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  1. #46
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    I actually want to do something with Sam Lane, though I’d keep any questions fo the Lane’s ethnicities until the end.

    Sam Lane. Colonel Sam Lane

    Not a general. Not like Thunderbolt Ross from Marvel at all. Not a paranoid anti-meta or xenophobe... at least not enough to make that anything close to his largest character trait.

    Sam Lane is a career Military Intelligence officer, especially in the area of assessing and interpreting intelligence. While he may someday rise to the level of general, he’s not someone who was ever fast-tracked for it, since he was from a poor family and struggled in school before enlistment thanks to an undiagnosed disability. Fortunately, he discovered he had an affinity for speaking languages and diplomacy in his first tour of duty, received a diagnosis for dyslexia that he then sought treatment for, and after working his ass off, managed to become a “mustang” officer in Intelligence at the rank of Major by the time his daughters were born.

    This drive to overcome his disadvantages left him with a hard-driving and ambitious personality, as well as an empathy for others suffering dyslexia, which allows him to notice when his oldest daughter Lois was struggling, which he and his wife tackled with gusto very early in her academic career. Their encouragement and determination led to Lois developing a love of reading, even as difficult as it was, and both daughters Lois and Lucy being imparted with ambition, self-motivation and a stubborn drive.

    Unfortunately, Sam lost his wife Ella before the girls excited their pre-teen days. Sam, a loving but fallible father, became a bit of a workaholic, with his daughters fighting to hold his attention. Lucy, who felt a bit forgotten in comparison to Lois, sought her dad’s attention via combat training, exceeding Lois in their numerous martial arts and combat classes. Lois, in response, sought to emulate her dad’s intelligence career, proving to have a natural knack for asking questions and forming rapport and trust with people in an analytical way. Sam was delighted at this for both his daughters, and enrolled them in military colleges geared towards their strengths.

    ...But Lois found herself frustrated and enraged by the social and political problems at her school, and began a pattern of “acting out” that was actually exposing staff and students misconduct on the internet, regardless of who it was she was exposing. And when Sam began focusing effort on Loos to try and teach her some more diplomatic attitudes, it both didn’t work and made Lucy jealous, causing her to act out. Both daughters got expelled, to Sam’s shame and sorrow. Lucy, feeling sorry, enlisted in the regular military just like her dad, and is on a course towards getting herself a “mustang” promotion to the officer corps like her old man. Lois... Lois doubled down and became a reporter, using her military interrogation and analysis training for her new career

    Sam Lane became a Lt. Colonel before Superman made his appearance, and was attached to the observation and evaluation team that sought to classify Superman as a threat or asset, and prepare contingencies in case the former was proven true... which meant he was on the same team as Lex Luthor, hired as a private contractor. His work there saw him promoted to Major, and he now occupies an odd place, being someone who both vouches for Luthor’s contributions to their military while also being someone who advocates for treating Superman as an asset or ally.

    The “two-faced” nature of this stance is something that aggravates Lois and maintains their tense and cool relationship, as it represents Sam’s pragmatism, cynicism, and yes, occasionally authoritarian instincts that clash against Lois’s often rebellious idealism and differently cynical nature. Still, anyone who tries to sabotage or scapegoat Sam Lane is in for a world of trouble, while any threat to Lois *will* see the Colonel bend the rules. Superman also becomes aware of this, and has a wary relationship with the Colonel, who tries to assure him he doesn’t fear an alien touching his daughter... he just fears a man who can fly at Mach 7 and rip steel apart with his bare hands touching his daughter.

    Instead of representing xenophobia and reactionary paranoid, Sam Lane represents more the gray morality of power and authority in the US; he’s someone who Superman might debate a bit as to what “The American Way” means.

    (And if the Lanes had their race changed, it would add another dimension to the family in this scenario, creating greater reasons why they might have a chip on their soldier, and why Lois may have some contempt for her father’s rule-abiding ways.)
    Like action, adventure, rogues, and outlaws? Like anti-heroes, femme fatales, mysteries and thrillers?

