The tradition in my previous years of Super Sunday was to devote July to the characters involved in the stories of “Justice-Man”, the superhero I made up in junior high. But, as I said when I tried to do this during the Supernatural Sundays last year, I was trying to do “realistic” (as my junior high self understood it) superhero stories. I was able to dig up enough characters to do last year, but poring through my notes I can only find one alien character in the Justice-Man stuff. It’ll have to do.

The Ai’Rekk

The Ai’Rekk are a species that arose on an icy world they call Lyjos. They are tall humanoids with green skin and large antennae. Only a few generations ago, a single government managed to maintain control of the entire world. That government, under the rule of Supreme Flont Ezigan, has been brutal and oppressive.

Kor Colston is a high-ranking member of the Supreme Flont’s secret police. When a strange alien being, the human called Justice-Man, crashed to Lyjos after some cosmic adventure, it was captured and interrogated by Kor Colston. The alien was able to convince Kor Colston that it could be of service, a secret weapon against rebellious upstarts. Naturally, that was a ploy on Justice-Man’s part, and the human actually aided a group of Ai’Rekk rebels escape the planet. Kor Colston was embarrassed by this setback, but managed to keep it a secret to not lose standing.

Midnow Voey is an intellectual, and therefore an enemy of the state. There was a time when Midnow Voey’s family were historians, but when the Supreme Flonts took over, it was decided that there was no use in history, as it was all about times they’d rather have forgotten. But still, Midnow Voey’s relatives (those not “disappeared” by the government) raised him to have an interest in the subject matter, but to keep it secret. A secret panel in Midnow Voey’s dwelling contains a number of notes and artifacts that would be damning evidence if they were to be discovered.

Tent Bellyr was wounded in an explosion and now requires a machine for mobility. The explosion was caused by rebels trying to break into a food storage dome, and thus Tent Bellyr is considered a victim of a terrorist act. The Supreme Flont’s propagandists saw fit to use Tent Bellyr as a face of the victims of the criminals who oppose the government. Before the explosion, Tent Bellyr was as much an oppressed victim of the government as everyone else, and would have happily broken into a food dome if possible, but now is treated very well by those who want to ensure his loyalty as a propaganda tool. While Tent Bellyr has some internal conflict about this, it still seems wiser to go along with it and reap the benefits.

A Fact About The Ai’Rekk: The Ai’Rekk sleep standing up for more than half of the planet’s daily cycle.

Universe: Orange

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…

Durgan the Spy

In the Cosmic King’s mystic realm, there are no enemy powers. There are no other nations, there are no rivals. There is only the King, his demonic servants, and the abducted human populace. Who then, does Durgan spy on? Everyone. He roams, in secret, all over the realm watching to make sure that everyone is doing what they should be. He lacks the strength or claws that some of the other demons have, but he can disguise himself, camouflaging to blend in to the background. He moves silently, but quickly. He could be right next to you and you’d never know. He’d be reporting your doings back to the King, sealing your fate, and you’d have no idea. While Krig the Harmer is the demon that the humans most fear, Durgan is the one they should most fear, but they don’t even know he’s there. When Justice-Man comes, he is pursued by Durgan almost non-stop. Only J-Man’s knowledge of techniques centuries more advanced helps him escape.

Grib the Guard

The demon Grib spends most of his time standing directly in front of the entrance to the Cosmic King’s castle. Unless he is specifically needed somewhere else, his presence at that gate is made visible enough to prove a point. You are not going to get past Grib. Like Snegg the Builder, Grib spends a lot of time simply standing. But unlike Snegg, Grib does not simply shut down his mind. Grib is constantly thinking, constantly aware of his surroundings. He is always trying to think of ways that someone might be trying to get past him. In a way, this makes him the most cunning of all the Cosmic King’s demons, though he does not get the chance to use these smarts very often. When Justice-Man begins his raids on the King’s castle, Grib finds himself with a sense of purpose he never had before. He longs for a chance to capture the hero raiding the castle, such an accomplishment would prove that he has lived up to the very purpose he for was created for.

Charity Dane

Eventually Justice-Man wins, of course. He overthrows the Cosmic King and frees the enslaved human population. All these people, kidnapped from Earth so long ago, are returned to the modern world and, though they’re free, it is confusing and frightening for them. Charity Dane, though, reacts pretty well. After helping Justice-Man’s rebellion against the tyrannical King, she got a taste for helping the oppressed. Brought back to Earth, she joined the super-agency BEST, the same group that helped Justice-Man adjust after his life as an assassin. With BEST, Charity was able to put her abilities to use opposing all the tyrants the world had to offer.

And her abilities are more than just her natural cunning and skill. All that time spent in the Cosmic King’s mystical realm being kept alive had an effect on the slaves. Back in the real world, they are now more than human. They don’t seem to age any more, and they can take more damage without dying than normal humans. Those are skills that will serve Charity well, but could also be problematic if any of the others decide they don’t want to play by the rules.

