Lord Liaden

And those states no longer exist. The Confederacy was defeated and absorbed. The Third Reich was defeated and abolished, and a new constitution was the basis for the current German republic. Anyone claiming to represent either of them or act in their name has no legal standing, other than as private citizens.

With that name and description, plus both working for VIPER, it's going to be really hard not to think of her as a mirror of Halfjack. If you really want her to be all those things yet still be her own person, a logical place to start would be her attitude toward that assumption. Let's say she hates her code-name, hates comparisons to Halfjack. Any other VIPER saying that in her presence is in for a world of hurt. That attitude plus Halfjack's mental instability might lead her to refuse to even work with him on a mission. Another way "Halfjill" might differ from Halfjack is that she could have wanted to become a cyborg, maybe even volunteered for augmentation. Women are a decided minority among VIPER agents, and have to push harder than the men to prove themselves and be accepted in a Nest, and advance up the ranks. Female VIPERs have a reputation for being even more ruthless than males. Jill may have seen cybernetics as key to raising her profile and power within VIPER. Which would only increase her resentment of being viewed as only a "lady Halfjack." Also, the entire-half-body layout for Halfjack needn't be the way Halfjill is built. I would suggest going the Steve Austin/Jamie Summers route, and replacing her arms and legs with bionics while keeping the rest of her body organic.

Very true. However, there was another Crusader written up for the Champions: New Millennium setting, completely different: a semi-immortal warrior born centuries past, wielding a magic sword. It wouldn't be hard to adapt him as the 1980s Crusader mentioned above, if desired. The New Millennium books utilized many characters from previous editions of Champions. Some were mostly the same in terms of background/history, but many were modified to a greater or lesser extent to fit the new continuity. OTOH no few characters and concepts introduced for CNM filtered into the 5E/6E CU in some form. The through-line over the whole history of the game is very clear.

The current official Champions setting is certainly broad enough and deep enough to support such a campaign. Unfortunately we couldn't expect anything like that to come officially through Hero Games for the foreseeable future. The company right now is little more than a one-man operation with support from freelancers and fans. The necessary oversight and coordination is more than Jason Walters has the time, personnel, or money to promote, organize and coordinate. Nor am I familiar with fans with enough of those things to take on the responsibility themselves. The games you cite as examples of living campaigns are all much more widely known, with a much larger player base, than Hero Games and Champions has today. Even the Champions Online MMORPG is a fairly small fish in that pond. It's a wonderful idea, but I'm afraid I can't see a way clear to making it happen at this time.

So, did the fish swallow the cat, but it was too big and its limbs burst through? Or did the cat eat the fish hollow and climbed inside for a nap?

I'm pretty confident if Thor had been in shape he would have wailed on Thanos as hard as Cap did. If Steve had just had backup at that moment Thanos would probably have gone down. I'd add Dr. Strange to that list. MCU brutish Hulk has the raw power, but has repeatedly struggled against opponents close to his level with more skill and experience. Banner Hulk is more disciplined, but also smaller and presumably weaker. Strange and Wanda are no tougher physically than other humans, which shows when they're caught by surprise. Thor is at his best with a weapon to focus and channel his power. Captain Marvel really is the full package, blending superhuman physicality and energy powers with extensive training and decades of experience, and needing no tools besides herself.

Why would a superhero have to deposit conjured or transmuted cash? Superheroes are supposed to be the best of us, to stand for principles. Even the rich ones came by their money honestly. To be sure there are supers, like Lady Blue, who exist in a grey zone, breaking laws but still doing some good along the way; but they aren't heroes.

It wasn't the shirtlessness that bothered me, at least not much. Other comic characters are bare-chested. It was the illogic of someone raised and trained by a ninja, the epitome of stealth, whose dress and whole manner is the most attention-grabbing imaginable.

The grey guy with the sword is the Cryptic-revised look for Ironclad. Subsequent Champions books render him the same way. I suppose Cryptic wanted a more "gladiatorial" appearance for an ex-gladiator.

Yeah, I know what Feige said about Captain Marvel, but Thor with Stormbreaker was just as devastating as her. And unlike CM, Thor fought Thanos armed with the full Infinity Gauntlet, and nearly killed him. Clearly, if Thor had been in normal fighting form at the end of Endgame, Thanos would have had a much tougher fight on his hands.

Fan-made teaser for the movie, compiling the bits of actual footage released so far. I must say I like the changes to Kong's appearance. He's not only bigger, he looks more mature, and more powerful, than in Skull Island.

Porch pirate gets stuck in snowbank during attempted getaway

AFAICT you've covered the roster changes pretty thoroughly. Part of the inconsistency in who's a Champion over time can be attributed to what Cryptic Studios mandated after they bought the Champions IP for their MMORPG, Champions Online. The CU 2010 and 2012 lineups are the characters Cryptic wanted. Cryptic made several changes to the official timeline and various other aspects of the CU to match their vision. Most notably, Doctor Destroyer did not make his public return in 2002; that became Cryptic's own creation, "Shadow Destroyer," pretending to be DD. I'm not aware of any write-ups for Blockhead, Crusader, or Tekno; their mention on Champions Universe p. 89 is the only info I can find about them. However, there was another previous user of the name "Crusader," a "sword-wielding" solo vigilante active in New York during the 1980s (CU p. 15). There's no indication of whether they're connected. I've also been operating on the assumption that Blockhead is depicted on the cover of Champions Universe, i.e. the concrete-looking fellow in a suit in the lower left corner.