    I wrote a book with them. Outlaw’s Shadow: A Sherwood Noir. Robin Hood’s evil counterpart, Guy of Gisbourne, is the main character. Feel free to give it a look: https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asi...E2PKBNJFH76GQP

  2. #47
    Non-fanboy Member Cel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Restingvoice View Post
    She's the daughter of a military general though.
    Not anymore in this reboot.
    "Ignore them. They're nothing but a bunch of basement dwellers who spend all day whining on the 'net. Not a single open-minded one in the bunch."
    --Andre Briggs, Justice League International #1

  3. #48
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    Okay, I’m going to do Lois, Lex, and others closer to the main cast... but I think I want to try someone who might actually need a bit of repackaging:

    Jimmy Olsen. Or, perhaps...

    Jamie Olsen.

    Hailing from a multi-racial family in Metropolis itself, Jamie is the only one of the “Power Trio” of Lois, Clark, and himself who’s a native of the city, and even though both Lois and Clark have built up a network of contacts and sources, Jaime is still actually more connected to people, because as much of a goofy dork as he is, he’s also a very gregarious, fun, and social teenager, with a HUGE number of people who count him as kith, kin... or amicable ex, friend’s amicable ex, or “that guy who knows a guy.”

    Don’t confuse him for a social giant by any measure, he’s still very much an overly enthusiastic geek. The guy’s got friends in low places, is what I’m saying.

    And that, plus his adventurous side, is why a rookie Lois was quick to form a friendship with him, which Clark wound up copying when he first got a job at the Planet. Both consider him something like a little brother, and while he doesn’t have great camera equipment and isn’t professionally trained, his sheer determination, willingness to use *any* camera, and tendency to run towards danger make him a valuable member of their little team - Lois is best at the pure investigation, Clark is the best writer in terms of style, while Jamie *will* get some pictures, come hell or high water.

    However, that’s only half the story. The other half of the story is that Metroplolis is a full on “city of adventure,” festooned with lots of nooks and crannies where STAR Labs tech, Apokiliptikan tech, Brainiac tech, Cadmus tech, LexCorp tech, and even some Kryptonian tech proliferates, is abandoned, or has spontaneously mutated into something crazy... and Jamie is fascinated by it.

    Basically, once Metropolis starts to resemble a giant sprawling TARDIS, Jamie starts to resemble either The Doctor or an overly curious Companion.

    And his side-hustle is his own YouTube series exploring Metropolis and it’s weird stuff, which serves as the non-Lois and Clark reason why he might, say, find himself being mutated into a Giant Turtle Boy, getting stretchy powers, or other just plain goofy stuff.

    Oh, and in the early days of Superman's adventures, Jamie is the guy who tracks down the old apartment building that he, Lois, and a Clark go in on renting a small set of apartments for, since he both discovered where it was, and that it’s price was being kept way down because Bizzaro clone literally melted into a stain in the communal space (Long story), creating something like a “Friends” scenario with those three... with Jamie becoming a major “Clois” ‘shipper.
    Like action, adventure, rogues, and outlaws? Like anti-heroes, femme fatales, mysteries and thrillers?

    I wrote a book with them. Outlaw’s Shadow: A Sherwood Noir. Robin Hood’s evil counterpart, Guy of Gisbourne, is the main character. Feel free to give it a look: https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asi...E2PKBNJFH76GQP

  4. #49
    Ultimate Member marhawkman's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Exciter View Post
    Metallo always struck me as awesome (maybe it’s his name). I’d reboot him as kind of an anti-hero, a “robocop” type of injured soldier put back together as a cyborg. The US Government releases him to deal with extraterrestrial/supernatural/metahuman and especially Kryptonian threats. He comes into conflict with Superman on an ideological basis as he is a “seek and destroy” type. Go with his Terminator-esc look, as that was always my favorite.
    He often ends up as a guy who's forced to do the job because his masters will shut off his cybernetics otherwise. Kinda like Suicide Squad, but more permanent. Making him more heroic makes him more like a Superman ally than enemy, unless he's a patriot working for someone like Gen Sam Lane who wants to have soldiers capable of beating Kryptonians.

    I thought the basic idea of DCAU's Galatea was a good way to have both Supergirl and Powergirl in the same universe. So clone that came out a little off works for me.

    Me... I'd revamp Livewire. She's always been more of a force of chaos than evil, so I'd lean on the troublemaker angle. Classic origin is a radio personality who is doing that as a paying job. What I would change is making her a college student who does it as a part time job. Why? well I'd go with more on the angle of Superman trying to help her be a better person more. She's not really a sidekick, more like Superman is her parole officer.

