Armitage

Back when major news sites still had comment sections, any article about atheism almost always had at least one person asking "If you don't believe in God, what's stopping you from robbing, raping, and killing all the time?" Just because you're apparently a potential serial killer only kept in check by your fear of divine punishment, that doesn't mean everyone else also lacks the ability to form an internal moral code, even though believing that might make you feel better about yourself.

It reminds me of the Republican state legislatures that transferred powers from the Governor to themselves in the period between a Democrat being elected Governor and the Governor taking office.

The Red October BBS had a big selection of unique characters. The content of the site (and other material) is still available archived on Shelley Chrystal Mactyre's site.

It's illegal to make false statements to the House of Representatives, not in the House of Representatives. A complaint was also filed today asserting that the treasurer hired to handle his campaign funds, and legally required by the FEC, doesn't actually exist.

It also reminds me a little of Harness and Piecemeal from the various X-Book annuals back in 1991. A mysterious figure in powered armor was dragging an abused mutant child around the world, using his powers to absorb the remnants of Proteus' energy while verbally and physically abusing the child. Harness was eventually revealed to be Piecemeal's mother.

See also, for example, the times recently that a Republican state legislature has passed laws to strip power from their state's Governor and give it to themselves in the period between a Democrat getting elected Governor and taking office.

So was Trump in 2016. He won, but lost the Popular vote, so he insisted that millions of fraudulent votes had been cast for his opponent and he had actually won the Popular vote too.

This is likely to be our future now, thanks to Trump. A prominent Republican loses and they immediately start shouting fraud, demanding an investigation, filing lawsuits, etc.

Way back in the old "Gadgets" book from 1986 there was a Neutrino Beamer that only affected targets who had force fields, since the beam doesn't interact with physical matter. In that case, it was built as ALD (what it was called at the time) against Force Fields with the -1 Limitation that it only did damage against targets with Force Fields. Anyone without a Force Field was immune and someone with a Force Field could only apply that against the damage. Obviously that was multiple editions ago and the rules are different now, and I'm not sure how the concept could be applied to Life Support.

They didn't sufficiently embrace him and his policies. Trump cannot fail, he can only be failed.

She means underpopulated with the right sort of people.

I was going to mention this. One element is a female character being reduced to an object whose only purpose is to motivate a male character. Similar to BoloOfEarth's Genocide story, many years ago our GM sent us against the Seven Horsemen, from "Wrath of the Seven Horsemen". As written, Plague's signature attack was a Continuous Uncontrolled Cumulative Transform that caused a debilitating illness that imposed reduced CV and increased END costs for all powers and abilities. The GM decided to replace it with a Continuous Uncontrolled BODY Drain and almost immediately killed a long-running PC.

There was an old Adventurer's Club article that mentioned a team of villains that included a little old lady with a bunch of Invisible Drain and NND attacks based on her ability to mentally disrupt a target's biological processes. (The article was actually about the creative use of Presence attacks. When the heroes detected her and moved to stop her, she made a Presence attack on the crowd around her, convincing them that crazy heroes were about to attack a harmless senior citizen and they should protect her.)

Marvel is apparently publishing it themselves.

It was probably a retcon, but like I mentioned in my post, Enemies for Hire made them cousins.

There was also Kryogen in the 4e book Enemies for Hire. He was the son of Icicle and Starburst, aging at an accelerated rate, so that he's currently a child who looks like an adult. His parents were kidnapped by a villain and he started working with Crusader (who is apparently Icicle's cousin) to pretend to be a villain in order to infiltrate the underworld and try to find his parents. Crusader then died in the events described in Underworld Enemies, leaving him alone and stuck with everyone thinking he's a villain.

I don't think it was in the original, but the new Strike Force sourcebook revealed that their Earth was being manipulated by a powerful cosmic alien that became known as the Governor, in the sense of a device that limits the speed of a vehicle. It was conducting an experiment on how it would affect a civilization if its technological advancement was artificially stagnated. It was the explanation for why super-geniuses and super technology never caused general increases in the world's technology level. Once the Governor was driven off, heroes and villains could suddenly reliably mass produce their technology and it started transforming into a more science fiction superhero setting.

It wasn't until years after I read it that I realized the last panel in this Special School comic was referencing the Jester.

Marvel once did a limited series that ended with Juggernaut being given the opportunity to be a sanctioned bounty hunter for the US government, maybe connected to the Justice Department or the US Marshals. I don't remember. The next time he appeared though, the writer tossed it away with a casual line about how it had been a scam to escape from custody. It pissed me off, since his government liaison had been the woman who was his wife and the mother of his Avenger son J2 in the MC2 universe.

As an extension of his known germophobia, I didn't think he would be willing to let scientists tamper with his body, so I went with technology.

Issa Rae has been cast as Jessica Drew in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2.

I recently read an alternate history short story in which a young Donald Trump attends the historic 1951 playoff game between the Giants and the Dodgers* and catches the game winning home run ball. The attention, this being the first nationally televised baseball game, causes him to become obsessed with baseball. For the rest of his life he brags about the amazing catch that nobody else could have made and the multimillion dollar offers he receives for the ball. He buys the Mets and builds them a new stadium (Trump Field, naturally). Baseball becomes the focus of his life. It made me think. In a superhero universe that incorporates real-life people, what if he became obsessed with superheroes? He hires heroes to form a team that works for his company. No doubt called Team Trump, Trump Force, or something similar. Gaudy costumes with lots of gold trim. Either a large "T" or the word "Trump" on every costume. Possibly incorporating the outdated excesses of `90s "EXTREME" comic book costumes. A large ugly headquarters, probably resembling a tacky casino. Maybe they even operate out of a casino in Atlantic City. Lots of public appearances, PR work, and business promotions. Team-related merchandise of every imaginable type. Rumors of staged fights with criminals and supervillains. Maybe Trump himself makes public appearances as a member of the team sometimes, using powered armor or other technology. It would definitely be gold plated. *The author admitted at the end of the story that Trump would have only been five years old at the time of the game, so he adjusted things to make him older.

This is the same group that claimed a cicada landing on President Biden during a speech was a secret message too.

There was a short-lived TV series called "APB" that was basically what if Bruce Wayne used his fortune to upgrade the GCPD instead of becoming Batman. One of the elements was a free app that people could use to report crimes directly to the district's central dispatcher to improve response time. There was a problem with people submitting false reports because they wanted to see what would happen and didn't think anyone was actually going to show up.

It almost looks like cover art from one of those old "men's adventure" magazines, where a guy in tattered clothing would be getting attacked by a swarm of coconut crabs or fist-fighting a mountain lion.