The History of Venture Comics!

[FrivYeti]

Greenheart (III)

Real Name: Valeria Tertia, First Appearance: (restored) Into the Green #200, Nov 1979
Background: Adventurer, Power Source: Nature, Archetype: Armored
Personality: Sarcastic, Principles: Equality, Flora

Status Dice: Green d8, Yellow d8, Red d10. Health: 30 [Green 30-23, Yellow 22-12, Red 11-1]
Qualities: History d10, Close Combat d10, Imposing d10, Fitness d8, Champion of the Green d8
Powers: Plants d8, Animal Control d8, Strength d8, Presence d8

Green Abilities:

• True Champion (I): Reduce any physical or energy damage you take by 1 while you are in the Green zone, 2 while in the Yellow zone, and 3 while in the Red zone.
• Grasping Vines [A]: Hinder using Plants. Use your Max die. You may split that penalty across multiple nearby targets.
• Plant Shield [A]: Attack using Plants. Defend another target with your Min die.
• Call the Flock [A]: Attack using Animal Control. Attack a second target with your Min die.
• Surge of Strength [A]: Attack using Strength. Recover Health equal to your Min die.
• Principle of Equality [A]: Overcome to protect the rights of the underprivileged and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.
• Principle of Flora [A]: Overcome with the aid of local flora and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.

Yellow Abilities:

• Headlock [A]: Attack using Strength. 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.
• Animal Ally [A]: Gain a d8 minion. It takes its turn before yours, but goes away at the end of the scene. You may only have one such minion at a time.

Red Abilities

• Return The Blow [R]: When you are Attacked and dealt damage, you may Attack the source of that damage by rolling your single Strength die, plus the amount of damage you take.
• Eruption of Green [A]: Hinder any number of targets in the scene using Plants. Use your Max+Min dice. If you roll doubles, also Attack each target using your Mid die.

Out

• Hinder an opponent by rolling your single Imposing die.

So this is our fused Greenheart, after she recovers the energy and memories of Greyheart within her. She returns to being an Armored character, but leans more heavily on her qualities over her raw powers as she becomes more of an adventurer, relying on all of her powers to about the same degree thanks to a raft of d8s. Coming back to herself means that the Green isn’t acting quite as strongly through her, but she still has that connection to it. Different storylines will probably shift between this version and the version that focuses on her plant and animal control, depending on the needs of the writer.

[FrivYeti]

The Wonderer

Real Name: Barqan the Wise, First Appearance: (as guardian) Broken Wonders #1, December 1984
Background: Otherworldly, Power Source: Supernatural, Archetype: Reality Shaper
Personality: Arrogant, Principles: Spirit, Tactician

Status Dice: Green d10, Yellow d8, Red d8. Health: 30 [Green 30-23, Yellow 22-12, Red 11-1]
Qualities: Magical Lore d10, Conviction d10, Investigation d8, History d6, Dimensional Defender d8
Powers: Transmutation d12, Teleportation d10, Awareness d10, Presence d6, Shapeshifting d6

Green Abilities:

• Baleful Transformation [A]: Hinder using Transmutation. That penalty is persistent and exclusive.
• Hostile Teleportation [A]: Attack using Teleportation. You may move the target of that Attack anywhere else nearby. If the target goes next, you decide who takes the next turn after that.
• Principle of the Spirit [A]: Overcome in a situation where your spiritual nature comes in handy 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:

• Restore True Forms [A]: Boost an ally using Transmutation. You and nearby heroes in the Yellow and Red zones Recover Health equal to your Min die.
• Move to Safety [R]: When a nearby ally would take damage, Defend that ally by rolling your single status die, and move them elsewhere in the same scene.
• Unweave [R]: When a nearby enemy would create a bonus or penalty, you may remove it immediately.

Red Abilities

• Petrify [A]: Attack using Transmutation. Use your Max+Mid dice.
• Magical Being [A]: Overcome using Magical Lore. Use your Max+Min dice.

Out

• Hinder an opponent by rolling your single Transmutation die.

As the new standard of the post-Sovereign era was written, the question of what to do with the Champions of Truth came up. The team had faded from the limelight in the 1980s, but was a strong brand that H.R. Randall wantd rebuilt. At the same time, the Covert Tactics team wanted Madame Liberty for their new comic, Flatfoot was gone and confidence in returning him was low, and the Steward was dead, leaving only three veteran members of the team.

