Superhero Bonanza

Added a new chapter: Superman's speech at the UN.

The Riddler's fate described in the next chapter of the Superfriends meets cosmic horror here: http://www.kaijuphile.com/forums/sho...6&postcount=17

After seeing all the other Russians on here, and after some considerable thought, I present my design for a WWII Soviet super-team:
Nardonyy Komissariat Gosudarstvennoi Bezopasnosti
(People's Commissariat for State Security)

The roster of these heroes/villains is composed of an assortment of super-powered beings from Stalin's Russia.

Palach - 'The Executioner' - The leader of the group. He is a psionic able to read the minds of men and even command them if need be. For a long time he used his abilities simply to advance his own career, rising to become a captain in the Tsar's Okhranka (secret police). He joined the communist Cheka when he saw that their revolution was going to succeed. Later, in a show of loyalty he knew would sit him well with the Bolsheviks, Palach led the execution squad that killed the Tsar and his family. While checking to ensure the royals were dead, Palach was attacked by a dying Anastasia, who bit off his nose. Since then, Palach has worn a red cowl to hide his mutilated face. An opportunist, Palach used Stalin's purges to aquire more power for himself, eventually getting himself appointed to lead the USSR's version of Britain's Imperials - the NKGB. After all, with his powers, he can easily reign in any teammates who get out of control.

Gorynych - Soviet experiments with power armour have resulted in Gorynych, an armoured juggernaut with the firepower to level a city block. Boldly proclaiming that Gorynych is the USSR's answer to the Knights of Antioch, the Soviets take pains to demonstrate that their armoured defender owes his abilities to the forward-thinking science of communism rather than the antiquated superstition and decadent tradition of the corrupt western democracies. As a final slight against the Knights of Antioch, the Soviets name their champion after a mythical Russian dragon - the legendary enemy of a knight.

Kamrada Karmazin - 'Comrade Crimson' - A natural mutant discovered in one of Russia's rural villages, Comrade Crimson was exploited for years as a propoganda tool to illustrate the worker's paradise of the Soviet Union. A huge, immensely powerful man, he was put to work alongside thousands of Russians building the many public works projects Stalin wanted for the expansion of Moscow - illustrating that everyone, no matter their abilities, was equal under communism. With the onset of war, however, Comrade Crimson was recruited into the NKGB, where his raw strength would be used against those Stalin decided were enemies of the state. To augment his abilities still further, the giant Russian was given a massive titanium sledge hammer.

Vitok - 'Revolution' - Vitok is a beautiful Russian woman born immediately after the Russian Revolution. Trained by SMERSH as one of their top operatives, she exhibits an incredible affinity for bladed weapons of all types, from heavy tulwars to deadly throwing knives. Her abilities put her on par with the greatest duellists and knife fighters in the world. Coupled with the infiltration and sabotage skills taught to her by SMERSH, Vitok makes a more than capable spy and assassin.

Zvezda Zimy - 'Winter Star' - A young Russian woman who is able to manipulate, control and even manifest extreme cold temperatures and their effects (snow and ice). Her powers are strongest the closer she is to Moscow, gradually weakening the further she is from the Soviet capital. Unknown to her, this effect is due to her christening with a holy relic of the Russian Orthodox Church when she was born, a relic that is hidden and buried somewhere in the capital's suburbs.

Zveroboi - 'Beast Hunter' - The product of Stalin's efforts to create half-human soldiers from a union of humans and apes, Zveroboi is a powerful, monstrous creature. With the heightened senses of an animal, the raw physical strength of an ape, and the endurance that is truly superhuman, Zveroboi is a slow-witted but powerful member of the NKGB.