I think part of it, as I wrote earlier, is that they were treating the whole thing like a game, not seriously thinking about being killed. They were also caught up in the passion of the moment. Now they've cooled off, and reality is knocking very hard at their door. They were also part of a pack, and probably felt safety in their numbers. But each of them is facing these charges alone.

Personally, I prefer the version of Seeker from the Champions: New Millennium setting. A much more original concept and interesting background IMO.

Maybe because every experience and information they had about Thanos was that he's a sadistic mass-murdering messianic psychopath. Would you try to debate someone like that, or kill him at your first opportunity? Besides, Thanos never gave any hint that he was open to alternatives. He's had this goal as long as Gamora has known him. He's obviously not stupid, so if he wanted to entertain another course he would have by now. But sure, the change in motivation was calculated. Being literally, romantically in love with Death is a hard thing to relate to, and Death incarnate hadn't been established in the MCU yet. Movie Thanos' motivation is at least comprehensible, even though misguided. You can follow his reasoning, and appreciate why he sees his actions as ultimately benevolent. It adds a dimension of empathy that, frankly, comic Thanos lacks.

It's like the discussion of Doctor Destroyer's personality in his eponymously-titled Book. You can call such megalomaniacs insane, but are they really insane if they can back it up? Going back to Thanos, he set himself a goal that was practically impossible to achieve, but despite all the obstacles in his path, and everything he lost and sacrificed, he achieved that goal. As monstrous as his actions were, you have to admire his skill, cunning, and determination.

With respect, I would dispute Seeker being an "original" concept. As an aggregate he's unique, but IMO he's an aggregate of cliches. I also strongly suspect that him being Australian from the Outback (Crocodile Dundee), and a martial artist (legions of movie versions since Bruce Lee), came first, and the ninja mentor was rationalized afterward. Because nothing says "ninja" like a bare-chested white-skinned man in blousey white pants who likes to swing from chandeliers.

Or, they were offering an accurate portrait of someone suffering an obsessive delusion by which he rationalizes his actions, who happens to have the power and will to make it come true. Thanos doesn't need to imagine an alternative course of action. He's utterly convinced himself that the course he plans to take is the right one. Like I wrote before, this sort of mindset is not uncommon in real life. You can pop over to the Political Discussion thread for some examples.

Yeah, MC was one of the first books I thought to look in. I even have the PDF to search, but I didn't think to input either "Australian" or "ninja" as a search term.

YES!! Thank you so much, GP01! That was driving me crazy. I wasted too much time and effort looking for "Seeker," which this book didn't name, just calling him an "Australian ninja." BTW I had also noticed that the MC book included a cover for the fictional Champions comic on page 52, which the banner declared, "Down Under and Outback -- The Senses Shattering Conclusion -- The Final Fate of Seeker!" With the image of who is clearly Seeker being strangled. Poor Don. Even in 5E he's still getting beaten up on covers.

Legally, no. Open and declared conflict between the armed forces of two or more states or nations, is the legal definition of war. The actions of these people could certainly be argued to be a rebellion or insurrection. I don't like to sound nit-picky, but the problems the US is experiencing now have been complicated by people throwing terms around without clarifying their literal meaning. And literal meaning is vitally important in American jurisprudence, which strives to restrict the possibility of abuse of the law by setting a clear standard for a particular charge to be met. EDIT: Also, what unclevlad said.

Whether this counts as "making war" is at best highly debatable, legally.

I mean, he is "the Mad Titan," not "the Debatable Titan." Thanos, despite being extremely intelligent, perceptive, and cunning, had been living with his delusion of saving the Universe for so long, he was no longer capable of seeing the logical flaws in his position. A fault not at all uncommon among humans, as well. But remember that Thanos' example of negative outcomes isn't Earth, it's his home world of Titan, where the disaster he predicted actually came to pass. Whether it came to pass for the reasons Thanos believes is another issue.

And I'm grateful for you taking the time to do that, Spence. The only other print reference to Seeker I can find now in 5E/6E books, which is consistent with the fictional character concept I outlined above, is from Vibora Bay p. 50. The import/export company, Transnational Container, is sitting on ten thousand Seeker action figures which they bought on speculation, and haven't been able to find a buyer for at any price. It's actually rather ironic, in that Seeker is the protagonist and central character in IMHO one of the better books Steve Long wrote for Champions, Watchers of the Dragon. Steve succeeded in making Seeker/Don Morgan believable, interesting, even compelling. But I guess the union of Steve Long with Don Morgan was purely contractual.