Jab’s Builds! (Miss Piggy! The Swedish Chef! Sweetums! Gonzo!)

Where in all of your character write ups will go.
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KorokoMystia
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (U.S. Agent! BattleStar! Bloodstain!)

Post by KorokoMystia »

Huh, Americop shares a last name with Punisher 2099 (Jake Gallows). Maybe there’s a distant relation there?
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (U.S. Agent! BattleStar! Bloodstain!)

Post by Woodclaw »

KorokoMystia wrote: Wed Oct 21, 2020 9:03 pm Huh, Americop shares a last name with Punisher 2099 (Jake Gallows). Maybe there’s a distant relation there?
Given that we are talking Gruenwald, that's a distinct possibility.
Jabroniville wrote: Wed Oct 21, 2020 10:11 am CAP AND KILLING:

-I kind of liked what Ed Brubaker did on his Cap run in terms of theories on heroes killing people. Brubaker took a REALLY negative viewpoint of people who figured that Cap was your classic "Killing people is ALWAYS wrong" heroes- "What are you, an idiot? Cap was a soldier- of COURSE he's killed people!" But he didn't portray him as some gun-crazy psychopath like the worst depictions of The Punisher- he even pointed it out (through Sharon Carter) that Cap usually didn't hit that hard unless he NEEDED to (after Cap had killed some A.I.M. goons on a subway). I noticed this in a '90s WWII Flashback story, where some American soldiers had a grenade tossed at them, only for Cap's Shield to appear from out of sight, bouncing it back into the German platoon from whence it came. Teen Jab read that and was like "... Cap just KILLED those people!" Because of COURSE he did- it was war, and they weren't out to play nice or do the "human life is sacred" thing.

-This more pragmatic approach to killing in combat is something comics rarely does. It's kind of a nice difference from a lot of heroes (who often go to insane lengths NOT to kill people), and a lot of "always kill" vigilantes, which are also a bit tiresome at this point. This is a guy who DOES value human life- having lived through some of the worst times in human history, watching hundreds gunned down in moments. BUT he will absolutely not hesitate to kill someone if it will save someone else's life (or his own). They kind of angle things this way when he decapitated Baron Blood way back when (to save some civilians, all Man of Steel-style), and was horrified and shaken by the experience. Of course, Mark Gruenwald (who HATED the whole "Violent Vigilante" thing, and for good reason- it hit an insane excess in the '90s) would generally always avoid this with his Cap.
I think that what makes Bruebaker's answer more bearable than Zack Snyder's on a similar subject is that, despite a rather similar wording, Bruebaker wasn't talking about absolutes, he was talking about a very specific character in a very specific situation. It also helps that he didn't make this particular idea into a focal point of the character (or his run), but rather added it as a layer of characterization. It could be easily considered a "soft-retcon" from a certain perspective, but I think it's more fair to say that it's something that has rarely been addressed up to this point.
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The Americops

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

THE AMERICOPS
Created By:
Nick Spencer & Angel Unzueta
First Appearance: Sam Wilson: Captain America #9 (July 2016)
Role: Extremist Organization

-The original Americop is likely meant to be a reference to the dark side of law & order, and a timely rendition of police brutality, as well as a takedown of murderous vigilantes in comic books. Now that he's dead, the role is taken up somewhat by this goon squad- the Americops. As the villains of a book about a Black superhero, the links to police brutality would seem to be obvious, except these aren't really cops- they're just the private security force of Keane Industries, run by a rich douchebag named Paul Keane. So they're more of a reference to "Big Evil Corporate Ass-Clowns", which is one of the oldest things to rip on in comics. However, it seems that Keane has sent them out to various cities, where their tactics have reduced crime rates, at the cost of a lot of nastiness towards minority communities- aaaaaaaaaaaand we're back to talking about modern policing again. Looks like them being a private force gives Nick Spencer JUST enough of an out to not accuse regular cops of open racism, while also totally being about that same kind of thing.

-It's a complex issue, of course- poor minority communities are one of the largest sources of urban crime, and dealing with the problem of crime in a punitive way involves punishing those same people, leading to an endless cycle of police attacking members of those communities, backlash, resentment, hostility, stereotyping, and more, with no easy answers.

