Rogues Galleries

As I said I wanted each Rogues gallery to be 6 villains, 3 of whom can be callbacks to other Earths. Even then we should see real differences. But it’s really hard, as you can see from my Green Lantern villains, to not want to do a lot of callbacks.

Goldface

Due to a strange accident the woman known as Goldface has a head made of the same material as the sun*. Her ability to survive this is a marker of her superhuman fortitude, but it also makes it hard for her to interact with normal society. As such she wears an impermeable helmet with a gold-enameled stone mask that, thanks to her internal illumination, is transparent from her side even as it is opaque to those viewing her. Still, when Goldface removes her eponymous mask the illumination is blinding, and if she focuses her gaze on something for too long it will simply evaporate under the energy. This has made her a very effective assassin and crime boss, and she now runs a string of the best contract killers in the city who she hires out for individual hits or gang wars as needed. Goldface is a canny businesswoman who would be good at her job even if she couldn’t eliminate the opposition with a glance. (Body 12, Laser 14, Flash 14, Flame Project 14, Disintegration 10)

*Please let me know if anyone gets this reference…. This character was created for an earlier blog post from V&V rolls, but I love the image of removing the mask and having an impossibly bright light shine from underneath it.

Solomon Grundy

The classic villain re-appears: a super strong, nigh immortal swamp/plant monster that is opposed to the Green Lantern, perhaps as a pawn of the forces that oppose the energy that powers her. His origins are unclear, his powers have to do with strength, durability and a crude ability to manipulate and talk to plant matter. His being unsubtle does not make him any less dangerous, and the swamp will always regrow him.

Sportsmaster

Kyle Lawrence was a world famous natural athlete – decathlon medalist who also played professional baseball and baskeball, he got out of professional sports just as he was strongly tempted to start doping in order to keep his edge. He was hosting a charity event ‘competing’ against the newly formed Justice Alliance and made use of a salvaged piece of Kanjar Ro’s technology to drain a fraction of the JAA’s powers and duplicate them, rivaling Aquaman in agility and swim, Flash in running, Vigilante in gunplay and riding, Superman in strength and body and the newly joined Hawkman in javelin and swordplay. He was nearly ale to best the Justice Alliance until Green Lantern’s arrival. Since his defeat he has become obsessed with besting her, and still possesses the power to do so. (Dex 7, Str 17, Body 16, Super Speed 14, Air Control 6, Swimming 6, Combat (western)10, Vehicles (Animal) 10, Combat (Medieval weapons) 12)

Tattooed Man

Former marine Jeb Martins was discharged for running a crude smuggling ring and fell into a life of crime. He stumbled upon a cache of the magical tattoo ink used very sparingly by a Yakuza clan and, once discovering what it could do, painted himself with it from head to toe. His powers have catapulted him into the first rank of smugglers and pirates, making him a concern of the Justice Alliance as a whole and the Green Lantern in particular, due to a particular animus surrounding their first meeting. He occasionally has to deal with assassins from the Yakuza, but none of them have dared claim as much inked power as he has (and there may be some reason for that). In addition to being able to animate any of the objects inked on his body he can also instill Love, Lust, Hate and Fear (the letters of which are tattooed on his knuckles and occur when he rubs his fingers along them), summon ice, lightning and fog from the tattoos on his skin and any of his tattooed skin is all but impervious to damage. (Animate Image 17, Broadcast Empath 8, Ice Production, Lightning and Fog 10, Body Armor 8)

The Green Knight

Another wielder of a green energy artifact, the Green Knight is a villain operating primarily in Western Europe. His green armor and axe give him powers that are very similar to the Green Lanterns, and the two have been evenly matched. While the Lantern’s light burns for justice the shine of the axe’s blade is being wielded for xenophobia, fear and the herringvolk form of government. The Green Knight, not surprisingly, has henchmen in white supremacist movements across Europe. (This is as close as I’m going to get to Sinestro – another energy wielder powered by fear.)

ShadowJack

Trapped in an attempt to harness dark energy physicist Jaqueline Kelsa King gained the ability to turn into a living shadow for a variety of powers –two dimensionality, an icy touch, growth, shrinking or stretching – and the power to unleash people’s worst fears and sap their willpower with a touch. Originally acting as a heroine she didn’t realize the darkness power would inherently consume her, making her turn evil. Several times Jaqueline has been able to wrest control of her life back from Shadowjack, but the darkness seems to always return to overwhelm her. Her ability to drain people’s willpower makes her an especially dangerous foe for the Green Lantern, who ends up weakened by the encounter for days afterwards. (This is an amalgam of Eclipso and Obsidian, both parts of the Green Lantern lore, but not exactly like either.)