it. The Drifter would come across her and have to untangle her schemes. The pair did not meet directly; Poison Pen was well aware that someone was messing with her, but not whom, and the Drifter knew exactly who she was but was so busy dealing with her robotic plants that he could never quite catch her. It became something of a game for them both; since Poison Pen’s plans didn’t threaten lives, only livelihoods, it was easier for the Drifter to treat them as puzzles to be solved, and Poison Pen would leave him letters praising his skills and vowing revenge in the same breath.

Poison Pen also went toe to toe with other heroes, facing off against Madame Liberty, Flatfoot, the Vanguards and Covert Tactics, always one step ahead and ready to escape at a moment’s notice. She worked with other villains from time to time, particularly preferring to hire bruisers (or the Red Herring, a perennial favourite ally) to cover her schemes.

Behind the Scenes

Legion is an interesting Archetype to use well, and I wanted someone who didn’t just duplicate themselves, and then I thought about Doombots and everything else kind of came together. Poison Pen is a less lethal villain for the Silver Age, one part Chameleon and one part Vulture. She’s pretty hard to take down with physical damage, because physical damage reveals that you just punched a robot, but her actual legion minions aren’t that hard to fight - unless she covers for them with her abilities.

you included the link to the RPG.Net forum. Not a problem just the first time you did it and it might have been a mitsake

“Ships that pass in the night” nemeses is an amusing concept.

Sabotage ought to an action ability rather than a reaction, FWIW.

That build highlights one of the serious issues with Legion archetypes and that “Decoy Pen Pal” reaction. The design decision to make it trigger against physical damage only added to the usual dreadful Legion base Health makes it hard to use against a team that has decent non-physical damage output, or even worse Attacks that negate reactions and Defends like the CQC archetype’s Precise Strike. We had a villain with a similar ability setup get taken out in one round with a four-hero team in Green, and there really wasn’t any luck involved. A team boost, multiple HP bonuses, a couple of Max die energy Attacks and a Precise Strike and her 35 Health just evaporated. Pretty convinced Legion ought to be +5 Health at least rather than -5, and that reaction needs to be broader, and the archetype might even deserve a third real ability choice (which probably got nixed because it would make four with the “minion incompetence” drawback).

Edits have been fixed!

You have actually given me an idea; it would make sense for Legion to have a reaction that’s a stronger defense, but doesn’t have the infinite capability to produce duplicates. Let me see…

Decoy [R]: When you are Attacked or Hindered by a non-[Element or Psychic] effect, create a minion of a size equal to your current die type and redirect the effect to them. You may move elsewhere in the scene.

This is stronger, because it affects a much wider swath and lets you run away while still having a vulnerability, but weaker because the minion immediately gets hit and you can’t just spam it endlessly.

I like it (more mobility is always good) but…

…either the “one” is extraneous, or the “equal” was supposed to be something else (less?). I’m guessing the first is the case.

Yep, it was originally “one die size smaller” and then I decided it didn’t need that limitation, so I adjusted it and left the ‘one’ in. Fixed.

Randomizers:
Approach: 6, 8, 7 [Options: Disruptive, Focused, Mastermind, Creator, Ninja, Adaptive*]*
Archetype: 1, 5, 5 [Options: Predator, Indomitable, Overlord, Squad*]*
Upgrade: 4, 11, 8 [Options: Villainous Vehicle, Quality Upgrade II, Power Dampening Field*]*
Mastery: 10, 3, 5 [Options: Behind the Curtain, Mad Science, Total Chaos*]*

Animaster

Animaster500×800 383 KB

Real Name: Neville Davenport, First Appearance: Liberty’s Dream #8, January 1964
Approach: Creator, Archetype: Overlord
Upgrade: Quality Upgrade, Mastery: Mad Science

Status Dice: 9+ minions: d12. 5-8 minions: d10. 3-4 minions: d8. 1-2 minions: d6. 0 minions: d4. Health: 30+5H (Upgraded 50+5H)

Qualities: Magical Lore d10, Imposing d8, Science d8, Creativity d8, Genteel Monster d8
Powers: Transmutation d10, Weather d8, Presence d8, Awareness d6

Abilities:

• Spark Life [A]: Use Transmutation to create a lieutenant of the same die size as your Max die.
• Wake Wisps [A]: Use Weather to create a number of minions equal to the value of your Max die. The starting die size for those minions is the same as the size of your Min die.
• For The Father [A]: Boost using Imposing for all your minions until the start of your next turn.
• Explosive Force [R]: When one of your minions is destroyed, roll its die and deal damage equal to that roll to another target.
• (U) Genius Creator (I): Increase all of your Quality dice except “Genteel Monster” by one size.
• (U) Master of Mad Science (I): As long as you have access to materials, you can automatically succeed when Overcoming a challenge by using scientific principles and inventions.

Common Scene Elements:

• The Bright Guard. A squad of (H) D8 minions who get +1 to saves against elemental damage.
• Malforms. (H-1) D10 environment minions who get +1 to Attacks but -1 to saves; they may be hostile or allies depending on the situation.
• Anima Township. A 1950s-style town environment filled with elemental magic.

Many of Reverie’s early supervillains were thinly veiled statements about equality and prejudice, although most took care to have enough layers removed to avoid any overt dismissal. But one of these villains, entirely unintended, would go on to become a major recurring character and location for a wide variety of characters following his initial, relatively minor appearance.

Neville Davenport was the child of an industrial magnate whose aptitude for business was minimal, although he was a talented chemist and artist. Neville believed that his failing business was the result of the modern mindset, that humanity was weaker and more indolent than they had been. His disgruntlement drew the attention of Unseelie fae, who offered him the power to create his own, superior society by imbuing mystical power into raw elements.

Neville took the gift and ran with it, using his scientific knowledge to experiment with his new magical powers. He carved out a space in the Underhill, and began to develop new living beings - rocky earthkin, flickering flamekin, the short-lived skykin and the flowing seakin, then advancing to fashion people out of lightning, ice and snow, and more, inserting each into his new elemental hierarchy. Neville dubbed himself the Animaster, and his new society his Animates, and planned to perfect his society and then raise an army to reclaim and purify the United States.

Reverie found Neville when some of his Animates fled from his tyrannical rule and were mistaken for monsters by the small town they reached. She saved them from a mob, and then listened to their story, returning to the Underhill to confront the Animaster. Joining forces with the Malforms, a group of Animates made from multiple elements who the Animaster had discarded as failed experiments, she helped the people of Anima rise up, fighting the Animaster directly and forcing him to flee with a handful of loyalists.

Unlike other such individuals, however, the Animaster would return. Convinced that he could solve the fundamental ‘flaw’ of rebellion, he would create a new Animate village, adjusting its societal parameters or making slight changes to the people he was giving life to, seeking out powerful magical sources to supplement his creative powers and looking for ley lines to tap to give birth to a new army. Sometimes, he would create an army with no free will at all, which would be destroyed by the heroes he set it against. Once, his attempt to create Animate fanatics led to his minions turning on him as a filthy meat-blood and casting him out, and forcing him to join forces with Skybreaker to stop the rampaging zealots.

The Animaster presented himself as a polite, cultured man, but he was at root an envious, cruel, and arrogant soul whose ruin was always in his own works. The Unseelie never demanded the due for the gifts they had offered - Neville’s own despair and self-ruination was all the price they had ever intended for him to pay, with the harm he inflicted on others a pleasant side effect.

Behind the Scenes

Everyone loves an extremely heavy-handed metaphor for racism and segregation under an extremely thin layer of “it’s fantasy, it’s just goofs”. Obviously, otherwise the X-Men wouldn’t exist.

In all seriousness, this is mostly one part Southern Confederate and one part High Evolutionary, who was introduced in the real world about a year later than this guy appears in Venture Comics. When I got a Creator/Overlord I spent a bit of time mulling over what sort of minion he would create, and “rebellious elemental townsfolk” became a whole thing, and now we have pockets of a new type of person. Maybe one of them will appear as a hero in the future, who knows?

Got some potential, to be sure. They’re also clearly an enslaved and abused minority but Venture can plausibly tell the censors they’re just pure fiction and not stand-ins for anyone at all.

Reminds me of an old short story where the Devil offers to fulfill some guy’s dearest wish, and when the man asks what the price will be (expecting to lose his soul) Old Nick just laughs and says it’s a freebie, since the fellow is already so awful he’s damned and his wish is so selfish and hateful it’ll be worth the trouble of granting ten thousand-fold.

Randomizers:
Approach: 10, 2, 5 [Options: Skilled, Bully, Focused, Overpowered, Tactician, Adaptive]
Archetype: 5, 2, 2 [Options: Inventor, Guerrilla, Indomitable, Formidable, Legion]
Upgrade: 8, 1, 3 [Options: Mook Squad, Group Fighter, Quality Upgrade II]
Mastery: 11, 6, 8 [Options: Mercenary, Profitability, Unfathomable]

Vortex

Vortex500×800 314 KB

Real Name: Huang Zhi, First Appearance: Madame Liberty #279, March 1965
Approach: Tactician, Archetype: Guerrilla
Upgrade: Group Fighter, Mastery: Mercenary

Status Dice: 4+ Engaged Opponents: d10. 2-3 Engaged Opponents: d8. 0-1 Engaged Opponents: d6. Health: 35+5H (Upgraded 55+5H)

Qualities: Close Combat d10, Leadership d8, Alertness d6, Professional Assassin d8
Powers: Wind d8, Flight d8, Vitality d6, Deduction d6

Abilities:

• Extreme Gusts [A]: Attack multiple close targets using Close Combat. Hinder each target using your Min die.
• Flanking [A]: Make a basic action using Close Combat and use your Max die. One nearby ally also makes the same basic action as their reaction.
• In The Mix [R]: Defend against an attack by rolling your single status die. Deal that much damage to a different nearby target.
• Lead by Example (I): As long as you have at least one nearby ally, you may reroll all 1s on your dice.
• (U) Follow-Up (I): When you take an action that lets you make an Attack, also make an Attack using your Mid die.
• (U) Master Mercenary (I): If you have been given a contract to perform a specific task, automatically succeed at an Overcome in a situation where the difference is getting paid and not getting paid.

Common Scene Elements:

• The Cold Wind. Vortex’s current team of (H/2) D10 lieutenants with no special abilities.
• A Facility At Risk. An environment representing the location that Vortex has been hired to either attack or defend.
• Another Supervillain. Vortex rarely works alone.

During the 1960s, Madame Liberty primarily remained a European hero, fighting against both real and fantastical conquerors in the form of Soviet spies, the Dark Dynasty, various would-be conquerors and mad scientists and a few alien invaders of various stripes. However, for a brief and extraordinarily ill-considered period beginning in February 1965, she travelled to Vietnam to protect South Vietnam from Chinese communist saboteurs operating out of the North. The disastrous optics of a white French woman telling the Vietnamese how to resist foreign invaders was lost on the writers at the time, but the growing opposition to the war was not; in August of the same year she quietly returned to Europe and resumed dealing with her previous problems.

However, while Madame Liberty’s time in Vietnam was never referenced again, one of her opponents was. Vortex, also known as Huang Zhi, was a mercenary loosely affiliated with the Chinese government, who had gained command over wind as a result of undefined scientific experiments, and who deployed to Vietnam to act as a dark mirror to Madame Liberty, bringing her crack team of mercenaries and training local guerrillas under the command of a local super-scientist villain. She identified Madame Liberty and defeated her in combat, but was ultimately defeated when some of the young conscripts she was training helped Madame Liberty escape and destroy the facility out of which she was operating.

