Savage (Icons Writeup)

Savage
aka Kevin “KJ” Sauvage, Jr.

Prowess 5
Coordination 5
Strength 4
Intellect 4
Awareness 5
Willpower 4

Stamina 8

Powers
*Dinosaur Claw Daggers 4
*Spears 3

Specialties
Athletics (Expert +2 bonus), Martial Arts (+1 bonus), Stealth (Master +3 bonus), Hunting (Master +3 bonus)

Qualities
“This is my kill, stupid monster!”
Feral wild child
Dinosaur Hunter

Background
Much of this comes Valiant Fandom:

Savage, real name Kevin “KJ” Sauvage, Jr., is a warrior who battles dinosaurs. His parents are celebrity soccer player Kevin Sauvage and supermodel Veronica Sauvage. After a plane crash, they were stranded on a mysterious island populated entirely by dinosaurs when KJ was an infant.

Being a toddler at the time of the plane crash, Kevin wasn’t old enough to remember his father’s death, which was caused as he searched for supplies for his unwell wife. Kevin grew up being taught how to survive by his mother Veronica, who often told her son that one day they would leave the island and go home. Things took a turn for the worse however when his mother was killed by the leader of a group of men living on the island, leaving the young boy alone.

For an unspecific amount of time, though not a long one, Kevin perfected his hunting skills and ability to kill, becoming an enemy to those who lived on the island. Eventually he decided to try escaping through the portal that the island inhabitants use to get new supplies, killing them all and their leader. Taking the dead body of the leader with him, Kevin went through he portal and found himself in a city.

Due to the harsh conditions of the island he was raised on and the things he had to do to survive, Kevin is very brutal and bloodthirsty, often seen enjoying the killing. After the death of his mother, Kevin has grown obsessed with finally leaving the island forever and going “home”, as his mother promised they would, despite not truly knowing what to expect.

If Savage reminds you a little bit of another Valiant ‘dinosaur hunter,’ you aren’t far off. Since they no longer have Turok, we now get Savage – who is an interesting character in his own right. Keep in mind that he was only fifteen years old at the time of the first Savage series — so those stats you see above? They’re only going to get better.

Ouch.

Being a writer means you have to develop a thick skin. I was updating my Publications page earlier tonight and needed to get the date that a particular anthology was released. While doing so I wandered across a review of said book… and while they enjoyed it, they singled out my contribution as being one that they felt was lacking. In fact, they made it clear that they felt it didn’t deserve to be included at all.

Ouch!

I thought my story was pretty good but obviously everyone has their own opinions. As long as you’re putting your hard-earned money down to buy the book, you certainly have the right to share your views on the contents!

Over the years, I’ve gotten more positive reviews than negative but it’s human nature to focus on the bad side, I suppose.

Work continues on the new Straw-Man story. Hopefully it’ll receive a positive reaction when it’s finally released.

Doctor Mirage (Icons Writeup)

Doctor Mirage (Modern Version)
aka Shan Fong

Prowess 4
Coordination 3
Strength 3
Intellect 5
Awareness 6
Willpower 7

Stamina 10

Powers
*Astral Projection 5
*Detection – Spirit Sight 8
*Suit – Magical Damage Resistance 4
*Gadgets (Mystic Artifacts) 5

Specialties
Investigation, Mental Resistance, Occult (Master +3 bonus)

Qualities
“You’ve probably seen me on television.”
“I’m saving lives, you moron!”
“I’ll send you my invoice.”

Background

Shan Fong and her husband Hwen once shared a love story for the ages, but tragedy left Shan widowed. Her ability to see spirits led her to investigate psychic and supernatural phenomena, either for private cases or as the television personality known as The Death-Defying Doctor Mirage.

Shan has occasionally become quite obsessed with bringing her husband’s spirit back to the physical plane but she has also found time to work with heroes like Shadowman, Ninjak, and Punk Mambo in combating the forces of darkness.

Doctor Mirage is reluctant to be in the spotlight, despite being a television personality, and she rarely interacts with others unless needed.

