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

Where in all of your character write ups will go.
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Crystar! Cammi! Conan! Captain Universe!)

Post by Jabroniville »

This whole set has a weird amount of ATT-era builds in it- perhaps because "C" is actually a pretty well-used letter at Marvel, and perhaps because there's a coincidental number of guys I just forgot to re-stat elsewhere. Crucible was an ATT build that didn't get replaced when I did a "Fantastic Four" set a few years back at Ronin Army. The old Captain Universe build never got re-done, nor did Cosmo the Wonder Dog.
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The Champions of Xandar

Post by Jabroniville »

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THE CHAMPIONS OF XANDAR:
-These guys were an assortment of Nova characters who banded together during Xandar's war against the Skrulls. Xandar's Powerhouse and Nova-Prime joined forces with Nova and his Earthling allies, the father-son team of Comet and Crimebuster. Also "joining" were Nova's villains Doctor Son, The Sphinx and Doctor Sun. This went about as well as you might imagine, with first the Sphinx betraying them, then Doctor Sun, then Diamondhead. Eventually, in the pages of a different book (Rom: Spaceknight), they were victorious, but not before Diamondhead ALSO betrayed them, getting Crimebuster killed in the process. The remaining Champions decided to stay on Xandar as its champions... which sure came in handy when they were all massacred off-panel by Nebula and her forces during Annihilation.

-Part of the issue with these guys might be the fact that they had names like PROTECTOR and POWERHOUSE. Like, if you creator is half-assing it THAT MUCH, it means he knows this damn book is gonna get cancelled and he isn't wasting "A"-material on this shit.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Thu Jun 16, 2022 4:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Crystar

Post by Sidious »

Jabroniville wrote: Sat Nov 10, 2018 3:50 pm Image
Nothing for nothing but one of the Classic Marvel RPG groups has put out a Crystar sourcebook for the system.
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Comet

Post by Jabroniville »

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COMET (Harris Moore)
Created By:
Marv Wolfman & John Buscema
First Appearance: Nova #21 (Sept. 1978)
Role: Jobber Hero
Group Affiliations: The Nova Corps. (kinda)
PL 8 (107)
STRENGTH
2 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 3

Skills:
Aerobatics 4 (+7)
Deception 2 (+5)
Perception 3 (+5)
Ranged Combat (Electricity) 4 (+8)
Vehicles 3 (+5)

Advantages:
Ranged Attack 2

Powers:
Flight 8 (500 mph) [16]
Electrical Blast 8 (Feats: Split) [17]

Offense:
Unarmed +8 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Electricity +8 (+8 Ranged Damage, DC 23)
Initiative +3

Defenses:
Dodge +10 (DC 20), Parry +10 (DC 20), Toughness +3, Fortitude +5, Will +5

Complications:
Relationship (Children)- Harris stayed on Xandar after his son died, feeling he no longer had a connection to this world.

Total: Abilities: 50 / Skills: 16--8 / Advantages: 2 / Powers: 33 / Defenses: 14 (107)

-Harris Moore gained powers decades ago from some radioactive meteor, and used them to become a superhero of the 1950s. He appeared in Marv Wolfman's Nova, which wasn't a terribly popular book. In 2014, when I first built him, all of his bios were hilariously short- basically a single paragraph. Of course, since then, somebody managed to fill out the Marvel Wiki with an ENORMOUS bio, containing absolutely tons of useless information that I couldn't possibly use. Good old comic book fans.

-When he thought his son was dead, Harris became a derelict drunk who was pretty much ageless. However, he would eventually recover, helping out a rookie Nova. He even agreed to go to Xandar with him in order to help fight the Skrulls, and would even discover that another ally, Crimebuster, was his long-lost son! The heroes all fought a months-long war between Xandar and the Skrulls. Sadly, Crimebuster was killed by the enemy in the pages of Rom (since Nova was already cancelled by that point), and Comet joined the Champions of Xandar in order to honor his son's memory. By this point, the Champions were largely just a backdrop to other stuff, and were largely ignored (making reading their bios a chore). Really, all those characters essentially vanished from the narrative, as Nova disappeared from comics for years, then showed up on The New Warriors with a new personality and very little link to his past. Comet, Powerhouse and the other Champions got one of those really, REALLY off-handed deaths in Annihilation in the early 2000s, having been killed off-panel by Nebula's forces during the destruction of Xandar.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Thu Jun 16, 2022 4:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Crimebuster

