Australian supervillain origins - a brainstorm

[assault]

I'm terrible at writing supervillain origins. So, I'm asking for help.

 

I'm going to throw out some ideas for characters. If anyone has any ideas for fleshing them out, please chime in. Note that these are only suggestions. Alternative ideas are welcome.

 

To start with:

 

The Swan (aka Black Swan). Probably based in Western Australia (Perth). Has luck/probability powers. Origin: mutant, science accident, magic? Possible inspirations: Scarlet Witch, Longshot, Black Cat. Visual inspiration. Black Swan Theory. I tend to go a bit overboard with romantic thief types, so it might be better to avoid that.

 

Black Opal. Based in South Australia or New South Wales? (Adelaide, Coober Pedy (site of origin), or Sydney, Lightning Ridge (origin site)?) Powers: Green Lantern homage, light powers or emotion control? Possible inspirations: Star Sapphire, Halo, Rainbow Raider, Moonstone. Visual inspiration. Could be a romantic nemesis (but see previous character), obsessed gem thief, or manipulative bully (emotion controller). Or something else, of course.

 

Cyclone. Weather controller - winds, rain etc. Highly mobile. Origin somewhere in northern Australia. Real name: Tracy Storm. (There have been more recent memorable cyclones, but this is the one stuck in my head). Possible inspirations: Storm, Weather Wizard, Mr Twister(!).

[freakboy6117]

Tracy storm was the sunny bubbly morning weather girl on Sydney's top rated morning news show.

 

Tracy was actually an extremely accomplished meterologist but pressure to up ratings had the shows producers forcing her to dumb down and sex up her reports.

 

Fed up with having to down play her brains in favour of her other assets Tracy was considering quitting and going back into academia when a puff piece on a reported rain of frogs took a even stranger turn.

 

Tracy found her self in the middle of a freak storm created by some sort of dimensional anomaly she was sucked into the vortex live on camera horrified viewers watched as she was struck multiple times by strangly coloured bolts of lightning. Everyone thought she was dead. But the storm had changed her and given her tremendous power. Tracy became cyclone and started a one woman crusade against climate change targeting Australia's worst polluters and holding whole cities hostage in an attempt to force the government to change environmental policy.

[The Arc]

I created a Black Swan, but she's a super-hero batman type.

 

http://www.uber-world.com/characterpage.php?cid=999

[wcw43921]

I had a concept for a vampire who named himself Black Swan.  Vampires are relatively scarce in Australia, or so I understand--perhaps he emigrated from Europe to take advantage of the lack of competition.

 

Don't know if that's what you're looking for, but maybe you can find a use for the concept.

[assault]

Any ideas are good.

 

My main goal is to try and fill out some of my underdeveloped character concepts that have never quite gelled. Which is pretty much all of them.

[assault]

Some kind of boring stereotypical ones:

 

Flying Fox. Flying Foxes are a common sight over many Australian cities and towns. (I note that they are considered a kind of "megabat", which is alarming.) This character is probably female, for "Fox Force Five" reasons.

 

Somebody who uses boomerangs. There was a nice boomerang writeup in 5e Gadgets and Gear, although I'd personally be just as inclined to do something simpler. Supposedly there was a character named "Boomerang" in 4e Challenges for Champions(?), but I don't have that book.

 

A Kangaroo guy, or something similarly inane. The fight between Captain America and Batroc in Winter Soldier suggests that this wouldn't necessarily visually suck.

 

The Prodigious. A homage to the Mad Max films.

[assault]

Slightly more interesting: the bushrangers.

 

Back in the day, some real world bushrangers took on supervillain-esque pseudonyms. The following people actually existed.

 

Captain Thunderbolt

Captain Midnight

Captain Moonlight/Moonlite

Captain Starlight (sometimes confused with a fictional (public domain) character, but there was a real one)

 

Some others.

 

Although that is a lot of Captains, they could all coexist if that is dropped, or it could be rationalised somehow. Perhaps they are members of an underground "supervillain army". (They might be gang leaders, hence officers.) They could be members of an invasion force. Or as I said, just drop the Captain part.

 

Origins could vary, although...

 

Ned Kelly and his gang members famously wore body armour in their last shootout. It didn't do them much good. Maybe our gang of Captains all derive their powers from armour invented by someone else.

 

They would tend to operate separately, but could team up if required, and they wouldn't be cookie cutter characters.

 

So who made the armour?