Reese Unlimited Goings-On

The 14th volume of Lazarus Gray has gone into the editing phase and I’ve started work on the fourth book in the Straw-Man series. As has become the norm with these books, it will be a collection of six short stories featuring the tatterdemalion and his allies. I’ve written about 30,000 words of Lazarus Gray 15 but I might set it aside and start over… it’s just not feeling right. Some of you may remember that I wrote an entire novel that would have been 14 before putting it to pasture and beginning again. The second version of 14 is without a doubt one of the best in the series… and, I’ll admit, I’ve even thought about ending the series there.

We’ll see!

Armstrong (Icons Writeup)

Armstrong
aka Aram Anni-Padda

Prowess 5
Coordination 3
Strength 8
Intellect 3
Awareness 3
Willpower 4

Stamina 12

Powers
*Armstrong’s Satchel – Gadgets 8 (Armstrong’s satchel holds the mysteries of the ancient worlds, universes within universes, the secret of life itself, and trinkets of the Gods like the Holy Grail, the Eye of the Sphinx, the Eye of the Medusa, and the Wand of Circe, all of which remain beyond its owner’s understanding)
*Damage Resistance 7
*Regeneration 7
*Resistance 10 (Cold, Heat, Toxins, Disease)
*Immortality 8

Specialties
Art – Poetry (Expert +2), Linguistics (Expert +2), Wrestling

Qualities
*Apathy – Armstrong is fully capable of experiencing emotions, but those feelings do not play a prominent role in his thought processes. Brain waves are very calm, akin to a zen monk. As such immune to depression, mental illness, etc.
*Eidetic Memory
*Party Animal

Background

Armstrong, also known by his original name Aram Anni-Padda, is one half of the adventuring duo Archer & Armstrong. He is one of four immortal siblings born in ancient Mesopotamia, along with his younger brother Gilad the Eternal Warrior, older brother Ivar the Timewalker and younger sister Vexana the War-Monger. Unlike his more serious brothers, Armstrong is known to be a hedonistic party animal famous for his drinking and carousing. He is relentlessly pursued by ancient religious order called “The Sect” who view him as a demonic figure. In the 21st century Armstrong teams up against the Sect with Obadiah Archer, a young martial arts prodigy raised in a Christian cult.

Armstrong is a hedonistic alcoholic, spending the millennia he’s been alive bedding countless women and consuming countless gallons of alcohol. However, he also has a poetic streak, writing poems that range in quality from poorly-written excuses for poems to classics of literature such as the Epic of Gilgamesh (which was loosely based on his early life). Additionally, Armstrong struggles to develop long-term meaningful relationships, as he knows he will outlive almost anyone he meets.

Livewire (Icons Writeup)

Livewire
aka Amanda McKee

Prowess 6
Coordination 6
Strength 4
Intellect 7
Awareness 6
Willpower 7

Stamina 11

Powers
*Remote Technomorphing 7 (Extras: Interface, Images, Gadgets – her gadgets power reflects her ability to morph her own body into weapons and machines)
*X-O Nano Suit – Damage Resistance 3, Flight 5, Blast 7

Specialties
Aerial Combat (+1 bonus), Athletics (+1 bonus), Leadership (+1 bonus), Martial Arts (Expert +2 bonus), Mental Resistance (Expert +2 bonus), Power -Remote Technomorphing (Master +3 bonus), Technology (Master +3 bonus), Weapons (Expert +2 bonus)

Qualities
Lives by a code of honor – bushido, the way of the warrior.
“I have yet to meet a technology I couldn’t understand.”
Willing to question orders.

Background
Much of this comes from Valiant Fandom:

Livewire is Amanda McKee, a powerful Psiot with the ability to control machines. She is a member of the Harbinger Foundation loyal to Toyo Harada, but has also worked against Harada when she believes his power needs to be checked. She has also been a member of the superhero team Unity.

She is a psionic technopath, able to control computers, and micro-circuitry with her mind.

