Female Master Villains

[FenrisUlf]

I've been racking my brains over this -- does anyone remember if Hero Games ever had a female master villain for any version of Champions, aside from Isvatha V'han?

 

I could swear I vaguely recall someone from 4th edition or the like, but I'm blanking on the details.

 

And perhaps a related question: why have there been so few female master villains, both in Champions or in the superhero comics that inspired it?

 

Thanks all.

[Cygnia]

Re: Female Master Villains

 

How "masterful" are you looking at? I remember The Engineer could be pretty nasty. And Scorpia was second in command for Terror Inc.

[hfergus]

Re: Female Master Villains

 

I will actually soon bring in a female "master villian" into my campaign soon. In herself not so nasty powerwise (but enough to hold heroes at bay while she escapes), but with lots of troops, both agents and supers. She definately is a master in the sense that the heroes may never totally shut her down, much like Doctor Destroyer, Mechanon and Isvatha V'han. She is also into power and comfort, but is no world conquerer. As long as everyone around her jumps at her commands and she has what she wants when she wants it, she's fine. Trouble is, she's willing to do nasty things to get it- but actually prefers not to as it is normally more of a pain. Her "name"- Draconia Tempestas.

[Dr. MID-Nite]

Re: Female Master Villains

 

Gravitar would certainly qualify, but overall many of the female baddies tend to not be running the show. Though..in all seriousness, you could alter the gender of most supers in the Hero system and they'd mostly work out just fine...

[GestaltBennie]

Re: Female Master Villains

 

Yeah, it's nice that we have V'han and Gravitar in the mix of CU villains; Steve did a good job of expanding that section of the world. If my incredibly fuzzy memory recalls correctly, Coatilue from "To Serve and Protect" also qualifies, as well as Black Enchantress. Viperia has the power level of a master villain, but she's not in a command position. Then there's one in VOICE, but that's spoiler territory.

 

I have a few master villainesses in Gestalt (Dr. Power, Weng Chi'ang, and Ominos), but that's not by Hero, only by a friend of Hero.

[Enforcer84]

Re: Female Master Villains

 

Scott's on the ball, those are the one's I had in mind.

 

Black Enchantress

Couatalicue

Spoilered - :0 from Voice of Doom

Engineer

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Female Master Villains

 

I think one explanation for why there have been relatively few female master villains in comics, is the same as why there have been so few comics series starring women: the audience is predominantly teenaged males (even today), who want to see the kinds of themes and characters they can relate to.

 

Hero Games has been better than most comics companies in presenting women in "master" roles over the years. Right now the CU has Istvatha V'han and Brangomar the Shadow Queen among its leader-type nasties. Gravitar and Eclipsar have the power and epic plans of master villains, although heretofore they've acted alone. Tesseract and the Engineer might fall into that category if they were more stable. One could easily make the witch Chantal, from the adventure Shades Of Black, into a master villain depending on how one ends the adventure. Demoiselle Nocturne, of

DEMON's Inner Circle, wields considerable power and resources of her own and aspires to take control of the organization.

 

 

Early incarnations of the setting have included the aforementioned Black Enchantress (and her mother Ch'andarra), the Engineer (revised and upgraded for 5E), Coatlicue, and

Lung Hung of VOICE (although "his" true gender was a secret).

 

 

The Fourth Edition adventure collection Champions Presents included a couple of powerful females whose campaign roles could easily be expanded to "master" status: the Inuit (Eskimo) goddess Sedna, and the demonic dimensional ruler Tsurlgra. The Golden Age Japanese super Shinyu could also be used as a master villain, as Golden Age Champions suggests.

 

Under Fourth Edition several women were very highly placed in the hierarchy of major organizations, including the Black and White Queens of Genocide, Baba Yaga and Rashinda Etienne of DEMON, and the Dragon Queen of VIPER. Speaking of VIPER, even though she isn't a "supervillain" strictly speaking,

the Duchess has been a major figure behind the scenes of that group through at least the last two editions of Champions.

 

[BobGreenwade]

Re: Female Master Villains

 

This, IMNSHO, is one of several reasons for which the Champions Universe really needs VOICE....

[death tribble]

Re: Female Master Villains

 

The same is true for other games and comics in general.

 

One that does stick in my mind from V+V is Motivator.

[GestaltBennie]

Re: Female Master Villains

 

Sedna's a good call, LL, as is Baba Yaga. And while the Engineer may be loopy, the scale of her plans ("I'll collect all the metal in the city and use it to build an orbital beanstalk to show people how wonderful SCIENCE! is") definitely puts her in that territory.

 

But as for the person in your spoiler? Nah! How can someone who was such a sweet little girl grow up to be a master villain?

[gojira]

Re: Female Master Villains

 

I've been racking my brains over this -- does anyone remember if Hero Games ever had a female master villain for any version of Champions, aside from Isvatha V'han?

 

I think some of the Council of Thirty might qualify, depending how you want to use them (do they need to personally fight, or just use lots of mooks?), esp. the Duchess. There's also Major General Lorelei Tannhauser, east German head of Vipers technical division, and General Barbara Jamison, nest leader in the British Isles, might make suitable power female adversaries for you players.

[Matt Holck]

Re: Female Master Villains

 

Cobra, (she clone) made a vacuum flower in low orbit.

