It’s a memorable running gag, to be sure.
There’s clearly room for some particularly thick headed hero to constantly accuse other villains of actually being Red Herring in disguise once the schtick is firmly established. Also probably a Halloween story where Red Herring disguises become a short-lived fad, confusing the situation even further.
Randomizers:
Approach: 5, 6, 5 [Options: Bully, Disruptive, Overpowered, Generalist, Adaptive]
Archetype: 1, 2, 5 [Options: Predator, Inventor, Bruiser, Indomitable, Overlord, Formidable]
Upgrade: 7, 2, 8 [Options: Hardier Minions, Quality Upgrade I, Quality Upgrade II]
Mastery: 3, 8, 12 [Options: Conquest, Profitability, Malice]
Doctor Freak
Real Name: Joseph Ford, First Appearance: Venture into the Unknown #24, Dec 1959
Approach: Generalist, Archetype: Predator
Upgrade: Hardier Minions, Mastery: Malice
Status Dice: 0-1 Engaged Opponents: d10. 2-3 engaged opponents: d8. 4+ engaged opponents: d6. Health: 40+5H (Upgraded 45+5H)
Qualities: Science d10, Close Combat d8, Imposing d6, Monstrous Enhancements d8
Powers: Toxic d10, Inventions d8, Deduction d8, Vitality d6
Abilities:
Common Scene Elements:
By December of 1959, Greenheart had three stories under her belt, but had yet to develop a compelling foe. Two attempts to introduce new villains had been modest successes, but no one was clamouring for them back, and the writers were reluctant to re-introduce the more horrifying mystical foes that she had fought in the Golden Age. Instead, they looked at villains who had excelled in crossovers with her, and hit upon the perfect solution, someone who could be toned down without losing his essential drive - Doctor Freak.
The new Doctor Freak was still Dr. Joseph Ford, but his self-experimentation was toned down and he was slightly less grotesque in appearance. Instead, he tracked down super-powers in order to extract and study them, creating hybrid beasts that did his bidding in his search for the ultimate set of powers. He arrived in Grovedale at the head of a pack of chimeric animals, hoping to hunt Greenheart and take her powers for his own. Despite his best efforts, she was able to evade him and turn his chimaeras against him with her power over nature, and he was forced to flee, vowing that he would take her powers for himself.
This would become a theme with Doctor Freak. His new drive in life was to assemble the powers of superheroes, using them to create new monsters. The methodologies were much more sanitized, using hair samples and glowing liquids rather than grotesque surgeries, but the essential concept was the same, and Doctor Freak would become a truly dangerous foe not only to Greenheart, but to many of her allies, appearing as the first villain to challenge the Champions of Truth in 1961.
Behind the Scenes
We have our second re-imagining of a Golden Age villain. Doctor Freak gets to be the “I will have what was yours” guy, probably constructing a lot of cool monsters over the years (some of whom will go on to become their own villains, I’d bet.) He’s a lot less gross now, and he probably doesn’t personally transform as often in the Silver Age, but there’s still room for him to go back to his creepier self in a future age.
Also, eagle-eyed readers may notice that I’m using a houseruled form of Hardier Minions. I’m not a huge fan of the original upgrade; I don’t think it provides enough bang for its buck. This version, while less spammable, seems just enough stronger to be worth an Ultimate.
The two minion-related upgrades both feel subpar, frankly - especially in light of them providing low or no Health bonus. Spending precious villain actions when no other upgrade does that (even the defense field’s action and reaction are entirely optional and can easily be skipped) just spoils their utility for many villains.
Which is a shame, since they’re fine idea narratively. Just poorly executed.
Nice to see Doctor Freak back, regardless.
Agreed - I’m not as down on Mook Squad, because if heroes don’t have good area attacks it is a pretty good use of action economy, pulling out four or five D8 actions using a single one of your own and forcing the heroes to deal with that situation. It’s really variable, though, because if the PCs have a good squad-clearing hero you’re probably just trading one villain action for one hero action and that’s a bad trade.
Hardier Minions is a lot worse. Mechanically, you’re essentially giving a +1 permanent bonus to a single group of minions at the cost of an action. Given minion lifespans, you’re better off to just use a group Boost. The lack of health bonus is icing on the cake. I figured making it a one-time permanent effect for all your minions would be a much more viable approach, although they’re still vulnerable to getting wiped out.
Mook Squad at least provides villains who aren’t Creator/Legion/Overlord types with a way to throw some more minions into a scene, which opens up some options that wouldn’t exist.