Krasnaja Smert - 'The Red Death' - The sole survivor of a Russian archaeological expedition to Mongolia was their NKVD minder. The expedition set out to find the tomb of Genghis Khan, but the curses placed on the tomb destroyed them all. Only the NKVD agent survived, but he was much less than human, reduced to a walking skeleton without flesh or blood clinging to his bones. However, he had also gained an ability to become intangible at will, assuming a spectral, ghost-like form. This was found useful by the Soviets and he became Stalin's most sinister enforcer - The Red Death. Wearing a red hood and robe adorned with the hammer and sickle, the Red Death wields a pair of sickles in battle. These are more for show, however. His favorite tactic is to make one of his hands intangible, thrust it inside a victim's body, and then make his hand solid again. A sick individual when he was alive, being undead hasn't improved Krasnaja Smert's personality.

Strength
Name: Wangari Owadgi Ngilu
Nationality: Kenyan
Group Affiliation: Tarot

History: The first super-villain to come from Kenya, Wangari Owadgi Ngilu was the only child of a former leader of the Mau Mau. Crippled during a fight with British troops, Wangari’s father instilled in his daughter a vicious hatred for Europeans. He also taught her that the ends justify the means and not to worry about harming the innocent. In his career as a Mau Mau fighter, the elder Ngilu had regularly terrorized other native Kenyans in order to coerce them into supporting the Mau Mau uprising, even using murder as a tool of persuasion.

Growing up in grinding poverty in Kenya’s Rift Valley Province, Wangari learned to rely upon herself at a very early age. Her moral compass already twisted by her father’s hateful mindset and cruel disposition, Wangari became a thief almost as soon as she could walk. She learned to rustle chickens from farms, steal crops from fields and poach game from the nature preserves. By the time she was a teenager, Wangari was leading a gang of youths as her father’s lieutenant rustling cattle and robbing homes.

It was in this period of her life that the young criminal had an encounter that would change her forever. Wangari’s gang broke into the home of a West African farmer who lived alone at the edge of the jungle. The strange farmer wasn’t really a part of the community and lived a hermit’s existence, so Wangari’s father considered he would make an easy target. Like all hermits and misers, it was widely believed the man had treasure hidden somewhere in his home.

Intending to torture the location of his treasure from the hermit, Wangari led her gang in the attack. With ten hardened thugs helping her, Wangari was certain she’d have no problem overcoming the hermit. She couldn’t have been more wrong. For some time, the Rift Valley had been plagued by a string of killings – farmers found dead in their fields, half-eaten by a marauding leopard. Efforts had been made to trap and kill the maneater, but without success. Because of her attempt at crime, Wangari would discover the real culprit.

The gang subdued the hermit easily enough, pouncing upon him in his hut and beating him into submission with their clubs. However, the hermit didn’t remain subdued for long. Rising from the floor, he began to laugh. The laughter faded into a low, bestial growl as the hermit’s flesh began to thicken and sprout tawny hair. The man’s face elongated into a feline muzzle, his hands change into massive paws. Before the stunned eyes of the gang, the hermit changed into a horrific creature, a beast part man and part leopard.

The were-leopard pounced upon the gang, rending them limb from limb. He spared only Wangari, swatting her into unconsciousness with a swipe of his paw. When the young girl came to, she found herself bound and at the mercy of the beast. She soon learned that the were-leopard had no mercy.

Over the weeks as his captive, Wangari learned some of the were-leopard’s history. His name was Ogunlade Kamal and he was from the West African nation of Sierra Leone. He was, he said, a member of the Leopard Society, a terrible order of cannibals and murderers who used steel claws to slaughter their victims. Through their cannibalism, the Leopard Men were able to take on the strength and vitality of those they killed, until at last they could assume the form of leopards. British and French colonial authorities had made every effort to wipe out the Leopard Society, at last cornering many of the were-leopards in a final battle. The Europeans were victorious, but a few Leopard Men like Ogunlade had escaped, fleeing West Africa and scattering to the most remote corners of the Dark Continent.

