The History of Venture Comics!

Games Sentinel Comics RPG
1628

He certainly does sound good as a pitch, can’t argue that. One more promising thing ruined by COVID.

You have no idea how long I waffled about taking that one for Phade back when we were in the online game together. Finally went with something else, but the temptation to hand out a decent bonus early on while also softening up a minion (and maybe even getting a fluke KO) was pretty big. Only the risk of seeing nothing smaller than a lieutenant among the foes ultimately deterred me.

Deliberate alteration or a typo there? The book version hands out a Mid die bonus to both parties - assuming your target survived, of course.

I think he’s fine as-is, but Raise the Roof does give him a strong Attack already, even if it is a little two-edged when hitting a target that can actually benefit from the bonus. Maybe split the difference - leave him at 6/8/10 base status, then drop Bring Down the house and bump his Red status to d12? Then he’s really someone who pulls it together when things get tough - and you get a little more Health to boot.

The really important question, though: Is Street Rat’s nemesis Gun Rat? Sentinel Comics refuses to use the character, Venture might as well give him a home. :slight_smile:

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1629

As I believe I’ve said before, Gun Rat is an Artifact Comics character.

1630

Demonic secretary; cool. Wonder who makes a better assistant: her or Aminia Twain.

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1631

And Tempest and Bunker are DC characters, and— oh heck I’ll just quote myself:

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1632

I feel like that question answers itself in Freedom Five comics circa 2006…

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1633

Hey, Sentinel Comics doesnt have any characters named El Muerto!

Funny that Harvey Comics managed to get in there with Stuntman.

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1634

Eh, I was more thinking of just Universe 1 Aminia; I consider her alternate self whose mind became Miss Information to be a separate entity.

I compiled that list years ago, of course, but I think that some of the other names were also used by some smaller companies than Marvel and DC, but I didn’t bother to list them most of the time to keep the list from getting too unwieldy. I think I just included Harvey’s Stuntman ‘cause that had been the only publisher to use that name.

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1635

I remain disappointed that there’s only one Chairman in published comics, and that he is not, in fact, one bit like Chairface Chippendale (obviously the only true chair-man out there to date).

Also sad that AFAIK not one of the various published Ra characters have had to face off against a villain called Ra Ra Rasputin, who would obviously be a Russian-themed cheerleader with the physique of one of those chemically-enhanced athletes the Eastern bloc used to send to the Olympics when the USSR was still a going concern. She could hang around with Mecha-Stalin and Marxman in Sentinels.

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1636

Now I am picturing Ms. Agathion helping Suzie Suzuki manage Snowfall Security

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1637

Whoops, typo! I’ll fix that.

Now that would be a cool pairing. It might even be something that could happen without Ms. Agathion leaving D-List status; acting as the support to a support can give you a stable but very, very small place in comics. Maybe I’ll figure out where to slide them in as a pair!

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1638

in theory 1/2H lieutenants are a scene element, so I am often picturing how 2-3 0f them would be working together

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1639

I’ve done mostly-lieutenant opposition scenes in the past, usually for even numbers of PCs to avoid rounding effects. IIRC at least twice it was a situation where multiple “middle-management” types within a conspiracy (DOOM and SIN respectively) were jockeying for a promotion to the upper tiers, and another was a bunch of D-List ex-villains forming a team to make a comeback (which did not go well for them). I’m sure there’s lots of other ways to go long on lieutenants, a skew that poses a quite different kind of challenge for heroes.

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1640

I use LT only for my “supervillain private girls’ school” organization
I also tried a 5 villains v 5 heroes’ slugfest. The schoolgirls had to save the heroes and trade them and the 1st gen clones that had beaten the heroes to the government agents for the girls who had been arrested earlier.

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1641

Yeah, I’m a big fan of using two scene elements to toss (H) lieutenants into a scene, making a crew of minor villains that are complex enough to be interesting but not require the level of book-keeping that major villains do. I’m particularly fond of villain teams being “one mechanical villain who’s the focus for this issue plus (H) lieutenants who have been villains in past issues.”

