Jab's Builds: Fear Lords, Dark Man, DC's Thriller, The S-Men

[Yeoman]

I also love how everyone is asking questions about Psylocke & Kwannon even after I explained it all in the build just prior to their comments. Just goes to show you how insanely buggered that whole storyline was. All so Jim Lee could use his ability to draw every woman with the same Asian-looking face to good use.

Man, I can explain Hypertime, can keep the Summers family tree straight and understand most of End of Evangelion, and I still am pretty sure I don't understand what was going on there. It doesn't help that I think they retconned it back and forth a couple times over five years or so.

GeNEXT:

GeNEXT was a group of future-kids of the X-Men created by Chris Claremont after his "X-Men: The End" series, meant to wrap up some of his loose ends and finish the stories of some of his characters. Sadly, despite the awesomeness of his early X-Men run, I've heard nothing good about this one

Man did X=men The End hurt. It was supposed to wrap up a bunch of abandoned plot lines, and then about halfway through, Claremeont, being Claremont, introduced half a dozen new ones involving the Shi'ar, Cassandra Nova and the Phoenix.

There's a reason I once heard that period of Claremont's work referred to as "The X0men fanfiction Marvel publishes."

[Jabroniville]

KRAKOA, THE LIVING ISLAND
Created By: Len Wein & Dave Cockrum
First Appearance: Giant-Size X-Men #360 (May 1975)
Group Affiliations: The Jean Grey School For Higher Learning
Role: One-Shot Character
PL 14 (296)
STRENGTH 20 STAMINA 18 AGILITY -1
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 3 AWARENESS 1 PRESENCE -2

Skills:
Intimidation 10 (+8, +18 Size)
Perception 4 (+5)
Insight 4 (+5)

Advantages:
None

Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Living Island"
"Is an Island"
Growth 20 (Str & Sta +20, +20 Mass, +10 Intimidation, -10 Dodge/Parry, +2 Speed, -20 Stealth) -- (192 feet) (Feats: Innate) (Extras: Permanent +0) [41]
Growth +16 (+32 Mass, -32 Stealth) -- (3,072 feet) (Extras: Permanent +0) (Flaws: Limited to Non-STR & STA Gains) [5]

"Mind Shield" Enhanced Will Save 6 (Flaws: Limited to vs. Mental Attacks) [3]
Protection 3 [3]
Immunity 3 (Pressure, Drowning, Suffocation) [3]
Senses 1 (Radius Sight) [1]

"Subtle Manipulation" Mind Control 12 (Feats: Subtle) [49]
Summon Krakoan Monster 7 (Feats: Mental Link) (Extras: Heroic +2, Controlled) [36]
"Vary His Appearance" Morph 4 (Any Object's Appearance- Paradises, Trees, etc.) [20]

"Ecosystem Control"
Mind Control 10 (Extras: Area- 2,000 ft. Burst +x7) (Flaws: Touch Range -2, Limited to Animals) (80) -- [85]

AE: "Plant Control" Move Object 14 (Extras: Perception Range) (Flaws: Limited to Plants) (28)
AE: Vine Snare 12 (Feats: Reach 4) (Extras: Multiattack) (Flaws: Touch Range) (40)
AE: "Giant Body Attacks" Damage 14 (Extras: Area- 30ft. Burst) (28)
AE: "Earthquake" Affliction 14 (Dodge; Hindered/Prone) (Extras: Area- 250ft. Burst +4) (Flaws: Limited Degree, Instant Recovery, Limited to Grounded Targets) Linked to Damage 10 (Extras: Area- 250ft. Burst +4) (Flaws: Limited to Grounded Targets) (68)
AE: "Topographical Features" Environment 7 (Impede Movement 2, Visibility) (2,000 feet) (21)

Offense:
Unarmed +8 (+20 Damage, DC 35)
Anmal Control +10 Area (+10 Affliction, DC 20)
Subtle Manipulation -- (+12 Perception-Ranged Affliction, DC 22)
Giant Area Attacks +14 (+14 Damage, DC 29)
Vine Snare +8 (+12 Affliction, DC 22)
Initiative -1

Defenses:
Dodge +6 (DC 16), Parry +6 (DC 16), Toughness +21, Fortitude +18, Will +7 (+13 vs. Mental Attacks)

Complications:
Addiction (Mutants)- Krakoa now feeds upon the energies of mutants, requiring more to sate his thirst.

