Jab’s Builds! (Beaker! Sam Eagle! Miss Piggy! The Swedish Chef!)

Where in all of your character write ups will go.
Jabroniville
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Game Gear

Post by Jabroniville »

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THE SEGA GAME GEAR (1990 in Japan, 1991 in North America):

-The Game Gear was actually a pretty sweet deal for a while- kids thought it was cool, and it got talked about a lot. It was basically a Game Boy with WAY more graphical power, and some almost high-quality versions of several games. It featured Sonic, Aladdin and Mortal Kombat. I actually successfully campaigned to get this, and my parents actually bought one for me (it had been out QUITE some time by that point, so wasn't so expensive). Unfortunately, the quality of games wasn't there in many cases, and the infamous lack of battery power truly killed it. The Game Boy was more durable and would last for hours, whereas you'd be replacing batteries on this sumbitch all day.

-Its version of MK wasn't great, but then all handheld Fighting Games sucked. Sonic seemed decent, but I actually got stuck insanely early and couldn't figure out where to go. Worst of all, I got that X-Men game where you could play a couple characters and attempt to rescue all their friends in selectable levels... and it sucked ass. It was WAY too difficult, and I could never get very far- one of my bigger frustrations (these were hard to rent- you pretty much had to buy on hype, and I was a huge Marvel fan, so got this without even reading a review, I bet). I did enjoy Aladdin, however- it was very easy, but had good graphics and was fun to play without tearing your hair out.

-Nintendo's Game Boy beat the ever-loving CRAP out of this one to a huge degree, and Sega eventually stopped supporting it as its resources were drawn thin promoting the Sega-CD, 32X and getting ready for the Saturn. It wasn't all bad, however- only Sony's PSP came anywhere near as close to surviving against Nintendo's handheld dominance, and the Game Gear sold 11 million consoles by the time all was said and done. All in all, it lasted five years, too.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24689
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Sega-CD

Post by Jabroniville »

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THE SEGA-CD (1990 in Japan, 1991 in North America):

-Sega created the second CD add-on for a gaming system (Turbografx-16 had beaten them to the punch) with Japan's Mega-CD, and truth be told, even as a Nintendo loyalist I was impressed with what I'd heard about this system. Boasting the best graphics available on consoles at the time, it also featured Full Motion Video sequences! However, many of these were grainy and put into strange areas. Despite the hype, however, this was considered a bit of a failed system- FMV games were all set to be a huge genre... but people discovered that moving from camera to camera was actually REALLY BORING, and so the genre died almost before it began (but not before changing video games forever with a certain horror-themed release). And there were very, VERY few "Killer Apps" for the system- they had Sonic-CD as their biggest game, but that was about it. For early fans of anime, Lunar was an amazing series, but almost no original games were any good. And the video usually sucked ass, as well.

-What the system had going for it, however, was adaptations of SNES & Genesis games. They had a much-improved version of Eternal Champions, and easily the best conversion of Final Fight (using all three main characters). Jurassic Park CD was a huge Adventure Game that looked really cool. There was also an update of the first two Shining Force games on CD! Versions of Ecco the Dolphin and Earthworm Jim were also available- it was hard to call this a truly BAD system. The issue, however, was that the combined cost of this and the Genesis did not make it a worthwhile purchase. Only 2.2 million units were sold.
Jabroniville
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Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

The Six Pack

Post by Jabroniville »

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THE SIX PACK (aka The Wild Pack)
Created By:
Fabian Nicieza & Rob Liefeld
First Appearance: X-Force #8 (March 1992)
Role: Backstory Characters

-Initially called the "Wild Pack", this is a group that makes up part of Cable's backstory, once Fabian Nicieza & Rob Liefeld started delving into it. It was established that some of the people who hated Cable in the present were part of his past- the Pack had been a close group of mercenaries many years ago- Cable, G.W. Bridge, Domino, Grizzly, Hammer & Kane. They were great friends and allies, often joking around with each other- Hammer & Kane, the younger members, joked that they were better looking that everyone else. Cable was nicknamed "Ol' Blue Eye" after Frank Sinatra and Bridge nicknamed after Sammy Davis Jr. (Cable notes with some humor that Sammy was "a little guy, while Bridge is about thirty-two feet tall". Even so, Cable kept his secrets from them- none of them are aware that he's a mutant from the future, going back in time to stop Stryfe in his attempts at changing the past. Cable, in fact, goes back and forth in time to his ship, Graymalkin.