Amanda McKee was orphaned at a young age. Taken in by the billionaire visionary and founder of the Harbinger Foundation, Toyo Harada, Amanda grew up devoted to Harada and his mission assuming. Assuming the name Livewire, she rose to the highest level of the Foundation rank’s. Harada raised her to be his personal samurai and taught her the philosophy of bushido.

All that changed when Peter Stanchek joined the Harbinger Foundation. Confronted by Peter’s sheer power and his rebelliousness, Harada’s façade of control began to fray and his domineering tendencies became clear. Though she still believed in Harada’s vision, Livewire believed needed to counterbalance Harada’s immense power. Livewire aided Peter in his escape and went into exile.

Months, later when Aric of Dacia claimed Romania and his people’s homeland, Harada asked Livewire to join Unity, the elite strike team he was forming to stop Aric and avert a large scale global conflict. Using her control over machines, Livewire stripped the X-O Manowar armor from Aric, donned it herself and easily subdued his people, ending the conflict.

Bonding with the armor enhanced Livewire’s abilities, permitting her to now access nearly the full extent of the Harbinger Foundation’s records. With Harada’s darkest secrets now exposed to her, Livewire learned the true extent of his evil, and quickly marshaled the Unity team against her former mentor. Leaving the Harbinger Foundation behind completely and committing herself to the path of the ronin (a masterless samurai), Livewire joined Ninjak, The Eternal Warrior, X-O Manowar in the newly formed Unity team.

During the team’s mission to stop Dr. Silk and his hybridized memetic-biological virus capable of completely rewriting an infected individual’s mind, Livewire discovered she alone was immune to the effects of the Silk virus. During the subsequent Armor Hunters invasion, Livewire learned this was a result of bonding with the X-O Manowar Armor. The armor infectious property of slowly replacing portions of the bonded host with herself had altered her physiology. Using her psiot abilities, Livewire suppressed the armor’s urge to replicate, ceasing its infections of both herself and Aric.

Following the Armor Hunters’ invasion, Unity went public, Livewire took on the public role of team leader, and the team secretly adopted the Armor Hunters sentient alien spacecraft GIN-GR’s behalf. After facing threats from the War-Monger and the escaped Armor Hunters called Helix, the Unity team ultimately disbanded. The group was driven apart by the events surrounding the apparent death of their teammate, The Eternal Warrior.

Now working solo, Livewire joined the international effort to stop Toyo Harada in his attempts to declare a psiot nation on the Somali coast. While teamed with Major Charlie Palmer’s H.A.R.D. Corps team to investigate Harada’s hacking of P.R.S.(Project Rising Spirit) satellites, she discovered Harada’s plan to import supplies for his space elevator program under the cover of humanitarian aid. Livewire’s plan now is to turn opinion against her one-time mentor by exposing to the world the high-tech contents of the aid shipments to the Foundation Zone.

Personally, when it comes to the category of “Which Valiant character has been improved the most from VH1 to the current Valiant Universe?”, there’s a clear winner for me: Livewire. She’s got a great visual, she has an awesome personality, she’s easily one of the coolest heroes Valiant has, AND I think that she’d translate well to film or television. As a player character or NPC, she’d be fun, as well, given her connections to Unity, Harada, etc. I mean, she’s worn X-O’s armor… she and Ninjak have been lovers… she was trained by Harada… the storytelling possibilities are endless.

Archer – Original (Icons Writeup)

Archer
Obadiah “Obie” Archer

Prowess 6
Coordination 6
Strength 5
Intellect 4
Awareness 6
Willpower 8

Stamina 13

Powers
Body Supremacy – Archer’s Psiot power was the subconscious ability to mentally adjust and adapt his body. This allows him to reach the peak of physical perfection, have nearly perfect aim, and even see in the dark.
*Super-Senses 1 (Can see in complete darkness)
*Strength Boost 6
*Crossbow 4

Specialties
Athletics (Master +3 bonus), Martial Arts (Master +3 bonus), Sleight of hand (Expert +2 bonus), Stealth (Expert +2 bonus), Weapons – Ranged (Master +3 bonus)

Qualities
*Best friends with Armstrong.
*At war with The Sect.
*Uptight and naive.