As a skilled mercenary with a useful power set, Vortex was too interesting to leave behind, and over the course of the Silver Age she would make more appearances, now in Europe as a mercenary for hire either as a raider or bodyguard for various other villains. She trained Soviet spies, protected doomsday devices, kidnapped politicians to hold for ransom and even worked for high-end bank robbers if the price was right. She was captured a few times, only to be broken out of jail by her next clients; usually, she was able to escape if a contract went awry. One-on-one, Madame Liberty could fight her, but she had a knack for using her powers to put Madame Liberty’s allies in harm’s way and take advantage of the confusion to escape.

Behind the Scenes

Tactician is one of the three Approaches that hasn’t shown up yet, so I had to include it. From there, everything else on the options just slotted into place for a fairly traditional villain that we haven’t seen a lot of in this publishing company - evil mercenary what is good at fighting. Red Herring creates distractions, Retriever gets you what you need, but Vortex is here to beat people up and to train people to beat people up.

Tactician and Guerrilla are a lot of fun to combine, because they encourage you to get stuck in with several enemies right next to a few allies in one gigantic melee. Group Fighter just dials that up (although notably, the extra attack doesn’t actually have to go to a new person; you can just really wail on someone.

And as for the Vietnam thing… it just seemed like something that was going to get addressed by the character whose whole thing is fighting empires, and probably was not going to get addressed well, so I tossed it in. I suspect the Venture Comics editors thought she was going to stay there long enough for Vietnam to be “freed”, which was definitely going to happen by the end of the year, and then events continued and they backed off, but they couldn’t say why they were backing off for Comics Code reasons so they just sort of brushed it all under the carpet.

Randomizers:
Approach: 4, 8, 8 [Options: Underpowered, Mastermind, Tactician, Dampening, Ancient*]*
Archetype: 1, 3, 3 [Options: Predator, Bruiser, Guerrilla, Overlord, Fragile*]*
Upgrade: 6, 10, 2 [Options: Hardier Minions, Power Upgrade II, Calming Aura*]*
Mastery: 5, 3, 1 [Options: Annihilation, Conquest, Mad Science*]*

Amorta, Empress of Ash

Empress of Ash500×800 416 KB

Real Name: Amorta, First Appearance: Vanguards #108, November 1967
Approach: Ancient, Archetype: Overlord
Upgrade: Calming Aura, Mastery: Annihilation

Status Dice: 9+ minions: d12. 5-8 minions: d10. 3-4 minions: d8. 1-2 minions: d6. 0 minions: d4. Health: 45+5H (Upgraded 55+5H)

Qualities: Magical Lore d12, Leadership d12, Close Combat d10, Alertness d8, Flames Incarnate d8
Powers: Fire d12, Suggestion d10, Strength d10, Teleportation d8

Abilities:

• Consume From Within [A]: Hinder using Suggestion against multiple targets and use your Max die. Attack each using your Mid+Min dice.
• Immortal Perfection [A]: Take a basic action using Magical Lore and use your Max die.
• Ignite The World [A]: Use Magical Lore to create a number of minions equal to the value of your Max die. The starting die size for those minions is the same as the size of your Min die.
• Burn Bright [R]: Reroll any number of minion saves against the same Attack.
• (U) Hypnotic Flames (I): The heroes act as being in the Green zone for status die, access to abilities, and for the purposes of all abilities. Heroes may remove this ability with three Overcome successes. If a hero takes a minor twist, you may use a reaction to Hinder them by rolling your single Suggestion die.
• (U) Master of Annihilation (I): If you can cause massive collateral damage without regard for casualties, automatically succeed at an Overcome where a show of overwhelming force can solve the problem.

Common Scene Elements:

• Dimensional Devastation: An environment in which reality itself is burning and the fires of passion run amok.
• Burning Courtiers. A group of d10 Minions who step down whenever they roll their maximum on an action.
• Enflamed Civilians. d8 environment minions caught up in some act of destructive but glorious purpose, ignoring the demons in their midst.

Across the infinite dimensions, in the mists of time, four realms rose to devour their neighbours. In the Dark Sea sat Balor, King of Ruin, whose eye broke down the world as waves erode the shores. Urak, the Prince of Rot, consumed his realm and made it of himself. The Unspoken, Sovereign of Secrets, smothered truth, hope, and even the bonds between people, devouring its own name. And in the vast Realm of Cinders, the Empress of Ash watched as he people danced and loved and warred, burning themselves to nothing for her amusement only to re-ignite and begin the dance again.

All of these realms are lost, sealed from the world. But the key has been found, and the flames will dance anew…

By 1967, Venture Comics had to acknowledge that not all of their titles were succeeding. Despite a temporary bump in sales with the introduction of Nucleon, Reactors was back in their rut and struggling to turn a profit. Celestial Travels was similarly struggling, with readers finding that Neutrino’s story seemed basically done. Sitting down and putting their heads together, the editors agreed that it was time to pull the trigger, one way or another - either those titles needed to fold, or their stories needed something big. They decided to do both.

Dimensional Devastation was the first major crossover event in Venture Comics history, a massive eight-part story taking place over the course of three months across Celestial Travels, Reactors, and Vanguards! starting in November 1967 and running through January 1968. In the leadup to the event, all three comics began to have information seeded in them - as Neutrino finally approached Earth, he found aliens fleeing the sector out of fear of the return of an ancient threat that had wiped out most of the surrounding civilizations, the Vanguards discovered a new “Cult of Conquest” spreading among the Jotari, preaching the glorious of violence and passionate war, and Ignition became more and more active fighting the Reactors, as she used information she had gathered to prepare to activate their dimensional vessel without their knowledge.

Events culminated in the crossover; Neutrino’s ship was captured by Jotari cultists, who used it to warp to their home. It was revealed that the Jotari Chaplain of Conquest was working in alliance with Ignition, both followers of the same mysterious “Empress” whose dimensional realm had been locked thousands of years ago by the ship in Santa Juanita. In the third issue, Ignition and the Chaplain successfully activated the ship, and the Empress of Ash emerged into the Jotari capital, immediately overwhelming the populace and declaring her intention to transform the Jotari Empire into a burning sword that would strike at the heart of every dimension!

The next five issues contained the desperate struggle to stop the Empress from reaching Earth, at a terrible cost to the Jotari homeworld. The Vanguards, Neutrino, and the Reactors joined forces, fighting the Cult at every turn, but their own passions were turned against them, capturing them in the Empress’s will. Ultimately, it was Ignition who saved them. As she watched the Jotari world burn, Fission was able to reach her. He discovered her true identity, revealed his own, and showed her that the flames she worshipped were going to consume everything; in the climax of the crossover she reversed the mechanisms allowing the Empress to manifest, buying critical moments for the team to defeat the terrible force and return her to her burning realm. Ignition was believed to be slain in the conflagration, her body burning to ash in seconds.

This was the end of the crossover, but not of the Empress. She would remain a distant antagonist to the Vanguards for the next few years, acting through her remaining Jotari pawns as she sought a new key to her locks. Her power was vast and dreadful, but it was also something that could be drawn abstractly and applied through mental effects, allowing the writers of Venture Comics to avoid the more horrific physicality that had ended their prior cosmic threats.

Behind the Scenes

It’s the big one!

I’ve been working on this pretty much since I invented Ignition, although I had intended to wait a couple more villains and introduce her right at the end of the age. But I got Ancient, and who knows when that’ll happen again, so here we are! The Empress of Ash is the unifying force behind a few supernatural threats that have been dormant since the Golden Age, and which may return as we hit the Bronze Age and the Code loosens up; for now, she’s a terrible force that’s also really, really, straightforward.

She’s also absolutely devastating. If she starts the scene with a minion group as a scene element, she has a really good chance of creating a large number of d12 minions on the first turn, and she can protect those minions from getting quickly wiped out with her reaction. She has an immensely powerful way to hurt and stymie opponents by turning their passions against them, and in her upgraded form she locks heroes down by pulling them into her dancing flames. Ancient is a nightmare, do not toy with it.

Overlord is now the first archetype to not be available if rolled up for the remainder of the phase. Hopefully that won’t be too rough a restriction.

Ancient and Overlord are strong independently, and the combination can be overwhelming, punching far above expectations and easily getting a TPKO if the heroes aren’t on their A game. This one’s also got one of the most obnoxious possible upgrades, practically guaranteeing the team will need to spend three or more actions in the Green zone just removing it.

A lot of the outcome is going to hinge on whether the PCs can reduce her starting minion count to zero before she acts, leaving her having to start her engine cold with (probably) a mob of d4 minions rather than d12. That probably calls for at least one and probably two heroes twisting to use a Yellow multi-target sweeper and most likely other hero actions for Boost support. And that won’t get much if any work done toward clearing her upgrade.

Depending how the initiative plays out she might even forego a turn one summons if her status is down in the d4-d6 range. Instead hammer all the heroes she can target with a -3 or even -4 penalty on everyone and some moderate damage to boot. At that point in round two she can summon and her smaller minions can hope to survive a sweeper or even two with her reaction, starting the pain train of increasing minion count and status die sizes.

If she goes first you’re almost certainly going to need multiple collections and careful minion control to win this fight. Truly nasty villain build, that.

The fact that she also bypasses physical/energy damage reduction with psychic damage from her main Attack is just adding insult to injury. Or injury to injury, really.

Yeah, I deliberately juiced the Empress of Ash up to the limits of what the system allows. As a GM, I would not deploy her against a party unless (a) I also gave them access to a challenge that let them dramatically weaken her, such as an anti-summoning measure to bind her again, or (b) the objective of the scene was to save civilians and escape, not to beat her. Or possible (c) I’m handing a bunch of lieutenants to the heroes to represent the other heroes they’re working with on this “all hands on deck” disaster.

She is that nightmarish, and she’s meant to be. After all, her rising was a serious challenge for a group of eight heroes!

Rough as she is, I suspect a 4-5 hero team where they all have ~8 collections and a decent number of HP bennies from last session could handle her easily even with the other scene elements mentioned in her writeup. That’s about a year’s advancement when playing weekly sessions, and if the players know they can spend freely they’ll destroy her -or really pretty much anything you throw at them. Maximizing key dice and paying for twists to use abilities early make a huge difference when you can all do it repeatedly during a scene.

All three of the ongoing games I’m in right now are reaching that stage or beyond it and we’re all struggling to deal with it, with a lot of discussion on the subject while we’re still on holiday hiatus.

All good points. I’ve never played an SCRPG game with more than four collections, so I have no advice.

Four’s about the point where I really started to notice how the heroes felt more powerful, especially in issues where there was only one action scene. They weren’t overwhelming, but their effectiveness had climbed to the point where they could each reliably get a Moment of Awesome when they wanted it. Which is fine, but double the playtime investment to eight collections and your GM really has to do something to adjust the core book guidelines, and it offers zero help in that regard.

This probably merits a different thread to discuss, or maybe a whole blog post over on my site. Don’t need to hijack yours, but I do think it needs talking about.

I’d be up for joining a thread about the discussion, although as noted, I don’t know if I have much to add. I can crunch some math possibly.

