Underchampion

In the city of Cemeteria there is a competition. Every year the city’s greatest warriors gather for contests of strength, speed, and intelligence with the winner gaining the title of Underchampion. Traditionally the Underchampion has been awarded a position as top soldier of the royal army, but the latest winner is not particularly pleased with the current government. Rejecting the traditional post, the Underchampion is actively leading a rebellious group against Queen Deathknell with intent to make the Underchampion the ruler of the sacred city.

I like this idea because in addition to stories about the Underchampion sending his forces against those of Queen Deathknell, I could also do stories of the two of them competing in the Cemeteria contests. On some level, I’m confident that this was inspired by the rivalry between T’Challa and Erik Killmonger in Black Panther comics.

Xaxhak

Mentions of Xaxhak can be found in ancient scrolls in the Mystical Library of Vodin, on stone tablets discovered in the ruins of a Scottish castle, and carved onto a wall at the scene of a massacre in the middle of Los Angeles. Cave paintings have even been discovered depicting an angry mouth eating human figures. Since as long as humanity has known, every 28 years, Xaxhak arrives on Earth with the intention of devouring 72 human beings. Unfortunately for Kelly Doukas, the twenty-eighth year has just come again.

When I drew Xaxhak (done with intention of having an easy drawing in addition to filling the supernatural being niche), I looked at the thing and though “This thing should be called ‘The Carnivortex'”. Unfortunately, looking the word up on Google, I found out that that was the name of some band’s album. Oh well. The choice to make her the villain for Kelly was just a whim of putting some things together that I didn’t intend, which has worked out well for me so far.

Voltagoblin

The Voltagoblin is the last of his kind. For most of his existence, the Voltagoblin lived in a pocket dimension contained in a candle. The candle was owned by a mystic, who would enter the dimension and live like a king. That was not enough for the mystic, though, so outside of the pocket dimension, he was a magic-using criminal. That attracted the attention of superheroes like the Beam, who shut down the mystic’s operation.

The denizens of the pocket dimension, without their ruler, tasted freedom, but the mystical maintenance of their realm suffered. Faced with the apocalypse of their fantasy world, Voltagoblin and several of this fellows formed a sort of roving band of warriors and ruled over the ruins. There were other bands, of course, and fighting followed. Ultimately, the electric-powered Voltagoblin discovered the portal the lost mystic used to get to Earth. “Screw everybody else” was his line of thought as he passed through the portal and closed it behind him. Once he realized what was the deal was, he snuffed out the candle’s flame.

Sorcerer In A Tiny Car

Vroom. Vroom. Abracavroom.

With mystical control of the four elements and of his four wheels, this mysterious driver races into towns and attacks armored vehicles, stealing what he can, then races out of towns, never stopping for a second. Even when opposed by the police, or the Guild of Crime Fighters, the Sorcerer in a Tiny Car never slows down. He’s never even stopped long enough for anyone to learn his name. So far, though the good guys have sometimes prevented his thefts, none have ever managed to catch him.

If I’m using this year to create the kind of villains I want to see in superhero comics, this guy is one. Supeheroes and Tiny Cars need to be united, dammit.

Rock Boy

The mysterious Rock Boy, it seems, was animated by a cosmic-powered being to protect a doomsday weapon on the strange island of Pitchachua. Rock Boy stood guard in an underground temple awaiting the return of the Cosmic King. But then Karl Franklin came along and ruined everything. Franklin defeated Rock Boy and destroyed the doomsday device and the temple. But Rock Boy was still alive and now had no purpose.

This powerful being with stone skin and a powerful sword has the intelligence level of a young child, so it should not be surprising that he tends to be an uncontrollable menace.

Pitchachua was an island, referred to as “The Pit”, that was the setting to some ideas I had in my junior high days. I don’t remember much beyond the name, unfortunately, but I thought this might be a good place to stick that name.

Invay Dor

Crashing to Earth like a meteorite, the entity who calls itself Invay Dor (a corruption of the word “Invader”) seems intent on conquering the planet itself. With legs powerful enough to kick through steel and a claw that could cut through a human skull with ease, Invay Dor is capable of doing some serious damage and it was only the intervention of the Strange Squad that saved the small town where it tried to set up its base of operation.