The solution was found in a reimagining of the Wonderer, developing him from a whimsical genie to a guardian spirit from a pocket dimension, the City of Brass. Over the course of a four-issue miniseries, Broken Wonders, the Wonderer met with his new friend the Penitent and explored the aftermath of the Scion’s assault on Earth. While the Sovereign had been forced back, the damage that had been caused remained. Dimensional barriers were weaker, leading to strange occurrences and new dimensionally-powered people springing up, many of them dangerous individuals prodding at the shaky foundations of reality.

Realizing that something had to be done, the Wonderer gathered his old allies from the Champions of Truth, reforming the team and declaring his intention to protect reality from mystical and dimensional threats. The new team - Wonderer, Penitent, Greenheart, Skybreaker, and Reverie - would prove to be a popular incarnation, more focused on supernatural enemies, but with plenty of scientific foes seeking to take advantage of the new world order to win power for themselves.

As the new leader of the Champions, Wonderer was forced to put aside much of his whimsical attitude. It still bubbled up from time to time, and he remained a touch mischievous with both friends and foes, but escaping disaster by a hair’s breadth had given him a new fear of what would happen if he was not focused on the task at hand. His absolute certainty often came off as paternalistic to his teammates, who were used to being a team of equals, but they respected his knowledge, and he really was rarely wrong.

Behind the Scenes

Because I moved the start of the Plutonium Age, I was suddenly short one hero for the Iron Age. I definitely didn’t want to create someone new, but during my book-keeping I had noticed that I’d created a new, magical Champions of Truth but not written any heroes or villains to discuss the headlining comic. And so here we are!

Wonderer was kind of a light and goofy hero in the 60s; here, he’s taking on more of an Iron Age persona, not transforming completely but becoming more serious and involved in the interdimensional stuff that becomes a bit part of Iron Age Venture Comics. He’s a very powerful battlefield manipulator, able to move both allies and enemies around, mess with bonuses and penalties, provide healing and transform foes.

[Chief_Lackey_Rich]

At least he doesn’t laugh at you the whole time he’s kicking your ass the way Shazzan does.

[FrivYeti]

Reckoner

Real Name: Diane Shulman, First Appearance: (as Reckoner) Celestial Travels #580, June 1987
Background: Medical, Power Source: Extradimensional, Archetype: Sorcerer
Personality: Jaded, Principles: Whispers, Immortality

Status Dice: Green d10, Yellow d8, Red d8. Health: 30 [Green 30-23, Yellow 22-12, Red 11-1]
Qualities: Conviction d10, Medical d8, Science d6, Deep Space Lore d6, Otherworldly Lore d6, Cosmic Vessel d8
Powers: Cosmic d12, Intuition d10, Flight d8, Telepathy d6

Green Abilities:

• Cosmic Alignment [A]: Boost yourself using Cosmic. That bonus is persistent and exclusive. Damage dealt using that bonus is all Cosmic.
• Do No Harm? [A]: Hinder using Intuition. Use your Max die. If you roll doubles, also Attack using your Mid die.
• Cosmic Burst [A]: Attack multiple targets using Cosmic, applying your Min die
• against each.
• Principle of Whispers [A]: Overcome against a challenge that involves information that you have no real way of knowing and use your Max die. You and your allies gain a Hero Point.
• Principle of Immortality [A]: Overcome a situation involving your physical condition and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.

Yellow Abilities:

• Cosmic Flare [A]: Attack using Cosmic. Use your Max die. Hinder that target with your Mid die. Hinder yourself with your Min die.
• Reality Warden [A]: Destroy all bonuses and penalties on a target. Then, Hinder that target using Cosmic, using your Max die.
• Absorb Memories [R]: When you defeat a minion, roll that minion’s die and Boost yourself using that roll.

Red Abilities

• No Holds Barred (I): At the start of your turn, change any penalty into a bonus.
• Cosmic Devastation [A]: Attack using Cosmic and at least one bonus. Use your Max+Mid+Min dice. Destroy all of your bonuses, adding each of them to this Attack first, even if they are exclusive.

Out

• Remove a bonus or penalty of your choice.

