Villain A Day (Assembled): The Introduction
No one asked for this-in fact, the response to the original Villain-A-Day was pretty much silence. But I'm going to do it again for ICONS: The Assembled Edition.
I think of the implied universe of ICONS: The Assembled Edition as the results of DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths, or Marvel's upcoming Secret Wars. Everything is re-set. Nothing is nailed down until we see it. We haven't seen Rex Mundi yet, so maybe he doesn't exist; the Troll was created by an unnamed mastermind.
If an item hasn't been explicitly said, it is open to question. For example, All-Star definitely existed; he's mentioned in All-American Girl's Qualities, and he was probably the well-respected hero of his universe, the Superman or Captain America. But that doesn't mean he's alive, or not in a coma, or hasn't been turned to evil, or exiled to space by Muhkota Farqward, the n-dimensional imp. We just don't know.
As another example, we know from the original edition that Dwight Givens was placed into a coma by the mental transference experiment, but that's not explicitly stated in the text biography. (And a quick shout-out of thanks to Steve Kenson and Ad Infinitum Adventures, who gave me permission to quote the biography text here. Such quoting is to underscore what is and isn't known, and is not meant to threaten the copyright. Quoted text is marked off and indicated as such.)
The challenge I set for myself in this set of write-ups is to try to avoid duplicating my original takes, in the case of ConfederApe, Speed Demon, and the Troll.
Last, because this is an indulgence, I perhaps over-indulged. At least once I wrote : The Miniseries, which is a narrative of how the villain's early career might have gone.
The World
Ground Rule
Nothing from the first edition has to exist. I can ignore it or embrace it, whether it's in the original edition or the Villainomicon or the adventures.
The following characters definitely exist in the implied universe of ICONS: The Assembled Edition.
- All-American Girl (provided character)
- Arctic Fire (provided character)
- Atomic Roach (provided character)
- Cian of the Tuatha (mentioned in bio for Lugh; believed dead)
- ConfederApe (provided character)
- Count Malocchio (provided character)
- The Creeper (provided character)
- Ethniu of Fomor (mentioned in bio for Lugh; believed dead)
- Gila-Master (provided character)
- Gorn (mentioned in bio for Volcano)
- Grudge (provided character)
- Hangman (provided character)
- Lugh (provided character)
- Miss Tikal (provided character)
- The Mighty Saguaro (provided character)
- Sekhmet (provided character)
- Speed Demon (provided character)
- Troll (provided character)
- Ultra-Mind (provided character)
- Volcano (provided character)
- Warbride (provided character)
The following characters and organizations are mentioned in the character bios but their current status is unknown.
- All-Star (All-American Girl)
- Brides of Battle (War-Bride)
- Council of Sacred Skulls (Miss Tikal)
- Dwight Givens (ConfederApe)
- Mannannan Mac Lir (Lugh)
- Tom Crow (Gila-Master, The Mighty Saguaro)
The following characters and organizations are mentioned in examples, and might exist or not, depending on your needs.
- Aquarius (p. 39, example of Determination; p. 99, example in Healing)
- Black Hood (p. 36, example in Stunt Effects; p. 139 example in Evading)
- Bolide (p. 26, example in Pyramid Tests)
- Dr. Punch (p. 36, example in Stunt Effects)
- Dr. Wyrd (p. 31, example in Learning & Creating Qualities)
- Dr. Zodiac (p. 167, example in Create A Villain)
- Fungus Humongous (p. 36, example in Stunt Effects)
- The Hex-Men (p. 74, example in Team Qualities)
- Minuteman (p. 87, example in Ability Boost)
- New Phalanx (p. 74, example in Team Qualities)
- Prometheus (p. 38, example in Determination)
- Protector (p. 133, example in Blocking; p. 140, example in Interposing)
- The Protectors (p. 23, example in Combined Effort; p. 74, example in Team Qualities)
- Psi-Borg, the Mind Hunter From the Future (p. 113, example in Cybernetics)
- Puzzler (p. 26, example in Pyramid Tests)
- The Searchers of the Multiverse (p. 26, example in Pyramid Tests)
- Serpent Sphinx (p. 31, example in Learning & Creating Qualities)
- Stellar Council (p. 26, example in Pyramid Tests)
- Revenant (p. 96, example in Energy Drain)
- Warlock (p. 96, example in Extrasensory Perception)
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