SKJAM! Posted March 2, 2007 Report Share Posted March 2, 2007 Membership: Celeritas, Dauntless, Dynamoll, Gibraltra, Sibyl (leader) and Virago. Background: The Rainbow Squad (First/Only appearance in Shazam! #31, created by E. Nelson Bridwell) are six women chosen by the handsome and vain crime lord Mr. Wonderful of Columbus, Ohio to be empowered by a Rainbow Machine that gave each a colored aura. Mr. Wonderful's plan was to use an all-female gang to take advantage of Captain Marvel's reluctance to harm women and uncomfortableness with physical affection. The Squad's first mission was to rob the fancy restaurant Weston's, where Mr. Wonderful knew that Captain Marvel in his secret identity of Billy Batson was due to dine. The job went well, with the Squad overwhelming all male opposition and chasing off Captain Marvel. They then returned to their lair, where Mr. Wonderful gave Dynamoll the mission of using her power in the form of lightning to transform Captain Marvel into Billy, and then capture him. Meanwhile, the restaurant's owner, Jack Weston, aka Minute Man, the One Man Army, got back into harness in hopes of shaking Captain Marvel out of his funk. He tracked the Squad to their lair, then burst in just in time to save Billy from being squashed. Captain Marvel was still reluctant to fight women until the Squad easily defeated Minute Man by strength of numbers. He then proceeded to (gently) wipe the floor with them. Cap smashed Mr. Wonderful to bits, revealing him to be a robot piloted by the World's Wickedest Worm, Mr. Mind. The Squad was dumbfounded to discover they'd been working for an invertebrate, and despite Mr. Mind's prompt escape, were held until the police could take them into custody. Appearance: Each member of the Rainbow Squad wore a short-sleeved blouse, gloves and pirate boots of their special color, a wide white belt with the initial of her codename in gold, and shorts vertically striped in white and the favored color. Stats: The Rainbow Squad demonstrated no special skills or abilities outside their designated powerset, but presumably were experienced criminals when Mr. Wonderful recruited them for his gang. Use the standard Thug character sheet with exceptions as noted below. Celeritas: Possessor of the yellow aura, Celeritas was very fast by human standards. Give her a Speed 6 and +6" running. She wore her hair in a ponytail. Dauntless: Possessor of the green aura, Dauntless not only was extremely confident, but able to inspire fear and underconfidence in others. Give her PRE 30, and a PRE Drain linked to her Presence Attacks. She wore her hair chin-length, curled at the ends. Dynamoll: Possessor of the purple aura, Dynamoll was able to project her aura in the form of different energies. Ones she used during the course of the story were fire, atomic radiation and lightning. I'd estimate a 2 1/2d6 RKA with Variable Special Effects. She showed no reluctance to kill, though fortunately she only tried this on Captain Marvel. Dynamoll was an African-American woman who wore hoop earrings and was visibly underweight. Gibraltra: Possessor of the orange aura, which made her "invulnerable". In action, it looks like a 20 PD/20 ED Force Field, 0 END. She wore her hair in a bun, and may have been somewhat older than the others. Sibyl: Possessor of the blue aura, which made her wiser, and thus the Squad's field leader. Everything she does could be covered by 20 INT and Tactics. Sibyl wore glasses, probably for near-sightedness, and was probably a white-collar criminal before joining the Rainbow Squad. Virago: Possessor of the red aura, Virago had superstrength. About STR 30 or so. Virago has the most noticable personality of the Squad, being a fervent misandrist. She actively protests being condescended to by men, likes beating men up (particularly macho ones), makes snide remarks about Mr. Wonderful (even before his true nature is known) and refuses to even pretend to be attracted to Captain Marvel as part of a criminal plan. There's no evidence in story that Virago is either a feminist or a lesbian, but could pass for a negative stereotype of either. Virago is a bit shorter than the other members, visibly muscular even before being powered up, and brutish of face. Campaign Use: The Rainbow Squad are not shown as being depowered at the end of the story, so they could easily break jail and appear elsewhere. They're low-powered and have individual weak points that mean that they have to work as a team to succeed. I'd recommend them as an adversary for one or two street-level player characters. To power them up, expand on their specialties. For example, Sibyl could easily justify Eidetic Memory, Lightning Calculator, Scholar, and a lot of Knowledge Skills. Perhaps even Precognition! The Rainbow Squad might hunt a player character if hired to, or if severely defeated in a humiliating manner. Comments, thoughts? SKJAM! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrosshairCollie Posted March 2, 2007 Report Share Posted March 2, 2007 Re: Rainbow Squad Reminds me of the old 4th Edition team PRISM. Rage: Red, angry brick Hotshot: Orange, heat projector Lightshow: Yellow, light projector Slime: Green, ooze/slime Bluestreak: Blue, speedster Purple Haze: Violet, mentalist (and drug abuser) Nimbus/Heatseeker: UV/IR, respective, multiform and multiple personality (can't remember their powers off the top of my head). Note pertaining to OP: Virago is (IIRC) Italian for b*tch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaft Posted March 2, 2007 Report Share Posted March 2, 2007 Re: Rainbow Squad Some good work here. I like the use of the templates as opposed to full write ups. