Bad Tymes: Fleshing out the 90s

[Vondy]

Don't forget sinister government conspiracies. If a hero team is sponsored by the US government, it is either a villainous fraud or being manipulated by its own sponsoring agency. An independent team's government liaison is not just a bad-tempered hardass, but actively working against the team or trying to take control of it for evil ends.

 

Ditto for big corporations involved with super-teams, though these might be outright villain teams with no pretense.

 

Super-powered factions (especially of mutants) that are nominally hostile, and one is nominally heroic and the others villainous -- but characters move between teams/factions with ease, or make common cause against some other foe. As in, sure, Magneto's killed lots of people and tried to conquer the world lots of times, but what the hell, now he's an X-Man and even running the school.  Or the team includes members of the Hellfire Club. And so on. And if a "hero" goes nuts or has an emotional breakdown and becomes a villain for a while, no worries, all can be forgiven.

 

All that's necessary for someone to be a hero is to have an enemy worse than they are.

 

Dean Shomshak

 

It was the X-Files Era, after all.

[death tribble]

For the American audience what was on TV at the time ?

The X-Files starts in 93 and ends 2002. Babylon 5 starts in 1994 and ends 1999. Buffy the Vampire Slayer starts 1997 and ends 2003. Star Trek the Next Generation had started in 1987 and ended 1994, Star Trek Deep Space 9 starts 1993 and ends 1999 and Star Trek Voyager starts 1995 and ends 2001.

The comedy Seinfeld started 1989 and ended 1998.

All of these would have an influence as would the Monday Night Wrestling War.

 

However I don't know what else was on that could have had an impact on people and thus heroes/villains.

[HeroGM]

Using experimental XNA the military takes a mixed forces teams and tries to further the 2ndGen program. Giving the team low level abilities their children are born with natural abilites causing the government to instute both the 3rdGen program along with the "nannies" a squad assigned to capture runaway subjects and return them to the facility in Arizona.

[HeroGM]

Centuries before mankind the Gardener planted techno-seeds on Earth. When the time was right he would return to harvest earth's energy and start over -replanting a New crop

 

All but one seed has been dormant until the 1960s. As the others have slowly activated its given rise to the heroic population.

 

The gardener is approaching with his minions the harvesters. Are the heroes ready? And what about the seed that's been active And the hidden society of supers that is protecting it? Do they see the Gardender as a threat? Or as their God?

[bubba smith]

Using experimental XNA the military takes a mixed forces teams and tries to further the 2ndGen program. Giving the team low level abilities their children are born with natural abilites causing the government to instute both the 3rdGen program along with the "nannies" a squad assigned to capture runaway subjects and return them to the facility in Arizona.

that sounds like the american version of THE TOMORROW PEOPLE

BTW I know what dna means but what's xna ?

[massey]

that sounds like the american version of THE TOMORROW PEOPLE

BTW I know what dna means but what's xna ?

X-TREME nucleic acid.

[HeroGM]

Xeno.... It's actually a real thing now. Artificial DNA. And I was playing on J Scott Campbell's Gen13 and Jim Lee's (?) Team 7.

 

Now if you can figure out where homaged the Gardener concept I'll give a gold star. And I mean the series/version not just the character

[HeroGM]

Oh. And remember Age of Apocalypse came out in the 90s along with DCs 1 million.

[Mathew Robert Ignash]

 

Savage Dragon as well. His series appeared in the 90s under the Image imprint.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savage_Dragon

 

 

My take on Officer Dragon:

 

http://mattcave.fcpages.com/csdragon.html

[Enforcer84]

Names with Shadow, Blood, Death, Storm in them work well, often with bad spelling.

Example of iron age cheese "I'm a killer from a long line of killers, but I sate my dark urges by hunting down the scum that would prey on others. Killing is in my blood, shadows stain my soul... but Shadowblud will be a force for... "*cocks huge gun* ".... extreme justice!"

 

Oh, and Extreme is a great word for team names

Huge Cock-Gun. 