Ogunlade had grown lonely in his exile, so he decided that Wangari would be his wife – at least until he tired of her. She would share everything with him, including his favorite food. The Leopard Man took a sadistic delight forcing the woman to dine with him on the butchered remains of her gang. The ritualistic cannibalism was the source of the Leopard Man’s power, but he never thought it would confer any kind of benefit to his captive. He’d collected several ‘wives’ over the years and none of them had drawn strength from the hideous fodder he forced upon them.

Wangari, however, was different. Perhaps because of her strong will, perhaps because of her cruel and hard upbringing, perhaps simply because of her Masai ancestry, Wangari flourished upon the loathsome meat. She soon realized what was happening to her and realized that Ogunlade was unwittingly giving her the power to free herself. Carefully husbanding her growing strength, Wangari suffered her captor’s sadistic whims, all the while planning her revenge.
The day came when the Leopard Man decided he was tired of Wangari. After months of slaking his lust and cruelty on her, Ogunlade felt it was time to get rid of her. He rather looked forward to eating her flesh while she was still alive. Pain and terror gave flesh such a delicious taste.

Murder in his eyes, Ogunlade changed shape and began to stalk his prey. He was stunned when Wangari stood her ground. He was terrified when she began to change. Wangari did not alter her shape into that of some slinking leopard. Either because of her different tribal background or because her will was stronger than that of the Leopard Men, or simply because in her need her mind was fixed upon the one beast strong enough to overcome Ogunlade, when Wangari changed it was not the shape of a leopard she wore.

Roaring, the were-lioness pounced upon Ogunlade. She took her time ripping the Leopard Man apart, savouring every scream. Ogunlade was still screaming when Wangari began to feed.

Flush with her freedom after nearly a year as Ogunlade’s prisoner, Wangari rushed back to her home. Instead of being happy to see her, her father started to beat Wangari, cursing her as a wanton whore for staying away so long and forcing him to fend for himself. Wangari was no longer the dutiful, frightened child her father had always bullied, however. Changing once more into the lioness, Wangari killed her father with a single swipe of her paw. His flesh, she found, wasn’t quite so tasty as Ogunlade’s had been.

Wangari’s career of robbery and terror started that night. She was too intoxicated with her power to keep a low profile the way the Leopard Man had, however. Boldly she would stalk into villages, killing whoever she wished, devouring the dead in the middle of the street before horrified onlookers. Kenyan papers soon began calling her Tsavo, after the man-eating lions who had preyed upon railway workers almost a century before. It was a name she found to her liking and she became as enamoured of her notoriety as she was of her newfound powers.

Her notoriety, however, had consequences. At the behest of the Kenyan government, a team of British superheroes were dispatched to end Tsavo’s reign of terror. It took them only a few days to find her. So sure of her own abilities, Tsavo confronted the heroes as soon as she learned of their arrival. It was a mistake she would rue. Outnumbered and outmatched, she was captured by the British superheroes Avalon and Professor Zero. A special detainment facility was constructed to house the powerful villainess while she awaited trial.

Before that trial could happen, however, events unfolded which would benefit Tsavo. Uganda’s power-mad dictator Idi Amin launched an unprovoked invasion of Kenya, his forces led by the remnants of his Most Powerful Royal Guard of Glorious Uganda. The Kenyan military could more than hold its own against Amin’s conventional forces, but there was nothing they had that could match Amin’s cyborgs. In desperation, the Kenyan president offered Tsavo amnesty if she would defend her homeland.

Wangari was many things, but she had a genuine love of Kenya. She agreed to help defend her land from the Ugandans, even though she was expected to fight alone: Kenya had no other superbeings to help her. Since it was expected she’d receive the death penalty in any event, Tsavo preferred to die in battle.

