After the Frankensteingularity, humanity was almost done for. The worst case scenario was being cut into pieces and turned into new frankensteins, the best case is wandering the world eking out a measly existence through constant toil. Here’s some of the people who do that:

Elsa Holst

Elsa was near the epicenter of the frankenstein apocalypse, so she had to fight her way out of the city to stay alive. At first she tried to find help, but it was soon apparent that the frankensteins had put an end to the police, the army, and any other organized bodies. To survive, Elsa needed to fend for herself until she came across other survivors and decided there might be a chance to rebuild society after all.

Joe Turner

Before the world got apocalypsed, Joe was a junior high science teacher. He loved science and is kind of upset that the apocalypse was caused by mad science run amok. In a way, Joe’s new quest is to redeem science. He keeps methodical notes about what is happening and is hoping to find a scientific way to turn things around.

Koji Turner

Joe’s husband Koji is not a science teacher. Before the apocalypse, he was just some guy who worked an office job. In a lot of ways, Koji’s life has actually gotten better. Now unshackled from his job he gets to wander around with his loved ones. I mean, sure, he has to struggle to survive and avoid marauding frankensteins, but it beats toiling in a cubicle.

Shelley

As a child, the year since the Frankensteingularity makes up a very large portion of Shelley’s life. She’s adjusted to the new status quo pretty quickly. She now considers herself the group’s “big guns” and most “streetwise” member. She’s not, though. She’s a kid. But still, having not lost as much history, she’s got the most hope for making a future where humanity makes a comeback.

Okay, so Elsa, Joe, and Koji are named for the portrayers of the Bride of Frankenstein, Blacula, and the Kaiju Frankenstein respectively. Shelley is probably also named for someone involved in the history of Frankenstein stories.

It occurred to me too late that a group of people trying to survive in the world of the Frankenstein Apocalypse ought to be armed with torches and pitchforks. Oh well.

Morbid

Morton Bidwell has a unique ability. He can transfer traits from any corpse he touches into another body. For example, if the corpse had knowledge of the location of a hidden treasure, Morton could touch the body, then touch another person and that person would know the location. He could transfer kung-fu, or he could transfer fingerprints, or if the body was superhuman, he could transfer super powers. With that last bit in mind, he has become Morbid, a supervillain who swoops in like a vulture when superheroes and villains die so that he can get their corpses.

The catch is, though, that Morton can’t transfer the traits into himself. He has to put them into someone else to get any use out of them. With that in mind, he has assembled an army of henchmen called the Nosferatroops. Mostly a group of criminals for hire, Morton tempts them in with promises of riches, but the first trait he transfers into them is blind loyalty taken from the corpse of his first Nosferatroop, who died to save his life. The result is a cadre of loyal superhuman soldiers.

I thought up the name Nosferatroop sometime in the early 2000s and then created a supervillain to lead them. There’s at least some inspiration here from a Captain America villain called Dead Ringer.

Tavya

Tavya claims to be the exiled ruler of some mystical realm in another dimension. Her only goal in life is to get back home and she doesn’t care who she has to hurt to accomplish that goal. With the Wand of Wazoon she has access to all sorts of magical powers (which mostly amount to shooting energy blasts from her hands), but that isn’t enough to get her home. Unfortunately, most of her plans for returning home involve mystical rituals of human sacrifice or stealing vast quantities of precious metals or other crimes that Justice-Man has to stop. Honestly, he’s probably be willing to help her to find some less-evil way of returning to her home, but she refuses to accept his help.

Tavya is meant to evoke the kind of magicians that showed up in old Dr. Strange comics. Lots of alliteration and weird visuals would follow her around. Unlike all my other Justice-Man characters this month, she’s a fresh creation, rather than something from my notes. I just felt that there should be some new blood in here.

So that’s it for another month of Justice-Man characters. Next week, something else, I don’t know…

Back to the Efmons. As a reminder, this is a family of magically mutated monstermen who serve dark masters as part of a war to conquer the multiverse.

Gervid Efmon

When Gervid was mutated to serve the family’s dark masters, he became a mostly intangible, seemingly indestructible sort of ghost-energy thing. Capable of skulking around and reaching secret locations, Gervid served as the family’s spy and assassin during the war. When the order came to abandon planet, Gervid was far into enemy lines. As they left, the rest of the family assumed he was dead, and when found no trace of them, he assumed they were dead as well. As such, Gervid is the last of the Efmons on their native world, lonely striking out at the forces who opposed them in the war, like some killer spectre striking from the shadows.

Noivel Efmon

Noivel was the first of the Efmon family to be born after the post-war fleeing from their home realm. As her family hid in some desolate world of caves and darkness, licking their wounds and laying low, it was worried that those born away from their home universe would not be able to partake in the mutation ritual, but when the time came, the ritual was tried, and it was successful. Noivel gained a deadly lizardly warrior form. If anything, her mutation was judged more monstrous and powerful than the average Efmon transformation (though not the most powerful of them all). Taking this as a sign that the clan’s best days were still to come, the Efmons were emboldened and began their new plan to conquer to and different worlds in universes as far as they could reach.

Bella Harrison

Bella Harrison is an enlightened old black woman who offers wise spiritual advice to white people who are having problems. It happens all the time. Some white person is losing confidence before the big game, or a married white couple is drifting apart, or some white detective just can’t seem to pull together the necessary clues to solve the case. One conversation with Bella and her down-to-earth wisdom helps to turn everything around.

But this skill has not gone unnoticed. People in power have caught on that Bella always seems to know what to do. A secret government task force was formed. At first they just monitored as she advised white people, but then they tried to go undercover and solicit advice for a made-up problem. Bella saw right through the ruse and fled. Now Bella is on the lam, always one step ahead of the task force that wants to know her secrets, even if it means bringing her in and dissecting her brain.

The Magical Negro is, of course, a patronizing attempt at white people who make movies to create black characters who are so great that the people who make the movies can’t possibly be racist. Instead of creating black characters who were realistically human, they did this. Naturally I needed to get onto that bandwagon and make it weird.

Bunnra the Mighty

Bunnra was, for a time, just an ordinary rabbit used in ordinary magic acts. She would “vanish” into a hat or “appear” from a sleeve. It was a good enough gig for a rabbit, she supposed, but it didn’t last. One day, the magician who owned her bought a used hat that he thought would add a touch of flair to his act. What he didn’t realize was that this hat was actually once the property of a genuine wizard. If he’d placed it on his head he would have been instructed in all manner of mystical arts, but before he did so, he wanted to make sure Bunnra would fit, and so it was that she was the one who was privy to the secrets of the cosmos. Soon being in a magic act is not enough for her and she returns to the woods to be back with her own kind, as a magical rabbit queen!

I started a tradition when I got rabbit-themed Superheroes and a rabbit-themed Supervillain into previous Super Sunday years. Had to keep it going. I think she and her realm of rabbits would have to meet the Horribloid.

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.