Randomizers:
Approach: 6, 4, 6 [Options: Underpowered, Disruptive, Overpowered, Tactician, Dampening]
Archetype: 5, 3, 5 [Options: Bruiser, Indomitable, Inhibitor, Squad]
Upgrade: 8, 3, 5 [Options: Group Fighter, Power Upgrade I, Quality Upgrade II]
Mastery: 6, 8, 7 [Options: Mercenary, Profitability, Mysticism]

The Driver

The Driver500×800 349 KB

Real Name: Morris Grayson, First Appearance: Skybreaker Stories #126, Nov 1968
Approach: Underpowered, Archetype: Indomitable
Upgrade: Quality Upgrade, Mastery: Mercenary

Status Dice: Always d8. Health: 30+5H (Upgraded 50+5H)
Qualities: Ranged Combat d10, Self-Discipline d8, Criminal Underworld d6, Smooth Operator d8
Powers: Awareness d8, Agility d6, Signature Vehicle (The Cart) d6, Presence d6

Abilities:

• In The Zone [A]: Boost yourself using Self-Discipline and use your Max die. That bonus is persistent and exclusive.
• Long Drive [A]: Attack using Awareness. If you roll doubles, add that value to your Attack. If you roll triples, add all three dice to your Attack.
• Push Your Limits [A]: Attack using Agility. Use your Max+Mid dice. Take irreducible damage equal to your Min die. If you roll doubles, you cannot use this ability again for the rest of the scene.
• Fore! [A]: Boost using Ranged Combat. Use your Max die. Hinder using your Mid die. Attack using your Min die.
• Mulligan [R]: Defend by rolling your single status die. If that defense reduces the damage to 0, Boost using the amount of damage prevented.
• (U) Lifetime of Dedication (I): Increase all of your Qualities except “Smooth Operator” by one die size.
• (U) Master Mercenary (I): If you have been given a contract to perform a specific task, automatically succeed at an Overcome in a situation where the difference is getting paid and not getting paid.

Common Scene Elements:

• A city environment set up with a series of golf hazards and challenges.
• Random Minions. Some group of d6 or d8 minions working for the Driver’s current employer.
• Another Supervillain, either working with the Driver or as a fellow competitor in a game.

In 1968, the assembled criminals of Grovedale collectively hired the best assassin in the world to defeat Skybreaker, in the hopes of putting an end to his campaign of liberty and truth. The man they hired was The Driver, who was spoken of in whispers by the gathered crooks, and who, when he arrived, seemed to be a mild-mannered and middle-aged Black man who assured them that their problem would be dealt with, or he’d refund their money. Readers were not, perhaps, prepared for the Driver to have an extremely simple modus operandi: he waited for Skybreaker to appear to stop a crime in progress, set up a golf ball on a neighbouring rooftop, and proceeded to arc it across the street and directly into the hero’s head, knocking him instantly unconscious. If Rhonda Randall hadn’t been present to distract the goons assembled to finish the job, it would have been the end of the hero!

Now aware that he was being hunted by a foe with absolute determination, Skybreaker began a game of cat and mouse across Grovedale, narrowing avoiding death at the hands of the Driver’s many hazards and successfully capturing him before going on to fight the gang leaders who had hired him in the next issue. But the Driver’s easy-going attitude and his offer of a handshake upon being defeated stuck with readers, and the villain would return several times to face off against his foe once again, always armed with what seemed like far too little and yet managing to hold his own against the titans of Venture Comics.

Behind the Scenes

I may have watched too much Birdie Wing recently.

This is another “goofy Silver Age villain who is weirdly good at what they do”. The Driver should not be effective as a villain, because he’s a guy with a golf club and no actual super-powers, but he has dangerously powerful attacks (especially combined with a high-power persistent boost), a wild defense (especially in combination with that boost), and also some solid versatility. He’s a cultured, friendly sort of guy who will beat you to death with a golf club. But politely. He’ll give you a quiet clap when you make a good move against him, because that’s only fair.

It’s not actually possible for the Driver to take out an uninjured Skybreaker in one hit, but if Skybreaker is lightly injured and the Driver has one prep turn he can, if very lucky, do enough damage to drop him from Green to Out in one go.

what a wild M.O. there XD

Thank you! I wanted to be as precisely ridiculous as possible. Today, however, we get a bit of a contrast…

Randomizers:
Approach: 1, 1, 6 [Options: Relentless, Skilled, Disruptive, Focused, Generalist*]*
Archetype: 4, 1, 6 [Options: Predator, Guerrilla, Indomitable, Overlord, Formidable, Squad*]*
Upgrade: 2, 5, 9 [Options: Hardier Minions, Power Upgrade I, Defense Shield*]*
Mastery: 8, 5, 3 [Options: Conquest, Mad Science, Profitability*]*

Asphodel

Asphodel500×800 370 KB

Real Name: Adrianna Denton, First Appearance: Dark Rivers #3, March 1969
Approach: Generalist, Archetype: Squad
Upgrade: Defense Shield, Mastery: Profitability

Status Dice: No other villains: d6. 1-2 other villains: d8. 3+ other villains: d10. Health: 30+5H
Qualities: Finesse d10, Technology d8, Stealth d6, Ghost d8
Powers: Intangibility d10, Telekinesis d8, Awareness d8, Radiant d6

Abilities:

• Ghostly Drain [A]: Attack using Intangibility. Use your Max die. Recover Health equal to your Min die.
• Poltergeist [A]: Hinder multiple nearby targets using Telekinesis. Boost yourself using your Max die.
• Intangible (I): Reduce physical and energy damage dealt to you by 1 if the scene is in the Green zone, 2 in the Yellow zone, or 3 in the Red zone.
• Possession [A]: Boost another target, who must be willing, using Intangibility. This bonus is persistent and exclusive. As long as this bonus exists, redirect all physical Attacks against you to this target.
• Haywire [A]: Attack using Technology. Use your Max die. Defend all nearby allies with your Mid+Min dice until the start of your next turn.
• (U) Beyond the Veil (I): You cannot be damaged by anyone except yourself until the forces between you and existence are broken; this takes two Overcome successes. If a hero takes a minor twist opening the Veil, you can make an Attack as a reaction by rolling your single Intangibility die.
• (U) Repair the Veil [A]: Overcome using Intangibility. Use your Max die. On a success, remove one success from the Veil challenge. This ability cannot be used if the Veil has been completely breached.
• (U) Master of Profitability (I): If you have access to great wealth and other resources, automatically succeed at an Overcome to leverage those resources to get even richer, no matter who else pays the price.

Common Scene Elements:

• Other Elysium supervillains, especially made up of bound spirits in technological frames or humans technologically merged with supernatural forces.
• Challenges representing the dangerous forces that she is in the process of unleashing.
• Orpheum Staff. D8 minions who roll twice to save against magical effects, taking the higher result.

Veilwalker faced off against a variety of supernatural threats, but from the beginning, a major recurring opponent were the mysterious operatives of the Elysium Corporation. Officially a medical and industrial research organization, Elysium was in fact researching the blend of dark magic and scientific principles in order to conquer death! Their experiments often stirred up the supernatural in dangerous ways, which Veilwalker then had to deal with, and they quickly became aware that someone was interfering in their efforts.

Introduced in Dark Rivers #3, Asphodel was a mysterious researcher into the Veil that seemed to know far too much about Veilwalker’s capabilities, leading a group of bound spirits in an attempt to capture her. Asphodel herself was fascinated, wanting to know where the young woman’s power came from, but at the height of the issue was caught in the edge of one of Veilwalker’s spells and vanished - it turned out that she, too, was a ghost, who had merely been possessing one of her lab interns!

In future issues, it would transpire that Asphodel knew exactly who Veilwalker really was, and was hiding that information from Elysium, while trying to capture Karita for her own purposes. The truth was that she was Karita’s mother, who had died in a lab accident five years earlier. Adrianna had bound herself to Elysium’s technology as a ghost with her last breaths, and was now beholden to the corporation for the resources she needed to stay in existence. Karita would not learn this fact for some time; she only knew that Asphodel seemed oddly aware of her behaviour and ideals…

Behind the Scenes

Another thing that is generally missing from Venture Comics up to now - evil family members! Veilwalker’s Family Principle is going to be challenged by a ghost mom who is going to cause her all sorts of problems but also doesn’t want to hurt her. But also ghost. It’s an issue. She gets a name in line with the corporation she works for, rather than something Indigenous, because (a) that conceals the surprise, and (b) I don’t think there are any Indigenous ghost-like myths that would not be aggressively appropriative and probably deeply sacrilegious.

Possession is a unique adaptation of the “Stay in Formation” ability, which is quite powerful combined with “Haywire” but can be beaten by using non-physical attacks or just knocking the ghost out of their host. I’ve also made a slight adjustment to Asphodel’s version of Defense Shield, which reduces the number of Overcomes required but doesn’t let heroes just punch their way through. In her upgraded form, she needs to be fully drawn into the world to be attacked.

And Profitability becomes our second thing to be wiped out, which is a bit sad but not a big deal, especially with only ten villains to go in this phase.

Next up, our grand finale villain for the Silver Age…

X = 30 in this case.

Interesting concept. One thing I’m light on in my own roster is magical organizations. Plenty of loner villains but I’m lacking something with hordes of chump agents backed up by a tougher foes, like Cult of Gloom or Champions’ DEMON.

Health fixed!

Yeah, one advantage of coming at this from the perspective of “what are the big storylines this hero deals with” is that slotting in an organization with a leader makes for a common answer.

the Principal of Family with an evil family member makes me think of the Marvel Avengers Disk Wars anime, when the young boy and Thor bond over “I have to protect my little brother from the world” and “I have to protect the world from my little brother”

Randomizers:
Approach: 4, 2, 6 [Options: Skilled, Underpowered, Disruptive, Mastermind, Overpowered*]*
Archetype: 1, 5, 2 [Options: Predator, Inventor, Bruiser, Indomitable, Overlord, Formidable*]*
Upgrade: 8, 7, 12 [Options: Quality Upgrade I, Quality Upgrade II, Brainwashing Zone*]*
Mastery: 9, 4, 2 [Options: Behind the Curtain, Enforced Order, Superiority*]*

Head Master

Head Master500×800 368 KB

Real Name: , First Appearance: Champions of Truth #50, April 1969
Approach: Mastermind, Archetype: Formidable (Vulnerable to Misfortune)
Upgrade: Quality Upgrade I, Mastery: Enforced Order

Status Dice: No Misfortune Penalties: d12. Misfortune penalties and prophecy bonuses: d8. Misfortune penalties and no bonuses: d4. Health: 45+5H (Upgraded 65+5H)
Qualities: Finesse d10, Insight d8, Alertness d8, Magical Lore d8, Persuasion d8, Well-Laid Plans d8
Powers: Precognition d12, Deduction d10, Vitality d8

Abilities:

• Deliver Prophecy [A]: Boost yourself using Magical Lore and use your Max die. That bonus is persistent and exclusive. Also Attack with your Mid die.
• As Was Ordained [A]: Take any basic action and use your Max die.
• Precise Action [A]: Attack one hero using Finesse. Hinder all heroes using your Max die.
• Playing Into My Hands [R]: When Attacked, Boost yourself using the attacker’s Max die.

