Steve

As LL says, read the early stories.  He has trouble with enemies including:
 
 - an old man with a flying suit;
 - a pudgy scientist with robotic arms;
 - a cowboy, a bulky thug and a midget who knows martial arts.
 
Just off the top.
 
If you write Spidey more powerful, some enemies can be scaled up, but others don't make as much sense scaled up to match SuperSpidey.

he works as a teen(300pts)
and normal super (400pts+)
or as a veteran(500+)
it really just depends on the game

Somewhere in between.
 
He had the strength and agility to dominate those normal foes but was far more conscious of hurting them than they were of him.
 
Ultimate Spider-Man didn't want to go through the years of character progression and stressed the difference between him and normals much faster. He wasn't really more powerful but they didn't want to tell the same stories, so the difference was highlighted.
 

I agree. At the start of his career, Spidey had trouble fighting opponents who were really just exceptional humans, e.g. the Enforcers, Mysterio, the Kingpin, Man-Mountain Marko.

My opinion is a "Teen Champion".

Drhoz (pron: Droz, BTW, not Dr Hoz), used to record and transcribe back in the day, but lack of energy/spare time means that he Google Docs it during sessions, then a tidies up when he gets around to posting.

I miss @Drhoz. It’s been too long since the last update.

The party consists of three characters, each built as Powerful Heroes (225 points and 50 Complication points).
 
1) US Marshall Daniel Doyle (character image is Clint Eastwood from one of his early westerns): A revenant that keeps this a secret and is dedicated to hunting evil. Talented with a gun and durable.
2) Sergio Cortez: (character image is Antonio Banderas from the Mariachi movie): A bounty hunter of both men and monsters. A thrillseeking womanizer who is in this for the money. A prototype of Zorro without a secret ID who is very handy with a sword and very stealthy.
3) Samuel Smith (character image is Bruce Campbell from The Adventures of Briscoe County, Jr): A cowboy with immense gun skills who is a weirdness magnet rather than an actual hunter.
 
Two of the characters are armed with cap and ball handguns except for Marshall Doyle, who is armed with one of the earliest brass cartridge weapons available as of 1855 (a French-made Lefaucheux M1854).
 
In the first session, Doyle and Cortez are tracking something heading west, which they think is a werewolf. They discover that both a small nest of vampires and at least one werewolf are in Fort Yuma. During the session, Sam is bitten once by a vampire and later by a werewolf, injured but not badly so.

After some delays due to holidays, illnesses and personal business, we had another session of the campaign.
 
Sam achieved the trifecta by getting bitten by a zombie, in addition to his previous bites by a vampire and werewolf. The trio intercepted a message to ‘Lord Black’ and ended up accepting a bounty from him when he confronted them the next morning. He had some Pinkerton goons with him at the time, and he was quite put out because someone burned down the eucalyptus trees he was growing to provide railroad ties for his planned railroad from Texas to California.
 
Most of the session was spent dealing with Bella Rosa, a headless witch with a sizable collection of severed heads she can use as her own. Her favorites were kept in a closet in her room.
 
The womanizing Cortez gets quite willingly seduced by her, and he ends up increasingly enthralled by her witchcraft. Doyle and Sam tried to figure out what to do about the creepy but beautiful witch and Doyle ended up using a quantity of dynamite to blow up her hacienda, and himself. Fortunately, he is a revenant and will eventually recover his missing BOD and regrow his lost body parts.
 
It is uncertain if the witch survived, but there was no body found in the ruins.

You have to understand that @Drhoz works outdoors, has been on holidays and returned to work during a heatwave.
Quotes are inbound, but my man needs some recovery time. 😉

In his original Strike Force campaign book, Aaron Alston described how his scientist PCs noticed that their attempts to disseminate their discoveries to the general public were being thwarted. Patents were rejected, publications were edited, records of the data would just disappear, government would classify and bury their reports, and the like. Investigation turned up that other super-scientists were experiencing the same phenomena. The PCs eventually traced the source of the interference to an advanced alien calling itself the Governor, who had been running an experiment into the effects of artificially retarding a civilization's technological development.
 
