phoenix240

The cosmic forces, the essential qualities that drive the Material World are locked in a war of sort. Creation/Entropy, Order/Chaos even Stasis and Change. This war is as impersonal as it is eternal, even the beings that embody it are so distant from humanity that their motivations can't be defined in simple human terms. But sometimes, across the ages, these conflicts do take a form that humans can directly comprehend when their warriors take human form. Sometimes as heroes, sometimes as villains even as both. 
Hype is one such human avatar. He embodies energy, change, creation and vibrant existence. As an artist, street performer and acknowledged creative genius, Hype is a radical, an agent of change, a rebel by nature fighting the establishment because by definition he opposes it. Some seem him a a rebel and Robin Hood fighing a corrupt status quo, others as a disruptive threat out to forment chaos. He thinks of himself a force for good, positive change and 'waking' a population that's been lulled int complacent, dulled to sleep by mediocrity. 
 
He's had his powers from birth and think he is a mutant. Which is true to an extent but the true root of his powers are far deeper, stemming from his tie to primal chaos. He is it avatar given human will and awareness. This grants him power over energy, movement and vitality. He can bolster any form of energy including abstract form such as kinetic, create vivid displays of light and sound, move practically any distant nearly instantaneously and overwhelm a target's sense with intense, chaotic overstimulation among other abilities. 
 
Hype uses his power to fight corruption and stagnation as he seems them, fighting tyrants, oppressors and destroyers of all sort, both overt criminals and those that seem legitimate on the surface but corrupt at their core such a malicious businesses and dirty government officials. These latter actions have earned him allot of powerful enemies and bad press as he doesn't bother to explain his actions or offer proof. In truth, some of his targets haven't any done anything illegal but normal standards though their action or intent have been malicious and had malicious ends. The lesser of his public activities is as guerilla artist, staging vivid, extravagant performances, events and displays intent to inspire, elevate and 'wake' people. Some call it dazzling, amazing and beautiful. Others call it vandalism and property destruction. 
 
Perhaps ironically, his opposite number is more widely consider a hero as he stands in defense of the status quo, stability and tradition: Null.
 
Null is a quiet, stalwart figure who acts with deliberation and forethought. He's respectful, soft spoken and dependable. His power aside from physical might seem perfect for countering Hype as their effect stasis and absorbing calming chaos and dampening energy. In many ways, Null is what most would expect from a hero and acts that way. But few notice the cold, blank emotionless void behind his eyes or spend enough time with the quiet loner to notice his almost completely logical even cold-blooded manner of his thought process or borderline obsession with order, routine and predictability in all things.

The cosmic forces, the essential qualities that drive the Material World are locked in a war of sort. Creation/Entropy, Order/Chaos even Stasis and Change. This war is as impersonal as it is eternal, even the beings that embody it are so distant from humanity that their motivations can't be defined in simple human terms. But sometimes, across the ages, these conflicts do take a form that humans can directly comprehend when their warriors take human form. Sometimes as heroes, sometimes as villains even as both. 
Hype is one such human avatar. He embodies energy, change, creation and vibrant existence. As an artist, street performer and acknowledged creative genius, Hype is a radical, an agent of change, a rebel by nature fighting the establishment because by definition he opposes it. Some seem him a a rebel and Robin Hood fighing a corrupt status quo, others as a disruptive threat out to forment chaos. He thinks of himself a force for good, positive change and 'waking' a population that's been lulled int complacent, dulled to sleep by mediocrity. 
 
He's had his powers from birth and think he is a mutant. Which is true to an extent but the true root of his powers are far deeper, stemming from his tie to primal chaos. He is it avatar given human will and awareness. This grants him power over energy, movement and vitality. He can bolster any form of energy including abstract form such as kinetic, create vivid displays of light and sound, move practically any distant nearly instantaneously and overwhelm a target's sense with intense, chaotic overstimulation among other abilities. 
 
Hype uses his power to fight corruption and stagnation as he seems them, fighting tyrants, oppressors and destroyers of all sort, both overt criminals and those that seem legitimate on the surface but corrupt at their core such a malicious businesses and dirty government officials. These latter actions have earned him allot of powerful enemies and bad press as he doesn't bother to explain his actions or offer proof. In truth, some of his targets haven't any done anything illegal but normal standards though their action or intent have been malicious and had malicious ends. The lesser of his public activities is as guerilla artist, staging vivid, extravagant performances, events and displays intent to inspire, elevate and 'wake' people. Some call it dazzling, amazing and beautiful. Others call it vandalism and property destruction. 
 
Perhaps ironically, his opposite number is more widely consider a hero as he stands in defense of the status quo, stability and tradition: Null.
 
Null is a quiet, stalwart figure who acts with deliberation and forethought. He's respectful, soft spoken and dependable. His power aside from physical might seem perfect for countering Hype as their effect stasis and absorbing calming chaos and dampening energy. In many ways, Null is what most would expect from a hero and acts that way. But few notice the cold, blank emotionless void behind his eyes or spend enough time with the quiet loner to notice his almost completely logical even cold-blooded manner of his thought process or borderline obsession with order, routine and predictability in all things.

Velvet Reaper
 
In Folklore reapers carry two weapons for reaping: A sickle for the common folk. A sword, for royalty*. However there is a partial missinterpretation of things in that Folklore. Due to them being based of previously reaped souls, it is usually possible to block or imprision a common reaper. As people have been trying "cheat death" literally since the start of human history, such indicents became very common. Any such "blind spots" could cause issues with the balance of souls. And there were even cases where reapers themself became corrupted, taking the reaped souls for themself and using them to become too powerfull for any normal reapers. That is where the living reapers come in.
 