  5. #50
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    Dr. Katherine Faulkner was a scientist who liked to burn the candle at both ends. Her research was her life and it was all-consuming. She would go to almost any lengths to keep it going. Which is why after having a string of emotional breakdowns related to stress and fatigue at various major labs, she was branded a liability and couldn't find any legitimate work. That's when she was approached to be one of Lex Luthor's "off-the-books" scientists to deal with the Superman problem. There, she discovered Superman's ability to metabolize yellow sun radiation. It seemed to be the solution to her problem. If she could recreate the process in herself, then she would never have to worry about taking a break from her work again. All she needed was a dose of the right light spectrum and she would have unlimited stamina. Things did not go as she had planned. Now, when her skin is exposed to sunlight, Katherine Faulkner becomes a 9-foot tall monster whose only thought is destruction. In those moments, Dr. Faulkner is gone and there is only RAMPAGE.

  6. #51
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    Brainiac

    To the Guardians of the Galaxy, New Gods of Genesis and Apokilips, Reach, and other Galactic powers, the Brain-Interactive-Construct of Colu is one of the “Great Blights” alongside the Starro creature and other nameless horrors that give them pause.

    To most species and planets, Brainiac is this insidious, subtle digital frequency ricocheting across the stars that, once picked up by sufficient technology, will begin to co-opt native technology and form first miniscule probes and drones that will corrupt and “possess” local organic through their nervous system, before secondly creating larger, full-size soldier drones modeled after the lost Coluans, a race of super geniuses or robots (the records aren’t clear). These drones will then begin stripping the planet’s databases of all knowledge, before condoning off and collecting “samples” of the indigenous species’ civilizations, digitizing them into a similar digital frequency to its own, and taking the cities off planet... before seeking to destroy the remaining planet through whatever means are available.

    This process of infiltration, invasion, reaving, and annihilating planets has consumed countless solar systems, and is subject to one of the very few provisions in the Green Lantern Corps/Reach treaty that has led to *very rare* but well documented cases of joint “digital scouring” operations that have reduced once proud technological civilizations to early industrial states to starve the data of the processing power it needs to do its work.

    Earth first encounters the Brainiac code when LexCorp technology begins to receive the data and begin the process of infiltration through the human scientist Milton Fine. He formed an alliance with Lex Luthor, trying to infiltrate and take him over, but Lex played a mean strategy game, and managed to get Superman to annihilate Fine’s Brainiac factory, and use Brainiac tech to impart himself with a 10th Level Intelligence, beginning his personal path towards matching the Brainiac code’s intelligence level.

    ...However, Brainiac is not just a code careening through space; Superman eventually discovers that central hub exists somewhere among the stars - the birthplace of Brainiac, with the advanced drones from a thousands dead species and the digitized refugee cities of of their worlds... and it’s coming fro Earth, slowly but surely.

    You see, there was one planet that proved itself “too spicy” for Brainiac - Krypton. Their enhanced cellular structures allowed them to reject his minuscule probes (since all Krptonians are the result of genetic manipulation by the ancient Grand Geneticist, Kem-l) and while he managed to scour a small section of the city of Kandor, his central hub was broken into a thousands pieces, and only managed to reform itself recently.

    Kryptonians, their technology, and their genetic codes, remain the one unbreakable and unlock-able culture and species that Brainiac has yet to crack, and even his Brainiac Prime form, a physical avatar designed fro combat with the Gods of New Genesis and Apokilips, is ultimately inferior to a Kryptonian charged with yellow sunlight. The only other thing that provokes Brainiac more than Kryptonians is time travel - because he’s a purely digital being from an advanced civilization, he has becomes aware of problems in his programming caused by time travel, and in fact seeks to end any time travel, less future iterations of his code interfere with or attempt to usurp his current programming. This means that not only is he even more aggravated by strong evidence that Superman has time traveled, but that when future Brainacs appear, such as 8 and 13, the original code will make war on them.
    Like action, adventure, rogues, and outlaws? Like anti-heroes, femme fatales, mysteries and thrillers?

    I wrote a book with them. Outlaw’s Shadow: A Sherwood Noir. Robin Hood’s evil counterpart, Guy of Gisbourne, is the main character. Feel free to give it a look: https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asi...E2PKBNJFH76GQP

  7. #52
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    Quote Originally Posted by TheRay View Post
    I would like to see Saturn Queen as a Zatanna rogue.
    I'd like to see her reimagined as a Power Girl villain. They hinted at that in an issue of Supergirl, where SQ reveals she fought a war throughout time against PG for SG, and it seems for some reason that SQ can't use her powers to control PG, (everyone else can, PG gets mind controlled more often than just about anyone). Having her, along with Ultraman, as PG villains could be nice, especially since she doesn't really have any good bad guys herself.

