Superguy List

Attention Shoppers, we have a special on automatic weapons! WCD#49

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:58:35 GMT

The next episode is up folks!

West Coast Defenders, Episode #49

Some thoughts further below.

When you write a story, do you ever have a soundtrack going in your head?
Have you been listening to a song and have a scene spring, unbidden yet in detail, into your mind? A long time ago, I was listening to a song, dealing with some personal angst, and the dramatic climax of this episode came to mind, and so now finally I have it written down.

The song was "Stronger" by Britney Spears.

No, I don't listen to that much, but I had my whole library of music on shuffle.
Now stop laughing and go read the episode. Thoughts?

oh, what the hell...

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 15:51:10 GMT

I've been pondering and pondering this, and I think I'm gonna do it:

Election Night Special 2008

Same general format as the 1992 and 1996 specials, that is, a news broadcast on the night of the U.S. presidential election. I'll handle the 'studio' parts and other sections of general connectivity, as well as the ending. What I'm begging... er, looking... for from the lot of you are the lumps of political foolery to plug into it. Satirical political commercials, pundit discussions, reports from around the country (on local, statewide, or presidential electoral hijinks), and so on.

As far as I'm concerned, no one on any side of this political carnival is exempt from mockery, so please don't hold back on that account. Just remember, being as this is Superguy, bringing the funny is more important than grinding the axes.

(I was going to post autocollector links for the 1992 and 1996 specials, but the autocollector appears to be down right now.)

Edit: tentative due date for the lumps - Tuesday, October 28th, one week before election day. That'll give me time to stitch it all together. Email to: swede at novitious dot com.

One of the only SG episodes with a Brass Dancing Pole! ;-)

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:41:30 GMT

Enjoy! New episode coming out shortly!

WCD #48 Foxy Flashback

Just a Few Days Late, it's the League #6 notice!

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 18:12:03 GMT

Hey hi all! With Eyrie's troubles and move to a new server happening within, like, an hour of my posting the League #6, it didn't seem an opportune time to do this post. Now that everything seems settled, here it is!

The League #6 Part One
The League #6 Part Two

And now, the notes! Because I'm like that. Some spoilers, so consider carefully whether you want to read them before the episode.

The prologue is a bit of gap-filling. We know that Mason Kramer ended the last episode of Mason's Mazin' Mob with Maria having been conditioned by Sensation into revealing... well, essentially everything about her team, without really fighting very hard. We also learned Random Encounters was behind it all, as he so often was. What we didn't know is how that all resolved.

And, y'know, we still don't. S'not my story. But I wanted to establish the 'when, what and why' of Maria.

Lochaber continues to be a parody of Longbow. Susan's codename, Carillon, is actually a satirical callback to the head of Longbow, Ms. Liberty, who wears a belt empowered by the Greek Gods which inexplicably has a Liberty Bell symbol on it. So, Susan's named after a bell. Get it? Hah? Haaaah?

This was also sort of meant as a subversion of a trope. We had the very stock 'seemingly inappropriate commander shows herself as a total badass on the first day of training' scene and fight that we've seen approximately one million times, and at the very end we see Susan, alone with Brick, go to the cornfield with him.

The Pact -- one of the cool things about having a mage on the team is you can totally throw in entirely unreasonable bits and explain them away with magic. Why doesn't the League out the Hawaiian? Why, they have a magical pact, of course! As for the 'Galatea Protocol?' Stay tuned.

Buddy appeared in Mason's Mazin' Mob as a friend of Alice's who used to ride in her hair. I always liked him, so here he is. I have no idea where the rest of his people went. Yes, he is a cricket.

The Combat Zone was significantly cleaned up but still infamous when I went to Boston University in the eighties. These days, it seems it's mostly just a reference to an earlier time. At the same time, I wanted to do something that satirized the war zones and areas full of wreckage from the Rikti War (including parts of Atlas Freakin' Park, four years later) and highlight just how bad the Walls and the like have been for Boston.

The Net.Trolls are a parody of City of Heroes's own "Trolls" faction. The Confen are mostly parodies of the mutant Outcast gang in City of Heroes, with a bit of the Freakshow thrown in for good measure. I take no sides in the argument, but wish to mention that some lemminglike Dr. Horrible Fans want to call themselves "Goggleheads" or "Labcoats," in emulation of the "Browncoats" who were fans of Firefly. To which I say "Browncoats were a group in the show, you morons. If you need to come up with a ridiculous name to identify your fanbase beyond 'Dr. Horrible fans,' go with Henchmen or The Evil League of Evil or Groupies, which is what you are! Labcoats? GOGGLEHEADS? What the Hell is wrong with you? Hey, here's a thought -- "Dr. Horrible fans." Try that on for size!

As a side note, hi to all you Snarkoleptics out there.

Doctor Unorthodox, you will recall, was Trudy "Unorthodox Girl/Unorthodox Lass/Unorthodoxy" Galloway's father and the most recurrent enemy for the Adjusted League, back in the day. As for the rest of the last scene... oh, we'll talk about that next time, I think.

SG/LNH: New Exarchs #13 - What Hiatus?

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:08:44 GMT

New Exarchs #13 - What Hiatus? - Hans Zwarghoff has figured out what's wrong, but the solution will probably involve large explosions! Especially if Corrine and Mikey get involved....

And now, the League Biographical Fashion Review -- frighteningly long!

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 05:06:29 GMT

This seems like an opportune time to give you all a look at the costumes and appearances (more or less) of the various members of our heroes in the League. These costumes were designed in City of Heroes, which among other things has a pretty darn spiffy character creator, and while one can't get perfect with these things (and sometimes can't even get close), sometimes you can get some darn nice attempts going. Certainly, if I ever have money to burn, I'll use these as the springboard for actual commissions of the character drawings.

Though, y'know, I have a family now. So don't hold your breath on commissions.

More to the point, there's lots of biographical information here -- including in a lot of cases some information that hasn't gotten in the series yet. So, if you're wondering what the deal is with Cairi's death references and weird name change, you will find it here, as an example.

To spare your home pages, we will place the below behind a cut. Thank you all, as always.

The League

In order of seniority, more or less:

Hazard
Formerly Known As: Dangerousgirl
Old Series: Adjusted League Unimpeachable
Original Real Name: Danielle "Dani" Potentiate.
Revised Real Name: Danielle P. MacPherson
Current Real Name: The Widow Danielle Nobody
Created by: Eric Burns-White

Danielle -- called Dani by essentially everyone -- was a tailored artificial being, largely designed as a clone of Dianna "Spandex Babe" Potentiate, with significant alteration of her genetic code, fusing Lars "Dangerousman" MacPherson's DNA into Potentiate's to create a new being. The experiment was called Project Dangerous II, and was meant to create an easily controlled, physically mature autonomous weapon using stolen information and technology from the original Dangerous Project. The project was spearheaded by the League of Unconcerned Scientists, who had interfered with the Warrior Woman project that had given Dianna her Spandex Babe powers. Significant illicit Xolchipalian technology was also integrated (thanks to the intercession of Jonathan Frakes (Coincidence)) and the entire project was a front for the evil genius of Andy Awe-Inspiring, who was directly involved in both Project Dangerous II and Project: Warrior Woman, from behind the scenes. Part of the project was attempting to replicate an entirely submissive personality into the new clone, triggered from a hidden submissive personality programmed into Spandex Babe during her own development. However, Potentiate broke through the artificial personality during the transference, yielding a unique -- and in no way submissive -- personality to be implanted into the artificial construct. The result was Danielle "Dani" Potentiate -- emotionally and physically a teenager, albeit a physically mature and beautiful one -- who became a younger sister to both Dianna and Lars. (Though in many ways, her genetic relationship to the two was closer to being a daughter than a sibling).