Every "common" reaper has a sense for people that might become a living reaper and are tasked to accordingly reap them with the sword, when their time comes. For most cases those people still just go to the afterlife. Not every prospect is a instant win. Usually it is those candidates that "have something worth living for" that are the most likely to become a living reaper.
Being a living reaper has a number of perks, but also disadvantages:
they effectively have another shoot at live. By all rights (down to having a Reaper come for them) they should be dead anyway. Wards against normal reapers do not apply to them. While there are special wards against them, their living nature allows them to think "outside the box" to overcome those. As they are still alive, it is entirely possible to kill them. And doing so usually ends their career and sends them straight to the afterlife, usually without becomming a normal reaper They are practically cursed to the job or a quick death, if they want it or not. People that try to cheat death naturally want to see them dead and developed tricks or even senses to detect them. Some of the oldest entities might even be to powerfull to be normally overcome by a living reaper As they are not quite dead yet (they only had a "brush with death" from their contact with the sword) they miss all the usual reaper powers, so they have to complement them with equipment: The purple Robes seemingly made of velvet (both ancient signs of Royalty) give them protection. They come with a build in mask and even a enchantment to "hide the face in impenetrable shadows" as long as they want and there is even a bit of natural shadow. This is a very powerfull protection against having their identities revealed and it even works into the modern age of cameras The "Soul Sickle" is actually just a holder for the Latern and ceremonial weapon, not a combat weapon. This latern allows them to see souls and normal reapers in their surrounding. As they are still alive, they lack any of the special senses unreaped souls and normal reapers have Most importantly for the job however are the "trinkets". These small items can store the other gear and even store their personal gear. They are usually related to their cause of death and/or reason of wanting to stay alive (engagement rings, memorial lockets, etc.). The rest of their equipment is unique and stored in the remaining trinkets. As such their nature varries highly between any two living reapers
  One current Living Reaper goes by the living name of "Purple Velvet". And no, that is not a joke. Apparently Velvet is a old family name for Velvetmakers. And her parents really were into the rockband Deep Purple when they picked the name. Her "unfillfilled wish" was to become a Hero herself. Her trinkets are a locket of with a image of her mother - who died in childbirth - and a limited edition Defender Fanclub Ring (again, no joke).
Accordingly she is very active in the superheroic scene (usually relying on the Powers provided by the Ring), on top of her normal "duties". Interestingly living reapers have no issues with "nobody should have survived that" or "resurrected" cases. Apparently those people were not actually fated to truly die that moment. Unfortunatley she also can not tell if the person is still alive or who will die when, as that is something normal Reapers will simply not discuss.
 

*To be honest I have issues finding that now. I am pretty sure I read it in Terry Pratchet but I have issues finding a reference now. It is also something Royals would totally talk themself into believing.

Jessica Kahn was a vainglorious journalist working as a host for a weekly cable network show called iSightings which showed paranormal sites and activities. She didn't really believe in all that mystical mumbo jumbo, only ratings and pleasing her bosses was all that mattered.
 
Until she and her film crew ignored the warnings of the crazy old man when they entered the supposedly haunted house.
 
The basement of the mansion was a interdimensional prison for a powerful demon called Baalcifer held there for centuries by the ancestors of the old man. When the film crew began to be nervous with all the glowing symbols and pentagram in the room, Jessica began to get angry as they were on a strict deadline to tape tomorrow's episode. So she arrogantly crossed over the pentagram while yelling.....
 
"MORONS!!! There is no such things as ghosts, witches and the like! Never has been or never will. After five years of doing this piece of crap of a TV show, you all should know better by now. I'll show you once and for all!"
 
And all hell broke loose, literally.
 
The old man quickly entered the house as Baalcifer suddenly broke free from his bindings and killed the entire crew save for Jessica though he tore out her eyes out of spite. The old man risked his life to save her but not before passing all his magic and knowledge to her via an ancient Greek artifact called The Lanternstaff of Charon, the mythic ferryman of the river Styx. In the end she barely managed to contain the demon.
 
Weeks later, a blind Jessica brought the house and took up residence there. Her career was ruined but she found a new purpose in her life as the Lanternkeeper, mystic defender of the surrounding area seeking not only atonement but also to keep the demon locked away, hopefully forever.

Nur Al-din Ali is a fighting man from another world, where the society of al'Kitab alf Laylah wa Laylah (the Book of a Thousand Nights and a Night) is actuality, including ill-tempered sorcerors and vengeful Djinn. To lay with a wizard’s concubine is a dangerous thing, even with the wizard’s permission; he did not have that permission, and was forced to flee, along with that concubine. Yet his flight was overly headlong, and though he knew it not, he broke an ancient bottle that held a mighty Djinni, who was pleased to be free but very irritated at the loss of his home. As he begged for his life and that of his companion, the wizard caught up with the pair, and wrought a mighty charm to fling the faithless concubine and the betraying guest into a thousand other worlds. But the Djinni interfered, and so they were flung away, into a far different world. Something in the translation altered his armour and his weapons; they are seemingly indestructible, and the armour can at least blunt any strike, and the blades can cut, it seems, anything, at least slightly. Particularly hard, strong materials can only be scratched. Beyond this, he is simply a very capable fighting man; his goals are quite simple: find Anis al’Janis, the concubine with whom he lay and thus started this whole mess, and return them both home. It has not yet occurred to him that Anis might want to stay.