  8. #53
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    Lex Luthor

    Basically, I want to combine the Silver Age scientist with Corporate Lex... but making the latter aspect contrast with its original real world inspiration, as Donald Trump is frankly too stupid to be a good villain and too shallow to be an engaging character. Some elements of that will remain out of necessity, but hopefully not too many.

    Lex comes from a messed up family; his father Julius and mother were abusive and negligent, while his grandfather Lionel was the foreboding figure looming over their lives even in retirement in Smallville, Kansas. Lex, intent to save himself and his little sister Lena from their abuse, sabotaged the family is gas main, resulting in a fire and explosion that killed his parents and burned off his hair.

    Lionel, gleeful to have regained control of Luthorcorp, the family’s financial holdings, took in young Lex and Lena, having deduced Lex’s actions. Lionel was too clever to be physically and directly abusive, but was mind-bogglingly manipulative, particularly in taunting and encouraging the side of Lex that had desperately killed his parents. He did, however, also see to Lex’s education, as young Lex proved to have a prodigious scientific and strategic intellect.

    Lena ran away shortly into her early teens years, while Lex wound up befriending the gregarious if nerdy Clark Kent at a few science fairs that Lex won. At 15, during the holiday season, Lex wound up almost running away as well... but bad weather and his own hesitation made him crash at the Kent on his way out of town. Lex spent New Years Eve and New Years with the Kents, and found himself amazed by the unconditional love and support he witnessed his friend having, especially when the Kents offered to report Lionel’s actions and fight for him.

    Lex, however, was already some ways down the path towards becoming the villain we know, and eventually chose to go back to Lionel to enact his revenge and take the old man for everything he was worth. He also found himself envious of Clark’s family but too proud to admit it, so some of his rejection of the Kent’s offer was him not liking being pitied. This is kind of the moment of “no return” for him.

    Lex began his rise by first quietly performing some industrial espionage and robbery, stealing from Luthorcorp and framing Lionel, before going on his “sabbatical” around the world. He did some experimenting here, some coding stealing and patent infringement there, and some unsavory networking elsewhere. He emerged from his “sabbatical” with a new super-battery, with which he founded his own company, LexCorp, and deliberately drove Luthorcorp to ruin, only “reconnecting” with his grandfather to make sure the old man knew he was going to have his medical support slowly but surgically sabotaged and removed until he would die painfully of neglect.

    Lex then began his ruthless and dubiously legal rise to power as the “Man of Tomorrow” of Metropolis. He crossed some people on the way, like an Intergang sub-boss, and crossed some names off his lists, like that Intergang sub-boss and *anyone who would have avenged him.* Lex is not truly sociopathic, psychotic, or narcissistic; he’s driven by a personal moral (or amoral) code that seeks to justify being a ruthless bastard trying to “lead” humanity, and is repeatedly reinforcing a misanthropic and extremely cold world-view to himself because he doesn’t want to face the conscience he’s buried long ago. The fact he isn’t traditionally messed up is part of the reason he managed to date zoos for a while, before she caught on, and now he delights himself by keeping evidence about his crimes away from her.

    So part of the reason he hates Superman isn’t just the envy and personal score to settle with him - it’s also that Superman represents and virtuous and hopeful world order that Lex “needs” to reject if he wants to face himself in the mirror everyday. It also explains his... odd relationship with others. He keeps tags on Lena, now Tess Mercer, but refuses to contact or do anything for her unless she comes to him first. He also refuses to take act out and kill Clark Kent when they reconnect in Metropolis because he “needs” to prove to himself that he made the right choice all those years ago, and striking at Clark out of envy or jealousy (especially once he gets close to Lois) would imply he didn’t.

    He also begins to accelerate his increase in intelligence after an encounter with Brainiac, artificially raising it.
    Like action, adventure, rogues, and outlaws? Like anti-heroes, femme fatales, mysteries and thrillers?