Dani had the same incredible thermonuclear powers (though possibly slightly less powerful overall) as Dangerousman himself, but wielded them through similar genetic mechanisms as Spandex Babe's 'Neophotonic Energy.' The result was the ability to produce all the effects of a nuclear chain reaction -- incredible force, radiation, heat and energy -- but under Dani's complete control. This allowed her to harness her powers into 'nuclear firebolts' and explosive charges with the heat and concussive force of her power but lacking the deadly radiation. She can also use pure force, pure heat, pure radiation and a combination of all of the above as she sees fit, and she uses controlled detonations to 'fling' herself through the air and protect herself from harm -- more a leaping ability than real flight. She can also absorb radiation into herself, which she then has to release through her uniform, converting it into harmless light.

As with her brother Lars, Dani must wear a full body uniform at all times. She is highly radioactive and her radiation would poison anyone she was near in a short period of time if she lacked containment. The uniform is an advanced design -- one that showed both Xolchipalian enhancements and the genius of Mandy "Mastermind/Ops" Harken in its improvements -- but is still based on the original uniform Lars MacPherson wore, converting her radiation into light and color. She used to wear a green uniform with an orange mushroom cloud logo in emulation of her brother. With the advent of the League and Dani's need to at least have some plausible deniability, she has changed to a formfitting orange uniform accented in green, with an orange cling mask. She has a red and green "Nuclear Hazard/Bomb Shelter" logo on her chest, and also wears a red headband to keep sweat out of her eyes. Her dark brunette hair is shoulder length. Though the Mask Principle would prevent anyone from immediately connecting them, Dani now looks very close to how Spandex Babe/Exemplar looked at her age, though her skin tone is several shades darker -- making the nuclear woman look like she has a perpetually bronzed tan. Of all the members of the League, she is easily considered the most attractive.

Dani went by "Dangerousgirl" in her Adjusted League days. With the need to change her identity, she adopted "Hazard" as her new codename. She is a powerful, popular heroine -- not least of which because she is, in the words of an unnamed Bostonian, 'Wicked Hawt.' Her biggest problem as a hero is her severe overconfidence, though it is worth noting she has the power to back it up.

Dani is very happily married to Roger "Parvenu" Nobody -- who she had become attracted to when she first met him (after his death) as a reluctant student at the Adjusted League Unimpeachable Academy. With the perfection of Nobody's 'undead body' techniques, Dani and Roger were able to be married, though technically Dani is listed as a widow -- which amuses the Hell out of her. As Roger is already dead and his bodies are (mostly) immune to the negative effects of radiation, Dani is able to have a relatively normal home life with Roger -- though the house they live in is actually designed to contain her radiation and prevent an accident from poisoning her neighbors. The pair are given to public displays of affection and disclosing entirely too much information about their private lives, much to the annoyance of their friends and teammates. It has already been mentioned that Dani has no problem with dressing up like one of the Trudis in the bedroom, which is knowledge that her teammates can't unlearn, no matter how hard they try with alcohol and sporks.

Dani's best friend is Maria "Reflects" Mendez, followed closely by Cairistiona "Incandescence" Richards -- though Cairi's mysterious 'circumstances' put some strain on that last relationship. At the end of their time at the Academy together, Dani, Maria and Cairi became the "Chicks With Attitude," a clique reflecting the rather distant relationship both Dani and Maria had with many of their fellow classmates (though Cairi acted as a bridge to the rest of the class, which unfortunately has led to some problems with Cairi's own return from the dead). Dani is on good terms with all of her former A.L.U. teammates.

In her day job, she's an office worker at the Consolidated Dalton's Indigo Barnes and Chapters Noble Walden-Borders Book Imperium regional headquarters, where she provides administrative and secretarial support for the bookbuyers. Dani hates her day job with a passion. She also has an advanced shower that collects the radioactive materials her body gives off naturally, processes them for shipment, and allows her to sell them to research companies, universities, hospitals and the like through a certified courier provided by the Rogers Foundation. It puts her closer to the Rogers Foundation than she might otherwise like, given the current tensions between the Foundation and the League, but provisions in Bruce Rogers's will require the Foundation to see to Dani's specialized needs in perpetuity.

META/NOTES: Dani's the only active superhero from Adjusted League Unimpeachable to still be an active hero in The League. In part, this is because she was a teenager at the time, which puts her in the prime of her heroic life right now. Her costume from above is pretty darn close to how I describe it in the series proper. Her City of Heroes function, in terms of the overall parody, is Blaster -- though she's better defended than some blasters, Hazard is there to put the massive hurt down on their enemies.

Iceweaver
Formerly Known As: Frigid Girl
Old Series: Adjusted League Unimpeachable Academy
Real Name: Lauren Bates
Created by: Bill Dickson (in name only, character development by Eric Burns-White)

Technically, one of the first heroes in Superguy at all, much less as in the League, Canadian teenager (and devoted You Can't Do That On Television Fan) Lauren Bates discovered she had a mutant power to project both cold and ice around her. Deciding early on to use her powers for good and justice, the young woman became Frigid Girl, icy defender of righteousness.

Almost immediately after she started, she got an invitation to the Superhero Convention in Washington D.C. that almost every hero on the Superguy mailing list had been invited too. Excited, she attended. And there she met a man named Mister Cold, and the two of them... well....

According to on-site reports, they managed to freeze over the boiler to the point that no one in the building had hot water. You get the drift. (They had sex.)

This led to a relationship that spanned years, wherein "Frigid Girl" completely disappeared from the scene. When we next saw Lauren, she was the oldest charter student of the Adjusted League Unimpeachable Academy. Her wide eyed innocence had been displaced by a deep cynicism, and what was worse she was saddled with her teenaged brother Darrin -- who not only was also a student at the school, but was getting significantly higher grades in every subject than she was.

Over the next few years, Frigid Girl acted with distinction at the school, certainly attending long beyond when a person normally would, before graduating with honors. She applied to and was accepted by the Adjusted League Unimpeachable as their first Academy graduate member (not counting Kid Solipsism, who took courses at the Academy to get 'up to speed' during his probationary period with the A.L.U. Dangerousgirl did as well, but she actually completed her coursework and received a degree for her trouble, where Kid Solipsism was already a masters level graduate student. However, as Fridge graduated from the Academy before Dangerousgirl did any... look, just give her this, okay? She needs this.) She was immediately thrown into the horrors of the Genocide war, serving with the A.L.U. with distinction, and was on hand for the significant shift of its membership in the wake of Trashman's death, Unorthodoxy's assumption of the League leadership, and Mastermind's empowerment.

With the dissolution of the League in 2000, Frigid Girl went briefly independent, then gathered together with some of her friends from the Academy and the A.L.U. to form the very unofficial League. As the League has to maintain a degree of anonymity and deniability from their illustrious past -- and because Lauren was sick of hearing her brother's jokes about her codename anyhow -- she left 'Frigid Girl' behind and became Iceweaver.

