“Invictium”? 
Delightful!
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I actually think that “DOMIN-8 Tricks” is a single issue story in which DOMIN-8 gets into a fight with the Red Herring for some reason.
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Courtless Meg
Real Name: Courtless Meg, First Appearance: Liberty’s Dream (Vol. 2) #2, Nov 1975
Approach: Tactician, Archetype: Thief
Upgrade: Hardier Minions, Mastery: Mysticism
Status Dice: Based on bonuses on you. None: d6. 1-2: d8. 3+: d10. Health: 30+5H
Qualities: Persuasion d10, Magical Lore d8, Stealth d6, Unsworn Fae d8
Powers: Pactweaving d8, Suggestion d8, Illusion d6, Intuition d6
Abilities:
- Feed from Fate (I): When you gain a non-persistent bonus, increase it by one (to a maximum of +4.)
- Promised Pacts [A]: Boost using Persuasion and use your Max die. That bonus applies to every ally’s action until the beginning of your next turn.
- Change the Terms [A]: Hinder using Magical Lore. Then move one bonus from the target to yourself that is equal to or smaller in size than the penalty created.
- Demand Obedience [A]: Make a basic action using Unsworn Fae and use your Max die. One nearby ally makes the same basic action as a reaction.
- (U) Woven Promises (I): When you enter the scene with minions, or deploy minions using your own abilities or the environment, increase them by one die size to a maximum of D12.
- (U) Master of Mysticism (I): If you have access to proper materials, automatically succeed at an Overcome in a situation involving harnessing magical forces.
Common Scene Elements:
- Fae Lackeys: d8 minions. Fae lackeys increase the value of any bonus or penalty placed on them by 1, to a maximum of +/-4.
- Forsworn Humans: d8 minions. As a reaction, Courtless Meg may redirect an attack from herself to a Forsworn Human.
- A Fae Lair: Filled with the treasures and promises that Courtless Meg has extracted, many of which are dangerous to intruders.
In 1975, Venture Comic’s ‘Mystical’ desk gained control of Madame Liberty, after pitching an idea to blend the struggling Liberty’s Dream and Madame Liberty into a single story that would delve into the nature of liberty, the power of dreams, and magical superhero adventures against authoritarian Powers. The new Liberty’s Dream would feature classic villains such as the Dread Dynasty and the Animaster, wielding dangerous magic, but it would also delve into the politics of magical beings and places.
The first step was to define the politics of the fae. While fae had often made appearances in the original Liberty’s Dream, a lack of writer mandates or broader plans meant that several competing ideas had been presented as to their natures. Skybreaker stories had linked them to the Seelie and Unseelie courts, some had been defined as elementals, and Reverie had fought a Winter Queen. Tasked with making sense of this, new head writer Shannon Pace decided to simply make them all true.
There were the Seasonal Courts, holding sway over Spring (and Dreams), Summer (and Vassalage), Autumn (and Hunger) and Winter (and Rest). The elemental courts of Fire, Water, Earth, and Air swirled around each other. The Celestial Courts of the Sun (governing Power), the Moon (governing Illusion) and the Stars (governing Knowledge) shifted their alliances in a steady pace. The twin courts of the Seelie, feeding on Need, and the Unseelie, feeding on Fear, existed in a balanced cold war. And every faerie held allegiance to multiple courts at once, drawing power from each and finding allies turn to enemies as their conflicting loyalties clashed. Most fae belonged to three or more courts, with those only serving two often seen as cowardly or weak. Only the most servile wretches were bound to a single court. And every fae must have a court to serve, because without a court their power would wither and they would die. No fae could escape this bond.
No fae, that is, save Courtless Meg.
Courtless Meg was a boogeyman to other faeries, a powerful creature with an unheard-of power. She could draw the power that other fae gained from courts by changing the terms of pacts or bargains after they had been sworn. Effectively, this let her trick any human or fae into an agreement to do whatever Meg wanted, with whatever penalties she chose, without having to keep up her end of a deal because she could change what she was offering. As a result, her pacts were monstrous, treacherous things, and she was reviled and feared by any fae who knew of her.