    I wrote a book with them. Outlaw’s Shadow: A Sherwood Noir. Robin Hood’s evil counterpart, Guy of Gisbourne, is the main character. Feel free to give it a look: https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asi...E2PKBNJFH76GQP

  9. #54
    Mighty Member witchboy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by godisawesome View Post
    It’s been 24 hrs, so here’s another:

    Cir-El, The Strange Visitor

    (The Strange Visitor name is really more her wanting a code-name to fit with the “S” herself, since she doesn’t want to step on Kara’s toes as Supergirl.)

    Cir-El is Jon Kent’s younger sister... from a possible future. And she’s currently a “Chronal-refugee” from that timeline, making it so she’s acting a bit like Jon’s older sister instead.

    The timeline she comes from, along with her companion and grouchy best friend Helena Wayne, is another one of those dark timelines, but with a somewhat unique tie to the present; the timeline is the result of one of those “madmen trying to change the past” things, and the timeline’s resident know it. It’s a world where many of the characters can trace back where their lives went wrong to a specific moment of our present - someone caused the events that lead to the deaths of first Bruce Wayne, then later Lois Lane, and finally Jon Kent and Damian Wayne, along with millions of others.

    Cir-El grew up as a natural part of this timeline, and looked up to and loved her mother and idolized her older brother when he was alive. She sometimes hides her pain behind humor and optimism, but it’s telling that she’s spent most of her time as Supergirl in her timeline, and not with her human name, Lucy Kent - she prefers Cir-El and had buried herself in Kryptonian customs as a way of avoiding the pain of having lost most of her human family.

    She and Helena, who’s been raised almost exclusively by a widowed Selina Kylo with the aid of the “Brotherhood of the Bat” in Gotham, stumble across a time-lost Teen Titans team that has both Jon and Damian on it from our present. Connecting the Titans with the remnants of their timeline’s Justice League, it’s decided that Cir-El will go back in time to escape this hell scale she’s born into and try and prevent it... and when Helena goes to tell her goodbye, since she refuses to abandon her mother and Gotham, Selina Kyle actually “steals a future for her daughter” by tricking her into the time machine as well.

    Cir-El and Helena are now active heroes in the present time, though Helena doesn’t get along with most of her family and wants to find a way to return to her original timeline even if it must be erased, while Cir-El finds herself in love with a brighter world, and a living family... albeit one where the interactions can be a bit awkward.
    I really love all of this, every bit of it. I'd love to see their different perspectives on being in the past. I'd love to see their interactions with their modern day families and how they'd all react to them. Like, I can see Clark accepting Cir-El better than Lois, initially.
    Selina as a sudden mother to a teenager sounds like a lot of fun.

  10. #55
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    Quote Originally Posted by witchboy View Post
    I really love all of this, every bit of it. I'd love to see their different perspectives on being in the past. I'd love to see their interactions with their modern day families and how they'd all react to them. Like, I can see Clark accepting Cir-El better than Lois, initially.
    Selina as a sudden mother to a teenager sounds like a lot of fun.
    Thanks!

    Another one:

    Lana Lang

    The “problem“ with Lana is that she can feel like just a Pepsi version of Lois’s Coca-Cola. So...

    ...Why not fully embrace that idea, and just modify it?

    The Bronze Age had her as a WGBS anchorwoman, so that’s similar to what her job is here - a kind of John Oliver-style comedian/pundit/anchor. She was Clark’s high school sweetheart, and part of a trio of friends with him and Pete Ross - with Pete crushing on her, and with Clark managing to maneuver out of the love triangle successfully when he and Lana broke up so that his two best friends could get together. Lana has no more interest in Clark in a romantic sense - she’s mostly now just one of his bets friends, and with Pete, his oldest confidantes.

    What Lana is now in Metropolis is a combination of Lois’s Sitcom Archnemesis and the most public mouthpiece for WGBS - WGBS is the Daily Planet’s “business daddy” (to use John Oliver’s parlance), and Lana’s edutainment news show is its biggest ratings hit. It’s big enough, in fact, that WGBS doesn’t dare punish her or remove her show, even when she departs from going after Lex Luthor as an enemy and moves onto the Edge family that owns WGBS itself.

