The Red Menace & More Public Domain

As the loyal readers know I am working on developing and hashing out my Silver Age for the Zenith Universe, as that will have a direct link to the Bronze Age which the campaign is set at the latter edge of.

In doing so I get to do something I haven't had a chance to do for a long time... develop Soviet supers!

For me the Cold War, while not a lot of fun in the real world, provides an excellent and deep pool to dive into for creativity and story telling. Back in the 80's and early 90's I had developed a crap-load of Soviet supers, complete with authentic Russian names thanks to my roommate at the time who had studied Russian in college.

More on that as it develops.

As for the Public Domain, I have come to a most excellent decision as to how I am going to progress on using it.

There is a team in my world called the "Protectors of New York". I had used them once for a campaign, but had never really developed them beyond some PCs who stepped in after the original team was killed in the collapse of the Twin Towers.

Since I have no notes and they were always just sort of this "other" team, I have decided to tap the Public Domain heroes and create a team who's names can never be on the front cover!

The premise is that they were a bunch of heroes who came together during the Golden Age and were battling Nazis or what have you, when they all got turned into statues by some evil axis magician character (you can see I have really fleshed this out ;) ) and were left in a warehouse in New York from 1942 on.

Flash forward to 1976, the country's Bicentennial and somehow (haven't decided yet) the spell is broken and they are all suddenly 33 years later than they should be.

This to will be more on it as it develops.

As always thoughts, suggestions, comments and feedback are more than welcomed, they are sought.

Alias the Spider

In 1936 young Thomas Hallaway was a rich, bored playboy with far too much money and no where near enough motivation. His drunken outings and string of inappropriate encounters left him the embarrassment of the upper crust. After getting the daughter of a rather important international financier pregnant, a group of "old money" conspirators got together and decided to do something about Tom.

Using their contacts, they hired a secret group of assassins known as the "Society of the Spider" to kidnap and assassinate Hallaway, thereby having his entire estate fall into the possession of his unscrupulous cousin Howard. The plan went off without a hitch, and Thomas was soon in the clutches of the Society. With all the conspirators there to witness the event, the acolytes of the Society lashed Hallaway to a giant web and called forth a gargantuan spider, that they worshiped as a god, to feed on him.

Unknown to the conspirators or the Society, Hallaway's loyal valet Chuck had followed them and infiltrated the meeting. As the giant spider bit into Hallaway, Chuck lept from the shadows and fired his .45 into the giant spider, killing it. The cultists were horrified but that quickly turned to rage as they swarmed Chuck seeking revenge. No one noticed on the web that Hallaway was not dead. In fact he was better than before. Somehow the spider's venom had transformed him, making him a very peak of human potential.

Leaping from the webbing and joining the fray, Hallaway quickly dispatched of the cultists and tied up the conspirators in the webbing. At Chuck's urging they left the scene, but not before calling the Police to round up the criminals.

Deciding that his life had been spared for a reason, Hallaway decide that he would use his second chance to make something more of himself. Fashioning himself a costume and using his vast resources to acquire various gadgets and weapons for the fight, he called himself the Spider and began his crusade on crime.

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This character is based off the public domain version of "Alias the Spider" thought with heavy modifications added in to make him more than just a boring guy with a bow.

I thought about giving him a crossbow, but am not sure about it. I also debated giving him a gun too.

I see him having a network of spies, street kids, etc which he calls his "web" sort of like the Shadow's network of informants. I also see him being quite obsessed to the point where he eventually becomes that dark loner in a cave, waging a one man war on crime. When the government orders all heroes to unmask in the early 50's, the Spider doesn't even acknowledge them.

I also see him fighting the remains of the Society of the Spider, sort of Spider-Ninjas etc...

So thoughts?

To Public Domain or Not to Public Domain.

In my preparation for this campaign, I have managed to score permission to publish roster books or heros and villains using the BASH! system (I also intend to make versions for Superlink M&M and possibly 4C). This has allowed me the freedom to pour over the volumes of old campaign documents I have collected this past 25 years, as well as scour the internet (what did I do without it for all those years?) for inspirations as well.

Imagine my surprise to find this;

Public Domain Superheroes!

Yes a public domain heroes (and villains) wiki.

This site is fantastic and it focuses on the concept of heroes & villains who have not had their original copyrights renewed and as such have lapsed into the public domain.

Many are surprising, such as the original Blue Beetle (no not the Charlton one that DC now owns) as well as interesting characters like the original Wonder Man (and Wonder Boy) and such luminaries as Captain Atom (again a very specific early version).

For those who have read Project Superpowers or Terra Obscura, you have seen how these characters can be used, updated and even modernized a wee bit.

The tricky part is the trademark stuff. You have to be careful not to seem like you are trying to confuse people into thinking yours is the same one being published by DC or Marvel or whomever. That said, it seems to me that despite the fact that a lot of the modern copyright laws were modified to protect Mickey Mouse, the end result is not that DC or Marvel would think I am trying to pass off my Blue Beetle as their Blue Beetle, but instead that they simply have large law firms and I don't.

Still with some cleverness it can be done. For example on the original Blue Beetle;

"After his father was killed by a gangster's bullet, young Dan Garret joined the New York Police Department, but he soon tired of the slow pace and red tape of police work. He donned a blue three-piece suit and a white mask and established a costumed identity, fighting crime as the Blue Beetle. He had no powers, but he used a gun and a wrist-mounted mini-radio to get an edge on the criminals he was fighting. His calling card was a small beetle-shaped marker that he left in conspicuous places to alert criminals to his presence, using their fear of his crime-fighting reputation as a weapon against them."

See the a comic page here!

Now to me that is a much more interesting Blue Beetle than yet another spandex clown with super powers. I like the Dick Tracy aspects of this guy. Your mileage may vary, of course.

So I continue to ponder this topic and see where it takes me, but I must say that I am intrigued. Please feel free to share your thoughts on the matter.