Meg’s first appearance was in the second issue of the new Liberty’s Dream, as one of Reverie’s fae allies came to her for help. Soon, she and Madame Liberty were trapped dealing with a supervillain whose plans were simply to trap people with impossible tasks, and to reap power from the disasters that she left in her wake. The pair were able to trick her in turn, with Madame Liberty pretending to be one of her victims to make her believe that she had altered a bargain, after which Reverie manipulated her into breaking the deal that she thought she was no longer bound to. Their victory sent Courtless Meg howling into the darkness, but she would return, time and again, now bitter and vengeful as she worked to regain her lost power and bring down the heroes that had defeated her.
Behind the Scenes
I really wanted a fae enemy for the early Liberty’s Dream, to underline the comic’s transition to the Mystic desk and what Madame Liberty and Reverie were up to. I also realized that I never explained what the heck the fae were, so I rolled two tricks together and Courtless Meg grew up out of the cracks.
Tactician lets Meg draw strength from and empower the people that she’s forming pacts with, while Thief lets her flip the script and take that power for herself. When it comes to direct action, she’s not that dangerous - but you have to take care, or you’ll hurt her human servants by mistake.
As to the fae that have already appeared, Robin Goodfellow is a member of the Seelie, Summer, and Star Courts, Robin Redcap is a member of the Unseelie, Autumn, and Air courts, while Flaresong is from a faraway world and is a member of the Sun, Resonant, and Tidal courts of her own world - the courts of the fae vary across dimensions.
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Interesting worldbuilding there. More nuances and complexities than Sentinel’s own take on fae.
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C&A have mentioned in the past that the fae in Sentinel Comics are a fairly small side part of the setting; they really don’t seem to start doing much of anything until the 2000s, aside from some various magical folks that get retconned.
By contrast, the fae in Venture Comics are a core part of the cosmology of several major characters, and are woven through the setting from the 60s (even without counting their overlap with Skybreaker and the Fomorians). It makes sense for them to get a lot more mythology heaped onto themselves.
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yeah, that lore is so cool!
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The power to “change the contract after it was signed” seems like something from one of those trashy isekais where the person that comes from Earth to the magic world gains a power that is called useless and draws intense aggression for not being good enough. “All you can do is alter written pages?! to the slave mines with you” ok- sign fairy contract activate EDIT, sign demon contract activate EDIT.
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Breakneck
Real Name: Nayek Hralgrath, First Appearance: Vanguards #228, Sep 1977
Approach: Relentless, Archetype: Invader
Upgrade: Power Upgrade, Mastery: Malice
Status Dice: Based on environment minions, lieutenants, or challenges. None: d10. 1-2: d8. 3+: d6. Health: 40+5H (Upgraded 60+5H)
Qualities: Close Combat d10, Finesse d8, Alertness d6, Astral Warrior d8
Powers: Speed d10, Astral Projection d8, Lightning Calculator d6
Abilities:
- Faster Than The Eye [A]: Move to a new location in the current scene, and then Attack or Overcome with Speed. Hinder with your Max die.
- Astral Incursion [A]: Overcome using Astral Projection. Use your Max die. Attack an environment target with your Mid die. Attack any target with your Min die.
- In Your Head [A]: Attack and Hinder using Astral Warrior. If the target has a d6 or less Status die, use your Max+Min dice; a d8 status die, use your Max die, larger than a d8, use your Mid die.
- Eye on the Prize [R]: When the environment targets you with an Attack or Hinder, redirect it to a hero or environment target.
- Steady Chase [R]: When an opponent moves away from you, you may follow them and roll your single status die as a Hinder against them.
- (U) Push The Limit (I): Increase your Speed to d12, your Astral Projection to d10, and your Lightning Calculator to d8.
- (U) Master of Malice (I): When you take an action to demonstrate or indulge in cruelty, automatically succeed at an Overcome to inflict pain or fear.