    ...Though this “popular” news-style, as well as Lana’s overall style fo reporting, is what grates India Lois’s nerves and creates a frenemy-full antagonism between them. Lois is a deadly-serious field journalist who, in spite of her dyslexia, does most of her work through the printed word, so she kind of hates it when she does all sorts of hard work and spends hours interviewing, investigating, and writing... only for Lana and her team to harvest information from it and repack age it in a “viewer friendly” way with an always irreverent tone. Lana still has the integrity to keep it honest, but it still galls Lois way too much, an they really do argue a lot about how they do their jobs - and the way they say each other’s last names is very much in the “Hello, Jerry...” “Hello... Newman.” way.

    Adding to this, Lana picks up on Lois and Clarks’s whole thing, and since she knows that Superman is Clark, she intentionally needles and jokes with Lois about Lois’s attraction to both identities... even at one point on national TV.

    Basically, if Jack Ryder is Stephen Colbert as a Superhero, Lana is John Oliver/Samantha Bee in a City if Adventure like Metropolis.
    Like action, adventure, rogues, and outlaws? Like anti-heroes, femme fatales, mysteries and thrillers?

    I wrote a book with them. Outlaw’s Shadow: A Sherwood Noir. Robin Hood’s evil counterpart, Guy of Gisbourne, is the main character. Feel free to give it a look: https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asi...E2PKBNJFH76GQP

  11. #56
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    Titano.

    Titano, a formely popular Silver / Bronze age giant-size ape animal character, whose, aside from one respectable media depiction in Superman: the Animated Series, modern ages has never been kind to him.

    At this point, since DC never had much long-term interest in him anyways of recent few decades, why not just have him, rather than the possibly outdated space chimp irradiated from being blasted off into space, just simply now be a giant chimp from Krypton, then see how much usage can be made of him from that?
    Last edited by ngroove; 07-22-2020 at 06:07 PM.

  12. #57
    Ultimate Member marhawkman's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ngroove View Post
    Titano.

    Titano, a formely popular Silver / Bronze age giant-size ape animal character, whose, aside from one respectable media depiction in Superman: the Animated Series, modern ages has never been kind to him.

    At this point, since DC never had much long-term interest in him anyways of recent few decades, why not just have him, rather than the possibly outdated space chimp irradiated from being blasted off into space, just simply now be a giant chimp from Krypton, then see how much usage can be made of him from that?
    Titano's issue is that it's a character concept that's irretrievably linked to becoming a non-threat. It's NOT a villain who wants to destroy the world. It's a pet monkey that needs a nap. This means that Titano never has evil intent, and thus needs an outside source to give it a reason to act.

  13. #58
    Ultimate Member Gaius's Avatar
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    Terra-Man; More like the Pre-Crisis version because a sci-fi cowboy is too cool to waste but I'd update him to be kind of an evil Booster Gold where he was some bandit from the 19th century American West who came upon advanced alien futuristic tech that allows him to become a time-traveling bounty hunter.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gaius View Post
    Terra-Man; More like the Pre-Crisis version because a sci-fi cowboy is too cool to waste but I'd update him to be kind of an evil Booster Gold where he was some bandit from the 19th century American West who came upon advanced alien futuristic tech that allows him to become a time-traveling bounty hunter.
    I was going to disagree... until I remember that Erron Black has become a low-key fan favorite of Mortal Kombat, and is basically the same idea.

    So...

    The Terran With No Name

    An intergalactic fugitive, ne’er-do-well, part-time bounty hunter, part-time robber, and perpetual thorn in the side of all the usual Galactic heroes, villains and factions, most of what’s known about this outlaw to the Galaxy at large is that he hails from Earth, is more slippery than a space-eel in an asteroid field, and is absolutely ruthless and pragmatic.

    In fact, you know that old story-detail of how no humans served in the Green Lantern Corps until recently? The Terran might have actually had something to do with that prejudice. Right after the Civil War, he was so desperate to escape pursuit by Jonah Hex after a robbery gone wrong that he wound up fleeing into what would one day become Roswell, New Mexico, and wound up being captured by alien slavers. In spite of being out of his element, the fugitive managed to join the crew himself, and when a slave revolt doomed the ship, he stole the only escape pod, and began his career.

    Clark and Lois actually end up being the ones to figure out who he is, since they try and figure out if there’s anyway to get to him when he comes to Earth to try and rob Intergang of their Apokiliptikan tech (that stuff sells well to the Dominators.) They find out the story of Tobias Manning, and Superman ends up becoming The Terran’s personal enemy by being the first person in almost 150 years to catch him; The Terran prefers to target weaker opponents, and was throng to avoid Superman and the Green Lanterns, but got caught when Clark outsmarted him.