With the Governor eliminated, Earth tech advances rapidly, and humanity begins to expand into space. Of course a great deal of other stuff occurred during that phase of Aaron's campaign, which the splendid Strike Force update book from 2015 edited by Michael Surbrook, explains in detail.

Christopher R Taylor is right that incorporating super technology is going to change the nature of the game from a comic book setting to something else.   Add in magic to the equation and you are going to end up with something resembling similar to ShadowRun.  If that is the type of game you want, that is great.  
 
One way to explain why the technology is not able to be mass produced would be that most of the high-tech powers utilize rare components that are not easily obtained or depend on low grade psionic abilities of the inventor.   
 
The other thing that you could do is to have the campaign be a few years into the future.  Given how fast technology advances even a decade in the future could explain a lot of little changes that would allow some advances without majorly altering the world. The technology does exist but is still too expensive to mass produce.  Those way only select organizations have access to the advanced technology.  That would allow something end up something like the normal champions campaign.   
 

OTOH the world is a big place, and infrastructures that took a century to build won't be replaced quickly. Stark Industries can be selling and installing arc reactors as fast as they can be built (and, yes, be swimming in money as a result), and replacing fossil fuels would still be the work of decades.
 
Unless, say, someone tries building really humongous arc reactors that can plug into the grid and power multi-state areas or medium-sized countries. Which is a bad idea from a systems engineering POV because it creates massive single points of failure. But a great idea from a comic book POV because it creates massive power sources villains can hold hostage, or hijack for their conquer-the-world superweapons. Massive single points of failure are bad engineering, but very good for stories!
 
(This incidentally illustrates why I think it's better to consider the *potential* economic effects of supers than to ask what the final result would be, as if it was already done. A changing situation works better for generating conflicts and plots than a done deal.)
 
Dean Shomshak

Bought the book. I recommend buying it here rather than DriveThruRPG as they only have the PDF for $15, and not the package deal offered in the Hero store.
 
There are 21 Heroic characters broke out (by my count) in the following way, in order of point totals but not how they appear in the book:
1 built on 100 + 40 Complications
1 built on 175 + 50 Complications
1 built on 175 + 50 Complications (+20 xps)
1 built on 225 + 75 Complications
1 built on 225 + 80 Complications
12 built on 275 + 100 Complications
1 built on 275 + 100 Complications (+85 xps)
1 built on 275 + 100 Complications (+250 xps)
1 built on 275 + 100 Complications (+280 xps)
1 built on 275 + 100 Complications (+525 xps)
 
I'm still going through the builds, but they cover quite a range of types and abilities.
 
Despite the low point total, the first character, The Muffin Man, is quite a vicious piece of work.
 
The top-pointed one seems suitable for espionage drama, although more like a Mission Impossible movie villain than a James Bond one.

Stark's arc reactor tech is the hardest one to accept not being disseminated. Enough power to drive an Abrams tank in a device the size of a softball, that requires no shielding or coolant? Stark said in Avengers that his company was at the forefront of clean energy development. Those things should have been adapted to power plants, manufacturing centers, and large vehicles around the world. Stark Industries would be swimming in money.
 
Of course the other side of that equation is that the fossil-fuel industry, and the jobs and countries depending on it, would take a serious hit, even if there wasn't an arc reactor in every automobile. I could see a lot of political pressure being applied to throw roadblocks on the reactors' implementation for that reason, even if it's publicly rationalized as concern over safety, national security, and so on.

Bought the book. I recommend buying it here rather than DriveThruRPG as they only have the PDF for $15, and not the package deal offered in the Hero store.
 