Common Scene Elements:

• Devoted Disciples. D8 minions who, as a Reaction, may treat a successful save result as a Boost.
• A hostile environment that the Head Master has stacked in his favour.
• Multi-stage challenges related to the dangers that the Head Master has put in place.

After the successful shake-ups of Dimensional Devastation and Flatfoot, the editor of Venture Comics was looking at their last few bi-monthly titles and deciding how to shift them around. The decision had been reached that it was time to go monthly, and the only things remaining were Venture into the Unknown and Champions of Truth. Neither title was pulling in numbers sufficient to attain a monthly status. Venture into the Unknown had almost completely abandoned its original premise in favour of rotating crossovers, and Champions of Truth was increasingly a grab-bag of villains and ideas with no fixed concept.

The solution was a three-part crossover between the two comics over the course of April to June of 1969, introducing the most terrifying foe the Champions of Truth had ever faced - the Head Master!

Hinted at in early 1969 comics, the Head Master was a man with an incredible ability to predict the future based on his intricate understanding of every possible contingency both mundane and magical, and who used his incredible genius to plot out a course to world domination, assembling an army of followers awed by his genius and predictions. He knew the Champions would be his first opponents, and took steps to sideline them. In Champions of Truth #50, he struck by tricking the Wonderer’s young companion Khalil into making a wish that his friend could have a day without responsibilities, trapping the Wonderer without magic right before he moved to steal the Spear of Assal from Skybreaker, cut off Flatfoot’s communications, and then sent robotic minions to attack Greenheart in the heart of the city, drawing her away from the plants and animals she relied on. By the end of the issue, Skybreaker, Greenheart, and Flatfoot were captured and Wonderer was powerless, leaving the Champions in terrible danger!

Over the next two issues, Madame Liberty tried to challenge the Head Master, recruiting her old ally the Steward to help, but he seemed to be one step ahead of them - until a single quirk of fortune changed everything. In Venture into the Unknown #87, Reverie was investigating swirls of prophecy that had the fae in an uproar, and stumbled into the plot. Reverie’s fae magic was a monkey wrench in the Head Master’s works, creating tiny moments of bad luck that utterly devastated his predictions, and allowing her to save the heroes that he had trapped. In Champions of Truth #51, the old heroes and new joined forces, defeating the Head Master and locking him up.

In the aftermath of the battle, the Champions decided that they had become complacent. Instead of relying on the Wonderer’s magic, Madame Liberty proposed the construction of a base of operations and the Steward promised his alien technology to help. The Wonderer decided to continue on his way, pulling heroes together as the mystical winds required; he promised that his own Hidden Champions would be available when possible. In his place, Reverie took over as the team’s magical specialist.

As for the Head Master, he revealed in the final pages of the book that while this had been an unexpected setback, his plans were still in motion. Even from jail, he intended for the Champions of Truth to fall…

Behind the Scenes

Plans within plans within plans…

The Head Master probably doesn’t appear that often, because it’s exhausting to create a plan where ‘every contingency has been accounted for’, but I love the idea of a Formidable enemy whose weakness is “whoops you hit them with a bad-luck Hinder”. It’s very funny to me. And it fits the sort of enemy this guy is, utterly unstoppable when you’re playing by his script, not so much once he gets sidetracked.

That’s it for our Silver Age villains! Whew! Going to write up some history tomorrow, and then on to the Bronze Age…

This villain trope usually hates, hates, hates Wild Card archetype heroes. Fundamentally unpredictable types and elaborate pre-planning mix like oil and water even when the hero doesn’t have a way to target Formidable vulnerabilities. I think half the Wild Cards I’ve seen have had some kind of probability manipulation/gambling/dumb luck schtick going on too, which would be even worse for Head Master.

History of Venture Comics, Pt. 5: The Height of the Silver Age (1962-1966)

Throughout the mid-60s, Venture Comics continued to grow and expand, with crossovers becoming more common and longer-form storylines beginning to take shape across many of its stories. In 1963, a new publishing deal led to Venture having the option for up to twelve titles a month, which they quickly expanded to, picking up eleven main titles and restarting Cryptic Trails as a Wild West comic, which proved to be a mistake; its characters proved unpopular, and it struggled for just over four years before being cancelled in 1967.

During this period, Venture Comics blended its various themes. Science fiction stories increasingly relied on dimensional aliens rather than the outer cosmos of Celestial Travels, and magical forces clashed with technological ones on a regular basis. Venture into the Unknown increasingly began to focus on stories in which two or more heroes who rarely interacted joined forces against an established foe or pair of foes, with fewer and fewer attempts to create new heroes; the Drifter was the last new hero to gain a foothold.

History of Venture Comics, Pt. 6: The Venture Trinity (1967-1969)

By the late 1960s, societal trends were changing, and Venture Comics was changing with them. Many of the ideas that had seemed evergreen were now growing more complex, and Venture Comics struggled to remain relevant within the Comics Code, with over half of its titles in danger of outright failure and the company running towards rocky ground. In 1967, a new Editor-in-Chief came to Venture Comics. Harold Mossby was a veteran of the publishing industry, with big ideas and a willingness to challenge authority that led him to lay out a three-year plan to revitalize the struggling business. His proposal became known as the Venture Trinity.

The Venture Trinity began in 1967, with revisions to the Big Three of Venture Comics. The most notable revision was the Death of Flatfoot storyline, leading into the new version of the robotic hero, but Mossby also began a new arc for Skybreaker Stories, unceremoniously dropping the “magical foe seeking Skybreaker’s spear” storyline that had been bubbling without resolution for the past nine years, and began a more socially-conscious Madame Liberty that began to interact with the Summer of Love and the rise of the Hippie Movement, more sympathetically than in the past few years of her comic.

The second major event came at the dawn of 1968 with Dimensional Devastation. In the aftermath of the event, the teams involved were all shuffled around. Doctor Cosmos left the Vanguards to explore the newly available dimensions alongside Neutrino and Wavelength, as the Celestial Traveller. In her place, Fission and Nucleon joined the Vanguards, with nothing left to defend in Santa Juanita. Reactors and Cryptic Trails were both cancelled, opening the door for what were meant to be two new heroes born out of the chaos - although neither of them would ultimately gain any traction.

Finally, in 1969, Mossby closed out the last of Venture’s bi-monthly productions, cancelled the two struggling new titles, and replaced them with a new Champions of Truth lineup and one last attempt at a new hero, Dark Rivers, which proved more popular than its predecessors. Along the way, Mossby also stunned long-time readers by finally cancelling Venture into the Unknown, using the grand reboot of the Champions of Truth as a send-off for the publication. He reasoned that Hidden Champions would take on the stories of heroes crossing over, and the anthology introducing new heroes was no longer needed.

With its lines revamped and new stories on the horizon, Venture was now in its Bronze Age, and was ready to begin struggling against the strictures of the Comics Code…

Behind the Scenes

Historical and metafictional discussion time! This is long, so apologies

So, first off, you may notice that a few dates have changed. While writing up this section, I discovered that I had done math wrong, resulting in Flatfoot #300 being listed as a full year later than it should have been. While fixing that, I discovered a number of other errors, so a lot of comic titles have had to be revised in the final timeline. Most of the dates are the same, but Dimensional Devastation had to be slid forward one month to end on Celestial Travels #350 in April 1968.

Secondly, and this is just a little thing, but I kind of like that we have our first utterly abandoned storyline! I had mentioned in Skybreaker’s writeup that he was contending with a shadowy villain who was trying to steal his spear, and then I didn’t actually get around to writing that villain. So it goes away. Whoosh.

Now, looking ahead! Historically, the Bronze Age doesn’t have a well-defined start date, but various comic events throughout 1970 and 1971, along with the revision of the Comics Code in 1971 to be more permissive, are generally viewed as the transition period. When I was making notes about Sentinel Comics, I pegged 1970 as the start of the Bronze Age in the metaverse, with the beginning of Conflux and Battle Unending, the end of The Indestructible Bunker, and the Mad Bomber Baron Blade story in 1971.

Recently, Christopher and Adam suggested that the Bronze Age starts a bit earlier for Sentinel Comics, kicking off with Moonfall in late 1968. As a result, I’ve moved my own Bronze Age forward a year to 1970, and extended the events beforehand a bit. Moonfall is doubly unusual in that it’s the first limited-run series for Sentinel Comics; more would start popping up a lot in the 70s. In our world, limited-run series didn’t start until 1979, so I’m going to have to start tracking my issues more carefully to include some of these. Which is, to be honest, going to be fun.

A second thing of note - compared to real-world publishing companies, Sentinel Comics is small in the Silver Age, and doesn’t grow much in the Bronze. Adam mentioned in a recent podcast that realistically, based on their metaverse popularity and reach, Sentinel Comics should probably have about twice as many titles as they actually do. I think he’s, if anything, understating the situation.

For real-world comparisons: up until 1964, Marvel was only able to publish eight superhero titles a month; they gradually increased from 1964 to 1969 until they were up to sixteen. DC, I think, was publishing twelve superhero comics monthly in 1960, and by 1969 seems to have been publishing anywhere from sixteen to twenty-one titles a month, with an evenly larger number of titles, but many of them popping up bi-monthly or quarterly. By the end of the Bronze Age, Marvel published 25 in-universe titles plus five licensed titles a month; DC ramped up to an even higher number, but then had to cancel a whole lot at the end of the 70s and restructure.

Sentinel Comics, however, starts the Silver Age with only eight titles, one of which doesn’t start as a superhero comic and one of which, The Indestructible Bunker, is riding the line between superhero and war comic. In 1964, they cancel Arcane Tales to drop to seven, in 1965 they launch Arcane Tales Vol. 2 and Stranger in a Strange World to rise to nine, but but then they cancel Stylin’ Shirley in 1966 to go back down to eight, and Stranger in a Strange World in 1967 to end the Silver Age with only seven titles. And unlike Sentinel’s extraordinarily low Silver Age hero-count, which can be kind of explained as “the C-listers and D-listers of that age haven’t been written up”, this has been consistently presented as the full publication list.

In the Bronze Age, Sentinel Comics grows and then shrinks again. In 1970, they add an eighth title, and start doing limited runs on a regular basis, effectively giving them nine monthly titles. They grow to ten in 1973 and eleven in 1975, replacing cancelled titles with new ones along the way, then shrink back down to ten in 1977 and to nine in 1978. In 1980, they’re back up to ten through the transformation of Mystery Comics to twice a month. But that’s still only nine to eleven monthly titles for the entirety of the Bronze Age. Even if we assume a couple of failed titles for minor C-list or D-list heroes we don’t know about, that’s quite a bit less than half what Marvel or DC was putting out.

I had originally said that Venture was mostly a single-digit titles company. Obviously, as we have reached twelve monthly titles, that has not fully succeeded, and we’ve technically bypassed Sentinel Comics’ output. I’m going to keep our total number of titles small in the Bronze Age, but I’m probably going to add one or two slots, which means that Venture always put out a few more titles than Sentinel did despite being a smaller publishing company footprint-wise. Such is the wibblies!

With this update, we’re back to M-F updates kicking off the Bronze Age, so see you Monday for our first new hero.

Worth noting that getting dates a little wrong on individual issues would be expected. IRL many titles struggled to make their deadlines every time, resulting in a slow creep towards “monthly” comics being closer to 10-11 issues per year for particularly troubled publishers. Sometimes it wasn’t even the creators’ doing - paying the printer on time was an occasional source of delays, and that’s accounting’s fault. And that won’t really get much better in the decades to come - if anything the 90s were notorious for late-running and never-appearing issues, and post-2000s still sees plenty of solicitations for stuff that comes out extremely late or never at all.

