My first profile JujuBit creation is the Red Bee.
If you don't know who the Red Bee is, well, where have you been? He's a Golden Age hero who had a usual hook and a very brief floruit. This sculpt of him was generated from this image:
The Red Bee had no powers (other than being praeter-naturally athletic in the way Golden Age heroes always were). His only competitive advantages are his vaguely empowering and unexplained "stinger gun" and his equally unexplained trained bee, Michael.
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| I mean, nobody wants to deal with bees. |
I have put his sculpt on the "Jinny Hex" dial.
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| I mean, it's not like I'm going to play Jinny Hex. Jonah Hex fan though I am, not even I think he needs a legacy in Young Justice. |
Her "Quickdraw" trait means you are motivated to make sure she gets in the first strike any turn you use here. And, face it, the element of surprise should be a necessity for someone as underpowered as the Red Bee. Her special attack power grants "Blade/Claws/Fangs" allows her to roll one die to determine the damage she does on a successful attack; ordinarily, that only works for attacks on an adjacent opponent figure, but the special power allows you to do it even in a distance attack. The possibility of doing up to SIX clicks of damage in any kind of attack? Terrifying, and not a bad representation of, well, whatever kind of damage the Red Bee's "Stinger Gun" does.
The dial has "Running Shot", the grey Speed power that allows a figure to move up to have its Spped value then make a ranged attack. It's especially valuable in combination with the "Stinger Gun" power and running around zapping people on the fly is very consistent with the Red Bee's vibe. So too is pink "Sidestep" which lets him move two spaces for free.
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| The Red Bee was always on the go. |
The pink attack power (Precision Strike) always lets him do at least one damage no matter what damage-reducing powers his opponent has.
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| I figure that's for Michael the Bee. |
The lime defense power of "Combat Reflexes" increases his defense against close attacks (which is consistent with his being a good hand-to-hand combatant); the purple defense power of "Willpower" give him extra actions (I mean, you really need some Willpower to combat crime armed with bees); his damage powers help him and teammates make ranged attacks (like with.a swarm of angry bees).
It's not a perfect impression of the Red Bee's Golden Age abilities and style, but it's serviceable.
That's a really nice sculpt. I assume they also handle the paint? Because if you're doing it, I'm impressed. I paint my custom action figures but my skills are mediocre at best.
ReplyDeleteAnd I've been reading a lot of Golden Age lately and have a theory about why they seem unusually athletic. But I don't want to hijack your thread.
They do the painting! I fear that may be where warehouse of wage-slaves are being used :-( . But it may be machine-done as well.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I am interested in your theory...
It's not too complicated of a theory, so I'm not sure if I would say I'm Geoff Johnsing or Mark Waiding. Basically, my theory is that carriers of the metagene have certain adaptations that will help them adjust to the metagene activation. They have those adaptations regardless of whether the metagene is active or not. Typically those adaptations mean that metagene carriers are faster, stronger, more durable, have enhanced senses, and heal faster than normal humans. But I don't think all these adaptations are universal (except healing -- I think that's universal). So a metagene carrier may have enhanced strength which would also provide extra durability and/or healing, but may not actually have enhanced senses.
ReplyDeleteSo Golden Age Black Canary as a metagene carrier was strong and fast enough to toss grown men around. She passed the gene on to her daughter, who also had enhanced capabilities even before her metagene activated. To be clear, my position is the enhancements are modest on the Superman scale -- maybe twice as strong and fast as a normal human. But that would be a significant advantage against normal thugs.
I think there are some "exceptions" -- Al Pratt, for example, clearly had low-level super strength even before his metagene activated. He ripped steel bars out prison windows, for example. He also withstood a blast from a Valkyrie in the JSA revised origin. So he may have been 3-4 times as strong as a human before his metagene kicked in and he could toss around elephants.
This also implies that metagene carriers who are active are a step above normal humans. So Dr. Midnite is stronger and faster than normal men, though not on a level with heroes with "true" superstrength. The enhanced speed and potentially enhanced senses explain why so many of them can dodge bullets and withstand repeated injuries, like blows to the head, at least to some extent. (Note: I cannot explain Hal Jordan.)
I further theorize that many of the Golden Age heroes (and villains) realized they were stronger and faster than normal people, either consciously or subconsciously, and decided to become mystery men, launching the Heroic Age.
Finally, metagene carriers have the adaptations regardless of the nature of their powers. So psychics, for example, might be unusually strong and fast, but you don't really see it because they rarely go hand-to-hand with opponents. Which lets me bring this home:
I theorize that Red Bee has a psychic connection to bees. It's not so much that he trains Michael as it is that he communicates with him, and Michael isn't convincing the swarms of bees to attack, he's leading the charge in response to Red Bee's call for assistance from the swarm. Red Bee calls it "training" because how many people back then even knew the word "telepathy"? But, as a metahuman, even with psychic gifts, Red Bee possesses enhanced strength and speed.
I said it wasn't complicated but I may have undersold it.
lt's an interesting idea. The 'classical' version of metagene activation is that the metagene is dormant until something dramatic/traumatic happens then it activates dramatically. A more nuanced interpretation might allow for "gentler" stresses (working out a lot or fighting criminals) might result in "gentler" and less bizarre activations.
DeleteI hadn't really thought of it as a gradual process, but that makes a lot of sense. Al Pratt was the reason I first started thinking about this, based on that scene where he rips out some prison bars. I think it was in All-American Comics (I was reading a bunch of the old anthology titles -- still am off and on).
DeleteThat made me research him a bit to find out when he got true super-strength, because a basic muscle guy wouldn't be able to do that. As you noted, lots of the Golden Age heroes and plenty of the current ones are improbably strong and athletic. And I've always been bugged by ostensibly normal people dodging bullets.
So now I've got it in my head canon where I file away my explanations for comic book stuff.
You didn't consider using the bearded version of the Red Bee from Peacemaker Tries Hard?
ReplyDeleteNot for a moment.
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