Common Scene Elements:
- The Taranic Reach: A cosmic environment with strange wildlife, hostile locals, and bizarre weather conditions.
- Jotari Soldiers: d8 minions. Jotari Soldiers have +1 to all actions taken alongside at least two other Jotari Soldiers.
- Rare Energies: An opposed challenge to collect the energies of the region before Breakneck’s forces do.
Over the course of the 1970s, the Vanguards struggled to find a new status quo. After a few years of Earth-focused adventures in the aftermath of Dimensional Devastation, a new direction introduced in 1972 had led to falling readership and the comic shifting out of alignment with the rest of Venture Comics. To help further differentiate the team from Covert Tactics, and to try to restore readership, a new writing team led by Percy Fern decided that it was high time to return the Jotari Authority, and reinforce that the Vanguards were a government team fighting for democracy in far-flung places. Fern introduced a cold war between the Jotari Authority and Earth, with the Jotari still rebuilding after the Empress’s assault, and rebellions springing up across their client dimensions. The Vanguards began to alternate between dealing with Jotari plots to undermine Earth, and supporting rebels on other layers, which gained some definition and detail.
The dimension to receive the most information from this was the Taranic Reach. This realm was a single planet the size of a solar system, whose gravity and conditions could shift drastically as cosmic flares reshaped the landscape and forced mass migrations of strange, alien forces. The Reach was a major source of resource extraction for the Authority, especially in the mining of cosmic materials that powered their dimensional engines, and the native inhabitants, a half-dozen species with complex political disputes, alternately collaborated with and fought against their overlords.
The Taranic Reach had many overseers, but one of the most feared was a man said to be everywhere at once, a cruel and domineering warrior with the power to accelerate both his body and mind, moving faster than the eye could follow and flinging his mind from his body to race even faster. He could attack his foes telepathically, by projecting himself into their thoughts, while leaving his body to fight on his behalf. He called himself Breakneck, and he was absolutely dedicated to gathering the resources the Authority demanded of him, at any cost to his labourers.
The Vanguards first came into conflict with Breakneck when Partisan answered a call from allies who had been captured and sent to indentured labour camps in the Reach. As the Vanguards planned a prison break, Breakneck responded, seeking to take out the prisoners before the Vanguards could reach him. They were able to save the day, but the overseer escaped to plot again. And Breakneck was so fast and so ruthless that he could appear at any time, attacking rebel camps, leading troops to seize critical resources or animals, or gathering cosmic energies to build new dimensional gateways for the Jotari. He would appear several times over the next five years, often fighting the Vanguards to a standstill and engaging in literal races with Mr. Infinity.
The Jotari Cold War proved popular, staving off the cancellation of Vanguards for several years. But in the end, even Breakneck couldn’t save the day, and the comic ended in 1983; the alien supervillain would vanish for some time, before returning in the 1990s as part of broader dimensional issues. He remained a moderately loyal, if somewhat cruel and corrupt, member of the Jotari Authority, occasionally serving as a mercenary for dimensional affairs that did not concern the Jotari and which they were willing to turn a blind eye to their agent’s operation in.
Behind the Scenes
I established that the Firmament storyline didn’t work out with my D-Listers, so I wanted to follow up with something that did. That brings us to the Jotari Cold War, which covers the Vanguards during the late 70s and early 80s.
Breakneck himself is an evil speedster; I have a decent number of villains who are ‘fast’, but not much in the way of folks defined as fast, and having an evil mirror to Mr. Infinity felt right. The collaboration stories are very “colonial empire”, with occasional shade thrown at the Americans even though they’re still theoretically the good guys, and it gives us a third Jotari named dimension.
3 Likes
The Taranic Reach by itself is a cool concept. 
This got me thinking though, how super speed is a power typically relegated to heroes. Whenever you find a villainous speedster, they’re always the nemesis of the main hero speedster because literally no one else can deal with them. So if nothing else, good job giving this guy other things to do.