This was just me making a conscious attempt to get an alien that looks inhumanoid. That is all I have to say.

Some lacklustre attempts at coloring this time, but I have downloaded a new program that shall hopefully make it possible for me to do good coloring jobs in the future. We’ll be seeing more color in the future.

R

Anybody who can provide specific details about the creation of the artificial intelligence called only “R” is dead. What we can tell is that that R wants nothing more than to wipe out all biological life forms on the planet Earth. It seems, simply, to find them gross. Perhaps disgust is an emotion unexpected in a being otherwise operating on pure logic, but it remains. Existing as a computer intelligence, R would seem perfectly capable of avoiding living things. But no. The knowledge that we’re out there, living, it creeps R out. R needs us to be dead.

R has managed to keep its method of creating robotic bodies a secret, but routinely a new one will pop up somewhere, attempting to kill as much as possible before the inevitable arrival of the superheroes who may destroy it, but only temporarily.

When I was young and just ripping off Marvel characters for inspiration, this was my Ultron rip-off. I can only hope that my attempt (created just now) to make the robot’s desire to wipe out all living things an act of revulsion is at least somewhat less played out than ominicidal robots usually are.

Eddie Legit

The gods of old are dead. Gone is the time when a god of war would take a stake in a human conflict or a god of love would select an ideal couple. But a new force stands in the place. Eddie Legit is that new force.

If the gods of myth thought of humanity as slaves or playthings, Eddie Legit is worse. Eddie Legit doesn’t even have a pantheon of other gods to reign him in. Standing alone as, perhaps, the most powerful entity in the world, Eddie Legit has no reason to not be a total dick.

A “god of dickishness” can gain a bit of a following in a world without hope, and that’s what has happened. Eddie Legit has become something of a hero to swarms of oppressed people who admire his self-serving attitude. And this is exactly why Raid Force Zero intends to bring down Eddie Legit and prove that being a dick is not the way to improve the world.

I had no idea where to go when I drew Eddie Legit. I looked at him and I was like “who is this guy?” I detected a bit of a Mxyzptlk vibe, so I thought he could be an all-powerful trickster type. Then I decided, less of a trickster, more of a total ass. And then I made him an opponent of the most “grim” set of heroes I created last year. I admit, I kinda like how it turned out.

Atmosoldier

In preparation for a desired attack on an alien world, a pseudo-military force needed an ideal soldier for that invasion. Fortunately, with the proper resources, such a soldier can be built. Using cutting edge technology this group converted a unit of hired troops into a genetically modified fighting force suited to an alient atmosphere.

They still lost the invasion, though. The beings on the alien world were more advanced than expected and the modified troops were massacred. The aliens then sent a single representative to Earth and the entire pseudo-military complex was brought to its knees. In the end, through sheer dumb luck, only Wilma Clarke remained.

Left in the smoldering remains of her employer and now modified to exist in an environment other than that of her homeworld, the Atmosoldier had few options. Using what remained of her military resources, Wilma turned to crime to keep herself alive (and, in some way, to work through the trauma she had witnessed). Whether robbing a bank or working as a villain-for-hire, Atmosoldier puts her earnings to use getting access to the chemicals she needs just to breathe.

The Corruptor

In the beginning there was nothing. Then things started to happen. This was a chaotic time, a frothing roil from which all manner of strange wild things came and went in unformed time that made them brief and eternal. But then solidity. Universes established laws of physics that held them together, preventing the chaotic things from maintaining a foothold. Some of the chaotic things liked it better the old way. One of the old dark things wants things to go back as they were. The only way to do that is break down the physics of the solid universes and return them to the fluidic chaos of old.

This evil intelligence from the void beyond time has reached into the universe and possessed a young human host. This host, in constant pain, can only find relief in furthering the plans of the intelligence. Almost apologetically the host enacts schemes, encouraging politicians or other people with power to cause suffering among the larger population. This suffering powers the strange mystic machinery which could destroy the universe. So far, the only thing preventing the Corruptor’s success is the tireless efforts of the Green Camera, whose camera can locate the Corruptor’s plots before it is too late..