Blazing Skull
| F Ex 20 |
A Ex 20 |
S Rm 30 |
E Ex 20 |
R Gd 10 |
I Gd 10 |
P Ex 20 |
Res Ty 6 |
Pop Gd +10* |
| Health: Karma: |
100 40 |
* In his alter ego of Mark Todd, the Blazing Skull has Ty +5 Popularity.
Origin:
The Blazing Skull was Mark Anthony Todd, an ordinary man that was given a flaming skull mask that granted him super-human strength, as well as the power to turn invisible and immunity to fire and heat. One could call him a magically altered human.
Known Powers:
Invisibility: Mark's primary ability is his power to render himself invisible at will; he can do this at Excellent (20) rank. However, his is a special version of the standard invisibility power, as he can also make the light his flaming mask sheds invisible as well.
Invulnerability to Fire and Heat Attacks: Mark's other superhuman oddity is that he is completely immune to the affects of fire and heat, having Class 1k resistance to such forms of energy. This makes him immune to his mask's flames as well as any he finds himself trapped within.
Equipment:
Fiery Skull Mask: this mystic artifact from the Skull-Men seems to be what has given Mark his spectacular powers. Seeming like a simple cloth mask when not worn, it causes Mark's head to ignite when he wears it, inflicting Good (10) SD Energy damage on touch.
Quirks:
(none)
Talents:
Acrobatics: it is known that Mark can swing about on ropes and dive around tree branches as the Blazing Skull, so it is safe to assume that he has this talent, which adds +1 CS to FEAT rolls when Mark performs dodging, evading, and escaping maneuvers.
Detective / Espionage: a competent detective at heart, Mark can add +1 CS to all necessary FEAT rolls required for finding clues and connecting them together. Furthermore, he has one additional, as of yet unrevealed, contact in the law enforcement, espionage, or criminal underworld areas.
Journalism: Mark is a career journalist, or he was before his discovery of the mask that transformed him into the Blazing Skull. This gives him the benefit of at least two additional contacts, either in the media, a law enforcement agency, or the criminal underworld (still unnamed).
Martial Arts Type B: though a pacifist at heart, Mark knows how to handle himself in a fight, and as such, should add +1 CS to all unarmed melee attacks he rolls. Of course, should he get riled up enough, he's likely to forget all that pacifist stuff...
Pilot / Motorcycle: Mark has been known to be quite excellent in his motorcycle maneuvers, and as such, he can operate one without undue risk of personal injury (unless he performs any risky or dangerous stunts, that is). Any such stunts are made at +1 CS.
Contacts:
Mark Todd's Daily Globe contacts include editor Alvin Schmidt, "Babs", another star reporter, and a Newspaper kid named "Virg", along with any number of other sundry contacts from the Journalist corners. As the Blazing Skull he had contacts with the Invaders, Union Jack and the Destroyer.
Costume:
Todd's Blazing Skull costume includes a red, skin-tight body suit with two crossed bones on the chest, which combine with his fiery white skull 'mask' to give a skull and crossbones motif. He also wears a dark blue belt, and gray, chain mail boots and gloves.
On occasion, he will wear additional accessories, such as a collared blue cape.
Personality:
Mark Todd was an inquisitive soul, always poking his nose into human mysteries, particularly those of a criminal nature. He was a pacifist at heart, but knew that sometimes the world's most dastardly villains only understand a good left hook most of the time.
Real Name: Mark Anthony Todd
Occupation: adventurer / journalist
Legal Status: American citizen with no known criminal record
Marital Status: single
Alias(es), if any: none
Group Affiliation: none (but has worked with the Invaders on occasion)
Height: 6'
Hair: blond
Eyes: brown (red while his skull is blazing)
Weight: 198 lbs
Other Distinguishing Characteristics: none.
Story:
Born way back in 1910, Mark Anthony Todd grew up with pacifist beliefs. This led him to become a wanderer and journalist, his travels taking him around the world to see various exotic locations and of course to tell compelling stories about them and their inhabitants.
On an assignment in China for the Daily Globe, he was caught in the middle of the action in a battle of the Sino-Japanese war while covering it. Taking shelter in a nearby cave to avoid being shelled, Mark found much, much more than he bargained for.
Face to face with mysterious Skull-men, Mark was told by them that the forces of destiny had chosen him to be their emissary in the world of flesh, that he was to be the champion of their cause. To this end, they gave him a special skull mask that caught fire when worn.
Donning a colorful costume, Mark became the Blazing Skull, so named after (of course) his apparently magical, fiery mask, and vowed to use his powers against those who would wage war. He began working with various intelligence agencies to sniff these men out.
In one such incident, Mark was narrowing in on a Nazi scientist who'd developed a doomsday gas when he was captured by enemy forces - though not before he stopped the scientist's work. Naturally this irked the fascists, who took him to the German headquarters to handle him personally.
They beat him some while he was bound, and at the height of his misery, Mark came face to face with Hitler himself, who he taunted so badly that the little man almost fainted with rage. Satisfied with that small victory, he made his escape shortly thereafter.
Later surfacing in London, Mark again stymied Nazi forces when they tried an audacious plot to capture Winston Churchill himself. Though they managed to get ahold of the man, Mark fought his way into their compound and then handily liberated Churchill in a madcap brawl.
Making his way back to the states, Mark began to mix it up with various super-human criminals such as Big Joe (who bore a resemblance to fellow hero Hercules) and Dr. Fear, a man with a mask that was so frightful that it could kill weaker men who dared to gaze upon it.
Soon after, Mark would join the Invaders in their effort to prevent Dr. Death and his Battle-Axis from going through with their convoluted plan to knock California off the west coast of the United States and poisoning a large portion of the population at the same time.
Perhaps Marks most infamous adventure involved a plot hatched by Iron Cross to bomb various American cities with his v3 bombs - which would be guided there via homing beacons of his own design. This plot was so big, however, that Mark couldn't merely go it alone.
With help from both Union Jack and the Mighty Destroyer, Mark managed to not only foil this plan, but he gave the Iron Cross a particularly embarrassing defeat at the same time. Mark presumably did battle with other heinous villains for the duration of the War.
Extra Goodies:
The Blazing Skull entry originally written with Keith Kilburn!