McCoy

My default is a visual distortion, like heat waves, between the character and the object being manipulated.

Teleportation! Don't recall Martian Manhunter ever having teleportation!

Density Increase in the animated version. In fact, the animated verson puts me more in mind of Vision than Superman.

I can do this, I know I can!

Originally posted by Killer Shrike

Hasnt MM had just about every power at some point?

Start with Superman's powers, add invisibility, telepathy, shape shift, streching, light illusions (self only), desolidification . . . .

There has to be something. Not at home now, don't have FREd in front of me.

Originally posted by Brandi

Probably 'cause just about every comic book stretchy hero is a zany, except Reed Richards. I think it's because it's such a *goofy* looking power in most cases... (though that liver-eater in X-Files was a creepy creature!)

There was also a time in Justice League where Martian Manhunter had streching, and I do not think anyone has ever accused J'onn of being zany. Only character capible of making Batman say "Dude, lighten up!"

Set Armor equal average damage of best attack of team. Add 75% damage reduction, resistant, Physical and Energy (120 points well spent, insures the team can take him down in time and with team work, but no one can one-punch him) (and remember resistant damage reduction applies to NND's as well).

Set DEX so that DCV = worst OCV on the team. Add levels so that OCV = best DCV on the team. Able to be hit by anyone, able to hit anyone.

SPD = average SPD of team (rounded up).

Some movement power at 0 END to get to those EB's who fire while staying out of reach. He's not afraid to fall, can really suprise flyers with a teleport.

CON, enough not to be con-stunned, should not be an issue with the damage reduction. 20 - 25 should do.

Rest of points 0 END STR.

Is there an active point limit on the team's attacks? If not, what's the STR of the best Brick and the damage of the best EB on the team? Does the team have a Mentalist?

Originally posted by ZootSoot

Ultron should have been on my list. The only master villain whose ambitions don't seem ludicrous when compared to what he has already achieved; I did despise the Jocasta storylines though, wtf is going on with the writers that they think Ultron is interested in sex (or even has a gender)?

The writers were thinking that Ultron is the personification of the Oedipeal complex, therefore he wants to kill his father (Hank Pym) and marry his mother, or at least his father's wife (Janet van Dyne Pym). (Jocasta was the name of Oedipus mother and wife.) Ultron has also said that while he despises all carbon-based life, he would find it boreing to be the only intelligence on the planet, which is why he tries to create family, the Vision, Jocasta, Alchema. Fortunately for the heros, Hank Pym's social skills have not kept pace with his intelligence, and Ultron ultimately creates a disfunctional family.

Originally posted by JSweeney

Off topic, but could someone tell me where I can get copies of some of those old titles...I'm not interested in ebay.

Guess they're all out of print now. Amazon.com has some used copies, in my experience better prices and much better service than e-bay.

I liked it. But Orion's justifying a premptive strike was just a little too close to Recent Events for comfort. "There can be no peace as long as Darkside is in power." Wanted to check if Bush was credited as one of the writers.

Originally posted by gewing

I wonder, should we just give him every martial arts manuever?

Maybe just me, but I don't recall Doc (or Renny) using much in the way of martial arts maneuvers, just straight boxing. Monk was more the brawler and dirty infighter, Ham avoided HTH at all cost, don't recall that Johnny or Long Tom ever fought close quarters, all preferred pistols.

Originally posted by Kevin Scrivner

Savage himself is an expert at everything! He has every conceivable skill in HERO System at 18-, great physical stats, and an arsenal of gadgets.

Plus one power that I always found disturbing in a "hero," the ability (and willingness) to lobotomize lawbreakers and Transform them into law-abiding amnesiacs.

Let's see, Take the "normal characteristic maxima" disad, max out characteristics, 167 points. He knows so many languages it's cheaper to take Universal Translator. While we're there, add other talents. Speed reading, perfect pitch, lightsleep, Lightning calculator, fast draw, eidetic memory, double jointed, does anyone recall if Clark was ambidexterious? Then perks, "Doc" was not a courtesy title, in New York he was licensed to practice medicine, and law, and I believe he had a license as an architect (licensed for some sort of engineering anyway).

Humm, we've broken 200 points. Add some overall levels.

This is begining to look like a Thousand Pointer.

Only thing I can think of is to do it the way Dent did it, all talents and skills into a pool, and create whatever needed by the plot from the pool. Likewise an obscene gadget pool.

This doesn't even touch bases (plural), vehicles, and most central to the character, followers.

So I'm the only one who likes Ultron?

(Speaking of murderous computers, just came back from watching T-3. Great. See it.)