Tsavo didn’t die. Quite the opposite. After her experience with Avalon and Professor Zero, Wangari had learned quite a bit about how to use her powers. Instead of simply throwing herself into the fray, she made an effort to stalk and quickly subdue her enemies one by one. With her prodigious strength, Tsvao was able to tear apart Amin’s cyborgs, her regenerative body able to recover from the effects of even their most vicious weapons. Alone, Tsavo was able to accomplish the impossible: the final destruction of Idi Amin’s Most Powerful Royal Guard of Glorious Uganda. The amazing feat spurred the Kenyan military on to complete victory, driving the Ugandans back across the border and pursuing them straight to Amin’s capital. The dictator fled only hours ahead of Kenyan soldiers.

Because of her role in defeating Uganda, the Kenyan president knew he would have to honour his promise of amnesty. Indeed, there were many outside the Rift Valley who considered Tsavo a national hero. However, the brutal killings and cannibalism could not be forgiven. There was the very real possibility Tsavo would revert to type if she was given her liberty.

In the end, Kenya solved the problem by exiling Tsavo. Feeling betrayed, Tsavo crossed over into Uganda, taking vicious pleasure hunting Amin’s henchmen who had escaped custody. Soon she was approached by Egyptian representatives, who offered her a new home in return for her services. As a national hero of Egypt, Tsavo renamed herself ‘Sphinx’ and was put to service against her new country’s enemies, particularly the mummified sorcerer Ahmet-set. Her duties at this time also brought her into conflict with the heroes of other nations, particularly those of America and Israel.

During the Slyther invasion, Sphinx was a member of the human resistance, fighting to throw back the alien conquerors. This brought her into prominence outside Egypt, especially after she single-handedly tore the leg off a Slyther war-machine in New York. After the Slyther were driven back, Sphinx was offered membership in the international superhero team Vanguard. She accepted and became a valued asset of the team, especially after the death of Fafnir. The gruesome stories of her beginnings in Kenya were all but forgotten, laid down to a young girl unable to control her powers.

The reality hit Vanguard hard. One of the team’s members, the Japanese superheroine Foxfire, had always been suspicious of Sphinx. Following her one night from the team’s Paris headquarters, she discovered Sphinx in the catacombs under the city, stalking and devouring homeless vagabonds. Confronted by Foxfire in the midst of feeding, Sphinx admitted her need for human flesh – it was the source of her strength. Horrified, Foxfire tried to defend herself as Sphinx lunged at her. The fire-producing Japanese wasn’t able to stop Sphinx, however, and was quickly at her mercy. Like Ogunlade, Wangari had no mercy and the were-lioness intended to eat the Japanese while she was still alive.
Foxfire’s communicator had been on, however, altering the rest of Vanguard to her predicament. The rest of the team arrived before Sphinx had been able to gnaw off more than a hand. Raging, the were-lion fought her former team-mates, her immense strength allowing her to hurt several of the heroes and allow her to escape into the gloom of the catacombs.

When Wangari next appeared, she again called herself Tsavo. Returning to Africa, she sold her services as a mercenary to anti-Apartheid rebels in South Africa. Her ability to inspire terror was deemed an asset by the more ruthless rebels and Tsavo proved she had learned from her father’s career as a Mau Mau. Tsavo’s career of slaughter and murder brought her to the attention of other forces, however. Several Leopard Men had moved to South Africa. They approached Tsavo, not as enemies, but as allies. They wanted her to be their leader and to start a new Leopard Society in South Africa. The sheer magnitude of the havoc she could cause with an entire army of were-leopards appealed to Tsavo and she quickly agreed. With her Leopard Men, Tsavo started a campaign of chaos through the streets of Johannesberg that shocked the world.

The brutality also brought the attention of the world’s heroes. Fifteen superheroes converged upon Johannesberg to oppose Tsavo and stop the massacre, including many members of Vanguard. Even so, Tsavo had nearly a hundred Leopard Men by this time, having inducted many rebels into the cannibalistic cult. The resulting battle devastated the city.

