Australian Golden Age characters

[assault]

Introduction to the thread.

 

This is going to be a work in progress thread, which I will add to as I feel inspired/energetic.

 

Australian Golden Age comics were, naturally, heavily influenced by their US contemporaries. In fact, they often attempted to appear as though they *were* US comics, rather than supposedly inferior local product. Thus Captain Atom, a local flying brick type, operated in his secret identity (kind of, it’s a bit complicated) as an FBI agent.

 

This could of course be changed if we wanted to make them characters operating in Australia, but not everything translates directly. For example, the closest current Australian analogue to the FBI, the Australian Federal Police doesn’t carry out all the roles of the FBI, and in any case didn’t exist in its current form prior to 1979.

 

Before that, the closest equivalent was the Commonwealth Police, but that didn’t exist before 1960! And the organizations before that were essentially intelligence agencies.
 

A better match would be one of the State police forces. Australian police forces (aside from the AFP/Commonwealth Police) are organized at the State/Territory level, rather than the city level. Thus, there is no “Sydney Police Department”, but rather the New South Wales Police.

 

What I would do then, is to select a city in which such a character is based (probably Sydney or Melbourne), and assign them to the relevant Police force. Cases when they operate outside their jurisdiction can be rationalized as necessary.

 

That aside, most Australian (Golden Age should be assumed throughout) superheroes fell into two broad categories: non-powered types, usually heavily influenced by the Phantom, and flying bricks, influenced by Superman, Captain Marvel and so on.

 

Most of the former had a great deal in common with each other, and if I was to provide character sheets for them they would tend to look very similar. Their only main distinguishing feature from their US counterparts is that they tended to carry guns, like the Phantom. And like the Phantom, most of these guns seemed to be automatics, similar to the good old M1911, whose stats are conveniently included in most versions of the Hero System rules.

 

Many of them were wealthy, and some had bases, but this rarely seems to have been important in their stories. That’s convenient for character modeling purposes, since things that have no ingame effect don’t cost points. In other words, these things don’t have to be offset against their initial point budgets. They can be added later, of course.

 

Some had vehicles, however, and I would be more inclined to include these on their initial character sheets. Even there though, I would be inclined to start with fairly minimalist builds, aimed more at strategic movement than tactical combat, and beg the GM not to shoot them down/blow them up too often. Characters who don’t spend their points on these can buy extra non-combat skills, perks or whatever.

 

In a few cases, conventional guns were replaced by by various types of raygun. These shouldn’t modify character budgets by much, since the characters still typically rely on punching their opponents.

 

Most of these characters were male, but there was at least one female character, the Vampire, who seems to have been similar. Unfortunately, none of her stories appear to be available. She should be able to be approximated by modifying the “standard” version of the character type.

 

The flying bricks are a little bit more diverse in their power sets, but not by much. Unfortunately, there’s not much information on most of them. In particular, I haven’t found any stories of Molo the Mighty online, but have found stories of characters that don’t have any origin details included. Basically only Captain Atom, who I referred to above, and the Phantom Knight, have both stories and origin details available. For that reason, I will, my attention span willing, model Captain Atom later in this thread.

 

There were, of course, characters that don’t fit into these categories. In particular, there were a couple of characters with wings. These were mostly similar to the mystery men types, aside from the obvious. I’ll probably model one of them – the Crimson Comet – later in this thread.

 

Mentalists were rare. There don’t seem to have been many characters influenced by Mandrake, which seems odd, given that he was continuously published in Australia throughout the period. (One could easily be invented.) There is a satirical version in the material linked to below.

 

There was at least one hybrid brick/mentalist – Doctor Mensana – who used pills that could alternatively give him superstrength or mental powers, but not both at the same time.

 

Another possibility wasn’t actually a superhero, but rather a Jungle Girl type – Kazanda. She’s quite an interesting character, but wasn’t portrayed as much of a combatant, and would need to be modified to be viable in a combat heavy setting. I’d skip her, but she (i) fills a gap, (ii) is a female character in a context where most characters are male, and (iii) is ambiguously black! The latter is suggested by a close reading of the text, even though the artwork portrays her as white.

 

Energy Projectors were rare, and apparently absent from the stories that have been reproduced online.

 

Links and details.

 

An interesting overview.

 

This site provides an overview of many of the published characters.

 

A selection of scans of Golden Age Australian comics can be read here.

 

This is a British title, incorrectly filed in the Australian/New Zealand section. However, it includes Electrogirl, who is both an Energy Projector and female, categories in which the Australian material tended to be deficient. There’s no reason why a British heroine couldn’t have migrated to Australia…

 

Kazanda, who I described above was actually reprinted in the US. The US version of one of her stories is online. She appears in issues #23-28. Her stories start around page 20 in each issue. Unfortunately the storyline stops rather abruptly.

 

Finally, like any Golden Age comics, these stories can be marred by racism, sexism and so on. Even when they’re not too bad by themselves, they are often surrounded by madly racist ads and the like. Beware!