Background

When Obadiah discovers that his evangelist parents, the reverend Joe Earl Archer and his wife, Thelma, are deviant killers who use their position in the church to murder young parishioners after he witnesses their murderous activities, they tie him up and set their house afire to engineer his fiery death in order to cover their tracks.

Left clinically dead, Obadiah undergoes a near-death experiences in which he promises to punish his parents and rejects Heaven to return to Earth. Rescued from the flames by a firefighter, Obadiah miraculously returns to the land of the living and commits himself to vanquish the evils of the world, convinced that God has empowered him to right the wrongs of the world.

Obadiah escapes from the hospital before his parents can try to kill him again and hitches a ride aboard a cargo ship that takes him to Tibet, where the residents of the Temple of Lamayuru take him and teach him the arts of armed and unarmed combat. As a Harbinger, Obadiah possesses an ability that gives him complete control over his body and flawless aim, but, unfortunately, he cannot master his rage against his parents, so the venerable master asks him to leave Ladakh.

Soon after his return to the States, Obadiah learns that his parents had been in prison since shortly after his escape from the hospital, which leaves him without a purpose in his life for the first time in years. Wandering the streets of Los Angeles looking for guidance, Archer finds a most unusual teacher in the form of Aram Anni-Padda, the immortal Armstrong. Archer & Armstrong battle “The Sect,” an ancient religious order targeting both of them. Armstrong attempts to break the uptight and naive Archer out of his shell while teaching him the ways of the world.

Archer (Icons Writeup)

Archer
Obadiah “Obie” Archer

Prowess 6
Coordination 6
Strength 6
Intellect 4
Awareness 5
Willpower 6

Stamina 12

Powers
*Archer’s true Harbinger power lies in his Claircognizance, a word coined by P.R.S. executives to describe his ability to tap into the akashic plane where the sum total of racial memorized knowledge & intellectual findings lie. Through this ability, he is able to tap into a wide array of skills and abilities, basically making his body the absolute physical peak. Another aspect of Archer’s ability is to copy Psiot abilities with Power Mimicry 7.
*Crossbow 4
*Resistance (Toxins, Disease) 6

Specialties
Athletics (Master +3), Leadership, Linguistics (Master +3), Martial Arts (Master +3), Sleight of Hand (Expert +2), Stealth (Expert +2), Weapons – Crossbow (Expert +2)

Qualities
Uptight and Naive
Loyal to Armstrong
Eidetic Memory

Background

Obadiah “Obie” Archer was trained as a child assassin by his preacher/politician parents out of a theme park in Kansas. Along with several other children, Archer was adopted, but his true origin is unknown to him. His foster parents had told him that he was their real son, in an effort to make him more obedient. After winning a competition between his siblings, Archer is sent out into the world for the first time to find and kill a man whom his parents have led him to believe to be a demon. Travelling to New York City, Archer meets the immortal Aram “Armstrong” Anni-Padda and learns that he is the man he was sent to kill. They fight, but are both captured by a secret society known as the Sect. While captive, Archer escapes but discovers he was lied to by his parents, who are actually members of the Sect, and teams up with Armstrong to stop them from destroying the world.

ROBERT E. HOWARD’S REAL RED SONYA (NOT SONJA)

A great look at one of REH’s best characters. I like the Red Sonja version, as well, but I’ve always really liked Red Sonya even more — even though she only appeared once.

Balladeer's Blog

THE SHADOW OF THE VULTURE – This story by Robert E. Howard, the ONLY Howard story to actually feature Red Sonya, was first published in the January 1934 issue of Magic Carpet Magazine. As I’ve mentioned in many other reviews of old pulp characters, Howard’s REAL Red Sonya was indeed a warrior woman, but not one from his fictional Hyborian Age.

It was Marvel Comics who distorted Red Sonya into “Red Sonja” and placed her as a guest star in assorted Conan stories as well as her own series. That Red Sonja has more in common with female author C.L. Moore’s warrior woman Jirel of Joiry than she does with Robert E. Howard’s Red Sonya.