[assault]

The previous post reminded me of one of the issues I've been struggling with. The masterminds.

 

Who are the big bads? I don't just mean people who are tough, but the ones with big plans, and the resources to achieve them. This has been one of my big fails.

 

Oh, another possible character concept. There are a couple of politicians in Australia who are grand-nephews of a convicted Nazi war criminal. And Hugo Weaving played the Red Skull in a movie.

 

Yes, there can be an Australian descendant of a Nazi supervillain.

[assault]

Obviously my last post answers my question in the one before it. The "Captains" are a trial run for General/Baron Whoever's army of "heroic Australian patriots".

 

But I still don't know much about General/Baron Whoever, and his infamous ancestor.

[The Arc]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Sydney_terrorism_plot

[The Arc]

The previous post reminded me of one of the issues I've been struggling with. The masterminds.

 

Who are the big bads? I don't just mean people who are tough, but the ones with big plans, and the resources to achieve them. This has been one of my big fails.

 

Oh, another possible character concept. There are a couple of politicians in Australia who are grand-nephews of a convicted Nazi war criminal. And Hugo Weaving played the Red Skull in a movie.

 

Yes, there can be an Australian descendant of a Nazi supervillain.

 

 

The previous post reminded me of one of the issues I've been struggling with. The masterminds.

 

Who are the big bads? I don't just mean people who are tough, but the ones with big plans, and the resources to achieve them. This has been one of my big fails.

 

Oh, another possible character concept. There are a couple of politicians in Australia who are grand-nephews of a convicted Nazi war criminal. And Hugo Weaving played the Red Skull in a movie.

 

Yes, there can be an Australian descendant of a Nazi supervillain.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dpefG50G04

[Lord Liaden]

Hmm... how about this: Baron Schatten ("shadow") was a prominent member of the Thule Society, the occult group which sponsored the rising Nazi Party. During World War II the Society provided the German government with magic talismans through which to create superhuman operatives for the war effort. When the tide of war turned against Germany, Baron Schatten secretly relocated his family to Australia, then attempted to escape Germany and follow them, bringing along the Thule Society's trove of artifacts which he had stolen. But the aircraft the Baron was trying to enter Australia on was identified and shot down. Baron Schatten was killed, but the artifacts were lost.

 

Baron Schatten's grandson discovered journals and occult tomes belonging to his grandfather which his family had preserved, and used that magic lore to accumulate financial and political power. But his divinations have determined the artifacts the Baron had been carrying survived, although they've been scattered across Australia. Some have fallen into the hands of people who act as heroes or villains in Australia today. The new Baron Schatten is determined to gather those artifacts so as to accumulate far greater power.

 

This gives you both potential origins for characters, and a master villain with a plan which would bring him into conflict with any of them.

[The Arc]

In the Uberworld universe the big Australian super-villain is Professor Cane Toad....

 

http://www.uber-world.com/characterpage.php?cid=1002

[Opale]

I could see an Aborigene shaman villain, been like an eco-activit or terrorist, with big powers on Nature and the Dream Time

Kind of major threat on mystic world for instance

 

And you have tons of very dangerous animals in Australia, so why not imagine villains as experimenations or Moreau with the White Shark, the various deadly snakes, Spiders,and the unique ornythorinque, koalas, etc ?

[bubba smith]

Hmm... how about this: Baron Schatten ("shadow") was a prominent member of the Thule Society, the occult group which sponsored the rising Nazi Party. During World War II the Society provided the German government with magic talismans through which to create superhuman operatives for the war effort. When the tide of war turned against Germany, Baron Schatten secretly relocated his family to Australia, then attempted to escape Germany and follow them, bringing along the Thule Society's trove of artifacts which he had stolen. But the aircraft the Baron was trying to enter Australia on was identified and shot down. Baron Schatten was killed, but the artifacts were lost.

 

Baron Schatten's grandson discovered journals and occult tomes belonging to his grandfather which his family had preserved, and used that magic lore to accumulate financial and political power. But his divinations have determined the artifacts the Baron had been carrying survived, although they've been scattered across Australia. Some have fallen into the hands of people who act as heroes or villains in Australia today. The new Baron Schatten is determined to gather those artifacts so as to accumulate far greater power.

 

This gives you both potential origins for characters, and a master villain with a plan which would bring him into conflict with any of them.

also he could be a heroic descendant

[steriaca]

Seen the movies Wolf Creak and Wolf Creak 2? Scarie stuff. Now, how to make that slimey rat baskard a super villain...