There are 21 Heroic characters broke out (by my count) in the following way, in order of point totals but not how they appear in the book:
1 built on 100 + 40 Complications
1 built on 175 + 50 Complications
1 built on 175 + 50 Complications (+20 xps)
1 built on 225 + 75 Complications
1 built on 225 + 80 Complications
12 built on 275 + 100 Complications
1 built on 275 + 100 Complications (+85 xps)
1 built on 275 + 100 Complications (+250 xps)
1 built on 275 + 100 Complications (+280 xps)
1 built on 275 + 100 Complications (+525 xps)
 
I'm still going through the builds, but they cover quite a range of types and abilities.
 
Despite the low point total, the first character, The Muffin Man, is quite a vicious piece of work.
 
The top-pointed one seems suitable for espionage drama, although more like a Mission Impossible movie villain than a James Bond one.

In the "Millennium Universe" setting for my campaign, I make super-powers and super-tech a new thing so it hasn't had time to change the world economy. People expect it to, though, and know it can because a few supers came back in time from various possible futures in which it did so.
 
Most notably, the time-traveling/precognitive hero Doctor Future recruited the PCs from futures in which one megavillains destroyed the world. Destroying the world is an economic change, yes?
 
The NPC hero Cyberman was accidentally sent back in time from a future in which maimed soldiers were routinely restored and upgraded through bionics. He's responsible for introducing bionic tech to the Millennium Universe. Prosthetics are better than IRL but still very expensive, and actual super-cyborging is only possible for governments and large corporations.
 
Alien tech has even greater potential. When the small starships piloted by the villainous Intruder and the lawman Officer Pax crashed on Earth, smart people realized the most important technology to be reverse-ingineered might be the proton reactors that powered them. Zetrian proton reactors are safe, reliable nuclear reactors that can be made small enough to power, say, a suit ob powered armor or big enough to power a city. However, Zetrian reactors are made using muonic matter, strange matter, and other substances for which it will take decades to build the requisite infrastructure to produce in quantity. Attempts to build proton reactors of mundane materials have had, well, mixed results. (Such as the megavillain Professor Proton.) But it's only a matter of time until proton reactors make fossil fuels as obsolete as horse-drawn buggies... which is why the villain called the Mahdi hijacked a time portal. In his future, the Middle East stuck with oil and gas to the very bitter end and squandered their sovereign wealth funds in wars, leaving the region geopolitically bankrupt and irrelevant. He is determined both the delay the development of proton reactors, and to conquer a new Caliphate that can use its oil wealth to dominate the world.
 
Contact with aliens also lets people know that contemporary economic and environmental problems are solvable because other species have solved them -- though it took clear thinking and good will as well as tech that to humans seems super.
 
"It could, but not yet," gives me maximum dramatic flexibility. Heroes can know they aren't just beating up one bad guy, who's trying to do one bad thing. (Or even trying to force the world into a worse mode.) They can hope that someday, their battles will lead to a better world overall.
 
Dean Shomshak

I built my supplement, Shared Origins: the Dynatron (available through the Hero Store) around this premise. It's a not-uncommon trope in comics that someone invents a way to give themselves super-powers... but somehow, this never spreads very far. The supervillain Red Giant built a power-granting machine, the Dynatron, out of coomercially available tech, some scavenged from junkyards. Other people have successfully used "dynatrons" he built, though no one else seems able to build copies of their own.
 
After a brief and unimpressive career as a super-robber in a team with friends he also empowered, Red Giant realized he could make immensely more money just selling super-powers. If you've got the money, he's got the origin. Though this approach turns out to have problems of its own. As a business, it's still quite smal and hasn't slid over the edge to world-changing. If you want to know more, read the supplement.
 
Dean Shomshak

I’m overwhelmed by LL’s responses, but I also worry if he’s shut down any conversation that might happen by being so thorough about Champions Earth.

Honestly, I had that concern myself. More dialogue can and should be had, and I'd love to read it. I'd hate to think someone wouldn't present their own ideas just because I transcribed all this stuff.
 