Burnout

Burnout
Burnout397×575 264 KB

Real Name: Violet Biers, First Appearance: Vanguard Academy #1, March 2019
Background: Academic, Power Source: Radiation, Archetype: Robot/Cyborg
Personality: Inquisitive, Principles: Science, Undead

Status Dice: Green d6, Yellow d8, Red d12. Health: 36 [Green 36-28, Yellow 27-14, Red 13-1]
Qualities: Investigation d12, Science d8, Self-Control d6, Brimming With Power d8
Powers: Nuclear d10, Deduction d10, Power Suit d10, Flight d8, Vitality d6, Density Control d6

Green Abilities:

  • Gather Energy [A]: Boost yourself using Power Suit, and Defend with your Min die.
  • Gather Information [A]: Boost yourself using Deduction. That bonus is persistent and exclusive.
  • Flare [R]: When a new target enters the scene close to you, you may Attack it by rolling your single Nuclear die.
  • Principle of the Undead [A]: Overcome a situation where your undead nature comes in handy and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
  • Principle of Science [A]: Overcome while applying specific scientific principles. Use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.

Yellow Abilities:

  • Radiation Blast [A]: Attack using Nuclear. Hinder that target using your Max die.
  • Let Loose [A]: Attack using Nuclear. Use your Mid die to Attack one extra target for each bonus you have. Apply a different bonus to each Attack.
  • Overload [R]: After rolling during your turn, you may take 1 irreducible damage to reroll your entire pool.

Red Abilities

  • Nuclear Option [A]: Attack using Nuclear and 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.
  • The Big Reveal [A]: Overcome using Investigation. Use your Max+Min dice. Hinder all nearby opponents with your Mid die.

Out

  • Choose an ally. Until your next turn, that ally may reroll one of their dice by using a Reaction.

Leif Martin’s original set of eight students to act as the leads of Vanguard Academy were loosely based on college archetypes, and the first twelve issues paired them off with each pair getting two issues as leads, plus a few group issues tying them together. Jackie Frost was the popular girl, Critter was the jock. Gacha was a delinquent and Big Rig was the poor kid labeled as a troublemaker. Wolfheart was old money and Silver Sparrow was an activist. And of the final pair, Spotlight was a theatre kid and the ironically-named Burnout was the nerd.

Violet Biers had always been a genius. She excelled in every subject, skipped a grade in elementary school and another one in high school, and while she was a little bit awkward when it came to interpersonal things, she got by with kindness and listening and inserted herself into a few circles of friends. She also fancied herself a bit of a teen detective, and spent her free time investigating minor crimes and solving problems around her town.

Things went wrong when Violet accidentally stumbled on a full-on supervillain plot. A would-be mad scientist had constructed a backyard nuclear reactor to harvest dimensional isotopes, and when Violet discovered him he detonated it rather than be arrested. The explosion killed both the scientist and Violet and irradiated a chunk of her hometown. But Violet, to her shock, didn’t stay dead. Dimensional radiation continued to animate her corpse, giving her time to call for help.

The Vanguards found her, and using technology originally developed to help their friend Half-Life they were able to cybernetically integrate a containment suit into the girl, rerouting the radiation she would otherwise give off to sustain her existence. Violet was told that her body would likely continue to exist until the radiation faded, which was probably on the order of forty to sixty years. They suggested that she enroll at the newly-created Vanguard Academy to learn to use her powers. Violet didn’t really want to. She had her own dreams. But her other college applications were denied for ‘safety reasons’, and while most of her friends didn’t specifically blame her for what had happened, they were all being forced to evacuate to nearby towns, and her undead appearance was a reminder of their loss. Alone, frustrated, and exhausted, she sarcastically took on the moniker of ‘Burnout’ and half-heartedly joined the academy.