Hardier Minions doesn’t do much even if the minions you’re enhancing have abilities that care about die sizes or something similar. Be a lot more interesting and impactful if it let you bump up one or more (probably H/2 for consistency) lieutenants as an alternate option.
Randomizers:
Approach: 9, 3, 1 [Options: Relentless, Prideful, Underpowered, Specialized, Overpowered, Generalist]
Archetype: 4, 6, 3 [Options: Bruiser, Guerilla, Overlord, Formidable, Loner, Squad]
Upgrade: 8, 1, 4 [Options: Mook Squad, Villainous Vehicle, Quality Upgrade II]
Mastery: 8, 9, 2 [Options: Behind the Curtain, Profitability, Superiority]
Subjugator
Real Name: Kula Rikel, First Appearance: Celestial Travels #253, February 1960
Approach: Prideful, Archetype: Squad
Upgrade: Villainous Vehicle, Mastery: Profitability
Status Dice: No Other Villains d6, 1-2 Other Villains d8, 3+ Other Villains d10. Health: 30+5H (Upgraded 45+5h)
Qualities: Ranged Combat d10, Alertness d10, Imposing d8, Conviction d8, Cosmic Pirate d8
Powers: Sonic d10, Density Control d10, Presence d10, Flight d8
Abilities:
Common Scene Elements:
The nature of Neutrino’s journeys meant that he didn’t run into the same villain repeatedly often in his first few years of comics. Most of his opponents were local warlords or cosmic scientists, and once they were dealt with, he was on to the next planet. However, he managed to acquire a few reoccuring villains, and the first major one of these was Subjugator.
Introduced in Neutrino’s third appearance, Subjugator was the leader of the Starbooters, a pirate crew with a particular theme. Rather than using squads of pirates to cow spaceships and stellar outposts, Subjugator had gathered a crew made up of a handful of immensely powerful individuals. The Starbooters would drop into a location, take whatever they wanted before the locals could organize enough of a force to stop them, and leave with the goods. With no concerns for collateral damage and no compunctions about displays of violence, they terrorized the local spaceways.
In her first appearance, Neutrino happened to be on a space station the Starbooters attacked. He was able to rally the locals, separating and taking down the Starbooters one at a time and forcing Subjugator to flee. The pirate captain was not gone for long, however, breaking her crew free of the prison planet they were contained on and gathering new allies, and soon she and Neutrino were clashing across the cosmos. The exact makeup of the Starbooters varied from appearance to appearance, but several common ones recurred throughout the Silver Age, and Subjugator was always in charge (aside from a single storyline late in the Silver Age in which another Starbooter attempted to overthrow her, and Neutrino was forced to intervene in a Starbooter civil war that threatened to destroy a peaceful moon!)
Behind the Scenes
The big trick with writing a Squad villain when you have limited villain slots is that, by necessity, they need to be accompanied by at least two and possible more other villains. This is actually my general dislike for them overall; villains are such a big deal that having one that requires most of the scene elements in an action scene to be full villains really limits what else you can do.
But from time to time they work, and here’s the result! A shifting team of powerful super-pirates, who plunder the spaceways in search of interstellar treasure. They also allow for action scenes of ship-to-ship combat or closing in, which can be a lot of fun.
One workaround to the squad problem you mentioned is to use the full squad (usually meaning 3-4 total villains, maybe even more if H=6+ (ie you have a big group) mostly for scenes intended to be difficult. That gives you H scene elements that should be mostly difficult, but the trade-down rules let you swap in two moderate scene elements in a place of one difficult. One upgraded villain is difficult by itself, which lets you trade for two basic villains if you want numbers. With H=4 a difficult scene could comfortably include an environment, four basic villains (taking the equivalent of two traded-down difficult slots) and a challenge of some kind.
There’s lots of other mixes you could use. Having Subjugator upgraded so she takes a full difficult slot by himself with 3 moderate villains and a moderate element worth of minions and an spaceship-themed environment would make her feel like the leader of a pirate crew, or you even squeeze in another villain or two by making “trading down” the environment or challenge to just moderate level.
Scenes with lots of villains tend to feel really combat focused if they all stick to using their abilities all the time, but you could include environmental distractions or challenges that encourage them to spend actions not beating on the heroes, and there’s always narrative stuff like clashing personalities leading to wasted time or actual infighting, the hypnotic appeal of the villainous monolog, or heroic allies showing up unexpectedly.