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKJAM! Posted March 2, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2007 Re: Rainbow Squad Reminds me of the old 4th Edition team PRISM. Note pertaining to OP: Virago is (IIRC) Italian for b*tch. Rainbow/spectrum themes do make an obvious template for a team, don't they? And yes, I know. That would kind of explain Virago's personality, wouldn't it? (It's not shown in the original story who picked the names, though Celeritas doesn't seem to be the kind of person who would know what "celerity" means.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandi Posted March 2, 2007 Report Share Posted March 2, 2007 Re: Rainbow Squad Shows you where my head is-- I was expecting a GLBT activist superteam. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OddHat Posted March 2, 2007 Report Share Posted March 2, 2007 Re: Rainbow Squad Cool old school villain team, thanks for posting them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKJAM! Posted March 2, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2007 Re: Rainbow Squad Shows you where my head is-- I was expecting a GLBT activist superteam. Things have really changed since the mid-1970s, haven't they? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandi Posted March 3, 2007 Report Share Posted March 3, 2007 Re: Rainbow Squad Things have really changed since the mid-1970s' date=' haven't they?[/quote'] Interestingly, according to Wikipedia, the rainbow flag's been around since the early 70s (it really does have the look of something from that era). I suspect the AIDS protests in the 80s were what really brought it to the attention of the general public. There's also other rainbow flags, including a peace movement one (in fact, there's one of the peace flags hanging in an apartment across the street and down a ways from my own apartment). A team based on the peace movement, the Andean Indian rights movement, or the Druze might make an interesting switchup to throw at players... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assault Posted March 3, 2007 Report Share Posted March 3, 2007 Re: Rainbow Squad Background: The Rainbow Squad (First/Only appearance in Shazam! #31' date=' created by E. Nelson Bridwell) [/quote'] ENB was a genius. No, not just for this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Narratio Posted March 3, 2007 Report Share Posted March 3, 2007 Re: Rainbow Squad the World's Wickedest Worm, Mr. Mind Bridwell may have been a genius, but he sure smoked some wierd stuff when he was in the office. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twilight Posted March 3, 2007 Report Share Posted March 3, 2007 Re: Rainbow Squad Bridwell may have been a genius' date=' but he sure smoked some wierd stuff when he was in the office.[/quote'] He didn't create Mr. Mind, I'm pretty sure that was somebody else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimble Posted March 3, 2007 Report Share Posted March 3, 2007 Re: Rainbow Squad I have to use this group on the non-powered super-spy in my group. He has a thing for beautiful women. Thanks, SKJAM! Grimble Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKJAM! Posted March 3, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 3, 2007 Re: Rainbow Squad Mister Mind himself was created by Otto Binder and C. C. Beck, first being mentioned in Captain Marvel Adventures #22. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted March 3, 2007 Report Share Posted March 3, 2007 Re: Rainbow Squad Bridewell did create most (if not all) of the Global Guardians before they were killed off, and wrote about half the stories for the Second Dial H series. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assault Posted March 3, 2007 Report Share Posted March 3, 2007 Re: Rainbow Squad I just reread the story. It's in the Shazam! Showcase Presents book, which I thoroughly recommend. Yes, Virago is written as a negative lesbian/feminist stereotype. Mr Mind is an exceedingly cool character. Apparently, back in the Golden Age he was actually executed in the electric chair for his crimes (it didn't work). The cool thing is that they built a worm-sized electric chair to do it! You don't see things like that in comics these days. As for ENB, his wikipedia entry, while short, is adequate proof of his genius. I really hope The Inferior Five gets reprinted. Its quality tapered off quickly, IMHO, but the early stories were brilliant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twilight Posted March 4, 2007 Report Share Posted March 4, 2007 Re: Rainbow Squad It occurs to me. A sufficiently evil and talented supervillainess could pull a Count Nefaria and become quite a formidable villainess by stealing and amplifying the powers of the Rainbow Squad. Just a thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKJAM! Posted March 4, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2007 Re: Rainbow Squad It occurs to me. A sufficiently evil and talented supervillainess could pull a Count Nefaria and become quite a formidable villainess by stealing and amplifying the powers of the Rainbow Squad. Just a thought. Given that the Squad was given powers roughly corresponding to one each of Captain Marvel's gifts, (Wisdom, Strength, Courage, Power, Stamina and Speed); recombining them is a logical step. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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