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I don’t know about the first part of that. Even a quick search turns up well over a dozen evil speedsters, and more of them show up on a pretty steady basis. But you’re definitely right that they’re almost all foes of heroic speedsters (with the Wally and Barry Flashes getting the majority of them). The closest I can think of to a “general purpose” speedster villain is Quicksilver from his period as an Evil Mutant when he was mostly fighting the decidedly un-speedy X-Men, and even then his heart wasn’t really in it unless someone threatened Wanda.
Even Sentinels fell into the mirror-match thing with Tachyon’s former assistant there - was it Friction? The one from the train adventure - where, at least, she’s facing the PCs and they probably don’t include Tachyon herself.
I haven’t done any villains like that myself - there’s the random-accident crook, the horrible racist, and the insane mad scientist - but I’ve still got four speedster hero types to the three baddies, and that despite there being hundreds of villains on that blog compared to about forty heroes.
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Yeah, you’re thinking of Friction.
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The Serpent Society had a speedster, but she wasn’t one of their major members and she hasn’t made a ton of appearances since the 90s. And of course there was the Squadron Sinister version of Blur, although I don’t know if it’s fair to count him; that’s an inverted hero who is in turn a takeoff of a DC hero.
But yeah, almost all of Marvel’s speedsters are heroes, for some reason. DC has a ton, and they’re almost all Flash villains. Which makes sense; once you’ve given one guy a dozen speedy foes, there’s less room for them elsewhere.
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Backburn
Real Name: Hannah Holly, First Appearance: (as Hannah Holly) The Fearless Flatfoot #64, October 1972. (as Backburn) Fearless Flatfoot and Fly Boy #145, Oct 1979.
Approach: Skilled, Archetype: Bruiser
Upgrade: Mook Squad, Mastery: Conquest
Status Dice: Green d6, Yellow d8, Red d10, Health: 35+5H
Qualities: Close Combat d10, Investigation d10, Stealth d8, Criminal Underworld d8, Technology d8, Ex-Cop d8
Powers: Power Suit d10, Deduction d8, Presence d6
Abilities:
- Armor Plating (I): Reduce damage taken by physical and energy sources by 1 while in the Green zone, 2 in the Yellow zone, and 3 in the Red zone.
- Bag ‘em and tag ‘em [A]: Attack using Power Suit and use your Max die. Either Hinder that target with your Mid die or Attack another nearby target with your Mid die.
- Smoke Bombs [A]: Hinder multiple targets using Stealth and use your Max die. If you roll doubles, also Attack each target with your Mid die.
- Martial Arts [R]: When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling your single Close Combat die. Deal that much damage to another target.
- (U) Long Live The Insurgency (I): Replenish your Firebrands up to the number of heroes.
- (U) Master of Conquest (I): As long as you are in command of your own forces, automatically succeed at an Overcome involving seizing an area or capturing civilians.
Common Scene Elements:
- Firebrands: d8 minions. When Firebrands Attack, they may deal 2 irreducible damage to all targets near their target.
- A Rival Supervillain. Backburn often targets existing supervillain schemes, with heroes caught in the middle.
- A Major Event. Backburn likes to target events that will make a splash, with crowds to hide in, political targets, and dangerous foes.
In 1979, Venture Comics had two titles facing cancellation. The venerable Fearless Flatfoot had fallen from the second-highest rated comic in the line to near the bottom, and perennial underdog Fly Boy had a loyal fanbase that was too small to sustain sales. Given that both heroes shared a home and a primary villain in Hank Ferris, Venture’s Super-Science desk editor suggested merging the comics into a single line, creating an odd couple pair of heroes in the robot cop and the vigilante inventor.
To really drive home the shift, the writers of the new comic decided to make a splash using a member of Flatfoot’s supporting cast who had appeared in a few Fly Boy comics, Hannah Holly. Introduced as a ‘good cop’ struggling with corruption on the force in 1972, Holly had become a steady informant to Flatfoot and an occasional ally to Fly Boy in his drive to clean up the streets of their shared home.
