Yeah, the eternal churn is very much a Big Two thing, although it certainly happens in other places. Usually because an ending was planned, but then it was too popular and keeps getting revived over and over and over (side-eyes Dragon Ball)
And speaking of endings… A minor Content Warning: The next three updates will detail the ill-fated Champions of Freedom. Readers may recall that these Champions do not have a happy ending as a team. While I’ve discussed heroes dying in the past, I spent a bit more time on the ending this time around, and so these updates might hit harder. Bear that in mind while reading.
The Randomizers:
Background 5, 2, 6 [Options: Criminal, Academic, Law Enforcement, Struggling, Tragic, Dynasty]
Power Source 1, 10, 10 [Options: Accident, Tech Upgrades, Supernatural, Multiverse]
Archetype 9, 5, 4 [Options: Marksman, Blaster, Elemental Manipulator, Transporter, Minion-Maker]
Personality 8, 6, 10 [Options: Distant, Fast Talking, Alluring, Decisive, Cheerful, Apathetic]
Stormrider
Real Name: Donnie Gates, First Appearance: Champions of Truth #421, Nov 2007
Background: Criminal, Power Source: Accident, Archetype: Transporter
Personality: Fast Talking, Principles: Responsibility, Speed
Status Dice: Green d6, Yellow d8, Red d10. Health: 30 [Green 30-23, Yellow 22-12, Red 11-1]
Qualities: Acrobatics d10, Persuasion d10, Stealth d6, Street Savvy d8
Powers: Stormdeck d12, Strength d8, Presence d8, Weather d8, Flight d6
Green Abilities:
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Ride the Wind (I): You do not take Weather damage.
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Heelflip [A]: Attack using Stormboard. Defend against all Attacks against you using your Min die until your next turn.
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Stall [A]: Boost another hero using Presence. Attack using your Min die.
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Principle of the Everyman [A]: Overcome when using a bonus made by another hero and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
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Principle of Speed [A]: When you successfully Overcome, you may end up anywhere in the current environment. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
Yellow Abilities:
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Skate the Storm [A]: Hinder any number of nearby targets using Weather. Use your Max die.
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Kickflip [A]: Attack multiple targets using Stormdeck. Use your Min die against each.
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Windburst [R]: When your personal zone changes, Attack all close enemy targets by rolling your single Strength die.
Red Abilities
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Half-Pipe [A]: Attack using Stormdeck. Use your Max die. Hinder each nearby opponent with your Mid die. After using this ability, you and up to 2 allies may end up anywhere in the scene, even outside of the action.
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Show Your Tricks [A]: Make a basic action using Persuasion. Use your Max die. All other heroes who take the same basic action on their turn against the same target receive a Boost from your Mid+Min dice.
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Scene Stealer [A]: Attack using Acrobatics. Use your Max die. Remove any number of penalties from the target. Add your Min die to the Attack each time you remove a penalty.
Out
- Hinder a minion or lieutenant by rolling your single Acrobatics die and increase that penalty by -1.
Heroic Lieutenant: Greensleeves (Lena Kumar)
First Appearance: Champions of Truth #421, Nov 2007
- D10 Lieutenant
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Grasping Vines: When you Hinder, you may affect multiple targets close to each other. If you do, reduce the penalty inflicted by 1.
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Allies of Nature: When you Boost, you may affect all nearby heroes. If you do, that bonus must be used before your next turn.
When Avarice scattered the powers of the Champions of Truth across the world, Kid Liberty travelled to find and recover them. His first stop was Dublin, where he found Donnie Gates.
Donnie was a smart-mouthed eighteen-year-old with a penchant for getting into trouble. Donnie knew what was right, but he didn’t know how to fight back, so he did whatever he could. He looked after his family and his friends, but had a rap sheet as long as his arm; a long list of vandalism against bullying authorities, brawls against gangs who hurt his friends, and minor thefts committed to get back at local business owners who foreclosed on the homes of elderly locals.