Funnily enough, the group was named the Wild Pack in spite of Silver Sable calling her OWN group, also mercenaries, that. With Silver Sable and the Wild Pack also being a regular book at this point, it created a bit of a thing, enough that Cable was "forced" (lol a group of quasi-criminal mercenaries having to abide by this) to change the name to the Six Pack.

Ultimately, things fall apart in disaster. The group gets hired by the criminal mastermind Mr. Tolliver, putting them in direct conflict with Stryfe- when they are compromised, Hammer decides to surrender vital information to Stryfe, causing Cable to shoot him in the back. Cable escapes via time travel, unable to take his allies along- they escape themselves, but Hammer is permanently left paralyzed and Kane loses both of his arms.

The after-effects are pretty huge- Bridge, Grizzly, Hammer & Kane consider Cable a traitor and wish to kill him. Bridge takes high command at S.H.I.E.L.D. and personally leads the investigation into Cable with all their manpower behind him. Kane's arms are replaced by cybernetics as he becomes the new "Weapon X". Both of them, plus Grizzly, join Weapon: P.R.I.M.E. with intentions at taking Cable down. Hammer is a wheelchair-bound information broker. Only Domino sides with Cable, understanding more about him... though we'd learn secrets of HERS, too.

Much of their bio interacts with that of Weapon: P.R.I.M.E., but only for about a year of the X-Force comic. All end up surviving, with Domino, Hammer, Kane & Grizzly teaming up with Nomad (in a book also written by Nicieza). Domino & Grizzly also team up with Hammer to find information on Cable, leading her to X-Force, but Grizzly later goes mad and is put down.

Many years later, the group is reformed by S.H.I.E.L.D. and again led by Bridge, and sent against Cable once again. Now the group includes the Constrictor and Anaconda, both established criminals... and oddly Solo, the anti-terrorist gun-toting psychopath. Yes, a man literally named SOLO is on a team. Just accept it. This team falls apart quickly- Bridge & Hammer are put in suspended animation, Domino defects, and Solo, Contrictor & Anaconda are bribed by Cable into joining him for a mission. Constrictor actually gets secretly replaced by Deadpool, and the group is hired by the American government to commit acts of terrorism in Rumekistan, which at this point was led by Cable- the idea being to crumble his reign. Cable defeated them, and that was the last they were seen teaming up.
Jabroniville
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Weapon: P.R.I.M.E.

Post by Jabroniville »

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You young 'uns think LIEFELD was bad? In the 1990s, we had bad Liefeld IMITATORS.

WEAPON: P.R.I.M.E.:

-The X-Force series in the early '90s was wonderful fun for me as a comic book reader of about 12-14years of age. It started out pretty damn stupid, with Rob Liefeld's plotting and art being oh, so dated (though it's fun to read just for that, to be honest), and everything was all EXTREEEEME with guys running around just hacking each other apart, and new characters being introduced every single issue, straight off the pages of Robbie's sketchbooks (a similar problem befouled most of the early Image stuff in the '90s as well). When Fabian Nicieza took over full plotting with the Image X-odus, and had a fresh group of hot young artists (Greg Capullo & Tony Daniel mainly), things got a lot better. Cable became more of a father-figure than an insanely-violent hard-ass, Cannonball became a strong leader, Shatterstar gained a personality instead of just being Captain Stabby, Warpath was less of an angry stereotype, etc. It still comes across as fairly generic and sometimes silly today, and wasn't A-level storytelling by any means, but it was neat and I still get nostalgic for it.