[steriaca]

"First rule of the Outback: You Don't Stop." May be a key to many an supervillain beginning storys...

[Lord Liaden]

For the Black Swan, may I suggest any combination of the following:

 

- is a "luck vampire," able to temporarily drain the good fortune from another person, leaving them afflicted with bad luck and herself with good luck;

 

- wears a cloak of black swan feathers, enabling her to fly and change into a giant black swan;

 

- is a psychotic ballerina ;

 

- is a modern-day (or reformed) swashbuckling pirate

[Enforcer84]

Unfortunately, I don't know enough about Australia...

 

But, let's give it a go. If we're looking for a master villain a good guy to use (especially if you take a eco-terrorist villain as well) might be someone from the Coal Industry, I recall the Abbott government was quite friendly to them. So you could simply do a wicked Industrialist aka Justin Hammer, Roxxon Oil, or Lex Luthor. Or Rupert Murdoch...ahem. sorry. 

 

Our masterminds big plans are multi layered and clever. On the one hand s/he uses industrial espionage to dominate the local market, bribery and corruption in politics to make things better for them. Uses mercenaries to move locals off of areas that would be great for mining and media connections to make the eco-terrorist villain seem worse than his/her company. 

 

All the while slowly, and legitimately, cornering more eco-friendly energy markets. They essentially want to be the last old school energy baron standing and then seamlessly shift to the new renewable sources looking like a hero, until the winds blow against them again.

[steriaca]

Humm... basically the same orgin opportunitys exist for someone from New York City, Hollywood, Austin Texas, Milwaukee Wisconsin, and Sidney Australia. Australia does have it's own charms (The Outback, where various criminal science organisations can conduct experiments without the police or those in costumes come crashing in, The Dreamtime, various small villages where all is not what it seams, ect)

[IndianaJoe3]

Maybe he wants to take advantage of this somehow?

[Ninja-Bear]

The Outback seems like the perfect place for a secret band of ninjas to hide and train. And you should have some sort of crocodile hunter too. Either hero or villian.

[Major Tom 2009]

Some of the last FdH2011 pics that I did before my laptop got wrecked were of some Australian supervillains.

Maybe you can use the ideas yourself.

 

Tigersnake: this female UNTIL agent gained her serpentine powers during a raid on a secret VIPER facility

which was involved in genetic research aimed at creating agents with superhuman powers derived from the

various and insanely-toxic snakes native to Australia. In the course of the fight, a vat containing a compound

derived from the venom of the tiger snake was blasted into pieces, dousing the agent in the compound. In a

matter of minutes, the compound transformed her into a superhuman being with increased reflexes and strength,

plus the ability to deliver a venomous bite. A major side-effect saw her personality shifting from a law-abiding

citizen to a murderous supervillain wanted by every law-enforcement agency in the world.

 

Redbelly: another villain with serpentine powers, Redbelly is a cyborg whose upper body is that of a human

being from the waist up, and a snake-like torso from the waist down. His body is 20' long, and his costume has

a cobra-like hood; this hood helps to maintain stability when he's moving at high speed. He also has a pair of

retractable spikes housed within the gauntlets of his costume; these spikes are hollow, and are connected to

venom reservoirs which are also housed in the gauntlets. Normally operating as a solo villain, Redbelly some-

times works with Tigersnake on a job.

 

Funnel-Web: this villain, instead of being a snake-themed criminal, has powers like those of one of Austraila's

most dangerous spiders.

 

These are the ones that I can remember right now, but there might have been one or two more.

 

 

Major Tom 2009

[Synonym_As_Monkier]

A black swan as a supervillian? Start here.

 

I was actually going to run a classic superhero game that's set here but I eventaully decided to do something slightly different. (Still working things up at the moment.) Most of these ideas are undeveloped and really, really basic but if they help: They help.

 

The Kanaka.

The Sugar Slaves/ The Kanaka's are a dark part of Australian History. There is some contention that they're not technically slaves, just workers who were employed under false pretenses, abused and given indefinate periods of work for terrible pay but the point remains that they were mistreated horribly. The Kanaka is the last gasping attempt to strike back at them. A vengeful spirit manifested from magic and pain and a low, intemperate rage. It's lost now, without propper form or function and without any true goal, all those whom it was born to rail against are long dead. Instead it wanders across the Queensland coast and attacks, mauling and beating and chopping at any who remind it, by temperament or appearance or role within a farm or company before returning again to drift through the world.