And here is our revised Reckoner. Venture has very few heroes who change their aliases over time, so adding a third one is something that I quite like, and it gives Doctor Cosmos a bit of the Phoenix treatment. In this version of the story, the chain of events is as follows: first, the World-Maggot attacks the Xur’Tani homeworld. Doctor Cosmos sacrifices herself to give the people of Xur’Tan time to escape, which leaves her at ground zero when the creature hatches. As a result, she is imbued with its cosmic awareness, which blows open her existing subtle connection to cosmic forces. It’s not entirely clear if a non-cosmic being could absorb the cosmic butterflies in this way. Her newfound cosmic power allows Reckoner to detonate Xur’Tan’s sun, with the permission of the Xur’Tani; a final sacrifice to save the galaxy.

The transformation of Doctor Cosmos into Reckoner is, I think, now the inciting incident that turns her relationship with Wavelength from implied to explicit. Nearly losing Diane causes Wavelength to actually express her emotions, and she helps Reckoner navigate her new, much stronger powers, leading to their marriage a few years later.

[Chief_Lackey_Rich]

A quibble, but you have two abilities named Cosmic Flare. Maybe one is just a Cosmic Spark or something?

Always bemused when a character named Reckoner doesn’t have crazy math skills (Lightning Calculator in this game). How are they supposed to do really impressive reckonin’ without them?

[FrivYeti]

@Chief_Lackey_Rich

A quibble, but you have two abilities named Cosmic Flare. Maybe one is just a Cosmic Spark or something?

Fixed! We now have Cosmic Alignment, Cosmic Burst, Cosmic Flare and ultimately Cosmic Devastation.

@Chief_Lackey_Rich

Always bemused when a character named Reckoner doesn’t have crazy math skills (Lightning Calculator in this game). How are they supposed to do really impressive reckonin’ without them?

That’s fascinating! I never think of reckoning as being literally about figuring things out. I only ever think of it as the moral component, a reckoning come due.

[Sea-Envy]

I always think of Reckoning as being magic coming to the wild west.

[Chief_Lackey_Rich]

@FrivYeti

Fixed! We now have Cosmic Alignment, Cosmic Burst, Cosmic Flare and ultimately Cosmic Devastation.

“I’d like Cosmic Fries with that.”

That was a thing briefly, wasn’t it? Back when McD’s introduced that mascot character that was basically a flying saucer? Didn’t last long as I recall.

@FrivYeti

That’s fascinating! I never think of reckoning as being literally about figuring things out. I only ever think of it as the moral component, a reckoning come due.

“Reckon” is one of those great English words with a bunch of tangentially-related meanings that usually get forgotten about. My “Greatest Gen” relatives used to refer to the “Three R’s” as reading, writing, and reckoning, not the more common “rithmatic” you usually hear, so I tend to think math first.

I also get a real kick of referring to bills as reckonings, preferably in as portentous a tone as possible. Nothing quite like telling the housemates the reckoning has come due for our profligate waste of electrical power in as ominous a voice I can manage.

English is a screwy language, you might as well at least have fun with it.

@Sea-Envy

I always think of Reckoning as being magic coming to the wild west.

I kind of hated the Deadlands metaplot, but since we completely ignored it I still enjoyed my time with the game - and that despite playing pre-Savage Worlds with that clunky-ass original rule set where you had stats like 4d10 and 3d6 and whatnot to go along with the poker mechanics.

[Sea-Envy]

and poker mechanics used for many things but not gambling.
the one thing I always think about Deadlands is in the opening it mentions how other RPGs have a “what is an RPG section” we don’t - the world concept and complex (clunky-ass) game system should not be your introduction to gaming.

[Chief_Lackey_Rich]

@Sea-Envy

and poker mechanics used for many things but not gambling.

If they’d really been trying they’d have found a way to work in tarot cards, the I Ching, and runestones for other subsystems while they were at it.

@Sea-Envy

the one thing I always think about Deadlands is in the opening it mentions how other RPGs have a “what is an RPG section” we don’t - the world concept and complex (clunky-ass) game system should not be your introduction to gaming.

I’m increasingly tired of seeing even token “what is a roleplaying game” sections at this point, and I note that they’re definitely falling out use entirely with some publishers. You can include an elevator pitch description of your game if you absolutely have to, but the fundamental concepts of roleplaying, GMs, players, etc.? No. Skip that garbage, I don’t want to pay for that wasted page space.

It’s been fifty years now and the internet exists. No one who’s buying any TTRPG is that ignorant of what they’re getting. This isn’t the 1980s anymore.