Total: Abilities: 10 / Skills: 18--9 / Advantages: 0 / Powers: 246 / Defenses: 31 (296)

-Krakoa's pretty famous for a monster that only showed up like twice for decades. But that'll happen when you're the super-villain monster at the end of the story that kicked off the most popular team in the history of comics (at least until The Avengers made a billion-plus at the box office). Krakoa is of course a giant mutant monster that came about when atomic testing converted an actual island to a life-sustaining beast from hell, and he went as far as to kidnap the original X-Men, then brainwash Cyclops & Professor X into sending MORE mutants to him, setting off the Giant-Size team. He was defeated only thanks to a massive effort involving everyone using their powers to maximum effectiveness, and was blown into the atmosphere. Only a few more in-continuity appearances (a collected monster in "Quasar" once) were there for him, but he shows up a LOT in "what ifs" and story-retconning has him killing entire swaths of other mutants in the mean-time (such as Vulcan's team). In modern times, he shows up as sort of a Protector of Logan's "Jean Grey School", swimming around the grounds of the new school and engaging in whacky antics.

-A PL 14 super-monster, Krakoa is Part Kaiju/Part Base, as he just sits there and lets minions and various traps on him do his dirty work, but he CAN come to life and start laying a whupping on the heroes if need be. He's virtually impossible to injure (Toughness +23!), and it'll take an entire team of... say, thirteen super-heroes to end his threat. Years later, we'd discover a retcon that said he was little more than an animal, and that his psionic powers were part of a lie created by Charles Xavier to hide the deaths of Vulcan's X-team. So this build basically represents the smarter, original version.



KRAKOAN MONSTER
Created By: Len Wein & Dave Cockrum
First Appearance: Giant-Size X-Men #360 (May 1975)
Group Affiliations: The Jean Grey School For Higher Learning
Role: One-Shot Character
PL 12 (100)
STRENGTH 15 STAMINA 15 AGILITY -1
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 3 AWARENESS 1 PRESENCE -2

Skills:
Intimidation 10 (+8, +15 Size)
Perception 4 (+5)
Insight 4 (+5)

Advantages:
None

Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Living Island"
"Natural Size" Growth 14 (Str & Sta +14, +14 Mass, +7 Intimidation, -7 Dodge/Parry, +1 Speed, -14 Stealth) -- (72 feet) (Feats: Innate) (Extras: Permanent +0) [29]
"Mind Shield" Enhanced Will Save 6 (Flaws: Limited to vs. Mental Attacks) [3]
Immunity 3 (Pressure, Drowning, Suffocation) [3]
Impervious Toughness 9 [9]

Offense:
Unarmed +8 (+15 Damage, DC 30)
Initiative -1

Defenses:
Dodge +6 (DC 16), Parry +6 (DC 16), Toughness +15, Fortitude +15, Will +7 (+13 vs. Mental Attacks)

Complications:
None

Total: Abilities: 22 / Skills: 18--9 / Advantages: 0 / Powers: 44 / Defenses: 25 (100)

-This is the Monster Form Krakoa forms to fight the X-Men- it's smaller, but still a PL 12 fighter against a whole team of weakened Original X-Men & the Giant-Size Team in their rookiest state. Modern-day Krakoa is basically like this, but stupid, and with the Elemental powers of the Krakoa above, all around PL 11-12 level.

[Jabroniville]

And that's it for the Young X-Men!! It took a bit longer than I expected, thanks to the fact that I checked my builds for other X-people I hadn't done, and came up with Dr. Rao, Val Cooper, Revanche, Krakoa, Shard and a few others, but that's it. Curiously, X-people seem to have the weirdest powers out of any heroes- they require a lot more work and research into figuring out what they are about, or do otherwise weird things.