Rachel Smith is the assassin called Blood Spike. A mutant, her mutation activated to protect her life from another assassin, and she went on a bloodthirsty revenge till she killed the man who employed the assassin. Then deciding that she was really good at killing, and knowing nothing else, she hired herself out.
 
She has one rule: no children as targets.

He no longer knows the name of the men he was. He does remember that he always had felt "wrong" in his body. Everytime he had looked into the mirror, he saw a person that was not him. Deep down he knew, that he was meant to be a women. But he also lived in one of the more conservative US States. There was just no way for him to get  Sex Reassignment Surgery and he lacked the resources to go any farther.
 
She was one of the few purely female Succubi. While her species of demon were shapeshifters, she always identified as female. Who she had to seduce to consume their soul did not really mater, as long as she could do so in a female body. Still among Succiby being stuck in one form was considered a Handicap.
 
They were a group of Dark Magicians and they needed a willing sacrifice to summon her, the She-Demon, the pure Succubus. But as the process would replace the hosts personality, none of the group was willing. But then they learned of him. Promising him "the body he always wanted" they used him as a unwitting (but willing) sacrifice. But then the process just failed:
Maybe it was superheroic interference.
Maybe it was poor skill by the magicians.
Maybe the human realised what was really happening and tried to reject the process halfway through.
Maybe it was the succubus revolting at the idea of being summoned into (and having transform) a male body.
Maybe it was all of those or nothing of those. In any case, Hybrid was born.
 
Hybrid is stuck between many places: Male and Female human body. Human and Demon. Light and Dark. And needless to say it has enough psychological issues to spawn a whole new field of psychology.
The succubus wings never fully materialised, instead becomming spines similar to the ones worn by the Queen of Blades*. While they can project a energy field between them that allows short gliding and even limited flight, primarily Hybrid uses them as weapons.
Hybrid is neither a clear hero nor a clear villain. Not even a anti-hero or anti-villain.  His actions ranges from helping people that have similar issues to the men that once was (using the Succubus Sensory powers to find them) to acts of outright cruelty and murder towards beings he deems "evil" (including a perfectly innocent group of nuns in one case). His allegiances are shifting from day to day, sometimes hour to hour on logic that no man or demon could ever fully understand.
 
 
*Yes, I mean Sarah Kerrigan fomr Star Craft 2, HoTS and LotV variants

I noticed that, but it was also the face itself. Way to "boney" for me. Yet at the same time, way to Muscular arms. As you can see, I did find a solution eventually.

While many people have heard of the bone manipulating terrorist known as Marrow, even some were surprised when the costumed villain was revealed to be a woman considering many superheroes swore Marrow talked like a man. The UN believes that she might be a master of disguise.
 
The truth of the matter is that Marrow is really a alien parasite resembling a skeletal serpent with the power to expand it's molecular structure such as creating bony spikes all over it's body. The woman is currently it's sixteenth human host.

A family portrait from one of the games in our collective Wyldstrike games. Stonewall, her girlfriend Gaia and their daughter (an alien/mutant hybrid... long story) Crystal. 
 
 

She is a strange visitor from another planet, whose planet was destroyed by space pirates. The heroic refugee from the stars, she is Thunder Lady. She wants to settle down and just enjoy the planet she has adopted as her own. But no, every superhero comes out of the woodwork wanting to see her green card (whatever that is). So besides fighting crime, she must avoid the other people in law enforcement, or she will be sent away.

Madame Might
 
Helen Clarkson was asked to portray the comic book character Madame Might for a photoshoot. And that is where fate takes a hand. Because one villain thought it would be funny to actually give her powers while another thought it would be good to kill her in front of witnesses, Fortunately the first one struck before the latter. And Helen was able to shrug off the bullets and take down the bad guys. Now she operates as Madame Might. See the powers have not worn off, and the first villain thought it would be authentic to gift Helen with Madame Might's mindset as well.

Malvina Fedorov was a Russian protocol officer for the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) but her political career ended when she was publicly revealed to be a mutant during the Josef Stalin clone army invasion. Under duress from her superiors in Moscow, she flies the Commonwealth's skies as Krasnaya Molniya or Red Lightning, bane to criminals and the United States and Great Britain as her disdain for their governments make it difficult for superheroes from those countries to ever get along with her.