Krig the Harmer

The first thing that a tyrannical ruler needs is someone to hurt people. For the Cosmic King, that someone is the demon Krig, who exists solely to deal out harm. He is essentially the leader of the King’s secret police, except that he is also the entirety of the secret police force. But he’s all that is needed. The King does not allow his subjects to die (they have all been kept alive in his pocket dimension since he abducted them centuries ago, and no new ones have been born), so execution is not an option. But torture sure is. With immortal subjects to experiment upon, Krig has learned some very advanced pain-making techniques. In his service as the police force, Krig has a reputation among the human population almost like a boogeyman. “Be good or Krig will get you.” Considering there are no children in that human population, that’s a sign that he’s greatly feared. When Justice-Man arrived, it was Krig who first fought him, and who led the quest to find the hero when he hid in the great woods surrounding the King’s city.

Ndoig the Healer

A tyrant may consider his populace beneath him, but he still needs that populace to survive if they’re to serve him. As mentioned above, the Cosmic King is keeping his abducted people alive through mystical means, but they can still be hurt. They can even suffer injuries that would be fatal for people on Earth, such as being crushed by a stone. Ndoig is the demon who has to patch them up. With knowledge from Nork’s books, and claws on his fingers that are perfect for surgery, and centuries of experience, Ndoig has become quite efficient at his job. Ndoig is the demon that is most likely to interact with the humans. He’s the one they’re most likely to speak to and even know. As a part of his ‘programming’ he is made to somewhat care about their well-being as well. He has the most compassion for the populace and they, at least somewhat, like him for it. But when Justice-Man comes and the humans start to support him, Ndoig’s loyalty is still to the Cosmic King. This causes no small amount of inner turmoil in the Healer, who is forced to decide between his master and his patients.

Snegg the Builder

Naturally, if you’re building a world, you need a builder. Snegg is the Cosmic King’s architect, carpenter, stonemason, and more. He’s an all-purpose demon for creating castles and fortresses and even homes for the idiot slaves if we can get around to it. Snegg is the absolute dumbest of all the Cosmic King’s demons. Any thoughts that aren’t about building are too complex for him. When he’s not working, he will just stand, motionless, wherever he was when he finished working until he gets further orders. When Justice-Man arrives and begins fomenting rebellion, Snegg is put to work building new devices, war machines, and eventually eventually even automatonic soldiers. With claws that can cleave stone and strength to rip trees from the ground, one might think that Snegg could be useful in battle, but when actually faced with enemies on the battlefield, he is completely useless. War isn’t building, and that’s all Snegg knows.

The Cosmic King

Exposed to the same otherworldly energy that created the Cosmic Chief, the Cosmic King gained similar powers. But instead of remaining on Earth, this newly empowered individual withdrew to a pocket dimensional realm of his own creation. Kidnapping a number of innocents to serve him, the self-appointed Cosmic King ruled over a mentally-crafted realm, that resembled a medieval fantasty land, for centuries until the arrival of the superhero Justice-Man changed things.

Justice-Man, as I have mentioned before, is the most fleshed-out superhero I created as a kid. I used July to do Justice-Man-related heroes during Superhero Sunday year, and I used it to do Justice-Man-related villains, but I didn’t think I’d have enough material to do it in Supernatural year, since I created Justice-Man when I thought hard-sci-fi was the best way to go. While I would never stoop to limit what can happen in a superhero story now, as a kid, for a while, I didn’t want any magic or aliens in there making things “unrealistic”. So I was prepared to skip Justice-Man until I found a single note referring to this story, accompanied by the Cosmic King surrounded by a handful of demon servants. Well, why not take those demons and turn them into something, I thought. Ain’t nobody around to stop me.

Nork the Reader

When the Cosmic King created his mystical realm, the thing he spent the most of his cosmic power in the act of creating six demonic servants to help him. Foremost among them was Nork. Even with his vast power, the King knew he needed knowledge to create a whole pocket dimension. For that purpose he stole books written by the greatest thinkers of his day and had them stored in a library in his new castle. Nork’s job was to read and understand all the natural philosophy so that the King could create a functioning ecosystem. Basically, he was the King’s science advisor.

When Justice-Man arrived and began leading a rebellion against the tyrant King, he made a point to reach Nork and tell him about the world outside the King’s realm, and how things had changed. Being familiar with many works of philosophy, Nork had a yen for something else, and was swayed to Justice-Man’s side. He helped Justice-Man design a suit of armor that would function like in the conditions of the mystical realm, but eventually the King noticed that Nork was acting differently, less loyal, more independent. Being the animator of this demon, he was also able to take its life away. Nork died, his energy returning to the King making him more powerful, but he died for a cause he believed in.