Author Archive: frodog28

#28 Sinister Goatee

Sinister Goatee

Jay Walker is just a tired aging man trying to live out his late-middle years in quiet. Unfortunately he has a sinister goatee. He tries to cut it, but its evil is too powerful and will not be severed. The goatee yearns to rob banks, flip off old women and shank fools who look at him funny. Sometimes you’ll see the goatee in a wild shoot out with the cops, an exhausted and helpless Mr. Walker plodding along in tow.

#27 Algorithm

Algorithm

Young Mia Chiu sees the world through patient calculating eyes. Every falling object has a formula for its path. Every possibility has a reasoned probability of happening. For every two points, there is a shortest distance to be crossed. Algorithm sees these quantities and glides through life following a logic that only she can see.

#26 Cockatrice

Cockatrice

Five years ago, Marie Lareine was a new immigrant to America, struggling with English, and cowed under the abusive control of her husband. Then she discovered her strange ability to paralyze a body and control other’s muscles with the connection of eye contact. She used her new talent to cast off the oppression of her husband, and set out to avenge wronged girls and women anywhere she could find them. Now that the greater superhero community has become aware of the woman called Cockatrice, they are wondering if she will extend her protection to others in need.

#25 Weasel

The Weasel
What does it take to be a hero? Courage? Dedication? Obsession? Delusion? When his father would come home early in the morning, he would share his stories of fighting crime by night, and when the old man was found dead one morning, young Mack Carlson decided he would grow up to be a superhero, though he had no powers. He learned to prowl, hunt and fight. He used planning and deception to convince criminals and other heroes that he was more than a mere man. He was so obsessed he even began to train his nephew, who was barely old enough to walk. But will his world crumble apart when he discovers his father was a thug-for-hire who created stories to impress his only son?

#21 Dice

Dice

Miles Preston is the most laid back superhero in the world. He saunters around the battlefield with a confident smile. He never directly engages any threat. Every few minutes he takes out his pair of dice, throws them on the ground and says: “A pair of fours… Pop the cap on that fire hydrant and push that car into the middle of the intersection… Count to thirty then charge out of that alley way.” No one knows how he reads his dice, or how his bizarre plans always lead to swift victory, but his teammates trust him to make the right calls.

#20 Effervescence

Effervescence

Arizona Appleton has always enjoyed an audience and the crowds come not to see her sing or speak, but to watch her dance. And once the crowd sees her, they are under her spell. Born as a low level psychic, Arizona is able to emit a weak pulse of hypnotic suggestion, not even strong enough to make an individual blink. But if there are enough minds near, she can use the “nodes” as mirrors and amplifiers. The more people around her, the stronger her control becomes, until she can control great mobs of people. In a lurch she can switch to controlling insect colonies and flocks of birds, but she prefers the human crowd. She promises her friends she would never use her powers for evil, but they worry. The more she sees society as “the collective” the less connected she feels to those around her.

#19 The Incredible Bean Pole

The Incredible Bean Pole

Boris has always been a gentle giant, and though his size is right, his sheepish disposition hasn’t helped him much as a professional body guard. Until the day he was assigned to protect an ex-government scientist, and the client exposed Boris to a strange red radiation. Now an uncontrollable anger is released in Boris, and when things really piss him off, he turns red and transforms into the unpredictable 105 pound man with a nasal voice and twiggy arms ready for punching.

#18 Jokull Alfarson

Jokull Alfarson

Jokull was raised by the proud ice tribes of the northerm wastes, but he was always an outsider. They said that his father was a human explorer who had lived with them for a time and who had bewitched his mother. In any case, Jokull only had his mother, and the other children of the tribe treated him like an unwanted sibling. Even no, he became one of the best students of the village shaman, and learned better than any other how to summon the spirits of the earth and the demons of the ice. When he was old enough, he left the tribe and wandered far and wide until he met the only woman who seemed as alone as him, Jazmi Uruka, whom he now calls his strength, his reason and his queen.

#17 Jazmi Uruka

Jazmi Uruka

It was difficult growing up in the orphanage. The nuns couldn’t tell Jazmi anything about her parents except that her mother seemed lost and ragged when she left the infant on their door. All Jazmi ever knew was that she was the ugliest girl anyone had ever seen, and so she grew up quiet, cold and alone. When she was old enough to go out on her own, she never stayed in one place. She grew hard and self-reliant, and she might have gone down a darker path, had she not discovered the manuscripts of the old north god of storms, Dokhor. His code of honor and strength gave her purpose. Jazmi lived to follow Him, until she met the one man, Jokull Alfarson, who seemed capable of loving her for who she was.

#16 Autumn Wind

Autumn Wind

Born into a legacy of a super-enhanced family, Autumn Wind was expected to live up to the clan name of strength, honor, and legend. Through her developing years, she was raised to carry the torch as a revered American hero, and stand as the living spirit of the Autumn. She made her family proud as an honest, loyal, and optimistic young woman. But as she grew into maturity she began noticing the flaws in her family: her super-powered criminal uncle who is kept out of the papers, the way the family runs the monopoly on crime fighting in the city, the villains who sometimes disappear without ever seeing the court of law. This young lady has to start answering questions about the importance of true justice and the importance of true family loyalty.

#14 Wilson

Wilson

Apparently little Wilson was not a fierce enough guard animal. So his master, the mad Dr. Frecklehyde modified him to be more effective.

#13 Red Squirrel

Red Squirrel

As early as he could walk, Ty Carlson was learning to climb and leap and pounce. Trained by his enigmatic uncle, the vigilante known as the Weasel, Ty took on the persona of the Red Squirrel. His obsessive uncle taught Ty to prowl through the night tracking and thwarting criminals. The young boy brings an energy and optimism to the war on crime, but maybe he should hang up the mask at least until his 6^th birthday.

