Jab’s Builds! (Lawnmower Man! Samus Aran! Metroids!)

[KorokoMystia]

Thinking about X-characters, I had a thought about Cypher. While the buff he got was pretty cool, what if his "understands all languages" could be extended to programming languages, as well?

[Woodclaw]

Thinking about X-characters, I had a thought about Cypher. While the buff he got was pretty cool, what if his "understands all languages" could be extended to programming languages, as well?

It did. In one of his first appearences he pretty much destroyed every record in an arcade because he could "read" the games.

[KorokoMystia]

Thinking about X-characters, I had a thought about Cypher. While the buff he got was pretty cool, what if his "understands all languages" could be extended to programming languages, as well?

It did. In one of his first appearences he pretty much destroyed every record in an arcade because he could "read" the games.

Oh, huh. I'm not really that familiar with the character, so I wasn't aware.

[Jabroniville]

That was also how he beat The Magus- reprogramming him to restart as a youth.

[Jabroniville]

"D-GENERATION-X!"

THE LIVING ERASER
Created By: Stan Lee & Jack Kirby
First Appearance: Tales to Astonish #49 (Nov. 1963)
Role: Forgotten Villain
Group Affiliations: None
PL 9 (89)
STRENGTH 2 STAMINA 2 AGILITY 2
FIGHTING 4 DEXTERITY 3
INTELLIGENCE 3 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 3

Skills:
Deception 2 (+5)
Expertise (Military) 2 (+5)
Perception 2 (+4)

Advantages:
Ranged Attack 4

Powers:
"Dimensionizer" (Flaws: Removable) [32]
Movement 3 (Dimensional Travel 3) (Feats: Increased Mass 4) (Extras: Attack 10, Ranged 10, Cumulative 10) (40 points)

Offense:
Unarmed +4 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Dimensionizer +7 (+10 Ranged Dimensional Attack, DC 20)
Initiative +2

Defenses:
Dodge +6 (DC 16), Parry +5 (DC 15), Toughness +2, Fortitude +3, Will +4

Complications:
Motivation (Stealing Nuclear Power)- The Living Eraser has been sent to Earth from Dimension Z to steal its nuclear secrets.

Total: Abilities: 42 / Skills: 6--3 / Advantages: 4 / Powers: 32 / Defenses: 8 (89)

-MAN is this ever a classic half-assed Silver Age story- an evil alien from Dimension Z trying to kidnap Earth scientists to gain the secrets of nuclear power, using a "Dimensionizer" to teleport them away. Naturally, one of the scientists was Hank Pym- who conveniently had The Wasp resting on his finger- the two escaped and quickly defeated the weak combatant after getting past his glass cage trap. He later reappeared as the ruler of Dimension Z, and tried once again to steal atomic weapons, and kidnapped Morbius & The Thing in the process (Morbius had attacked the Eraser the second he arrived on Earth). They teamed up with the previous Dimension Z rulers to send themselves back to Earth. The Eraser was then apparently executed by his former leaders. The Dimensionizer technology would turn up repeatedly, with a new Eraser "erasing" She-Hulk to Dimension Z, whose ruler wished to marry her- five blanks pages were the end result, until Shulkie yelled at John Byrne (the writer & artist) to put her back in her apartment. S.H.I.E.L.D. later used the tech to teleport Groot.

-The Living Eraser is a poor combatant, but packs The Dimensionizer, which allows him to slowly wipe someone from our dimension and send them to his- effectively adding Ranged Attack and Cumulative to Dimensional Travel. Cumulative is usually just used for Affliction, but I figure the effect of him taking several swipes to "erase" someone is basically the power only KIND OF working, and you can take multiple shots that "stack".

[Jabroniville]

Once you hear “fish lips”, you can never un-see it.

THE LIVEWIRES:
Created By: Adam Warren & Rick Mays

-No, I've never heard of them either. Livewires was a six-issue Limited Series created by Adam Warren, with his layouts finished (ie. pencilled) by Rick Mays. It's about a group of androids who go out to defeat other black ops teams.