Iceweaver is a powerful, highly trained cryokinetic who despite years of setbacks and a late second start truly believes she's doing the right thing. Having come into the superheroic world as one of the younger new heroes, she has finally come into her own as one of the older active heroes. At 32 years of age as of this writing, Iceweaver is the oldest field member of the League -- a fact her brother never lets her forget. In her private life, Iceweaver works as a hostess at Bennigans Begin Again Undead Irish Pub Experience at Quincy Market. Her job requires her to wear a tight black shirt unbuttoned enough to be 'welcoming,' which makes Iceweaver one of the first superheroines on record to wear more in her heroic identity than her civilian identity. Iceweaver's costume is an advanced material defensive uniform in black with white 'ice crystal' patterns. She wears mad scientist goggles and an ice blue trenchcoat, and her long red hair tends to have strains of frost running through it while she's active. She actively works out, both to maintain her body's conditioning and stamina and to work out aggression built up in her life -- something Iceweaver also gets to deal with when she's freezing Ensemble members solid.

You may notice a lack of much information about Lauren's personal life here. We know she has a job, we know she fights crime, and we know she exercises to get out tension from her job and help keep her in shape for fighting crime, and that's about it. Lauren is quite aware of the fact that she doesn't have much else going on in her life besides a TiVo, but having been badly burned (no jokes) in romance, followed by a 'school' experience where everyone else was 6 to 10 years younger than she was, she's not so much out of the social networking scene as its antithesis. She does have several favorite webcomics, however, and a blog where she uses carefully couched language to try and avoid outing herself and the League on the Internet.

A blog read, it's worth noting, by more than twelve people.

META/NOTES: Iceweaver was my way of taking a one-note joke (and a couple of names that had never been mentioned since the Flatphoot Phollies) and making an actual character out of her. She has, until now, always been in supporting arcs -- beyond a preternatural fear of rope climbing and a lot of snotty comments, Lauren's never really gotten to shine in anything. There are plans afoot to change that over the course of the League. Her costume is pretty close to what I want for her -- right down to her attitude. Her City of Heroes role is Defender -- as much protecting her allies and debuffing their enemies as she is causing direct damage. Interestingly, Lauren is also in a similar position in the League as Healer was in ALU -- older, wiser, with some unfortunate elements in her past.

Reflects
Formerly Known As: Reflective Lass
Also Formerly Known As: Mirror Maid
Still Also Formerly Known As: Reflection
Old Series: Teen Team
Another Old Series: Mason's Mazin' Mob and its ilk
Real Name: Maria Mendez
Created by: Mason Kramer

Ah, Maria Mendez -- a heroine who has been defined as much by tragedy as... well, anything else. A mutant, Maria manifested the ability to reflect force back upon itself when she was nearly killed by a truck. The fourteen year old learned she could reflect any force or energy -- kinetic, light, electrical or what have you -- back where it came at equal power. To that, she could add her own strength, so she could actually strike someone with her full strength plus all the resistance their body gave but reflected back in a feedback look. This could culminate in the young woman seeming to punch through concrete.

Maria was one of the six teenagers recruited by Melvin the Elf to become the Teen Team, going initially by "Reflective Lass" before changing her codename to "Mirror Maid."

All was well, save that Maria had developed a severe crush on Phobos -- the team's defacto field leader and scientific genius -- which Phobos neither reciprocated or even noticed. This culminated in Maria wearing a sequined bikini as a uniform in hopes of attracting more attention -- particularly from Phobos, who at the time had become involved with Summer from Team M.E.C.H.A.

This ended up maximizing Maria's exposure to a mutagenic gas that Rush "Random Encounters" Limbaugh designed to kill the Teen Team in a death trap with then thirteen year old child actress Christina Ricci as the kidnapped bait. The gas caused Ricci to explode into living fire, becoming the heroine Matchstick, and greatly increased Maria's power -- making her nearly frictionless but apparently made from a silver metal through which Maria could feel (and taste) absolutely nothing. Worse, her powers were seemingly unable to be deactivated. As her primary power was a 'mirror force' that protected her not only against all harm but all sensation, that meant Maria was eternally cut off from all tactile sense -- up to and including her sense of taste as even her mouth and tongue were 'mirrored.' (Even Maria's hair was mirrored). It was as if she were sealed in a sensory deprivation tank and only allowed to view the outside world.

For a brief time, she had a magical ring which gave her some relief, but the ring was destroyed in a battle. Between that and the horrible nightmares of the Dreamquake (which is more a Mason thing to explain than my thing), Maria was in an isolated and traumatized state when she first met Thomas -- a young self-described supervillain who had the ability to project physical sensations into the minds of others. For Maria, the implications were wonderful. The handsome young man could cause her to feel -- really feel. And he wasn't shy about how he used his powers, giving her sensations ranging from intoxication to sheer pleasure.

After she was thoroughly addicted to the sheer thrill of touch, Thomas -- calling himself Sensation -- began adding pain to the mix. Maria -- still traumatized and desperate for what Sensation had to offer -- proved to be far easier to condition than Sensation or his master -- Random Encounters, once more -- could have hoped. The pair interrogated Maria, giving her pain for wrong answers or behavior and pleasure for right ones, and she swiftly betrayed all the secrets of her friends. She then began to commit crimes for the pair, changed into a highly suggestive costume on their behalf, and ultimately fought on their side as they used their illicit knowledge to attack and nearly destroy the Mob.

How the Mob managed to defeat Maria -- now called Reflects -- Sensation and Random Encounters is not known. It is known that Sensation apparently did not survive the encounter. It is also known that Maria's betrayal gave the criminals a terrific ability to hurt the Mob members, ranging from using Dreamweaver's allergies against her to triggering a full psychotic episode in the very traumatized Mental. It is also known that relations between Maria and her closest friends were strained to the point of shattering after this, leaving her feeling lost and alone. She relocated to Boston, becoming a full time student at the Academy -- though even that was fraught with tension, as several Mob members attended the Academy as well, and some stalwart classmates (like Capacitor) made it clear they didn't trust or like Maria. However, Dani "Dangerousgirl" MacPherson -- who had never been much on the inside with the other Academy members -- bonded to Maria, and Matchstick -- now called Hellfire -- was willing to work past Maria's actions, and the three became an infamous clique known as the 'Chicks With Attitude.' They had leather jackets made up and everything.

With the ending of the war, the change in the Adjusted League, and Maria's graduation from the Academy, she applied with little hope to join the Adjusted League Unimpeachable. To her surprise, even after her admission that she would betray the Adjusted League if a situation like Sensation came up again, she was accepted and became a member of the team. She did have to agree to get psychological counseling and allow the Adjusted League to employ whatever help they felt was necessary to give Maria more control over her powers and therefore enjoy a better quality of life. She joined under the name Reflection.

As of The League, those efforts seem to have bourne fruit. She can deactivate her refective field in whole or in part, though she still seems sensitive to even the smallest touch. She is a popular member of the League, with her buddies from the Chicks With Attitude both members. Other former Mob members like Roger "Parvenu" Nobody seem to have completely forgiven her, and she enjoys a new confidence in her friendships as a result.

One glaring exception to this is Darrin "Capacitor" Bates. Darrin never really forgave Maria for what she did to the League, and any chance the pair could have to get past that seems shot by their very different lifestyles. Maria is a Catholic girl who has always felt herself cut off from those she could love -- both by Phobos not reciprocating her feelings and later by her field making physical intimacy impossible. Darrin on the other hand is a complete sybarite whose charm and attractiveness makes one night stands all too easy for him. He is easygoing and brash, and has absolutely no compunction against saying what he thinks about Maria. Suffice it to say, no one expects the pair to get along any time soon.