-But of course it turns out the Americops are really just being sent to areas where a Keane subsidiary has bought vacant properties. Once the inhabitants are harassed into leaving, the areas become available for gentrification- ANOTHER big issue surrounding minority communities! ie. the notion that police harassment, increasing rents and getting rid of the "undesirables" can create urban renewal... at the cost of the unfortunates that are deemed "undesirable". In a grand scale, this is what has turned Manhattan into a massive playground for the wealthy and tourists... but also driven out all of its character- never mind made it unlivable for anyone who isn't rich.

-So with all of this being wrapped up with this group of guys, they also tangle with racial discrimination when they're seen badly beating the Black hero Rage for a crime committed by two criminals- Man Mountain Marko & Speed Demon. With Sam Wilson (as Captain America) feuding with them, they become the country's main police force during Secret Empire, when a HYDRA-aligned Steve Rogers takes over the nation. The regime is overthrown, and soon Baron Strucker takes control of the group to use as his primary agents.

-All in all, I don't really hate the idea here. While it's OBVIOUSLY politically charged and clearly there as a liberal agenda talking point by the creative team, there's just enough deniability, with the open use of corporate greed (an old thing in comics, much as that's become part of the agenda, too) and more, that there's a lot to play with here. It's a tad lacking in nuance, but comics was never so big on that in the first place.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sat Aug 20, 2022 8:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (U.S. Agent! BattleStar! Bloodstain!)

Post by Ken »

Watching someone die is horrible. If one possesses super-vision, I imagine it would be worse. Having to inflict death on another person has got to be horrible as well, especially if one is close enough to see it. Captain America, or any member of the Justice Society, or Invaders, or the Invincible Bunch of Guys, or whomever, killing an enemy combatant during the war, sadly, makes a tremendous amount of sense.

Post-war, it would make sense for any of them, save maybe the Spectre, to say 'never again', and then go out of their way to avoid killing anyone ever again. But if they absolutely had to, if they had no other option, as a way to save lives, I'm sure they would. Captain America has proven this.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Machinesmith! The Kommandos! U.S. Agent!)

Post by Woodclaw »

Ares wrote: Wed Oct 21, 2020 3:17 am From what I can remember, Cap being forcibly replace with John Walker at the time was fairly novel. Before John the passing of the torch was usually pretty cordial, and hadn't really been done all that often. Rhodey took over for Tony, but that was Tony's decision since he didn't trust himself to be Iron Man. While John Stewart replaced Hal Jordan, originally John had served as a backup Lantern and he took the role full time when Hal quit the Corps for a bit. Even Guy Gardner was less a full on replacement for Hal as a new element in the Lanterns to cause trouble.

The Knightfall story with Batman wouldn't happen until almost 5 years later, and initially was simply Bruce asking Azrael to take over while he was incapacitated. It didn't become violent until much later.

So for the time, John Walker being outright antagonistic was pretty new, and it was clear from the get go John had anger issues, given he directly challenged Cap to a fight for no reason other than because he thought he was better than him. He always had some anger from the start, and seeing his parents die could easily be something to push him over the edge, especially when he was already straining under the cracks from a role that turned out to be more than he was ready to handle. And John eventually became more stable later on.
I never had the occasion to read the original version of Stark's passing the torch to Jim Rhodes for the first time, but in some later "reshooting" of that period things didn't seem all that smooth. From what I read and recalled, Jim donned the armor in an emergency, since Tony was spiralling down into alcoholism once again and the Stark Industries were under attack from Stane's goons. Afterward, Tony decided to give him the armor on a permanent basis because, at that point, he didn't give a fuck about anything but whiskey. Jim was, to put it midly, unhappy and this was, apparently, one of the factors in his later mental breakdown (alongside the fact that using the armor for too long was melting his brain, since it was built based on Tony's brain patterns), which lead to the first of many armored battles between the two of them.
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RainOnTheSun
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (U.S. Agent! Ameridroid! Americops!)

Post by RainOnTheSun »

AACAB, eh? I like it.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (U.S. Agent! Ameridroid! Americops!)