-Now... I have some issues with Adam Warren's... creativity. An anime-esque artist who usually specializes in Fanservice, whatever kind of sense of humor he has is the exact opposite of the kind I have. He's the kind of guy who thinks "Sistah Spooky" is such a hilarious codename that it belongs on a major recurring heroine in his work. He thinks a guy who eye-rapes people to death with a flaming penis is a funny recurring menace, and that a guy dressing as a maid is a FANTASTIC joke. I don't really get his work. That he started exaggerating the lips of his characters to such insane proportions that they got the "Fish Lips" nickname didn't help. His pencils look amazing with regards to characters' bodies, but his faces never appealed to me, either.

-Having read his Empowered off and on, I also found his over-the-top attempts to make his main heroine endearing a bit cloying and obvious- like it wasn't enough to make her a pathetic, but EXTREMELY hot, girl. Oh no- he had to give her this kind of weird LOW SELF-ESTEEM, where she would whine about how "ugly" her body was, especially her "less-than-perfect" butt, which of course was drawn big and round and rad, so that the legions of nerds fapping to the book would find her SOOOOOO attainable and worthy of "d'awwww". I dunno, it was too cloying for me. Like he was saying "I want nerds to like her, but they won't if she's too perfect, so I'll make her feel bad about her body so that nerds will want to hold her and tell her she's pretty". Like, the writing version of "fishing for compliments".

-Though he gets full credit from me for basically turning a Bondage-themed Fap comic based around pin-ups into an ongoing cash-cow that actually has FEMALE READERS. Partially because, like Fred "Gold Diggers" Perry noted, removing sex from comics is F*CKING STUPID- the way to make women non-enraged about it is to give them MUSCULAR DUDES to fawn over, so that BOTH sexes can enjoy the work! This is in sharp contrast to current Marvel, who seems to enjoy making most of their female characters as ugly, flat-chested and dumpy as possible, Because Feminism. It's a very strange reaction.

The Story:
-When Livewires begins, five of ten androids created for Project Livewire remain functioning- Stem Cell is replacing Homebrew for this reason. Most of them have their emotions surpressed, but Cell has not done so yet, and is struggling with their missions. They engage in attacks against rivals and bad guys- people trafficking in Sentinel parts, and somebody created tiny pyrokinetic bug-bots out of the original Human Torch's cells. Their final opponent is called "The White Whale"- a gigantic amalgamation of various Life Model Decoys of Nick Fury. The resulting battle sees numerous members of the team destroyed- Cornfed is mostly vaporized, Gothic Lolita is thrown into an electromagnetic launcher, and more- Stem Cell is the last one remaining. Fighting in a retrofitted S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, she uses those same pyro-bots from before to blow it up, saving three of her teammates's remains.

-Ultimately, it turns out that their boss and father-figure- David Jenkins- deliberately made the team up of androids because he wanted them to wipe out various black ops projects created by the US government, then eliminate all of the humans involved ("All sociopaths in suits can't be trusted")- Jenkins even arranges for his OWN death!

[KorokoMystia]

Oh, geez- I was wondering why this art seemed familiar, and then I realized that as well as Empowered and LIvewires, he also made..well..this for DC:


An Alternate Universe one-shot that really has nothing to do with the (Teen) Titans, takes place in the far future, has a lot of impenetrable technobabble, and features the usual stupid code-names that seems to be one of Adam Warren's trademarks (seriously, Witchie-Poo?), as well as Batman's mind being implanted in one of the character's bodies, because..reasons, and has like half the team dying. And one of the team members is a Reality Warping Mage who can cast pretty much any spell ever. Seriously.

Amazingly, Writeups.org actually has bios and stats for the team (well, there's only four members anyway)

[FuzzyBoots]

THE LIVEWIRES:
Created By: Adam Warren & Rick Mays

The majority of your commentary here seems to be about Empowered rather than Livewire. I enjoyed Livewire. It had a lot of fun little callbacks to Marvel history, and the characters kept being interesting in their dynamic. And it's easy to get a copy of the compilation from the local library to page through.