 

(I don't know enough about Islander culture to be more specific and indulging in steriotype.) It manifests itself as a youth with dark hair and eyes, with oddly stretched limbs that moves with a contorted, pained gait and holding a broken wooden shield and a machete. Sugar, flour and dust that is spilled into the air around it settles on its skin in a strange amalgate pattern of many peoples.

 

Dindima and Adnoartina.

(I'm actually conflating a pair of distinct myths here. One from the Coori people and the other from the traditions of those who lived in and around Ularu. It's kind of culturally insensitive of me.)

 

The Dindima are a group of mythological sisters who are said to be pulled up into the sky by the magic of a pair of sulpher crested cockatoos during the dreaming. They had been persued by a demon/ very bad man who lusted for them and wished to make them his "Wives" and he sent himself into the sky to contine to persue them. Forming the Southern Cross. (The Pointers being the cockatoo's, each other star being one of the sisters and the red star being the Demon/ Very Bad man.)

 

I'm conflating them with a group of priestesses/ shamen who stand against Adnoartina. A monsterous lizard who is sealed within/ in some way spatially related to Ularu.

 

I didn't develop the idea very far but I like the iconography. (I had a vague idea about The Demon/ Very Bad Man escaping and warping the world around him to be as it was during the dreaming. Awakening animals, turning some people into beastmen and making the healing of wounds impossible. Stuff like that.)

 

The Old Soilder.

The core idea is very simple: Jamie Mackey started as a World War 2 era naval man and a soilder in the Pacific Theater.) Who was impowered during the Battle of Miline Bay, when his mates (Blake, Johnno and Evan.) who died protecting him and refused to leave his side when they were called into the spirit world. He's remained in service ever since, they protect him, he can share his body with them to have them empower him and make him stronger and faster, more resliant to damage. THey report to him and slip him information at a distance. They've stopped him from aging, sharing what years they'd have left.

 

They plied his fame from the war effort into a political carrier in the mid-seventies and was a strong supporter of the White Australia Policy and the barred, extremely difficult immegration from Vietnam. They're retired now but sees the countries continued diversity as a blight against the country they've strived to keep but he's less now. What political power he had been able to ply was during a period that was our least prosperious in modern memory. He's well known as a bigot, irrelivant now.

 

Nobody listens to them.

 

Their attempts at fixing this started as isolated hatecrimes. Beating up a gay bar in western Sydney, firebombing a felaffle house. Then he got caugth. Then the lunatic fringe got interested. The Bra Boys, Romperstomper style skinheads, nutty Biker Gangs and the awful hateful dregs of society. The gangs rally around them as a figurehead (though I would find it appropriate if he is JUST a figurehead and holds no real authority.) Flavour with your cultural dislikes to taste.

 

Kate Kelly as an anarchistic bomber wearing a suit of power armour that looks like that her brother used.

I don't think this needs much elaboration. Though in refference to her origin: She resents various government bodies, (especially the local police force to make her less sympathetic.) due to her initial mistreatment at their hands and the grotesque murder of her brother and familiy.

 

The Bunyip (Not of Glenorchy as that's not area appropriate.)

It's a piece of visual design that I like. I've had him/ her as some kind of nightmarish chimera created by one of those many experiments to "bottle" superpowers or as a national equivalent of a werewolf.

Speaking of which:

A version of the werewolf curse that turns somebody into a Thylacine Monster.

In this instance though, I think it'd be better to tie it into the dreamtime perception of person as animal rather than some kind of monsterous transformation.

 

There's more but they were very setting/ plot specific for the game I was doing. I hope this helps.

[wcw43921]

The Outback seems like the perfect place for a secret band of ninjas to hide and train. And you should have some sort of crocodile hunter too. Either hero or villian.

 

There should be something Japanese in the Outback somewhere--part of an incursion attempt that failed, then was abandoned and forgotten.  It could be a giant robot like Tetsujin 28, or a supernaturally powered statue that comes to life like Majin, Monster OF Terror.  Perhaps even an army of elite Kamikaze soldiers in suspended animation chambers, set to be awakened at some point in the future for a terrible mission of vengeance.

 

The movie Picnic At Hanging Rock has great scenario potential.  Some people who disappeared at a sacred site many years ago reappear--where did they go?  Why did they come back?  And did they come back right--or wrong?

 

Hope that helps.