FenrisUlf

I couldn't find pictures of Hornet or Vanguard in CU, but Vanguard is depicted fighting Dr. Destroyer in his old armor on p. 19 of BOTD. Man, those Eighties sideburns look straight out of an old porn movie.
 
Scott Bennie wrote up the last Red Ensign, as well as the history of the family line that used that identity, for Champions Of The North, but it and a bunch of other stuff was cut for space. However, Scott assembled that material into a PDF, Champions Of The North Outtakes, which he posted for free on these forums. I don't think it's here any more, but I'll attach it to this post.
 
And some version of Captain Australia was considered "official" for the 4E incarnation of the Champions Universe, but not this one. His first mention was in 4E Champions Universe, predating Hero System Almanac I.
 
For the Son of Satan types, one example is Pagan whom Dean Shomshak and I described upthread. Another is Josiah Brimstone in Champions Villains Volume Three, a sorcerer whose soul was stolen by the arch-devil Belial and replaced with that of a powerful demon. Brimstone isn't really a villain, and tries to do "the right thing," but the "demonsoul" taints his attitude and behavior, and sometimes gains temporary control of his body.
 
In that regard Brimstone also has something of Ghost Rider, but his more explicit CU analogue was the Speed Demon, a demonically-possessed trucker whose "lucky charm" allowed him to take the demon's form but retain his own mind. Speed Demon used his powers as a supernatural "Good Samaritan" while on his routes to and from Vibora Bay, between 1972 and 1983 when he lost his powers. He's described on VB p. 15.
COTNOuttakes.pdf

I used the Zodiac Working as the origin for my character Young Scratch, who's about midway between Daimon Hellstrom and Little Nicky on the devil-kid spectrum. Asmodeus was my demonic father of choice for him, and I threw a couple of Easter eggs into his background like the surname Woodhouse and occasional references to knowing "Aunt Yoko" from a childhood spent at the Dakota Apartments.

An excellent bit of research! May I add a note or two?
 
As an addendum to the Vandaleur entry, you might mention the other occult dynasties of the CU. The Sylvestri clan of Satanists is comparable in size and power, and detailed in CV2. All known super-powered members are v illains (it comes with the family background), but it is conceivable that a Sylvestri might turn against their heritage while retaining their aptitude for magic. (Though I would not be surprised if they'd been retroactively edited out of Champions Online to make the setting more "family friendly": This is a *very* dark concept and group of villains.)
 
Other dynasties were mentioned in The Mystic World. The Chunhu, a clan of therianthropes, hold a powerful place in the mystic subculture of the Far East: One, "Tiger-Man, acts as a hero in Hong Kong but AFAIK has never been written up. The Kayvanzadi dynasty still flourishes in the Middle East, especially their native Iran. The Magambo of central Africa remain mysterious: The group seems to be made of some sort of vampire, but what sort is not defined, and their name is an ordinary Central African name. It's like being told to beware of the dark power of the Johnsons.
 
I can also add a few *completely unofficial* personal details to the Zodiac Working. This was my first essay into Shared Origins for my own campaigns, though the PCs only met two villains derived from it (Frag and a fellow called Hotspur who wielded a flaming sword). I wrote up a villain team of Zodiac Working progeny called the Demonic Convergence, but never got a chance to use them. But I offer the concept for anyone who wants to make the Working an important part of their CU campaign.
 
Finally, Pagan is my own PC from a friend's campaign. A 4th ed writeup appears in Ultimate Super-Mage under the name Morningstar. As this was a friend's campaign, not mine, his siring was not part of some greater plan (I left open who arranged his conception, but my friend never developed this.) By the time Steve Long ported much of my USM material into the official CU, there was already a Morningstar, so I changed the name to Pagan to prevent confusion. Not that I would expect anyone to buy the .pdf of USM from the HERO store just to get that obsolete writeup.
 
Dean Shomshak

Let's see, Super Agents introduced a few which weren't carried over to 5E or 6E: RAVEN, Starguard International, Near Space Defense. Raven was modified (including dropping the all-caps) for An Eye for an Eye for Dark Champions 4E. Special American Tactics (SAT) was introduced in the old Deathstroke module, elaborated in Super Agents, and redefined and updated to 4E in Hero System Almanac II.  Dean Shomshak came up with some interesting supernatural orgs: Ouroboros and the Vril Society in The Ultimate Super Mage, and Hunters Moon in The Super Mage Bestiary. Ouroboros also got a dedicated villain team, "The Chosen of Abraxas," in Digital Hero #4.
 