In Flatfoot and Flyboy #144, Mr. Ferris struck back. After Hannah ruined one of his operations, the last panel of the comic was her opening her front door, followed by an explosion as the firebomb planted in her home went off. In the next issue, as Flatfoot and Fly Boy desperately responded to the call and tried to save the lives they could, it was revealed that Hannah was alive, but her husband and several of her neighbors were dead. She pursued the bomber, discovered that he had been blackmailed into committing the crime with his own family at stake - and she threw him into the burning building anyway.
At the hospital, scarred and bitter, Hannah told Flatfoot that their crusade was a failure. Street gangsters and drug dealers, Hank Ferris and his Company, the police that looked the other way and the politicians that spoke platitudes and changed nothing, the banks that kept the poor impoverished and the media that never reported on the real stories - all of it was rotten, and rot had to be burned out to allow for new growth. If even a single corrupt individual were left alive, they would just spread the rot again.
Flatfoot was alarmed at his friend’s words, but thought that it was grief speaking. When Hannah ran away from the hospital and looted one of Fly Boy’s stashes, then used his weapons to attack a Company warehouse, killing three guards and a hapless janitor who’d been in the wrong place at the wrong time, it became clear that the bombing had only unlocked long-simmering hate. Building a suit of robotic power armour from her stolen goods, Hannah Holly became Backburn, dedicated to burning the entire social order to the ground, no matter the cost. Her former friends were now enemies that had betrayed her vision, and she showed them no mercy.
While some fans were annoyed at having an established ally fall so completely, Backburn quickly became a popular foe to both the Fearless Duo and heroes like Covert Tactics and the Vanguards, often portrayed sympathetically even if she was willing to shed innocent blood to accomplish her goals. She was an enemy of most superheroes and supervillains alike, and she acquired followers, the Firebrands, who believed in her pitch for a utopia built on the scorched remains of the old older. In the late 1980s, she even had her own limited series, “Insurgency”, but she was too extreme to fully transition into a hero, and she quickly fell back into more vicious approaches.
Behind the Scenes
But what if… you’ve gone too far!
I wanted to have a classic “hero who goes too far” villain, and while we’ve got a different flavor of that in Madame Anarchy, this one let me touch on the shifts to Flatfoot when he merges with Fly Boy. Backburn is somewhere between Two-Face and the Punisher, absolutely resolute and viciously revolutionary. (I also wanted to make sure that she wasn’t very much like either Fanatic or Expatriette or Parse, and I think I pulled it off.)
Backburn’s upgrade represents a story shift, with her normal form as her usual solo activities, and her upgraded form is when she’s acting as the head of an army.
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Probably also has a lot to do with the whole Speed Force thing. Ties most/all the “real” speedsters (as opposed to just “pretty fast” folks who aren’t violating the laws of physics quite so casually) together, something Marvel’s speedsters just don’t have going for them.
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Nasty. That irreducible damage from the Firebrands is going to add up fast and there’s no way to prevent it other that taking the minions out of action. A single scene element’s worth of them for an H=5 team is going to drop 10 damage on everyone nearby, and that’s independent of their actual die size when they attack so degradation is almost meaningless.
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Keep in mind that the Firebrands attack everyone near their targets, not just enemies. If five Firebrands get into close quarters and drop ten damage on a group of heroes that’s staying close, they’re also hitting themselves five times and will immediately be taken out of the fight.
I should probably make an explicit note that “all targets” does mean “potentially including themselves.”
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Oh, right, all is all. Although even five of them might live through each other’s bombing. Until they roll a one on a save, once they hit a d4 they stop degrading. Even irreducible damage doesn’t bypass minion/lieutenant saves saves.
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Dr. Deimos
Real Name: Damien Mossby, First Appearance: Champions of Truth #228, August 1991
Approach: Creator, Archetype: Predator
Upgrade: Calming Aura, Mastery: Behind the Curtain
Status Dice: 0-1 engaged opponents: d10. 2-3 engaged opponents: d8. 4+ engaged opponents: d6. Health: 30+5H (Upgraded 40+5H)
Qualities: Science d10, Insight d8, Stealth d8, Investigation d6, Nightmare Engineer d8
Powers: Nightmare Engine d10, Intuition d8, Invisibility d8, Speed d6
Abilities:
- Mold Nightmare [A]: Use Nightmare Engine to create a lieutenant of the same die size as your Max die.