At Vanguard Academy, Burnout was primarily paired up with Spotlight, a young man whose Atlantean genes allowed him to absorb and project energy and who was instantly convinced that he needed to reach out to the bitter young woman. They had a rocky relationship, but one that was starting to grow after their focus issues. But when Martin retooled Vanguard Academy to focus on Jackie Frost and Critter starting with Issue #13, Burnout was quickly reduced to supporting status. She would continue to appear in most issues, but she never had another focus story devoted to her, and mostly served as a source of information for the pair or a sarcastic voice in the classroom. When Vanguard Academy ended in 2021, she mostly vanished from the pages of Venture Comics. She re-appeared for a single issue of World of Wonders in 2022, a story about her internship with Hardline in Santa Juantina, and then returned along with most of the Vanguard Academy alumni during the six-issue “Blightmare” crossover between Covert Tactics and Vanguards in 2023, as Dr. Deimos and SCOURGE attempted to use the old dimensional fissures in Santa Juanita to launch a devastating attack on the Jotari homeworld. During that storyline, Spotlight was murdered by Dr. Deimos, and Burnout was devastated, making Jackie Frost and Critter promise that they would tell their friends how much they mattered while they still could.

Behind the Scenes

Tragic backstory!

One of my goals with the Diamond Age heroes is to give them just enough backstory to know their deal, but to make them useable as player characters who aren’t too heavily tied in to the setting. “Former Vanguard Academy” seemed like a good slot for that, and it let me toss in the names of the other previously-unmentioned student characters who probably won’t get writeups. So Burnout has a college backstory, and a single major storyline where she met a few other main heroes, and now you can do what you like with her.

She did end up looking a bit like a Fallout character, but that’s not a drawback in my books!

There is a Gen13 character also called Burnout, but I don’t care, it’s different enough.

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1642

Yes, that’s a good technique for scene design. Add an environment or a standing challenge and you’ve got four elements, and with a five-player group or some allies to balance things you can include both.

He’s pretty much a Human Torch knockoff with some mild psionics at times, so no real similarity. I like your Burnout better anyway. Way more versatile, and her die pools and Health are quite impressive.

Go figure, me liking a radioactive character, what a surprise.

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1643

Rootwork

Rootwork
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Real Name: Held as collateral, First Appearance: Champions of Truth #590, July 2020
Approach: Dampening, Archetype: Squad
Upgrade: Defense Shield, Mastery: Mysticism

Status Dice: No other villains d6, 1-2 other villains d8, 3+ other villains d10. Health: 30+5H
Qualities: Magical Lore d10, Stealth d8, Close Combat d8, Botanical Nightmare d8
Powers: Plants d10, Intuition d8, Vitality d8

Abilities:

  • Carnivorous Plants [A]: Hinder using Plants and use your Max die; that penalty is persistent and exclusive. As long as that penalty is on the target, reduce their highest power die of your choice by one die size. Attack using your Mid die.
  • Grasping Vines [A]: Hinder multiple targets using Plants. While a hero has this penalty, reduce all their power dice by one size.
  • Rustling Leaves [A]: Boost using Stealth. Boost another target using your Max die, and use your Min die to Defend against all Attacks against you until your next turn.
  • Bark Shield [R]: When another villain is Attacked, Defend against the Attack by rolling your single status die. Boost yourself using the amount of damage reduced.
  • (U) Buried Threat [ I ]: You cannot be damaged by anyone except yourself until your root layer is destroyed. Your roots have 40 Health, or can be deactivated with three Overcome successes. If a hero takes a minor twist working on the shield, you can make an Attack as a reaction by rolling your single Vitality die.
  • (U) Grow Roots [A]: Overcome using Plants. Use your Max die. On a success, remove one success from the deactivating challenge. Alternatively, instead of an Overcome, use the Max die to Recover that much of your roots’ Health. This ability cannot be used if your roots have been completely removed.
  • (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 Masters: One to three fae villains that Rootwork is supporting, usually including a bruiser and potentially including a manipulative sort.
  • An overgrown city: Plants are growing through buildings, an evacuation is in progress, and the city’s streets are in danger of being choked through.