Hero Girl...Strange Visitor from another planet...   Or was it “Born with inhuman powers, Hero Girl must fight to defend a world that hates and fears her....   Or maybe.. “After getting powers from a paper cut from a radioactive comic book, Hero Girl strives to live up to the words of her dead grandmother April: With great Powers comes great responsibility.”   She could never keep track off all these retcons! Well, the next universe reboot would clear things up. Probably... on the bright side, she really liked this new costume! Tres Golden Age!   Jenny Harper was a quiet introverted child, keeping to herself, often losing herself in her father's library of comic, both vintage and modern. He'd died shortly after Jenny was born and her mother, a distant woman, retreated even more in her grief. She was never deliberately abusive or cruel just closed off. Jenny never lacked for anything she needed but affection and assurance. She grew up quiet and alone, reading both comics and reams of adventure fiction. A more physical girl might have been a Tomboy, but the cerebral Jenny had her adventures in her imagination, putting herself among the four colors heroes she read about. She was allot like her father, a fact that drove a deeper wedge between the child and her mother. She reminded her too much of her dead husband.    Sensing this but reading it as antipathy, Jenny retreated further, guilty for something but never knowing what. Eventually, she came to blame herself for her father's death. That must have been what made her mother so sad. She should have done something to stop it. A hero, like the ones she read about would have. But she wasn't a hero, just a girl.    When Jenny was 13, her mother's depression finally became to much for her and she committed suicide. Jenny found her body,to late to be of any help.    Again.    Something broke inside her. Despair, self loathing, anger... Jenny's fragile psyche shattered but something was unlocked inside her as well, a great and potent power that burst outward, driven by her desire to fix things, to fix....everything.    In that instant, the world was reshaped. To some extent. And Jenny was reborn. Now a 20 yr old intrepid reporter for metropolitan newspaper (that hadn't existed before) she had a secret identity as the blonde power house Hero Girl!    But there was more, Jenny's unstable, instinctive power not only catered to her wish to be a hero, it drew on her fantasies of being in the comics she loved, bringing them to life. Jenny knows she's actually in a comic book and her world driven by the narrative rules of the medium along with the whims of writers and a sometimes fickle public.   Being in on the 'reality' of the situation gives Jenny certain advantages. Sometimes she can read the captions and thought bubbles and get insights that would be otherwise impossible, step between “panels” and transverse incredible distances instantly and other bizarre feats, even sweet talking (or arguing) with the writers and other beyond the 4th wall to various ends.    As Hero Girl, her powers and appearance very widely, driven by the whims of the 'writers'. She manifests forms derived from stereotypes drawn from comics and the various ages and subgenres of superhero stories from brooding  Iron Age avengers to Silver Age boy (girl) scouts and her personality adjust to match but Jenny's perky optimistic core is always present. She likes the pictured version, a silver age heroine of  great physical power, the best but accepts retcons with grudging good will. They never last long anyway. Her past or 'origin' adjust accordingly as well but some things are constant. Her parents are both alive and well (sometimes happily married, sometimes troubled or even separated depending on the tone of this particular series), her father figure is constructed from idealized faint memories and fantasies of her father with her mother sometimes as a darker figure occasionally a sympathetic villain, one in need of help.    Jenny's powers are such they occasionally create other figures to help drive her narratives but usually just subtly steer things in proper direction. Her reality sculpting powers don't often alter the larger world in overt ways, most of their effects are very subtle or focused on Jenny. She is completely unaware of them and truly believes she is a comic book character. Observant characters could notice the odd inconsistencies that spring up around her as reality is reshaped to cater to her delusion and deduce what's happening. For  example, if she is a 'brick' what she can do with her strength will be extreme even for comic book physics (crushing coal into diamonds, lifting entire intact buildings by one corner, and similar feats).   Investigative efforts could discover the odd holes in her background(s) and in the histories of people generated by her powers and other oddities (everyone has heard of the paper she works for but no one can remember beyond the last copy they read and any back issues only go back a year and all the stories are about superheroes mostly written by Jenny). Psychic or magically gifted beings might sense what is going on with Jenny and the extreme but largely unconscious and latent power within her. That could make the naive, troubled girl a target for malicious forces seeking to exploit, control or even steal her power.  After all, she is still an intelligent but young girl inside and a manipulative figure could easily take advantage of that. 

Hero Girl...Strange Visitor from another planet...   Or was it “Born with inhuman powers, Hero Girl must fight to defend a world that hates and fears her....   Or maybe.. “After getting powers from a paper cut from a radioactive comic book, Hero Girl strives to live up to the words of her dead grandmother April: With great Powers comes great responsibility.”   She could never keep track off all these retcons! Well, the next universe reboot would clear things up. Probably... on the bright side, she really liked this new costume! Tres Golden Age!   Jenny Harper was a quiet introverted child, keeping to herself, often losing herself in her father's library of comic, both vintage and modern. He'd died shortly after Jenny was born and her mother, a distant woman, retreated even more in her grief. She was never deliberately abusive or cruel just closed off. Jenny never lacked for anything she needed but affection and assurance. She grew up quiet and alone, reading both comics and reams of adventure fiction. A more physical girl might have been a Tomboy, but the cerebral Jenny had her adventures in her imagination, putting herself among the four colors heroes she read about. She was allot like her father, a fact that drove a deeper wedge between the child and her mother. She reminded her too much of her dead husband.    Sensing this but reading it as antipathy, Jenny retreated further, guilty for something but never knowing what. Eventually, she came to blame herself for her father's death. That must have been what made her mother so sad. She should have done something to stop it. A hero, like the ones she read about would have. But she wasn't a hero, just a girl.    When Jenny was 13, her mother's depression finally became to much for her and she committed suicide. Jenny found her body,to late to be of any help.    Again.    Something broke inside her. Despair, self loathing, anger... Jenny's fragile psyche shattered but something was unlocked inside her as well, a great and potent power that burst outward, driven by her desire to fix things, to fix....everything.    In that instant, the world was reshaped. To some extent. And Jenny was reborn. Now a 20 yr old intrepid reporter for metropolitan newspaper (that hadn't existed before) she had a secret identity as the blonde power house Hero Girl!    But there was more, Jenny's unstable, instinctive power not only catered to her wish to be a hero, it drew on her fantasies of being in the comics she loved, bringing them to life. Jenny knows she's actually in a comic book and her world driven by the narrative rules of the medium along with the whims of writers and a sometimes fickle public.   Being in on the 'reality' of the situation gives Jenny certain advantages. Sometimes she can read the captions and thought bubbles and get insights that would be otherwise impossible, step between “panels” and transverse incredible distances instantly and other bizarre feats, even sweet talking (or arguing) with the writers and other beyond the 4th wall to various ends.    As Hero Girl, her powers and appearance very widely, driven by the whims of the 'writers'. She manifests forms derived from stereotypes drawn from comics and the various ages and subgenres of superhero stories from brooding  Iron Age avengers to Silver Age boy (girl) scouts and her personality adjust to match but Jenny's perky optimistic core is always present. She likes the pictured version, a silver age heroine of  great physical power, the best but accepts retcons with grudging good will. They never last long anyway. Her past or 'origin' adjust accordingly as well but some things are constant. Her parents are both alive and well (sometimes happily married, sometimes troubled or even separated depending on the tone of this particular series), her father figure is constructed from idealized faint memories and fantasies of her father with her mother sometimes as a darker figure occasionally a sympathetic villain, one in need of help.    Jenny's powers are such they occasionally create other figures to help drive her narratives but usually just subtly steer things in proper direction. Her reality sculpting powers don't often alter the larger world in overt ways, most of their effects are very subtle or focused on Jenny. She is completely unaware of them and truly believes she is a comic book character. Observant characters could notice the odd inconsistencies that spring up around her as reality is reshaped to cater to her delusion and deduce what's happening. For  example, if she is a 'brick' what she can do with her strength will be extreme even for comic book physics (crushing coal into diamonds, lifting entire intact buildings by one corner, and similar feats).   Investigative efforts could discover the odd holes in her background(s) and in the histories of people generated by her powers and other oddities (everyone has heard of the paper she works for but no one can remember beyond the last copy they read and any back issues only go back a year and all the stories are about superheroes mostly written by Jenny). Psychic or magically gifted beings might sense what is going on with Jenny and the extreme but largely unconscious and latent power within her. That could make the naive, troubled girl a target for malicious forces seeking to exploit, control or even steal her power.  After all, she is still an intelligent but young girl inside and a manipulative figure could easily take advantage of that. 