#12 Deputy Bat-girl

Deputy Batgirl

Outlaws in the badlands of the wild west whisper of a blood-drinking cave beast that creeps in the night and abducts the unwary. The truth is this bat is no blood-drinker, (that would be her South American cousin), but she does hunt the night, leaping down in the dark upon any unlucky varmint who dares ignore the laws of the west.

#11 Specialist McKay

Specialist McKay

Rob McKay joined the army when he got out of college. Some worried that his habit of independent thought would conflict with boot camp brain washing, but McKay turned out to be one of the best kind of soldiers, able to follow orders quickly and respect the chain of command, but always calculating, considering and contemplating. His superiors noticed his talents early and when the Department for Investigation and Control of the Enhanced (D.I.C.E.) was putting together a field team to track and monitor super-powered individuals, Specialist McKay’s name was at the top of the pile for recommendations. Now McKay is a ranking agent for D.I.C.E. and one who is able to make the smartest moves in the most dangerous of situations.

#9 Black Dragon

The Black Dragon

In the late 13^th century the Scottish clans were being crushed under British rule. One proud family: the clan Ruadh, sought to fight back. One young man studied the shaman arts of his ancestors and searched for the lost black dragons of Loch Doughall. Against all odds he found the dragons, and lived amongst them, fighting for his life everyday and trying to harness their power to protect his clan. For years, he gained in strength, changing mentally and physically to match his new family. One day he awoke and the dragons were gone. They had gone hunting, following the shaman’s trail back to his clan, where they slaughtered every man, woman and child. The tragedy shattered the man, breaking his humanity and left him not knowing whether to avenge his clan, or accept the true nature or dragons. Now he lives centuries, with little notion of what to do with his power.

#8 Son of Khan

Son of Khan

To much of the world, Genghis Khan was an evil warlord and the catalyst of wars that nearly destroyed entire cultures throughout Asia. For some people, including many in Mongolia, he was a great leader that united disparate tribes and brought education, direction and cohesion to a divided people. But however one looks at it, in his life Genghis Khan conquered more territory than Alexander the Great or the Romans. Young Kublai Dagvadorj dreams to be the next great hero to his native country of Mongolia. He honors the great Khan, and brings a code of honor and a brutal style of combat to protect his people as best he can.

#7 Word

Word

Jasmine Leroi is one of the most powerful psychics in the world. According to records in the Department for Investigation and Control of the Enhanced (D.I.C.E.), the young woman known as Word has class 5 telekinesis, pyrokinesis, teleportation, and telepathy. She activates her power only through speaking, usually whispering or singing, and invoking obscure words like “blink” and “slide” that activate various abilities. Word wears her powers like a second skin and activates them like breathing. She has little interest in globe-hopping adventures, but uses her talents to keep herself, and her urban community, safe.

#6 Shrimp-man

Shrimp-man

This character fuses several ideas: (1) I wanted to create an animal based character like Batman or Spider-man; (2) I watched a cool presentation about the power of the mantis shrimp on Ted.com; (3) Ryan, on ifanboy.com, did a column on cool animal powers for heroes, which featured the mantis shrimp. I had a really hard time deciding on a name: Mantis Shrimp, Smash-Claw, Crevette (if I had made him a woman), Stomatopod. In the end, I decided to follow the Spider-man style, lame as it sounds.

#5 Swordsmith

Swordsmith

Everyone said that Agent Vittoria was over the hill. Though she was once among of Italy’s best covert agents, she’d been in the game for decades, and some say she couldn’t adapt to the new tricks. Then she volunteered for the SPADA Project, and was transformed into the living weapon known as the Swordsmith. Now, still dedicated to her old school rules, and fearlessly devoted to her country, she’s an adversary to be reckoned with.

#4 Timothy Gray

Timothy Gray

Poor Timothy Gray was born in 1840, joined the 54^th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry as a freed slave, and died in one of the last battles of the American Civil War. But he woke again days later, whole, but with vivid memories of his painful demise. For over a century since that time he has discovered that he does not age, and even when killed, will rise again days later. Without any great skill or courage, he has tried to use his curse to right the wrongs in the only way he can. He stalks the terrorists of the world: racist hate mongers, religious militants, and genocidal dictators, and shadows them, begging them to understand the evil in their ways. He is tortured and killed more often than he is heeded, but he always comes back sure, quiet and relentless to haunt again.

#3 Alysson Twotrees

Alysson Twotrees

Life on the reservation is hard, and Alysson Twotrees is just a quiet deputy trying to do her part to improve her community. What no one knows, though, is that Alysson is also the chosen shaman of Anashi, the Sun Mother. Blessed with superhuman powers by the bright Goddess, Alysson can rise to protect her tribe, when she must, but she would rather serve with her badge, her tenacity and her quiet strength.

#2 Dark John Blackwater

Dark John Blackwater

Born to a voodoo sorceress of vast powers, Dark John Blackwater was always looking to catch his mother’s proud eye. When he discovered that Bahahl, Master Demon of the Fifth Hell, was plotting great evil for this world, John was powerless to stop him. That is, until John called on Bahahl’s greatest adversary of the fiery depths, the Guardian Below, Anubyst himself. Now physically changed by the demonic wolf, John hopes he can successfully tap the dark powers without losing himself in the process.

#1 Blue Sphinx

Blue Sphinx

Aisha Allmed was the top of her class at MIT. Some say she could have qualified for over 15 separate majors. But she had no direction, no cause, to which she could apply her genius, and no amount of knowledge was ever enough. Even when she gave herself to the spirit of the ancient Blue Sphinx, transforming herself physically and psychologically, her magnified wisdom still gave her no guidance. She is now the embodiment of undirected knowledge and disconnected secrets.