Very few Venture Comics were fortunate enough to have their storylines uninterrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and Champions of Truth was affected particularly badly. The title was in the middle of what had been intended to be a six-part storyline focused on Reverie and Greenheart that would introduce a major new fae opponent when the lockdowns hit, and things were made much worse when the title’s artist, Sophie Bernier, contracted the disease in April 2020 and spent six weeks in a serious condition. While she survived, she needed a few months to recover and the designs for the character she and Ivan Hanna had been working on were far from done. Hanna hastily retooled both the character and the storyline, and Handman pulled in a young guest artist, Franklin Chow, who had mostly worked as a guest artist aside from a couple of moderately well-received issues of Hidden Champions in 2018.

The result was Rootwork. The previous issue of Champions of Truth had ended with Grovedale being overwhelmed by thorn-covered roots, growing up around city blocks and trapped the population as the Champions attempted to stop them. The original plan had been to develop a fairy tale-based fae who was secretly responsible, but given the tight timelines and the vagueness of their designs, Hanna went with a less complex direction. He and Chow instead created a young human druid, a former acolyte of Coven who had struck out on her own and immediately gotten in over her head in debt to a minor fae supervillain that Remedy had faced in the past. He took her name as payment, demanding seven great labours from her before he would return it, and the first of these was to attack Grovedale along with Robin Redcap, a couple of other fae villains, and quite a few minor threats.

As a conclusion to the storyline, it wasn’t particularly inspired. Hanna was exhausted and worried about his friend, Chow was determined but inexperienced, and the rest of Venture was busy putting out fires and didn’t have much space to spare. But under the circumstances, the result was better than many fans had feared it would be, and to be honest people were ready to read almost anything. Reverie had a confrontation with her enemy, Greenheart separated Rootwork from her allies and roundly defeated her, Robin Redcap had some gloriously creepy sequences facing off against Hyperstar that were generally agreed to be some of the best writing of the year, and the whole thing ended up being a modest success.

The Rootwork Incident helped Chow to get a reputation as a hard worker in the industry who would step in during an emergency and give everything he had, and when a spot opened up on Veilwalkers in 2021 he was given the chance to draw the series’ last ten issues, moving to Twilight Carnival afterwards. But Rootwork herself wasn’t quite so lucky. She’d been slapped together a bit hastily, and didn’t have much of a motivation beyond being the McGuffin of the storyline, a dangerous force that had to be slapped down. In theory, she was still bound to the fae, and she would appear occasionally when someone remembered her and needed a dangerous force that could be brought down if she could be isolated, but she never got further character development and remained more of a trivia piece than an enduring legacy.

Behind the Scenes

Covid was one of those things I originally had listed on my “glad I’m ending in 2019 and don’t have to deal with this” card, and then I decided to extend the timeline all the way to 2028 eventually and suddenly yes I did. I really didn’t want to trivialize something that has had such a huge ongoing impact, but I also don’t want Venture to get too tragic.

So I’m riding the line here. Champions of Truth gets interrupted for three months, and then has to do a shortened version of the storyline they were planning because there’s too much else in the pipeline. An establish artist gets to recover, a new artist gets a break, and an intriguing idea doesn’t really go anywhere and just becomes muscle that can be drawn in as needed.

I’ve also discovered that I need to find the time to fix my spreadsheet. When I adjusted the Diamond Age, I was not nearly careful enough with the timeline, and it’s a grotesque mix of current and outdated dates and notes. That’s going to be fun to untangle later.

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1644

I’m flat-out amazed you created a fey-connected villain named “Rootwork” and then didn’t have a single word about the Tooth Fairy, root canals, or anything at all related to dentistry. It just doesn’t seem like you somehow. Are you feeling well?

Also I did not know until today that some plants do, in fact, grow spines on their roots. They largely appear to be for soil aeration rather than deterring hungry animals, but a spine’s a spine. So yay, I got to learn something new today.

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1645

“By root and spine!” has a cool vibe similar to “By oak, ash, and thorn!”