[FrivYeti]

Zeitgeist

Real Name: Dorvak vel Gathar, First Appearance: (this version) Stargazers #1, July 1992
Background: Interstellar, Power Source: Experimentation, Archetype: Shadow
Personality: Impulsive, Principles: Empath, Nomad

Status Dice: Green d6, Yellow d8, Red d10. Health: 34 [Green 34-26, Yellow 25-13, Red 12-1]
Qualities: Creativity d12, Stealth d8, Finesse d8, Science d6, Smile Through The Pain d8
Powers: Psypiece d12, Awareness d8, Vitality d8, Presence d6

Green Abilities:

• Overtuned Empathy [A]: Whenever you are Boosted, increase that bonus by +1. Then, if that bonus is +5 or higher, take damage equal to that bonus and remove it.
• Psychic Manipulation [A]: Attack using Psypiece. Remove one physical bonus or penalty, Hinder a target using your Min die, or maneuver to a new location in your environment.
• Show-Off [A]: Attack using Creativity. Defend using your Min die against all Attacks until your next turn.
• Principle of the Empath [A]: Overcome by attuning yourself to the feelings and desires of others and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
• Principle of the Nomad [A]: Overcome a situation where you can apply lessons from the road and use you Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.

Yellow Abilities:

• Mindsong [A]: Boost yourself using Awareness. Use your Max die. That bonus is persistent and exclusive.
• Chain Reaction [A]: Attack a minion using Psypiece. The result of the minion’s save Attacks another target of your choice.
• Psychic Blur [A]: When you would take damage, Defend against that damage by rolling your single Psypiece die.

Red Abilities

• Solve Without Violence [A]: Overcome using Creativity. Use your Max+Min dice. Hinder all nearby opponents with your Mid die.
• Mental Storm [A]: Attack using Psypiece. Use your Max+Mid+Min dice. Take a major twist.

Out

• The hero who goes directly after you may take 1 damage to reroll their dice pool.

And here is our last hero, the Iron Age Zeitgeist! As you’ll recall, Zeitgeist and Shockeye were both potentially on the chopping block; my original thought was that I might move Hyperstar to become the leader of Earthwatch, bringing her full circle. But I wanted to keep at least one alien-looking alien hero, and of the two, Zeitgeist appears earlier and is much less of a Tempest ripoff.

So we have this new version of Zeitgeist. AEGIS captures him, and tries to use science to understand and corral his psychic powers through his Psypiece. They’re halfway successful; he’s got basically no telepathy outside of generalized awareness any more, and his telekinesis is entirely funnelled through his device, but it’s much stronger than it was. The resulting Zeitgeist is less cheerful, but more prone to just trying to experience everything, because you never know when it’ll all go away. This ultimately leads him to take over as the new head of Earthwatch, helping other people get second chances and saving them from imprisonment. This also helps to underline the growing anti-alien sentiment in the US in this time period; grabbing a random stranger is bad, but AEGIS feels safe targeting existing heroes of Earth as long as they’re not human (or, as it turns out not long after this with the Vanguards, even if they are.)

[FrivYeti]

If I’m honest, I’m not feeling it today. But fortunately, I had some people queued up, and maybe folks could use a distraction. So here it is.

The Randomizers:
Background 10, 9, 9 [Options: Tragic, Dynasty, Exile, Otherworldly]
Power Source 2, 6, 10 [Options: Training, Nature, Powered Suit, Tech Upgrades, Artificial Being, Cosmos]
Archetype 5, 10, 3 [Options: Powerhouse, Blaster, Flyer, Robot/Cyborg, Minion-Maker, Wild Card]
Personality 3, 10, 6 [Options: Impulsive, Distant, Alluring, Stoic, Analytical, Cheerful]

Moon Rider

Real Name: Amara Leshonki, First Appearance: Twilight Carnival (Vol. 3) #1, March 2011
Background: Otherworldly, Power Source: Nature, Archetype: Wild Card
Personality: Cheerful, Principles: Fauna, Compassion

Status Dice: Green d10, Yellow d8, Red d8. Health: 28 [Green 28-22, Yellow 21-11, Red 10-1]
Qualities: Otherworldly Mythos d10, Investigation d8, Banter d8, Close Combat d8, Child of Lostwood d8
Powers: Shapeshifting d12, Intuition d10, Animal Control d6, Vitality d6

Green Abilities:

• Right Shape For The Job [A]: Boost or Hinder using Shapeshifting. Use your Max die. If you roll doubles, you may also Attack using your Mid die.
• Red In Tooth and Claw [A]: Attack using Shapeshifting. Use your Max die.
• In Tune With The World [A]: Take any two different basic actions using Intuition, each using your Min die.
• Principle of Fauna [A]: Overcome with the aid of local fauna and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
• Principle of Compassion [A]: Overcome to connect with an individual on a personal level and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.