But I also didn't want to avoid highlighting how much the Champions setting explores the implications of super-technology and super powers on society, particularly economics, as your topic requested. It covers the subject more thoroughly and logically than I've seen anywhere else, and offers much for supers GMs to consider.
 
This is another example of material I had collated for the benefit of the Champions Online community, and having it all handy I couldn't justify to myself not sharing it. Believe it or not, I actually left some less relevant things out.

There are quite a few superhumans who are employed full-time by national governments or UNTIL, and are therefore paid a regular salary and other benefits. Others supers with a history of working with such groups, like the Champions, may receive some degree of financial and material support. It's not uncommon for well-known heroes or teams to receive grants or donations from national or more local governments, or from private individuals and corporations, as a reward for their continued service to the public. Of course any hero who belongs to a team with a solid financial base will likely be supported by that team.

It's not unknown for superheroes to use their abilities and public profiles to obtain private sponsorship. The Binary Corporation employs a superhero "mascot," Binary Man, for public relations purposes. Cavalier of Millennium City regularly endorses various companies and products for pay.

Outside of those avenues, full-time heroes either have to be independently financially secure, or else spend some time working at a more mundane job to make ends meet. That last is most common for heroes with a secret identity, but sometimes superhumans will openly use their powers to make jobs for themselves. For example, the founder of Trans-City Construction, Jeff Baker, gets much use out of his powers of matter transmutation to speed up construction projects, which is a selling point with clients. Champions Universe p. 60 mentions a speedster named Roberta Yelnofsky who founded "Yesterday Delivery" in New York City. Her corporate motto is, "When you need it there yesterday!"
 
The majority of paranormals on Champions Earth either don't have the type or magnitude of powers to compete in the Superhuman World subculture, or just want to live normal lives. People with minor powers, such as enhanced reflexes, unusual durability, or precognitive flashes, may not even realize they have them. However, some of those people can still have a significant impact. For example, the relatively minor healing powers of the famous Dr. Jeremiah Mugembe have done more to alleviate AIDS in Africa than all the pharmaceutical companies in the world combined. Workers with Habitat for Humanity in the city of Atlanta have frequently been helped by an anonymous benefactor who can construct entire houses overnight.

Bastion Alpha Security, a high-profile private security company (fully written up in Cops, Crews, And Cabals), includes one of the more intriguing paranormals in that category. Founded by Anderson Powell, the retired superhero Titan, the company's greatest selling point is its secret Bastion Process, which physically augments BAS field agents. The most powerful, and therefore expensive, agents count as low-level superhumans. The Bastion Process was developed by Powell's secret partner, Dr. Ivan Fortus. Unknown even to Powell, Dr. Fortus did not invent or discover the Process. Fortus is a mutant who can covertly extract DNA by touch from one person, and insert it into the cells of another, passing on some qualities of the donor. Dr. Fortus uses Powell's own DNA to give BAS agents some of the former Titan's power.  

According to Champions Beyond various groups, notably the United States government, have salvaged and studied examples of alien technology from the several invasions and known spaceship crashes, with mixed results. They've had the most success understanding and adapting the tech from the Sirians, i.e. the "War of the Worlds" aliens. The highly biological nature of Qularr technology, including the tendency of the bio-components to decay or become dormant over time, has made it difficult to analyze and mostly incompatible with human tech. Gadroon gravity-manipulating devices appear to utilize principles that humans, even super-scientists, have never imagined, so have eluded deciphering. While trying to comprehend the nonfunctional wreckage of the Malvan ships that Ironclad and Herculan arrived in, has been likened to Neanderthals trying to reverse-engineer a supercollider.

OTOH the Warlord (Champions Villains Vol. 1: Master Villains) has had considerable success with technology salvaged from a downed "blueboy" (Hzeel) scout ship, even combining it with human technology to exceed the capabilities of the Hzeel themselves. Hzeel tech is also partly biological, but to a lesser degree, and is less advanced, than Qularr devices. (The Hzeel, Gadroon, and Qularr all have full chapters devoted to them in Champions Beyond.)