Post by Jabroniville »

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CRIMEBUSTER (Frank Moore)
Created By:
Marv Wolfman & John Buscema
First Appearance: Nova #21 (Sept. 1978)
Role: Jobber Hero
Group Affiliations: The Nova Corps. (kinda), The Champions of Xandar
PL 8 (107)
STRENGTH
2 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 3

Skills:
Acrobatics 4 (+7)
Athletics 4 (+6)
Deception 2 (+5)
Investigation 6 (+8)
Perception 3 (+5)
Technology 6 (+8)
Vehicles 3 (+5)

Advantages:
Equipment 10 (Crime Lab, Flying Ship), Ranged Attack 8

Powers:
"Whammer" (Flaws: Easily Removable) [12]
"Net Cartridge" Snare 6 (18) -- (20 points)
  • AE: "Smoke Bomb Cartridge" Concealment 2 (Vision) (Extras: Area- 15ft. Cloud, Ranged) (8)
  • AE: "Stun Pellet Cartridge" Affliction 6 (Toughness; Dazed/Stunned/Incapacitated) (Extras: Ranged) (12)
"Fancy Mask" (Flaws: Removable) [15]
"Hypnotic Lenses" Mind Control 6 (Flaws: Vision-Dependent) (18 points)

Offense:
Unarmed +8 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Stun Pellets +10 (+6 Ranged Affliction, DC 16)
Net Cartridge +10 (+6 Ranged Affliction, DC 16)
Hypnotic Lenses -- (+6 Perception-Ranged Affliction, DC 16)
Initiative +3

Defenses:
Dodge +10 (DC 20), Parry +10 (DC 20), Toughness +3, Fortitude +5, Will +6

Complications:
Relationship (Harris- Father)- Crimebuster's father is the hero known as Comet.

Total: Abilities: 50 / Skills: 28--14 / Advantages: 18 / Powers: 27 / Defenses: 15 (124)

-Frank was Comet's son, and shared adventures with both Comet and Nova, having joined the Champions of Xandar- an intergalactic superhero team. He was thought-dead in an explosion as a youth, but secretly survived, and Batmanned himself up into being a Gadgeteer Hero. He allied with Nova for a while, acting a bit of a know-it-all (to Nova's annoyance), but had a happy reunion with his father. However, he was betrayed by Diamondhead (a Nova foe who'd been railroaded into their interstellar adventures), and killed by the Skrulls during an invasion of Xandar which took place during a Rom: Spaceknight issue.

-The backstory here is more interesting than the actual story, as writer Marv Wolfman had created this elaborate set-up involving a "Fifties-Era" hero like Comet and his adult son, to be paid off in a six-issue arc between both Nova and Fantastic Four, which he was writing at the time. But then Nova got axed due to low sales, and so all of his set-up work had to be shifted into other books. Chiefly, the Champions of Xandar are briefly (BRIEFLY) shown in the background of an FF book dealing with other stuff, and then we didn't get the pay-off until two years later, when we learned that Crimebuster had died OFF-PANEL, in the most half-assed manner possible- he's simply shot by unnamed Skrulls in a two-panel flashback shot. And, most hilariously, the deal was in FRIGGIN' ROM, which means that Marvel can never reprint the tale again- the character simply disappears from the narrative!

-His Marvunapp bio writer indicates an appreciation for the character and his concept, but points out that the design is hopelessly shitty, what with the "He looks like a HYDRA Goon in a dumber mask" thing. REALLY weaksauce. And because of his past (and the fact that Richard Rider himself got a re-push without ever mentioning most of his old stuff... then disappeared), he'll probably never be seen again.