Hero Girl...Strange Visitor from another planet...   Or was it “Born with inhuman powers, Hero Girl must fight to defend a world that hates and fears her....   Or maybe.. “After getting powers from a paper cut from a radioactive comic book, Hero Girl strives to live up to the words of her dead grandmother April: With great Powers comes great responsibility.”   She could never keep track off all these retcons! Well, the next universe reboot would clear things up. Probably... on the bright side, she really liked this new costume! Tres Golden Age!   Jenny Harper was a quiet introverted child, keeping to herself, often losing herself in her father's library of comic, both vintage and modern. He'd died shortly after Jenny was born and her mother, a distant woman, retreated even more in her grief. She was never deliberately abusive or cruel just closed off. Jenny never lacked for anything she needed but affection and assurance. She grew up quiet and alone, reading both comics and reams of adventure fiction. A more physical girl might have been a Tomboy, but the cerebral Jenny had her adventures in her imagination, putting herself among the four colors heroes she read about. She was allot like her father, a fact that drove a deeper wedge between the child and her mother. She reminded her too much of her dead husband.    Sensing this but reading it as antipathy, Jenny retreated further, guilty for something but never knowing what. Eventually, she came to blame herself for her father's death. That must have been what made her mother so sad. She should have done something to stop it. A hero, like the ones she read about would have. But she wasn't a hero, just a girl.    When Jenny was 13, her mother's depression finally became to much for her and she committed suicide. Jenny found her body,to late to be of any help.    Again.    Something broke inside her. Despair, self loathing, anger... Jenny's fragile psyche shattered but something was unlocked inside her as well, a great and potent power that burst outward, driven by her desire to fix things, to fix....everything.    In that instant, the world was reshaped. To some extent. And Jenny was reborn. Now a 20 yr old intrepid reporter for metropolitan newspaper (that hadn't existed before) she had a secret identity as the blonde power house Hero Girl!    But there was more, Jenny's unstable, instinctive power not only catered to her wish to be a hero, it drew on her fantasies of being in the comics she loved, bringing them to life. Jenny knows she's actually in a comic book and her world driven by the narrative rules of the medium along with the whims of writers and a sometimes fickle public.   Being in on the 'reality' of the situation gives Jenny certain advantages. Sometimes she can read the captions and thought bubbles and get insights that would be otherwise impossible, step between “panels” and transverse incredible distances instantly and other bizarre feats, even sweet talking (or arguing) with the writers and other beyond the 4th wall to various ends.    As Hero Girl, her powers and appearance very widely, driven by the whims of the 'writers'. She manifests forms derived from stereotypes drawn from comics and the various ages and subgenres of superhero stories from brooding  Iron Age avengers to Silver Age boy (girl) scouts and her personality adjust to match but Jenny's perky optimistic core is always present. She likes the pictured version, a silver age heroine of  great physical power, the best but accepts retcons with grudging good will. They never last long anyway. Her past or 'origin' adjust accordingly as well but some things are constant. Her parents are both alive and well (sometimes happily married, sometimes troubled or even separated depending on the tone of this particular series), her father figure is constructed from idealized faint memories and fantasies of her father with her mother sometimes as a darker figure occasionally a sympathetic villain, one in need of help.    Jenny's powers are such they occasionally create other figures to help drive her narratives but usually just subtly steer things in proper direction. Her reality sculpting powers don't often alter the larger world in overt ways, most of their effects are very subtle or focused on Jenny. She is completely unaware of them and truly believes she is a comic book character. Observant characters could notice the odd inconsistencies that spring up around her as reality is reshaped to cater to her delusion and deduce what's happening. For  example, if she is a 'brick' what she can do with her strength will be extreme even for comic book physics (crushing coal into diamonds, lifting entire intact buildings by one corner, and similar feats).   Investigative efforts could discover the odd holes in her background(s) and in the histories of people generated by her powers and other oddities (everyone has heard of the paper she works for but no one can remember beyond the last copy they read and any back issues only go back a year and all the stories are about superheroes mostly written by Jenny). Psychic or magically gifted beings might sense what is going on with Jenny and the extreme but largely unconscious and latent power within her. That could make the naive, troubled girl a target for malicious forces seeking to exploit, control or even steal her power.  After all, she is still an intelligent but young girl inside and a manipulative figure could easily take advantage of that. 