You can also just cope with a lackluster status die and use a Squad villain with minions and lieutenants. Even rolling a d6 status they have some great support abilities, both of Subjugator’s ones work dandy with lieutenants. She’d actually get more bonus damage off being Head of the Pack to a big mob of lieutenants, perhaps using the same element trade-down thing to put out a bunch d8 easy lieutenants in a moderate scene or d10 ones in a difficult.
Subjugator is a she, but otherwise that all makes a lot of sense!
Whoop, edited to correct that. Misgendering fictional characters is still misgendering.
I find it interesting that we both made our space pirate captains female. I’m going to choose to credit Anne Bonny for that in my case.
Randomizers:
Approach: 3, 8, 2 [Options: Skilled, Prideful, Bully, Mastermind, Overpowered, Generalist]
Archetype: 6, 3, 2 [Options: Inventor, Bruiser, Indomitable, Overlord, Inhibitor, Loner]
Upgrade: 1, 12, 7 [Options: Mook Squad, Quality Upgrade, Brainwashing Zone]
Mastery: 2, 10, 8 [Options: Behind the Curtain, Profitability, Total Chaos]
Steeldriver
Real Name: Hank Ferris Jr., First Appearance: Flatfoot Adventures #214, April 1960
Approach: Skilled, Archetype: Inventor
Upgrade: Mook Squad, Mastery: Profitability
Status Dice: 4+ Inventions: d12, 2-3 Inventions: d10, 1 Invention: d8, no Inventions: d6. Health: 25+5H
Qualities: Technology d10, Ranged Combat d10, Leadership d8, Criminal Underworld d8, Alertness d8, Wealthy d8
Powers: Inventions d10, Lightning Calculator d8, Presence d6
Abilities:
Common Scene Elements:
Of Venture’s Golden Age heroes, Flatfoot was the easiest to translate into the more lighthearted tone of the Silver Age. Under his watchful eye, Ferrisville became increasingly bright and pleasant even when drawn, a safe community that relied on the automated constable for its prosperity. Along the way, his opponents also became gradually more Silver Age, with broader plots and more direct action scenes.
Mr. Ferris, who had initially been Flatfoot’s nemesis, had entirely disappeared by 1960, but a new writer to the series thought that Flatfoot needed a nemesis who was more personal, a brilliant inventor with criminal ties who could bring back some of that flair without delving too far into Comics Code-violating storylines. His contribution was Steeldriver.
Hank Ferris Jr. was the son of a prominent, and now extremely reclusive, business magnate. His company had been ruined when it was revealed that they had criminal connections, and much of his family fortune was in ruins. Driven by a desire for revenge, Ferris began constructing weapons of war, selling them on the black market as he looked to build devices that could take down the mechanical man who had ruined his family name - the unflagging Flatfoot! Taking on the mantle of Steeldriver, Ferris set about rebuilding his father’s criminal empire, but he was a much more hands-on villain, taking to the field accompanied by his Company Men and his skilled technologists, robbing other scientists for their discoveries and selling them to whomever would pay.
Flatfoot clashed with Steeldriver many times, but he always found a way to escape at the last moment. His attempts to rebuild were constantly stymied, but each time, he returned with a new plot, new gear, and a new set of henchmen who would help him in his criminal endeavors. Steeldriver was soon a new driving force in crime, always defeated, but never truly stopped.
Behind the Scenes
I had a variety of potential plans to reboot Ferris in the Silver Age, but the big advantage of this one is that when we hit the Bronze Age, both Ferrises can start to operate either together or apart as a cool super-crime family. Steeldriver is a devastating threat to a lone hero, and like his father, his Company Men can protect him while he builds up the inventions necessary to get a good status die. Technological Assault isn’t actually that strong, but I love it thematically so it stays in, and really with the benefits from his Skilled side I don’t think I want him that much stronger!
Yay, Ferris is back with a legacy entry. And just look at those awesome chunky boots! Another win for that hero creator software.
Compared to the other big Inventor offensive move Empowered Destruction, it’s got the advantage of only eating a minimum of two bonuses (assuming you have a 3rd P+E one) to get maximum use out of it. Its damage output isn’t sterling if you only have two targets but at that point shooting one (or even two) of your own allies to put the Max on a hero might be worth doing. 
And it doesn’t eat all of your bonuses and leave you with a terrible status die like ED does, although handing out P+E Hinders will help with that too. Your mods don’t have to be on you to fuel that status die, after all.