Maria currently -- somewhat inexplicably -- goes by Reflects, which was the name Sensation gave her. Her most current costume is somewhat more modest than some of the ones she's worn, but not by much. It consists of a strapless black leotard with a belt for pockets, plus boots and armcuffs she can clip her L-Phone into. She also wears a short cape, as she's done since her infamous bikini costume. While most of the uniforms worn by the League have significant defensive and environmental policies, Maria's powers usually make such things moot. Reflects has full control over her mirror-force, which seems to emanate from all of her body's cells, making her essentially indestructible when the field is up (though she vulnerable to psionic powers and some magic). Further, she can control how frictionless her field makes her, enabling her to skate on her mirror force for speed, making it next to impossible to hold or imprison her, and meaning she has nothing to fear from mud. Some special property of her boots and uniform let her extend her mirror force around them, letting her perform her skating maneuvers through the boots, for example.

Unlike most of the League, Maria has no need for an outside job. When close friend Hellfire ascended to the afterlife, she was also declared dead, and as it had turned out the former child star had invested her early earnings very wisely. After a few issues with her family and friends, Hellfire had elected to leave almost all her estate to Maria. With Incandescence's return, much of her past has been wiped away or rewritten. Maria is the only person who can remember the 'original' past, and for whatever reason the fortune she inherited from 'Christina' remains intact now. Though Maria attempted to give 'Cairi' her money back, the angelic heroine declined. Though Maria is quite comfortable, she doesn't have the sheer resources to keep the other League members from having to keep day jobs (and none of the League are comfortable draining Maria's accounts in this way). Still, Maria's comparative life of ease means Reflects is actually on call all day.

META/NOTES: One of the least successful City of Heroes costume designs -- there's no good way to give Maria real metallic skin that doesn't also make her look like a robot. (I could possibly cobble something together with the 'shiny' Arachnos Widow costume, but that restricts my options for putting an overlay down.). So, instead of pale skin, imagine her skin is all mirrored and shiny and also pretend the whole thing doesn't kind of suck. Maria's the first of the characters I inherited from Mason for this here sequel, which means among other things I needed to at least get beyond Twisted Reflections, which was the Sensation story I mentioned above (and which unfortunately was never finished. At least, not yet.) Maria, as I see her in City of Heroes terms, is an Invulnerability/Energy Melee tank, only less sucky. You see that in her getting paired with squishier characters like Parvenu or Capacitor, so she can annoy people into attacking her and ignoring them. As with Lauren above, Maria has a lot of power and potential but also some pretty deep flaws and psychic scars she has to get over. I like that kind of character. They're crunchy and fun to make cry.

Parvenu
Formerly Known As: Nobody
Before That Known As: Deckmaster
Old Series: Mason's 'Mazin' Mob
Seriously Old Series: Teen Team
Real Name: The Late Roger E. Nobody
Created by: Mason Kramer

Roger Nobody was a kid on the streets, who was lucky. He found someone to take him in, raise him, give him a roof and a job and an education. A lot of kids don't get the chances Roger Nobody got.

On the other hand, as it turns out the person who took him in and raised him was Mister I. Spy and the job and education were in thievery, but luck can be capricious.

Despite his larcenous and somewhat rough childhood, Roger was a kid with a good heart and a yearning for something more. That something, with time, turned into a growing study of the occult and magic. Roger was something of a natural mage, though as a young teenager he had neither the training nor the experience to turn his inclinations into a proper tradition. Studying in secret -- Mister Spy and his organization were among the 'anti' side of the magic question in and around the infamous Industrial Revolution -- Roger learned that one of the fastest routes to power was the adoption of a focus. Traditional foci might have included staves or orbs or voodoo dolls, but Roger was a child of the nineties. His focus was Magic itself.

Magic: The Gathering, that is.

Through use of Magic cards, Roger became Deckmaster. And during a botched job that Mr. Spy took to eliminate the Teen Team, Roger -- who had no desire to kill anyone -- risked himself and exposed his magical nature to save Samantha "Daydream Believer" Beckett, because he was a kind soul underneath it all. Also, he wanted to have sex with her.

What? He was a fourteen year old kid and Samantha was a hot sixteen year old who wore a lot of black. It's natural. Besides, he never succeeded, now did he?

Deckmaster became the newest member of the Teen Team, helping the group find and stop Mr. Spy's organization, and leading the team to learn the true identity of their most persistent opponent: Rush Limbaugh, the infamous Random Encounters. His power began to grow, but Melvin the Elf -- the magical North Pole native who had originally brought the Teen Team together -- was concerned about Roger's reliance on his focus. When he used the Magic cards to enact his power, the cards were consumed, and he had to abide by at least the spirit of the rules, which meant he needed mana cards to fuel his power, and needed to build his power base up over time. Melvin was concerned that Roger would run out of cards when he most needed them, and instructed Roger to begin the (much harder) path of learning true magic.

Roger, being a teenager, snuck out with Samantha to get more Magic cards. And while they were out doing this, Adam Douglas of Team M.E.C.H.A., being a nice guy, tried to put a bullet in Roger's head. Said bullet was intercepted by Adam's teammate Summer, and there was a cool action sequence. Long story short, the Teen Team was on its way to the Industrial Revolution, and they were a large part of the huge battle to come.

A battle which cost Roger "Deckmaster" Nobody his life, when he was disintegrated by an alien weapon, leaving only his hand and a burnt Magic card in his wake.

Needless to say, this wasn't the end of Roger's story. Coming back as a ghost, he remained a Teen Team member -- albeit one with a few disadvantages in interacting with the world. He also had some anger issues and some power issues. And worst of all, he had a hidden deal with Satan. Only not really.

See, Roger had gone to Heaven. And that was all fine and good, only he'd left. And at one point he ended up in Hell, and Satan convinced him the only way he could get out was with Satan's help. And he won a card game against the scion of evil, and was allowed to leave 'so long as the Teen Team existed.' Which was fine until Melvin the Elf (who had formed the Teen Team in the first place) declared the Teen Team disbanded and Roger 'poofed' back to Hell. He only got out when he made a new deal -- which is how Roger, sans his memories, found himself in the body of a hot female mage named Melody Pernicious.

Eventually, they figured out Melody was Roger, went to Hell where they made some mistakes (and got Matchstick turned into Hellfire), and Roger learned he was a true Free Spirit, allowed to leave Heaven, Hell or any other afterlife at his will. He returned with the team, but was both unable to use his magic or touch the world -- which was hard given he was starting to make time with a beautiful thermonuclear girl at the Academy.

Eventually, the same ancient hero who had helped Roger learn the truth and escape Hell helped him make his first undead golemish body, and Roger could interact with the real world again. Other things happened after that, but they're not my story -- at least until we get to around the era of the League, which brings us full circle, doesn't it?

When the Adjusted League Unimpeachable was leading up to its retirement, one of its members -- the beautiful and explosive Dangerousgirl -- retired to marriage. Specifically, marriage to Roger. The pair are deliriously happy and have been married since June 25, 2000. Roger's sorcery has given them various ways of coping with Dani's radioactivity, but the most common means of dealing with it is his golem bodies, which aren't that affected by it. However, they're not entirely immune, and between that and the rigors of superhero life Roger's bodies tend to burn out two or three times a year, necessitating his construction of a new one. (He can't store them up in advance, as without his possessing soul they fall apart within days.)

