I suspect some people brought up the similarities, yeah, but it’s a generic enough background that it wouldn’t surprise me if there were four or five metaverse superheroes that did it too. I’m actually a little surprised there aren’t more of them in Marvel and DC.
Moon Angel doesn’t have the really big Ra-alikes - she doesn’t have a second personality, and her backstory is alien rather than magical. So it’s probably reserved for a few nerds to grumble about.
3 guesses when I put down Thomas Covenant and stopped reading
Which, in turn, is cribbing shamelessly from the Dan Garrett iteration of Blue Beetle and his magical Egyptian scarab. Glass house there, Ra fans.
Probably the exact same point I wish I had. Made it through the first six out of sheer masochism and a desperate hope the main character would be maimed by weasels or something.
In my defense I was eleven years old, had just started playing D&D and was reading every bit of fantasy I could find, and while no one likes to admit it these days, that book was incredibly popular and well-reviewed. Donaldson rode Tolkein’s coat-tails even better than Brooks did, and that’s saying something.
Even as a pre-teen in 1977 I remember thinking that was one hell of way to open a novel, but it certainly did make it easier to hate the lead character forever afterward. Might actually have had some sympathy for him otherwise, but no, he deserves the Gift of the Armadillo and then some.
Heretic
Real Name: Lance Holden, First Appearance: Remnants #1, March 1991
Lieutenant Type: Ally
Die Size: d8
Relation: Close Friend, Approach: Magical
Traits:
The dimensionally-powered entry into the ranks of the Remnants was also a magic-flavoured character, one that was born of a haphazard idea that had been drifting around Morris’s brain for the past five years. Lance Holden had been a member of the Anglican Church, a dignified and compassionate man who toiled in a poor district in Manchester, trying to better the lives of the suffering. One night, Lance was given what he believed was a vision of the Lord, calling on him to dedicate his soul and perform miracles. He accepted, and when he awoke he had the power to heal sickness, call down holy thunder, and castigate sinners in proportion to their sins.
Or so he thought. As his power grew, his congregation began to develop similar miracles, and their competing visions of righteousness started to tear them apart. Lance tried to save them, but in the end all that he could do was avenge them after a group of zealots wiped the others out. It was then that he learned the truth – the vision that he had received was not from God, but from the Scion of Silence, stealing his faith and dedicating his soul to the Sovereign of Secrets. When the Scion fell, Lance was released into a world that believed that he was a murderer who had killed his congregants in cold blood. The Sovereign’s power still flowed through him, ensuring that when he died, his soul would be consigned into that elder being’s embrace.
Believing that he was irrevocably damned, Lance refused to surrender. If his power doomed him, he could at least use it to save others. He began to walk the world, saving lives and fighting injustice, which is how Hardline discovered him. He approached Lance and asked him to come and join the Remnants, to fight alongside them and help them to retain their moral core against the horrors that he knew they would face, and Lance agreed. Taking on the name Heretic, he dedicated himself to the destruction of darkness and the salvation of his allies.
Heretic was a thoughtful man, willing to offer grace to those in search of salvation and righteous devastation against those who sought darkness. His vaguely-defined powers allowed him to channel imitations of godly miracles, and he was a good listener who often sat with the other Remnants and helped them with their struggles. He also had a penchant for self-sacrifice, and several issues of the comics involved him evoking forces for a powerful effect and then collapse, unconscious, as the strain of keeping the power from causing harm overwhelmed him. This became a running gag to readers (and later watchers) of Remnants, who would joke that Heretic should have been called Martyr. After Remnants ended in 1995, the character would occasionally drift from comic to comic, sometimes acting as a supporting character for Penitent or Veilwalker.
Behind the Scenes:
Heretic’s writeup is a bit of a back-port. Since I know that Lance ultimately serves as a ghostly ally to the second Heretic, and that his righteousness sometimes clashes with her desire to save everyone, I wanted to develop a character who was both gracious when grace was called for, but still a product of the Extreme 90s.
