Hugo Danner, the Once and Future Superman

[OddHat]

HUGO DANNER, THE MAN OF TOMORROW

Val Char Cost Roll Notes

50 STR 40 19- Lift 25.6tons; 10d6 [5]

20 DEX 30 13- OCV: 7/DCV: 7

28 CON 36 15-

20 BODY 20 13-

18 INT 8 13- PER Roll 13-

13 EGO 6 12- ECV: 4

20 PRE 10 13- PRE Attack: 4d6

20 COM 5 13-

 

25 PD 15 Total: 25 PD (18 rPD)

6 ED 0 Total: 6 ED (4 rED)

4 SPD 10 Phases: 3, 6, 9, 12

16 REC 0

56 END 0

59 STUN 0 Total Characteristic Cost: 180

 

Movement: Running: 14"/28"

Leaping: 16"/64"

Swimming: 2"/4"

 

Cost Powers END

Strange visitor from another planet

11 1) Inhuman Vitality: Healing 1 BODY, Can Heal Limbs, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Persistent (+1/2) (30 Active Points); Extra Time (Regeneration-Only) 1 Turn (Post-Segment 12) (-1 1/4), Self Only (-1/2)

14 2) That Hideous Strength: Life Support (Extended Breathing: 1 END per Minute; Longevity: 400 Years; Safe in High Pressure; Safe in High Radiation; Safe in Intense Cold; Safe in Intense Heat; Safe in Low Pressure/Vacuum; Sleeping: Character only has to sleep 8 hours per week)

11 3) Nothing less than a bursting shell can penetrate his skin: Damage Resistance (18 PD/4 ED)

16 Muscles Forged Under Different Stars: Multipower, 16-point reserve

2u 1) Muscles Forged Under Distant Stars: Leaping +6" (16" forward, 8" upward) (Accurate, x4 Noncombat) (16 Active Points) 2

2u 2) Blazing Speed: Running +8" (14" total) (16 Active Points) 2

 

Skills

2 WF: Small Arms

3 Acrobatics 13-

3 Breakfall 13-

3 Seduction 13-

Notes: Despite his brooding nature, Hugo Danner is very attractive to women.

0 Language: English (idiomatic; literate) (5 Active Points)

1 Language: French (basic conversation)

0 Paramedics 8-

0 PS: Banker 8-

0 PS: Soldier 8-

0 PS: Football Player 8-

2 PS: Journalist 11-

0 PS: Circus Performer 8-

 

Total Powers & Skill Cost: 70

Total Cost: 250

 

200+ Disadvantages

5 Unluck: 1d6

Notes: Nothing ever really went well for Hugo Danner.

15 Social Limitation: Freak of Nature (Occasionally, Severe)

Notes: Once Hugo's full talents are revealed, they completely change others reactions to him, almost always for the worse. The only time it will ever go well for him is when he's in the army, and even then he can only trust the men he saves and his commander. Eventually Kent Allard will convince Hugo to take up the secret identity of Clark Kent (named for Clark Savage and Kent Allard), and to construct the false identity of Superman.

15 Psychological Limitation: Frustrated Idealist, Hates Injustice (Very Common, Moderate)

Notes: Danner's father tried to raise him with a strict moral code, and largely succeeded. Hugo was never a bully as such, nor a simple thug. However, Hugo did try to take justice as he saw it into his own hands. This never went well. This version of the character will eventually learn from Clark Savage Jr. and Kent Allard how to use his power to do good deeds that will go unpunished.

15 Psychological Limitation: A Deep Melancholy, Moody, Brooding, Angry (Very Common, Moderate)

Notes: In Gladiator, Hugo is moody, brooding, self righteous, self pitying, and self destructive. He sees himself as a superior man rejected, ground down and held back by the ordinary men around him, In other words, he's a slightly exaggerated angry teen. He must learn to overcome these traits (i.e. buy off or trade in this disadvantage) in order to become a Hero.