Weapon: P.R.I.M.E. (PRototype Induced Mutation Echelon, as it was revealed much later in a bio-book, and I'm sure you were DYING to know the acronym, which totally makes tons of sense) was part of the Liefeld years, with Nicieza left to pick up the pieces later. See, when the book was still The New Mutants, we saw the introduction of Cable and the Mutant Liberation Front that hunted him, as Liefeld just kept COMING UP with stuff to put into the once-dying book after it was drilled into the ground by the Simonson/Blevins creative team of doom. But then we got introduced to even MORE guys, like Deadpool, Domino & Gideon. When the book was re-tooled as X-Force, our first issue saw G.W. Bridge, a high-end guy at S.H.I.E.L.D., dealing with the aftermath of an X-Force op and talk about how he used to know Cable and that he was hunting him now and stuff. He calls in "Weapon X", and over the course of eleven issues we meet a whole new group of guys devoted to hunting down Cable:

-Bridge, an old teammate from their "Six Pack/Wild Pack" days, now with the backing of S.H.I.E.L.D. now that he's no longer a mecenary. He is the basis for Chapel, a carbon-copy Liefeld made for his Image books.
-Garrison Kane, another Six Pack guy, now a cyborg after he was badly injured thanks to Cable during the group's last op. He's now the new "Weapon X" and wears the ugliest red vest you've ever seen- he actually gets a LOT of focus, with a multi-issue mini-narrative set up around him.
-Grizzly, the last Six Pack guy left (Domino is another, and Hammer is a paraplegic spy-aide now). He's an enormous red mutant with guns (because it was the '90s).
-Rictor, formerly of the New Mutants. He quit the team to look for Wolfsbane, but now they retrofitted a bad past- Cable apparently murdered his father (since we know Stryfe looks like Cable by this point, the true story isn't hard to figure out). This is never brought up during Rictor's time on the New Mutants with Cable as their actual leader.
-Tygerstryke, a generic background goon and Canadian mutant.
-The Yeti, who is clearly a Wendigo with an inhibitor collar on, meant to do Canada's bidding.

This was HEAVILY planned out and built-up over the course of a year (12 issues), with us getting more and more info in each story, but Rob Liefeld quitting the book threw a wrench into the plans. You could practically FEEL Fabian Nicieza just want to deal with all that crap right away, and so we had the big "WP vs. X-Force" brawl take place in a SINGLE ISSUE, with Bridge's crew flying right in and blowing into X-Force's temporary base, just as they were going to try and find the hideout of their enemy Mr. Tolliver. And after all this planning, all this money, and all the issues spent building up this team... and Weapon: P.R.I.M.E. basically got their asses kicked. Tygerstryke, Grizzly & Yeti were easily defeated by Siryn, Warpath & Feral, respectively. Rictor talked big and threatened his old teammates, but eventually defected. Kane got his arm chopped off, but managed to take out Shatterstar. And then Cable shot Bridge up, taunted him while looking like the Terminator (half-metal skull face and all), and then their base exploded thanks to Tolliver. All in one issue.

The Fall-Out:
-In the fallout, most of Weapon: P.R.I.M.E. disbands; Bridge quits S.H.I.E.L.D. in a huff after being dressed down over the mission's failure (given his plan was "blow through a wall and attack a team that outnumbers them", I wonder why), Grizzly & Yeti go missing, and Kane does his own thing after that. We don't see them for over a year (a lifetime in the X-books of the day), and only in a sub-plot: Domino & Grizzly meet back up after all these years, and decide to go traipsing around for the missing Cable & X-Force. They end up in Canada, searching Department K headquarters... where it turns out Weapon: P.R.I.M.E. is still active as a group of government-based operatives, and is gunning for their heads!