Details for any of the above available upon request. I'll see what else I can think of.

Was going to. Still like to find a few older characters to include in the book or at least a list of alumni.
 
Making a new series called Forgotten Organizations, they will be included also Sanctuary, Neutral Ground, not sure who else. May put Witch there
 
 
 
 
 

Is an idea

True.
 
If you remove Darkion you can do a book on the Ubermachien and the villains created by them, along with Professor Pomegranate.
 
Or maybe not...

Well, there is my version of Professor Pomegranate, Tiger's version of him, and of course the creator's version of him.

Humm...Darkon would be a good issue to put stats for both Blonde Bombshell and Professor Pomegranate, both who never had stats written up for.
 
Then again it wouldn't actually be a Forgotten Enemies then, would it.
 
Sparkler. Considering the entire everything happening in Mexico and South America, and especially Mexico, you can do a lot with her. You can do a section about using her in a more political way, or a more standard way.

If we do the entire "everything Timemaster" issue, here would be how I do it.
 
Original Classic Enimies Timemaster.
 
Timemonster: a version of Timemaster who got overwhelmed by tempral power and now is a time traveling being of temporal power, doing things like sending Bulletproof into the future. 
 
The Crono Kaiser: Self proclaimed ruler of the time stream. Very high powered. Not necessarily pure evil, but places himself and his existence above everyone and everything. 
 
Time Guardian: Thinks himself a tempral vigilante. The closest we would come for Timemaster being a superhero. 

Thinking about the other Psi-Kin siblings.
 
Alabaster: He has complete telekinetic control of his cell stricter. This calls for classic Plastic Man style shape changing, stretching, and extra physical limbs whenever he wishes. Also, he has complete telekinetic control of anything he touches. This is represented by Regeneration Usable By Others (cause there is no Healing in Champions 3). He could easily telekinetically taken apart any object he touches (transform, HKA NND Does Body). Forcently for all, Alabaster doesn't like to kill.
 
Emerald: I can see her do things with her shield. From forming up to four floating green shields, to warping people up in her shield, to creating walls.
 
Indigo: He is the guy who actually have the TK power. Unlike his siblings, he has a nice mix of normal "mental" powers and other mental powers. I can't see how he can improve.

Humm...if Beamline would form such a group, using villains forgotten by 5th and 6th edition, who would he use?
 
Ladybug has the scientific chops to join.
 
Professor Pomagranet comes to mind, except Heroic Publishing is using him. Along with the Ubermachien villains. Perhaps a new villain with a similar random power granting machine?
 
Malachite is a genetic supervillain and would be world conquer who is also a potential member of this group. Unbenounced to all (including Malachite), his 'rival' Telos is monitoring everything Malachite does (also unbenounced to everyone, Malachite is a clone of Telos, designed to experiment different mutations before he tries them upon himself).
 
Doctor Lirby Koo is also a scientist when he is not busy being a martial artist criminal mastermind.
 
Monopole from Enemies Viliancy Unbound is no scientist. Still, he provides the extremely secure computer network they all use to contact each other. Also, he is a self-taught expert in magnetics and electronics. And he has extremely deep contacts in the super-criminal underworld (it pays to publish an underground supervillain newspaper).
 
And...Mammoth from European Enemies? He has the intelligence to join, but would Beamline let him? He is a brick, you know. And we know how Beamline feels about bricks.

I'd like to see an updated Beamline, myself.  I had the idea that he would try and form his own villain team--the Society for Scientific Supremacy, an organization he hoped would realize his dreams of a scientific oligarchy.  I figured he'd recruit such characters as Avar-7, Ladybug, Thunderbolt (pre-Ultimates) and Vibron (the original)  While the first two may be "forgotten," the other two already have a place in the current Champions Universe.  Perhaps Charger could be brought back and given a place in the Society, and the original Vibron brought back and given a new name.  Or you could find other science and tech-oriented villains to join with Beamline.
 
Hope that helps.