 

Total Disadvantage Points: 250

 

Background/History: 50,000 BCE - The Ancients leave Earth after repeated conflicts with apparently extra dimensional entities. They take with them the most promising of their test subjects. These test subjects are then seeded on multiple worlds. One of those worlds is an artificial construct, a planetary engineering project as complex and ambitious as anything the Ancients had ever attempted. Its genetically modified inhabitants would one day become, compared to Earth Humans, virtual supermen.

 

1873 - The equipment maintaining an artificial "planet" constructed by the Ancients suffers a fatal series of malfunctions. As the planet self destructs, a single escape ship is launched towards the coordinates of Humanity's near-mythic home world. Despite its FTL drive, the ship takes over eighteen years to reach its goal. The ship's sole passenger spends that time in stasis.

 

1891 - A space craft crashes outside of Indian Creek, Colorado. The ship is quickly located by Professor Abednego Danner, himself a member of the extended Wold Newton family. Professor Danner and his wife legally adopt the male infant they find wandering near the wreckage of that ship. The wreckage itself is given over for study to Danner's cousin; Dr. Clark Savage, Sr. The boy is given the name "Hugo".

 

Hugo Danner's amazing physical and mental abilities develop as he ages. His strength, speed, and durability far surpass all theoretical human limits. Professor Danner is able to instill a strong sense of right and wrong in Hugo, but the boy's increasing powers cause him to become socially isolated.

 

1916 – Hugo Danner volunteers for military service in the French Foreign Legion in WWI. In the army he experiences his first true friendships. His strength, speed, and near invulnerability (nothing less than a bursting shell can pierce his skin) make him invaluable to the war effort. After one of the few serious injuries he sustains, Hugo learns of his amazing regenerative abilities, and also learns that his unique blood makes him a universal donor. By the end of the war, scores of allied soldiers have received blood transfusions from Hugo. In decades to come, many of the children of these soldiers will manifest metahuman abilities.

 

1920 - Hugo continues to try to do good works with his powers. He's bad at it. While working in a bank, he rescues a man trapped in the vault only to be fired and threatened with arrest. He attempts to clean up corrupt politicians and influence peddlers in Washington and fails completely.

 

1926 - Hugo Danner, despondent over his inability to find a place outside of the military, fakes his own death. He begins a period of aimless wandering that will bring him into contact with Kent Allard, Clark Savage, and others.

 

Hugo Danner was, among other things, a college football player, a circus strongman, a soldier, a reporter, a banker, and an activist before his disappearance in 1926. This write up represents Hugo in 1927. He has put his past behind him and started the period of wandering and study that marks his transition from the angry young man of 1926 to the optimistic and purely heroic Superman of 1938.

 

The Real Story: Philip Wylie's ground breaking novel Gladiator describing the life of Hugo Danner was published in 1930. It would have a great influence on Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster. Physically and in terms of powers, Siegel and Schuster's early Superman was almost identical to Danner, and several of Superman's early adventures were very similar to those of the Wylie character. Siegel and Schuster were also influenced by the great pulp characters, borrowing ideas freely to help create the unique mix that became Superman. For an incredible take on the life of Clark Hugo Danner Kent somewhat different from the one presented above, see Al Schroeder's “Schroeder's Speculations†at http://www.novanotes.com/specul.htm. Mr. Schroeder's version of the character significantly influenced this version, and ideas presented in Mr. Schroeder's articles were re-used here and in my Wold Newton Timeline by permission. So, Al, if you're reading this, my sincere thanks.

 

Personality/Motivation: At this stage of his life, Hugo Danner is essentially heroic, but he is still an emotionally young man. He is brooding, angry, angst ridden, self sabotaging and self destructive. He is also genuinely trying to do better, to help others through the use of his powers.

 

Hugo Danner has always had his best relationships with women. They find him attractive, and he is able to relax around them and actually show some of the charm and wit that will eventually become a much more obvious part of his public persona.

 

His experiences in WWI planted the seeds for an aversion to killing that will grow stronger as the years go on.

 

Quote: I would set out to stamp crime off the face of the Earth.