With the formation of the League and their need for plausible deniability, Roger has adopted the new identity of "Parvenu," the French term for a nouveau riche upstart who exceeds his class. Roger named himself ironically, having come from a low, criminal background but ultimately becoming (and dying) a hero. His current body is slightly pale skinned, with red-brown hair. His uniform is mostly purples and yellows, with a yellow silk shirt and pants underneath it, accented in purple. His uniform has magical wards to help protect him in a fight, and he wears a grey defensive bodysuit not unlike his teammates' defensive uniforms underneath it. In his own words, since he doesn't sweat and in fact is mostly immune to temperature variations, there's no reason not to layer. He wears a full face mask as well.

His magical abilities are relatively broad, but he needs foci of various sorts to exercise powerful effects. He is far away from the days where he used collectible card games for it, but he generally carries components in his coat or suit to facilitate powerful or fast effects. Absent these, he can still do magic, but it takes a lot of strain (and at least once he burnt his body out casting a powerful spell). When he loses his body he is a disembodied spirit, barely able to affect the material world, and he can't work magic at all. He tries his best not to get into that situation.

Roger Nobody's 'day job' is that of a freelance writer. He has written a series of trashy romance novels under a variety of pseudonyms, as well as less trashy genre novels, some nonfiction books, articles, and anything else that'll get paychecks coming in. This gives Roger an income while allowing him to spend significant amounts of time dead and in a series of different bodies.

META/NOTES: Roger is something of a catchall. I actually like how his costume came out, though he may change significantly the next time he changes bodies. I suspect he uses those opportunities to get advice from his wife and go a little nuts. In City of Heroes terms, he is a Controller, using his magic to lock down their enemies -- he is also the closest thing the team has to a healer and a psi, and he often has to work to protect or heal his teammates in situations where their defenses... well, aren't, so much. Roger is also pretty unreservedly happy, which can be a nice change.

Capacitor
Formerly Known As: Kid Electron
Old Series: Adjusted League Unimpeachable Academy
Real Name: Darrin Bates
Created by: Eric Burns-White

On paper, Darrin Bates is a hero for the ages. He is handsome and strong. He is intelligent and very close to fearless. Pain doesn't stop him. He can face a hopeless situation with a joke and a smile. He is utterly loyal to his friends. And he has enough electrical power to run Boston for five hours and hit on a hot electrical engineer while he does it. He had absolutely record grades at the Adjusted League Unimpeachable Academy -- records that stood for years and years. He aced the academic courses, the athletics, the superheroic courses... he aced them all.

But, when he applied for membership in the Adjusted League Unimpeachable, he was turned down.

On paper, Darrin Bates is a hero for the ages. In real life? Not so much.

Darrin was overconfident, shallow, self-centered, and was in the game for the chicks and the fame. He knew all the right answers, but in his heart he wanted to be a superhero because he thought it was a cool gig. When confronted with real life moral dilemmas, he would make... well, questionable choices. He cheated on girlfriends. He made fun of his friends -- and not in the good way. He was, in short, a jerk. His nickname, based on his Academy codename of Kid Electron, was "Kid-E," and that was about right. He was a 'kiddie,' and it wasn't hard to tell.

Life after the Academy was weird for Darrin. College was easy for him -- and he went to Boston University, so he was still right there. He was still good friends with some of the Academy students -- most notably his best friend Rip "Memorex" Davis, born of an incident where Darrin almost got Rip expelled but managed to come through in the end, his sister Lauren (AKA Frigid Girl), ex-girlfriend Transit, and the Sorceress Subternatural known only as Portentous Piranha. He was also on good terms with many members of Mason's Mazin' Mob, especially Phobos, Roger Nobody, Tim "Mental" Ward and his wife Samantha "Dreamweaver" Ward -- Samantha perhaps being the only known female near Darrin's age not counting Darrin's actual sister that Darrin didn't hit on.

That loyalty led to Darrin firmly snubbing -- and even verbally abusing -- Maria "Reflection" Mendez, it is worth noting. Maria had betrayed the Mazin' Mob, with some nasty long term repercussions for some of the folks Darrin liked most in the world. As we said above -- Darrin lacks a lot of virtues, but he has loyalty in spades.

Darrin's real chance to play hero came with the formation of the League. Circumstances being what they were, Darrin's power and skill were all too necessary, and if he had significant character flaws his friends could watch out for them and help him through them. Needing the same deniability as the others, Darrin adopted the name "Capacitor," which fits given one of his powers is the ability to absorb great amounts of electricity and then release it all at once.

Darrin is an electrokinetic and a natural generator. He both can create powerful electromagnetic effects and manipulate ambient electricity. He capacity for absorbing and controlling electricity is staggering, and as he constantly generates electricity, he is generally 'charged up' with incredible reserves. He is an accomplished hand combatant and his neurology is supercharged by said electrical reserves, which among other things prevents him from ever really getting fatigued. He can also eat as much as he likes, with the food providing nutrients but any and all calories being 'burned' into electricity. As a result, he eats like a five year old with a tapeworm.

There is a down side to his abilities, it is worth noting, but that is for another day.

Darrin likes the ladies. A lot. He is exceedingly handsome and well built and given to clothing that sets it off. He is known for keeping six or seven casual relationships going at once, and he has hit on almost every woman he's met. At the same time, he has no real capacity for relationships. This is just one of the reasons he and Maria Mendez rub each other so wrong. He has never forgiven her for betraying Mason' Mazin' Mob -- years after the Mob itself has forgiven her. The two spar almost all the time, though it is worth noting they work together surprisingly well. Indeed, Darrin is an excellent team player. Other than Maria, Darrin gets along with his team mates quite well. He takes (and gives) a healthy amount of abuse from them, but in a fight he is rock solid and his loyalty is unquestioned.

His costume is somewhat elaborate, which seems to fit. He wears a half-mask that covers his ears and the lower half of his head, letting his well styled blond hair out of the top. His uniform itself is blue and yellow, with a capacitor symbol on his chest and highly stylized lightning patterns along the uniform. As with the others, his uniform is designed to protect him from as much harm as possible, with all the talents of Mandy "Ops" Harken fueling it. Unlike his fellows, he also has elaborate metallic epaulets and a very stylized 'electrical' patterned cape he wears. But then, he does like to make an impression.

Darrin works, somewhat expectedly, as an electrical engineer at the Awesome Amalgamated Media Computing Research Laboratory in Cambridge.

META/NOTES: Darrin is a paradox, which is always fun. He's flawed, but cheerful. In a lot of ways, he has the farthest yet to grow, and that means he's got crunchy conflict. In City of Heroes terms, he's an electrical/electrical blaster -- his role is to lay down hardcore DPS and make his enemies cry. His costume is close, if not exact. In ways, he's meant to be the Jock archetype of the group, as well as the womanizing jerk. That said, he does have a depth he hasn't had much of a chance to explore. Stay tuned.

