st barbara

 Currently reading some old "Sword and Sorcery" "Elak Of Atlantis" by Henry Kuttner and enjoying it.  On another note any "Batman" fans out here may be interested in another book that I purchased recently; "Batman's Arsenal" by Matt McNab a large book (large format as well as 456 pages) detailing the various devices used by Batman from the comics, the movies (including the 1943 batman serial). and TV (including the various animated shows) (Opus trade paperback,2016, $U S 32.95).

Thank you "Kharis2000". Write up makes me unsure about whether I want to pursue this character or not.

I often forget to use "Saint Barbara's" presence (in our modified campaign it is called "impact", but seems to be similar) in combat. Guess i'm worried that , if it doesn't work, she's made herself a target.

Just finished a block of Christmas gift card purchases: A collection of the original Jim Anthony stories (interesting and entertaining stories about a slightly less stilted version of the Doc Savage concept), a collection of the Kid Calvert western stories (admittedly outside my wheelhouse, both topically and stylistically, but entertaining), the collected Captain Zero stories (probably the best 'invisible man' series I've read from the pulps), and Volume 1 of Harold Lamb's Cossack stories, Wolf of the Steppes (not what I expected, but darned good).

I don't know the "Jim Anthony" stories. Who wrote them ? If they are in the style of Doc Savage I will interested.

Hans Kammler, head of a lot of "black projects" for the Nazis in WWII, including some of the more bizarre ones , such as "The Bell"! Would make a great Nazi scientist villain.

Then there is Jack Parsons, early pioneer of jet engines and apparently an occultist as well.

If he hasn't been mentioned already Otto Rahn. Yes he was a nazi and member of the SS, but his obsession with the holy grail and the Cathars make him a perfect character for a pulp campaign.

That must be it. Any good?

Er I don't know. With my reading speed it may be years before it gets read.

The things that I have found useful for creating supers in various countries are Technology (especially military technology). mythology (Thor isn't the only god that makes a good super) and radiation (If a country has the bomb, or nuclear power, or is a source of radioactive material, you can have all sorts of characters). Nations such as the USA or Russia score well on numbers one and three, but countries such as Greece or Mexico for example can make up ground with number 2, despite not having much in the way of nuclear or military industries. Nations such as the U K or China could be very well populated with a diverse range of supers under this system.

What I really want to see from the Marvel movies is a Hawkeye/Black Widow movie, but I believe there are no plans for one in the immediate future.

Golden Age heroes tend to often be VERY powerful (several of the magic using types, such as "The Spectre") or no more than trained human level ("Wildcat", "The Atom" etc). Because of World War II, evil nazi's were very common, as were brilliant scientists, both good and bad ("Lex Luthor" or " Dr Thaddeus Sirvana" for examples of evil scientists , I suppose that "Batman" or "Dr Mid Nite " would be science oriented heroes (I know I should look for a better example, but I can't find one easily right now ).

If I were to assume that one in a million Australians had superpowers, that would be around 23 supers in the whole country (heroes, villians and whatever), distributed across age groups. If they were randomly selected from the population, probability suggests none of those are likely to be indigenous. There's a fair chance a couple of them wouldn't be from mainly European backgrounds. They could be immigrants, or they could be Australian born. Their ethnic backgrounds could be chosen essentially randomly. One or more of them *could* be indigenous, but that would be an accident.

 

That's just demographics/statistics.

 

But the distribution of superbeings, especially when the sample is so small, is hardly likely to be random. At that point it becomes selection by the writer/GM.

 

There are, however, genre expectations. That's the real reason why I would include an indigenous character, rather than, say, someone from Africa or South America.

 

Heck, I might even include someone who throws boomerangs, just for laughs. And an Australian ninja, because.

When I was doing Australia in my "All The Worlds Heroes" write up I had one indigenous character (with electrical powers, "Paluma"), one Italian/Australian(with firework powers, done before I created "St Barbara", "Roman Candle") and one Vietnamese/Australian (a martial artist "The Gilt Dragon")  out of a total of eight heroes.

A little early for the pulps, but Bass Reeves was a freed slaved who was one of the first black US Deputy Marshals. He worked for the famous hanging judge Isaac Parker, who valued him highly. Reeves came out on top in fourteen gunfights and arrested an brought an estimated 3,000 fugitives to justice. He was never seriously wounded, but on one instance, had his hat shot off. Two notable cases, 1) he single apprehended 19 horse thieves, 2) he brought in his own son for murder.

I saw a programme on him on television It was called "Gunslingers" I think. I had never heard of him before.

If it is the book I have it is called simply "Doc Savage Skull Island" by Will Murray published by Altus Press

Not pulp "fiction", but I recently got two books "The Wonderful Future That Never Was" and "The Amazing Weapons That Never Were" both edited by Greg Benford and full of pictures and articles from "Popular Mechanics" magazine, from the 1930's through to 1970. Could be a great resourse for "Weird Tech" and weapons with which to equip science heroes and would be world conquerors. (Hearst Books, $u s 24.95).