Until one day, when a group of local toughs ganged up on him, and threw him into traffic. It should have killed him, but in midair a bolt of lightning hit his skateboard and imbued it with the power of the Spear of Assal, letting him skim the surface of the cars, wrestle control of the winds, and turn them back on his attackers. With his board and his newfound strength, Donnie became Stormrider, the first of Kid Liberty’s new recruits.
Stormrider and Kid Liberty went to India next, where they recruited a shy, reserved nineteen-year-old girl named Lena Kumal. Lena was a gardener and caregiver who inherited Greenheart’s powers, taking control of the plants and animals in her village and using her powers to resolve a famine facing her neighbours; they responded with suspicion that her new powers would bring trouble down on them, and she was more than happy to leave to join the Champions of Freedom.
Stormrider was clearly intended as a foil to Kid Liberty, an angry, uncertain young man with a magic skateboard who evoked a lot of the feelings that Abe himself had felt when he was younger. He was also clearly intended to be the Cool One, showing off his tricks and using what the writers fondly imagined to be up-to-date teen lingo. Fans hated him. He was trying too hard, he was too frequently written as right when he should have been wrong, and he was no Skybreaker. They hated Greensleeves even more; instead of the powerhouse champion that Greenheart had been, she was a damsel, using her powers to help and protect but almost never to attack. The writers had planned for her to slowly come out of her shell, but the backlash was sufficient that instead they just pushed her into the background while they tried to focus on other characters.
Ultimately, when Greyheart and the Dead assaulted Champions Citadel in Kid Liberty and the Champions of Freedom #24, Stormrider and Greensleeves were the first to fall. The two had been slowly developing a romantic connection over the previous twelve issues, and the issue opened with them finding a quiet place in the citadel’s garden to spend some time alone, away from the others. As they talked about the pressures of heroism, Greensleeves noticed that something was wrong with the plants - but too late. Greyheart’s assault withered her precious garden, and she struck down the two heroes before they could raise the alarm. They would be returned as undead monstrosities under Greyheart’s control, used as a weapon to shake the resolve of the heroes that she mocked for leaving children to fight their battles.
In the final issues of Night of Lost Souls, Solace was able to free both heroes from Greyheart’s control, and they joined their counterparts in fighting back the Lost Souls. Before fading away, Stormrider assured Skybreaker that he’d known the risks, and faced them willingly. He was only sorry that he hadn’t been able to pull through in the end. Greensleeves told Greenheart that she’d lived her life without amounting to anything; as Greensleeves, she had saved lives, and made the world a better place. Even knowing the ending, she wouldn’t have given it up. Then the two held hands, and ventured together into whatever would come next.
Behind the Scenes
Two down, four to go. Creating these characters is a unique challenge; I’m still using my randomizers, but I also have a pretty good idea of what I’m looking for. The result is that I’m comparing what I get to what I want, and making adjustments on the fly. In this case, I knew I wanted a high-die Signature Vehicle plus access to weather powers, which was what led to the Accident/Transporter combination.
Skateboarding was in a major revival in the early 2000s; by 2007, it’s already starting to die down, which makes it the perfect time for someone to try to create an entirely skateboarding-focused character. If Stormrider taught the writers at Venture anything, it was to actually have people who know what they’re talking about involved in your projects, which probably saved Starshadow down the line, so he wasn’t a complete loss.
As for Greensleeves… just having your Greenheart equivalent not be a warrior was probably enough to sink her, honestly. If she hadn’t been based on Greenheart specifically, there could have been room for a story about someone gentle at heart learning to wield the fury of nature, and if the rest of the team had been stronger the readers might have had the patience to see her get there, but neither happened, so she was also out.
This also ended up being a bit more sincere in the ending that I anticipated. I think that whoever was writing Night of Lost Souls did have a bit of fondness for the Champions of Freedom, and he didn’t want their deaths to be as derided as their lives.
And it’s so unusual to have comic book stories with actual endings in the first place…