Ordinal
Formerly Known As: Transit
Old Series: Adjusted League Unimpeachable Academy
Real Name: Transit Davis
Created by: Eric Burns-White

It is said that some heroes are born to it, while others are forged by experience. The woman now called Ordinal was grown to it. She was discovered, grown to her early teens and covered in amniotic fluid in the wreckage of a laboratory, where she had been bioengineered from scratch. Taken in by the Adjusted League Unimpeachable Academy, it was determined that Transit was not, technically, a clone of any one person, but instead was an entirely artificial person, designed from every chromosome up. Her genes -- where they could be traced at all -- were traced to brilliant men and women of science, as well as men and women of power. Most notably, teleportation powers.

The result was a young woman with a truly remarkable mind, especially for mathematics. To Transit, the entire world was made up of the interplay of numbers -- and her powers enabled her to sense the spatial relationships of that world to a tremendous degree, giving her immeasurable insight into her environment. Further, she has the power to manipulate the fabric of space/time itself. Even as a newly decanted student, she could use that power to open 'transgates' -- point to point wormholes that allowed for near instant travel up to sixty five miles a hop. As she grew older, her abilities and understanding only increased, and she is now a living mathematical proof and physics theorem rolled into one. Her teleportation powers are some of her best, and are remarkably flexible. She can engage in melee combat from across the room, for example, with the point of maximum impact being made into a wormhole bridge to the point of greatest potential damage on her opponents. She can also manipulate local space/time, altering frames of reference to make it seem like her enemies are much slower, and she and her allies much faster. And when she teleports a person or object, she can tailor not only the location they emerge from, but their vector and speed. This lets her throw a ball bearing through a gate at a speed of ten meters per second, only to have it emerge from the farpoint going a thousand meters per second relative to her enemies.

She has also learned to float in the air.

Transit's perceptions of the universe can also be a negative. If she is teleported via means other than her own abilities, translated through altiverses or time, or otherwise put through a sudden shift in her relative position and understanding, she reacts with discomfort, nausea, or sometimes even violent illness. If placed in a situation where reality's laws are unnaturally 'bent' by some force, she can become ill and potentially even die unless she manages to acclimate. Even xolchaportation, when that was an option, gave her difficulty, and she can't utilize the services of Ingress Technology without some illness now.

As a person, Transit was reserved and an innocent, especially in her first years. She clung to her friends and fellow students desperately, having no other people in her life whatsoever. In particular, she bonded with Rip Davis, whose mother -- the brilliant theoretician Dr. Laura Davis -- also became one of her closest confidents. Her relationship to the Davises was formalized on April 23, 2000, her 'birthday,' when she turned physically eighteen years old. She was adopted by Laura and Daniel Davis, becoming Rip's sister in fact as well as emotionally, and officially becoming 'Transit Davis.' Her closeness to Rip Davis -- one of the best known martial artists known to the League -- has taken the self defense and combat skills she learned at the Academy and refined and improved them. Though not given to frontline combat, Transit is one of the best hand fighters in the League.

When asked why she didn't adopt a more normal sounding name, at least for her 'secret identity,' Transit has expressed bafflement. She simply is 'Transit.' There's no reason for any other name, by her reckoning. The only reason she has taken on the codename 'Ordinal' now is the need for deniability as a member of the League, and even then she finds the whole affair slightly silly.

Ordinal wears a lavender suit, with a vest with pockets and loose, flowing silk Chinese pants held with a red metal belt. On her feet she wears martial arts slippers. She wears silk armbands that hook over her middle fingers, and a red winged quarter-mask in red. On her chest one can see a graphical representation of the swirls of an ordinal well-ordered set up to ω squared. It is not recommended you ask her about this, as she would undoubtedly explain it to you, and if it's the sort of thing you want to know, you already know it.

Transit, now appearing to be in her twenties, is a remarkably composed young woman with dark brunette hair and blue-grey eyes. She is almost always perfectly well composed, and even in the midst of tense situations she sounds almost amused. In the absence of Ops she acts as the field coordinator, directing the League to troublespots in the city. She also is the core of the League's logistics, using her teleportation abilities to move teammates where they are needed and using her perceptions and senses to give tactical information. Though she is a good combatant and sometimes takes on assignments solo, she is generally used as support, where she excels. She gets along well with just about everyone, and deeply likes her teammates. She misses her brother Rip, who has declined membership in the League, but is glad that her mother now works for Ingress Technology in Cambridge -- ironically helping them develop stable teleportation technologies.

Transit's day job is as Research Professor of Mathematics at Tufts University. Her work is purely theoretical, without actual teaching requirements, though "Doctor T. Davis" does oversee a number of advanced Graduate students. She also serves on a number of advanced physics and mathematics journal editorial boards. Her theoretical output is considerable and universally brilliant, which gives her significant free time to fight crime.

One of Transit's more persistent quirks -- particularly given the number of years she has associated with Professor Burns of the Academy, her friend and ex-classmate Portentous Piranha, and Roger "Parvenu" Nobody -- is her insistence that there is no such thing as magic. She will stipulate the rather esoteric effects that some people can produce, but patiently explains to anyone who will listen that simply because someone has not yet identified the natural laws that allow for their abilities does not mean they do not exist. As observations improve, so too will hypotheses and the opportunity to measure the effects. Eventually, mathematics will encompass these effects, they will become explainable, and they will take their proper place in the pantheon of science. In the meantime, it is counterproductive to romanticize them.

For whatever reason, where most people 'swear' by Elvis, Transit takes the name of Michael J. Fox -- the AntiElvis -- in vain. This has disturbed people in the past.

And, it is worth noting... it is still not known who designed or grew Transit in the first place... or why.

META/NOTES: Ordinal, in City of Heroes terms, is a controller. (Gravity/Kinetic, if I had to idenitfy which one.) This is despite the "Transit" I have played in CoH being a Kinetic/Radiation Defender. Look, I don't have to be precise. I'm quite happy with how her costume came out -- even the symbol isn't that far off from the real representation of an Ordinal number series. As a character, Trans fills a few needed roles for the team, but has enough mystery connected to her to give lots of nice potential stories.

Incandescence
Formerly Known As: Hellfire
Also Formerly Known As: Matchstick
Still Also Formerly Known As: Christina Ricci
Old Series: Teen Team
Another Old Series: Mason's Mazin' Mob and its ilk
Real Name: Cairistiona Richards
Created by: Mason Kramer

Imagine if you will a popular young actress -- a young teenaged star of movies and television, who became an icon at an early age. Movies like Mermaids, The Addams Family, and Addams Family Values appearing on her resume as she--

What's that you say? You don't have to imagine it? I'm describing Christina Ricci? You're right, I am. And of course, she went on to groundbreaking films like The Ice Storm and developed her own production company, doing such work as Prozac Nation. She's one of the great talents of her generation.

Now, imagine that career being stopped short two days before the world premier of Casper

This is, once upon a time, what happened. Ricci had, in 000SUPERGUY, moved to Austin, Texas. She and the Teen Team were flying back to Hollywood for the premiere of Casper (as a publicity stunt, the producers had asked the Teen Team to come since they had Roger Nobody with them -- and he was, in fact, a friendly child ghost. Get it? Good!) But, she was kidnapped by Random Numbers in yet another attempt to kill off and/or destroy the Teen Team. The team arrived to save the actress, but a mutagenic gas was released -- one that both warped Maria Mendez's reflective powers, making her far more powerful but incapable of being touched... and one that left Ricci herself a being of pure flame without a body beneath.