- Chimeric Reshaping [A]: Destroy one of your lieutenants. Boost yourself and another of your lieutenants by rolling the destroyed lieutenant’s sole status die. This bonus is persistent and exclusive.
- Fears Made Flesh [A]: Hinder using Nightmare Engine. Use your Max die. That penalty lasts until your next turn, and while that penalty lasts, that hero cannot use reactions and cannot benefit from Defend actions.
- Cloak of Terrors [R]: When Attacked, roll your single status die. Hinder the Attack using that result, and deal damage to the attacker equal to that penalty.
- (U) Dream Logic (I): The heroes act as being in the Green zone for status die, access to abilities, and for the purposes of all abilities. Heroes may remove this ability with three Overcome successes. If a hero takes a minor twist, you may use a reaction to Hinder them by rolling your single Invisibility die.
- (U) Master Behind the Curtain (I): As long as you are not directly involved in the fray and are using your influence indirectly, automatically succeed at an Overcome to manipulate a situation.
Common Scene Elements:
- Personal Fear. D10 lieutenants. Each Personal Fear chooses one target when created; they have +2 to all actions and saves against that target but -2 to all other actions and saves.
- Figments. D8 minions. When Fightments succeed at a damage save, they gain a +2 “New Form” bonus.
- A Sleeping City. The dreams and nightmares of its inhabitants are coming to life, creating odd hinders and environmental minions.
As the grim 80s passed into the extreme landscape of the 90s, they brought with them a rush of equally extreme villains. Most of these characters faded into the background or died extravagant deaths, but a handful developed enough of a fan following to endure. One particularly strange example of such was the devious Dr. Deimos.
Damien Mossby was a fringe scientist who posited that when dreaming, humans actually accessed another dimension, much like those that were becoming more well-known to the scientific community. Undaunted by the scorn his ideas netted, he acquired dimensionally-active materials and built what he initially called his Dream Portal, with the goal of physically travelling to the land of dreams to acquire dream resources, which he believed could be used to build incredible physics-defying technologies on Earth.
Dr. Mossby did not succeed in unlocking a hidden dimension. But he did succeed in creating one. His engine tapped into the latent magical energies of dreams, summoning them into the world. There were only two wrinkles - instead of accessing light dreams, Mossby could only access powerful nightmares. And when the dreamer woke, the nightmare winked out of existence. Mossby struggled with the problem, until one night when a nightmare broke free of its containment and devoured its half-lucid dreamer. To Mossby’s surprise, instead of vanishing with the dreamer’s death, the nightmare solidifed and became real. He realized that it was the act of waking that ended a nightmare, not the loss of dreams, and hit upon a new plan - he would evoke nightmares until he found what he wanted, then kill the dreamers to harvest the now-real materials and creatures for his purposes.
Taking on the mantle of Dr. Deimos, Mossby began a campaign of terror across the United States. His Nightmare Engine could draw nightmares from a wide radius, and the creatures summoned were loyal to the doctor now that they understood that he wanted them to live. The Champions of Truth responded to frantic tales of monstrous creatures, only to find a city where fears and dark dreams were being brought to life. As they struggled to fight them, Dr. Deimos brought forth each of their own nightmares in turn, isolating and manipulating the group to try to defeat them. While they successfully defeated their personal terrors and destroyed his Nightmare Engine, Deimos was undeterred. He would return again and again, building new Nightmare Engines, sometimes targeting artists or other creative minds, sometimes seeking to destroy political figures as an assassin for hire, and sometimes trying to permanently turn a part of the world into a nightmare land where he could work his experiments in peace. He revelled in fear, gradually letting it consume him, and soon became a foe so terrible that even other villains feared him. On at least two occasions, Deimos was slain - once by his own minions, and once by the Penitent - but both times it transpired that the Deimos who had died was merely a representation of his own fear of death, laid out as a decoy.
