All-Time Champ

In the late thirty-third century there is a man born with incredible power. He’s stronger, faster, more agile than anyone else, and he proves it by challenging the toughest fighters of his age. He defeats them all. But the Champ has another power, he can travel back in time. Using this ability, he decides, he can prove himself the greatest fighter ever: the All-Time Champ. Projecting himself into history, the Champ challenges the best and brightest warriors. Travelling chronologically, the Champ trounces the Stone-Ager, a caveman made from living rock. The Champ wears down ancient Africa’s Lightning Lioness after two solid days of combat. The Champ knocks out the Sumerian Boar King with a single punch. The mysterious Kung Fu Supergenius, the Viking Wizard King, the Knight of the Lamp, and so many more. All the greatest heroes are beaten by the Champ. But his world comes crashing down when he reaches the twenty-first century. The Noblewoman is the first opponent to defeat the Champ. Now, nursing his bruises and his bleeding lip, the Champ swears: He will have his revenge. He will defeat her, even if he has to kill her to do it.

The All-Time Champ is one that’s been in my head for a long while. I mentioned in my post about Noblewoman that I had ideas for stories, the All-Time Champ is an important element to a few of those stories. One aspect of his time-travel powers is that he can not go back in time further than a time period he has already been in (with the obvious exception of his present), so after his first encounter with Noblewoman he can’t just go back and beat her up as a kid or anything. Rematches, but no prematches.

Cicada

Mary Branston was a disgruntled employee at a weapons design company. Overlooked for promotions after a decade of service, she decided she could do better on her own. Designing a suit of armor that enhanced her strength, allowed her to fly, and fired powerful sonic bursts, Mary became the Cicada. With that, it was easy to start robbing armored trucks, banks, and jewelry stores. As tends to happen, this brought Cicada to the attention of heroes like Stegosauress, Vanquisher, and Justifier.

There’s no denying that this character is inspired by the old Spider-Man villain, the Beetle. But more specifically, it is my reaction to the new female Beetle who has taken up the role since original Beetle has become a good guy with a different identity. If you follow that link, you’ll see a woman wearing sleek feminine armor that makes sure to show off her curves. Ain’t no reason for it, but it is actually quite typical for armored women in comics to have armor that accentuates their sexiness in ways that male characters’ wouldn’t. Adding breasts to a suit of power armor is not necessary, but it is ubiquitous. I should note that out of the, I think, five replacement Beetles since the original quit, three have been women and this is the only one who wasn’t just wearing old Beetle armor, so this is one armored super-identity where the sexism already has been mildly avoided, but its still the example that led to this character’s creation. Still, Cicada, unlike the replacement Beetles, is given the distinction of creating her own armor rather than taking someone else’s.

As mentioned in my posts to Twitter, I’ve had something of a troubled couple weeks comptuer-wise. My previous laptop took up the habit of melting the plastic tips of any plugs that I’d put into it (possibly caused by dirt in the plug port thing, but definitely exacerbated by the melted plastic that wound up in there as a result). I’m unable to get the plastic out on my own, so I’m left unable to charge the laptop. I had time enough to transfer files to my external hard drive with the charge that remained, so I haven’t lost anything but time (and the money I’ll have to fork out when I do get it repaired).

Thanks to the generosity of my mother, I’ve got a replacement laptop up and running. With this being the middle of final essay/exam season, I’ve had other things to work on, so I’m behind on SecGov Robots and things, but I’ll remedy that by just finishing the current story all in one week. That should get things back on track.

Little Choy does more insulting:

And this robber guy? What is his deal? Why, he’s Cedric, who appeared in Money, Guns, and Mustard and The Exsanguination of Murray McDonald. Well isn’t that something.

Hurtch

Hurtch is your typical Fifth-Dimensional Ogre. He’s just angry all the time and wants to beat the heck out of people. Luckily for him, he knows how to get to that puny Three-Dimensional world called Earth. In the Third Dimension, Hurtch is so powerful that he would Blow Your Mind! Unfortunately for Hurtch, Volcanocles is hanging around on that Earth planet. And Volcanocles isn’t going to let Ming Blowing Power stop him.

The idea for a Fifth-Dimensional Ogre is something that’s been rolling around in my head for a while, a reaction to the Mr. Mxyzptlk, Superman’s Fifth-Dimensional Imp. But, where Mxy gives Superman an opponent to fight with his mind, Hurtch and Volcanocles are just all about the punching each other. Because that’s the kind of guys they are.

The Larcener

The world’s cleverest thief. The Larcener is a mysterious criminal. He seems to work for himself, never taking jobs for hire, but he also targets items that are too unique to ever be fenced without getting noticed. Perhaps he is amassing some collection or the world’s most valuable knickknacks, or perhaps he is more interested in the act of thievery than the personal gains, but nobody can say for sure. The Larcener has never been captured and nobody has even heard his voice.

With all the tricks you might expect from a master thief (smoke grenades, suction cups, grappling hooks, laser cutters, etc.) the Larcener has broken into Billionaires’ mansions, top-secret military bases, an ancient temples, leaving only a monogrammed calling card with a monogrammed “L” is left behind to taunt the victims.

Allow me to paraphrase my thought process in creating the Larcener: “I should make a thief-lookin’ guy.” That was followed by “I wonder if there’s an old-fashioned word for a thiefy dude.” I turns out there was. The Larcener would work as a foil for Securitaur. I envision the Larcener being the One Who Gets Away, the enemy that Securitaur and company come up against again and again, but can never seem to capture. Maybe they foil his crimes from time to time, but he always gets away. Maybe Securitaur successfully repels the ninjas, then turns around to find the loot that he’d been hired to protect has vanished.