One of Tsavo’s pet projects at the time had been the sadistic torture of the South African hero Voortrekker. During the battle, Voortrekker was able to escape from the chains Tsavo had put upon him. Having been forced to partake of the same hideous rituals as the Leopard Men, Voortrekker was able to change himself into a were-lion and attack Tsavo. Even more powerful than Tsavo because of his previous super-powers, Voortrekker was able to maul Tsavo to the point where she was assumed dead. Horrified by what he had become, Voortrekker destroyed himself after the battle by walking into a nuclear reactor.

Tsavo’s remarkable healing properties allowed her to survive, however, and she escaped before her body could be thrown into the funeral pyre arranged for the Leopard Men. Frightened by how close she had come to death, Tsavo smuggled herself to Brazil and retreated into the vastness of the Amazon. Unable to fully control her need for human flesh, even in the Amazon word of her activities spread, leading to a few confrontations with super-heroes. Each time, however, Tsavo was able to escape into the jungle.

It was while in the Amazon that Tsavo met the Magus. Aware of her abilities and her sociopathic mindset, the Magus felt she was a perfect recruit for the Tarot. Seeing in Tarot a way to be protected from her enemies and strike back at them, Tsavo agreed to join the organization, becoming Strength.

Powers: Strength is, naturally, immensely strong, among the strongest super-beings recorded. During the Ugandan invasion, she made a habit of cracking tanks open like eggshells. Her claws are strong enough to shred steel, her fang-filled jaws are powerful enough to pulverize bone. She is able to leap a hundred yards at a bound.

In addition to her prodigious physical might, Strength’s body possesses an incredible healing ability, recovering from some of the most intense damage in an amazingly short time. She is vulnerable to silver, however, and attacks made with this material are toxic to her. Certain magical attacks are likewise dangerous to her and she has learned to either avoid or immediately take down any magicians she encounters. Her fear of wizards is one element the Magus uses to keep control over her.

Description: Strength is a horrific mix of lioness and woman. Standing nearly seven feet, weighing in excess of eight hundred pounds, her body is almost pure muscle. Her paw-like hands conceal six-inch claws. Strength wears a brief costume of leopard-skin loin cloth and halter, garments made from Ogunlade’s hide. Since her fight with Voortrekker, she bears a number of disfiguring scars, including claw-marks that run down the left-side of her face. Even her healing ability has not been able to restore the damage dealt to her by the Boer hero.

Increasingly, Strength remains in her were-lioness form, finding the appearance of her scars in her human shape depressing – and a dead giveaway as to her identity.

A new entry in the roster of the Tarot:


The Hanged Man
Name: Abel Kane
Nationality: American
Group Affiliation: The Tarot

History: Abel Kane was the most brilliant detective on the New York Metropolitan Police Force. Graduating with top honors from the police academy, he cut his teeth as a beat cop for several years before his smashing of a Mafia protection racket brought him promotion within the force. As New York’s ace of detectives, Kane continued to hit the Mafia hard, personally breaking cases against two of the city’s crime families that saw their dons sent to prison and their organizations severely crippled. Kane survived numerous attempts at retaliation against him, his keen insight into the criminal mind allowing him to out-guess the hitmen and assassins hired to dispatch him.

His first dealings with the superhero Fear came about at this time, and Kane found the vigilante’s tactics contemptible. Working within the law to outsmart and out-think his criminal opponents, Kane had no respect for a man who could simply work outside the law and use terror to break down criminals. Publicly sticking to the high moral ground, Kane refused to work with or accept the vigilante and did everything in his power to stop Fear’s activities. This resulted in a tragic standoff when the twisted Uncle Gunnysack became active in the city. A nightmarish kidnapper and cannibal, Uncle Gunnysack was the terror of New York, preying on small children. Protected by the Hatian community who lived in absolute terror of him, Kane and his squad of detectives were unable to find Uncle Gunnysack and put a stop to his activities. Fear, however, was able to make headway by intimidating the same people protecting Uncle Gunnysack into revealing what they knew.