Apparently Gothic Lolita made a return appearance in Deadpool Annual Vol 4 #1, but otherwise, it was a self-contained series, and I think better for that, as the characters were basically sociopaths working off of programmed behavior that made them a family as much our of mandate as by choice.

[Arkrite]

He's the kind of guy who thinks "Sistah Spooky" is such a hilarious codename that it belongs on a major recurring heroine in his work.

Just to check, is that your opinion or did he actually come out and say he thinks it's funny? (There is no way to ask that without sound like a goober, sorry)

I thought it was supposed to be kind of stupid as "Sistah Spooky" is largely an antagonist for most of the beginning, and a member of the low end supers who call themselves the "Super Homies" (I think). Which his a horrible name.

Then again, trying to find cool superhero names that aren't copywritten seems to be an issue, so a part of me wondered if that was supposed to be the joke.

He thinks a guy who eye-rapes people to death with a flaming penis is a funny recurring menace

Was kind of hoping that was supposed to be more horrifying and/or terrifying than funny...

and that a guy dressing as a maid is a FANTASTIC joke.

That he dresses like a maid, not really funny.
That he called himself Maidman makes me snicker.
That he seems to have a split personality, the civilian side who has no idea what the heck is going and is freaking out made me laugh.

I felt bad for the guy afterwards, but I did laugh.

I don't really get his work. That he started exaggerating the lips of his characters to such insane proportions that they got the "Fish Lips" nickname didn't help. His pencils look amazing with regards to characters' bodies, but his faces never appealed to me, either.

I can take it or leave it, but I have to say that his livewire team reminded me a lot of the empowered crew...
Maybe it's just me but the way he does facial features seem to result in a lot of "same face".

[Jabroniville]

CORNFED
Created By: Adam Warren & Rick Mays
First Appearance: Livewires #1 (April 2005)
Role: Android Super-Agent
Group Affiliations: The Livewires
PL 7 (124)
STRENGTH 6 STAMINA -- AGILITY 2
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 5 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Acrobatics 3 (+5)
Athletics 7 (+12)
Deception 2 (+4)
Perception 4 (+5)
Stealth 4 (+7)
Technology 4 (+9)

Advantages:
Ranged Attack 4

Powers:
"Life Model Decoy"
Immunity 30 (Fortitude Effects) [30]
Protection 6 [6]
Speed 2 (8 mph) [2]
Leaping 2 (30 feet) [2]
"Quick Repair" Regeneration 2 [2]
"Team Link" Communication 2 (Mental) (Extras: Area) (Flaws: Limited to Other Livewires) [8]

Offense:
Unarmed +8 (+6 Damage, DC 21)
Initiative +2

Defenses:
Dodge +8 (DC 18), Parry +8 (DC 18), Toughness +6, Fortitude --, Will +6

Complications:
Vulnerable (Electrical & Magnetic Attacks)- Life Model Decoys are constructed of metals, leaving them more vulnerable to certain types of attack.

Total: Abilities: 50 / Skills: 24--12 / Advantages: 4 / Powers: 50 / Defenses: 8 (124)

-Cornfed looked like a big farmboy, but was the team's mechanic, in charge of fixing up much of the team, and coordinating their missions. He was almost completely destroyed in their final mission, having everything but his head and one shoulder vaporized- Stem Cell managed to rescue this portion of his body, promising to rebuild him.

[Jabroniville]

Just to check, is that your opinion or did he actually come out and say he thinks it's funny? (There is no way to ask that without sound like a goober, sorry)

I thought it was supposed to be kind of stupid as "Sistah Spooky" is largely an antagonist for most of the beginning, and a member of the low end supers who call themselves the "Super Homies" (I think). Which his a horrible name.

I dunno his exact opinion on her name specifically, but almost all of his characters have silly names like that, so I assume it's his take that these are amusing names for characters to have. And I mean, if he didn't like it, he could have changed it, given she became a major character.