One of my favorite parts of this book to write was the chapter on archetypes, which refers back to the earliest breakdowns of superheroic "character classes" from Champions. I address all of the different subtypes of Bricks, Energy Projectors, etc. present in the Golden Age, rename a couple (the "Martial Artist" is better explained as the "Mystery Man"), and add a fistful of brand new subarchetypes. Forthwith to demonstrate, an excerpt from "The Sidekick":
 
<4> The Derivative Kid
The first type of Sidekick to spring to most players’ minds, the Derivative Kid has more or less the same powers or skills as his mentor at a lower level, a costume either based on his mentor’s or specifically designed to stand out in contrast, and the stock standard personality for kids in 1930s and 40s popular culture: inquisitive bordering on outright nosey, brave, usually a wisecracker, and with an absolute faith in and even hero worship of the adult he’s working alongside. Robin defines the archetype the same way Batman does that of the Mystery Man, and his popularity led to a small army of clones: Bucky (Captain America), Speedy (Green Arrow), Sandy (Sandman), Pinky (Mr. Scarlet), Stuff the Chinatown Kid (Vigilante), and Dusty (The Shield.) The Guardian had an entire team of noncostumed preteens similar to the Our Gang kids of the movies in the Newsboy Legion. In a rare gender switch, Cat-Man took on a girl Sidekick named Kitten. If the mentor hero has superpowers, his Sidekick might as well. Toro had the same powers as the Human Torch, usually portrayed as being a few Active Points less. Similarly, Dan the Dyna-Mite (TNT) and Roy the Super Boy (Wizard) had similar powers to their mentors.
 
<4> Female Counterpart
Several superheroes of the period had their girlfriends wind up joining them in their war against injustice on occasion. Most notable was Hawkgirl, who appeared in Hawkman’s first story as Shiera Saunders, and was eventually given her own set of wings and costumed identity. (In the retconned stories of the All-Star Squadron, she keeps up protecting the homefront when her husband enlists after Pearl Harbor.) Bulletman created a second Gravity Regulator Helmet for his girlfriend Susan to wear, and she joined him in his adventures as Bulletgirl. Doll Man’s girlfriend Martha underwent a similar transformation late in the Golden Age, duplicating her boyfriend’s power to shrink and adopting a costumed identity. The Human Torch briefly teamed with Sun Girl, who had no powers but was armed with several interesting gadgets that were given no explanation, including a “Sun Gun” that fired blinding light beams.
 
<4> Comic Relief
Several superheroes in the Golden Age had Sidekicks who were mostly suited to slapstick comedy rather than serious superheroing, even if the hero himself was generally not portrayed as particularly lighthearted. Green Lantern was frequently aided by a portly taxi driver named Doiby Dickles, who would drive his cab “Goitrude” into dangerous situations armed only with a ludicrous approximation of a Brooklyn accent. Captain Marvel, who had already acquired a superpowered “family” consisting of his long-lost sister Mary and best friend Freddy Freeman (better known as Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel Junior) also had a recurring sidekick named Uncle Marvel, a “lovable old fraud” character who claimed to also have superpowers that his various physical ailments prevented him from showing off at that particular moment. Plastic Man was regularly aided by Woozy Winks, a doltish ex-con who once saved the life of a wizard and was rewarded by being gifted with invulnerability.
 
<4> The Boy In Charge
A similar archetype to the Sidekick is the Boy In Charge, a teen (or even younger child) with no or limited powers but who has access to a much more capable ally who for whatever reason is bound to the young hero and follows his orders. The ally can vary widely in power level, from a cheerful adult bruiser of a chauffeur to a magical genie who can grant wishes in a wink. Examples of this type include Star-Spangled Kid & Stripesy, Johnny Thunder, The Boy King, and Kid Eternity (who summoned any number of temporary Sidekicks from the mists of history.) Two players can work together to create this sort of partnership if the characters themselves are of approximately the same value (perhaps one is smart and skilled while the other handles the rougher stuff.) Otherwise, it’s best to have the player build the more powerful servant as their primary PC, with appropriate limitations to reflect that the “sidekick” is actually the one in charge. Perhaps the more powerful ally can only appear for a limited amount of time each day, or is inconveniently sized for some activities (like the Boy King’s giant statue.)
 