This pair of issues is HILARIOUS, as the group that was supposed to take out X-Force is now led by Tygerstryke and adds in three members we've never seen before. Grizzly even jokes the "I was only with Weapon: P.R.I.M.E. for a short time" and "I should NOT have expected this!" The group now consists of whatever designs Greg Capullo felt like tossing out, as Tigerstryke is joined by Yeti again, plus Double Trouble (a duo of plasma-wielding mutants) and Killjoy (a generic blade-wielder). And weirder still... after this one-page introduction, the next issue features entirely different color schemes for the roster! Every member has changed colors... even the Yeti! This was a recurring issue in X-Force for some reason- poor Shatterstar went from brown, to orange, to RED within five issues. The new team gets all of one page of introduction before everything is casually mopped-up (Domino fires off some smoke) and Dom & Griz escape, and that's it for this team in the pages of X-Force. Like... why did they even BOTHER? Did Capullo just wanna create some new designs and put them in a book? They released a "Killspree" figure off of Killjoy later on- were they hiring him to do toy designs?

The "Northstar" Run:
-The group's final appearance is actually in the pages of that god-awful "See! A Gay Superhero! Too bad we can't think of anything good to write about him!" Northstar Limited Series, when Tygerstryke leads the squad in a hunt on the Alpha Flight mutant, who's been targetted by the Canadian government and is eventually framed for murder. The team initially attacks him in the first issue, doing okay but are quickly routed and Northstar escapes, having noted their techniques from former teammate Heather "Guardian" Hudson (ie. Yeti attacks head-on to set up Killspree's attack). Northstar is later able to convince Tigerstryke to team up against some circus performers being mind-controlled by Arcade. After the team-up, 'Stryke is convinced of Northstar's goodness and backs down after being confronted by Heather "Guardian" Hudson. And that's it. An entire year of build-up for this epic X-Force-beating team, and they get mopped up in a single issue, and are generic background jobbers in another couple. Comics are so weird sometimes.

Weapon: P.R.I.M.E. Overall:
-These guys just SCREAM "jobber". Bridge is just a generic soldier/merc guy with an issue, Kane is god-awful both in design and power-set ("My arms can come off!"), Grizzly is so '90s it's not even funny (mutant powers PLUS guns), Yeti is a devalued cool background villain, Tygerstryke is nothing, and the others are just costumes with no personality attached. They are a classic case of "Nineties Villain Team", something that befell the Acolytes, The Mutant Liberation Front, and the Dark Riders, among others (virtually every single Image book featured this as well). They all have the same stuff in common: A bunch of thugs with little personality, meant to oppose the heroes directly. Most of them are just a unique costume idea by the artist, with nothing attached to them. They usually have punny or "Death" oriented names. For some reason, the '90s was obsessed with having entire groups of guys for teams to fight, no matter what. And most teams had more than one or two of these groups fighting them! X-Force had the ENTIRE M.L.F., a gang of about fourteen characters, going after them, but then ALSO added in these guys!

Thus I must stat them. Suckiness of this magnitude should be rewarded.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sat Mar 25, 2023 10:56 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24689
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Re: Jab’s Builds! (Cheetahmen! Ghost Chaser! The Six Pack! Weapon: PRIME!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Oh PS, one more video game thing before I'm completely done for a couple of months (cuz I just found this in an older set of builds):

I keep wanting to ask this, but I always forget: What Video Game Magazines did you all read growing up? Do you still read any (the ones that EXIST, anyways)? When I was younger, I LOVED Game Players. GamePro was a bit too childish, and DieHard GameFan was a bit too... elitist (?) for me (I guess the term they'd use now would be "Hipster-ish", if that term hadn't been kind of used as a general insult for "young people whose behavior mystifies me" these days). GamePlayers was basically a complete riot of goofiness, with their Letters Pages consisting of nothing but people inventing a random continuity of bizarre characters (Gamer X, Gazuga the three-eyed Ape God, Moogoo the Mangler and assorted other "write-in" characters invented by readers), occasionally-funny reviews, and an inability to take anything seriously. They culminated these weird stories in "The Cleansing", and politely told their fans to knock it off after it'd gone on for a couple of years.