-Crimebuster is basically a Gadgeteer hero with a modular weapon... and Hypnotic Lenses for some reason.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Thu Jun 16, 2022 4:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Lois London! Crystar! Cammi! Conan the Barbarian!)

Post by HalloweenJack »

KorokoMystia wrote: Tue Nov 13, 2018 12:15 am
HalloweenJack wrote: Tue Nov 13, 2018 12:09 am Ya know, the Sleepwalker series has always intrigued me despite never having read it. I think there's potential there.
I do think the premise is really cool..and now I'm imagining Sleepwalker fighting Freddy Krueger.
I guess in My Little Universe, the Sleepwalkers would be agents of Dream. Maybe Sandmen.
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Protector

Post by Jabroniville »

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PROTECTOR (Thoran Rul)
Created By:
Marv Wolfman & Keith Pollard
First Appearance: Fantastic Four #205 (April 1979)
Role: Forgotten Character, Super-Genius
Group Affiliations: The Champions of Xandar

-The creatively-named Protector is a Xandarian who effected a mind-meld with the Xandarian Worldmind- the power that gives the Nova Corps. agents their special abilities. This gave him both incredible genius and psychic powers, which led him to become "The Protector", joining the Champions of Xandar against the Skrull invasion. He was later killed by Nebula's forces- he reappears briefly as part of the Xandarian Worldmind, communicating with Richard Rider as the solitary Nova agent left, thanking him for continuing on.

-His powers are vague enough to render him un-stattable. Basically "Smart and Psychic", which could mean almost anything. Mental Quickness and Eidetic Memory are easy assumptions.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Thu Jun 16, 2022 4:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Crystar! Cammi! Conan! Captain Universe!)

Post by Ares »

Minor correction, but the Champions of Xandar were actually killed off long before Annihilation. See, Annihilation was actually the SECOND time Xandar had been blown up. The first time they were destroyed by Nebula during the 80s, wiping out the Champions of Xandar and the Nova Corps in one move. All of the power of the Nova Corps was then transferred into the sole surviving Nova Centurion, Garthan Saal, who became the immensely powerful Supernova. During the New Warriors run, Saal learned that Richard Rider was again active as Nova, and that the Xandar World Mind had survived as well, and had slowly been using some surviving technology to rebuild Xandar. Richard and Saal sacrificed their power to help restart Xandar, bringing the planet and some people who had been in stasis back, and re-starting the Nova Corps, which re-powered Richard and Saal.

The Nova Corps weren't really used following the various New Warrior books, and when Annihilation rolled around, they basically blew up the planet and killed off all of the Nova Corps AGAIN, just to show how serious the situation was. And I know Annihilation gets a lot of love, but really, rather than establish the Marvel Cosmic scene, it basically brought back little used characters and franchises mostly to kill them off and wipe the board clean, then introduce new characters or the few characters they felt worth keeping to push them as the new cosmic scene. Giving guys like Nova, Ronan and Super Skrull a push was a solid idea. Killing off Quasar, the Nova Corps, ignoring the Space Knights, just comes off as wasteful. Then you got weird decisions to make Adam Warlock a literal warlock with "Cosmic Magic", make Phyla-Vell the new Quasar, etc. I will say that Kratos Drax is more useful than Flying Hulk Drax, and they made better use of him in the MCU.
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Jabroniville
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Powerhouse (Davan)

Post by Jabroniville »

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POWERHOUSE I (Rieg Davan)
Created By:
Marv Wolfman & John Buscema
First Appearance: Nova #2 (Oct. 1976)
Role: Forgotten Character, Powerhouse
Group Affiliations: The Champions of Xandar, The Nova Corps., The Syfon Warriors, The Terrible Trio
PL 9 (110)
STRENGTH
6/10 STAMINA 6/10 AGILITY 2
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 3
INTELLIGENCE 1 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Expertise (Xandarian Nova Corps.) 5 (+6)
Intimidation 3 (+5)
Investigation 4 (+6)
Perception 4 (+6)
Technology 4 (+5)