<4> Unusual Sidekicks
Some comicbook Sidekicks defy any sort of categorization. The Vigilante was occasionally assisted by an ornery old cowboy named Billy Gunn, who the hero had met when he was running an arcade at Times Square and persuaded to come out of “retirement.” The Crimson Avenger, who in many ways resembled the radio show hero the Green Hornet, further appropriated the idea of an Asian sidekick like Kato, called Wing. Unfortunately, where Kato was an impressive combatant, skilled driver and inventor of Green Hornet’s souped-up car, Wing mostly told jokes in pidgin dialect while his mentor did the crimefighting. Captain Marvel had yet another occasional sidekick in Tawky Tawny, an anthropomorphic tiger who wore a loud suit and hat. An actual tiger who had been given a serum that allowed him to walk and talk like a human being, Tawky became friends with Captain Marvel after accidentally causing a panic in the city, and took a job as a docent at the Museum of Natural History when he wasn’t helping his pal fight criminals...

Here's the exception that proves the rule, circa 1944, the first Asian superhero http://comicvine.gamespot.com/green-turtle/4005-61241/

He learned how to fly and gained his heat vision and many super-senses by 1945. He also withstood two atomic bomb blasts, flew through the molten core of the earth and into the sun by 1946. When did the Golden Age end and silver begin for Supes, who was published with no hiatus? Point being, he evolved to massively powerful pretty quick in the Golden Age.
 

Two points of order.
 
First, throughout the Golden Age, Superman and Batman were not really "part of a team". The Justice Society rule was that all characters featured had to have their own ongoing feature (that's why Hourman was dropped in favour of Starman), but could not have their own monthly book - such characters became honorary members. Superman and Batman were honorary throughout the Golden Age (but did appear in one issue, I believe redrawn to replace two other characters, and also appeared in a Johnny Thunder strip in #7). Wonder Woman was treated similarly as the JSA secretary, and Flash and Green Lantern eventually became honorary members on receiving their own books.
 
Second, the "team" Golden Age books were not really team books. JSA was written as "Opening and closing bookends" with a solo story for each hero in between. Later in its run, the "in betweens" became more than one character (typically only one or two, not sure if it was ever 3) at a time due to declining page counts. Seven Soldiers of Victory followed the same format. Initial JLA followed a similar format of small sub-teams in chapters.
 
Marvel had no formal teams, really. The All-Winners Squad appeared all of twice, in 1946, following the same format.
 
That's a tough format to model into a game - maybe GAC will comment on that?
 
Wildcat also only appeared once in JSA in the Golden Age (as did Mr. Terrific) I believe when the publishers of National and Detective (for which All-Star was a joint book) got into a scrap so one group's characters did not appear.
 
Green Lantern as originally portrayed used his ring to charge his own body with lantern-energy, so he was strong, fast and tough, but new powers rapidly followed (much like Superman). Continuity was a lot looser, so powers tended to come and go. Pretty sure before the end of the JSA run, Atom had super-strength.

Superman, in his first appearances, was strong, tough (not invulnerable, but "nothing less than a bursting shell could pierce his skin) and could leap over a tall building.  That was it.  The rest (and the power escalation) came later.  
 
Martian Manhunter is (kind of) the first Silver Age superhero, and fits that mold much better than the Golden Age mold.
 
There are, as always, exceptions to the Golden Age heroes usually had simple power concepts, but the fact that the exceptions stand out kind of supports the idea.  Many heroes had no powers, many had a single power. 
 
Some noteworthy DC heroes (mostly concentrating on heroes who were part of a team)
================================================================
Batman - no powers, limited gadgets, skilled (but not the "bat god" of today) fighter.
Hourman - Super strength for one hour.
Hawk Man - Fly
Atom - no powers
Dr. Midnight - see in the dark
Flash - run/move real fast (very few of the modern-era speedster tricks)
Wonder Woman - strong, deflect bullets with bracelets, magic rope of truth.
Sandman - Sleep gas gun.
Crimson Avenger - No powers
Wildcat - no powers
Black Canary - no powers
Green Arrow - trick arrows
Star Spangled Kid & Stripesy - no powers
Shining Knight - A flying horse, armor, and sword
Staman - Gravity Rod (precursor to his Cosmic Rod) Let him fly and move things (with gravity)
 
The "simple" concept falls apart with DC's mystic yahoos: Green Lantern / Dr. Fate / Johnny Thunder / Spectre - Ill defined mystic abilities that did whatever the writer wanted (at least until Dr. Fate got temporarily emasculated).
 