The reviews come off as funny in retrospect, as what used to look like hard-hitting reviews now appear to be all of four paragraphs long each, and filled mostly with screenshots. Some writers have admitted to giving full reviews to games they played for all of twenty minutes, in order to make deadlines (their infamous Yoshi's Island review, giving it only a 76% and thus earning the enmity of thousands, mentions "The Baby" but fails to even bring up that the screaming kid is supposed to be MARIO).

I think I based a lot of my system loyalties around this mag- they had an obvious bias towards Nintendo (the Super NES version of any game was always reviewed better, thanks to stronger graphics), and my introduction to the magazine had a TON of hype for the "Ultra 64" and Donkey Kong Country. However, once Sony unveiled their plans for the PlayStation, they completely hyped THAT system, advertising Toshinden as "The Best Brawler EVER!" on one Hilarious In Hindsight cover, and generally burying the Saturn by comparison. They DID give Virtua Fighter 2 their best rating ever afterwards, at least, and gave props to SOME Saturn games, but it was very clear that they thought the PS-X whupped the Saturn's ass.

They changed their name to Ultra Game Players when the Nintendo 64 came out, and basically fell over themselves to hype Nintendo's new system. Alas, the energy had gone out of the mag by this point- they'd attempted to drop the humor by several degrees, turning into "Just Another Mag", and debuting their new Ratings System by IMMEDIATELY giving a perfect score to Mario 64 kind of annoyed me, as I was never as enamored with that game as everyone else was.

A lot of their writers and editors moved on to actual video game companies, but Chris Slate (their Editor during the wackiest period) went on to Nintendo Power and others, while Bill Donohue (the primary source of weirdness and odd ramblings) brought his Jaded Gamer column to other mags.

I "Byrne-Stole" a lot of DieHard GameFan, particularly because I was obsessed with anime as a teenager, and they had a big section on anime. But some of the reviews annoyed me, such as the guy who trashed every polygonal game (one line I always remember is "Can you imagine a *2-D* Fighter with these characters??") and insisted that 2-D was better (if only I'd known that I'd share that opinion as a Grumpy Old Man Gamer years later). I also collected a few issues of Video Games Magazine (dig the elaborate, evocative title), which had a more "do-it-yourself"/indie vibe (they used actual STAPLES, and contained a page-long section on 'zines. ZINES, people!! Before the internet became a big thing, small-press magazines were the way for rebellious indie-types to show the world their opinions). Their reviews annoyed me, though (disagreeing with my general opinions was an unforgivable failure), and so I only grabbed a handful of issues before quitting.

I never got into Electronic Gaming Monthly (too generic, I think. It never really stood out) or GamePro- I found GamePro, then the biggest and most-popular mag, to be more for kids (their Reviews consisted of funny faces to represent the numbers), and full of too much shilling, because they were the "Corporate" option. Nintendo Power and any other "System-Based" mag lacked credibility in my eyes, so I never, EVER read them (I mean, how would you trust NINTENDO to review a game for their own system?).

One of the funnier things of this era is reading the reviews and hype for the "lesser systems". Back in the day, there was actually a handful of OTHER contenders for Sega & Nintendo's money- most infamous today is Atari's horrible Jaguar- known for promising 64-bit graphics ("Do The Math", the advertising campaign went), but offering only a literal handful of good games, and filling the rest with abysmal garbage (Kasumi Ninja, Club Drive- some horrible Racing Game that earned the worst reviews ever). I also know it because a friend of mine who had a problem with honesty invented a "Rich Uncle" who had a Jaguar, and he claimed it was the BEST SYSTEM EVER, and that Club Drive was awesome. He eventually dropped it when I showed him the reviews (which often bordered on 30% scores).