Yellow Abilities:

• Mystic Trick [A]: Change any bonus into a penalty of equal size or vice versa.
• Call to the Woods [A]: Gain a d8 minion. It takes its turn before yours, but goes away at the end of the scene. You may only have one such minion at a time.
• Soul Tattoo [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

• Death’s Eyes [A]: Attack using Intuition. Use your Max+Min dice. Ignore all penalties on this attack, ignore any Defend actions, and it cannot be affected by Reactions.
• Reactive Transformation [R]: When you are Attacked, roll your single Shapeshifting die as a Defend against that Attack. Also Boost yourself with that same roll.

Out

• Boost an ally by rolling your single Shapeshifting die.

In 2011, after spending nearly five years apart in various titles, the three surviving heroes of the Twilight Carnival were gathered once again. The reason for their revival was a young woman named Amara, who called herself the Moon Rider.

Amara Leshonki was a nature spirit who had manifested in a human body due to her fascination with humanity, growing up in the town of Lostwood to adopted parents and exploring human society and culture. An accomplished shapeshifter who could take on the form of any animal, she idolized the Twilight Carnival, especially the positive outlook and heroism of the Dawn Rider. When her hero died, she was shattered, but she resolved to train to become a new hero for her community, learning to fight under the watchful eye of Winter Wolf and honing her shapeshifting skills. But it was when she came into contact with Dawn Rider’s soul knives, and one of them imbued itself into her skin as a magical tattoo, that she discovered that her hero wasn’t exactly dead. When Ophelia had died, some of the more dangerous souls contained in her knives had escaped, trapping the hero’s soul in their place and puppeting her corpse to their own ends.

Furious, Amara shared her knowledge with Winter Wolf, who advised her to call in Veilwalker to confirm that what she’d learned wasn’t just the souls playing tricks on her. With Amara’s insights, Veilwalker was able to confirm the truth, and the Twilight Carnival reformed to save their friend’s soul and stop the monsters inhabiting her body. When they were ultimately successful, the team remained gathered, and Amara joined in truth as the Moon Rider, a teenage discipline learning from all four of the team’s other members.

Behind the Scenes

So, I know it’s a little ironic to bring in a new hero after saying that I needed to do some hero trimming and removing three people. But one thing that’s generally missing from Venture is the addition of heroes between 2005 and 2018 that aren’t gone within a couple years. The Plutonium Age being what it is, I’m okay with most of the heroes it introduces foundering, but I wanted to slide at least one more successful one in, and attaching her firmly to a team meant a reason to reboot Twilight Carnival while not needing to find other spots for her to exist in.

(Of course, Sentinel Comics doesn’t introduce any new successful heroes between 1991 and 2011, giving them a solid twenty-year run with no new enduring characters aside from a pair of reformed villains (Harpy and Akash’Thriya) but that is kind of wild.)

So, Moon Rider. She’s taking on the Miles Morales or Kamala Khan role of being a young teen hero who looks up to a more established hero, but also ends up becoming interesting in her own right. I like the idea of one of the ‘monsters’ of Lostwood turning around and becoming a superhero themselves, so Moon Rider it is! And I rolled a lot of 10s on her creation, so even though I used the restrictions from my Plutonium/Diamond Age heroes I ended up with some interesting choices.

Mechanically, she’s got a lot of heft. Multiple Green max die effects that key off a d12, a valuable Yellow to mess up the battlefield, minion summoning, and a powerful Attack and Defend in Red… none of her tricks are individual fight-winners, but they’re all useful and they’re extremely versatile.

I thought of Principle of the Sidekick, but I like the idea that Moon Rider is taking over as the team’s heart and soul. Dawn Rider lost her Principle of Compassion while she was under the influence of the soul knives, and her post-resurrection self is liable to have her own problems; a brighter light on the team helps to balance them out.

And that’s it for our new and revised heroes! New villains start on Friday…

[Chief_Lackey_Rich]

@FrivYeti

If I’m honest, I’m not feeling it today.