Originally posted by Superskrull

true, but there isn't a clear demarkation that shows the Gold turning to the Silver. All through the 40s & 50's Superman's powers swelled to ever greater proportions and due to the superboy stories, he was always shown as having this power level.

But if you follow the Earth-1 / Earth-2 convention, the Earth-2 Superman was never Superboy, so it could be said that all the Superboy stories 1945 on were about the Earth-1, Silver Age Superman.

Originally posted by Redmenace

Thanks guys that makes the job easier. On a side note, wasn't there a reference during the History Channels "Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked" program where the alluded to a story where supes rounded up Hitler and Stalin and dropped em off at the League of Nations? I'm not planning to do that but it sounds like something interesting.

"In 1943, Look Magazine ran a two-page sequence written by Jerry Siegel and drawn by Joe Shuster entitled "What If Superman Ended the War?" In that sequence, Superman had tired of the destruction of war and decided to bring it to an abrupt end. He flew to Berlin and captured Adolph Hitler, then went to Moscow to capture Joseph Stalin. Leaping high above the mountaintops, Superman flew the pair to Geneva Switzerland, to a court before the League of Nations where the two dictators were placed on trial for war crimes against their own people. Interestingly, this was published before Roosevelt and Churchill invited Stalin to be one of the allies, and Russia joined in the battle against Germany. Still, it showed the sentiment toward Russia during the 1940's, and that even then the world opinion of 1943 considered the Russian people to be oppressed."

http://www.supermanhomepage.com/comics/articles/supes-war.html

One super-power that has long since been discarded by the chroniclers is Superman's ability, displayed on a number of occasions in the 1940s, to radically alter his facial characteristics and even his size through what was described as "superb muscular control" of his "plastic features."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Humm. Makes a lot more sense than Venerable Comic Book Cliche #1, "No one will recognize you if you put on a pair of glasses."

The result of poor reasoning by confused creationists.

We will agree to disagree then, but I will still withhold my recomendation from anything that gives Gonzales credibility, much less gives aid and comfort to (and in their minds spports the delusions of ) the IDH proponents, however unintentionally.

We've discussed this throughly enough for anyone reading this thread to make an informed decision.

Humm. "Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound."

I would put his STR somewhere between 60 - 100, maybe 75. Could live with 65 and a push.

In 1939 he could just superleap, but I believe he could fly by '41.

In 1939 the only powers shown were strength, durability, and speed (but I believe some life support, immunity to disease, was implied). Note also that this was not due to the Yellow Sun, Jor-L exibited the same powers while on Krypton. In 1942 Clark Kent flunked his Army induction physical when he accidently read the eye chart in the next room, so vision powers exibited in '42, could go either way in '41.

IIRC, kryptonite was unknown in '41. It originated on the Superman radio show, so finding the dates for that would give you a window.

[Added in edit] Yes, kryptonite appeared on the radio in June of 1943, in the comics in 1949.

The Hulk. Usually presented as a protagonist, he has gone up against enough heros to qualify (IMHO). Raw destructived potential, a force of nature with an anger management problem. Symbolizes how rage unchecked can destroy a person's life and world, also embodies Cold War ambivolence about nuclear weapons (necessary, but what if they got out of control?).

Godzilla. Again, large scale destruction, but in later apperences not totally mindless. Apparently Gaia's enforcer, went into action when the planet was treatened by aliens or human disrespect for the enviroment. "The ecology strikes back!"

Ultron. A computer with it's own agenda and no off switch. Despite the ultra high tech origin, something about the character lends itself to gothic horror, dark and unrelenting. In many ways the least human villian, ruthless and remorseless. Absolutely without redemeing virtues. Embodies the fear of technology gone wild, taking over, destroying something valuable in life.

Apocalypse. The self appointed lifeguard of the gene pool. Loves competition, nature red of tooth and claw. "You ARE the weakest link, goodbye!" Personifies survival of the fittest.

Venom. A composit, Eddie Brock hates Peter Parker, the symbiote hates Spider-man. Pooling their resources, they have all of Spider-man's powers, and then some. Venom is Ahab to Spider-man's White Whale, the embodiment of Revenge at any cost.

Got called away, posted last post to not lose work in progress. Was going to edit, but since it has been replied to I will just continue in a new post.

First, I did not say, or mean to imply, that a Christian or even Creationist cannot do good science. However, in this case Guillermo Gonzalez has a philosophical and religious investment in the Unique Earth hypothesis that I think calls his objectivity, and therefore his credability, into question.

As the recognized expert on galactic habitable zones, mostly because he is one of a very few working in that field, he influenced Ward and Brownlee, pushing their hypothesis toward the Unique Earth end of the spectrum.