[Cassandra]

big swords, big guns, tiny feet, gritted teeth, military style jackets with pouches everywhere

 

That's what I wear to a sale at Barney's!

[Cassandra]

Huge Cock-Gun. 

 

A gun that shoots chickens?

[aylwin13]

Huge Cock-Gun. 

 

 

A gun that shoots chickens?

 

Sure, let's go with that. 

[Duke Bushido]

big swords, big guns, tiny feet, gritted teeth, military style jackets with pouches everywhere

"Tiny" doesn't even begin to describe it. Clearly absent from some of the stuff my players used to toss around during breaks.

 

And one glowing eye. While your list is pretty much dead-on perfect (at least to me, the outsider when it comes to comic books), the 90s seemed to be filled with people who has a single metal appendage and one glowing eye.

 

 

They all looked pretty much alike; they all had the same Rambo Clone personality, and they all had one glowing eye. It pains me to say it, but it almost made me think there was something interesting about Batmunch.

 

And of course, the physically-impossible-to-use-in-a-firefight gun. Take your grandfather's Oldsmobile, bolt on your neighbor's minivan, and give it a barrel and replaceable clips. There's your 90's-era gun, brought to you by Marvel comics.

 

 

You know, that might be why their feet were so stupidly tiny: they were ground off from the miles and miles of dragging across the battlefield that most surely have happened from the recoil of those things.

 

 

Oh-- and women without internal organs and lazy suzans where their vertebrae should be. That seems to have been important, too. If you couldn't get a full-on butt and full-on breast shot simultaneously, and couldn't put a hip in your armpit, or fit your entire waist into your own fist, you just weren't 90s superhero material.

 

 

Ugh.

 

Just ugh.

[Duke Bushido]

Wasn't a big fan of the Iron Age.  I do remember a lot mutant animal martial artists, a few mohawked punk guys, and such, but as far as power and skill sets, I think you pretty much nailed it.

Ferals. The 90s were full of them. Seemed like every time my Supers group gathered, they were going on and on about some new version of Wolverine or Badger, and if you listened long enough, you realized that essentially Marvel and some of the other people were cranking out copy after copy of Wolverine or Badger, right down the personality. I don't know if it is actually an archetype for real in the comics universe or Champions, but started referring to the whole bunch of them as Ferals right after they starting telling me about one named Mad Dog or Wild Dog or Dawg or some derivative crap.

 

 

Sorry. I really didn't mean to sound quite so bile-filled about 90s-era comics. I mean, I _am_, to be sure, but I didn't want to _sound_ like it.....

 

 

I would say that Savage Dragon was in the era but he wasn't really part of the genre.

Ha! You know, I had two players (brother and sister) who read Savage Dragon. They'd bring a couple with them to game night. I actually kind of _liked_ those. It was a step backwards to a more optimistic "the world will be okay" kind of story instead of all the other stuff my players would show up with. Stuff that really seemed like "Brood! Brood more! Brood harder! Brood more macho! Brood until it hurts! If you can't brood enough, people will notice how inexcusably emo you are! Brood till that eye glows, soldier!"

 

3) Spell words photonicly.

Please.... Please, please, _please_ tell me that was on purpose, because it was so "right-feeling" that I laughed loud enough to wake up the kids. That was awesome! Thanks.

 

 

 

 

Honestly, as far as naming your guys, you've got a ton of solid advice.

 

As far as naming your team, well you're really got a perfectly 90s-sounding name right there in the thread title: Bad Tymes. Unbelievable 90s: it doesn't mean anything, and suggests unpleasantness, and looks like it was spelled by the marketing department at a major sneaker company to appeal to 13-year-olds who want to be mistaken for what they think are super-fought street hooligans. Most importantly, it doesn't sound like it has any place being used to reference a group of people. The only way you could make it more 90s is to make the spelling more painful:

 

 

"Badd Tymezz" or something like that.

 

 

 

Flashback to my wife (her work hours are really odd: she's a nurse) developing a thing for a cartoon show called "Foster's Imaginary Friends" or something like that. She'd come in from work, we'd sit on the sofa and split a cup of coffee and a light snack while she watched that and started falling asleep. I recall little about that show (wasn't my thing), but I remember vividly an episode with a kid who had the most 90's name _ever_:

 

Jamez Withazee.