I don’t think I’m going to be feeling it ever again.

@FrivYeti

(Of course, Sentinel Comics doesn’t introduce any new successful heroes between 1991 and 2011, giving them a solid twenty-year run with no new enduring characters aside from a pair of reformed villains (Harpy and Akash’Thriya) but that is kind of wild.)

Yeah, that’s absurd. No comic company that went twenty years without a successful new character could stay in business. Not even as a front for the Mob.

[FrivYeti]

Okay, let’s get villainous! For those who want to keep track, our final numbers of new villains are going to be:

• Two Golden Age
• Four Silver Age
• Three Bronze Age
• Six Iron Age
• Nine Plutonium Age

We ended up with slightly more Iron Age and slightly fewer Plutonium Age villains than I’d expected thanks to the start date of the Plutonium Age shifting during the retcon phase. But I think you’ll enjoy them, starting with…

The Rustler

Real Name: Zorus Z’Graf, First Appearance: Celestial Travels #106, December 1947
Approach: Ninja, Archetype: Inhibitor
Upgrade: Villainous Vehicle, Mastery: Mercenary

Status Dice: Based on heroes with penalties. 3+: d10. 1-2: d8. None: d6. Health: 30+5H (Upgraded 45+5H)
Qualities: Stealth d10, Ranged Combat d10, Deep Space Knowledge d8, Alertness d8, Space Pilot d8
Powers: Gadgets d10, Invisibility d10, Speed d8, Awareness d8, Strength d6

Abilities:

• Stun Bolt [A]: Attack using Ranged Combat. Hinder that target using your Max+Min dice.
• Thin the Herd [A]: Hinder using Gadgets against multiple targets and use your Max die. Attack one of those targets with your Mid die.
• Strike from the Shadows [A]: Attack using Stealth and use your Max die. Defend against all Attacks against you with your Mid die until the start of your next turn.
• Gotcher Number [R]: When Attacked by someone with a penalty you created, Defend by rolling your single status die, and the attacker also suffers that much damage.
• (U) The Rustler’s Shuttle (I): This vehicle acts as a d10 lieutenant with the following powers:
  • Aerial (I): To attack this vehicle, the hero must make an Overcome action in order to get close enough to it.
  • Stun Bolts (I): When this vehicle Hinders on its turn, roll twice and use the higher result.
  • Sturdy (I): When rolling a damage save, add 2 to the result.
• (U) Master of Profitability (I): If you have access to great wealth and other resources, automatically succeed at an Overcome to leverage those resources to get even richer, no matter who else pays the price.

Common Scene Elements:

• A Natural Environment with animals, foliage, and traps laid by the Rustler.
• Cattlehands: d8 robotic minions. When Cattlehands Hinder, they may make the penalty persistent and exclusive; if they do, it also applies to them.

The minimal footprint that superheroes left on the pages of Celestial Travels during the war years ironically left the comic in a good position immediately afterwards. Its pulpy stories of space adventures and aliens coming to Earth remained popular as the Golden Age of superheroes began to wane, and a handful of recurring alien creatures began to fill its pages. One surprisingly popular alien villain was the Rustler, Zorus Z’Graf.

The Rustler was introduced in 1947 in a ‘thrilling tale of the hunter… become the hunted!’ A group of big game hunters in Africa found themselves being hunted in turn by an alien trapper, who brought them down non-lethally one by one, before rounding them up to take to the stars. In the final pages, the alien revealed that he had come to Earth to capture its ‘most dangerous predators’ for an alien zookeeper, and showed the three hunters cages filled with other Earth predators that were to be added to the zoo. He admitted that he probably shouldn’t steal any animal that could talk back, but… a paycheque was a paycheque.

It was meant to be a one-off, a role reversal that was half funny and half frightening. But audiences enjoyed the unnamed alien, who returned several issues later to hunt Bigfoot for a different interstellar collector. It was his second appearance that the trapper was named the Rustler, and his work was stated to be illegal because Earth was a ‘wildlife preserve’. The Rustler might have ended there, but some enterprising writing conceived of a new idea and added him to the pages of Champions of Truth in 1949, in which he tried to steal a band of soldiers, only to be opposed by the Steward. The two of them clashed, and the Rustler was driven off, tipping his hat to the hero who’d beaten him but promising he’d be back one day.