Advantages:
Ranged Attack 5

Powers:
"Energy Siphon"
Affliction 8 (Fort/Toughness; Fatigued/Exhausted/Transformed to Powerless) (Feats: Affects Objects) (Extras: Cumulative) [17]

Enhanced Strength 4 (Flaws: Limited to Amount of Siphoned Power) [4]
Enhanced Stamina 4 (Flaws: Limited to Amount of Siphoned Power) [4]

Offense:
Unarmed +8 (+6 Damage, DC 21)
Siphoned Strength +8 (+10 Damage, DC 26)
Initiative +2

Defenses:
Dodge +8 (DC 18), Parry +8 (DC 18), Toughness +6 (+10 Siphon), Fortitude +6 (+10 Siphon), Will +4

Complications:
Responsibility (Xandar)

Total: Abilities: 60 / Skills: 20--10 / Advantages: 5 / Powers: 25 / Defenses: 8 (108)

-Powerhouse, ANOTHER winner of a name, is one of the "Syfon Warriors" division of the Nova Corps. He crash-landed on Earth, and became an amnesiac, controlled by the villainous Condor. He eventually regained his memories and allied with Nova back on Xandar, where he joined the Champions of Xandar against the Skrulls. He is so minor that his death against Nebula's forces in modern times is merely assumed, and was never shown.

-Powerhouse is a Brick of indeterminate powers- I would assume PL 8-ish is reasonable, likely pretty well-balanced, as he was a minor supporting character in Nova, though his position of "Syfon Warrior" was a rank below that of a Nova-Prime. His powers allowed him to siphon Class 50-level power into himself, giving himself PL 9 status. And yes, I was planning on leaving him as a "notes only" character, but discovered I'd built his stupid ass already, back when I wasn't so willing to just let a named character wither on the vine like that, so my old insane work ethic pays off for his bio this time :).
Last edited by Jabroniville on Thu Jun 16, 2022 4:21 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Crystar! Cammi! Conan! Captain Universe!)

Post by Ares »

Jabroniville wrote: Wed Nov 14, 2018 2:17 am -Powerhouse is a Flying Brick
I've actually got a few issues with Powerhouse, and he was just a Brick (not a Flying one). He generally had to physically touch whatever it was he was draining to power himself up, and he was a pretty effective grappler as a result. However, I've read somewhere that he could actually draw radiant energy like energy blasts into himself, so if a buddy was targeted by an energy blast, he could draw the blast to him instead. That's actually kind of cool and made him an effective tank. He could also apparently use his stored energy for some vague energy manipulation abilities, such as energy blasts.

Things like Powerhouse was actually something I kind of liked about Xandar. Sure, the Nova Corps were intergalactic police officers and could be fairly powerful, but they also had non-Nova supers who could be pretty effective in their own right. Powerhouse showed himself to be pretty decent when it came to teamwork, which made sense for a guy who was sort of an auxiliary unit for the Nova Corps, someone who was likely suppose to help defend weaker allies or weaken tougher opponents for them to take down.

I could actually see the power working as a kind of a partial example of Nova Corps augmentation, basically gaining a variant of their energy absorption ability, but with the ability to actually weaponize said energy absorption as an offensive attack, whereas most Nova Corpsmen can only use it defensively. It could potentially make for an interesting superhero powerset, where the character can absorb energy if he's aware of the attack, can drain opponents once he gets a good grip on them, and then has this store of power he can use to augment himself, either giving him solid strength and durability, or really taxing his energy reserves for big displays of power. But being careful of his energy reserves becomes sort of his risk factor to build tension.
"My heart is as light as a child's, a feeling I'd nearly forgotten. And by helping those in need, I will be able to keep that feeling alive."
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Crystar! Cammi! Conan! Captain Universe!)

Post by Hoid »

...why didn’t they just imbue these guys with Nova powers? The various DC Lantern Corps have superpowrred ringslingers...so, why not Xandar?
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Crystar! Cammi! Conan! Captain Universe!)

