Live up to it. How many of the rest of you are using Statesman?

I decided to put a low level story to submit to the most recent Dr. Aeon contest. A hero loses his powers, level 5-10 enemies.

How many else are using Statesman? For me, there's something about Statesman that makes him an irresistable target.

In the game itself, we're told that he did various mighty acts against the Rikti and Nemesis long ago. Now, he has far less of a presence on hero side than most of his fellows in the Freedom Phalanx did. We know generally that he stands on deck on Independence Port, recruiting heroes to take the fight to Lord Recluse, his nemesis, whom he never personally confronts.

Apart from that, his current status in the game is another hostage: for we learn that his extradimensional self is the Tyrant of that version of the game world. He was always depicted in the official comics as something of an arrogant prat. Being the in-game avatar of former dev Jack Emmert does nothing to burnish his escutcheon.

(In the novels, he fares slightly better.)

All of this makes him pretty much fair game. If a signature hero loses his powers, odds are Statesman is going to be the first choice of many. It was mine. I only wish that the level restrictions on hostages could be bent to actually allow the official Statesman to be used. But the powerless version I made may be even more amusing.

<《 New Colchis / Guides / Mission Architect 》>
"At what point do we say, 'You're mucking with our myths'?" - Harlan Ellison

I usually shy away from the "AAA" characters, with possibly the most famous canon character I've touched so far being the Clockwork King.

It's interesting you brought up Statesman in the comics being a prat though, as I've always wondered if that was more of a personal bias on the comic writers part ("Oh this guy is like Superman, well I never liked the Big Blue *scribble* *scribble*..."). That said I still think there's a bit of a dissonance between characters as written in the lore and how they end up being represented in-game, with Lord Recluse being a good example. It would be good to see a few arcs that explored the less represented facets of our well known heroes and villains.

Urm... I'll let you get back to your OT now.

I confess I'm not that big a fan of Statesman, partly due to his portrayal in the comic book and partly because the dev of the same name jumped ship to make a competing game. I think he's actually mostly depicted as being a nice guy in game though....I mean, who wouldn't want to be Statesman's Pal?

I do make use of Statesman in one arc, Axis and Allies, where he's an obstacle to the protagonist's global conquest. I could not use the "real" Statesman AV, though, because that guy is just too darn powerful. I ended up making up a custom mob to be a faux Statesman, and pretending costume differences are purely due to the different time period.

Statesman also gets a couple throwaway references (but no actual appearances) in Teen Phalanx Forever!, as having put Coyote in charge of the teens, and being the mentor to "Statesboy", a background character who never actually appears on camera.

If anyone, Sister Psyche is the signature hero that I overuse the most in my story arcs. I feel like she has such a distinctive look, and close ties to so many other known heroes. Plus she has that whole "eternal" thing going where there's a version of Sister Psyche in every timeline and every dimension.

In my (initial) attempt at Dr. Aeon's Second Architect Challenge, I actually didn't consider using Statesman or any of the other high profile heroes, mostly because my concept was a much more street-level adventure, to match the specified 5-10 level range. I could see why other people might want to, since those heroes have so much more name recognition, but that wasn't the way I decided to go.

I doubt I will participate in this contest but if I do I will probably use Ghost Widow....

He was also taken hostage by Reichsman during the Dr. Kahn TF.

Plus he's beholden to meaningless treaties when the fate of the world is at stake (STF). For the world's A-1 premier hero, he's kind of useless.

My arc shall be 99% Statesman free. There's a small chance I may mention him in passing but he won't show up physically and won't be the one who gets depowered.

I deliberately used heroes who are of little consequence in the long run and actually don't show up after level 10 anyway. After my arc your villain is not supposed to care what happened to them afterwards, for him/her it was just Tuesday.

I had thought about it. I was thinking of some kind of comedy arc where he loses his powers and tried making a living at more mundane work like driving an ice cream truck, but every job keeps going bad and he finally comes to the player and begs them to help him get his powers back or something.

Maybe a part clown, the chance to dress him up in silly outfits and assaulted by kids would have been interesting.

But... I already had an arc in the planning stages that could easily fit this theme so I'm going with that idea instead. If anyone wants to use my Statesman idea, they're welcome to it.

If I do end up doing something for this, I'm probably going to avoid any of the signature characters altogether. It's a bit of a stretch (at least for me) that any of them would need the assistance of a small-time hero, given that any of them losing their powers would be a big damn deal and would likely require some powerful help to fix.

The only thing I could think of that would make for a decent story (to me) with that would be something like DC's 52. The Freedom Phalanx loses their powers, and since all the high level heroes are dealing with that mess, it's up to the little guys to handle all of the day-to-day problems plaguing Paragon City. Actually, it'd be pretty funny to shove some low level heroes through a interdimensional portal or something. Hmm. *rubs chin*

Actually, my entry focuses on a custom hero based off one of my own heroes.

I put my own little twist on the challenge, but I won't tell you here!

I decided to go with the "all powerful heroes *and villains* lose their powers at the same time" angle, myself. I use Positron as a contact because I figured he'd be the most "scientist-y" hero to get to the bottom of this while not being overly distressed about suddenly becoming powerless (power armor > super-speed/reflexes/etc in that respect, at least imo). I'm not much of a comic-book person, so I'm sure something like this happened... somewhere.


-- Z.

Not me! I had a much wonkier idea that I intend to run with.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

Statesman will be the contact for my arc.


WN