Over in Marve-land  (mostly concentrating on heroes who were part of a team)
=========================================================
Human Torch - Fly, flame blast, minor defense to some physical attacks due to flaming body
Namor - Strong, tough (nearly bulletproof), fly, swim, breath underwater
Captain America - barely powered plus shield
Red Raven - Fly
Blue Diamond - nearly invulnerable
Miss America - Strength, Flight, (and X-ray vision for a while, but that went away)
Whizzer - speed (but even fewer speed-tricks than the GA Flash)
Thin Man - could get extremely thin (conceptually simple, although systme-mechanically a bit involved)
Patriot - No powers

Sure, a few times. They were present when the Atlantic Charter was signed, saving both FDR and Churchill from Atlantean assassins. The Axis Legion tried to get him a couple of times, mostly for the morale hit we would have taken. Captain Patriot worked as his personal bodyguard a lot (he was one of my GM NPCs and I periodically needed to get him out of the story for a bit, as I disliked playing more than one at a time.) dw

Hence the Mechanically-Enhanced Brick in the archetype list. There were several robots (a couple of which were human brains in cans), and at least one notable retcon in Commander Steel (who was basically the Six Million Dollar Man thirty years early, making him at best the Two Or Three Million Dollar Man.)

I can't answer what would break the feel of YOUR game, nor am I in the business of "forbidding" anybody's fun. I simply say in the book that the idea of eastern martial arts was far less pervasive in pop culture during the period, and far less common in character backgrounds. The more "period" your game is, the more it will stand out as unusual. If you're looking at the GA from a retro perspective, taking into account lenses from other periods and other fiction, then it becomes much more of a common trope- the kind of fiction that, say, Iron Fist draws on retcons characters into that period who clearly use such arts, the same way lucha history presumes a historical line of luchadores extending far back before the arrival of masked wrestlers in actual Mexican culture, or the way Judomaster was retconned into WWII-era stories in the Silver Age. 

The same, for example, goes for powered-armor heroes. The trope of suits of exo-armor providing strength, protection and weaponry was popularized by Heinlein in the Fifties, so there aren't really any historical examples of GA comic heroes using it. Does that mean you can't put one in your own game? Of course not. But the book will explain why they're not common, and why *I* didn't include any in the CU.

<cough> John Fulton was Archimago's real name. See Creatures of the Night: Horror Enemies for his story, though I don't recall offhand how closely Steve Long kept to that in assembling the CU.
 
Dean Shomshak

Cool! Any chance of a glimpse of an occultist named John Fulton who's kind of sleazy but too damn smart? Or other master villains before they became master villains?
 
Dean Shomshak

I'm not sure "Insanity" really fits here. To me, this is more an example of what my cousin, a long-time law enforcement officer, would call "Felony Stupid". 

I'm not sure that's true....
 
Certainly people don't buy an RPG *just* for the art but I have also certainly bought any number of RPGs over the years sheerly based on cover and interior art. 
 
I think any pile of words can be a functional game system. I don't think people buy RPGs because of the words.
 
I think the book has to spark something in the person. Blue and yellow don't spark nuthin' for me.
 
Dr. D vs Seeker made me want to play that game without ever reading it.
 
I remember loads of Classic Enemies based on their art.
I remember buying Champions in 3d based almost solely on the cover art.
 
Since we're a bunch of Hero nerds here I know we all love our system of choice but I don't really think a system has ever sold a game.
I think art sells games.
 
Art invokes creativity.
Art informs potential buyers\players about all kinds of things about the game without them having to read a proverbial thousand words.
Art actually gets potential players to read those thousand or more words of the rules to actually play the game.
 
Shadowrun? Battletech? Bought 'em for the art.
Warhammer\40k? Art. In fact Warhammer and it's family are probably the best case for art being the only thing that really matters. IMO.
All those terrible Palladium games I used to play? It was the art that did it for sure.
Talislanta? Barely remember the system. Loooooove the art and the world and still wanna play that game solely based on the art.
 
Rules are bullshit (to an extent)\no plan survives contact with the enemy.
 
But pretty pictures are always pretty.
 
Art sells product.
 
IMO at least.
 
Gets pricey tho!