THE STRANGERS
On June 24, 1993 San Francisco, a cable car goes out of control and crashes into a car driven by Johnny Domino. This drives a piece of metal into his brain. This accident causes Johnny to no longer need sleep and to develop the ability to hear evil thoughts, which led to his becoming the Ultra-Hero, Night Man. The passengers all develop super-powers to a various degree.
The six who would become the Strangers later gather at the spot of the crash site and come into conflict with the sorceress Yrial,who is ordered by her Chieftan to accompany the Group after they leave their Floating Sky-Island.
Getting established
Elana came to sponsor the team, having developed a fortune in the fashion business. She gives them all pagers, when they are called in to battle the villain named Deathwish. Their adversary turns out to be another cable car passenger; he has killed an entire block of people. He is soon defeated.During the Course of their First case, the Strangers develop a working relationship with police officer Captain Jacob Rowe. He had become the San Francisco police department liaison with 'Ultras', super-powered beings.
Macyn's Notes:
This was actually my Favorite Team of the 90's,save for my Beloved Avengers(Who could do no wrong in my Discipled eyes...
),and for several good reasons:-They were the second book(I think) besides Prime,that came out of Malibu.
-They used the Cable-car Incident to have Multiple Heroes&Villian's come out of it(remember,there were 52 people on that Car that got zapped by the Jumpstart.and i don't count Night Man in that number because he was outside the car&just got hit but it..)
-They swapped around a lot of the Steroetypes for team Builders(making the Beautiful Sorceress-type the Angry Woman&giving a White Call girl a naive personality was genius,at least to 16-year old me)
THE ROSTER:
ATOM BOB(Bob Hardin) Occupation:Art Student
STRENGTH 3 STAMINA 4 AGILITY 5 FIGHTING 10 DEXTERITY 4 INTELLIGENCE 0 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 4
Skills:
Deception 8 (+7) Expertise (Art) 4 (+4) Perception 2 (+2)
Advantages:
Accurate Attack, Agile Feint, Defensive Attack, Diehard, Improved Grab, Evasion 2, Fast Grab, Great Endurance, Improved Defense, Improved Initiative 2, Startle, Takedown, Set-Up, Teamwork
Powers:
"Molecular Control"
Force Field 15 (Extras: Impervious 9) [24]
Senses 7 (Detect Energy- Ranged 4, Acute, Analytical) [7]
Transform (Anything to Anything Else) 20 (Extras: Continuous) [120]
Offense:
Unarmed +6 (+0 Damage, DC 15)
Initiative +3
Defenses:
Dodge +6 (DC 16), Parry +6 (DC 16), Toughness +1 (+16 Force Field, +26 Full Field, +5-12 Impervious), Fortitude +2, Will +5
Background:
Bob Hardin and his friend Hugh Fox were college students riding the San Francisco cable car when it was struck by a jumpstart effect from the Entity on the Moon, changing everyone onboard into Ultras. Bob and Hugh joined forces with four other strangers from the cable car and the sorceress Yrial to become super-heroes. Bob chose the name Atom Bob and began a relationship with the team leader, Lady-Killer, who was nearly ten years older than him.
Macyn's Notes:
I thought Bob was the Coolest looking hero i'd ever seen(I still do to this day).Now his power did seem a little...Deus Ex-Machina to me,but after reading the Hardcase Crossover they had with him(especially after Allaadin explained how his power had to work on Concentration),i could see the uses of it.Hated how they turned him into a villian later though...