That is true - I thought that didn’t start happening until the 70s, because they would have slush pile stories ro t. Oh, well, revisions are made now.

Slush piles, and they were a lot more willing to do straight-up reprints in the 50s and 60s when they had too, but there were still “oopsies” once in a while - which I’m inclined to blame on printers wanting their money at that point. By the 70s and early 80s you were starting to see the odd missed deadline due to creative staff and the reprints were getting used for specific books where (at DC, anyway) they’d bundle two old stories with a single new one - or Marvel’s run of X-Men reprints from 1970 to 1975. DC’s numbering went nuts for a while around Crisis in the 80s, of course. From 1978 to 1987 Marvel had the oft-maligned Jim Shooter making damn sure the books came out on time, and more power to him for doing so IMO.

The 90s were a blasted wasteland of delayed books and countless first issues that took years to see #2, if they ever even got one. That was about when I stopped working comics retail altogether and moved on to game stores, which could survive on their own strengths during the CCG and later d20 RPG booms. I dipped out just before the Heroclix craze hit, which saw a lot of purist game stores start carrying comics and comic shops carrying more games.

Going by the owner of my FGGS/comic shop delays and cancellations have not gotten better in the ensuing 25 years, and distribution of both comics and games are worse then ever.

Tl;DR Don’t worry too much about your fictional books not coming out quite on time. Being late is upholding a comic industry tradition.

Your recall for the details of the titles running during Sentinel Comics’ Bronze Age is impressive - do you have a resource you used to keep track of that?

As it happens, I have a spreadsheet.

Some time ago, Dude_in_Target, using data that WalkingTarget assembled, put together a spreadsheet of all of the cards and a number of podcast episodes. For my own purposes, and because I had a bunch of free time at the time, I started adjusting it for my own interest. My long-term plan was to have one focused on comic events, without duplicate entries for multiple cards referencing the same story. I didn’t actually finish it, but I’ve kept it for reference purposes and do plan to go in and finish it some day.

Oh that’s fabulous, thank you so much for sharing it!

The Randomizers:

Background 1, 5, 8 [Options: Blank Slate, Academic, Upper Class, Struggling, Tragic, Medical]

Power Source 4, 5, 6 [Options: Experimentation, Mystical, Nature, Radiation, Tech Upgrades, Supernatural]

Archetype 2, 7, 2 [Options: Shadow, Marksman, Armored, Elemental Manipulator, Psychic]

Personality 8, 7, 1 [Options: Lone Wolf, Stalwart, Fast Talking, Inquisitive, Jovial]

Half-Life

HalfLife500×800 360 KB

Real Name: Paul Alonso, First Appearance: Fallout #1, Nov 1970

Background: Struggling, Power Source: Radiation, Archetype: Elemental Manipulator

Personality: Inquisitive, Principles: Fugitive, Nuclear

Status Dice: Green d6, Yellow d8, Red d12. Health: 32 [Green 32-25, Yellow 24-12, Red 11-1]

Qualities: Persuasion d10, Ranged Combat d10, Criminal Underworld d8, Fitness d8, Alertness d6, Easily Overlooked d8

Powers: Nuclear d10, Strength d8, Density Control d6, Flight d6

Green Abilities:

• Flare [A]: Attack multiple targets using Nuclear, applying your Min die to each. If you roll doubles, also attack an ally using your Mid die.
• Focused Blast [A]: Attack up to two targets using Nuclear. Also take an amount of damage equal to your Mid die.
• Contaminate [A]: Hinder using Nuclear. Attack using your Min die. If you are in the Red zone, you may apply the penalty to any number of nearby targets.
• Principle of the Fugitive [A]: Overcome a problem by directing those pursuing you towards it and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
• Principle of Nuclear Power [A]: Overcome a challenge involving nuclear energies and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.

Yellow Abilities:

• Surge of Strength [A]: Boost yourself using Nuclear. Then, either remove a penalty on yourself or Recover using your Min die.
• Rein It In [R]: After rolling during your turn, you may take 1 irreducible damage to reroll your entire pool.
• Unstable Molecules (I): Whenever you take Nuclear damage, you may also inflict that much damage on another target.

Red Abilities

• Burn Bright (I): When you use an ability action, you may also perform any one basic action using your Mid die on the same roll.
• Burn Out [A]: Attack using Nuclear and at least one bonus. Use your Max+Mid+Min dice. Destroy all of your bonuses, adding each of them to this Attack first, even if they are exclusive.

Out

Choose an ally. Until your next turn, that ally may reroll one of their dice by using a Reaction.

The first hero of the Bronze Age was a sign of things to come; someone less focused on high-end heroics, a little bit grittier and much less connected. Paul Alonso was a young man working out of Santa Juanita who lost his job when the island was rocked by unknown forces that damaged its infrastructure and industry. Falling in with the only people offering a steady paycheque, he ended up working a menial job at a mob-associated facility that was, unknown to him, working on developing new forms of nuclear weapons in a town where no one was watching. Paul happened to be in the lab one night when alarms blared, and he raced to help to discover a meltdown in progress. Working feverish to buy time for the rest of the staff to escape, he was at ground zero of a nuclear blast that should have killed him (and everyone else nearby.) Instead, the full power of the atomic explosion, running through experimental hypertech, entered his body, transforming him into a living nuclear reactor.

Paul woke to discover that he had been blamed for the blast, and was now a wanted fugitive. Going on the run, he sought to find out what had happened, who had been responsible for the lab, and what to do next, while various heroes and villains came after him! His powers were unstable, and he worked hard to rein in the damage from the battles that followed him everywhere he went, but it was not uncommon for him to be blamed for the damage.

Fallout was the first Bronze Age comic, and it immediately created a shift in Venture Comics by presenting a hero at odds with the government and military, and who was probably right to be on the run. Large-scale government conspiracies weren’t allowed, but the Code was under revision and by early in Half-Life’s run, individual corrupt government and military officials were permitted. He also came into conflict with Covert Tactics, an encounter which would lead to larger changes in their own book in the future.

Behind the Scenes

Instead of going with the “burn yourself, turn it into healing” archetype, Half-Life runs much more into the “burn yourself, hurt other people with the burn, get to Red as soon as possible and then become utterly nonsense until a stray shot takes you out” archetype. In Green, he has a couple self-destructive powers and one that’s only okay. In Yellow, he starts being able to turn his self-damaging Green into a massively powerful hit, or Boost and heal if he starts to take too much damage. Once he hits Red, he can alternate between using a large-scale Hinder/Attack that also Boosts as a secondary effect, and then using that Boost for an immensely powerful nuclear blast.

We also have another new Principle, one that I’m a bit surprised not to already have. Here’s the writeup, heavily inspired by all those TV shows in which the people chasing the hero end up showing up just in time to deal with the problem the hero has discovered:

Principle of the Fugitive

During Roleplaying: You are a wanted individual, and your pursuers are always a few steps behind you.

Minor Twist: How did you reveal your location?

Major Twist: Who has shown up to take you in?

Principle of the Fugitive [A]: Overcome a problem by directing those pursuing you towards it and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.

Lot of early Hulk vibes here, albeit eight years late and with less of the anti-Soviet stuff.

Feels like he needs at least one mysterious one-armed man type in his rogues’ gallery. Maybe even several, just to confuse things and hammer the “Fugitive” point home. The show only ended in 1967 and would still have been in syndication, so even a period audience would get the ref, even if they can’t read the character sheet.

Using d10 Nuclear for every ability that has a keyed p/q certainly makes Struggling’s awful power dice array less painful, and it’s something you see with a fair few Elemental Manipulators by their very nature anyway. Not going to have an easy time with the rare Focused villain who’s immune or even inverting Nuclear, though.

Yeah, even with the improved die array that I gave to Struggling, there’s a trade-off between good dice and lots of dice going on. Lucking into a d10/d8/d8 archetype helped offset it a lot, but he’s a bit of a one-trick pony. Which is probably fine, but it’ll make for some serious problems from time to time.

Going to update with the next hero this afternoon, but first! A timeline of the Silver Age that I meant to put up Sunday and forgot.

This thing is very big, so I’m just putting it up as a PDF instead of subjecting you to that many lines. Enjoy!

Silver Age Timeline.pdf (81.0 KB)

The Randomizers:
Background 6, 5, 3 [Options: Performer, Academic, Upper Class, Struggling, Tragic, Dynasty]
Power Source 2, 2, 2 [Options: Training, Experimentation, Artificial Being]
Archetype 2, 4, 6 [Options: Shadow, Marksman, Close Quarters Combatant, Flyer, Robot/Cyborg]
Personality 4, 8, 9 [Options: Mischievous, Fast Talking, Inquisitive, Nurturing, Analytical, Naive]

Dawn Rider

Dawn Rider500×800 334 KB

Real Name: Ophelia Nelson, First Appearance: Candle in the Dark #1, March 1972
Background: Dynasty, Power Source: Training, Archetype: Marksman
Personality: Naive, Principles: Compassion, Family

Status Dice: Green d6, Yellow d6, Red d12. Health: 32 [Green 32-25, Yellow 24-12, Red 11-1]
Qualities: Banter d10, Ranged Combat d10, History d8, Magical Lore d8, Investigation d8, Raised in the Circus d8
Powers: Soul Knives d12, Presence d8, Agility d6, Awareness d6

Green Abilities:

• Knife Thrower [A]: Attack using Soul Knives. Ignore all penalties on this Attack, ignore any Defend actions, and it cannot be affected by Reactions.
• Offer Advice [A]: Boost using Banter to create one bonus using your Max die and another using your Mid die.
• Principle of Compassion [A]: Overcome to connect with an individual on a personal level and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
• Principle of Family [A]: Overcome in a situation where you have been given advice by your circus family and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.

Yellow Abilities:

• Perfectly Balanced [A]: Boost yourself using Soul Knives. That bonus is persistent and exclusive. Then, Attack using your Min die. You may use the bonus you just created on that Attack.
• Sympathize [A]: Attack or Overcome using Banter on an environmental target, using your Max+Min dice. If you roll doubles, take a minor twist.
• Trick Shot [A]: Attack using Ranged Combat. Use your Max die. If you roll doubles, use Max+Min instead.
• Backflip [R]: When you are attacked by a nearby enemy, the attacker also takes an equal amount of damage.

Red Abilities

• Heroic Shield [R]: When an opponent Attacks, you may become the target of that Attack and Defend by rolling your single Red zone die.
• Pinning Shots [A]: Whenever you Attack a target with an action, you may also Hinder that target with your Min die.
• Magical Apprentice [A]: Overcome using Magical Lore. Use your Max+Min dice.

Out

• Hinder an opponent by rolling your single Soul Knives die.

While Half-Life was creating disruptions in the super-science side of the Venture Comics world, the editors were still looking at shaking things up when it came to the setting’s magical forces. In preparation for an upcoming Veilwalker and Skybreaker crossover event, a five-issue limited series was launched in 1972 called “Candle in the Dark”.