Was kind of hoping that was supposed to be more horrifying and/or terrifying than funny...

He's literally called Mindf*ck, so I think it's supposed to be part of the joke .

I can take it or leave it, but I have to say that his livewire team reminded me a lot of the empowered crew...
Maybe it's just me but the way he does facial features seem to result in a lot of "same face".

"Anime Style" in general is prone to SameFace-iness, but his distinctive lips being such a dead giveaway don't help.

[Jabroniville]

Hey, Tekken fans, help me out before I forget to ask again- which characters have moves that would basically fit under "Powers"? I figure most guys have the +2 Damage "Special Moves" because of the game's hard-hitting fighting style, but which guys have stuff that is basically 100% impossible to do?

I'm thinking stuff like Multiattacks, Blasts, Energy Stuff, etc.

From what I can see with basic research, even guys like the Jacks barely ever do anything that a regular human couldn't do, albeit with some effort (though they have ST 5 or so, so they can throw guys HELLA-far). The Bosses tend to fire out Energy Beams, from what I can remember. But how many guys throw down with Street Fighter-tier moves?

[bsdigitalq]

He's literally called Mindf*ck, so I think it's supposed to be part of the joke .

Mindf*ck is the lesbian lover of Sistah Spooky. The guy you're talking about is Willy Pete, who is 100% played for horror. The only humorous part about him is his stereotypical hillbilly vocabulary and casual attitude in contrast to his horrific nature.

[FuzzyBoots]

Hey, Tekken fans, help me out before I forget to ask again- which characters have moves that would basically fit under "Powers"? I figure most guys have the +2 Damage "Special Moves" because of the game's hard-hitting fighting style, but which guys have stuff that is basically 100% impossible to do?

I'm thinking stuff like Multiattacks, Blasts, Energy Stuff, etc.

From what I can see with basic research, even guys like the Jacks barely ever do anything that a regular human couldn't do, albeit with some effort (though they have ST 5 or so, so they can throw guys HELLA-far). The Bosses tend to fire out Energy Beams, from what I can remember. But how many guys throw down with Street Fighter-tier moves?

Tekken was always a bit more grounded in reality. Yoshimitsu could fly using his blade as a helicopter, teleport, and heal himself. Raven does all sorts of ninja moves including teleports. Ogre had flight. Devil has eyeblasts and flight. Jinpachi had energy blasts. I got the impression that Tekken 6 and onwards had more "unrealistic" moves.

Although, as a side note, Eric Jacobus, a stunt man, was doing videos of him doing Tekken movesets, and he has notes about which moves were basically physically impossible. Apparently, the first game was more hand animation, so they do some things that don't pally make sense.

[Jabroniville]

He's literally called Mindf*ck, so I think it's supposed to be part of the joke .

Mindf*ck is the lesbian lover of Sistah Spooky. The guy you're talking about is Willy Pete, who is 100% played for horror. The only humorous part about him is his stereotypical hillbilly vocabulary and casual attitude in contrast to his horrific nature.

Oh, right. Mindf*ck does make a bit of sense when you consider he rapes people's eyeholes, though, you have to admit .

And yeah, a hillbilly face-rapist isn't exactly a serious villain to me. I can't imagine anyone not laughing when they hear about his gimmick.

Interviews with Warren are humorous, though. He says that the nastiest comments he gets aren't from women, but from men who act self-righteous and "I'M not into that smut!" about his fanservice art- he bluntly calls them out on their "White-Knighting", specifically calling out what that kind of behavior really is- virtue-signalling so that mythical women will then like them.

I hear far more often from commendably sensitive male readers agonizing over reading Empowered, to the point I sometimes find myself wanting to tell them, “Oh, just butch up, buttercup! Plenty of actual females read this series, so get over yourself, won’t you?” Furthermore, I should note that almost all—and “almost all” may be an understatement, too—of the most scathing criticism that Empowered receives is voiced by even more extraordinarily sensitive males, presumably making a grand demonstration of just how deeply they are prepared to care on your behalf, ladies! (No “white-knighting” here, of course!)