 

Powers/Tactics: At this stage of his life, Hugo has yet to develop the full range of his powers. He is far stronger than any human, able to rip open a bank vault door and make tremendous, seemingly impossible leaps. Nothing less than a bursting shell can penetrate his skin, he does not age as other men, and he has amazing recuperative powers. As time goes on, he will become far more powerful.

 

Hugo's tactics tend to be very direct. He charges in and strikes with blows of tremendous force until his enemies fall. He is not overconfident as such, nor is he a fool; in the unlikely event he is seriously injured or overmatched, he will leap away, recover, and then return to the fray. Hugo will kill with sufficient provocation or in war, but he will do what he can to avoid it when facing most foes.

 

Campaign Use: Hugo Danner is intended as the First Superhero in my Wold Newton inspired campaign.

 

This version of the character is appropriate for play in a 250 point High Powered Pulp campaign (if Normal Characteristic Maxima are in effect, treat his greater than human stats as powers, or treat him as a 300 point character). In such a campaign, he may very well not be the most powerful character in terms of raw combat potential.

 

As an NPC, Hugo can serve as an interesting encounter, a rival, an enemy (if he believes the player characters to be criminals), or an ally. If the player characters are successful heroes with extraordinary powers, Hugo might seek them out in order to learn from them. Heroes might also be hired to track down Hugo, either by law enforcement officers or less reputable types.

 

This version of Hugo Danner is not yet a Superhero. He does not wear a costume, nor does he devote his life to crime fighting. That will come, but not yet.

 

As of 1927 Hugo is still in many ways a teen by Kryptonian standards. As he matures, he will develop a full suite of metahuman senses, his famous heat vision, true flight, etc. In my own campaign, Hugo will be assumed to earn roughly 25xp per year; in 1947, he will be a 750 point character, soon to gain control of Doc Savage's Fortress of Solitude and possessed of almost the full range of powers reported in the comic book fictionalizations of Clark Kent's life, albeit at lower levels.

 

Appearance: Hugo Danner is tremendously handsome. He is vaguely Mediterranean in appearance, perhaps Greek or Italian, with olive skin, hair so black that it is almost blue, and brown eyes. When his famous Heat Vision first manifests, his eyes will turn a startling Blue.

 

Hugo Danner by Philip Wylie. Superman by Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster. Clark Hugo Danner Kent by Al Schroeder. Character Sheet and modifications by Robert Dorf.

[OddHat]

Re: Hugo Danner, the Once and Future Superman

 

This character ties into my CU Wold Newton thread.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Re: Hugo Danner, the Once and Future Superman

 

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to OddHat again.

Darn.

 

Not only does this character sheet provide a nice segue between the pulps and the superhero genre, but he also looks like a very interesting character in play. Not only is he just learning how to use his incredible abilities, but he is making mistakes -- and they are having severe and tragic consequences.

 

I also wonder if it would be possible top introduce this character into a superhero universe and take it in a different direction. Like having him effectively immortal and unaging, meaning he will still be around in 2005 just as vigorous as ever, but possibly changing his public and private personas every so often because of the enemies he has made over almost a century who dog his every step.

[OddHat]

Re: Hugo Danner, the Once and Future Superman

 

Darn.

 

Not only does this character sheet provide a nice segue between the pulps and the superhero genre, but he also looks like a very interesting character in play. Not only is he just learning how to use his incredible abilities, but he is making mistakes -- and they are having severe and tragic consequences.

 

I also wonder if it would be possible top introduce this character into a superhero universe and take it in a different direction. Like having him effectively immortal and unaging, meaning he will still be around in 2005 just as vigorous as ever, but possibly changing his public and private personas every so often because of the enemies he has made over almost a century who dog his every step.

 

Thanks, I'm glad you liked him. I'm still trying to track down a copy of Wylie's "The Savage Gentleman", which I'm told was influential in the development of Doc Savage.

 

In my own campaign, Hugo Danner, aka Clark Kent, is still around in 2005, but no longer publicly adventuring. His 400 year life span leaves him still in his prime even after almost a century of battles. He went underground in 1966. His daughter by Diana Prince, Kara Kent, is still active.