Next up: MORE X-MEN! Well, not really..

CEREBRO'S X-MEN:
-The "Cerebro X-Men" was a TINY tiny one-shot done in the late '90s to reintroduce alot of X-characters back into the books, after they'd been split up for a while (mainly adding the Excalibur cast of Kitty, Nightcrawler & Colossus back onto the roster). I actually was fairly into this unique little team of evil X-Men (introduced with real names and civilian I.D.s and everything) who would attack the heroes... so of course it would be revealed that they were just nanite-based entities created by a "false" Xavier (actually Cerebro gone insane... which is totally the only time part of the X-Mansion has come to life and tried to kill everyone... yes...), based off of grouped-together mutants from past adventures, and they were absorbed back into it at the end, wiping them out. Kind of a waste, as these guys would've been great recurring foes, essentially replacements to the over-done and tired Marauders, Hellfire Club or Nasty Boys.

-I actually remember hearing some kind of hype about these characters and getting a bit interested, but they were just some one-shot Carlos Pacheco-drawn guys, based off of the traits of pairs of X-characters. They're PL 10 because that's the state in which they first encountered the X-Men- had they been recurring characters, we'd probably see them turn into PL 8-9 Jobbers. Oddly, Chris Bachalo (who'd join Jason Aaron's run on the X-books years later) was the artist on the issue itself, not Pacheco.

The roster: The Grey King, Crux, Rapture, Mercury, Chaos & Landslide.

After that, I'll post a build of that Freedom Ring guy, then it's time for a set of builds I've been planning on doing for eons, but wanted to re-read the whole series again to do it-- The Immortal Iron Fist and the Immortal Weapons!

[Kyle]

Oh, that's awesome. It should be a pretty simple build, but I'm still excited to see what you do with Fat Cobra. Also the Bride of Nine Spiders!

Any chance you'll delve into Fraction's DEFENDERS series after that? He revisited a lot of the themes from THE IMMORTAL IRON FIST.

[Thorpacolypse]

I'm looking for the Immortal Weapons. I never got around to any but Iron Fist and Fat Cobra in 2E.

Krakoa is hard to figure a PL on. The original took out the X-Men which make your PL about right, but in the Wolverine and the X-Men book, which does not that their Krakoa is an offspring of the original, it doesn't seem nearly as hard to hurt. Cyclops damaged him enough to make him let go of him even before he got all Phoenix-fied, and I seem to recall the Hellfire Club being able to neutralize pretty easily in their second run at the school.

[Horsenhero]

Well, the writers kind of have to make the monster easier to injure and/or circumvent because otherwise fights at X-land would get pretty boring.

"X-men! We're here to destroy you!"

Roar! *kapow!!* *splat!*

Cyclops: "Did you hear something? What's that stain on the lawn?"

Wolverine: *sniff* "Smells like Sebastian Shaw."

[Jabroniville]

Yeah, the modern Krakoa is post-retcon, meaning he's basically a dumb monster. The second build probably better reflects him, but with some of the Environment powers of the first.

[Jabroniville]

CRUX (Cristal Lemieux)
Created By: Steve Seagle & Carlos Pacheco
First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men #360 (Oct. 1998)
Group Affiliations: Cerebro's X-Men
Role: One-Shot Character
PL 10 (173)
STRENGTH 1 STAMINA 2 AGILITY 5
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 3
INTELLIGENCE 0 AWARENESS 0 PRESENCE 3

Skills:
Acrobatics 5 (+10)
Deception 1 (+4)
Expertise (Pop Culture) 2 (+2)
Expertise (Ice Skating) 10 (+13) -- Uses Presence
Perception 4 (+4)
Ranged Attack (Elemental Powers) 2 (+10)

Advantages:
Attractive, Defensive Roll 2, Improved Aim, Ranged Attack 3, Set-Up, Teamwork

Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Control over Fire & Ice"
"Ice Bonds" Affliction 10 (Strength; Hindered & Vulnerable/Prone & Defenseless/Paralyzed) (Extras: Cumulative, Extra Condition, Ranged) (41) -- [53]

AE: "Ice Wave" Affliction 10 (Strength; Hindered & Vulnerable/Prone & Defenseless/Paralyzed) (Extras: Cumulative, Extra Condition, Area- 60ft. Cone) (41)
AE: "Ice Stream" Affliction 10 (Strength; Hindered & Vulnerable/Prone & Defenseless/Paralyzed) (Extras: Cumulative, Extra Condition, Area- 30ft. Line) (41)
AE: "Ice Slick" Affliction 10 (Strength or Agility; Hindered/Prone) (Extras: Area- 60ft. Burst +2) (Flaws: Limited Degree) (21)
AE: "Ice Slick" Affliction 10 (Strength or Agility; Hindered/Prone) (Extras: Area- 60ft. Shapeable +2) (Flaws: Limited Degree) (21)
AE: Create Ice 8 (Feats: Innate, Precise) (Extras: Continuous) (27)
AE: Environment 3 (Impede Movement) (3)
AE: Plasma Blast 10 (Feats: Split) (Extras: Penetrating) (31)
AE: "Plasma Burst" Damage 10 (Extras: Area- 30ft. Burst) (30)
AE: "Plasma Steam" Damage 10 (Extras: Area- 30ft. Line) (30)
AE: "Plasma Wave" Damage 10 (Extras: Area- 60ft. Cone) (30)
AE: "Aura Boost" Aura 6 (24)
AE: "Melt" Weaken Toughness 10 (Extras: Ranged, Objects Only +0) (20)

Plasma Aura 2 [8]
Immunity 20 (Radiation & Cold Effects) [20]
Flight 7 (240 mph) [14]
Senses 1 (Infravision) [1]
Senses 1 (Infravision) [1]
Movement 1 (Sure-Footed) (Flaws: Limited to Ice) [1]

Offense:
Unarmed +8 (+1 Damage, DC 16)
Plasma Blast +10 (+10 Ranged Damage, DC 25)
Plasma Area Effects +10 (+10 Damage, DC 25)
Ice Area Effects (+10 Affliction, DC 20)
Flame Aura +8 (+2-8 Damage, DC 17-23)
Initiative +5

Defenses:
Dodge +10 (DC 20), Parry +8 (DC 18), Toughness +2 (+4 D.Roll), Fortitude +5, Will +5

Complications:
None

Total: Abilities: 44 / Skills: 20--10 / Advantages: 9 / Powers: 98 / Defenses: 12 (173)

-Crux is a rare power-set amongst major characters, but you'll find them here and there as minor characters- that of someone who controls fire AND ice. Basing her powers off of Sunfire & Iceman, she's weaker at either than both of them, but the fact that she has so many Alternate Effects kind of makes up for it. Like most of the other Cerebro X-Men, she's under-Skilled & Advantages, but is very capable with her powers instead.

[Crinos]

Doesn't Idie have the same powers as Crux? And she's sort of a main character. At very least she's the most popular of the lights.

[Kreuzritter]

Crux was also the 'jubilee' of the C-men

[luketheduke86]

After that, I'll post a build of that Freedom Ring guy, then it's time for a set of builds I've been planning on doing for eons, but wanted to re-read the whole series again to do it-- The Immortal Iron Fist and the Immortal Weapons!

Excellent. I can't wait to see Fat Cobra!

[Horsenhero]

Doesn't Idie have the same powers as Crux? And she's sort of a main character. At very least she's the most popular of the lights.

Of the pair, I like Crux's look better. She's way more interesting visually.

