seeking the seeker

[bubba smith]

one of the champions i've seen most is the ninja hero called the seeker what can you tell me about him? i gather from that he, like spider-man is constantly overmatched but what else is to know about him?

[death tribble]

Seeker is Australian and was only Ninjafied late on. He was a martial artist before.
His popularity depends on who you speak to.
There is a running gag in the 5th edition books about what happened to him.
He was not carried forward into the Champions from 4th edition but neither were most of the team.

[BoloOfEarth]

To add to DT's info, the running gag in 4th edition came from several covers where Seeker was either already KO'd or clearly outmached.

[bubba smith]

hopefully he's semi retired in one piece

[Hermit]

He's on World Gamma

[bubba smith]

He's on World Gamma

world gamma could you explain that please?

[Hermit]

world gamma could you explain that please?

Heh, sorry about that. That's my lame reference to a post I just made about 18 Prime Worlds moments ago before I saw yours

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=65265

I have no shame some days.

[Bloodstone]

As I recall, he's only a comic book character in the current Champions universe...

[Lord Liaden]

Seeker grew up an orphan in the Australian Outback, raised and trained by a survivor of a Japanese ninja recon team left behind after WW II. His mentor told him that he had to seek the Truth or something similar (can't recall the precise details now), so he left the Outback for the wider world, eventually ending up in New York and joining the Champions (Fourth Edition version). Over the years he became one of the world's foremost "super-class" martial artists. He had a light hearted, swashbuckling personality apparently at odds with his training; but then, the character was full of such contradictions and improbabilities, which annoy the Seeker-haters among Champsphiles. To be fair, he was a product of an era when not as many people understood just what a "ninja" was.

In the official Fifth Edition Champions Universe, Seeker is not a real person. However, he was added to the licensed Champions comic book (within the reality of the CU) to replace Nighthawk, who wouldn't sign the necessary contracts for his likeness to be used.

[Hermit]

Oh what the heck, I'll repost this old spoof since it fits
(Mind you, now Nightwind is in, since Nighthawk has his own group)

Based on Men at Work's "Land Down Under", here's my tribute to Seeker
----
Traveling about during the Eighties,
A lone hero looking for mateys
I met a armored guy, he made me chuckle
He let me join, I got a champions buckle
and he said
"You're a Ninja from a land down under?
A show-off with eyes full of wonder
Don't you see, don't you see no resistant defs is a blunder?
You better dodge, you better dive for cover!"
Fighting on every cover,
I prove I'm not as good a figher as I am a lover,
I ask Ripper to let go my spine
He just grinned and answered "Your butt is mine"
And he said
"You're a ninja from a land down under?
That you're still alive is a wonder
Now your ribs I'm going to sunder!
You should have dodged, you should have dived for cover!"
Lying in my usual hospital bed,
Steve Long visited me giving a sense of dread
"I'm sorry but I did my best."
"I thought Watchers of the Dragon would give you success."
And he said
"Too few dig a ninja from a land down under
Your slot on the team is going to another"
This nighthawk scab I plan to kick back to his mother!
He better dodge, he better dive for cover!

[Sketchpad]

In my game, he had a falling out/retired from the Champions and works with UNTIL now as a special agent

[Vondy]

My general impression is that Seeker was unpopular with certain personalities amongst the powers that be (Check out that shot across his bow on the cover of Dark Champions 4e) and was excluded from the champions universe when an official universe came into being. If you look at the introduction to 4th Edition Classic Enemies you'll see there was no official champions universe prior to 5th edition - just disparate enemies books intended to be used ala carte. The 4th edition books weren't really supposed to constitude a "universe" as it were, though many people used them that way - probably due to long experience with disparate and contradictory comic book continuities and a desire to create order where none was intended.

[bubba smith]

very interesting

[Sketchpad]

I thought they attempted to make a universe when they released 4th ed Champions Universe back in '92?

[Lord Liaden]

I thought they attempted to make a universe when they released 4th ed Champions Universe back in '92?

Vondy is correct that most of the material released for Champions up to and including Fourth Edition had no coherent universal concept behind it, although there was occasional cross-referencing, e.g. characters whose origin involved other established characters or background elements (probably because they were from the same author's campaign). 4E Champions Universe tried to draw these disparate elements into a whole, create a superficial timeline of past events, and codify the synergy between the heroes, villains, and groups. It was definitely less detailed and more of a mosaic than the unified 5E CU, but probably no more so than the Marvel and DC universes, which evolved in a not-dissimilar way.

I did notice that after 4E CU was published, subsequent Hero releases seemed to pay more attention to their place in the broader Champions Universe.