Kirby's Kommandos

[Adminenkainen]

I have long toyed with the idea of doing some project with just the Simon-Kirby stable of characters from Timely comics. Those would be:
Red Raven, Mercury/Hurricane (or separate characters?), Comet Pierce, Marvel Boy, Fiery Mask, Vision, Captain America, and Tuk.

Basing a campaign solely on these characters, you'd have Tuk's Attilan being an advanced society in caveman times. Could Red Raven's people be their descendants? Or are the gods, like Mercury/Hurricane, their descendants? Tuk could be reincarnated in the present day, since Marvel Boy is reincarnated. Or then again, maybe Tuk becomes a time traveler to reach the present. Maybe Comet Pierce, from the 22nd century, discovers time travel and goes back to prehistoric times and discovers Attilan.

Maybe the gods were just aliens from different dimensions, like Vision's dimension? Magic exists; we know this because Vision had supernatural foes.

I'm also intrigued by the idea of constructing a "Justice Society of America" team of those eight Simon-Kirby characters.

[order99]

I take it that you're talking about the Martin Burns Marvel Boy (re-incarnated Demigod)? Or are you going to be including Atlas in this too for Bob Grayson (Half-Alien Science Hero)?

Because if you include Atlas you have Master Mind Excello, The Terror, Diana the Huntress, The Black Widow (Clare Voyant) and others..

-and don't forget Armless Tiger Man! Yes I know he's a Mobster, but ARMLESS TIGER MAN! Marvel should have brought him back to fight the early "Yellow" Daredevil(Matt Murdock) just for the sheer 'wait, WHAT?' of it....

  Oh, and Flexo the Rubber Man is Timely-did Simon and/or Kirby ever create anything for him?

[Adminenkainen]

This mental exercise was just about Simon-Kirby heroes, which none of the ones you're naming are. Yes, I meant Martin Burns.

[order99]

It's an interesting premise, limiting the scope like that. It would definitely let you focus more deeply on your version of the characters.

Not being as familiar with the strictly Kirby-Simonson Timely runs though, I have to ask-do you have enough villains? I don't mean the endless seas of Mafia types, drug runners, generic one-shot Mad scientists with Robots and Dinosaur cloning chambers and mysterious enemies from the Earth's Core or its ocean or beyond the planet-those are fun, don't get me wrong, you could literally just roll randomly for plots and get years of games out of it...

But are there enough recurring villains (that didn't die right away) that can come back a few times or more? At DC the Joker was killed by Batman, but ret-conned to life because he had that necessary Nemesis quality about him, likewise the Ultra-Humanite was tweaked into a recurring villain role for similar reasons.
With the limited pool you are drawing from, do you have enough Nemeses? Villains that keep popping up, that seem to die yet return, that make the Heroes grit their teeth and clench their fists in frustration...good Bad Guys would really make your Timely Samaritans really shine!

You can make a good villain out of whole cloth naturally-but that might be beyond the scope of this Thought Experiment. Of course even if a Timely Villain were irretrievably dead, there is always a partner or an offspring to don the outfit.

Still-no Armless Tiger Man? (sniff) I know, I know, he was Marvel Mystery Comics #26....oh well.

 If my gang ever gets back Post-Covid i'll include him in our Victorian Super-Pulp game-Gustav Hertz would fit in well at the beginning of the Industrial age-far, far too well in fact, his tale would be all too common...

[Adminenkainen]

Fiery Mask has the giant evil scientist/magic-user the Zombie Master, plus normal evil scientist Dr. Sendach, and may or may not have fought actual devils, depending on if his final story was real or a dream.

The Vision had Llhupa the Werewolf, Dr. Rhonik (who can create vampiric plant creatures), Khor the Black Sorcerer, Kai-Mak the shark "god," Grosso of the Dust Dimension, and Professor Zagnar (metaphysics magic-user).

Captain America had the Red Skull, the Butterfly, the Ringmaster, the Camera Fiend, and the Black Witch.

I posit -- despite your love for Armless Tiger Man, that all of Timely's best villains came from that early, fertile Simon-Kirby period.

[order99]

Sadly, I need to read up on those-but i'll take your word for it, i'm only familiar with the Red Skull so far...

With any luck you'll have enough for an 'Injustice Society'   And if you have one or more Mad Scientists on the roster, then you get to play with as many Robots and Dinosaurs  and  Giant Animals and Monstermen etc etc as you want...

 And since you have at least one Magic-User, you get Summoned Monsters, Zombies etc.  Okay, you're pretty set for villains then!

[order99]

Nov 10, 2020 23:59:45 GMT Adminenkainen said:

I posit -- despite your love for Armless Tiger Man, that all of Timely's best villains came from that early, fertile Simon-Kirby period.

 No argument there-one of the reasons I like ATM so much is that he actually seems like a throwback to an earlier age, even when he was written.

 There's also the fact that I hate wasted potential:

1) A severely disabled man trains hard and can now fight off four normal men at once, destroy heavy machinery with a mere hammer, climb chandeliers and rip out throats and wrists with his teeth? We are looking at the Kung-fu Crippled Master trope, European version.

2) Suave Sociopath-a former factory worker with rare tastes for expensive viands, decent conversational and bargaining skills, a sharp eye for detail and behavior and facility with two or more languages. ATM will still kill for mere convenience, maim when in a hurry and exposit cheerfully even he battles to the death with you. Hannibal Lector potential.

3) Sympathetic villain. Terrible, tragic backstory, overcome through sheer determination...a Patriot with a strong work ethic who is crippled by a single, driving hatred that he cannot overcome, who decides to be a soldier behind Enemy lines in a war that has not yet been declared(but may be inevitable)...

Victor Freakin' Von Doom didn't have that much going for him in his first appearance. The Joker was just a Gangster in funny make-up(at first). The Shade was just a guy with a Gimmick cane and a cool look(at first).

 Armless Tiger Man deserved more that a One-shot. Coulda' been a Contenduh, y'know....