And here we are! I like this guy. Hope nothing bad happens to him. Wink 
Alchymia
After working out his four core characters, Morris wanted to round out the team with one more magical hero and one more technological one. However, he didn’t have any strong ideas for who these last two would be. Inspiration came from the Remnants artist, Bob Kavka. Kavka had two goals in mind – he wanted to draw a lot of wild elemental effects in the comic, and he’d grown up fond of the Animaster and his hidden realms. The Animaster had made a few minor appearances in Champions of Truth over the past seven years, but despite the more magical focus of the Champions, his old nations had faded from popularity and rarely appeared. Kavka hoped to restore interest in the Animates and give them a new backstory, and asked Morris about including one of them on the team. Morris was intrigued by the idea, and worked with Kavka and the current writers of Champions of Truth to both flesh out such a character and make sure that they weren’t going to intrude on any planned Animaster storylines.
The result of this was Iesha Weaver, the first of two non-human members of the Remnants. Iesha had grown up as an earth Animate, crafted by the Animaster to serve as a farmer within one of his Underhill realms. After seeing the conditions that he placed her people under, Iesha had become an revolutionary, hoping to fight for freedom for her people. In response, the Animaster used his own magic to unmake the village in an elemental conflagration, sealing it away from his ‘perfect’ society and slaughtering everyone present. Iesha should have died, but as she struggled to save her people, the dying wishes of her family and friends passed into her, sparking their own elements as part of hers and transforming her into a powerful Malform with mastery over every element. Taking on the name Alchymia, Iesha dedicated herself to the salvation of humans and Animates alike, fighting to save Animates from their bondage and find safe places for them to escape the Animaster’s wrath.
Morris and Kavka both found Alchymia’s capabilities fascinating to write and draw, with shifting mastery over the four elements and the ability to blend and separate them, and soon she was one of the more popular members of the team, with a cautious relationship growing with Nightguard and a mentor-student relationship with Heretic anchoring her to her new human friends. Alchymia also served to revitalize Animaster and bring him back to prominence against both the Remnants and the Champions of Truth – his murderous mastery over the elements and iron grip over his nation made him a cruel and powerful threat. In many ways, Animaster took over the story roles the Jotari had served in previous decades, using Animate servants to undermine democratic nations as he came into conflict with the heroes of Earth, while at the same time those heroes worked to free his slave-citizens from the threat of deadly retribution.
Because of her connections to other titles, Alchymia was the member of the team most often seen elsewhere while Remnants was running, making consistent appearances in Champions of Truth and Into the Green. Following the end of her own team’s comic, Alchymia would become a recurring supporting cast member for the Champions of Truth, setting up a relationship with Reverie that would carry forward into future decades.
Behind the Scenes
Heavily updated Alchymia time! This doesn’t actually add much that I haven’t mentioned to her, but it creates some extra background for Animaster. He seems like he would have made a lot of sense as a Champions villain, but I haven’t mentioned him so I’m assuming that he was viewed as a bit too goofy and didn’t make a lot of big appearances from 1985 to 1991. Maybe the writer just wasn’t that fond of him, who knows. But then he comes back in a big way, with a dark makeover that brings him up to standards.
Wildstyle (Revised Writeup)
Needing to round out the Remnants, Morris knew that he wanted another technology-driven hero. On a whim, he put together an idea half as a joke and pitched it to the rest of the team, and accidentally created the most enduring members of the Remnants, and the one who was ultimately most responsible for their success.
WD-731 was a highly advanced prototype combat android deployed by AEGIS during the Peacekeeper invasion. The androids were not combat-ready; they had barely been tested. But it was a global emergency and all resources were needed at once. Dozens of WD-series robots were deployed in eight major engagement zones, to slow the Peacekeeper advance and buy time for a solution to be found.
One of those androids had been showing odd glitches in its matrix as development was underway, but the scientists behind the project hadn’t had time to debug it. During deployment to a city under attack it hesitated, its attention drawn by the city streets on which the battle was taking place. It looked at a wall of colourful graffiti, and for 1.27 seconds, it found itself calculating the angles of the symbols, the shading and intensity, all of the factors that added up to something greater than a mere collection of lines and colours and which didn’t have a place in its memory banks. That short pause took WD-731 just far enough of out of formation that when the rest of its squad was promptly obliterated by a Peacekeeper bombardment, having accomplished nothing of value, it was spared. On the edge of the blast, WD-731 was thrown free and badly damaged, and its transponder was knocked offline. AEGIS assumed it had been destroyed with the rest of its fellows.