A colossal "air hydra" hangs below the photosynthetic bloom

sweeping through the stratosphere

drinking vapor and feeding upon small bits of bacteria.

A sky hook to orbit if one could reach the stem.

 

Self Healing at Polymorphic Robotics Lab

 

 

 

Inside the three mile flower is the pod that contains normal earth atmosphere.

[bigbywolfe]

Re: Female Master Villains

 

I didn't see anyone else mention Cobra. Which book/edition is she from?

[Black Ops]

Re: Female Master Villains

 

I didn't see anyone else mention Cobra. Which book/edition is she from?

 

He mentioned someone with that name before but I think it is his own creation.

[FenrisUlf]

Re: Female Master Villains

 

Thanks for the various reminders about Black Enchantress and the rest. I forgot about them like a dope.

 

As for Shinyu, I still want to work her into the background of my campaign (if I ever get some gamers together). I just find something very cool about a sorceress who doubles as a weredragon.

 

That and I still think it was a shame that she wasn't somehow related to that other dragon-shifting sorceress from the (3rd? 4th?) edition book on VIPER.

[Matt Holck]

Re: Female Master Villains

 

He mentioned someone with that name before but I think it is his own creation.

 

She is my own creation.

My Cobras are loosely based off the snake man geneticist Cobra from Enemies I? 1983?

who is now King Cobra in the official Champions Universe.

I was considering changing my Five Cobras name to "Hydra"

 

But for this episode,

the low orbit living growing base with a hybrid hydra as a root and a sky hook might confuse the issue

as my Cobras are cobra snake/human hybrids.

[Peregrine]

Re: Female Master Villains

 

I've had some thoughts about making the Duchess more of a master villain in her own right - almost a female Dr. Destroyer.

[Matt Holck]

Re: Female Master Villains

 

Anyone on who sees her as an uncaring terraformist is refusing to see the bigger picture

.

[gojira]

Re: Female Master Villains

 

Thanks for the various reminders about Black Enchantress and the rest. I forgot about them like a dope.

 

Argh, no one mentioned Talisman? She'd make a pretty good mastermind if you're into magic. Half of Grab might make a decent mastermind, if they get serious. Black Diamond and Blue Jay come to mind. Snowblind would have to grow up a lot and doesn't seem the type to plan ahead, but I thought I'd toss her name out there anyway. Gloria from Teen Champions.

[Dormstar]

Re: Female Master Villains

 

One that does stick in my mind from V+V is Motivator.

It's funny, this is the first one I thought of as well. From comics, I immediately think of magic-type Marvel characters like Enchantress and Circe.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Female Master Villains

 

As for Shinyu, I still want to work her into the background of my campaign (if I ever get some gamers together). I just find something very cool about a sorceress who doubles as a weredragon.

 

That and I still think it was a shame that she wasn't somehow related to that other dragon-shifting sorceress from the (3rd? 4th?) edition book on VIPER.

 

That's the Dragon Queen of VIPER's Serpent Society, as I mentioned previously. I found her simple to combine conceptually with Shinyu for one of my past campaigns, considering that the nascent Dragon Queen, although being of partial Chinese ancestry, grew up on the streets of Japan during the pulp era. Creating one history for the two of them would be easy, and their pooled abilities would make for a very formidable opponent.

 

As long as we're on this scaly-villain kick , I'd like to give a shout-out to Dave Mattingly's Blackwyrm Games for the creation of the Serpent Queen from The Algernon Files, a true epic class master villainess. Also the Crone from the same book, a terrifying take on the Baba Yaga legend.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Female Master Villains

 

I've had some thoughts about making the Duchess more of a master villain in her own right - almost a female Dr. Destroyer.

 

Even if she lacks the technical genius of DD, she has the finances, facilities, and researchers to build almost any type of technology she needs, including powered armor.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Female Master Villains

 

It's funny' date=' this is the first one I thought of as well. From comics, I immediately think of magic-type Marvel characters like Enchantress and Circe.[/quote']

 

I wish Marvel had done more with their female version of the Sphinx. She could have been a contender.

 

Of course Dark Phoenix stands out as probably the most awesome of all villainesses during her brief existence.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Female Master Villains

 

Argh' date=' no one mentioned Talisman? She'd make a pretty good mastermind if you're into magic. Half of Grab might make a decent mastermind, if they get serious. Black Diamond and Blue Jay come to mind. Snowblind would have to grow up a lot and doesn't seem the type to plan ahead, but I thought I'd toss her name out there anyway. Gloria from Teen Champions.[/quote']

 

Any of these could certainly be developed into a master villain over the course of a campaign, if a GM wanted to take them in that direction. But as presented in published books they all lack the focus, resources, and except for Gloriana the power, to assume that role.

[kahuna's bro]

Re: Female Master Villains

 

Argh' date=' no one mentioned Talisman? She'd make a pretty good mastermind if you're into magic. Half of Grab might make a decent mastermind, if they get serious. Black Diamond and Blue Jay come to mind. Snowblind would have to grow up a lot and doesn't seem the type to plan ahead, but I thought I'd toss her name out there anyway. Gloria from Teen Champions.[/quote']isn't GLORY the name of the teen champions villianess?