Introduced in the first issue, Ophelia Nelson was an eighteen-year-old who had grown up in the life of the Galleria Brothers Traveling Circus. She had never known her father, her mother had vanished when she was a small child, and Ophelia had been raised by the circus folk, training as a champion knife-thrower and learning all the circus tricks. When she turned eighteen, however, the circus was attacked by demonic forces, and Ophelia learned that her mother had been the Night Rider! Taking up a collection of magical knives left for her, Ophelia helped to save her family and then began to track down the man who had sent those forces after them, a mad scientist who had stolen several mystical relics her mother had left in the care of the circus master…

Ophelia was a hopeful and popular character, one who gave her enemies the benefit of the doubt whether they were human or supernatural, but wasn’t afraid to do whatever it took to stop them. Her collection of soul knives each had a unique ability; one could cut through spirits while leaving physical matter untouched, another burned like silver when it touched evil beings, one was supernaturally sharp, another glowed with a pale white light that banished illusions, and one would only harm those with hatred in their hearts. Whatever was needed and not too over the top was available for the Dawn Rider to throw.

Behind the Scenes

There’s going to be a lot more to this story tomorrow, but Ophelia’s story is about to tie into another hero’s and I need them both to discuss it, so this one’s short.

For now, we have another legacy hero - this one, the daughter of the original circus monster hunter. I like how Dawn Rider’s abilities suggest her big difference - she has a few abilities based around talking and reaching out, but also she will stab you.

Hey I just realized-
Over in the Stuntman x Nightsnake writers’ room we were wondering what meta-verse Chris Hemsworth was famous for if there was no MCU Thor movie.
VCU Skybreaker! Cu Chulainn with a spear instead of Thor Odinson with a hammer.

Yeah, that could work.

The Randomizers:

Background 4, 7, 9 [Options: Military, Law Enforcement, Tragic, Dynasty, Medical, Created]

Power Source 4, 7, 1 [Options: Accident, Experimentation, Mystical, Relic, Powered Suit, Supernatural]

Archetype 6, 8, 6*[Options: Close Quarters, Flyer, Psychic, Minion-Maker, Form-Changer]*

Personality 5, 7, 7 [Options: Sarcastic, Stalwart, Stoic, Decisive, Naive]

Prometheus

Prometheus500×800 323 KB

Real Name: Frank Galleria, First Appearance: Candle in the Dark #2, April 1972

Background: Created, Power Source: Supernatural, Archetype: Form-Changer

Personality: Decisive, Principles: Split, Undead

Status Dice: Green d8, Yellow d8, Red d10. Health: 32 [Green 32-25, Yellow 24-12, Red 11-1]
Qualities: Close Combat d12, Fitness d10, Alertness d6, Magical Lore d6, Fragmented Minds d8

Powers: Strength d10, Intuition d10, Shapeshifting d10, Fire d8, Part Detachment d6

Green Abilities:

• Shift Form [A]: Take a basic action using Shapeshifting, then switch to any available form.
• Eternal Flesh [A]: Attack using Shapeshifting and Recover Health equal to your Min die. Return to your base form.
• Principle of the Split [A]: Overcome a situation that benefits from having a completely new outlook and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
• Principle of the Undead [A]: Overcome a situation where your undead nature comes in handy and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.

Green Forms:

Human Facsimile: Intuition d10, Shapeshifting d10, Vitality d10, Fire d8, Strength d6

• Tough (I): Reduce any physical or energy damage you take by 1 while you are in the Green zone, 2 while in the Yellow zone, and 3 while in the Red zone.

Towering Monster: Strength d10, Intuition d10, Shapeshifting d10, Fire d8, Vitality d6

• Smash [A]: Attack using Strength. Use your Max die.

Yellow Abilities:

• Bulk Up [A]: Boost yourself using Strength. Use your Max die. That bonus is persistent and exclusive.
• The Gift of Fire [A]: Boost an ally using Fire. You and nearby heroes in the Yellow or Red zones Recover Health equal to your Min die.

Yellow Form:

The Swarm: Intuition d10, Shapeshifting d10, Part Detachment d10, Fire d8, Speed d6

• Swarm Over [A]: Attack multiple targets using Part Detachment.

Red Abilities

• Emergency Change [R]: When hit with an Attack, change to any form before resolving the Attack. Take a minor twist.
• Paragon Feat [A]: Overcome using Strength in a situation that requires you to be more than humanly capable. Use your Max+Min dice. Boost all nearby allies with your Mid die.
• Immortal Flesh [A]: Hinder yourself using Shapeshifting. Use your Min die. Recover Health equal to your Max+Mid dice.

Out

• Boost an ally by rolling your single Intuition die.

When Dawn Rider went after the man who had attacked her circus, he unleashed his greatest creation against her. Powered by a spark of eternally-burning flame and built out of the (implied) bodies of various people he had dug up, Dr. Desmos unveiled his Modern Prometheus - a divine fire that would rain hell down upon the world that had spurned him!

To Dr. Desmos’s surprise, however, Dawn Rider tried to talk to Prometheus as they fought, asking him what he wanted and why he was angry. Over the course of their battle, Prometheus’s attacks slowed, and then stopped. When Feasmos angrily attempted to force his ultimate creation to fight, Prometheus turned on him, helping Dawn Rider stop his plot to unleash a monstrous horde on the city. In the final pages of Issue #2, Prometheus and Desmos plunged towards their deaths in the fire below, only for Dawn Rider to swoop in at the last second, snatching Prometheus from death. She offered to stay with the confused young man and help him find a place in the world, catching many readers (who were used to the “creation turns on creator, dies” arc) off-guard.

Adopted by Ricardo and Elena Galleria, the owners of Ophelia’s circus, Prometheus took the name ‘Frank’ after someone called him a young Frankenstein monster, and settled in to become a circus strongman. Over the next few issues of Candle in the Dark, he helped Dawn Rider search for information about her mother, tracking down monsters and mysteries, and learning how to reshape his flame-empowered flesh. In addition to his impressive abilities, Frank soon found that he was an amalgam of the minds of the people who he had been born from, and could draw on their abilities and perspectives when they were awake enough.

Although Dawn Rider and Prometheus did not solve the mystery of the Night Rider’s disappearance in their limited series, they settled into a close friendship, and the mystical clues that they discovered would soon bring them into the pages of the crossover between Veilwalker and Skybreaker, Dark Depths…

Behind the Scenes So yes, when I started to get Dawn Rider together I was already planning who her partner would be, and the answer had to be “monster that she reached out to”. In 1971, vampires, ghouls and werewolves are allowed if treated in the “classic tradition”, so an undead hero is okay, but only if he is a Frankestein. So what the hell, he’s a Frankenstein.

This particular Frankenstein has the ability to transform his body, pretending to be a living human or turning into a swarm of flesh parts that are not going to be depicted very gruesomely in this time period. He can also be slightly suggestive. So sexy Frankenstein. We need more sexy Frankensteins out there.

“Hey, hey! Don’t you chat up my monster, young lady!”

Looks like he’s got 32 Health, so that should be:

Health: 32 [Green 32-25, Yellow 24-12, Red 11-1]

So he’s the Newer Prometheus, then?

A Frankenstein with fire powers and a heart of flame is going to make the mob wonder why they bothered bringing all those torches, which at least ought to spare a perfectly good windmill - or if you prefer a more literary version, he should be just fine in the Arctic, too. This one’s self-heating!

Hah, yes. This Frankenstein is not going to be saying “Fire Bad” any time soon.

The Randomizers:
Background 3, 2, 6 [Options: Criminal, Performer, Academic, Upper Class, Struggling, Tragic]
Power Source 2, 6, 2 [Options: Training, Experimentation, Nature, Powered Suit, Artificial Being]
Archetype 5, 2, 6 [Options: Shadow, Blaster, Close Quarters, Armored, Flyer, Sorcerer]
Personality 8, 2, 3 [Options: Natural Leader, Impulsive, Sarcastic, Fast Talking, Alluring, Stoic]

Fly Boy

Fly Boy500×800 392 KB

Real Name: Tyrone Mack, First Appearance: Fly Boy #1, October 1973
Background: Struggling, Power Source: Powered Suit, Archetype: Flyer
Personality: Alluring, Principles: Business, Equality

Status Dice: Green d6, Yellow d8, Red d10. Health: 30 [Green 30-23, Yellow 22-12, Red 11-1]
Qualities: Banter d10, Investigation d8, Technology d8, Criminal Underworld d6, Ranged Combat d6, Community Leader d8
Powers: Power Suit d10, Flight d10, Presence d8, Inventions d6, Awareness d6

Green Abilities:

• Sturdy (I): Reduce physical damage you take by 1 while you are in the Green zone, 2 while in the Yellow zone, and 3 while in the Red zone.
• Boogie Down [R]: When you are Attacked while Flying, you may Defend yourself by rolling your single Flight die.
• Dig It [A]: Attack using Banter. Defend against all Attacks against you using your Min die until your next turn.
• Principle of Business [A]: Overcome in a situation related to your junkyard or your community and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
• Principle of Equality [A]: Overcome to protect the rights of the underprivileged and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.

Yellow Abilities:

• To The Max [A]: Boost yourself using Power Suit. Use your Min+Mid dice. That bonus is persistent and exclusive.
• Flying Kick [A]: Attack up to three different targets using Flight. Apply your Max die to one, your Mid die to another, and your Min die to the third. If you roll doubles, take a minor twist or take irreducible damage equal to that die.
• Ground Slam [A]: Hinder multiple targets using Power Suit. Apply your Min die to each of them.

Red Abilities

• Flying Tackle [A]: Attack using Flight. Use your Max die. Then, Hinder that target using your Mid+Min dice.
• Hard Hitter [A]: Attack multiple nearby targets using Power Suit. Use your Max+Mid dice. Take irreducible damage equal to your Min die.

Out

• Boost an ally by rolling your single Power Suit die.

In 1973, Venture Comics decided to get involved in the Blaxploitation craze. Black Fist: Grandmaster of the Streets was in the middle of a popular run at Sentinel Comics, and the editors decided to go a slightly different route; instead of blending blaxploitation and martial arts, they blended it with the hypertech heroes they were fond of.

Tyrone Mack was a young Vietnam veteran who owned a small junkyard in the slums of Ferristown. Respected by the community, he was a hard-worker and a harder flirt who took his responsibilities seriously. But criminal elements were moving into the area, bringing drugs and violence with them, backed by a mysterious force that seemed to be slowly taking over the city. So Tyrone decided to fight back. Using a bunch of scrap in his yard, including some things that probably shouldn’t have been there, he built himself a suit of powered flight armor and took to the skies, delivering smooth justice to the crooks and creeps moving in on his neighbourhood. He didn’t have the resources to just have whatever weapons and gadgets he needed, and more than a few Fly Boy issues opened with him scrounging parts for his suit from his yard, or even claiming supertech gear built by the supervillains he fought and integrating them into his own arsenal.

Fly Boy wasn’t a top-seller, but it was stable and moderately popular, and the writers of Venture Comic quickly took the opportunity to link it to other heroes operating in the area through the creation of the criminal organization that wanted Fly Boy dead, linking him to Flatfoot and Half-Life and starting the process of building a firmer network of supertech crime stories that would radiate out from Ferristown in the coming years…

Behind the Scenes

It’s the right time for it, and if a blaxploitation hero doesn’t appear here they probably won’t for a while. I had originally planned on a punchier hero, but the idea of a homemade junkyard robot suit going toe to toe with sleek criminal operations was just too tempting to pass up.