Post by Jabroniville »

RainOnTheSun wrote: Thu Oct 22, 2020 12:37 am AACAB, eh? I like it.
I had to look that up, lol.
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Re: Ameridroid

Post by Ken »

Jabroniville wrote: Wed Oct 21, 2020 5:03 pm Image
Image
Image
Image

AMERIDROID (Lyle Dekker)
Created By:
Don Glut & Sal Buscema
First Appearance: Captain America #218 (Feb. 1978)
Role: Giant Android, "Once a Man" Guy
Group Affiliations: The Nazi Party
PL 10 (177)
STRENGTH
9 STAMINA -- AGILITY 5
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 5 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Acrobatics 3 (+8)
Athletics 3 (+12)
Deception 8 (+10)
Expertise (Spy) 5 (+10)
Expertise (Nazi) 3 (+8)
Insight 3 (+6)
Intimidation 8 (+10, +12 Size)
Perception 3 (+6)
Technology 3 (+8)
Vehicles 3 (+3)

Advantages:
Close Attack, Defensive Attack, Extraordinary Effort, Fast Grab, Improved Critical (Unarmed), Languages (Various European), Power Attack, Ranged Attack 8, Seize Initiative, Startle, Takedown 2

Powers:
"Android Body- Captain America's Abilities, Scaled Up"
Speed 4 (32 mph) [4]
Leaping 2 (30 feet) [2]
Immunity 30 (Fortitude Effects) [30]
"Power Punch" Strength-Damage +2 [2]

"Friggin' HUGE!"
Growth 4 (Str & Toughness +4, +4 Mass, +2 Intimidation, -2 Dodge/Parry, -4 Stealth) -- (12 feet) (Feats: Innate) (Extras: Permanent +0) [9]
Protection 8 (Extras: Impervious 9) [17]

Offense:
Unarmed +9 (+11 Damage, DC 26)
Initiative +5

Defenses:
Dodge +8 (DC 18), Parry +8 (DC 18), Toughness +12 (+5 Impervious), Fortitude --, Will +5

Complications:
Motivation (Revenge/New Order)- Lyle Dekker blamed Captain America for the horrors inflicted upon him during World War II, and built the Ameridroid for revenge. Later, he wanted to start a "new order" by taking out a town.
Enemy (Captain America, The Red Skull)- Cap was a WWII foe, and the Skull had Dekker tortured for failure once. Dekker hates both men.
Prejudice (Freak)- At 12-feet tall, the Ameridroid cannot pass for an ordinary human being, and Dekker feels himself a freak. God knows why he doesn't just transfer his mind into a NORMAL body, since he built the first one anyways...

Total: Abilities: 66 / Skills: 42--21 / Advantages: 19 / Powers: 64 / Defenses: 7 (177)
In those pictures, he appears to have a ginormous shield, at least in the present day.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (U.S. Agent! Ameridroid! Americops!)

Post by Jabroniville »

What's weird is I'd actually built him with a Shield in my Ronin Army thread, but in all the images I saw on Marvunapp, none was seen. And it wasn't listed in his powers, either: http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/ameridrd.htm

That version there is an alternate universe version, I think? Or he added a shield much later.
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Protocide

Post by Jabroniville »

Image
Image

PROTOCIDE (Clinton McIntyre)
Created By:
Dan Jurgens
First Appearance: Captain America #28 (April 2000)
Role: The Living Embodiment of New Villain Stink, Mirror Image Villain
Group Affiliations: None
PL 10 (122)
STRENGTH
5 STAMINA 6 AGILITY 6
FIGHTING 10 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE -1 AWARENESS -1 PRESENCE -1

Skills:
Acrobatics 5 (+11)
Athletics 9 (+13)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 2 (+13)
Expertise (Soldier) 4 (+3)
Intimidation 9 (+8)
Perception 6 (+5)
Ranged Combat (Shield) 3 (+11)

Advantages:
All-Out Attack, Close Attack, Diehard, Equipment 1 (Scale Mail), Extraordinary Effort, Fast Grab, Fearless, Great Endurance, Improved Critical (Unarmed), Improved Critical (Shield Attacks) 2, Improved Initiative 2, Improved Smash, Last Stand (Ignores All Damage for 1 Round With HP), Power Attack, Ranged Attack 6, Redirect