[Cassandra]

During the Second World War Australia produced a tank called the Sentinel, and an aircraft called the Boomerang.  I think both to those names would be good for an Australian character.

 

And lets not forget the Hero Games hero and heroine known as Captain Australia.  

[assault]

I'm trying as hard as possible to forget Captain Australia. In fact, that's pretty much the point of the thread.

[assault]

I've run into a bit of a problem with my Captain Atom draft.

 

Because of his interaction with Rigor Mort in this story, I'm using a Multiform based build. Unfortunately, his non-powered base form is tougher than I anticipated.

[assault]

Rough first draft of Captain Atom in his powered form. 5e, 250 points.

 

60 Str 50

29 Dex 57

23 Con 26

10 Bod 0

13 Int 3

10 Ego 0

20 Pre 10

12 Com 1

12 PD 0

12 ED 7

5 Spd 11

17 Rec 0

46 End 0

52 Stun 0

Characteristics Cost: 165

 

Powers, Skills and Perks

 

39 Armor 13 PD/13 ED

 

30 Multipower

3 1u 15” Flight

2 2u 10” Flight, Megascale

 

4 Life Support - Safe Environment: High Radiation, Intense Heat

 

7 Skills and Perks

 

Powers, Skills and Perks Cost: 85

Total Cost: 250

[SteelCold]

I thought there was a hero called Harrier in Champions worldwide.

[assault]

Today I'll post a rough draft of Captain Atom's non-powered form. I won't finalise him until I've done a Mystery Man type, since the latter should be tougher.

 

When I get around to it. He's mostly done in my head already.

[dmjalund]

have you seen any of the Underbelly series set in the 1920s?

[assault]

That was pretty cool. Fictionalised, but cool.

 

There was also a series about Squizzy Taylor.

[assault]

No, this thread isn't dead yet...

 

Generic Australian Golden Age Mystery Man

5e, 250 points. First Draft.

 

20 Str 10

26 Dex 48

23 Con 26

10 Bod 0

18 Int 8

10 Ego 0

20 Pre 10

14 Com 2

14 PD 10

14 ED 9

6 Spd 24

9 Rec 0

46 End 0

32 Stun 0

Characteristics Cost: 147

 

Cost Skills

 

4 Martial Block

4 Martial Strike

3 Martial Throw

5 Offensive Strike

8 2 Damage Classes

 

3 Acrobatics

3 Breakfall

3 Climbing

3 Concealment

3 Conversation

3 Deduction

3 Paramedics

3 Persuasion

3 Shadowing

3 Stealth

3 Streetwise

Total Skills Cost: 57

 

Perks, Talents and Powers

 

6 Combat Luck (3 PD/3 ED)

 

30 Vehicle and/or extra skills and stuff.

 

10 Pistol: .45 ACP Colt M1911/M1911A1 from the book

 

Perks, Talents and Powers Cost: 46

 

Total Cost: 250

[assault]

Captain Atom non-powered form

5e, 250 points. First Draft.

 

20 Str 10

23 Dex 39

23 Con 26

10 Bod 0

18 Int 8

10 Ego 0

20 Pre 10

12 Com 1

14 PD 10

14 ED 9

5 Spd 17

9 Rec 0

46 End 0

32 Stun 0

Characteristics Cost: 130

 

 

Cost Skills and Perks

 

4 Martial Block

4 Martial Strike

5 Offensive Strike

 

3 Acrobatics

3 Breakfall

3 Climbing

3 Concealment

3 Conversation

3 Deduction

3 Paramedics

3 Persuasion

3 Shadowing

3 Stealth

3 Streetwise

 

3 Fringe Benefit: FBI Agent

 

Total Skills and Perks Cost: 49

 

 

Talents and Powers

 

55 Multiform (Captain Atom)

 

6 Combat Luck (3 PD/3 ED)

 

10 Pistol: .45 ACP Colt M1911/M1911A1 from the book

 

Talents and Powers Cost: 71

 

Total Cost: 250

[assault]

The Crimson Comet will be a Generic Mystery Man, except swapping the vehicle for flight, and with a slightly better gun.

 

The Vampire (a Mystery Woman) would probably swap out a few points of STR. She can still hit pretty hard.

 

I'll probably post drafts of them in the next few days.

 

Electrogirl (the British energy projector I mentioned in my introduction) would be next, followed by some kind of mentalist.

 

Once I've got all those done, I'll look at finalising their designs.

 

Then, if I still have a functioning brain, I'll look at some villains.

[assault]

I'm definitely going to use a Kazanda variant for my mentalist. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to build her as a generic Hero System character, not based on her actual appearances.

 

So she's going to become Zakanda. Meh.

 

The Golden/Silver Age version will remain "ambiguously black", but obviously modern versions wouldn't be ambiguous.

[tikiman]

I don't know any Australian super heroes/villains aside from those lame ones Marvel and D.C. have done, for instance Captain Boomerang and the Kanagaroo. Because everyone from a foreign country adopts the identity of a cliché. Can't wait to read about your Australian characters.