Mechanically, Fly Boy is designed to sweep through gangs of thugs, using his inherent defense and his Attack-Defend combos to withstand blows, then switching over to multiple hits to take down groups and using his Reaction to shrug off the leftovers. He doesn’t have much in the way of team support options; it’s not what he’s used to doing.

Reminds me of a low-budget Hardware from Milestone, but of course they don’t exist in this metaverse and wouldn’t be around for 20 years yet if they did.

Out of curiosity, what are you planning to use for a quality in close combat pools, Technology for his skill with his gear? Community Leader doesn’t seem quite right on the surface of it, unless maybe it includes his GI training.

Honestly, a lot of the time he’s probably using Banter + Power Suit or Flight, throwing out catchphrases that draw attention and throw people off-guard as he deploys the suit to batter them. If he doesn’t have good banter to deploy, though, Technology will generally do the trick.

Sounds good. Bet he hears “You think you’re funny?!?” almost as often as Peter Parker does.

Assuming he makes it to the Iron Age, I bet that’s going to be true! In the 70s, he’s still working on Blaxploitation rules, and his quips are each big badass splash panels of him taking some humorless goon working for The Man down.

I love him already

The Randomizers:
Background 8, 4, 7 [Options: Military, Law Enforcement, Struggling, Dynasty, Adventurer, Retired]
Power Source 6, 3, 6 [Options: Genetic, Nature, Radiation, Artificial Being, Cosmos]
Archetype 1, 2, 5 [Options: Speedster, Shadow, Powerhouse, Blaster, Close Quarters, Armored]
Personality 8, 9, 9 [Options: Fast Talking, Inquisitive, Naive, Apathetic, Jaded]

Winter Wolf

Winter Wolf500×800 387 KB

Real Name: Bill Harrison, First Appearance: Cryptic Trails Vol. 3 #1, June 1974

Background: Law Enforcement, Power Source: Nature, Archetype: Blaster
Personality: Jaded, Principles: Detachment, Flora
Status Dice: Green d10, Yellow d8, Red d8. Health: 30 [Green 30-23, Yellow 22-12, Red 11-1]

Qualities: Investigation d10, Ranged Combat d10, Self-Discipline d8, Alertness d8, Wilderness Expert d8
Powers: Cold d10, Weather d10, Speed d8, Animal Control d6

Green Abilities:

• Chill [A]: Hinder using Cold. Use your Max die. You may split that penalty across multiple nearby targets.
• Quickdraw [A]: Attack using Cold. Ignore all penalties on this Attack, ignore any Defend actions, and it cannot be affected by Reactions.
• Winter’s Touch [A]: Attack using Weather. Hinder using your Min die.
• Principle of Detachment [A]: Overcome a challenge related to duress or fear and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
• Principle of Flora [A]: Overcome with the aid of local flora and use your Max die. You
• and each of your allies gain a hero point.

Yellow Abilities:

• Snowman (I): If you would take damage from Cold, instead reduce that damage to 0 and Recover that amount of Health.
• Lead the Way [A]: Attack using Speed. Use your Max die. If you choose another hero to go next, Boost that hero using your Mid die.
• Showdown [A]: Attack using Cold. Use your Max+Min dice. Then gain a Boost using your Mid die. The target of the Attack gains a bonus of the same size.
• Whistle Up A Horse [A]: Gain a d8 minion. It takes its turn before yours, but goes away at the end of the scene. You may only have one such minion at a time.

Red Abilities

• Gun Down [A]: Attack up to three targets, one of which must be you, using Cold. Assign your Min, Mid, and Max dice as you choose among those targets.
• Defender of the Land [R]: When an opponent Attacks, you may become the target of that Attack and Defend by rolling your single Speed die.

Out

• Remove a bonus or penalty of your choice.

In 1974, Venture decided to take another swing at writing a Western comic with the second reboot of Cryptic Trails. This time, they went a weirder route, with much more success, at least for the duration of the Bronze Age. Set in 1872 on the northern edge of the newly-established Yellowstone National Park, Cryptic Trails took its title more literally than previous iterations, focusing on the inhabitants of Lostwood, Montana - all of whom were various sorts of monsters and cryptids, some of them locals and others pushed west by the relentless march of American expansion. The small town was nestled in the trees, protected from discovery by simple spells and charms, and protected by the town’s sheriff, Bill Harrison. A Sasquatch who had lived in the woods for years, Harrison took the town under his wing, acting as their protector, guide, and friend using his mystical mastery of winter and his quick reflexes.

Cryptic Trails was initially pitched as an eight-issue miniseries, but its success was enough for it to be promoted to a main title in 1975. Winter Wolf would go on to protect his town from witch hunters, cattle rustlers, robber barons and gunslingers looking to make a name for themselves by bagging monsters. While the title was very much a period piece, occasional references to the magical world of Venture Comics ensured that it was canonized as part of the broader superhero setting, including a crossover with the Dusk Rider, an early ancestor of Venture’s popular circus heroes, who came to town hunting Winter Wolf only to change his mind and promise to keep the town’s location a secret.

Behind the Scenes

Full disclosure: I designed a pretty interesting fae character to act as a Reverie sidekick, then remembered that Law Enforcement / Artificial Being was, in fact, Flatfoot’s combination and under my rules I could only use it to reboot him, so I went back to the drawing board and switched over to the Weird West! Weird West is a really neat period in comics, and I was hoping to get a chance to have one, so Law Enforcement / Blaster turned out to be a blessing. This character probably gets revised or lost in the 80s, then pops up from time to time Jonah Hex-style.

Instead of using a gun, this particular sheriff just points at you and fires off a blast of cold that has the same effect, presumably with the imagery of finger-guns or something similar. The Principle of Flora represents the Sasquatch’s traditional Indigenous role as a defender of the forests, and Detachment is there to make him more of a sheriff.

Meanwhile - five villains next week! I’ve decided to alternate heroes and villains week by week starting in the Bronze Age, giving me a bit more historical consistency as I put people into timelines.

Lostwood itself seems like a pretty great idea, and it could easily wind up being a timeless legend that quietly exists even in modern day comics. Gives writers someplace to pull supernaturals from when needed and send them to when they’re not, a Weird West never really goes out of style either, so that’s a help.

The sheriff’s office, weather powers, name and general furriness gives me a bit of a Bigby Wolf from Fables vibe. I imagine the Lostwood townsfolk would include a lot of First Peoples mythical types, maybe awkwardly sharing the place with settler folk tales icons (or their relatives, anyway - Paul Bunyan’s kid?) and cryptofauna, along with the odd European entity that originally came over with colonist households and decided to stay.

I see what you’re doing. First Dusk Rider, then Night Rider, then Dawn Rider. What’s next? Day Rider? Morning Rider? Noon Rider?

One thing’s for sure, he’s not gonna let em catch the Midnight Rider.

Yeah, they took the midnight train, heading any where…

Speaking of circus rides and Riders (both Night and Dawn), I finally got off my duff and did an environment writeup for a Ferris wheel as I promised (or is that threatened?) to do months ago. More of a big civic design you might find in Ferristown than a carny ride, but it’ll give Flatfoot and company something to play around with.

That is very cool! Although it seems like, with a 50/50 chance of adding two more minions on each damage save, the carny workers would spread in a hurry. It feels like there should be a limit on how often “Hey, Rube” can trigger across a set?

Randomizers:

Approach: 10, 7, 2 [Options: Skilled, Focused, Specialized, Overpowered, Tactician, Leech*]*
Archetype: 7, 2, 5 [Options: Inventor, Indomitable, Formidable, Loner, Legion*]*
Upgrade: 4, 12, 1 [Options: Mook Squad, Villainous Vehicle, Brainwashing Zone*]*
Mastery: 12, 3, 8 [Options: Conquest, Profitability Superiority, Malice*]*

Isotope

Isotope500×800 320 KB

Real Name: Amita Randall, First Appearance: Fallout #14, December 1971

Approach: Leech, Archetype: Legion
Upgrade: Villainous Vehicle, Mastery: Malice

Status Dice: 9+ minions: d4. 5-8 minions: d6. 3-4 minions: d8. 1-2 minions: d10. No minions: d12. Health: 10+5H (Upgraded 25+5H)

Qualities: Close Combat d8, Science d8, Imposing d8, Mob Minds d8
Powers: Nuclear d10, Speed d8, Intangibility d6

Abilities:

• Radioactive Aura [A]: Hinder multiple targets using Nuclear. Recover Health equal to your Min die. If you roll doubles, also Attack one of those targets using your Max die.
• Fission [A]: Roll your single status die. Deal yourself that much irreducible damage. Create that many d6 minions.
• Reabsorb [A]: Remove any number of Legion-controlled minions. Roll their
• dice and Recover that much Health.
• Devour Force [R]: When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling your single Nuclear die. If this negates the Attack entirely, Hinder that target and Boost yourself with that same die roll.
• Unfocused Hate (I): Whenever multiple Legion minions all take the same action against the same target, you must roll all of their dice at the same time and use the lowest rolling die amongst them for each minion’s result on that action.
• (U) Warframe (I): The Warframe is a d10 lieutenant with the following powers:
  • Nuclear Core [A]: Add minions to the Legion squad equal to half the Warframe’s current die size. Those minions are of a size equal to the highest die size already existing in that group. If the vehicle has a bonus or penalty, adjust the number of minions created by that amount and then remove that mod.
  • Nuclear Bath [A]: Roll the Warframe’s die. Isotope Recovers that much Health.
  • Sturdy (I): When rolling a damage save, add 2 to the result.
• Master of Malice (I): When you take an action to demonstrate or indulge in cruelty, automatically succeed at an Overcome to inflict pain or fear.

Common Scene Elements:

• An unstable doomsday device.
• A villain she is temporarily working with to her own ends.
• A cityscape full of civilians Isotope is threatening to draw the heroes out.

Half-Life’s early foes were a mixture of hired supervillains sent to track him down, and military opponents who believed that he was a threat. In Fallout #14, however, a new and deadly foe was introduced who would quickly become a serious problem. Over the course of the previous issues, the gang that Paul had been working for had successfully reconstructed the device that gave him his powers, and tracked down his unique power signature. They attempted to activate the device again to give nuclear powers to a squad of their hired goons.

This proved to be a mistake. The device erupted once again, but this time, its power wasn’t contained. The intended goons were instantly vaporized, as were most of the scientists working on the project, and all of them fused with the lead scientist, Amita Randall. She was instantly devoured from within, transforming into an unstable nuclear being who could fission off chimeric fragments of the many people who had died to create her. Convinced that Half-Life had somehow sabotaged her data, she sought revenge against both him and her former masters as the vicious villainess Isotope, gradually taking control of her criminal organization while pursuing the hero!

Keen-eyed readers noted many similarities between Isotope’s powers and the more stable powers displayed by Fission, and these were not an accident. As Isotope pursued Half-Life, it was revealed that she had been attempting to reverse-engineer leftover technology from both Neutrino’s old ship and the dimensional vessel that had been destroyed by Ignition, resulting in the nuclear-powered disasters that had afflicted both her and Half-Life. Isotope would go on to be a frequent foe to both Half-Life and the Vanguards, alternating between revelling in her condition and seeking a cure, no matter the cost to the civilians around her. In Fallout #24, she unveiled a Warframe built out of the parts of her experimental engine, capable of boosting her powers to threaten entire cities; while the first model Warframe was destroyed in Fallout #25, Isotope would continue to unveil new versions on a semi-regular basis.

