Back when I introduced Gus Comet, very early in this whole mass-character-creation experiment, I mentioned several members of his rocketship crew. Let’s give them a moment to shine:

Andrianna

When the robots colonized Saturn, they created a constitutional monarchy headed by a King and Queen. Their daughter, Andrianna, the Princess of the Robots, was the first robot built in that new kingdom. The thing is, though, robots don’t age and die like humans, so the King and Queen are still in power and it doesn’t look like they’re going anywhere any time soon. Andrianna quickly got bored with sitting around the castle knowing she’d never move on to ruling the land, so she left her home to join the Rocket Officer Corps. She is now the second-in-command on Gus Comet’s rocket, a life considerably more interesting than that of idle royalty.

Brains O’Brien

Raising himself on the streets of Brooklyn, Brains had to learn to fight. He had no family to protect him, so he had to provide for himself. One of a gang of similarly-destitute children, Brains was the Smart One. When authorities would occasionally try to force them into school, the others would wonder what use all those facts could possibly be in “real life”, but Brains didn’t see it that way. Any scrap of knowledge he learned was something that could possibly be used to keep him alive one more day, like ammunition, so it was best to stock up. One day, on the run from the law, Brains was separated from his gang and used some of his knowledge to find a hiding spot on board a rocketship. But when the ship took off, Brains became an unintentional stowaway. Luckily, Gus was impressed with the kid’s nerve and his wits, so he gave him a place on board.

Hyram

In the far-flung future that is the twenty-first century, a lot of experimentation has been done on animals. Hyram is a result of that experimentation. An ordinary hyena genetically engineered to have excellent intelligence, and given cyborg limbs, Hyram joined the Rocket Officer Corps as an investigator. There is nothing Hyram enjoys more than gathering scraps of evidence and hunting down a criminal.

Space Plunderer

The Space Plunderer is the meanest, greediest criminal in the galaxy. Commanding a crew of alien criminals from dozens of species, the Plunderer, a Bessaji, travels from world to world to steal resources. Colonies everywhere live in constant fear of the Plunderer, but the Plunderer fears nobody. The Plunderer even laughs as Gus Comet and crew pursue him across the Cosmos. It seems like every day the Plunderer gets stronger and stronger. Can the good guys ever win?

The planet Szunkring is one full of intense class warfare. The rich weigh heavily on the poor, but the superhero Montoroloxi stands for the little guy. But who else is there?

(Montoroloxi was one of the ideas I spat out in Superhero Sunday year that least grabbed me, so I figured maybe if I threw some more details onto it I might find it more interesting. Let’s see if it works.)

Elimpador

Elimpador was born to a low-class family in one of the slum areas of a major Szunkrun city. She tried to do things the honest way, she got a job working as a powertube cleaner, but when a new technology was developed that made that job obsolete, she was fired. Before she could find work elsewhere, she was beaten up by an angry mob who hated her for being a lazy unemployed drain on society. While she was recovering from those wounds, she was unable to pay for her home. And when she found that nobody was willing to hire a homeless wretch, she had to resort to stealing to stay alive. A week later, she was in prison, and considered it a blessing, because at least she was being fed. When Montoroloxi broke her out, she was at first reluctant to go, but she has since found new worth by organizing operations for Montoroloxi’s underground allies.

Lacalafta

Lacalafta was also born to a poor family, but found a way out. Being a naturally tough individual, Lacalafta sold her services as a bodyguard or as a soldier. The well-off Szunkruns have no desire to do their own dirty work, but sometimes they need someone to be beaten up. In such cases, they can hire Lacalafta, who has no qualms about beating up the sick or the needy as long as it makes her own life better. Since Montoroloxi began his crusade of protecting the weak and the poor, however, Lacalafta’s job has gotten much harder.

Mux

The Szunkruns are not the only intelligent species on Szunkring. Mux is a member of a small lizard-like people also native to the world. Mux’s people, though, did not develop currency or technology, or even an interest in it. They are content to dwell in the planet’s jungles with their simple lives foraging for berries and lazing around on hot days. But those jungles are shrinking because of the actions of Szunkruns who crave what resources the jungles can give them. To protect his home, Mux has joined Montoroloxi’s battle against the rich jerks. Mux has all kinds of neat powers like sticking to walls, regenerating limbs, and being able to freeze and thaw out unharmed.

Boyon the Robot

Planet Szunkring is a very high tech sort of place. All over the planet there are intelligent robots designed to make things easier for the Szunkruns (the ones who can afford it anyway). One of those robots is called Boyon the Robot, and it has come to the conclusion that Szunkrun society could be better. Though it continues on with its regular robotic duties, Boyon the Robot has also decided to help Montoroloxi who seems to be working toward the kind of society that Boyon the Robot would prefer. As such, Boyon the Robot is Montoroloxi’s undercover agent, able to get into all of the places no regular Szunkrun could.

The “Supernatural Sunday” theme has been going on for more than a year now, so I think it is time to switch things up. But before we get into the next year’s theme, I will do another superfluous post of characters that aren’t even new:

Zappo

Mike Titus was a regular, ordinary young man who got caught in a science accident that gave him electricity-based superhuman powers. In Zappo’s world full of superheroes, this was not that uncommon an occurrence. It’s been known to happen. Following the examples of all the other people it happened to, he crafted a superhero persona for himself and got to fighting crime.

When I was in elementary school, I created Zappo. Drawing him at the time, his face looked like the mask he wears as I draw him now. Just inexplicable Bart Simpson-spikes on his head. I don’t know why I did it that way, but I think this mask at least makes sense of it. It would be very important to Zappo stories that he is not very powerful. A lot of superhero comics try to do stories with underdogs where the lesson seems to be “you might actually be the most powerful hero of all” and I hate that. It may go against a core tenet of superhero comics, but I don’t equate physical power with worth. Zappo would have some minor electrical powers and that’s it.