Panasonic's 3DO and Phillips's CD-i were also infamous, primarily because they were UNGODLY expensive (more than the PlayStation ever was- a ridiculous $800 U.S. for some systems), and were full of terrible games- mostly FMV-type games to utilize the CD images and sound. Remember when *FMV* games were almost seen as a thing of the future? CD-i never managed a Killer App, but 3DO at least specialized in the "Best Versions" of a couple of games (I think Road Rash, plus the only Home Console version of Super Street Fighter II Turbo). Plus Way of the Warrior, which is a literal example of a digitized live-action fighting game made in someone's basement, with his friends as the characters.
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Ken
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Cheetahmen! Ghost Chaser! The Six Pack! Weapon: PRIME!)

Post by Ken »

8.5 members, and they're unable to split up into teams.... Okay.


(Prime is only divisible by itself and one.)
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Cheetahmen! Ghost Chaser! The Six Pack! Weapon: PRIME!)

Post by Shock »

Six Pack, let's do some shots!

Has to be the best battle cry in the history of Marvel, at least.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Cheetahmen! Ghost Chaser! The Six Pack! Weapon: PRIME!)

Post by Ares »

My brothers and collected a lot of different video game magazines growing up. I collected GamePro initially (at least partially for the Flying Warriors comic), but we also collected Nintendo Power, Electronic Games Monthly, DieHard GameFan and GamePlayers, though not as subscriptions. Basically anytime our Mom took us grocery shopping and we behaved, she'd let us pick out a magazine or book from the magazine section, so we'd just grab whatever video game magazine caught our eye that visit.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Cheetahmen! Ghost Chaser! The Six Pack! Weapon: PRIME!)

Post by Shock »

I read Computer Gaming World and PCGamer for a while. I still have the 1998 PCGamer hyping Duke Nukem Forever, which wouldn't come out for another 12 years
Jabroniville
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G.W. Bridge

Post by Jabroniville »

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LOL did they ever explain this visual discrepancy?

GEORGE WASHINGTON "G.W." BRIDGE
Created By:
Fabian Nicieza & Rob Liefeld
First Appearance: X-Force #1 (Aug. 1991)
Role: Mirror-Image Villain (to Cable), Jobber Soldier
Group Affiliations: The Wild Pack/Six Pack, S.H.I.E.L.D., Weapon: P.R.I.M.E.
PL 9 (128)
STRENGTH
5 STAMINA 4 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 3 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 3

Skills:
Athletics 3 (+8)
Deception 3 (+6)
Expertise (Soldier) 11 (+14)
Expertise (Current Events) 6 (+9)
Insight 4 (+7)
Intimidation 5 (+8)
Investigation 5 (+8)
Perception 5 (+8)
Stealth 2 (+5)
Technology 4 (+7)
Vehicles 5 (+9)

Advantages:
Accurate Attack, Beginner's Luck, Benefit (S.H.I.E.L.D. Clearance), Contacts, Equipment 6 (Arsenal), Improved Aim, Improved Critical (Rifle), Jack-of-All-Trades, Power Attack, Precise Attack 2 (Ranged/Cover & Concealment), Ranged Attack 6, Teamwork

Equipment:
"Bridge's Arsenal"
"Body Armour" Protection 3 (3)
Spy/Merc Gear (4)

"Blaster Rifle" Blast 7 (Extras: Multiattack) (21) -- (23)
  • AE: "Grenades" Blast 7 (Extras: Area- 30ft. Burst) (Diminished Range) (20)
  • AE: "Knife" Strength-Damage +1 (1)
Offense:
Unarmed +8 (+5 Damage, DC 20)
Knife +8 (+6 Damage, DC 21)
Blaster Rifle +10 (+7 Ranged Damage, DC 22)
Grenade +8 Area (+8 Damage, DC 23)
Initiative +3

Defenses:
Dodge +8 (DC 18), Parry +8 (DC 18), Toughness +4 (+7 Armour), Fortitude +8, Will +6

Complications:
Obsession (Hunting Cable)
Responsibility (Family, S.H.I.E.L.D.)