Before Fear could act on this information, however, Kane became aware of the vigilante’s involvement. Using SWAT teams to try to capture Fear, Kane initiated a stand-off in Harlem as police tried to apprehend the elusive Fear. Unknown to either Kane or Fear, even as the standoff was unfolding, Uncle Gunnysack was perpetrating his most audacious crime. The monster invaded a private school, taking over a hundred children hostage. The news of Uncle Gunnysack’s atrocity forced Kane to break off the hunt for Fear and scramble all of his forces to the school. Police did their best to break into the building, but were confronted by the grisly powers of Uncle Gunnysack – who was able to unleash the trapped ghosts of his victims from the ouangas he’d made to trap their spirits. With his ghosts holding off the police, Uncle Gunnysack prepared to offer up the children he’d taken prisoner as a sacrifice meant to evoke the powerful loa of Baron Samdei, the voodoo lord of the dead. Before his hideous plan could be completed, Fear penetrated through both the police cordon and the ghosts to confront the monster. After a terrific fight, Uncle Gunnysack’s ouangas were destroyed and the released spirits took their revenge on their murderer, shattering his mind. Fear left the twisted wreck of the supervillain for the police to capture.

Despite the near catastrophe with Uncle Gunnysack, Kane’s continuing successes with breaking the Mafia’s operations in the city made him the toast of the town. Soon, he was appointed police commissioner by the mayor. As police commissioner, Kane continued to batter down the bastions of organized crime in his city and to pursue his vendetta with Fear.
However, all was not right with Abel Kane. Law enforcement to him had never been about stopping crime or protecting the innocent. To Kane, it had been more of like an intellectual challenge, a contest between his own deductive reasoning and the intelligence of the criminal. Now that he was police commissioner and with the full resources of the department at his beck and call, the challenge was gone.

It was six months after Kane became police commissioner that a new murderer began to prey upon the city. Flaycrow announced himself by sending a particularly ghastly parcel to the police: the entire flayed skin of a young woman. This was the beginning of a hideous stream of murders throughout the city. Flaycrow struck everywhere, without seeming rhyme or reason. He would murder with guns, knives, bombs, hatchets, almost any kind of weapon. His victims came from all walks of life. Always he would announce his handiwork, however, by leaving a few crow feathers at the scene of the crime.

The police force unable to stop the crimes, Fear became prominently involved. Soon the mocking Flaycrow began leaving cryptic notes behind challenging Fear to stop him. The game of cat-and-mouse that ensued led to several encounters between the psychopath and the vigilante, but always Flaycrow was able to slip away. His features concealed behind a grisly burlap mask, even Fear did not know who the killer was after months of trying to stop him.

Kane, however, did. He publicly announced that he had evidence that Fear had gone mad and was himself Flaycrow. The public outcry over this claim was immense, but soon evidence at the scenes of the Flaycrow crimes began to implicate Fear. Bits of weaponry lost in his fights with the killer somehow found their way to the sites of new murders. A good case was soon made that Fear was indeed the murderer.

Hounded throughout the city, Fear couldn’t operate in the open, but was forced to pursue his hunt for the killer in a variety of disguises. It was at this time that he noticed the pattern to Flaycrow’s crimes. The murders were always committed in places where police forces had been absent. More than absent, they had been removed, sent to reinforce police elsewhere in the city for a variety of reasons. The ghastly truth dawned on Fear. There was only one man who had the authority to move police in every district in the city as though they were chess pieces.

Fear confronted Abel Kane in his own office in police headquarters. Seeming to get the upper hand over his foe, Kane freely confessed his double-identity as Flaycrow. Having exhausted the challenges of law enforcement, Kane had turned to crime. He wanted Fear to understand this so that one person, at least, could appreciate his triumph. Unknown to Kane, however, Fear had visited his offices earlier and wired it to broadcast the police commissioner’s confession to every squad car in the city at the touch of a button.