I think my main issue with it is that, as a rule, villains get abilities that are slightly stronger than hero abilities, to make up for the fact that their abilities don’t grow in strength and they’ve got action economy issues. But Technological Assault is weaker than the equivalent Green move in Robot/Cyborg, and much weaker than most villain multi-attack powers, which would just hit more than one person using a single die and thus a single bonus. It’s particularly an issue for Inventor, who needs those bonuses for their status die and thus is likely to have to take twists to keep them or else have their status die drop.
I think what I would have liked, as a contrast, is to have Technological Assault let you attack people that way, but any bonus that would be spent is reduced by 1 instead, or you only have to remove one bonus even if you use three, or something like that.
Sure, it’s definitely inferior to many offensive villain abilities, and at best barely on par with Something For Everyone off Robot/Cyborg. Usually better to go looking at the Approach for a strong Attack ability if you don’t want ED (which is even worse for yours status die, but often a KO on whoever eats it), but sometimes it’s all you’ve got to choose from. At least Inventor has two other rock-solid abilities with Min Attack options bundled with serious mod generation, so you can throw some minor damage while playing to your strengths - and status die needs.
Some Inventors can really benefit from having some small minion Boosts on them. It won’t help their status die, but they can fuel shots with ED or Tech Assault just as well as anything and minion actions are frequently a plentiful resource.
Randomizers:
Approach: 6, 2, 8 [Options: Skilled, Disruptive, Mastermind, Overpowered, Ninja]
Archetype: 4, 4, 1 [Options: Predator, Guerilla, Indomitable, Inhibitor, Titan]
Upgrade: 2, 1, 4 [Options: Mook Squad, Hardier Mooks, Villainous Vehicle]
Mastery: 7, 4, 10 [Options: Enforced Order, Mysticism, Total Chaos]
Ignition
Real Name: Indira Seth, First Appearance: Reactors #3, May 1961
Approach: Disruptive, Archetype: Guerrilla
Upgrade: Hardier Minions, Mastery: Mysticism
Status Dice: 4+ Engaged Opponents d10, 2-3 Engaged Opponents d8, 0-1 Engaged Opponents d6. Health: 40+5H (Upgraded 45+5H)
Qualities: Persuasion d10, Science d8, Ranged Combat d8, Cult Leader d8
Powers: Fire d10, Suggestion d10, Intuition d8, Agility d8
Abilities:
Common Scene Elements:
The first few Reactors stories followed a fairly similar pattern. A dangerous mad scientist, mercenary, or Jotari patrol discovered the existence of the mysterious alien ship under Santa Juanita, they attempted to claim it, and Fission and Wavelength found a way to defeat them and hand them off to the authorities.
At first, Ignition appeared to be cut from the same cloth. Brilliant engineer Indira Seth was working on interdimensional theory when she accidentally tore open a tiny portal to another realm, and was bathed in cosmic flames. She learned of the existence of the Reactors and their ship, and sent a team of mercenaries to claim it - all of them had fire powers of their own, enhanced by their specially-designed gear. As usual, they were defeated.
However, in the coda of her first appearance, Ignition revealed a twist. She wasn’t simply a scientist seeking access to other planes. She believed that a mystical spirit of flame had entered her when she parted the veil, and that the crashed ship was the key to accessing magical realms and bringing them back to earth! Ignition founded Flamebright, a secretive organization that sought to bring the Light of Truth to humanity, each one implanted with a tiny spark from the dimensional rift. Unlike earlier foes, Ignition’s magic made her impossible to contain, and she escaped her first few adventures. Sometimes, she would try to claim the ship, while other times she would attempt to develop a new way of opening a much larger, more powerful rift to the All-Consuming Light. On top of that, the mystical nature of her flames meant that she could burn not just matter, but emotions and thoughts, inspiring people or driving them to rage or passion, turning them against each other.
In a classic Silver Age twist, Indira Seth met Trevor Finn after one of her earlier appearances, and the two developed romantic sparks. Neither was aware that the other was their super-powered foe (despite how flimsy both of their disguises were), and several dates were interrupted as both of them snuck off to transform and battle each other!