The robot was part of the arsenal that was recovered by Hardline during and after the battle; he wasn’t entirely clear who had built the thing, but thought that it might be useful as a supporting combatant for the team he was putting together. He activated the robot early in Remnants #1, intending to run through a simple diagnostic routine to determine its loyalty modules and any residual damage, and was immediately barraged with questions about artistic composition and style. Bemused, but unwilling to erase what seemed to be a developing personality, Hardline shifted tactics and answered its questions, and soon the Remnants were joined by a robot that wanted, above all else, to protect the beauty of ephemeral human art.
Wildstyle was a roller-blading, spray-paint wielding, freestyle graffiti artist in a combat robot’s chassis. It was quick to act and quick to ask questions, often getting in trouble and always curious, like a child armed with a proton nuclear core. And despite Morris creating it mostly as a joke, it was incredibly popular. When the Remnants were adapted into a cartoon, Wildstyle took on the role of ‘teen viewpoint character’, allowing the team to launch without any actual children but to market themselves as child-friendly. The success of the series made Wildstyle the highest-selling merchandise for Venture Comics in 1992, surpassing long-time stalwarts Skybreaker and Madame Liberty.
When Remnants ended at issue #48 in the middle of the comics speculation bubble collapse, most of its heroes were moved into minor supporting roles elsewhere. But Wildstyle easily survived the end of its team, moving immediately to Rogue Agents and joining Matrixx and Kynetic in their struggle against the fallout from the defeat of Guardian Industries. Of the Remnants, it was the only one to remain a headline character without a pause.
Behind the Scenes
Wildstyle has the least amount of adjustment to its original writeup; mostly shifts to account for the removal of Razorline and some minor shifts to account for the movement of other team members to various places. I’m mainly including it for completeness. Tomorrow, back to the new!
Hemophage
Real Name: Natalie Guynn, First Appearance: Knightgrave #74, September 1991
Lieutenant Type: Enemy
Die Size: d8
Motive: Conquest, Approach: Magical
Traits:
Among the many dangerous foes that Knightgrave faced, one of the least powerful but most persistently annoying was his ancient enemy, Merlin. When the Sovereign was sealed away, Merlin’s power was lost and all of his bad deals came back to haunt him. He came to Knightgrave looking for sanctuary in Knightgrave #25, and ended up spending two years crashing on his old nemesis’s couch and offering mystical advice while Knightgrave used him as bait to lure various dangerous demons out of hiding and destroy them. Of course, as soon as the last of the demons hunting him were destroyed, the double-length issue Knightgrave #50 saw Merlin attempt to use the energy of those demons to revive his magic. He failed, and was promptly thrown in prison.
But you can’t keep an old trickster down, and Merlin was soon up to his old schemes, seeking to revive his magic by drawing on ancient pledges made with various bloodlines. One of these pledges was Natalie Guynn, an office worker who happened to be the last living descendent of one of King Arthur’s vassals. Merlin called Natalie from jail, offering her immense power in exchange for breaking him out. Natalie called Merlin an old crazy loon and hung up on him.
In doing so, she broke her family oath, and the Curse of Blood was laid upon her. Her skin was flayed clean from the inside and her blood awakened to a terrible hunger, killing everyone in her office. Natalie instantly made the connection, and stormed the prison in which Merlin was held, breaking him out and demanding that he fix her. Caught off-guard by the power of the curse he’d unleashed, Merlin regretfully told her that undoing it was impossible – but with enough power she could control it and choose when it emerged. He offered his services to guide her.
Natalie had a better idea. She stabbed Merlin in the heart, stealing his blood to stabilize herself, and went looking for better mages to help her. Merlin was once again forced to turn to his old enemy to save him, and Knightgrave was able to track down Hemophage and cut her down, saving Merlin in the process. But while he thought he had killed her, the Curse of Blood made her nigh-immortal. It wasn’t long before a brawl near where she had died resulted in a splash of blood across the ground, and she began to reconstitute herself, draining victims dry to regrow. From there, she became a persistent threat to Knightgrave, working with demon lords and dark fae to keep her powers in check. She could extend lashes of blood from beneath her bandages, draining enemies dry or shielding herself from harm, and her aggression frequently overwhelmed her, turning her into a berserk monster that had to be stopped.
Behind the Scenes:
Whee!