"Ancient Aliens" is that the one hosted by the guy with the really wild hair ? He looks like he could be an alien himself !

No offence, dude, but Victoria is the only interesting state. Check back in 2040 for Boring States of Australia (and the Northern Territory) Champions. It'll have the Tasmanian Devil writeup!

As a proud citizen of New South Wales I represent that remark ! Or something.

Interestingly that is how our team (Zenith 3) was created (although it has changed drastically over time). One energy projector ("St Barbara"), a martial artist  (A samurai named "Dragon's Claw"), a Brick (in an armoured suit named "Knight"), a magician ("Ravenscroft"), and a gadgeteer ("Widget"). Of the original team members only my character "St Barbara" has survived with players leaving and characters changing over time.

Holly Holm (Current whateverweight Women's UFC Champion, beat Rousey like a red-headed step child) when she's cut:

 

 

Holy Holm when she's not fighting or promoting:

 

 

Oh my god! Suddenly, she's not buff enough to be a boxing and MMA champion! What's that all about?

 

Just body fat percentage. She still has enough muscle to KO another pro fighter.

 

Here's a collage of Gadot:

 

 

Holm is 5'8" to Gadot's 5'10", so Gadot's showing a similar level of muscle mass.

 

Given that WW is a fighter and not a body builder and that her powers aren't dependent on muscle mass, I'd say Gadot's doing OK. It's simply not easy for women to put on mass. Gadot looks athletic enough to be a female fighter, and that's about all we can expect, unless we want some stunt casting of a strength athlete who has abnormal muscle mass but can't act.

5'10' ? I can just see someone saying "Aren't you a bit short to be Wonder Woman" when she first appears.

Good DC

 

Batman (Adam West), Adventures of Superman, Lois And Clark, Wonder Woman, The Flash (both 1990 and 2015), Batman/Superman/Justice League Animated Series, Batman/Superman Public Enemies and Apocalypse, Justice League Crisis on Two Earths, Superman The Movie, Superman 2 The Richard Donner Cut, Supergirl TV Show.

 

Bad DC

 

Green Lantern, Justice League War, Justice League Flashpoint, Man of Steel, Supergirl Movie, Superman 2 (Richard Lester version), Superman 3, Superman IV, Green Lantern (deserves to be said again).

 

Good Marvel

 

Iron Man Movies, Avengers 1 and 2, Captain America 1 and 2, Avengers Assemble Animated Series, Spider-Man

 

Bad Marvel

 

Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, Marvel's Agent Carter, Fantastic Four movies (all of them), Daredevil, Elektra, Amazing Spider-Man 1 and 2, Spider-Man 2 and 3.  

To your "good Marvel" list I would add most of the "X-Men" movies and to the "bad Marvel" list all of the " Hulk" and "Punisher" movies.

Freya's name is quite pronounceable, she's the most famous and important goddess in Norse mythology (excluding Hel who is famous for all the wrong reasons), and while her spheres of gold and beauty don't give a lot to work with, she's also goddess of war and (non-evil) death, the only war goddess the Norse have, and the mistress of the Valkyries.  Specific mythical details like her cloak of flight, ability to control cats, and power of precognition would help to make her non-generic in a way that Sif isn't.  She'd also probably have light powers seeing as how she's Frey's twin sister.  If any Norse goddess was going to be a model for a lead superhero, Freya's the only option I can see (except for Valkyries in general, and they've already done that).  

 

She's still not in Thor's class as a marketable property of course.  

I'm not so sure about that. The manga/anime of "Oh My Goddess !" using (somewhat twisted i'll admit) versions of the Norns (Urd, Skuld and Belldandy) has worked pretty well !

Eh, believe me I know and have known many guys who think superheroes, harry potter, lotr, and even star wars are stupid.  IMO you cannot 'target' those people.

Of course you can ! All you need is enough missiles and the right computer targeting system.

I can't disagree more about tone. The Supergirl character has been light romcom for most of the character's existence. Even the most recent series never go darker than teen angst/rebellion and for much of her career, her stories were young romance.

 

The dumb stick is omnipresent in stories of any DCU character with superspeed. If Superman/Supergirl/Flash were run by genre wrecking gamers, then any villain they faced without a counter should wake up in jail asking who captured them. Kryptonians can scout a scene from 50,000 ft, observe powers, listen to plans swoop to attack before you can guess they are there. It's just that by genre conventions, only villains get to use their powers to the fullest consistently.

And not necessarily even then. Think about all the villains (especially at Marvel) whose sole power/weapon is SO lethal that, if they ever succesfully HIT most heros they would be dead !

Why shoulk\d heros be limited to Victoria ? Let them use the other Australian states I say !

2nd History Channel ? Lucky furriners, we only get ONE history channel downunder !