[Jabroniville]

LANDSLIDE (Lee Boder)
Created By: Steve Seagle & Carlos Pacheco
First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men #360 (Oct. 1998)
Group Affiliations: Cerebro's X-Men
Role: One-Shot Character
PL 10 (115)
STRENGTH 8 STAMINA 8 AGILITY 7
FIGHTING 11 DEXTERITY 3
INTELLIGENCE 0 AWARENESS 0 PRESENCE 0

Skills:
Acrobatics 5 (+12)
Athletics 4 (+12)
Expertise (Streetwise) 3 (+3)
Expertise (Survival) 4 (+4)
Intimidation 5 (+5)
Perception 5 (+5)

Advantages:
All-Out Attack, Diehard, Great Endurance, Fast Grab, Improved Hold, Move-By Action, Ranged Attack

Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Super-Strength & Agility"
Movement 2 (Sure-Footed, Wall-Crawling) [4]
Regeneration 8 [8]

Offense:
Unarmed +11 (+8 Damage, DC 23)
Initiative +7

Defenses:
Dodge +11 (DC 21), Parry +11 (DC 21), Toughness +8, Fortitude +8, Will +5

Complications:
Temper- Landslide made his debut clearing a bar of it's patrons and staff after a violent brawl.

Total: Abilities: 74 / Skills: 26--13 / Advantages: 7 / Powers: 12 / Defenses: 9 (115)

-Yeah, there's no way most of these guys meet full PL caps in terms of points. Like Landslide here. Okay, first off, that is a GREAT name for a super-character, so I can't believe they used it on a one-shot (actually, that problem persists on this team- I'll mention more later). He looked kinda goofy, being Carlos Pacheco (the team's designer)'s personal dream- a guy with even BIGGER hands and feet than normal- allowing Carlos to use his trademark bulky digits TO THE EXTREME. Landslide was basically a Beast/Sabretooth combo, but lacked most of Creed's more kill-y powers, and was instead a hard-drinking redneck (despite having Rogue for a mental template) recruited to take down the original X-team. Kind of silly because he was so fat and bulky.

[Jabroniville]

CHAOS (Dan Dash)
Created By: Steve Seagle & Carlos Pacheco
First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men #360 (Oct. 1998)
Group Affiliations: Cerebro's X-Men
Role: One-Shot Character
PL 11 (74)
STRENGTH 1 STAMINA 2 AGILITY 2
FIGHTING 7 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE -2 AWARENESS -2 PRESENCE -2

Skills:
Ranged Combat (Plasma Blast) 6 (+8)

Advantages:
Power Attack, Ranged Attack 2

Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Plasma Wave"
Damage 11 (Extras: Area- 60ft. Burst +2, Penetrating 8) (41) -- [42]

AE: Plasma Blast 14 (Feats: Improved Critical 2) (Extras: Penetrating 10) (40)

Offense:
Unarmed +7 (+1 Damage, DC 16)
Plasma Wave +11 (+11 Damage, DC 26)
Plasma Blast +8 (+14 Ranged Damage, DC 29)
Initiative +2

Defenses:
Dodge +8 (DC 18), Parry +8 (DC 18), Toughness +2, Fortitude +5, Will +2

Complications:
Disabled (Autistic)- Dan is prone to avoid social contact, and act out in an extremely emotional manner with little provocation.

Total: Abilities: 12 / Skills: 6--3 / Advantages: 3 / Powers: 42 / Defenses: 14 (74)

-Dan Dash was an autistic mutant with Havok's powers coming out like Cyclops. He was basically a mentally handicapped Super-Blaster, which shows here as a PL 11 Area-Effecting guy with a hell of a blast, but nearly useless in most any situation other than a huge fight. And like Landslide, someone COOL needs to come along and steal that name. "CHAOS" just SCREAMS "I'm Crazy/Bad-Ass/Whatever".

[Jabroniville]

Doesn't Idie have the same powers as Crux? And she's sort of a main character. At very least she's the most popular of the lights.

Yeah, there's a handful of characters out there with the powers (Equinox, a high-level enemy from "Marvel Team-Up", also had this set-up), but much fewer than you'd think given how cool and versatile they are. Idie might be the most important character ever to have them, and she's only the second most-used kid on a team book where there's still a ton of focus on the teachers! Tempest over at DC SORTA had the same abilities, but was more of a generic Blaster with some watery effects.