    The Terran is a hodge-lodge of alien tech and organics in a cowboy form; his biological body ages slowly, but has clearly mutated a bit. His right arm is robotic, and designed for a freakishly effective and accurate quickdraw with a powerful Coluan firearm. And yeah, he wears a futuristic cowboy outfit and rides a vaguely winged-horse-like animal, but it’s all clearly alien in origin. He also has a scavenged and salvaged father box for boom-tube transport, his main getaway tool.

    Ironically, The Terran isn’t really scared of Superman, and in fact enjoys challenging him when he gets the chance; he regards the Lantern Corps as more common opponents he can easily outwit, but finds an alien who is adopted Earth as his home and is freakishly powerful a delightful opponent. He *is* however, scared that if Superman catches him, his longest and most dedicated pursuer will finally catch him - Lobo. The Terran’s about the only fugitive to repeatedly hoodwink and escape Lobo, and the Main Man now has a hilariously morbid plan for what he’ll do if he finally catches him, which adds some funny desperation The Terran has in trying to escape captivity when he knows the word on his capture is out.
    Like action, adventure, rogues, and outlaws? Like anti-heroes, femme fatales, mysteries and thrillers?

    I wrote a book with them. Outlaw’s Shadow: A Sherwood Noir. Robin Hood’s evil counterpart, Guy of Gisbourne, is the main character. Feel free to give it a look: https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asi...E2PKBNJFH76GQP

  15. #60
    Ultimate Member Gaius's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by godisawesome View Post
    I was going to disagree... until I remember that Erron Black has become a low-key fan favorite of Mortal Kombat, and is basically the same idea.

    So...

    The Terran With No Name

    An intergalactic fugitive, ne’er-do-well, part-time bounty hunter, part-time robber, and perpetual thorn in the side of all the usual Galactic heroes, villains and factions, most of what’s known about this outlaw to the Galaxy at large is that he hails from Earth, is more slippery than a space-eel in an asteroid field, and is absolutely ruthless and pragmatic.

    In fact, you know that old story-detail of how no humans served in the Green Lantern Corps until recently? The Terran might have actually had something to do with that prejudice. Right after the Civil War, he was so desperate to escape pursuit by Jonah Hex after a robbery gone wrong that he wound up fleeing into what would one day become Roswell, New Mexico, and wound up being captured by alien slavers. In spite of being out of his element, the fugitive managed to join the crew himself, and when a slave revolt doomed the ship, he stole the only escape pod, and began his career.

    Clark and Lois actually end up being the ones to figure out who he is, since they try and figure out if there’s anyway to get to him when he comes to Earth to try and rob Intergang of their Apokiliptikan tech (that stuff sells well to the Dominators.) They find out the story of Tobias Manning, and Superman ends up becoming The Terran’s personal enemy by being the first person in almost 150 years to catch him; The Terran prefers to target weaker opponents, and was throng to avoid Superman and the Green Lanterns, but got caught when Clark outsmarted him.

    The Terran is a hodge-lodge of alien tech and organics in a cowboy form; his biological body ages slowly, but has clearly mutated a bit. His right arm is robotic, and designed for a freakishly effective and accurate quickdraw with a powerful Coluan firearm. And yeah, he wears a futuristic cowboy outfit and rides a vaguely winged-horse-like animal, but it’s all clearly alien in origin. He also has a scavenged and salvaged father box for boom-tube transport, his main getaway tool.

    Ironically, The Terran isn’t really scared of Superman, and in fact enjoys challenging him when he gets the chance; he regards the Lantern Corps as more common opponents he can easily outwit, but finds an alien who is adopted Earth as his home and is freakishly powerful a delightful opponent. He *is* however, scared that if Superman catches him, his longest and most dedicated pursuer will finally catch him - Lobo. The Terran’s about the only fugitive to repeatedly hoodwink and escape Lobo, and the Main Man now has a hilariously morbid plan for what he’ll do if he finally catches him, which adds some funny desperation The Terran has in trying to escape captivity when he knows the word on his capture is out.
    Cool, way more detailed than I had but some similar ideas that I didn't post like run-ins with Lobo and the DC cosmos stuff. Also kicking myself for not think of "Terran with No Name" given the original character was modeled after Eastwood's Man with No Name.

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