 

You know: James. With a 'z.'

 

I howled.

[Burrito Boy]

I'm glad you sounded bitter about 90s comics. Because everything you said was so spot on and so funny. "Brood till that eye glows, soldier!" Classic.

 

I'll like your posts as soon as the forum decides I'm mature enough to handle the responsibility.

[Duke Bushido]

Hey, thanks!

 

That's mighty kind of you.

 

And I know the feeling: I've got a short list on the desktop of posts I need to skip back to and spread some love.

[Duke Bushido]

I can't believe I missed this the first time through!

 

 

Using experimental XNA the military takes a mixed forces teams and tries to further the 2ndGen program. Giving the team low level abilities their children are born with natural abilites causing the government to instute both the 3rdGen program along with the "nannies" a squad assigned to capture runaway subjects and return them to the facility in Arizona.

Neat idea, and very 90s fiction. Kudos to you.

 

One question, though:

 

along with the "nannies" a squad assigned to capture runaway subjects

Given the 90s devotion to "unnecessary violence and gore = realistic and cool" and "all spell check is done with random spoons of Alpha Bits," wouldn't the group call themselves "the Baybie Slitturz" or something unnecessary grotesque along those lines?

[dmjalund]

Truant Squad

[bubba smith]

don't forget the MONSTER FORCE created to commemorate the 75th aniversary of the Unviersal monsters

[Duke Bushido]

don't forget the MONSTER FORCE created to commemorate the 75th aniversary of the Unviersal monsters

Did that really happen?!

I mean, I remember the massive cash-grab merchandising from chess sets to automotive decor, so I can't say it shocks me, but did they seriously make a monster force?

 

 

Truant Squad

You gotta Ninties that up a bit, man:

 

The N-forcerz of Truan-C.

 

 

Something like that.

 

 

 

Duke

[wcw43921]

don't forget the MONSTER FORCE created to commemorate the 75th aniversary of the Unviersal monsters

 

 

Did that really happen?!

I mean, I remember the massive cash-grab merchandising from chess sets to automotive decor, so I can't say it shocks me, but did they seriously make a monster force?

 

 

I remember in Weird War Tales (one of the last war comics DC published) there was a squad of soldiers that resembled the Universal monsters.  One man was wounded and somehow gained superhuman strength, but lost the ability to speak--he became a pseudo-Frankenstein.  Another, I think, had some sort of disorder that required lots of blood--he became a pseudo-vampire.  And the third member was afflicted with the mental disease lycanthropy, and was physically altered to become a pseudo-werewolf.  They were later joined by a female member after a lab accident turned her hair to snakes--she became a pseudo-medusa.  (That was her name--Doctor Medusa.  Which is kind of a cool name, actually.)

 

That's what I remember off the top of my head--someone with more time, please feel free to search for more complete information.

[Duke Bushido]

Oh; okay. Yeah- even though I'm not really comic-book savvy, at least not as it applies to super heroes, one of my brothers used to read Weird War Tales, and eventually I'd run out of things to read and pick up some of their comics (another brother read Jonah Hexx, so I was familiar enough with that one to both look forward to and really, really be disappointed with the movie)--

 

anyway: that group was called the Creature Commandos. I have no idea when they were or were not created, but I recall seeing them at some point in the late 70? Early 80s? I don't know: my youngest brother stopped with comics in high school, so it would have been early 80s at the latest.

[bubba smith]

Did that really happen?!

I mean, I remember the massive cash-grab merchandising from chess sets to automotive decor, so I can't say it shocks me, but did they seriously make a monster force?

 

 

 

You gotta Ninties that up a bit, man:

 

The N-forcerz of Truan-C.

 

 

Something like that.

 

 

 

Duke  yes it DID happen

[Duke Bushido]

While I am _certainly_ no opponent of capitalism, sometimes I am ashamed of our behavior.