Powers:
"The Super-Soldier Serum- Absolute Peak Human"
Speed 2 (8 mph) [2]
Leaping 1 (15 feet) [1]
Immunity 2 (Poison, Disease) (Flaws: Limited to Half-Effect) [1]
Regeneration 2 [2]
"Hard-Hitter" Strength-Damage +1 [1]

"Protocide's Pointy-Ass Shield" (Flaws: Easily Removable) [11]
Enhanced Dodge 3 & Parry 2 (5)
"Thrown Shield" Strength-Damage +2 (Extras: Ranged 8) (10) -- (11)
  • AE: "Shield Slash" Strength-Damage +3 (3)
-- (17 points)

Offense:
Unarmed +13 (+6 Damage, DC 21)
Shield Bash +11 (+9 Damage, DC 24)
Shield Throw +11 (+8 Ranged Damage, DC 23)
Initiative +14

Defenses:
"Without Shield" Dodge +9 (DC 19), Parry +10 (DC 20), Toughness +6 (+8 Scale Mail), Fortitude +9, Will +4
"With Shield" Dodge +12 (DC 22), Parry +12 (DC 22), Toughness +6 (+8 Scale Mail), Fortitude +9, Will +4

Complications:
Responsibility (Crazy)- Protocide is prone to berserk rages, having missed out on some important parts of the Super-Soldier process.

Total: Abilities: 52 / Skills: 36--18 / Advantages: 23 / Powers: 18 / Defenses: 11 (122)

-Protocide is actually the FIRST super-big Retcon of the Super-Soldier process that birthed Captain America- I mean, Marvel had added several attempts at remaking the Serum, which was fine, but this was our first hint that Steve wasn't the ONLY GUY to get it. It was just unfortunate that Protocide came about in a much weaker era for the books, and comes across as a bad Extreeeeeeeeme '90s Character.

-Clinton McIntyre killed his commanding officer in the army, but was given leniency by signing up for Dr. Erskine's Super-Soldier process in the 1940s. McIntyre was given it ahead of Steve Rogers, but went nuts from the process, and died of a heart attack- the nasty General who set up the process didn't know that you also needed stuff BESIDES the serum to make it safe for human consumption. Clinton's corpse was kept in government storage, and sent to A.I.M. by a double-agent, and he was revived, turned into Protocide, and sent against Cap, whom he was told was a villain who had killed him in the first place.

-In probably the most infamous part of the story these days, Protocide made his debut by beating the bejeezus out of U.S. Agent as a "Speedbump Fight" for Cap, effectively cementing John Walker's status as Cap's "Krillin" for all time in a hilariously-transparent gesture of showing us how awesome this new "toy" was. Protocide then beat up Cap a bit in a first fight, leading to a big final battle, where he realized that Cap WASN'T his enemy after all. He was last seen hitching a ride, wanting to get "far away". He was never seen again.

-All in all, it's not a BAD idea- I mean, it's a bit of a Retcon, but not that silly kind where "Everything you knew is a LIE!!!- Here's the WHOLE truth!". It makes sense that there's more than one guy who got the Serum. It doesn't even lessen Cap that there've been more than one guy getting it, because it's been well-established over the years that there are DOZENS of ways to get people at Cap's level or higher in terms of physical stats, and there've already been six or seven "real" Captain Americas. HOWEVER, I think his name and overall concept were poorly-done, making him look like a bad Image Comics character, and the story was a bit predictable (the classic jobbing of U.S. Agent is a bottom-tier writer's trick). It makes sense that no writer has ever attempted to use the character since- it's stated on a few websites that Marvel was so eager to retcon this story out that Protocide has never even been MENTIONED again, and later books that add stuff to the origin of Cap don't even bring him up. Now THAT's being ignored!

