Jaguar – Impact Comics (Icons Writeup)

Jaguar
aka Maria de Guzman

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

Stamina 12

Powers
All of Maria’s powers are only available to her in her Jaguar form. When she is in her ‘normal’ identity, her physical stats are reduced to: Prowess 3, Coordination 3, Strength 3, and her Stamina drops to 8. In addition, her Awareness is reduced to 3.
*Damage Resistance 4
*Claws – Strike 7 (Extra: Wall-Crawling)
*Super-Senses 3 – Smell, Hearing, Vision
*Super-Speed 3 (Limit: Running Only)

Specialties
Art – Lace Making, Athletics (Expert +2 bonus), Science – Math (Expert +2 bonus)

Qualities
*Split-Personality
*Struggles with bloodlust
*Protector of Nature

Background

During her youth, Maria lived with her aunt Luiza. Luiza secretly was a Brazilian jungle warrior and protector of the land. She once took Maria with her and performed a ritual. It was meant to channel certain mystical powers that passed down intermittently through the family line.

However, seeing Luiza turn into a werejaguar, Maria panicked and fled. Maria was found by her father who, believing that Luiza was badly caring for her, took her home. Maria has since studied maths and science, in order to avoid the merest hint of magic and mysticism.

Meanwhile, Luiza was becoming more and more predatory. She killed many government men in order to protect the rain forest. The Brazilian military finally caught up with her and killed her. But young Maria, who had been sent to study in the US the day before, inherited her powers.

She also received a costume as a last gift from Luiza. From there Maria discovered she could become the super-powerful Jaguar, a fierce, feral avenger of evil.

Maria Concepcion de Guzman is a shy and insecure young Brazilian girl. She has been given by her father the responsibility of someday inheriting and controlling the considerable de Guzman fortune. Consequently, despite her protests, she has been sent to study business and mathematics at Elm Harbor University in America. The poor girl is a stranger in a strange land.

The cool Maria finds herself excited by the fire that the Jaguar lights in her soul. She is enticed by the animalism her new alter ego. Nevertheless, she has yet to find a satisfying balance between time spent as The Jaguar and time spent pursuing her academic studies.

Since acting as the Jaguar is exhausting, she must learn not to let her super-heroics affect her study habits. Later, she ended up forming a close relationship with The Fly, marrying him at the end of the event known as The Crucible.

The Jaguar – New Crusaders (Icons Writeup)

The Jaguar
aka Ivette “Ivy” Velez

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

Stamina 10

Powers
All of Jaguar’s powers stem from the Helmet of Ai Apaec. Without it, her Prowess, Coordination, and Strength are all reduced to 3, and her Stamina is reduced to 7.
*Claws – Strike (Slashing) 6
*Enhanced Senses 2 – Hearing, Smell
*Damage Resistance 4

Specialties
Science – Zoology, Stealth

Qualities
*”Glorious battles” for Ai Apaec!
*Legacy hero
*Split personality

Background

When zoologist Ralph Hardy discovered the Belt of Varigon, which granted him the powers that made him the heroic Jaguar, he initially thought the mystic totem was unique. But in time he learned it was just one piece to a set of armor, one of a number of Jaguar Artifacts, each representing a unique power… a living force allowing the wearer to channel the abilities of what some ancient civilizations dubbed as “gods”. Of these he also recovered the Helmet of Ai Apaec. He kept his work searching for mystic artifacts a secret, known to most as only Dr. Ralph Hardy, zoologist. It was in that role that he came to know young Ivette “Ivy” Velez.

Ivette had a hard childhood, with both her parents dying while she was still an infant. Growing up in an orphanage, Ivette became extremely shy and timid, but also gained a great love for zoology. After earning a job at the zoo in the city of Red Circle, she formed a close bond with her supervisor, Ralph Hardy, who took her under his wing as her mentor. Despite her shy nature, Ivette longed to make new friends, and accompanied Hardy to a reunion of his old friends – actually his old superhero friends. When the Brain Emperor attacked the reunion of the original Mighty Crusaders, Ralph was apparently killed, but Ivette was saved by her mentor’s old teammate The Shield, as were the five other teenagers that had been at the party. From this old hero Ivette learned the truth about her mentor, and learned that Ralph had left the Helmet of Al Apaec to her in his will, entrusting the Jaguar legacy to her.

Upon donning the helmet, however, Ivette’s consciousness was mystically projected into the realm ruled by the fearsome, bloodthirsty, and powerful Jaguar-god Ai Alpaec. As the embodiment of battle and carnage, Al Alpaec had nothing but contempt for Hardy, the god Varigon, and most of all Ivette, who he terrified into fleeing his domain, screaming insults at her so loud his entire firey world shook. Inspired by watching her new friends overcome their own fears, however, Ivette confronted Ai Apaec once more, standing up to his taunts and promising the god that if he empowered her he would have the “glorious battles” he craved. Seeing that she might have some use to him, Ai Apaec bestowed Ivette with his power. Ivette became the new Jaguar, and joined the New Crusaders.

Ai Apaec’s power did not come without a price, however, and Ivette soon realized that he had not just lent her his power, he had filled the normally-meek girl with his dangerous thirst for battle and carnage as well.

Jaguar – Original (Icons Writeup)

Jaguar
aka Ralph Hardy

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

Stamina 13

Powers
All powers can only be used while wearing the Jaguar belt (aka the Belt of Varigon) and after saying the word, “Jaguar.”
*Aquatic 8 (Limit: While underwater, Coordination is raised to 8 but his Strength is unaffected)
*Burrowing 8
*Flight – Rocket Jets 8 (Extra: Spaceflight)
*Life Support 4 (breathing, cold, pressure, and vacuum)
*Damage Resistance 7 (Limit: Halved against electrical attacks; Limit: A trick shot that targets his eyes can bypass Damage Resistance entirely)
*Telepathy 8 (Limit: animals only)

Note: Without the belt, Ralph’s stats are reduced to: Prowess 3, Coordination 3, Strength 3, Intellect 6, Awareness 4, Willpower 5, Stamina 8

Specialties
Aerial Combat, Scholar – Peru (Expert +2 bonus), Science – Zoology (Expert +2 bonus), Underwater Combat

Qualities
*Servant of the Primal Powers
*Member of the Crusaders and the Terrific Three
*Goody Two Shoes Hero

Background

While fleeing from a giant dinosaur released by an earthquake in Peru, Hardy entered an ancient Quechua temple. There he found a jaguar-skin belt. He would later learn that it was made by one of the great Primal Powers, gods who ruled the animals of Earth before the coming of humankind. In time, he would learn that this was the Belt of Varigon.

An inscription on the reverse side of its flying jaguar buckle read, “To be transformed into a human jaguar with supreme power over animals everywhere in the universe, the wearer need only say ‘The Jaguar’.”

Donning the girdle, Hardy uttered the magic words, became the Jaguar, defeated the dinosaur, and said his own name to turn back into Hardy. Thereafter Jaguar went on to become one of the premiere heroes of his world – in fact, during the Silver Age, he was pretty much the Superman of the Mighty Crusaders’ universe.

While wearing the Jaguar Belt and uttering the word “Jaguar”, not only can Hardy communicate telepathically with animals, but he:

• Becomes as tough as “a rhinoceros’ hide intensified a thousand times”.
• Has “the strength of a million elephants”.
• Has the battering power of “thousands of buffalo”.
• Can endure cold like “a hundred polar bears in one”.
• And has “a thousand times the swimming skill of the otter”.