Total: Abilities: 66 / Skills: 54--27 / Advantages: 23 / Powers: 0 / Defenses: 12 (128)

G.W. Bridge- Cable's Mirror Image:
-G.W. Bridge is set up in X-Force #1 as a key adversary for Cable- a former ally who now hunts him, Bridge is an ex-mercenary who now works directly for S.H.I.E.L.D. (but doesn't have to wear the mandatory blue jumpsuit). However, over the years he's gotten a bit odd, as he got all this build as a nemesis, then got roundly trounced, then vanished from the X-Books and got redesigned later as a Punisher enemy, then suddenly was back doing "Cable stuff" again (probably because Fabian Nicieza was writing Cable again). His visual appearance and status as this giant black dude with a mercenary past appears to be the basis for Chapel of Youngblood fame- Rob Liefeld simply re-used aspects of the character.

-So Bridge is this enormous, built, white-haired guy with a cynical, serious edge hunting Cable after he invades the Mutant Liberation Front's base in the Arctic. Taking comments from Nick Fury, it's clear he's in charge of the "Cable" investigation, as S.H.I.E.L.D. is hunting him down for various crimes committed while doing past mercenary work. Bridge calls in "Weapon X!", thus forming an alliance with a mutual old partner of his & Cable's in Garrison Kane. In X-Force #8, it's shown that Cable shot a teammate in the back to save some important information and then bailed on the squad, leaving them to fight it out. Deeply resentful, all except Domino hate Cable, and soon they're teamed up with fellow squadmate Grizzly, ex-New Mutant Rictor and two Department K operatives (Tigerstryke & Yeti) to form "Weapon: P.R.I.M.E.". However, their big mission went downhill in a hurry- they snuck into Cable's base but just blew open a wall and openly attacked them in a straight series of one-on-one fights, and lost badly. Tigerstryke, Grizzly & Yeti are all badly beaten, Rictor defects, and Bridge is handily shot down by Cable. And just like that, Weapon: P.R.I.M.E. loses- though a self-destruct is coded into X-Force's base and Cable thinks his whole team is lost.

Post-P.R.I.M.E. Bridge:
-Issues later, Bridge is dressed down by a S.H.I.E.L.D. boss while H.P. Gyrich looks on with a smirk, and Bridge just tells them to stuff it and quits. Bridge is rarely seen in X-Force after that, but shows up a bit in Cable, giving Kane some information that leads him to Cable (the two make peace). Bridge himself teams up with Cable after a short fight only a little later on, the two parting as friends. Back again with S.H.I.E.L.D., Bridge also warned X-Force of Operation: Zero Tolerance and sent Domino "unofficially" to check in on Danielle Moonstar, who'd gone undercover with the Mutant Liberation Front. Aaaaaaaaand then we go Back To Basics, as Cable's powers go out of whack and Bridge goes back to mistrusting him, forming a new "Six Pack" (with Anaconda, Constrictor and Solo recruited onto it). Cable gets most of the team but Bridge to defect to his side.

-Later, Bridge appears as a mercenary again, working with Domino... then reappears with S.H.I.E.L.D. in The Punisher, now appearing as a much older-looking, overweight man with no facial hair. He again resigned after failing to bring in the Punisher, but went "freelance" as this afforded him more power to do what he felt was necessary- he put Silver Sable & Domino in a task force to capture Punisher, but things go badly when various dead villains are resurrected. Basilisk & Death Adder hold Bridge's family hostage so he'll tell them where to find their target (Punisher, again), and Bridge is shot in the head and killed by Microchip. Later, in some Ravencroft miniseries, Bridge turns up alive with no explanation as a member of J.A.N.U.S.