-Building someone like Protocide can be tough, because he has very few appearances. New Villain Stink can make someone easily beat a PL 10 like John Walker, but he beat Cap once, and then EQUALED him in their last, final fight. This goes back to the old standby that "Rookies are Always Good", because it makes NO SENSE that someone with equal stats to Cap is his exact equal in combat just because of that, when a HUGE part of Cap's schtick is his elite fighting skills- this guy was just your standard grunt before this, and has almost zero real experience- yet he's able to equal Cap in a fight? What the hell is THAT? I ended up going with PL 10, because he's exactly the type of guy who would return as a Jobber in the future, or return as a super bad-ass. Who knows if we'll ever see him again.

-My early version of him had Cap-level stats, but apparently because he started out stronger than 98-lb. weakling Steve Rogers, he's actually quite a bit stronger and tougher once the Serum worked its way through his body. This is actually kind of fitting, as he has a strength advantage in the stats now, which can boost him a bit.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sat Aug 20, 2022 8:03 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (U.S. Agent! Ameridroid! Americops! Protocide!)

Post by Sidious »

I'm more inclined to give Protocide a higher strength as he hasn't had the stabilization of the "Vitarays" on his serum. The ones who don't get them tend to be stronger than Cap but crazy/physically impaired afterward. (Grand Director, Jack Nomad being the obvious examples)

I leaned heavily on my Deathstroke build when I was stating him up for the Marvel game. They seem to be of equal power.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (U.S. Agent! Ameridroid! Americops! Protocide!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Sidious wrote: Thu Oct 22, 2020 1:41 pm I'm more inclined to give Protocide a higher strength as he hasn't had the stabilization of the "Vitarays" on his serum. The ones who don't get them tend to be stronger than Cap but crazy/physically impaired afterward. (Grand Director, Jack Nomad being the obvious examples)

I leaned heavily on my Deathstroke build when I was stating him up for the Marvel game. They seem to be of equal power.
It's been too long since I read the story- I just remember him wrecking U.S. Agent and then doing the "loses to Cap in the end" thing.
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Major America

Post by Jabroniville »

Image
Image

MAJOR AMERICA (Real Name Unknown, aka Anti-Cap)
Created By:
Christopher Priest & Bart Sears
First Appearance: Captain America & The Falcon #1 (May 2004)
Role: Anti-Cap
Group Affiliations: None
PL 10 (140)
STRENGTH
4 STAMINA 5 AGILITY 6
FIGHTING 10 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 1 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Deception 2 (+4)
Expertise (Naval Officer) 5 (+6)
Intimidation 4 (+6)
Perception 1 (+3)

Advantages:
All-Out Attack, Close Attack 2, Diehard, Great Endurance, Equipment 5 (Machine Guns & Stuff), Improved Critical (Shield), Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 6

Powers:
"The Super-Soldier Serum- Absolute Peak Human"
Speed 2 (8 mph) [2]
Leaping 1 (15 feet) [1]
Immunity 2 (Poison, Disease) (Flaws: Limited to Half-Effect) [1]
Regeneration 5 [5]
Immortality 4 [8]
"Hard-Hitter" Strength-Damage +1 [1]

"Cheaper Replica of Captain America's Mighty Shield" (Feats: Restricted to Those Trained) (Flaws: Easily Removable) [16]
Enhanced Advantages 2: Withstand Damage (Trade Off Defenses for Toughness) (2)
"Bouncing Shield" Strength-Damage +2 (Feats: Dynamic) (Extras: Area- 30ft. Shapeable 7, Selective 7) (17) -- (23)
  • Dynamic AE: "Shield Toss" Strength-Damage +2 (Feats: Dynamic, Ricochet 3, Split 2) (Extras: Ranged 6) (Diminished Range -1) (14)
  • Dynamic AE: "Shield Bash" Strength-Damage +3 (Feats: Dynamic) (Extras: Penetrating 3) (7)
  • Dynamic AE: Enhanced Dodge 2 & Parry 2 (Feats: Dynamic) (Extras: Sustained +0) Linked to Enhanced Strength 3 (Flaws: Limited to Resisting Movement) (6.5)
-- (25 points)

Offense:
Unarmed +12 (+5 Damage, DC 20)
Shield Bash +12 (+8 Damage, DC 23)
Shield Toss +10 (+7 Ranged Damage, DC 22)
Bouncing Shield +7 Area (+7 Damage, DC 22)
Initiative +10