Behind the Scenes

And with that, every villain option has been chosen at least once this phase!

Chief Lackey Rich built a very different Leech Legion; I don’t know if this one is very good mechanically, but I think she has a chance. She hurts herself to create massive swarms of minions, and then if you focus on her she defends herself and absorbs minions to heal, and if you focus on the minions she messes you up and heals as a side effect. She heals a lot, is what I’m saying. She’s definitely much more dangerous as an upgraded character, with enough health to loop the trick and a support vehicle that can either add to the swarm or keep Isotope healed up.

They’re a puzzle minion, much like Major Twist in the Guise book is a puzzle lieutenant. If you just punch them out, they’re potentially a real problem. If you can Hinder them before they’re forced to save (often taking some teamwork to pull off) their odds of multiplying (and surviving) drop off sharply. Even if you can’t get the timing to work out all the time, their small die sizes make even minor Hinders pretty effective against them taking effective actions too.

Also, in that particular suggested scene they probably won’t be hostile to the heroes unless they insist on chasing off potential riders or stopping the wheel themselves (presumably to limit the villains’ movements) and even then a suitable Overcome could persuade them to cooperate. They’re more likely to get in the way of whichever villain tries to escape on the ground, and whatever henchmen they have with them. The ticket booth till’s right there, and a little en passant robbery is pretty appealing if the heroes aren’t pressing too hard. What could a few carnies do, right?

Love the background story, and the spawn/reabsorb cycle combined with a strong defensive Reaction is classic Legion villain material.

I think she’s okay as-is and as you said much, much more potent with her VV upgrade. Much like my power-suckers, she’s got that terrible base Health and relies on rolling her status die for minion generation. Really needs not to crap out on her early rolls or the whole engine kind of sputters and stalls, so distractions to keep from getting focused down early help a lot. An environment or villain ally with hero-Hinder twists will help her and her minions stay alive, and any that can grant her a re-roll (a Tactician villain, or perhaps a lieutenant with a custom ability) for when she whiffs that d12 status on round one would be a big help. A Bruiser ally with Living Wall never hurts either.

That makes sense! I always forget that Hinders can apply to damage saves.

Heh. I’ve seen my players deliberately avoid attacking a lieutenant with multiple penalties on them because they didn’t want to “waste” them on a damage save. Reducing the guy by one die step was going to have less effect than all those mods messing with his next action would, at least in their opinion.

That group was a little buggy about trying to one-shot lieutenants by doubling their die size with a massive Attack whenever they could. Theoretically more action-efficient than chipping down step by step…theoretically.

Randomizers:
Approach: 3, 6, 5 [Options: Prideful, Bully, Disruptive, Mastermind, Specialized, Generalist*]*
Archetype: 7, 1, 2 [Options: Predator, Inventor, Formidable, Inhibitor, Loner*]*
Upgrade: 6, 10, 4 [Options: Villainous Vehicle, Power Upgrade II, Calming Aura*]*
Mastery: 4, 5, 10 [Options: Enforced Order, Mad Science, Total Chaos*]*

Rougarou

Rougarou500×800 363 KB

Real Name: Raoul Duchamp, First Appearance: Candle in the Dark #3, May 1972
Approach: Specialized, Archetype: Loner
Upgrade: Power Upgrade, Mastery: Total Chaos

Status Dice: No other villains: d10. 1-2 other villains: d8. 3+ other villains: d6. Health: 30+5H (Upgraded 50+5H)
Qualities: Close Combat d12, Imposing d8, Natural Hunter d8
Powers: Strength d10, Animal Control d8

Abilities:

• Rend and Tear [A]: Attack using Close Combat against one target with your Max die, another with your Mid die, and a third with your Min die.
• Pounce [A]: Attack using Close Combat and use your Max+Min dice. Defend yourself using your Mid die.
• Terrible Howl [A]: Hinder one target using Imposing and use your Max die. Attack that target using your Mid die.
• Lord of the Pack [R]: When a non-minion ally in the scene is defeated, roll your single Close Combat die as a Boost for yourself.
• Master Shapeshifter [R] When you would be Hindered or when an Attack would reduce you to 0 Health, reduce the penalty to -1 or reduce that damage to 1.
• (U) Power of the Moon (I): Increase Strength to d12 and Awareness to d10.
• (U) Master of Total Chaos (I): If you are in a situation where everything is spiralling out of control, automatically succeed in an Overcome to accomplish a task by throwing out the rules.

Common Scene Elements:

• One or two other werewolf villains who are infected by his curse and who mainly get in his way. These new werewolves are usually Underpowered, with a Bruiser who can redirect attacks aimed at Rougarou to themselves and a Predator who tries to pull outlying heroes away to munch on.
• A rural or wilderness environment with civilian targets that Rougarou is hunting, whose moonlight will empower him and his pack.
• A multi-step challenge to weaken Rougarou’s curse and make him easier to subdue.

After joining forces, Dawn Rider and Prometheus began to search for the reasons that their circus had been attacked, and the source of the divine flame that Prometheus had been created with. They soon discovered that some malign force was releasing cursed beings in an attempt to kill Dawn Rider, as part of an ancient ritual whose details remained vague to them. The most dangerous of these forces proved to be the monstrous werewolf Rougarou.

Introduced in the final pages of Issue #3 when he captured the Galleria Circus’s strongman and transformed him into a subservient wolf-man, Rougarou was initially presented as a powerful and cruel werewolf, determined to expand his pack by infecting only the strongest and toughest humans. Over the course of Issues #3 and #4, Rougarou diverted other monsters towards the duo, hoping to weaken them before he and his strongest wolves moved in for the kill, and then he struck, attacking the Galleria Circus and transforming several members of Dawn Rider’s troupe into minions.

But in the finale, as Dawn Rider and Prometheus subdued Rougarou and he bragged that her family could not be saved unless she killed him, Prometheus was able to see into the monster’s heart, and discovered the twin souls warring within him. Dawn Rider risked herself on a dangerous magical ritual and succeeded in binding Rougarou deep within the heart of the human mystic who it inhabited. They met Raoul Duchamp, and learned that he was the host of a terrible curse, which would inhabit anyone who slew him - Rougarou’s true plan had been to take the body of Prometheus for itself! Raoul had held the spirit of Rougarou for decades, staying in remote corners of the world and limiting its power, until a powerful and beautiful man had arrived at his doorstep, unbinding all of his protections with a single touch. The man had said only one thing - that this would aid in the return of Atlantis…

This was the preparation for Venture’s upcoming major event, “Dark Depths”, a crossover between several of the comics’ magical forces that combined Skybreaker Adventures, Dark Rivers, and Liberty’s Dream. Although their own limited series was done, both Dawn Rider and Prometheus would take part in the crossover as they sought to learn the secrets of Atlantis and the fall of the Fomorians!

As for Rougarou, his role in this crossover was done, but Raoul would go on to be a recurring villain across several lines, especially for Dawn Rider and Veilwalker. The werewolves that he turned could be saved if the curse was contained once again, but there would be long periods of time in which Rougarou took control of Raoul, and the magician sought new ways to contain the beast or cure himself. A past version of the monster even appeared as a foe in Cryptic Trails.

Behind the Scenes

It only seemed fitting for Venture Comics to do their own version of Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman.

I don’t know if Venture is going to add vampires to the mix; if they do, it probably won’t be as one of this run of villains because I don’t get very many! But I like the idea of a werewolf pack leader who is actually very bad at leading a pack and is at his best once his servants are defeated. Secondary park members will likely defend him, throwing themselves in the path of attacks and giving him time to get stronger as the moon’s light grows.

The added complication that you can’t kill Rougarou is really just there to create narrative tension; you can lock the host up, but if you kill them you merely inherit the curse. It’s a mean one, probably dating back a long time! Maybe someone will figure something out in future phases and this guy can become a hero, or maybe not. We will see.

That one Loner ability where you self-Boost when an ally drops produces some counterintuitive effects, which I found pretty amusing. My experiment with it carried it to extremes by using a whole team of “Loners” in name only, all of whom Boost each time one of the others drops. Of course, it would be more efficient to just use a few lieutenants instead, but where’s the fun in that?

So what happens if/when the curse-bearer just up and suicides? That ought to put an end to it, there being no living killer to transfer to - or maybe you wind up with a reanimated zombie werewolf instead?

I think in that case, the curse is loosed and simply races to the nearest possible host, although “reanimated zombie werewolf” is also an interesting possibility. Maybe that’s what will happen in the Iron Age!

It does seem like a very Iron Age thing to have happen. Even if not a typical mindless zombie, an effectively immortal revenant werewolf that can only die if someone else kills them and then passes along the curse is the kind of angsty edgelord stuff you started seeing a lot of in that era and going forward.

Randomizers:
Approach: 2, 6, 7 [Options: Skilled, Disruptive, Focused, Mastermind, Specialized, Adaptive]
Archetype: 8, 5, 3 [Options: Bruiser, Indomitable, Inhibitor, Domain, Fragile]
Upgrade: 1, 8, 9 [Options: Mook Squad, Quality Upgrade II, Defense Shield]
Mastery: 2, 5, 11 [Options: Behind the Curtain, Mad Science, Unfathomable]

Eochu Bres, King of Atlantis

Eochu Bres500×800 365 KB

Real Name: Eochu Bres, First Appearance: Dark Rivers #44, Sep 1972
Approach: Mastermind, Archetype: Domain
Upgrade: Quality Upgrade, Mastery: Unfathomable

Status Dice: Based on environment minions, lieutenants, and/or challenges. 3+: d10. 1-2: d8. None: d6. Health: 50+5H (Upgraded 70+5H)
Qualities: Persuasion d10, Magical Lore d8, Close Combat d8, Alertness d8, Insight d8, King of Atlantis d8
Powers: Presence d12, Radiant d10, Teleportation d8

Abilities:

• The Beautiful One [A]: Hinder all opponents that can see or hear you using Persuasion. Boost yourself using your Max die.
• Shining Sea [A]: Attack one hero using Magical Lore. Hinder all heroes using your Max die.
• Master of the Dark Sea (I): Ignore damage from Environment sources during the environment’s turn.
• Call the Tides [A]: Activate one of the environment’s twists in its current zone or one zone closer to red.
• Sand Against the Waves [R]: When Attacked, redirect the Attack to an environment minion.
• (U) Immortal Demigod (I): Increase your Persuasion to d12, and your Magical Lore, Close Combat, Alertness, and Insight to d10.
• (U) Master of the Unfathomable (I): If you are in a situation involving eldritch and disturbing forces, automatically succeed at an Overcome to do the bidding of the Formorians.

Common Scene Elements:

• An immensely hostile environment, either in the halls of Atlantis or where the Dark Sea is invading a civilian locale.
• Atlantean Royal Guard: A set of D8 minions who get +2 to save against environmental damage.
• Caoránach: A terrible and nigh-immortal sea monster, built as an Overpowered Titan with “You Are Not Worthy of My Power”, “Do Not Dare Touch Me”, “Down the Hatch”, “Foolish Insect”, and “You are But Gnats to Me”. Caoránach can only swim within the Dark Sea; additional Challenges can force the Sea back from areas of the environment to keep the serpent from attacking.