Post by Ares »

Hoid wrote: Wed Nov 14, 2018 2:57 am ...why didn’t they just imbue these guys with Nova powers? The various DC Lantern Corps have superpowrred ringslingers...so, why not Xandar?
It seems like there's only a finite amount of energy that can distributed amongst the Nova Corps, or that's how it always seemed. While the Green Lanterns have a giant battery basically powered by the collective willpower of the universe, whatever generates the Nova Force the Xandarians use has either a finite energy amount or they can only channel it through so many people at one time. So have superpowered champions who weren't tapping into the Nova Force was a solid idea, actually.

It's honestly a shame the Nova Corps and Space Knights aren't used more often like the Green Lantern analogues they should be. The Nova Corps should be a bunch of Thing-class flying bricks with powerful but taxing energy powers, with Nova Prime being a full on "I can fight Gladiator or Thor"-type. Each Space Knight should be a bunch of guys who are basically Cosmic Iron Men, less versatile and smart than Tony but with more focused power in their primary ability. Hell, Rom has traded punches with guys like Gladiator on occasion.

But even with those two forces you can still have solo cosmic heroes like the Silver Surfer or Quasar, and a need for an intergalactic superhero team like the Guardians of the Galaxy. Though it is kind of funny how the average Guardians roster is way underpowered compared to the average Avengers roster.
"My heart is as light as a child's, a feeling I'd nearly forgotten. And by helping those in need, I will be able to keep that feeling alive."
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Crystar! Cammi! Conan! Captain Universe!)

Post by Hoid »

Ares wrote: Wed Nov 14, 2018 3:10 am
Hoid wrote: Wed Nov 14, 2018 2:57 am ...why didn’t they just imbue these guys with Nova powers? The various DC Lantern Corps have superpowrred ringslingers...so, why not Xandar?
It seems like there's only a finite amount of energy that can distributed amongst the Nova Corps, or that's how it always seemed. While the Green Lanterns have a giant battery basically powered by the collective willpower of the universe, whatever generates the Nova Force the Xandarians use has either a finite energy amount or they can only channel it through so many people at one time. So have superpowered champions who weren't tapping into the Nova Force was a solid idea, actually.

It's honestly a shame the Nova Corps and Space Knights aren't used more often like the Green Lantern analogues they should be. The Nova Corps should be a bunch of Thing-class flying bricks with powerful but taxing energy powers, with Nova Prime being a full on "I can fight Gladiator or Thor"-type. Each Space Knight should be a bunch of guys who are basically Cosmic Iron Men, less versatile and smart than Tony but with more focused power in their primary ability. Hell, Rom has traded punches with guys like Gladiator on occasion.

But even with those two forces you can still have solo cosmic heroes like the Silver Surfer or Quasar, and a need for an intergalactic superhero team like the Guardians of the Galaxy. Though it is kind of funny how the average Guardians roster is way underpowered compared to the average Avengers roster.
Meh. I’m not convinced. These guys gave up their lives on Earth to help the Nova Corps, venturing off into a wider universe, all based on their desire to do what’s right. If that isn’t dedication to the cause, I don’t know what is. They would’ve made perfect Novas!
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Crystar! Cammi! Conan! Captain Universe!)

Post by Ares »

Hoid wrote: Wed Nov 14, 2018 3:44 am
Ares wrote: Wed Nov 14, 2018 3:10 am
Hoid wrote: Wed Nov 14, 2018 2:57 am ...why didn’t they just imbue these guys with Nova powers? The various DC Lantern Corps have superpowrred ringslingers...so, why not Xandar?
It seems like there's only a finite amount of energy that can distributed amongst the Nova Corps, or that's how it always seemed. While the Green Lanterns have a giant battery basically powered by the collective willpower of the universe, whatever generates the Nova Force the Xandarians use has either a finite energy amount or they can only channel it through so many people at one time. So have superpowered champions who weren't tapping into the Nova Force was a solid idea, actually.

It's honestly a shame the Nova Corps and Space Knights aren't used more often like the Green Lantern analogues they should be. The Nova Corps should be a bunch of Thing-class flying bricks with powerful but taxing energy powers, with Nova Prime being a full on "I can fight Gladiator or Thor"-type. Each Space Knight should be a bunch of guys who are basically Cosmic Iron Men, less versatile and smart than Tony but with more focused power in their primary ability. Hell, Rom has traded punches with guys like Gladiator on occasion.