Behind the Scenes
Spoiler: Hide
We needed more EXTREME 90s villains, and I needed a villain for the Champions of Truth to face during their magical incarnation, so combining the two netted me with Dr. Deimos. His first draft was more of a generic “pulls out your fears as illusions” type, but (a) I’ve got a lot of psychic villains already, including an upcoming one, and (b) that’s dangerously close to treading on Mr. Jitters’ territory. Then I decided to add a dash of Chuubo’s, and we got something very different.
By default, Creator only has one lieutenant-based ability; everything else is minions. So I drafted up a new ability that lets Dr. Deimos destroy a lieutenant that’s been taking hits in order to take on its nightmarish aspects and beef up both himself and another one of his baddies. As for the nightmares themselves - they are deadly if you have to face your own nightmare, but fairly easy to take down if the heroes can stay together and attack each others’ weaknesses. Most nightmares just aren’t that scary to outside viewers.
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I noticed the same issue back when I did that villain design analysis series on my blog, although in my case I added a defensive reaction that keys off lieutenants so creators were a little less committed to minions and didn’t need to rely on their archetype for a reaction ability.
I’m strongly reminded of a webcomic/graphic novel called the Last Halloween, which used similar logic in each person having a personal nightmare. I won’t bother linking to it since AFAIK it’s been left on eternal hiatus since the creator moved into other fields - notably computer game design, not least of which being Scarlet Hollow and Slay the princess. It’s a shame since it’s quite an interesting read, but it’s almost certainly never going to be finished and no one deserves to be left hanging like that no matter how good the start may have been.
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Iron Will (II)
Real Name: Wilhelm Eisenfalle, First Appearance: (post-Soviet) Covert Tactics Annual #15, January 1993
Approach: Mastermind, Archetype: Calamity
Upgrade: Brainwashing Zone, Mastery: Profitability
Status Dice: Scene Tracker Green: d6. Scene Tracker Yellow: d8. Scene Tracker Red: d10. Health: 40+5H (Upgraded 50+5H)
Qualities: Insight d10, Leadership d8, Finesse d8, Self-Discipline d8, Alertness d8, Robber Baron d8
Powers: Suggestion d12, Remote Viewing d10, Intuition d8
Abilities:
- Theft of Experience [A]: Boost yourself using Insight and use your Max die. Either make that bonus persistent and exclusive, or Boost yourself again using your Min+Mid dice.
- Fan the Flames of Hate [A]: Defend with Remote Viewing, using your Max die. Boost using your Mid die. Recover using your Min die.
- Mindbreaker [A]: Attack with Suggestion, using your Max die. If the scene tracker is Yellow, Attack any targets close to them using your Mid die. If the scene tracker is Red, Attack one target with your Max+Min dice, and every other target in the scene with your Mid die.
- Feed On Anger [R]: When Attacked, Boost yourself using the attacker’s Max die.
- (U) The New World Order (I): While the scene is in the Green zone, all heroes’ quality dice at d8 or above are reduced one size. In the Yellow zone, all heroes’ quality dice at d10 or above are reduced two die sizes. In the Red zone, all heroes’ quality dice are treated as if they are d4. Heroes may remove this ability with three Overcome successes. If a hero takes a minor twist, the hero must lose access to a quality entirely until this ability is removed. If a hero is knocked out while this ability is active, you may create a new minion using the hero’s highest power die to represent the controlled version of that hero.
- (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:
- Panopticon Unleashed: A Dangerous environment, made up of a population centre whose people are being taken over by Iron Will, applying mental hinders to his foes and spawning hostile environment minions.
- The Iron Legion: d8 minions. Iron Will may take actions using Suggestion or Remote Viewing as though he is present with any member of the Legion.
- Minor Villains: d10 lieutenants, compelled into joining Iron Will by his mental powers. Each one has 1-2 abilities based on their powers.