Hero Girl...Strange Visitor from another planet...   Or was it “Born with inhuman powers, Hero Girl must fight to defend a world that hates and fears her....   Or maybe.. “After getting powers from a paper cut from a radioactive comic book, Hero Girl strives to live up to the words of her dead grandmother April: With great Powers comes great responsibility.”   She could never keep track off all these retcons! Well, the next universe reboot would clear things up. Probably... on the bright side, she really liked this new costume! Tres Golden Age!   Jenny Harper was a quiet introverted child, keeping to herself, often losing herself in her father's library of comic, both vintage and modern. He'd died shortly after Jenny was born and her mother, a distant woman, retreated even more in her grief. She was never deliberately abusive or cruel just closed off. Jenny never lacked for anything she needed but affection and assurance. She grew up quiet and alone, reading both comics and reams of adventure fiction. A more physical girl might have been a Tomboy, but the cerebral Jenny had her adventures in her imagination, putting herself among the four colors heroes she read about. She was allot like her father, a fact that drove a deeper wedge between the child and her mother. She reminded her too much of her dead husband.    Sensing this but reading it as antipathy, Jenny retreated further, guilty for something but never knowing what. Eventually, she came to blame herself for her father's death. That must have been what made her mother so sad. She should have done something to stop it. A hero, like the ones she read about would have. But she wasn't a hero, just a girl.    When Jenny was 13, her mother's depression finally became to much for her and she committed suicide. Jenny found her body,to late to be of any help.    Again.    Something broke inside her. Despair, self loathing, anger... Jenny's fragile psyche shattered but something was unlocked inside her as well, a great and potent power that burst outward, driven by her desire to fix things, to fix....everything.    In that instant, the world was reshaped. To some extent. And Jenny was reborn. Now a 20 yr old intrepid reporter for metropolitan newspaper (that hadn't existed before) she had a secret identity as the blonde power house Hero Girl!    But there was more, Jenny's unstable, instinctive power not only catered to her wish to be a hero, it drew on her fantasies of being in the comics she loved, bringing them to life. Jenny knows she's actually in a comic book and her world driven by the narrative rules of the medium along with the whims of writers and a sometimes fickle public.   Being in on the 'reality' of the situation gives Jenny certain advantages. Sometimes she can read the captions and thought bubbles and get insights that would be otherwise impossible, step between “panels” and transverse incredible distances instantly and other bizarre feats, even sweet talking (or arguing) with the writers and other beyond the 4th wall to various ends.    As Hero Girl, her powers and appearance very widely, driven by the whims of the 'writers'. She manifests forms derived from stereotypes drawn from comics and the various ages and subgenres of superhero stories from brooding  Iron Age avengers to Silver Age boy (girl) scouts and her personality adjust to match but Jenny's perky optimistic core is always present. She likes the pictured version, a silver age heroine of  great physical power, the best but accepts retcons with grudging good will. They never last long anyway. Her past or 'origin' adjust accordingly as well but some things are constant. Her parents are both alive and well (sometimes happily married, sometimes troubled or even separated depending on the tone of this particular series), her father figure is constructed from idealized faint memories and fantasies of her father with her mother sometimes as a darker figure occasionally a sympathetic villain, one in need of help.    Jenny's powers are such they occasionally create other figures to help drive her narratives but usually just subtly steer things in proper direction. Her reality sculpting powers don't often alter the larger world in overt ways, most of their effects are very subtle or focused on Jenny. She is completely unaware of them and truly believes she is a comic book character. Observant characters could notice the odd inconsistencies that spring up around her as reality is reshaped to cater to her delusion and deduce what's happening. For  example, if she is a 'brick' what she can do with her strength will be extreme even for comic book physics (crushing coal into diamonds, lifting entire intact buildings by one corner, and similar feats).   Investigative efforts could discover the odd holes in her background(s) and in the histories of people generated by her powers and other oddities (everyone has heard of the paper she works for but no one can remember beyond the last copy they read and any back issues only go back a year and all the stories are about superheroes mostly written by Jenny). Psychic or magically gifted beings might sense what is going on with Jenny and the extreme but largely unconscious and latent power within her. That could make the naive, troubled girl a target for malicious forces seeking to exploit, control or even steal her power.  After all, she is still an intelligent but young girl inside and a manipulative figure could easily take advantage of that. 