-So overall, G.W. Bridge is a very odd character- he's a bit of a "Mirror Image Villain" to Cable in many respects, being a huge, gun-toting military man with a serious nature and a tendency to hold a grudge. However, he went on to become a government "yes man" instead of a cool, bad-ass rebel mercenary, so he's the less cool option. But Fabian Nicieza seems to tire of him quickly in X-Force without Rob around, and then Bridge gets written out and he's just a background guy in Cable here and there. Then he makes peace with Cable, only to turn on him later when a story is needed where he's the "General Thunderbolt Ross" to Cable's "Hulk" and we're right back to basics. And then randomly he's some old fat guy dealing with the Punisher and getting killed. Like, did they just want a named S.H.I.E.L.D. guy and weren't allowed to kill a big original recurring one?

G.W. Bridge's Capabilities:
-Bridge is a good old-fashioned military man, packing PL 8.5 offense & PL 8 defense, so he's no match for the PL 9-10 crew of X-Force, but still quite dangerous, able to go with Accurate or Power Attack. He's built like a brick you-know-what (Cable's personal files describe him as "about thirty-two feet tall"), so he's no slouch in melee either. He's a good example of a high-level soldier/mercenary type of guy, packing a bit of power, but not TOO much. He's also a moderate Skillmonkey and a capable Agent, but again, beneath the Fury & Silver Sable crowd.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Fri Mar 24, 2023 5:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Davies
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Cheetahmen! Ghost Chaser! The Six Pack! Weapon: PRIME!)

Post by Davies »

He was apparently shown in a 2020 series as alive once more -- sing it with me -- "with no explanation" ... but hasn't appeared since then.

<looks at Bereton illustration, takes notes>
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greycrusader
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Cheetahmen! Ghost Chaser! The Six Pack! Weapon: PRIME!)

Post by greycrusader »

So...no explanation at all for Bridge suddenly being normal height, older-looking, and overweight instead of muscular? I mean, just a one-off reference to a super-solider treatment wearing off or some-such would have sufficed.

And was there anything ever explained about ANY of the second iteration of PRIME? Who was Tigerstryke (cool name, I admit)? How and why was a Wendigo controlled and made a member? Why did Marvel think a character named Killspree was acceptable as anything but a villain even in the 90s?

And yes-Liefeld actually inspired imitators *shudder*

All my best.
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Cheetahmen! Ghost Chaser! The Six Pack! Weapon: PRIME!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Davies wrote: Fri Mar 24, 2023 1:30 am He was apparently shown in a 2020 series as alive once more -- sing it with me -- "with no explanation" ... but hasn't appeared since then.

<looks at Bereton illustration, takes notes>
That's probably what this thing at the tail end of my build is about.
Later, in some Ravencroft miniseries, Bridge turns up alive with no explanation as a member of J.A.N.U.S.
It's amusing that even in an era of Wikipedia, ComicVine & Marvunapp, this STILL HAPPENS, and has happened a half-dozen times JUST WITH CHARACTERS FROM THE FIRST YEAR OF X-FORCE.
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Cheetahmen! Ghost Chaser! The Six Pack! Weapon: PRIME!)

Post by Jabroniville »

greycrusader wrote: Fri Mar 24, 2023 4:55 am So...no explanation at all for Bridge suddenly being normal height, older-looking, and overweight instead of muscular? I mean, just a one-off reference to a super-solider treatment wearing off or some-such would have sufficed.

And was there anything ever explained about ANY of the second iteration of PRIME? Who was Tigerstryke (cool name, I admit)? How and why was a Wendigo controlled and made a member? Why did Marvel think a character named Killspree was acceptable as anything but a villain even in the 90s?

And yes-Liefeld actually inspired imitators *shudder*

All my best.
LOL, more on those guys later. Wendigo/Yeti is one of the more fascinating looks at half-assed character writing you're gonna find.
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (Cheetahmen! Ghost Chaser! The Six Pack! Weapon: PRIME!)

Post by Jabroniville »

It's interesting to see who got toys and who didn't. Bridge, a major character in the first year of X-Force, obviously got one. Kane did, too. But KILLSPREE managed one.

Image

Image

Image

Poor Tigerstryke, Double Trouble & Yeti never did.
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