As police arrived to arrest him, Kane employed one of the gas bombs he’d used as Flaycrow to escape through the window. Fear was quick in his pursuit, but Kane had planned his escape well, using a police helicopter to fly away. Fear was just able to catch the landing strut and, climbing into the rising helicopter was able to confront Kane, now once again locked in the hideous identity of Flaycrow. Disabled by the ensuing fight, the helicopter crashed into the river. Fear managed to dive from the hurtling craft, but Flaycrow went down with the helicopter.

For months it was presumed that Kane had died in the crash or drowned in the river. Then the Flaycrow murders began again, announced as before by a flayed human skin. This time with the police force helping him, Fear once again was locked in a battle of wits with Kane. Six more people died before Flaycrow was stopped. This time Kane did not escape, but was captured by Fear and the police. Remanded to trial, Kane was found legally insane and committed to the notorious Steelside Sanitarium.

Insane or not, the genius of Abel Kane endured. He soon escaped Steelside, taking with him Uncle Gunnysack. The two murderers began a reign of terror in New York before Fear was finally able to track them to the abandoned private school where Uncle Gunnysack had been stopped the first time. Once again, Flaycrow was judged insane and sent to Steelside.

A pattern soon emerged. Flaycrow would spend a few months at the sanitarium before figuring out a new way to escape. He would murder several people, Fear would finally track him down, and he would be sent back to Steelside so that the cycle could begin again. This might have continued forever had Flaycrow not made the mistake of killing a particular young girl during one of his escpades. The young girl was the daughter of Judge Randolph Weston.

Weston had seen that in the case of Flaycrow, the law had failed. Now he wanted revenge. Using his authority, Weston arranged for Flaycrow to be transferred to another facility – a minimum security one. However, the maniac never reached the new hospital. The men the judge had hired instead drove him into the countryside. There Judge Weston was waiting. So was an old dead tree and a new silk rope. In his brutal game of wits with Fear, Kane had never considered the lives he destroyed in the process. He had time to think about that as he slowly strangled to death at the end of a rope.

When it was over, Weston made no effort to hide the execution, but left Kane swinging, to be picked at by the crows.

That should have been the end of Abel Kane, alias Flaycrow. If not for the sorcery of the Magus, it would have been. After a month hanging from the tree, Kane’s body was discovered by the Magus. Employing the blackest of the black arts, the sorcerer restored Kane’s soul to his decayed body. The notorious killer would now put his cruel intellect at the service of the Tarot as the Hanged Man. The Magus had a very simple method to ensure Kane’s loyalty: if he tried to betray the Tarot, the magus would simply dispel the magic that sustained the zombie’s decayed body.

The Hanged Man didn’t take long to agree to the Magus’s terms.

Powers: The Hanged Man is no longer among the living, but an undead monstrosity. As such, he is immune to many things that would kill a man. His decayed flesh can sustain bullets, stabbings, burning, poison of all types, extremes of cold and pressure, even the vacuum of outer space. Any damage dealt to him will slowly repair itself and restore him to a ‘freshly cut down from the tree’ condition.

Beyond the powers of a zombie, the Hanged Man retains a brilliant analytical mind, even if it has been twisted by sadism. He is a great strategist, often providing the plans for operations suggested by the Magus. He is also extremely skilled in many kinds of weapons, from creating his own acids and poisons, to employing exotic forms of martial combat with everything from swords and axes to sledgehammers and hatchets.

Description: The Hanged Man is a grisly sight. His face has been picked raw by birds and other scavengers, leaving a decayed skull with lifeless, staring eyes. He wears the tatters of the suit and coat he wore when Judge Weston ‘transferred’ him from Steelside and about his neck dangles the slipknot of the noose used to kill him. The Hanged Man’s head is constantly cocked at an angle as a result of his broken neck.