Obviously, in this universe, at that time, she did not go on to film The Ice Storm. She did, however, become a superhero. As Matchstick, she, Maria "Mirror Maid" Mendez and Mighty Dog went on an open ended quest, trying to find meaning after being cut off from their old lives by Random Encounters's gas. They had a series of adventures, especially in Japan alongside the Super Seven, before coming back to America and hooking up with some of their old friends to form Mason's Mazon' Mob. She quickly got to know the others well, and enjoyed her life, though she missed parts of her old life.

To rescue Roger Nobody -- at that point in the body of Melody Pernicious -- Matchstick went along with the Mob into Hell itself, to confront Satan. There, she got caught in a fight scene of epic proportions. At the end, she and the Mob were victorious, and she emerged with them, seemingly having taken Satan himself down a notch.

It is worth noting -- Roger escaped Satan's lies. Dani once blew Satan apart in the epic "Yesterday's Hero" miniseries. And coming up from the depths of Hell, Matchstick had far better control over her fire -- to the point where she could actually render herself harmless (though still burning) and generate far more intense heat. She elected to take the name Hellfire at this point, and she began attending the Academy in earnest, to learn how to use her abilities.

Then, her closest friend among the Mob -- Maria -- betrayed the Mob and nearly got them all killed. Maria left the Mob in disgrace and under tremendous strain. Of the Mob members, only Hellfire -- who herself understood what it was like to be as isolated by her powers as Maria was -- remained close to the former Mirror Maid. This in turn led to Hellfire joining Danielle "Dangerousgirl" MacPherson and Maria as the leather jacket wearing "Chicks With Attitude," a clique of their very own.

Also, during this time... Hellfire found herself attracted to, and ultimately in a relationship with Rip "Memorex" Davis. It was in many ways one of the most fun times of her life....

...or, at least, what she thought was her life.

When Satan returned, to claim Hellfire -- for indeed, she was composed of Hellish flames now, an epic battle for the woman's soul took place. And in the midst of that battle a horrible truth was revealed. When the gas -- which was supposed to kill 90% of those exposed to it -- had turned Ricci into a woman of flame... it had killed her. Though burning with fire -- and later a form of hellfire -- she was as much a ghost as Roger Nobody himself... only she had never gone through the judgement he had. Satan was trying to do an end run around that to get the girls's soul.

Freed and saved by her friends, she was finally given the chance to accept her death, and she ascended to the afterlife. Which is where the problems started.

You see, she ended up in a relatively bureaucratic Heaven. And the records in that Heaven showed that 'Christina Ricci' was still alive. So, to keep things clear, the ancient records were amended, and the fiery soul was rechristened "Cairistiona Richards."

After this had happened, it was determined what the real problem was. She had been sent to the wrong Heaven -- to an entirely different Altiverse's incarnation of Heaven. So the recordkeepers transferred her file to the proper Heaven, and they prepared to give her her choice of afterlife.

Only... when the record came in, it was the amended record. And that Heaven had no record of a 'Cairistiona Richards.' So editorial action was taken, adding her to the records of 000SUPERGUY... but of course, Cairistiona Richards hadn't died there, so on paper, she had every right to go back.

For the inconvenience, and out of attunement with the fires that defined her, Cairistiona -- called Cairi, most often -- was reattuned and resonated with the purest divine flames. She gained fiery angelic wings as well -- and most importantly, she gained the ability to subsume her divine fiery form into a shell of mortality, which she could tweak in appearance with some effort.

She was thrilled, and descended back to Earth....

...appearing in front of a movie theater which was showing Black Snake Moan. Starring Christina Ricci.

Cairistiona Richards learned that with the reworking of reality to accommodate her altered records, she gained the ability to return to Earth... but Earth's history had been altered. Now, Ricci never met the Teen Team. She was never kidnapped. She never became Matchstick. Cairistiona Richards was an anomaly.

At the same time, there had been a heroine called Matchstick. She had also been Hellfire. All her adventures had happened. And when Cairi went back to her friends, they remembered those adventures, and remembered Cairi, and welcomed her with open arms....

...but they couldn't remember any part of their civilian life with her. Anything that stepped outside of Matchstick or Hellfire's heroic role... was simply no longer a part of their memory.

Even Rip couldn't remember. He remembered loving Hellfire -- remembered the two of them fighting alongside each other, and he still had powerful emotion for her... but every date they had been on, every private moment they had spent together... was gone.

The one exception, for no reason that could be determined... was Maria Mendez. She remembered every moment the two had had together. And thanks to a loophole, the activities of the Chicks With Attitude seemed to also be covered, which meant to a lesser extent Dani could remember Cairi.

Two years later, Cairi is firmly entrenched in the League. Cut off entirely from her old life, she valiantly seeks to establish a new one -- and new memories to go with it. She has no family other than the League... no sisters other than Maria and Dani. She is a cypher, caught between two histories. She is well liked by her teammates, of course, and they are more than happy to build new memories with her, bit it's hard.

And at the same time, she can see the 'her' she would have been without superheroism on the big screen. She can watch her career, watch her choices, watch her movies, and though that woman seems alien to Cairi, it's hard sometimes.

Cairi, in full manifestation, is the glorious manifestation of divine fire. She can produce intense heat and flame, as well as unleash explosive fireballs. She can also 'burn' without causing permanent damage, at will, and can manifest her flames into a holy sword of fire. Magic and especially demonic powers are horribly disrupted by Cairi's fire, and one can't help but imagine that vampires would have a really bad day if they met her. Her costume, beyond the fiery flames of her true form, is a gold and red jumpsuit that can contain her fires without blocking it. She wears no mask, given that her fiery face, even without the flame, doesn't look anything like her mortal shell.

In her day job, Cairi works at McBurger Hut Tacos in the Boston University area. She has no need to sleep, so she also works a night shift at the Campus Convenience store, ironically in the very base of the Rogers Institute for Paranormal Studies -- the building that League Headquarters is underneath, and which soon will be the base for Lochaber.

META/NOTES: Incandescence is somewhere between a Fire/Fire Blaster and a Fire/Fire Tanker, in City of Heroes terms. She can be versatile, which is a very nice thing. She's also an important character type for my kinds of Superguy stories -- the heavy angst background character. Even more than Maria, Cairi has a lot of crap in her life and no real chance to get rid of it. And yes, I admit it fully -- I wanted Matchstick/Hellfire in the League -- she was a great character, and Mason and I worked out the relationship in her and Rip's past, and there was plenty of potential there... but I really didn't want 'Christina Ricci.' I've dabbled in the celebrity/public figure side of Superguy (most notably with the Xolchipalians, though they had the "coincidence" label to keep them safely separated from the source material), and I gladly indulged in the satirical elements of the list, but even if I wanted to do satires of Christina Ricci's career... she's so much a different person and actress now then she was before Casper -- Casper for Christ's sake -- that there was nothing I could do with her. So, with Mason's help and blessing, we divorced her from Ms. Ricci. Plus, when I get around to detailing this in more... er, detail in the League itself, it'll give me a chance to do In Nomine parodies, and that makes me a Happy King. As for the costume -- this one I'm not too happy with, in large part because it's not easy to truly make her out of flame. Well, okay, I can flame aura her if she's a fire tanker, and if I get to 30th level with her I can full on set her head and even body on fire, but that's a long way to go to ger a character costume.