But even with those two forces you can still have solo cosmic heroes like the Silver Surfer or Quasar, and a need for an intergalactic superhero team like the Guardians of the Galaxy. Though it is kind of funny how the average Guardians roster is way underpowered compared to the average Avengers roster.
Meh. I’m not convinced. These guys gave up their lives on Earth to help the Nova Corps, venturing off into a wider universe, all based on their desire to do what’s right. If that isn’t dedication to the cause, I don’t know what is. They would’ve made perfect Novas!
Well, Powerhouse was already a Syphon Warrior, Comet already had superpowers, and Protector was gifted with his powers directly by the Worldmind. Crimebuster being given Nova powers might have made sense, but apparently he was killed off during the Skrull war. It was likely seen that giving Nova powers to these people was a waste of resource when they could empower someone with no powers, thus having two superpowered champions rather than a single superpowered champion who, at best, would gain one or two powers. Plus Xandar was involved with a costly war at the time.

Remember, there were a BUNCH of Syphon Warriors, with Powerhouse just being one who was stranded on Earth. Apparently combining Nova powers with a Syphon Warrior wasn't an option.

It was also a plot point that after the war was won, Xandar was so devastated that Richard Rider's powers were needed to rebuild the world. His choices were either stay on Xandar and act as a Nova Corpsman specifically to rebuild and protect Xandar, or give up his powers and return to Earth. Rich chose to give up his powers and return to Earth. If they didn't have the power to spare to a single human who had sacrificed as much as anyone to protect Xandar, they didn't have a lot floating around to empower anyone else.

Besides, it wasn't the lack of Nova Power that got them killed. Nebula basically came in and wiped out Xandar and the entire Nova Corps with one planet destroying superweapon. The only reason Rich and Saal survived was because they were the only Nova Corpsman off world at the time, the only other Xandarians being Air-Walker and Firelord.

It was a pretty clear example how little the Nova Corps mattered to the Marvel creative team at the time and how weak they were perceived as being.
"My heart is as light as a child's, a feeling I'd nearly forgotten. And by helping those in need, I will be able to keep that feeling alive."
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Re: Captain Universe (Avengers)

Post by Ares »

Jabroniville wrote: Tue Nov 13, 2018 3:50 am -I'll never figure out why some writers just LOVE to write "Crazy Dialogue" so much. The latest benefactor of the Uni-Power is Tamara Devoux, a comatose car-crash victim whose mind has pretty much cracked because of it, leaving her prone to making random comments and say crazy things, or just deliver the secrets of the universe in a way that's hyper-vague and hard to figure out. She's pretty much just like Starman in that JSA arc, and I hated it then and I hate it now. I just don't get the appeal- maybe it's because I've played on too many RPG games with the "Crazy Guy Who Says Random Things" character across the table, so I know how annoying that behavior is in real life. Or maybe it's because people with conditions like this aren't really "LOLZ I SAY RANDOM THINGS AND ALWAYS WANT SANDWICHES!". In any case, Tamara ends up with low Mental Stats, but an INSANE Power Level otherwise- she's pretty effortlessly a top-tier Avenger, and keep in mind that squad now includes Thor, Hyperion & The Hulk.
I never really got the attraction either. My guess is writers feel clever when they can slip in foreshadowing into the giberish to make themselves seem clever. They also tend to make these kinds of characters extremely powerful, and the lack of sanity is seen as convenient limiter on their abilities. If you need them not to interfere with the plot, they're just having a crazy moment. Written yourself into a corner? Have the crazy person realize their potential and save the day.

Basically, it's a lazy "get out of trouble free" card with a dash of "LOL RANDOM HUMOR" and "aren't I clever?".
"My heart is as light as a child's, a feeling I'd nearly forgotten. And by helping those in need, I will be able to keep that feeling alive."
- Captain Marvel SHAZAM! : Power of Hope (2000)

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