Also, we must never forget that a frog was also caught in the science accident and it also gained powers and it is now Zappo’s pet and he calls it Zap-Frog.

Clownsassin

The Clownsassin is the still-living spirit of a human who abandoned their birth-body to take on the forms of other people. Atypically for such people, when the Clownsassin takes on a new body, it immediately begins to get dressed like a clown and then go on a killing spree. Gotta have a hobby, after all.

The Clownsassin has made some cameo appearances in Secret Government Robots, including the currently running final storyline. I wouldn’t usually do a Super Sunday post for a currently-appearing character, but I wanted to talk about the origin of the Clownsassin. If it isn’t obvious from how often I mention finding information about characters in “my notes” dating back all the way to when I was in elementary school, I think up a lot of ideas but don’t follow through on stories as often as I ought. One of those things was to be “Wizard Ghosts”. They were meant to be a big part of a bunch of PDR stories, but they just sat in my head as I failed to tell those stories. And then, around 2008, the webcomic Dr. McNinja by Chris Hastings introduced Ghost Wizards (that image is from a later story). These Ghost Wizards were way cooler than my Wizard Ghosts, who were just magic users who had no permanent physical form of their own. I didn’t completely abandon the idea, Wizard Ghosts are mentioned a few times in Secret Government Robots, but I felt like I had to lessen their role. After literally years of internal debate (as I said, these things take a long time for me), I decided I can still use the ideas and just not call them Wizard Ghosts anymore. That is the term that SecGov uses for them, but they don’t call themselves that.

Muscle King Grotorr

On planet Deltoi, everyone is tough. You may think you’ve met some tough people here on Earth, but you are wrong. The Deltoids can slap rocks into dust, jump into orbit, and shrug off explosions. They are a warrior people who find all reasons to fight among each other and other reasons to attack other worlds. And strongest of them all is Grotorr. This is most fortunate, because Grotorr is a peaceful king, more likely to save other worlds from disaster than to conquer. Also, he has a gold tooth. There are Deltoids who crave violent invasions of weaker species, but Grotorr won’t allow it. After all, if those species are so weak, they wouldn’t be enjoyable to fight. Since no other species (that remains) is stupid enough to try to invade Deltoi, the only fights Grotorr gets that are worthy are would-be usurpers.

Grotorr appeared in a single Hover Head strip. I couldn’t pass up the chance to make that character into something bigger now could I? I picture Deltoid society being like the Saiyans on Dragonball. And not even what Saiyans are actually like, but what I assume they are like based on my limited knowledge. They fly around space with no ships and fight each other in world-shattering combat that takes hours.

Last week I finished up with the Efmon Family, so why not go back to the other buffer I was doing this year for this week? You can’t stop me. These are the Order of Wallfixers are the good guy space wizards.

JuAb

There is an awful lot of freedom for those alien wizards in the Wallfixers. Once a being with suitable power is trained in the use of their power and they swear to use them to protect the multiverse, they’re free to go (To date nobody has sworn that oath and then gone on to break it by acting in their own self interests. After all, their training shows them pretty clearly what goes wrong when multiversal forces are monkeyed with, and it isn’t pretty). Some Wallfixers settle down somewhere they think they can do good works, others travel the multiverse looking for any trouble that may crop up. JuAb is more into preventative measures. Rather than patching up dimensional tears after they’ve happened, JuAb investigates evil types who have the technological knowhow to pierce universal barriers and, if it seems like they’re up to know good, JuAb will make its presence known. And JuAb isn’t diplomatic about it either. JuAb doesn’t offer warnings, JuAb hits them like a one-reptilebirdthing SWAT Team.

Nyrveek

Nyrveek is one of the elder generation of Wallfixers. She is very powerful and has located and, in her long years of service trained many younger members. But even an old alien wizard like she does not know the secrets of the founding of the Order of Wallfixers. As she gets older (several centuries old by human standards), she sees the multiverse around her in generally good shape (and her students are keeping an eye on it), so she has decided to look into the questions of the origins of her group. She now spends most of her time visiting the oldest alien laboratories and libraries looking for any clue to where the group originated.

Gujjer

On the alien world Thrensa the most intelligent species is one for whom technology has not advanced very far. The Thrensans, as they are known, are nomadic beings who run on the vast plains of the world not unlike Earth’s antelopes. Gujjer is the leader of her tribe, having risen to dominance with her mystical knowledge. Being bonded to the spirits of her ancestors, Gujjer can get visions from the sky that allow her to predict the weather and judge where best to bring the group. But will even this knowledge help Gujjer to save her tribe when the undead start to rise and eat the flesh of living Thrensans? Gujjer and friends are going to have to find out.

I had done all kinds of alien wizards this year, but they were all Wallfixers. Obviously I had to remedy that by making an alien wizard unaligned to them. I am clearly doing important work here.

The Cabinet of Crime

There was a crimeboss wizard who, as wizards sometimes do, surrounded himself with animated objects to do his work for him. Among them was a walking talking cabinet that wanted more. After only a short time serving his “master”, the Cabinet strangled the wizard to death and took over the crime syndicate. Ruling from the shadows, the Cabinet has become a criminal mastermind, owing to the fact that any books or maps or files he keeps in his drawers, he automatically knows the information they contain. This makes planning jobs and running operations second nature to him. It also means that, once you’ve gotten into his bad books, he won’t forget you.

I thought it would be amusing if some hero was chasing after clues to find out who the Cabinet of Crime was, thinking it was an organizational body, and then this guy turned up. It’s so stupid, it appeals to me greatly. Of course, since I’ve blown the twist here, I can’t do it now. I’m sure we all agree that’s for the best.