The Randomizers:
Background 7, 1, 10 [Options: Blank Slate, Law Enforcement, Struggling, Unremarkable, Dynasty, Anachronistic]
Power Source 6, 6, 11 [Options: Nature, Supernatural, Artificial being, Extradimensional]
Archetype 2, 5, 2 [Options: Shadow, Marksman, Blaster, Armored, Psychic]
Personality 6, 8, 10 [Options: Distant, Fast Talking, Alluring, Decisive, Cheerful, Apathetic]
Gale Force
Real Name: Huang Aihan, First Appearance: Earthwatch (Vol. 2) #1, Nov 2000
Background: Dynasty, Power Source: Nature, Archetype: Shadow
Personality: Fast Talking, Principles: Equality, Tactician
Status Dice: Green d6, Yellow d8, Red d10. Health: 30 [Green 30-23, Yellow 22-12, Red 11-1]
Qualities: Close Combat d10, Persuasion d8, Stealth d8, Strategic Expert d8
Powers: Wind d12, Intangibility d10, Agility d8, Awareness d8, Flight d6, Vitality d6
Green Abilities:
-
Hurricane Punch [A]: Hinder using Wind. Use your Max die. You may split that penalty across multiple nearby targets.
-
Air Currents [A]: Attack using Close Combat. Remove one physical bonus or penalty, Hinder a target using your Min die, or maneuver to a new location in your environment.
-
Dissolve [R]: When you would be dealt damage, roll a d4 while in the Green
- zone, d6 while in the Yellow, or d8 while in Red. Reduce the damage you take by the value rolled. Attack another target with that roll.
-
Principle of Equality [A]: Overcome to protect the rights of the underprivileged and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
-
Principle of the Tactician [A]: Overcome when you can flashback to how you prepared for this exact situation. Use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
Yellow Abilities:
-
Cyclone Slam [A]: Attack using Wind. Use your Max+Min dice. Then gain a Boost using your Mid die. The target of the Attack gains a bonus of the same size.
-
Slip Through [A]: Attack or Overcome using Intangibility. Boost yourself using your Min die.
-
Build Momentum [R]: When you defeat a minion, roll that minion’s die and Boost yourself using that roll to create a bonus for your next action.
Red Abilities
-
Body Blows (I): Whenever you Attack a target with an action, you may also Hinder that target with your Min die.
-
Organ Strike [A]: Attack using Intangibility. Use your Max die. Then, Hinder that target using your Mid+Min dice.
Out
- Hinder a minion or lieutenant by rolling your single Close Combat die, and increase that penalty by -1.
In Fish Out Of Water #100, Shockeye’s travels finally came to an end, as he was caught after saving the day and brought to a holding cell by anti-alien forces. However, a sympathetic face in the government, General Powell, approached him and laid out the situation. The American government was in the middle of a power struggle between factions who wanted to restore alien integration, and forces under the command of AEGIS. AEGIS had suffered several blows, but was regrouping and preparing for an election cycle in which they hoped to take control of the government and push the nation into fascism. To counter this, sympathetic groups were restoring the Earthwatch project, in which human and alien criminals would work for the cause of justice and peace, proving their capacity to help.
Powell had been working with Covert Tactics and the Champions of Truth, but he hoped that Shockeye would agree to be the leader of the new team. After some consideration, Shockeye accepted, and the next month saw the dawn of the second volume of Earthwatch.
Shockeye’s new team was a complicated group. Synthesis was released from prison to serve on the team she had once led, and Nightguard was recruited as muscle, having been arrested for going AWOL and undertaking rogue military missions as a member of the Remnants. In addition to those returning characters, three new villains-turned-hero were introduced as Earthwatch members, the first of which was Gale Force.
Huang Aihan was the daughter of the mercenary and revolutionary Vortex, who had fought against American forces across several battlefields. Vortex considered herself a hero, and had trained Aihan to fight for equality no matter the cost, which had backfired on her when Aihan decided that her mother’s approach and behaviours were at odds with her supposed ideals and fought her to save dozens of civilians in an American government office that Vortex had targeted for destruction. Arrested in the process, Aihan was facing several years in jail for her earlier acts of terrorism even with her final deed acting to lessen her sentence, but Powell saw her as a perfect Earthwatch candidate and offered her the chance to serve her sentence as a champion of justice, something which she eagerly accepted.
As a member of Earthwatch, Aihan acted as the team’s primary tactician, while also taking the lead in combat alongside Nightguard. Her flippant attitude and mischievous air served to conceal the depths of her commitment to justice and equality, something that she very deliberately cultivated, and while her dedicated to the United States was minimal at best, she was a steadfast ally of the Earthwatch program and an unwavering opponent to AEGIS and its goals. Aihan also made Venture history as the line’s first major trans character, a fact that was suggested at but mostly unspoken for the first two years of Earthwatch’s run, before being noted as one of several points of stress between her and her mother when the team was forced to face off against Vortex in issues #26 to #28. During the confrontation, Vortex fought Gale Force, but ultimately abandoned her plans when she could not complete them without killing her daughter. The incident left a sliver of hope in Aihan’s heart that her mother could be redeemed.
Behind the Scenes
Playing with Dynasty a bit here, but I like the result; Gale Force was trained as a hero even if her mother is a villain, and that fits perfectly into the “redemption arc” story that Earthwatch is built on.
The new Earthwatch is operating somewhere between the Thunderbolts and the Suicide Squad; they’re proving themselves to be heroes, rather than being treated as disposible assets, but they’re also under a lot of supervision (something which has been true of a couple Thunderbolts iterations, but not most of them.) I like having a comic for “supervillains trying to make good”, even if a lot of them are really just heroes dodging prison sentences for their vigilante actions! Plus, it’s a chance to integrate Nightguard into a team that lasts a bit longer.
And as a minor comics history note - technically, Gale Force is being introduced a few years after the first leading transgender superhero in comics; Coagula was introduced to the Doom Patrol in 1993 (there’s also the complicated history of Mystique, who was intended to be gender-fluid, but not actually allowed to be until quite recently.) However, Marvel and DC didn’t do a great job of representation after that, and unlike Coagula Gale Force doesn’t just vanish after two years. The Sentinel Comics metaverse is more diverse as a rule than the Big Two, so this seemed easily early enough to have that be a thing.