There are several (apparently) legitimate tech companies in the official setting which are at the forefront of research and development, and would make good places for scientist PCs to work, make discoveries or breakthroughs, interact with NPCs of similar background, or maybe have an empowering lab accident. All of these are either headquartered in or have major branch offices at Millennium City, since it's a center for cutting-edge research. Aside from additional books which are cited in individual entries below, most of the information about these companies appears in the Millennium City source book.

Advanced Concepts Industries (ACI): One of the world's largest and most diverse corporations, ACI has fingers in almost every endeavor where there's money to be made. High-tech and chemical manufacturing are high on its list of priorities. While most of its employees are normal people with normal motivations, ACI's founder, president, CEO and majority owner is Franklin Stone (Champions Villains Vol. 1: Master Villains), who has no scruples in bypassing law or ethics in the pursuit of wealth and power; so there are certainly covert nefarious activities that could be investigated or stumbled upon, including scientific projects.

Angelstone Laboratories: Angelstone initially made its name as an innovative defense contractor, and that remains one of its major focuses, although it's expanded its research over a broad range of applied and theoretical sciences: everything from physics and genetics, to criminology and economics. But it's become best known for its "Superhuman Studies Division" researching super powers and super technology, and activities and behavior of supervillains. It frequently gives presentations and reports to governments and law enforcement on these subjects, and sometimes assists superheroes directly. In this it competes with the Goodman Institute in America, and the Swiss-based l'Institut Thoth (both described in Champions Universe). Angelstone Laboratories is a for-profit company, but will sometimes offer reduced rates to clients in a good cause. Angelstone Laboratories is thoroughly described in Cops, Crews, And Cabals.

Binary Corporation: This major Millennium City-based company is best known for computer hardware and software, but also researches medical technology, genetics, and is a leader in plasma-based weapon design. It sponsors its own superhero spokesperson, the duplicating Binary Man. BC suffered a major scandal in 2001 when one of its top executives, Monica Knowlton, was revealed to be a Morbane of DEMON, but has since recovered.

Cambridge Biotechnology: Based in London, Cambridge focuses on medicine, pharmaceuticals, and genetics, with many profitable patents. It was the first company to research the biochemical functions of psionic powers, and has developed tests for detecting and cataloguing such powers, licensing their use by court systems around the world. But Cambridge may be best known for employing the simian super-scientist, Dr. Silverback, at its Millennium City facilities. (Dr. Silverback's write-up is in Champions Universe.)

Dew Chemical: One of the largest chemical companies in the United States, Dew is also one of the few major corporations which has been based in Detroit/Millennium City since before Dr. Destroyer leveled it. Dew's programs include development of plastics, adhesives and sealants, herbicides and pesticides, and synthetic biochemical compounds.

Drake-Victoria Inc. (DVI): One of the largest American defense contractors, Drake-Victoria designs military vehicles and weapons, particularly tanks, trucks, rockets and missiles. It continues to research ways to economically manufacture light, reliable powered armor for soldiers. It's also at the forefront of force-field generation technology. In recent years its facilities have been attacked by the supervillain team called the Ultimates (Champions Villains Vol. 2: Villain Teams). Unknown outside of the Ultimates, one of their members, Cyclone, used to work for DVI and has a grudge against them.

Duchess Industries: A huge multinational corporation based in Bonn, Germany, Duchess Industries has holdings in many fields, including aerospace, nuclear energy, biotechnology, computers and robotics, chemistry and mining. DI is privately owned by the mysterious Duchess Henrietta von Drotte. Von Drotte is secretly one of the highest leaders of VIPER (where she's known simply as "the Duchess") and DI conducts several clandestine research projects for VIPER. VIPER's assistance with industrial espionage, sabotage, and assassination has helped Duchess Industries reach its current stature. (The Duchess and DI receive considerable attention in VIPER: Coils Of The Serpent.)