Ignition created a new field of dangers for the Reactors, aligning their technological adventures with a mystical element and suggesting that the line between the two, in the Venture Comics universe, was thin. The exact nature of the realm she sought to reach was not, at this time, fully explained, but some readers began to suspect that there was more to it that Ignition believed…
Behind the Scenes
When I hit Mystical I wanted to claim it, since it’s the only Mastery I haven’t grabbed, but I wasn’t sure how to line everything up until I hit “cult leader that gets in your face and sets you on fire.” Ignition was also almost a Wonderer foe, but the idea of dimensional travel being both a technological and a mystical thing lines up with a lot of the Golden Age wibbly magic of Venture Comics, and aligns with Doctor Cosmos and her mystical probe-orb. The bit with Ignition and Fission having romance was mostly just too funny not to include. I think this is the first Venture Comics villain who is actually in a relationship with a hero? Mary Molotov is flirtatious, and the Dauphin made a few passes at Madame Liberty, but neither of those were requited.
If this were my campaign I’d think Infernovox had been shedding sparks and embers again.
Flimsy? How could anyone possibly tell their real identities with that eyewear on?
innocent whistling Are you suggesting this setting is going to have two all-consuming demon forces in it?
One’s probably sufficient, but you never can tell when a spare might come in handy. Maybe there’s a company crossover in the future?
oh man, I really like her 
burning thoughts and emotions? secret love interest for the one of the heroes? excellent work
Randomizers:
Approach: 5, 4, 5 [Options: Underpowered, Bully, Specialized, Overpowered, Adaptive*]*
Archetype: 3, 5, 4 [Options: Bruiser, Guerilla, Indomitable, Formidable, Inhibitor, Loner*]*
Upgrade: 8, 11, 12 [Options: Quality Upgrade II, Power Dampening Field, Brainwashing Zone*]*
Mastery: 12, 11, 10 [Options: Total Chaos, Unfathomable, Malice*]*
Avarice
Real Name: Paxton Powell, First Appearance: Wondrous Adventures #5, Oct 1961
Approach: Bully, Archetype: Loner
Upgrade: Power Dampening Field, Mastery: Total Chaos
Status Dice: No other villains: d10. 1-2 other villains: d8. 3+ other villains: d6. Health: 35+5H (Upgraded 45+5H)
Qualities: Magical Lore d8, Criminal Underworld d8, Energy Vampire d8
Powers: Absorption d10, Cold d8, Vitality d8
Abilities:
Common Scene Elements:
By late 1961, the Wonderer was a well-established hero in Venture Comics, with six solo appearances, a crossover, and six issues with the Champions of Truth under his belt. He had battled a handful of mystical foes and a few criminal masterminds who he brought low with his cunning, and the writer decided to start branching out his story by hinting at a larger world of magic and mystery. They began with Avarice.
Paxton Powell was a successful businessman frustrated by a lack of opportunities and advancement within his community, who made a deal with a mystical being implied to be another djinn like Wonderer, but potentially more powerful. Paxton unwisely wished to “have it all”, and was promptly cursed with the need to absorb energy to survive, slowly draining all of the energy around him. Overcome with rage, he immediately drained the djinn who had granted his wish, swallowing him up and gaining his magical force, if not his precision. Taking on the name Avarice, Paxton decided to seek out revenge on the world for not recognizing his genius, using his newfound powers to wreck havoc and gathering a gang of criminal followers impressed by his might and power. When he came after Kamil’s neighbourhood, the Wonderer got involved, and after a bitter battle Avarice was trapped in a magical pocket realm - one which he soon escaped, his desire for revenge turning against Wonderer specifically.
Avarice was a fairly straightforward foe. His raw ability to absorb energy, leaving the world dark and cold in his wake, left him immune to much of Wonderer’s magic, and he had no goals beyond creating chaos and absorbing power as a form of revenge. He often worked as muscle for another villain, helping them to achieve their goals in exchange for the power to wreak havoc, and he seemed to be unkillable. He was put in jail a few times, but always managed to find a way out when enough power was smuggled to him to break free, and he had more than a few gleeful monologues that made him a fan-favourite villain for Wonderer or the Champions of Truth.
Behind the Scenes
Sometimes it’s nice to be direct.
I haven’t done a lot of “like the hero, but backwards” characters, and I’m continuing the trend here. Paxton is a thematic foil for Wonderer, being the result of a poorly-thought out wish that ended up being a bad call for the djinn, not just the wisher, but hes’ not an opposite. Loner is always a weird one, because if your loner works alone they’re just “person with a d10 status die”. So Avarice usually works with someone else, he just doesn’t work well with them.
Bully gets almost no qualities; I would have given him Close Combat if I had the chance, but he’ll have to use Energy Vampire for it.
This is a homebrew ability, right?
Yeah, that archetype’s thin on dice. Pretty much have to make the RP quality do some heavy lifting, but I suppose that’s what it’s for.