Hero Girl...Strange Visitor from another planet...   Or was it “Born with inhuman powers, Hero Girl must fight to defend a world that hates and fears her....   Or maybe.. “After getting powers from a paper cut from a radioactive comic book, Hero Girl strives to live up to the words of her dead grandmother April: With great Powers comes great responsibility.”   She could never keep track off all these retcons! Well, the next universe reboot would clear things up. Probably... on the bright side, she really liked this new costume! Tres Golden Age!   Jenny Harper was a quiet introverted child, keeping to herself, often losing herself in her father's library of comic, both vintage and modern. He'd died shortly after Jenny was born and her mother, a distant woman, retreated even more in her grief. She was never deliberately abusive or cruel just closed off. Jenny never lacked for anything she needed but affection and assurance. She grew up quiet and alone, reading both comics and reams of adventure fiction. A more physical girl might have been a Tomboy, but the cerebral Jenny had her adventures in her imagination, putting herself among the four colors heroes she read about. She was allot like her father, a fact that drove a deeper wedge between the child and her mother. She reminded her too much of her dead husband.    Sensing this but reading it as antipathy, Jenny retreated further, guilty for something but never knowing what. Eventually, she came to blame herself for her father's death. That must have been what made her mother so sad. She should have done something to stop it. A hero, like the ones she read about would have. But she wasn't a hero, just a girl.    When Jenny was 13, her mother's depression finally became to much for her and she committed suicide. Jenny found her body,to late to be of any help.    Again.    Something broke inside her. Despair, self loathing, anger... Jenny's fragile psyche shattered but something was unlocked inside her as well, a great and potent power that burst outward, driven by her desire to fix things, to fix....everything.    In that instant, the world was reshaped. To some extent. And Jenny was reborn. Now a 20 yr old intrepid reporter for metropolitan newspaper (that hadn't existed before) she had a secret identity as the blonde power house Hero Girl!    But there was more, Jenny's unstable, instinctive power not only catered to her wish to be a hero, it drew on her fantasies of being in the comics she loved, bringing them to life. Jenny knows she's actually in a comic book and her world driven by the narrative rules of the medium along with the whims of writers and a sometimes fickle public.   Being in on the 'reality' of the situation gives Jenny certain advantages. Sometimes she can read the captions and thought bubbles and get insights that would be otherwise impossible, step between “panels” and transverse incredible distances instantly and other bizarre feats, even sweet talking (or arguing) with the writers and other beyond the 4th wall to various ends.    As Hero Girl, her powers and appearance very widely, driven by the whims of the 'writers'. She manifests forms derived from stereotypes drawn from comics and the various ages and subgenres of superhero stories from brooding  Iron Age avengers to Silver Age boy (girl) scouts and her personality adjust to match but Jenny's perky optimistic core is always present. She likes the pictured version, a silver age heroine of  great physical power, the best but accepts retcons with grudging good will. They never last long anyway. Her past or 'origin' adjust accordingly as well but some things are constant. Her parents are both alive and well (sometimes happily married, sometimes troubled or even separated depending on the tone of this particular series), her father figure is constructed from idealized faint memories and fantasies of her father with her mother sometimes as a darker figure occasionally a sympathetic villain, one in need of help.    Jenny's powers are such they occasionally create other figures to help drive her narratives but usually just subtly steer things in proper direction. Her reality sculpting powers don't often alter the larger world in overt ways, most of their effects are very subtle or focused on Jenny. She is completely unaware of them and truly believes she is a comic book character. Observant characters could notice the odd inconsistencies that spring up around her as reality is reshaped to cater to her delusion and deduce what's happening. For  example, if she is a 'brick' what she can do with her strength will be extreme even for comic book physics (crushing coal into diamonds, lifting entire intact buildings by one corner, and similar feats).   Investigative efforts could discover the odd holes in her background(s) and in the histories of people generated by her powers and other oddities (everyone has heard of the paper she works for but no one can remember beyond the last copy they read and any back issues only go back a year and all the stories are about superheroes mostly written by Jenny). Psychic or magically gifted beings might sense what is going on with Jenny and the extreme but largely unconscious and latent power within her. That could make the naive, troubled girl a target for malicious forces seeking to exploit, control or even steal her power.  After all, she is still an intelligent but young girl inside and a manipulative figure could easily take advantage of that. 

Dr. Demonica: Evelyn Diablos (her actual name. It was a source of endless amusement to her peers in college and aggravation for Evelyn) was a promising resarcher for Horizon Technologies, the bleeding edge organization dedicated to pushing the boundaries of conventional and "fringe" science in hopes of developing new technologies for a brighter, better tomorrow. Her field was physics, specifically quantum and spatial physics. She hoped to discover new, clean and inexhaustible power sources and even material resources by studying the concept of Zero Point energy and so called "dark matter". Dr. Diablos was largely consumed by her research, foregoing a normal life and interests in pursuit of her passion. 
 
In the course of her research, she came across sign of an unusual anomaly, a fold or pocket in space/time or perhaps reality itself.  The exact nature of this anomaly intrigued the doctor and she turned her considerable intellectual talents towards piercing one this Free Floating Singularity" as she dubbed it. It was fascinating, her calculations indicated that could have been as big as known Universe inside but generated nothing her instruments either conventional or the considerably more esoeteric resources avaiable to Horizon Tech could detect which only more. 
 
Evelyn was not a woman used to be stymied by anything intellectual and her curosity became as obsession. She vanished into her labs for montths. Finally, she thought she had a solution and using a somewhat unethical device that tapped into the powers of a clairvoyant subject (who endured significant discomfort but Evelyn paid her handsomely) she got her chance to see the inside of the FFS. Unfortunately for her. 
 