And from there, the pattern was set. The Rustler became a common intergalactic bounty hunter, rounding up interesting specimans for alien warlords, scientists, and criminals. His contracts often brought him to Earth, where he would go after animals, monsters, superpowered individuals or whatever else had caught someone’s eye, always moving cautiously, using traps and terrain to his advantage, and being fairly even-minded about getting beaten. After all, it was just a job. No sense getting personal about it.

Behind the Scenes

We have plenty of characters from Venture’s war years, but the space between 1945 and 1954 is pretty sparse, so here’s one character who endures. There were a handful of supervillains (or heroes!) who started off outside of superhero comics entirely, so I figured I would bring one in from that time period thanks to a brief appearance with a hero who was on the verge of cancellation.

It wouldn’t surprise me if the Rustler appeared in at least one issue of the technically non-superhero Cryptic Trails, as a strange cattle rustler from the stars chasing a cowboy. There’s also got to be at least one Silver Age storyline in which the Rustler and the Retriever are hired by different people to go after the same target, and Flatfoot has to deal with the ensuing chaos.

[Chief_Lackey_Rich]

@FrivYeti

It wouldn’t surprise me if the Rustler appeared in at least one issue of the technically non-superhero Cryptic Trails, as a strange cattle rustler from the stars chasing a cowboy.

I’m thinking a Weird West story (which were pretty popular in this era and in the decade after) with a Valley of Gwangi thing going on and the cowboy as just one of a group trying to kill the same dinosaur carnosaur (which has been preying on livestock) Rustler is trying to capture. For twist value, have the cowboy be the only survivor of the successful hunt, who then gets taken by Rustler as a consolation prize for losing out on a live dino.

Because of course the client who wanted the dino will pay for the cowboy as a curiosity - a primitive who actually managed to kill such a powerful beast with crude gunpowder slugthrowers. Poor guy will spend the rest of his short life demonstrating his skills on space dinos and worse in staged hunts that are recorded for entertainment.

[Sea-Envy]

I can already see the cross company in jokes with Greazer seeing him in a bar and honestly liking the hat. Or an implication that Rustler was his grandfather.
Blue skin, red hair, anachronistic historical costume and tech gadgets. The Sentinels writer created him might have seen the Venture comics character once.

[FrivYeti]

Hah, I didn’t even think of that. I wanted to use one of my other alien models, so I made him the same species as Incursion and didn’t consider the blue skin issue.

[Sea-Envy]

I actually read an old spooky anthology comic similar to Rustler’s first appearance.
A narcissist hunter was going into the forbidden golden forest to hunt even though it brought down a curse on the local village. It was a trap by an alien zoo to find a trash human no one would miss.

My mom gave me her old comics from her childhood.
I sold Justice League of America #3 first appearance Amazo, Anthony Ivo

[FrivYeti]

Lockstep

Real Name: Major Ivan Kuragin, First Appearance: Covert Tactics #144, January 1952
Approach: Focused, Archetype: Legion
Upgrade: Mook Squad, Mastery: Superiority

Status Dice: Based on number of minions. None: d12. 1-2: d10. 3-4: d8. 5-8: d6. 9+: d4. Health: 10+5H
Qualities: Leadership d8, Ranged Combat d6, Guerrilla Tactics d8
Powers: Presence d12, Gadgets d8

Abilities:

• Heavy Weapons [A]: Attack one target using Gadgets. Use your Max die. That target cannot Defend or use reactions against this Attack. Attack multiple other nearby targets using your Min die.
• Call The Troops [A]: Add two minions of size equal to one die size lower than your current status.
• Necessary Sacrifice [A]: Remove any number of Legion minions. Roll their dice and Recover that much health.
• Sow Doubt [A]: Hinder one target using Presence. Use your Max die. Attack that target using your Mid die.
• Dark Charisma [R]: Defend against an Attack against only you by rolling your single Presence die. Boost yourself by the damage reduced.
• Divide and Conquer (I): Whenever multiple Legion minions all take the same action against the same target, you must roll all of their dice at the same time and use the lowest rolling die amongst them for each minion’s result on that action.
• (U) Rapid Deployment [A]: Replenish your Legion minions up to the number of heroes.
• (U) Ultimate Leader (I): As long as you are manifesting powers related to your Presence, automatically succeed at an Overcome involving usage of those powers.