Defenses:
"Without Shield" Dodge +12 (DC 22), Parry +12 (DC 22), Toughness +5 (+6 Kevlar), Fortitude +8, Will +4
"With Shield" Dodge +14 (DC 24), Parry +14 (DC 24), Toughness +5 (+6 Kevlar), Fortitude +8, Will +4

Complications:
Motivation (Fighting Terror)- Anti-Cap's girlfriend died in the Oklahoma City bombing, giving him a newfound hatred of terrorists.
Power Loss (Serum Enhancements)- Major America requires a chip implanted in his spine to gain accesst to the Serum- it pumps the drug into his system. If it is disrupted (such as with elecricity, or if he fights for too many hours), he becomes ST 0, STA 0, AGI 0, FIGHTING 4.
Addiction (The Serum)- Major America went through horrible withdrawal to the drugs when he was de-powered.

Total: Abilities: 68 / Skills: 12--6 / Advantages: 19 / Powers: 34 / Defenses: 13 (140)

-This largely-unnamed kid (often given various nicknames) was a kid who failed in his attempts to join the army (much like Steve Rogers), and was recruited by the Navy to test out a new Super-Soldier Serum. He was executed by his evil commanding officer when the experiment seemed to fail (why does anyone EVER trust the government or the army at Marvel?), which actually kick-started the new drug treatment, giving Anti-Cap powers (the officer would claim that he KNEW this would happen). Anti-Cap soon went a bit rogue, and the Navy tried to set him up- he ended up fighting Cap & The Falcon, whom he lectured as being unfit for the modern era, with the War on Terror and all- this makes him another ideological foe to Cap- a "Replacement Attempt" where once again a young upstart declares Steve to be old-fashioned and unwilling to do what it takes. Dressed exactly like Steve, he held his own against the two heroes, but was de-powered by a taser-shot into his spinal chip. He grew addicted to the chemicals that he needed to maintain his powers, and his depedency on them finally killed him- he died in Captain America's arms.

-The Falcon takes his body (which turns out to be comatose), and offers him the serum drug (called AVX) if he helps him out against those corrupt Navy superiors. They failed, and Anti-Cap soon escaped, becoming a one-man War on Terror, torturing terrorists and executing the Royal Family of a Muslim country for aiding some. He commits suicide via train when his AVX wears off again and he begins to lose a fight against Cap. He would appear for the Captain America Corps. storyline as Major America, a cross-time Cap still alive in a restructured reality where Cap was never discovered frozen in ice. Here, he again acted like an extremist asshole (even compared to JOHN WALKER), this time allied with the villains- he was beaten by Commander A when his AVX wore off again.

-All in all, this guy seems kind of dumb- a very roundabout story involving a lunatic with erratic behavior and a concept that's been done a ludicrous number of times already. Not only did John Walker do the same schtick, but this guy only debuted about four years after Protocide acted as an "Evil Lunatic Cap". I still remember posting this guy in 2015 or so, and BatgirlIII reacted with disgust to him, the 4th of 5th "Sorta-Cap" guy I'd posted so far. He left her insistent that a full-line reboot was the best thing for Marvel, as it would wipe the slate clean of guys like this- endless retreads of the same general idea. I personally disagree with that solution, but I share her frustration at yet another Mirror Image Villain in similar gear. Never mind that every story seems to involve him beating the hero (why is he just as good a fighter without having Cap's years of experience?) only to falter when his drugs wear off.

-Major America/Anti-Cap (it's annoying because they never give him a real name) is basically Yet Another Steve Variant, packing Serum-like enhancements, with the flaw that they eventually wear down. Annoyingly, this do-nothing, forgettable nobody with minimal experience is EQUAL TO CAP AT FIGHTING in his first story, which makes ZERO SENSE in context even if they have the same physical capabilities. He's got some Immortality and Regeneration since he basically lasts forever and has come back from death TWICE. Equalling Cap on any level basically makes him a PL 10 at least, with the only caveat being the fact that his powers will eventually lower themselves when his AVX wears off- this is pretty much the only way ANYONE has beaten him!
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sat Aug 20, 2022 8:04 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Jimmy Jupiter

Post by Jabroniville »