Fordham Chemtech: Fordham dominates several niche markets, including manufacturing microchips and other silicoids, and medical films and other related materials. It has several subsidiaries competing in other fields, such as Regor in memory plastics.

Genex Labs: A relatively small company founded at the start of recombinant DNA engineering, Genex patents include treatments for a range of diseases. However, its profile and profit were greatly raised when it invented the Cyberline treatment which PRIMUS uses to create its cadre of superhuman Avengers.

Harmon Industries: Almost wholly owned by James Harmon III, HI is a general-purpose defense contractor, with specialties in rocketry and missiles, aerospace and satellites, and infantry weapons. The Harmon family is unaware of James IV's identity as Defender, and considers him a disappointment for not devoting more time and energy to the company.

Ironwood Industrial Technologies (IIT): One of HI's chief competitors for American space-based defense contracts, Ironwood has its headquarters in MC and major manufacturing facilities in North Detroit. It co-designed UNTIL's GATEWAY space station and contributed to the Champions' V-Jet.

Kendrick and Company: Professor Daryl Kendrick founded this company after his discovery of his superstrong "kendrium" steel alloy. He's received several government contracts to manufacture armor for tanks and other vehicles. UNTIL's nuclear submarine, the Aegir, has a hull made of kendrium. (The Aegir is written up in UNTIL: Defenders Of Freedom.) Kendrick is believed to have found a loophole in patent laws allowing him to patent his formula while keeping it secret; in fact he bribed some corrupt officials at the Patent Office.

Pharos Industries: Perhaps the only corporation rivaling the size and diversity of ACI, Pharos has subsidiaries specializing in electronics (particularly supercomputers), biotechnology (notably medical cybernetics), and transportation infrastructure (it designed and built the Millennium City "smart roadway" system).

Regent Energy: One of the world's largest oil companies, Regent is also a leader in development of alternative energy sources: solar power, geothermal energy, and synthetic gasoline replacements. Its Millennium City offices house some of the top researchers in that field.

From everything I've read and heard, I can quite confidently state that Champions Earth is for the most part the same as real Earth, only intensified. Social, political, and economic structures and interactions are essentially the same. Modern history and geopolitics are largely unchanged, i.e. the same major events occurred in both worlds, and the familiar players are in place. Even most of the current and historical influential people are shared by both.

All this super-science has made Champions Earth a better place in a number of ways, as I highlighted earlier on this thread. Some of the things of pressing concern to us real folks are much less of an issue for them. Global warming is less critical. Environmental pollution and degradation are more controlled. Fewer people have to suffer due to disease or injury. The benefits of advanced technology are more accessible and affordable to people around the world.

I should also point out that what most of society considers the scientific "fringe" is hella smaller on Champions Earth than it is in the real world. With all these radical scientific inventions, not to mention superhuman genetic mutations, multiple alien invasions, rampaging giant monsters, whole cities being shrunken and stolen, and other mind-boggling phenomena they've experienced for generations, humanity seems to have learned to take a lot of weirdness in stride. The majority appear to be inured to the impact of revelations that would spark profound upheaval in our world if they occurred here, like the incontestable existence of non-human intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, often more advanced than humans; or the return of self-professed mythological gods with miraculous powers. I get the impression most people have developed an attitude of, "Been there, done that, and I still have to pay taxes."

Individuals on Champions Earth have often made their fortunes from particularly innovative discoveries or designs, but that's hardly without real-world precedent. Super-powering mutagens like cyberline, or superstrong metals such as kendrium, aren't fundamentally different from microchips or velcro. However, in keeping with the conventions of comics I spelled out in my first post, various factors restrict really widespread commercialization of developments that are very dangerous, or which would change the world's recognizable familiarity too much.