This one is another twofer. First, I get to put a little bit more of Merlin’s storylines into the book prior to his eventual appearance in the Diamond Age, and give a bit of a “how Merlin stories tend to go” insight. They go badly. For Merlin. Secondly, I get one more super-aggressive Iron Age killer, who isn’t necessarily that dangerous in the grand scheme but definitely leaves a body count whenever she appears. We’re going to be moving into the late 90s soon, and our villains will start getting less extreme, so I’ve got to get 'em while I can!
Ah, Merlin, never stop being a schmuck, you couch-surfing freeloader.
“They go badly for Merlin” is great 
Must’ve left the first draft name in one spot. I like Hemophage better because it conjurs hemophilia.
Good catch.
Oops, yeah. She was Hemovore in the first draft, and then I hit on Hemophage and changed it. Thanks for the catch!
Synseeker
Real Name: Garlach Realmwalker**, First Appearance:** Into the Green #358, April 1992
Lieutenant Type: Enemy
Die Size: d8
Motive: Obedience, Approach: Otherworldly
Traits:
In the early 1990s, Greenheart’s ancient enemy Coven returned to prominence, leading to several major storylines in which she wielded increasingly horrifying arcane rites against the hero of the Green. Coven was still determined to claim the Green for herself, ascending to godhood as queen of the natural world, and was willing to use any means to accomplish her ends.
In 1992, Coven embarked on a new plan, to simply have the Green swallowed by a nightmare Realm over which she had influence. She believed that within that realm, Greenheart’s power would be broken, and she could sweep up the pieces for herself. To that end, she searched for an abyssal demon of moderate power, one who had a gift for breaking open portals between realms. She summoned this creature to her side, demanding his service and binding him with her dark power, and thus Synseeker entered the world.
Synseeker was not precisely what anyone had expected. Sarcastic, lugubrious, and prone to endless complaints about his working conditions, the unpleasantness of being punched through buildings on a regular basis, and the likelihood of Coven’s plans succeeding, he nonetheless followed the constraints of his bindings without attempts to subvert them. He entered Grovedale, using his powers to tear open portals to his abyssal realm – each time, his body was pulled apart and transformed into the magical structures of the gate, and his spirit returned home, to be summoned by Coven once again. As the portals weakened the fabric of reality and Synseeker was re-summoned again and again, Greenheart found herself chasing him around the city, desperately trying to close the portals faster than they could be opened.
In the end, of course, she succeeded, and Synseeker was banished. But Coven found his powers useful, and summoned him to her side again. With a sigh and a demand for more romance literature, which he considered to be the only positive product of this besunned realm, Synseeker became Coven’s reluctantly reliable right hand, the only being willing to tell her to her face when her plans were destined to fail while still being compelled to follow through on them. He became something of a sounding board and loyal opposition to the ancient witch, and she would come to admit that she was rather fond of him.
Not fond enough to release him from servitude, of course. But when Greenheart once tried to save him from his bindings, he simply shrugged. There were cruel masters aplenty in his realm. At least with this one, he got reading breaks, and it was entertaining to see how the latest plan would fail.
Behind the Scenes:
There was a huge Greenheart gap in my notes, and now it has been somewhat filled. Her Iron Age story launches with the Consul, and then she has to go to Japan and have some slightly awkward adventures there, but I didn’t really know what happens to her between about 1989 and the end of her solo comic in 1995.
Which seemed like a good time to give Coven a bit of a buff-up, and create a new semi-obedient demonic being. I’m going to be honest, the thing that pulled all this together was the tiny glasses. I love those tiny glasses.
Synseeker is an “extreme” demon, pulling himself apart to create shadow gates and then coming back to life, but he’s also kind of making fun of the whole concept at the same time. I suspect that’s what lets him survive the collapse that is coming up; he doesn’t have enough time to really establish himself within the realm of the extreme, but we’re getting close to the point where people start making fun of it and he’s perfectly suited for that.
[quote=“FrivYeti, post:1256, topic:30349”]
…and then she has to go to Japan and have some slightly awkward adventures there…[/OOC]
It was the 80s. Clearly a ninja training arc.
Lot of room for variation in his portal assemblies, too. Sometimes its all messy blood splatter, agonized screaming and spreading ribs, other times its just “SPLIT!” and copying this buffoon.
“And they mocked me for having d12 in Part Detachment!”
Have some electrons, friend!