Earth is unique in the solar system in several respects. It is the densest planet, it is the only one known to have plate techtonics, it has the least excentric orbit around the Sun. But some other aspects need qualification; it has the strongest magnetic field of the terrestrial planets (but not as strong as the gas giants), it has one moon (others have more, others have less).

At this point in time our knowledge of the solar system is incomplete. For decades it was thought that Earth was the only planet with liquid water (and this was the definition of the habitable zone). Now there is evidence of liquid water on Europa, and possibly Mars and Titan as well (which means the habitable zone is over 4 au wide, or we let Gonzalez redefine the habitable zone so that Earth is not only the only planet in it, but is in it for the life expectency of the sun).

The question is, which of these are necessary for complex, even intelligent, life, and which are interesting coincidences. This is where the science breaks down, and Ward and Brownlee (and probably Gonzalez) engage in speculation more worthy of philosophy than science.

The best example is probably Mars. Ward and Brownlee speculate that an earth-like planet will need other specific bodies in the solar system to develop complex life. In addition to the planet itself, the planet needs a moon (for several reasons), a "Jupiter" to act as a cosmic bouncer and throw unruly comets out of the solar system, and a "Mars" as "life source to seed Earth-like planet."

At this point in time there is no hard evidence that there was ever life on Mars (though I certainly hope there was and is), much less that Earth would be lifeless without a Martian biotransplant.

This is one example of a factor included on no hard evidence, apparently to make Earth even more rare, unique, and therefore proof of Divine Provedence rather than simply beating the odds.

There is some good science in this book, there is also too much sloppy science and wild speculation, and they are not always labeled as such. While I am sure this was not Ward and Brownlee's intent, the book does give undeserved credability to Creationist in general and the ID proponents in particular. Ward and Brownlee were suprised to learn that Gonzalez the astronomer is also Gonzalez the Christian appologist. See Life Everywhere: The Maverick Science of Astrobiology

Have not been able to locate Dembski's review on line, but here are a couple of samples from other ID proponents.

http://www.newcreationism.org/RareEarth.html

http://www.creationinthecrossfire.com/Articles/RareEarthBookReview.html

I loved Misfits of Science! And have to confess sometimes I find myself singing the theme from My Secret Identity ("You'll never know wat you'll see/ when you unlock a mystery/ sometimes this double life gets out of hand).

Automan? Was Walter played by Desi Arnez Jr?

I've read the book, and checked the references

[Rough Draft, will be edited later. Thank you for yourpatience.]

Originally posted by DigitalGolem

Perhaps you ought to read this book, so we could have an informed discussion about it. Likewise, I'll read that Dembski review as soon as you post a link to it.

I read the book when it first came out. I own the book. You are correct, Ward and Brownlee are not creationist. Which is what made them a perfect if unwiting Trojan Horse for "Guillermo Gonzalez [who] changed many of our views about planets and habitable zones," preface, page x.

Gonzalez is a creationist, intelligent design proponent, and Christian appologist. See interview.

Guillermo Gonzalez

Originally posted by gewing

"Boy named Sue"

his name is Sioux O'Reilly. "6'3" 245lbs. (I have only briefly introduced him, he may end up even bigger.

There was a short lives TV sitcom, don't remember the name, but in the pilot the boy was complaining about being named Cheyenne. Seemed to me that the father's line should have been "You owe me for Cheyenne, your mother was holding out for Sioux," but they went with something else.

Heroes from songs. Humm. *Suddenly realized how long its been since he's listened to anything except Andrew Lloyd Weber*

Wild Thing - The Troggs, berserker Wolverine clone.

**How very, very long.**

I'd recommend aginst the following...

Originally posted by DigitalGolem

Ward and Brownlee's Rare Earth has lots of geology/planetology info for Earth-like worlds.

No, it doesn't. First, it is an attempt to plot a curve from a single point, always a bad idea. Second, it's creationist claptrap. William Dembski gave it a good review, which should be enough to establish it as total nonsense!

Originally posted by D-Man

2 Ways:

Make that three.

Clairsentence, normal sight (20 pts) & hearing (+5 pts), retrocognition (+20 pts), 45 base points. 0 END (+1/2), 67 active points. Retrocognition only (-1), only what subject saw/heard (-1/2), must have LOS on subject (-1/2), extra time, full phase (-1/2), concentrate, 0 DCV (-1/2), 17 real points.

GM may require more time or perception roll to get anything other than banalaties. Let's you know what the subject saw, heard, did, and said, but not what they thought. On the other hand it bypasses Ego Defense.

For Bartleby I would leave off the extra time and concentrate, and put always on. He is a Watcher after all.