But those factors don't eliminate the elevated potential this technology has for destabilizing world security, which gives many people in governments and law-enforcement sleepless nights. In fact that potential is one defining characteristic of the superhero genre. There are many examples in the comics and the Champions Universe of a common thug turning into a supervillain just by getting his hands on a piece of bleeding-edge tech. Actually inventing something radically advanced can significantly alter the balance of power. To use recent fictional examples, various Marvel superhero movies have raised the tremendous risk of unscrupulous parties getting their hands on the plans for arc reactors, or the formula for Pym particles, or vibranium and devices based on it. VIPER's relatively small paramilitary force can compete with much larger armies because it arms all its agents with advanced equipment; while the single greatest factor making Dr. Destroyer the magnitude of menace he is, is his capacity for extraordinary scientific breakthroughs almost on demand.

It's not at all uncommon for those in possession of dangerous advanced technology to sell products based on it (although rarely the secrets behind it) to evil but otherwise mundane people who wouldn't otherwise have access to them: organized criminals, terrorists or subversives, petty dictators, or aspiring supervillains. While to date none of those developments have turned a relative nobody into an instant global threat, they can become much more of a local danger. I get the impression most of the ultratech sellers are wary of too much destabilizing activity making stopping them a top priority for the whole global community. As one example, VIPER: Coils Of The Serpent p. 132 notes that while VIPER is well able to build nuclear weapons, it eschews doing so for fear that if world governments found out, they would double down on efforts to destroy VIPER before VIPER is ready for world domination.

Perhaps the most dangerous area of scientific research on Champs Earth is the long-standing and ongoing effort to discover a safe, reliable, economical method to create superhumans. Many parties have engaged in projects with that goal. The Soviet Union had its Directorate Black-12. The US military runs Department 17, only the latest in a long line of American "superhuman soldier" projects. Smaller "rogue states" like Awad and Chiquador actively pursue that line of research, as do supercriminal groups such as VIPER and ARGENT. Any party that succeeds would gain a game changing tactical advantage. Smaller players won't need the facilities and infrastructure for a modern mechanized military to threaten their neighbors, if they can field an army whose soldiers can fly, shoot lightning, and/or throw tanks.

(Of course Teleios already has that capacity. He hasn't tried to exercise it to date because ruling the world isn't important to him. OTOH the world first learned of Teleios in 1993, when he sold an army of cloned soldiers to Eurostar so they could invade and try to conquer Poland.)
 

Outside of major industrialized nations, supervillains, and organizations like VIPER and ARGENT, certain smaller (fictional) states on Champions Earth also possess very advanced technology; and in their own ways pose a significant threat to world security.

Awad, a small nation on the Saudi peninsula, between Yemen and Oman on the Indian Ocean, is becoming an increasing world security problem. The sheiks of Awad, most of whom are closely related to its ironfisted ruler Sultan Thamar el-Hiri, are incredibly wealthy thanks to their country’s vast oil deposits, and care little for how their actions affect others if they can increase their own power and bank accounts. Harsh Muslim fundamentalists, they intensely dislike Western culture in general and the United States in particular, and have for years funded numerous terrorist organizations. Awad supported Iraq during the Gulf War and Iraq War.

In recent decades Awad has invested extensively in technology, ranging from computers to bio-engineering. As a result, today it’s considered one of the centers of world technological development, though many high-tech firms deal with it reluctantly (if at all) due to its repressive political climate. Some Western officials fear that the Awadis use their high-tech expertise to equip terrorists with weapons and devices that would otherwise be well beyond the reach of most such groups. They also suspect strong ties between Awad and ARGENT and VIPER.

Western suspicions about Awad’s connection to supercriminal groups are well-founded. For years Awad’s worked closely with both ARGENT and VIPER, providing a haven from extradition for some of their personnel in exchange for cash and technology, allowing them to build special labs and facilities there, and so forth. Recently relationships with VIPER have been strained since the Awadis suspect (correctly) that VIPER took advantage of the chaos during the Iraq War to steal some Awadi technological secrets. As a result, the alliance with ARGENT has become even stronger.