Common Scene Elements:

• A Battlefield with soldiers on both sides, defensive fortifications, bombardments, and similar effects.
• Squad Captains: d8 lieutenants. When a squad captain leads a group of Legion minions, use the middle die (rounding up) for Divide and Conquer instead of the lowest die.
• Artillery: d10 lieutenants. When Artillery Attacks or Hinders, it may affect a group of targets, but it takes -2 to all actions against nearby targets.

As the 1950s dawned, Covert Tactics increasingly became a comic about war stories, not superheroic adventures. By 1952, the last superheroes had left its pages, but that didn’t mean that it was without its own sorts of flamboyant villains. One of those was Major Ivan Kuragin, known to American forces as Lockstep.

In his early appearances, Kuragin was a Soviet officer secretly training and equipping enemy soldiers in the Korean War. He had a knack for inspiring horrific loyalty in his troops, forging them into a unit whose allegiance was entirely to one another, with no care for what they might do to others. In his first appearance, he trained his soldiers to destroy their own village on suspicion of collaborating with Americans. It was a grim tale of the dangers of ‘marching in lockstep’ rather than trusting your conscience, which while overtly directed at Soviets had shades of interpretation that could be applied to American soldiers as well.

Kuragin would continue to appear a few times over the course of 1952-1954, as a cruel villain whose plans could be thwarted by brave American soldiers, but who was never on the front lines to face justice himself. In early 1955, he was killed in his own artillery bombardment, a victim of his soldiers’ unthinking obedience when they failed to confirm bombing targets that had been altered by American spies.

But while that was the end of his appearances in the original Covert Tactics, it wasn’t the end of the character. The writers had enjoyed him, and he surfaced in 1959 when they were looking for a quick filler issue of Madame Liberty. From there, he would become a Silver Age stalwart - a Soviet agent in various war-torn nations, fighting superheroes by training rebels and insurgents, occasionally even standing alongside heroes against more omnicidal threats. He even had a few appearances alongside Iron Will, in which his natural techniques and his opposite’s psychic ones were pitted against each other by Soviet command - the two were incredibly disdainful of each other, as Lockstep’s true belief clashed with his counterpart’s shameless cronyism.

Behind the Scenes:

Closing out the Golden Age with a war villain who turns into a supervillain as time goes on felt appropriate. There are definitely some similarities between Iron Will and Lockstep, as noted, but at root they’re telling very different stories. Iron Will is terrifying and manipulating people to destroy themselves, whereas Lockstep is creating a brainwashed army out of loyal volunteers. Mechanically, Focused doesn’t actually pair that well with Legion, but it creates an interesting opponent, who summons handfuls of soldiers and then just opens fire. Being Legion instead of Overlord reflects the drawbacks of his methods - the more soldiers are on the field, the less he can direct them and the more likely they are to make mistakes.

Lockstep holds the potential to become more of an antihero in the Iron Age, as the Soviet Union crumbles; he believed in the ideals of the Revolution, and it let him down, leaving him adrift - I’m not sure if he becomes less vicious and starts fighting for oppressed people, or if he falls down a rabbit-hole of nationalism and aligns with Russia’s post-Communist status quo. I have the image in my head of David Harbour’s Red Guardian complaining about how the Communist Party used to be a party, but that does conflict with the “training people into fanatical monsters” angle. He doesn’t have any anti-aging properties, but the Sovereign slices a decade off his age in the 80s to keep him in play through the Plutonium Age either way (an older version could appear post-timeskip.)

[Chief_Lackey_Rich]

You’re missing an ability from the Focused approach, which gets three instead of the more common two - and it can even use his big d12 Presence, since you only tapped that once with Dark Charisma. Dark Entanglement (renamed to something suitably intimidating) would give him a nice Hinder/Attack option that might come in handy for messing with a minion-sweeper, or Defensive Charging could represent the fanatical loyalty of his bodyguards.

For some reason I never considered how good Rapid Deployment is with a Legion villain running that “make two big minions” ability. Making a couple of d10s and then bringing their numbers up to H is likely more efficient than Call The Troops, although I think in this case I’d restrict the upgrade to needing at least one Legion minion alive (regardless of current die size) to work off of, otherwise you need to Call to “prime the pump” for the upgrade. Not technically how it’s worded, but it seems like it needs a slight limitation to keep it from just being used all the time instead. Doesn’t feel like the upgrade was written with Legion archetypes in mind.