Echoes of the Multiverse

Given the big Inhumans push over the last few years I'm actually surprised Devlor hasn't shown up, even as a background character.

HalloweenJack wrote: ↑Wed Jul 11, 2018 1:16 am hmmm...is Huntara next?

Posted her 200 pages ago, actually. I just kept missing these two.

viewtopic.php?p=43074#p43074

CRUSADER I (Arthur Charles Blackwood)
Created By: Alan Zelenetz & Bob Hall
First Appearance: Thor #330 (April 1983)
Role: Recurring Minor Foe, Religious Zealot
PL 10 (86)
STRENGTH 3 STAMINA 4/11 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 7 DEXTERITY 3
INTELLIGENCE 1 AWARENESS 1 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Expertise (Religion) 4 (+5)
Intimidation 3 (+5)
Perception 1 (+2)

Advantages: 
Power Attack

Powers:
"Faith Begets Power" (All Powers Have Flaws: Directly Dependent Upon Faith; Can Be Lost With Failed Will Saves)
Enhanced Strength 8 [8]
Enhanced Stamina 7 [7]
Leaping 2 (30 feet) [1]

"Sword" (Flaws: Easily Removable) [6]
Strength-Damage +2 (Feats: Improved Critical, Penetrating 7) (10 points)

"Shield" (Flaws: Easily Removable) [3]
Enhanced Dodge & Parry 2 (4 points)

Offense:
Unarmed +7 (+3 Damage, DC 18)
Sword +7 (+5 Damage, DC 20)
Faith Boost +7 (+11 Damage, DC 26)
Sword +7 (+13 Damage, DC 28)
Initiative +3

Defenses:
Dodge +7 (+9 Shield, DC 17-10), Parry +7 (+9 Shield, DC 17-19), Toughness +4 (+11 With Faith), Fortitude +5, Will +4

Complications:
Motivation (Religious Zealotry)- A failed seminary student, Blackwood is an obsessive Christian, lashing out at anyone he views as "Pagan" or under Satanic influences. This led him to target Thor, though most of his later foes are just standard-issue super-heroes.

Total: Abilities: 48 / Skills: 8--4 / Advantages: 1 / Powers: 25 / Defenses: 8 (86)

-Crusader is an odd character, coming out of that late-'70s early-'80s era where it suddenly became okay to criticize religion and the religious in the comic pages (well, CHRISTIAN religions, anyway). Crusader was a failed seminary student (he was super-devout to the point where even his superiors were like "Dude, cool off") who gained all the power of his Crusader ancestors in order to kill pagans, namely Thor. He confronted Thor publicly, dealing him a near-fatal wound (!!), but when Thor returned, healed by Odin, the Crusader's belief system was shaken, and he fled after Thor shattered his blade.

-However, after this first strong showing, his New Villain Stink wore right the hell off, and he soon jobbed to The Black Knight and Luke Cage, neither of whom is anywhere near Thor's power level. And THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is the "pick and choose" type of proof I can use to justify my relatively short spread of Power Levels . A recurring theme was him battling the hero, who would eventually shatter his sword and destroy his confidence. After one more loss (to X-Man), he disappeared for years, popping up randomly in the background of The Raft, where he escaped following the mass breakout at the start of Bendis's Avengers run. He was quickly beaten by Doctor Strange, but reappeared leading a band of religious thugs- Wolverine gouges out one of his eyes, proclaiming "an eye for an eye". He later shows up in the background of The Hood's recruitment drive, but is said to have rejected it. So in the end, he's wound up a pretty minor, forgettable guy- an aimless Christian Zealot rather than a character with any kind of depth or reason to him.

-The Crusader tended to do rather well for himself at first, but quickly lose confidence/faith, and thus get beaten. The recurring theme is that his sword would be shattered (do all his enemies automatically get Improved Smash against him or what?), thus breaking his faith, and he then jobs. He's PL 10 at his peak, but rapidly lowers as the fight goes on, making him a jobber. As a pretty one-note villain, he ends up quite cheap despite his power.

Five years and eight months ago, I first posted this guy- I'm slowly putting everything from the original Atomic Think Tank onto here.

I wouldn't mind Crusader as much if he wasn't apparently the only Catholic/Christian character in Marvel whose faith apparently gave him superpowers. Marvel actually has done a decent job of showcasing positive people of faith, such as Dardevil, Nightcrawler, Flamebird and the like, but this guy is the equivalent of a D&D Paladin in Marvel, but whose powers apparently come from The Lord. They should have made it clear that it was Mephisto or someone twisting his faith and making use of it or something, someone who was using his fanaticism as a weapon. Have him go up against someone like Nightcrawler, someone who looks like a demon but has the soul of a good Catholic/Christian, to contrast Crusader's zealous fanaticism. Show the pros and cons, maybe have Crusader lose and actually demonstrate values that faith is suppose to demonstrate, like forgiveness, repentance, etc.

I mean, you put Michael Carpenter from The Dresden Files in the Marvel Universe and translated Michael's faith into the kind of abilities Crusader demonstrated the first time around? Michael would be one-shotting the Sentry, and then the Void afterwards.

Especially odd that he’s apparently such a bigoted zealot, yet is also a member of the Order of Saint John, better known as the Knights Hospitaller... The Knights Hospitaller were a respected and feared military order during and well after the Crusades, but they never developed a reputation for being especially “gung ho” like the Knights Templar or the Teutonic Knights.