The formal dissolution of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991 left Venture Comics with a handful of popular Soviet villains in dire need of a revamp. While the editors were content to let a few of them fall to the dustbin of history, one in particular jumped out to writer Oleandra Smith as deserving of a reboot. Iron Will had survived the fall of one empire, she reasoned. What would he do next?
The answer was developed over the course of 1992, and launched as the major crossover event of 1993, through the pages of four of Venture’s annuals that year: Covert Tactics Annual #15, Company Town Annual #3, Knightgrave Annual #5, and Champions of Truth Annual #15. The crossover, “Panopticon Unleashed!”, was hinted at in several issues of those comics earlier in the year, with the rise of a new tech firm called Panopticon, offering digital security and information control to companies across the Western world.
In Covert Tactics #15, the team successfully infiltrated the organization, and the true owner of Panopticon was revealed - Iron Will. The aging Soviet commissar had seen which way the winds were blowing, and had gotten an early start looting the country, moving back to Berlin and integrating himself into the reunification process under an assumed identity, then using the wealth he had gained to start spreading his new business into the United Kingdom, the USA, and France. As his tech gained a foothold, Covert Tactics discovered that it also had back doors, allowing Iron Will to use his hypnotic powers on its users from any distance; his plan had been to slowly take control of tech centres around the world, catapulting himself to wealth and fame. Caught before he was ready, Iron Will rolled the dice and activated his Panopticon, seizing control over every mind his tech was influencing and launching an attempted takeover of the affected cities.
In the pages of Company Town and Knightgrave, the takeover attempt played out. In Ferristown, Panopticon usurpsed swathes of the Company and the Table, turning against the others and forcing Paradox and her allies into an uneasy truce with their longstanding enemies against this new threat. In Knightgrave, London was thrown into chaos, and Knightgrave joined forces with Hyperstar and Zeitgeist, using Zeitgeist’s psychic powers to throw feedback into the loop and distrupt the Panopticon. Finally, in Champions of Truth, the Champions and Covert Tactics took the battle to Berlin, facing off against Iron Will - who had enslaved most of the classic Soviet supervillains to his will! The only villain still standing was Lockstep, who joined the heroes to bring his former ally and nemesis down.
In the aftermath of Panopticon Unleashed, Iron Will was roundly defeated and arrested, but his new approach was popular, and it wasn’t long before he hired the Red Herring to fake evidence that he had been a victim of mind control, not the perpetrator. With his innocence restored, Iron Will began to rebuild his business empire - much more slowly and cautiously this time, knowing that eyes were on him, but focused on using his still-enhanced mental abilities to eat up the remains of the Russian dream and become one of its premiere oligarchs. The more minds he could sway, the more powerful he would become, and the hatred of those who knew him for what he was only bolstered his psychic powers. Careful to stay in nations where he could control the justice system, Iron Will would remain a thorn in the sides of the heroes of Earth for decades to come, and many ex-Soviet characters would join his forces as their world crumbled.
Behind the Scenes
From Nazi to Soviet to Oligarch, what will he do next?
Iron Will is mirroring the Lex Luthor shift, although he’s doing it at the dawn of the 90s instead of in the late 80s. He gets to reflect the West’s shifting attitude to Russia in that time, starting as a villain slipping into the West, and then falling back into the corrupt morass as that becomes increasingly what people see. He might slip out of Russia into one of the satellite states as real-world politics intervene in the 2010s.
As a Calamity, Iron Will’s thing is now that his mental powers start out somewhat measured, and the more chaos and strife grows around him the stronger he gets. He uses a mixture of his natural psychic powers and technological boosts to break into minds, and then rides them to any distance to enact his will through them. He is a dangerous, dangerous guy.
As a minor side note: I am aware that as someone who fought in World War II, Iron Will should definitely be in his early 80s by the time this storyline happens. I think that when Iron Will is retconned into being Atlantean-descended, which probably happens in the early 80s, it’s explained that a side effect of his powers is the ability to use some of the psychic energy he steals to slow his aging. A lot of the “Atlantean” retconned characters age more slowly, since immortality (of the unaging variety) is a default Atlantean trait.
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