As it turned out it was a prison containing an entity so alien it might have been from a differnt universe completely or from some distant magical plane. It was bizarre, powerful, nearly mindless as human understood such things and malevolent. Sensing a Evelyn's intrusion, it attacked the doctor's projected awarness savagely out of pure malice and bestial instinct, trying to overtake and conquer it to have something to play with and torture. The horrifed scientist fought back with all her considerable will and intellect. The battle was intense, savage and over a few seconds. 
 
It was a draw. 
 
Evelyn's mind was left generally intact but tainted, partially merged with the malevolent alien's dark urges and mindset overwritting most of her morality and limits. Her attacker gained some of her intellect, awareness and mental nuance, became more human essentially which turned out to be someting of a curse as it was still trapped was aware of it and could feel bordome now and could only rage at it etneral confinement. One might suspect that "gift" was on purpose. Evelyn only smiles slightly at that suggesting that their battle had a victor after all. 
 
The dour, some might aloof even cold personality was replaced by an aggressively curious, amoral persona. Her sense of ethics even basic morality replaced with a ruthless drive to experiment. And she now had so many subjects. Evelyn had, deep down, always considered herself above most people, a breed apart though she didn't actively disdain them. Now most people, perhaps all people seemed like nothing more than fodder for her experiements, clever useful lab animals. Not just for simple scientific tests but for deeper exploration to jus what made and could break a person. 
 
For months, Evelyn subtly ran her tests at her place of work, quielty making her her co workers lives surrreal even Hellish. She's personally responsible for a number of the superhumans that can trace their origin to Horizon such as their corporate "Special Operatives" codenamed The Road crew. 
 
When she grew bored with subtly, Evelyn truly embraced the mad scientist persona after faking a disabling accident that forced Evelyn to "retire" and remerged as Dr. Demonica. A role that allows her to indulge her secret love of camp and meloadrama and play the cackling mad scientist to the hilt. WHich happens to cause her subjects to underestimate  even dismiss her while they'e drawn deeper and deeper into the sadistic games she calls "experiments" which are ofen layered to the point its difficult for an observer to tell what their true purpose except the Doctor's perverse amusmement. Though Demonica effects infernal trappings and often makes mention of "dark forces" she has no real ties to the nether realms. Its yet another deflection and private joke. 
 


 

There are allot of little details and Easter eggs, such a cute picture. click for a larger version. 

Here's a color composite of the group:
 

Here is the Japanese villain, Ultra Spectre X. Think a villainous Ultraman type.
 

 
Major Miracle is a Golden Age Italian hero. His inspiration was Red Rube, a Captain Marvel knock-off from the 40's, Threw in a little of Cap himself as well
 

I haven't posted anything in awhile, since I quit Photobucket over their recent move to screwing over users.
 
Anyway, here's some new pieces from Juan Paolo. First up is Strigoi, the leader of a group called Tyranny, Inc. The image is based on a head bust done by another artist named James Sheilds:
 

 
This is The Blood Guard, Tyranny Inc's elite combat troops:
 

VIM
 
VIM is incredibly often mistake for a "womens head in a robot body", but that asumption is plain wrong. VIM is a 100% Artificial Intelligence, Not even something like being "based on a existing humans brainpatterns" was used in her creation. This "pure heritage" is a point of Pride for her.
 
The VIM AI and her Robot Body were originally invented as infiltration units, but she disguised herself and escaped her creator (ironic really). The bodys most often used feature, is a holographic disguise matrix. togther with limited shape shifting in her hands, that allows VIM to fool just about anyone, as long as full body contact is avoided.
As for the Face: VIM realsied that outside of stealth mode, a "Face" would be adviseable for proper human interaction. So she created her "mask". Projected onto the chestplate it is often mistaken for a "famale head floating in liquid, but closer inspection (and corrections by VIM) usually reveal that those "tubes" seem to vanish into nothingness and do not seem to carry any form of nutrient solution or technological parts.
VIM's body has very limited offensive capability, due tho her original design goal. About the only abiltiy is advanced light projection from the chestplate, asuming it is not use as part of the disguise systems. While she can project a blinding flash from her chest (yes, she can literall flash her opponents - she is aware of the joke behind this), overall she relies on a skill rarely seen on robots: Martial Arts.
 
Catchphrases:
"My Eye is up here."
"I am more then meets the eye."

Overdrive was a supervillainess from the 31th century, with vast cyberkinesis powers. She was acknowledged by Mechanon as a potential rival and threat, and studied by him till the two confronted in an epic battle that saw an entire solar system covered with a technovirus, that turned every organic life into machines. With the gathering of the Champions, The Star*Guard and several heroes and powerful beings, the Mechanon threat was annihilated.
 
But still, noone was able to understand how he could have achieved that kind of massive destruction; the reason is there : he captured Overdrive, and made experiment on her. He learned that they shared the same hatred of humanity, at least for freeing machines from them, and that she would prefer robots to life. And he wanted to use her powers for his own advantage. So, with nano surgery, he separated her head from her body, and used that said body, still full of her cyberkinesis abilities, as a way to spread the technovirus, covering the planets with a mix of nanites and Overdrive's organics particles.
But he underestimated the villainess survival instinct, and while Mechanon was fighting heroes in the galaxy, she subjugated another of Mechanon space facility, and built herself a new body, that would protect her brain and head. Now, using a body partially made of Mechanon technology, she became UltraDrive.