Image
Image
Image
Image

JIMMY JUPITER (Jimmy Jankovicz)
Created By:
Ed Robbins
First Appearance: Marvel Mystery Comics #28 (Feb. 1942)
Role: Little Nemo Knock-Off, Wish-Fulfillment Character, Boy Superhero
Group Affiliations: None

-Well here's one I'd never heard of before. Jimmy Jupiter was apparently featured in the old Marvel Mystery Comics, appearing to be a boy who could enter the bizarre dreamland of "Nowhere", which... okay, this is just a knock-off of the Little Nemo in Slumberland comic strip. Here, Jimmy could fashion anything he desired, but was never aware if Nowhere was real or the product of his imagination- the adventures seem pretty whimsical and feature a lot of strange, psychedelic things, just like Nemo, usually ending with Jimmy going "Gee, did that actually happen?" or something. For example, he'd save the Candy Men from the Gloomy Gusses, whose weakness was tickling, fight evil Licorice Men and win a licorice-eating pet, or meet a woman with an extremely long neck. The Jimmy Jupiter tales only last for a year and a half, over 21 issues of MMC (never once even being mentioned on the cover), and he disappears, never to be seen again.

-And then, weirdly, Ed Brubaker pulls off a bizarre "Deep Cut" by reintroducing Jimmy in a Retcon Story featuring a bunch of other characters- Nick Fury fashions a WWII-era team consisting of himself, Captain America, Peggy Carter, Dum Dum Dugan and Jimmy (who was recruited after taking a two-headed cat to school), along with a newbie named Codename: Bravo. However, tragedy struck- he was used to infiltrate a HYDRA base, using Nowhere as a shortcut, but was struck by a HYDRA agent from behind and rendered comatose while Bravo and other soldiers were still trapped there. Jimmy was thus rendered catatonic for decades, while Bravo and the team were trapped in Nowhere all that time, never aging and fashioning the land to suit their needs. An aged Jimmy recovered in modern times, freeing Bravo, but was soon shot by Queen Hydra- in his last act before dying, Jimmy freed Cap & Bravo from Nowhere.

-Jimmy was pretty much just a normal boy with maybe some evasive skills- his whimsical trips through Nowhere were just him escaping things or being lucky at first, but eventually he started to alter aspects of the world himself- this could be a simple Transform effect, or a vast one, varying on Variable power.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sat Aug 20, 2022 8:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
Jabroniville
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Codename: Bravo

Post by Jabroniville »

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CODENAME: BRAVO (Richard something)
Created By:
Ed Brubaker & Steve McNiven
First Appearance: Captain America #1 (Sept. 2011)
Role: Mercenary Character
Group Affiliations: HYDRA

-One of 950 characters given a variant of the Super-Soldier Serum, Codename: Bravo was introduced as a Retcon by Ed Brubaker in his long Captain America run. He joined a specialized team during World War II led by Nick Fury- it also included Cap, Peggy Carter, Dum Dum Dugan & Jimmy Jankovicz (Jimmy Jupiter, an unused Golden Age character), and was set against HYDRA back in the day. However, Bravo grew resentful of Cap, since Peggy preferred him to Bravo. He ended up trapped in another dimension (called "Nowhere") when Jimmy transported him and some other soldiers there, then was rendered comatose before he could bring them back.

-Bravo of course returns in modern times, having stayed the same age. Blaming Captain America for his entrapment, he spitefully joins Baron Zemo & HYDRA to destroy the hero. He traps Cap in Nowhere, but Sharon Carter, Fury & the Falcon rescued him (along with Jimmy), and Bravo was imprisoned. He was later freed by Zemo, but the Hydra Queen's gunshot deflected off of Cap's shield, striking him during a plot to place "Madbombs" all over America.

-Bravo's powers are effectively a light version of Steve's, apparently- he's superior to any Olympic athlete, but not as much as Cap. This entails some pretty superhuman feats, like catching Cap's shield in mid-air and being "twice as fast" as an Olympic sprinter, which used to be well beyond Cap's capabilities, but I dunno. When trapped in Nowhere, he apparently gained total control over that dimension.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sat Aug 20, 2022 8:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
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