And now, this latest chapter, Toyman awakens to a blood-soaked nightmare.

http://www.kaijuphile.com/forums/sho...3&postcount=13

Sinestro's chapter posted.

http://www.kaijuphile.com/forums/sho...3&postcount=12

Been working on the ramifications of a Reed Richards in the Ottoman Empire in 1908. Suffice to say that World War I is averted as the Ottomans are able to ruthlessly squelch the attempts in the 2 Balkan Wars to throw them out, actually re-conquering two territories, and Qassim Al-Baghdadi ensures that they have super-technology, basically a 1950s mechanized army when their chief opponents are Austria-Hungary (old-school hate there, but averted due to the Central Powers alliance)....and the Tsarist state, which gets brutalized by superior Ottoman technology.

This Reed Richards is not useless, and by the end of World War II the Ottomans have regained all of the territory they lost due to their decline and Western sabotage. And paradoxically, the Middle East is more prosperous, more secular, and Islamism is a footnote of the Saudis, who basically have to do what the Sultan tells them. And the Ottoman state also has a much larger number of Christians in Palestine and while the Alt-Nazis expel the Jews to Madagascar, leaving a much larger number of Ashkenazim alive (and stiffing the Maglasay)....the Middle East has no Israel, and thus the old Jewish communities are alive and well.

Suffice to say that by 2000 as the last year of the 20th Century, this world looks nothing like our own.

Brainiac's chapter is posted.

http://www.kaijuphile.com/forums/sho...7&postcount=11

Just came up with a very nasty take on Cyborg:

I've come up for a pretty twisted knock-off on the Teen Titans character Cyborg: effectively, Cyborg is hybridized with a T-600 and OMAC.

Cyborg would be designed as a Para terminator, and has been created through phlebotinum derived in the Unit where NY-764, aka Adrian Peterson was kept. When he was freed, he ended up becoming aware of just what was done to him, and now the Para-Terminator Victor Lee is the Implacable Man, who cares about only one person: Adrian Peterson.

And his programming can interpret well-intended attempts to help her as a threat.

The Para-Terminator would be equipped with guns that fire a Promethine (my standard alternative to Adamantium) volley in terms of machine-gun fire, an RPG also firing a Promethine blast, Phelobotinum grenades that fire something akin to Micro-Oxygen, and blades that are also made of Promethine for hand-to-hand combat.

Effectively, a nightmarish thing. And this Implacable Man isn't designed to infiltrate, but for pure, cold-blooded murder of Paras.

Woah, I just noticed this group has reached and passed its one year anniversary! Long live SB!

By the way, tons of updates on the VA group, including some concept pics from potential artists!

I've been working on Shades of Grey again....with more of its exploration and attempt to create a realistic world where beings like Silver Age Superman exist. In particular this being is an alien female from an alien society that is a bit totalitarian and despotic.

The alien society proceeded to seek to create the metanormal, their version of the Superman. In the case of this female, the Janissary Project succeeds beyond its wildest imaginings, and they use her to give the alien society a technological leap by means of phlebotinum. Unfortunately, said alien is a walking Person of Mass Destruction who first displays this when she tears a planet 14 X the size of Jupiter to shreds in a desperate move to escape her pursuers.

They capture her and place power-dampeners on her, until the Tamiran War, when a Russian makes an unfortunate shot that destroys the power dampener, and alien and human alike now realize that they've one very pissed off Person of Mass Destruction who is capable of far exceeding anything else, to the point that she's a Silver Age Superman walking ASB.

It's not just the humans that go "Oh....****." when her powers start working again and destroy an entire Russian Army without her even really noticing anything.

You might see this as the result of a Bene Gesserit-style effort to create the ultimate destructive weapon, and in return they've gifted a mortal with a damaged mind with the immense powers and devastating force of a Great Old One. And once said mortal gains her powers again.....

Yeah, real shame we didn't get THAT in the comic...of course the well of the house of ideas ran dry a long time ago, along with its common sense...

Heh.....good on Cap.....

Niiiiiiiiice. I concur.