Rumors about a past joint Iraqi-Awadi program to create superhumans are true. Using a secret lab built in Awad (to avoid U.N. observers in Iraq), Saddam Hussein and Sultan Thamar el-Hiri had hoped to custom-build enough superhuman soldiers to avenge Iraq’s defeat in the Gulf War, take over the Middle East, and establish a chokehold on much of the world’s oil supplies. Unfortunately for them (but fortunately for the world), the program’s only true success was Saddam Hussein's former superhumanly strong personal bodyguard, whom he referred to as Turs al-Sh’ab ("Shield Of The People," written up in Champions Villains Vol. 3). Many failures were dropped in the deep desert to die. The program has been suspended due to the overthrow of Hussein’s regime and the presence of American military personnel in the region, but it’s possible Awad may try to resurrect it with help from ARGENT. Dr. Bohuslav Strasky, who headed UNTIL's own largely-failed attempt to manufacture superhumans, the "Future Soldier Program," has secretly been offered millions by Awad to bring his expertise to that nation. The sultan has a few other hired superhumans on his payroll.

Larisagrad, located deep in the Ural Mountains, was once a secret Soviet city, but is today an effectively independent city-state. During the Cold War era Larisagrad was where numerous top-secret Soviet research projects were conducted. Merely attempting to enter the city without proper authorization was a capital offense.The foremost of these research projects was Directorate Black-12, the Soviet superhuman soldier program. This project was about as successful as most of the similar American programs — which is to say that it produced a handful of superhumans in exchange for killing, crippling, or driving insane hundreds of “volunteer” test subjects.

When the Soviet Union crumbled and funding for Larisagrad’s expensive research dried up, the scientists there were faced with a choice. They could become legitimate researchers, competing in the world of commercial scientific research... or they could offer their services to the highest bidder, regardless of purpose or morality. Unwilling to give up their high-class (by Russian standards, anyway) lifestyle, they opted for the latter path. A few scientists who couldn’t stomach the decision fled the city, often ending up with European or American research firms. (Larisagrad officials vehemently deny charges they work for criminal elements, and to date world law-enforcement does not have solid proof of it.)

It didn’t take long for Larisagrad to develop a reputation for the quality of its work, not to mention the blind eye it turned to what was done with its technology. The scientists there often put their unique acumen and equipment to work creating technology for supervillains, providing medical care for injured superhumans who don't want their condition revealed to the outside world, and so forth. VIPER soon became a frequent customer, as did the Warlord, the Ultimates, the Crimelords, Utility, and various powered armor-wearing supervillains who needed occasional maintenance, upgrades, resupply, or spare parts for their equipment. Thanks to the influx of cash from these clients, most Larisagradians enjoy a standard of life far higher than that of other Russians.

A “client” who wants to contract Larisagrad’s services contacts any member of the city’s governing council, the Komityet Upravlyeniya Issledovaniyami (“Research Steering Committee,” or KUI). The Committee looks into the request, determines what it can do for the client, and quotes a price. There’s no dickering — a client either accepts the price or walks away (though on occasion the Committee has agreed to be paid in trade or services rather than cash). After a client deposits the nonrefundable full amount into a secret account, the Committee puts Larisagrad’s scientists and factories to work on his behalf. The finished goods are delivered at a time and place specified in the original contract.

Larisagrad would make a rich prize for many villains and Russian organized crime groups, not to mention the Russian government, so it has plenty of defenses to keep unwanted “visitors” away. Besides the assistance of grateful superhumans they have helped, the most prominent of these defenses is a corps of powered armor-wearing soldiers called the “Larisagrad Division” (or simply, “the Division”). The leader of the Division is Shturm, or “Onslaught,” a superhuman created by Directorate Black-12. Gifted with energy projection and teleportation powers in addition to the powerful suit of battle armor he wears, Shturm has earned the gratitude of the Larisagradians — as well as millions of dollars — keeping their pleasant little home in the Urals safe and secure.

(Most of the information in this post is transcribed or summarized from Champions Universe, with additional details from Champions Universe: News Of The World and UNTIL: Defenders Of Freedom.)