These are the field League members. In a later post -- this one's way long enough as it is -- I'll do the same thing for Kirby Rogers, Mandy "Ops" Harken, Elizabeth Tirkoff, Alice "Ms." Mercury, Susan "Carillon" Liddel, and Rip Davis. I also have Lochaber costumes.

But that's for... another day.

Hey guys, we have Post-Sign! But...

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:15:54 GMT

With Eyrie.org down, do you submit episodes to the same email list address?
(got some free-time while I tftp some firmware upgrades... but I am away from my workstation so I don't have my notes handy on posting new episodes. Great. too much data in the brain.)

Denvention World Sci-fi Convention

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:56:28 GMT

Okay I know this is really late and short notice.
Any of the Superguy gang going to Denvention?
http://www.denvention3.org/
I've been out of the loop, so to say, so I was not planning on attending, but if one of the other authors had been considering it, but passed on it because of the cost for a room...well, I have a nice guest room with a queen bed, and its own full bath, and other pluses. It would be cool to meet y'all.

airships! in the air!

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 02:09:29 GMT

In Rad 95, I referenced a wave of airship sightings in the late 1800s. Here's the wikipedia article on these mystery airships.

The weird part? I decided to set the flashback/vision in 1899 before I read about these....

oooooOOOOOOoooooOOOOOOoooooo...

One other note, but more in general

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 20:13:31 GMT

Back in the olden days, in several of my plotlines, I lost all track of the Funny. In a later life, I would call this a Cerebus Syndrome attempt that fell into First and 10, but that is, after all, later in life.

The League is meant to have Funny and Teh Drama coupled with Story in pretty much every post. I won't promise to always succeed, but I'm going to try.

The League #5 -- now it's got PENTAD POWER!

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 20:03:56 GMT

It's time for the League!

League #5 Part One
League #5 Part Two

And, as seems to be my wont, some notes:

The prologue -- which was way too long -- tells one of the climatic moments of the Genocide story arc I never wrote. If #3's prologue with Egoiste and Arsenal set the stage for the ULA's downfall, here we have the stage set for the AIF/Lady Awe-Inspiring's downfall.

"Memorex" == Rip Davis now, obviously.
"Transit" == Ordinal
"Hellfire" == Incandescence

This also shows a scene from when Rip and "Hellfire" were an item. It also makes a reference to her Child Star past, which is not something I would directly refer to in the present. I'll go into depth on that someday.

The Copperhead fighter jets and the idea that Lady Awe-Inspiring had Moles in the various militaries of the world go all the way back to 1992 in ALU, believe it or not. It's all in there.

Anyway, this also gave some general history of the Genocide War, in broad enough terms that can be understood by anyone -- even Mason. You may all feel free to make reference to the Genocide War if you wish, or entirely ignore it, if you wish. You will note I completely avoided Canada. Frobozz's power is too much for me, and I assume neither the AIF nor the ULA could stand before the power of Rick Mercer.

As stated, the Trudis are a parody of the Carnival of Shadows. The League's major combat technique is a variation on 'Pulling' in City of Heroes. I actually do use Transit -- herself a teleportation specialist Kinetic/Rad Defender-- in the game this way. Fishing is fun! Also, the idea that there's some random piece of kibble that the bad guys are trying to steal is a pretty standard City of Heroes mission trope.

Beyond that, see! Elizabeth and Alice argue! See! Kirby and Mandy argue! See! Trudis argue! I should have just called this one 'arguments' and been done with it.

there's a world going on underground

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:53:30 GMT

Rad 95, part one of three
Rad 95, part two of three
Rad 95, part three of three

Now with big, beefy slabs of backstory!

I am sorely tempted to, at some point, write some gaslight-era Historical Superguy. Sorely, I say!

One To Go... Aurora #49 posted

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 20:23:08 GMT

Please find Aurora #49 here.

One more issue to go. #50 is where I unleash most of my changes on you... some that've been waiting to come out of the can since 1997, others that only occurred to me this morning in the shower.

Now I go to take my victory lap around the block.

look, I just want a plain coffee...

Thu, 29 May 2008 11:48:22 GMT

Universal Solvents 21

In which more subplots get resolved, more wandering plot threads get gathered in, more characters get shuffled offstage, and things generally get set up for some sort of semi-coherent homestretch final battle thingy. It's quite possible I'll have this finished on my ten-year anniversary of starting it. Honestly.

SG/LNH: New Exarchs #12 - Waiting for Gouda

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:36:52 GMT

New Exarchs #12 - "Waiting for Gouda": Meanwhile, back in 000SUPERGUY, Hans Zwarghoff faces two adorable children. He's SO doomed.

Edit: Oops, forgot to non-relative the link. :)

Snakes, it had to be snakes....

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 20:55:32 GMT

Huzzah! Another West Coast Defenders / Aurora crossover episode!

http://lists.eyrie.org/pipermail/superguy/2008-April/000167.html

W00t and stuff! Reading this posting will raise your Internet Culture IQ 20 points... :-)

SERIES' #1: Beginnings posted (Well, you have to start somewhere)

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 04:13:11 GMT

SERIES' #1 - Beginnings

Each subheading's date is more for people to link through later. Treat each as a separate plank... I'll be bringing them together soon enogh.

SERIES' #0 posted, with maybe more questions than advertised

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 17:41:43 GMT

SERIES' #0: One Question

#1 hopefully soon enough. There isn't a typo on the date, to note.

Rad 94, now with demon monkeys!

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:53:03 GMT

Rad 94, part one of two
Rad 94, part two of two

Fight scenes are harder to write than I remember.

Anyway, enjoy!

--

It's the League #4! As used in hospitals!

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:12:27 GMT

Hot on the heels of The League #3, it's The League #4! Featuring tourism, the historical origin of Mastermind/Ops, a bit more of the Genocide story arc I never actually wrote in ALU, some private history of Elizabeth and Alice/Ms. Mercury/Momentum, some people who speak in all caps, and another City of Heroes parody.

The Trudis, for those curious, are parodies of the Carnival of Shadows.

It's entirely Jesse Taylor's fault that instead of porcelain masks, they have macramé.

And for the record, the entire city of Salem is a parody of the Croatoa city zone.

And now, the League!

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 02:08:25 GMT

The League #3 is your friend!

For those who came in late, we also have Parts one, two and three of The League #1, and parts one and two of The League #2.

But, this is a post about The League #3. And now, a few basic notes.

Egoiste was, of course, a founding member of the Unimaginable League Amoral, as was his sister Gabrielle, aka Armory. "Goldenrage" was the former Badsport, and was a second generation Nubermachine-based ULA member -- as was "Incendiary."

The Leonard Maltin Groupies are a parody of the Malta Group, a high level set of total bastards one fights in City of Heroes. "Ingress Tech" is a parody of Portal Corp.

That should do. Please enjoy.

Links to current crossover with Frobozz

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 22:37:20 GMT

What the Hell(TM)?

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 02:06:02 GMT

I need a serious refresher course on the nature and structure of 000SUPERGUY Hell(TM). I seem to remember something about a Mongolian yurt, but that couldn't possibly be right...could it? I wanted to send some characters there, so I need a general lay of the land.

Thanks!!!

Yowsa!

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 23:36:45 GMT

View Poll: Superguy readers

LJ and Wiki in one day! I exist! Booyah!

pointless angst.

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 01:24:09 GMT

I just noticed that there is no handy collected Industrial Revolution.

There's no point to this post, I just thought voicing my complaints into the indifferent abyss of the internet would please me.