The Shadow of the Vulture is one of Howard’s historical adventures and it’s set during the 1520s, largely at the Siege of Vienna from September 27th to October 15th in 1529. Red Sonya of…

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Shadowman (Icons Writeup)

Shadowman (modern)
aka Jack Boniface

Prowess 5
Coordination 6
Strength 7
Intellect 4
Awareness 4
Willpower 4

Stamina 11

Powers
* Detection (other Loa) 2
* Leaping 2
* Regeneration 4
* Night Vision 3
* Darkness Control 4
* Shadow Scythe 6 (Extra: Can be used to open a portal to the Deadside)
* Mind Control 5 (Limit: Only functions on creatures in the Deadside)

Note: Jack’s powers stem from the necromantic energy of the Loa held with him. As a result, all of his powers are only effective at night. In addition, during the daytime hours, Jack’s Prowess, Coordination, and Strength are reduced to 3, which means his daytime Stamina is 7.

Specialties
Athletics (Expert +2 bonus), Occult – Voodoo (+1 bonus), Performance – Saxophone, Stealth (Expert +2 bonus), Weapon – Shadow Scythe (Master +3 bonus)

Qualities
“You have got to pull it together, Jack.”
Utterly ruthless when the need arises.
“I didn’t ask for this.”

Background
Some of the following comes from the Valiant Fandom Wiki

Jack Boniface, better known as Shadowman, is a young man from New Orleans. His supernatural abilities come from the Shadow Loa, an immensely powerful (voodoo) spirit that has been passed down his bloodline and which he bonded with as the latest Shadowman, the one who protects the world of the living (Liveside) from the world of the dead (Deadside).

As the Shadowman, Jack had been working with the Abettors to battle spirits and demons, and to protect the world against the necromancer Master Darque. Later, Jack was tricked by Master Darque to serve him in the Deadside as the menacing figure known as Magpie. Unbeknownst to Jack, Master Darque’s binding were only psychosomatic and he could have left at any time but he didn’t. Eventually Jack was freed from the Deadside by Ninjak and Punk Mambo.

Five years after first entering his pact with Darque, Jack crawled his way back to the world of the living. Rescued for his near-comatose state by his old ally Alyssa Myles, they began working together to investigate the Shadow Loa’s true nature and hopefully free Jack from it. This investigation led them to the bad side of powerful loa Baron Samedi. Battling his minions, Jack, Alyssa and their allies were seemingly overwhelmed, until a quick-timed summoning ritual by Alyssa and a sneak attack by Jack seemingly put them on top. A well-placed curse on Jack’s Shadow Scythe, however, disabled the hero, and allowed Samedi to kill Jack, his corpse collapsing in front of Alyssa.

Death was, unsurprisingly, not the end for Jack Boniface. Instead of journeying to the afterlife, Jack’s soul slipped back in time, attaching itself to other people who wielded the Shadow Loa throughout history. Seeing the adventures of his great-grandfather Maxim Boniface during the 1940s, and then those of Marius Boniface, the first Shadowman, Jack became terrified to find his soul just kept falling through time. Astonishingly, his soul found someone else to latch onto: Standing Wolf, a tribal warrior in prehistoric Africa. He witnessed Wolf make a pact with the Loa to save his tribe, becoming the real first Shadowman, before being sucked back into the present. He awoke after his own funeral, now armed with the knowledge of how far back his legacy truly goes.

For those of you who want to compare these stats to the VH1 Shadowman, you’ll notice a few differences. The modern version of Shadowman has gone insane, been psychically manipulated, and just plain lied to on multiple occasions. That’s why is Willpower is only a 4 instead of a 5 that the VH1 Jack has. On the other hand, the modern Shadowman seems to a little stronger (Strength 7 vs. 6) and he has several additional powers. Keep in mind that VH1 Shadowman was limited in what he could do because of the alien spider-bite that he received in issue one of his series. Without that bite, he may have manifested some of the abilities that the modern version has, though none of the previous VH1 Shadowmans were ever shown manifesting a ‘shadow scythe,’ so it could just be that in a different universe, you get different powers.