Or quite possibly the artist just thought a white cross on a red field looked cool and he isn’t meant to be wearing specific arms.

Well, given the modern relevance and modern instance on fairness, I'm sure we're going to get a Muslim Extremist supervillain any day now.

have to play In' Nomine to understand that guy, is he a bad guy oh yeah but its an interesting twist on just how heaven isn't always nice, while hell isn't always evil

Crusader could work as a concept if you could find a writer who cared... Sadly, far too many creatives these days are both reflexively hostile to the Catholic Church and woefully ignorant about what it actually believes. When writers do take the religion of a superhero seriously, it’s usually just so they can mine some angst out of it.

J. Michael Straczynski, despite being an atheist himself, wrote several religious characters of numerous faiths during Babylon 5. Without pandering or proselytizing, without condoning or condescending, and with actual evidence that he’d done his homework as to what those religions believed (and grounding the made-up alien ones in enough detail that they made sense too).

I’d like to see Straczynski write for a devoutly religious superhero.

yeah one of the best ones form B5 was GKar who not only regained his faith after a while but when he found himself a religious figure at first dismissed it then attempted to teach only to find that his status was just as destructive. The Mimbari were also well written in that they were as religious as any having an entire caste dedicated to the concept but never pushed their beliefs until asked to teach them.

Faith was very much an overarching theme of B5 and held a significant part of the story

Batgirl III wrote: ↑Wed Jul 11, 2018 7:20 am Crusader could work as a concept if you could find a writer who cared... Sadly, far too many creatives these days are both reflexively hostile to the Catholic Church and woefully ignorant about what it actually believes. When writers do take the religion of a superhero seriously, it’s usually just so they can mine some angst out of it.

J. Michael Straczynski, despite being an atheist himself, wrote several religious characters of numerous faiths during Babylon 5. Without pandering or proselytizing, without condoning or condescending, and with actual evidence that he’d done his homework as to what those religions believed (and grounding the made-up alien ones in enough detail that they made sense too).

I’d like to see Straczynski write for a devoutly religious superhero.

Well there IS Jim Starlin, who was brought up in a Catholic school, but... well, there's a reason that "Evil Religions" are a theme in his work .

Ken wrote: ↑Wed Jul 11, 2018 12:31 am Some 30.7 years ago, when I knew most of my first college gaming group, but before I joined said group, there was an incident after a gaming session.

The gaming session had run well into the night, well past midnight. The members of the group who were students returned to their dorm rooms. Well, mostly.

About an hour later, Eric came down and knocked on Terry's door. Lynda hadn't returned to her room. She went with Terry to his room. Eric should have realised this.

Eric persisted in his knocking. Finally, the door was answered.

"Terry, how much does siege equipment weigh?"

30+ years on, I still love that story.

LOL- to be fair, who expected a nerd to be having sex in college?

FuzzyBoots wrote: ↑Mon Jul 09, 2018 4:10 pm For the meteor hammer, Gogo Yubari is a pretty decent go-to for a famous wielder.
https://youtu.be/3y8ucwiTe80

Oh, right. I even included that in her write-up .

Jabroniville wrote: ↑Wed Jul 11, 2018 8:05 am

Ken wrote: ↑Wed Jul 11, 2018 12:31 am Some 31.7 years ago, when I knew most of my first college gaming group, but before I joined said group, there was an incident after a gaming session.

The gaming session had run well into the night, well past midnight. The members of the group who were students returned to their dorm rooms. Well, mostly.

About an hour later, Eric came down and knocked on Terry's door. Lynda hadn't returned to her room. She went with Terry to his room. Eric should have realised this.

Eric persisted in his knocking. Finally, the door was answered.

"Terry, how much does siege equipment weigh?"

30+ years on, I still love that story.

LOL- to be fair, who expected a nerd to be having sex in college?

A nerd who was having sex with one one of the lady-nerds in the gaming group, in a gaming group made up of 3 guys and 3 gals, really should have recognised the possibility that one of the other couples might be doing it that night, even if he and Lore weren't that night.

And for what it's worth, Terry and Lynda have their 30th anniversary coming up this month. They were the couple that made it.

And it was 31.7 years, not 30.7. Jesus, we're old.

Ken wrote: ↑Wed Jul 11, 2018 11:15 am

Jabroniville wrote: ↑Wed Jul 11, 2018 8:05 am

Ken wrote: ↑Wed Jul 11, 2018 12:31 am Some 31.7 years ago, when I knew most of my first college gaming group, but before I joined said group, there was an incident after a gaming session.

The gaming session had run well into the night, well past midnight. The members of the group who were students returned to their dorm rooms. Well, mostly.

About an hour later, Eric came down and knocked on Terry's door. Lynda hadn't returned to her room. She went with Terry to his room. Eric should have realised this.

Eric persisted in his knocking. Finally, the door was answered.

"Terry, how much does siege equipment weigh?"

30+ years on, I still love that story.

LOL- to be fair, who expected a nerd to be having sex in college?

A nerd who was having sex with one one of the lady-nerds in the gaming group, in a gaming group made up of 3 guys and 3 gals, really should have recognised the possibility that one of the other couples might be doing it that night, even if he and Lore weren't that night.

And for what it's worth, Terry and Lynda have their 30th anniversary coming up this month. They were the couple that made it.

And it was 31.7 years, not 30.7. Jesus, we're old.

Welcome to the World of Old Age,my friend....Let me introduce you to the Sexy young Nurses...