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1646

Oh, wow, I did not even think of that. Maybe there’s a space for someone else to play on that pun with a reworked Rootwork down the road. Creepy thorn teeth?

While I consider it, this week kicks off a series of failed Diamond Age timeskips, many of whom will appear further in the age in different forms. We’re going to start off with…

Gold Guardian

Gold Guardian II
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Real Name: Ernest Newton, First Appearance: (Uncle) Stutter #17, October 2020

Lieutenant Type: Ally
Die Size: d10
Relation: Family Member, Approach: Physical

Traits:

  • Leap Into Action: Gold Guardian has +1 to Boost and Defend actions and to his damage saves.
  • Leap To Conclusions: Gold Guardian has -2 to Overcome actions.

As Stutter approached its midway point, Salma Bashar began to make contact with the broader superhero community. Most of them couldn’t particularly help her with her problems; her unique temporal nature left her in an awkward place, and many of her more dangerous battles were taking place outside of the dimensions that other heroes operated in. Realizing how alone she was, Stutter doubled down, isolating herself from her family and friends and throwing herself into her work. Salma’s mother knew that something was wrong, and suspected that her daughter might have inherited her Atlantean genes. Her old mentor Paradox was temporarily out of contact (ironically, and unknown to Yazmin, because of the impact of Stutter and Timekiller) so Yazmin brought in her brother-in-law instead.

And that was how the Gold Guardian became mixed up in Stutter’s life. He’d joined Rush on a minor superhero team in the early 2000s, and had hit it off with her sister, marrying her a few years earlier. He promised Yazmin that if Salma was getting involved in heroics, he would keep her safe and get her to open up.

It didn’t go great.

In their civilian lives, Salma only knew Ernest as her friendly but kind of goofy uncle, who always did his best to take part in the family’s cultural events and was always a little bit awkward and had no idea how to talk to kids. When he and Salma’s Aunt Farah moved back to Ferristown for a ‘little while’ and he started trying to connect with her, she immediately clocked that he thought she was in trouble, and started ducking his calls. At the same time, the Gold Guardian started showing up as Stutter was engaged in temporal situations, trying to step in to protect the young hero from her foes. The first time that he appeared he was almost decapitated by Stillmaker as time froze around him, and never realized that Stutter had saved his life; instead, he was convinced that he had saved her. Stutter started trying to avoid him too, terrified that the charismatic hero would die and it would all be her fault.

In the end, although his first few issues were entertaining, Gold Guardian never quite managed to mesh with the darker tone of Stutter. When Salma’s family finally learned the truth about her in Stutter #25, and Paradox formally stepped in to train her younger self, there wasn’t much room for the bombastic and slightly foolish Ernest. He and Farah returned to Neulyon, trusting that Stutter was in good hands. The next writer to pick him up decided to play up the “would-be mentor” angle, but removed his brief “overprotective uncle” aspect mainly sidelined his marriage, getting him back closer to his roots while trading a series of romantic failures for a series of mentorship ones.

Behind the Scenes:

Look who’s back!

The Gold Guardian had to make it through the timeskip, he’s too goofy not to. And I wanted to introduce some kind of existing support variant to Stutter who would not fit with the comic’s tone, and then I rolled up “Family Member” and had a sudden image of Gold Guardian spinning around a chair and sitting backwards on it as he tried to connect to a moody teen, and here we are!

This one was almost funny enough to get pushed out of Deep Cuts and into somewhere where it would, in fact, last forever, but I think it really doesn’t fit with the horror comic aspects of Stutter. I can see how someone thought it would, and the few issues he’s in probably actually work pretty well - this golden image of the superhero that Stutter wants to be, reminding her that she’s trapped in this horrible situation instead. But that’s not sustainable, so off he goes. He’s still her uncle, so when she graduates from Stutter and moves to Covert Tactics he probably re-appears in his retooled form as a more reliable minor support.

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1647

Love it. I liked Gold Guardian as a hapless goof, so it’s nice to see him return in the modern day.

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