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Thin Man
Powers: * Body Armor: Bruce's body is pliable enough that it can absorb a significant amount of damage. He can use his power rank of 12, instead of his strength score, as his effective resistance to attack. Since his strength score is only 7, well, this makes Bruce much more survivable in combat, especially since normal folks can almost never hurt him... * Liquidity: Bruce can flatten his body to the point that he can slip through cracks in walls, the seam under (or on the side of) doors, or any other small opening, as long as it is at least 1/32 of an inch wide. However, Bruce has never demonstrated the ability to force his body into a fully liquid state (as this stunt also allows). Elongation: in addition to his ability to render his body exceptionally thin, Bruce can stretch himself over wide distances. He also has this power at intensity 12, and this allows him to make striking attacks at firing distance, which is quite handy. Bruce has demonstrated the following power stunts with his elongation power: * Seven League Strides: Bruce has the ability to cross firing distance between himself and a target, and still act in the same exchange, if he so chooses. * Telescopic Attack: if he's not currently involved in a fight, Bruce can make a surprise striking attack across firing distance. Of course, once he does this, he's likely to get into a fight...
Equipment: * Bombs: these two explosives are can be dropped upon waiting targets below the Stratoplane, and if they hit, will affect everybody within striking distance with an intensity 12 explosion. Of course, targeting a moving target with a bomb is highly difficult (raise difficulty of the action by one category). * Comm-Link: the Stratoplane is fully equipped with two-way radio communications. While this can at least talk to anybody within a city's range (say, twenty-five miles), the full range of the Stratoplane's communication abilities are as-of-yet unknown. * Firing Weapons: these twin machine guns fire 'heat bullets' that act as +4 shots per burst. One is mounted on each wing of the stratoplane, and both can be used in concert for a total +6 effect (though this raises the to-hit difficulty by one category). * Passenger Compartments: the Stratoplane allows space for a pilot, a co-pilot, and at least four passengers. It may yet have room for more people (like, say, the entire Liberty Legion), but this has yet to be revealed. * Resistance to Corrosion Attack: since the Stratoplane is made out of Duragen steel, it is assumed that it has a +5 resistance to specific corrosive attacks, at least. In addition to the plane's material strength of 8, this adds up... * Sensor / Viewer: this device can be used to spy on anything occurring within five miles of the Stratoplane, as long as it is in a direct line of sight. Treat this as Enhanced Senses / Telescopic Vision. The exact intensity I'm not sure of...
Hindrances:
Skills: Espionage: joining the C.I.A. after the War, Bruce has been trained as an intelligence agent. He is skilled at noticing small clues, operating intelligence equipment, and can easily tell if someone is following him. He's also good at digging up small bits of info, though not as good as the Patriot... Pilot: Bruce has demonstrated competence in flying an aircraft, most often his own, by using a plane to track a body down within a city (and gunning him down). Any action he attempts while flying should be considered one difficulty level lower. Science: Bruce is known to be a PhD in at least one area of scientific knowledge, though this area has yet to be detailed. In other words, just give him a scientific skill in any one area that is most convenient to your campaign, as long as it makes sense for a forties man... Taunting: if he expends a full exchange taunting an opponent, Bruce can force him to make an average difficulty willpower check, the failure of which forces them to attack him bare-fisted (or with other instantaneous attacks), which he cannot use skills to enhance.
Calling:
Costume:
Personality:
Real Name: Dr. Bruce Dickson, PhD.
Height: 6'
Story: He found a hidden utopia within the mountain, though he fell unconscious upon the beginning of his exploration of the place. When he awoke, Doctor Dickson discovered the mysterious denizens of this secret land, called Kalahia by the natives, and their incredible secret. All of the locals possessed the power to make their bodies pliable, and they'd granted him this amazing ability. Staying for a time, he eventually fell in love with the Elder Chief's daughter, Olalla, who became his apparrent paramour during their time together. While there, the Kalahians demonstrated their technological superiority to Doctor Dickson, showing how they can communicate with the spider-like beings that were apparently living on Mars at the time, and their technique for entering the 7th Dimension (as they'd already conquered the other six, apparently). Further, it would seem that the Kalahians shared Bruce's desire to combat evil, as they demonstrate a crime in progress on their long distance viewer thingermabob. This crime is the drive-by shooting by mobsters against some taxi cabbie (perhaps Taxi Taylor...). Seeing this evil taking place, Dickson and Olalla leave Kalahia for the United States, intent on stamping out the evil that they have witnessed in action. They bust into the city they viewed and gunned down several of the criminals with the plane's heat bullets. Of course, several folks noticed this, and as such, Dickson and Olalla decided to operate at night from then on, so they wouldn't attract too much attention to themselves. That night, in fact, the duo tracked down and went to work on the mobsters killing cabbies. Thin Man worked them on a personal level, while Olalla gunned them all down with the Stratoplane. The two then tied up their leader, leaving him for the cops, and went looking for new crimes to bust up, the first of which involved a planeful of German infiltrators. Attacking their plane as soon as he found it, Bruce liberated a captured Red Raven, and the two heroes defeated their German foes. The two then answered a call for help from Captain America's side kick, Bucky, and eventually joined up with the Liberty Legion. This team freed the Invaders from mind control at the hands of the Red Skull and his Nulla-Rays, and decided to stick together to defend the nation from threats that arose from within. Over time, though, the Liberty Legion and the Invaders eventually blurred into one big team. After the War, Bruce retired from super-heroing with his lady-friend, Olalla, presumably returning to Kalahia in order to live a life of pastoral happiness (and all the other good stuff). This retirement didn't last, however, as the residents of Kalahia were apparently slain by Agent Axis. An aghast Thin Man set out to find and kill the man, now, and hooked up with the C.I.A. in order to use their resources to track down all sorts of loose war criminals. Of course, his main target was Agent Axis, who he finally found as an old, old man. With the help Captain America (since returned from the icy wastes), he confronted his shriveled up foe. Of course, both Bruce and Agent Axis were rather old by this time, but that didn't prevent a fight between the two that resulted in Agent Axis' death. Horrified by the result of this battle, Captain America hauled Thin Man off to jail, to serve time for the murder of a murderer. The last time we saw Bruce, though, he had since gotten out of jail (must've pleaded temporary insanity) and was still hunting remaining Nazis in a most bitter fashion.
Using the Thin Man in other stories: Another solution, if you don't like the modern treatment of Thin Man, is to disregard the two stories manufactured about him after the War. This way, you can do virtually anything with the character, including the slowing of his aging processes (after all, if the natives of Kalahia can give people the power to make their bodies pliable, why can't they simply retard the aging process)? A third plan, of course, is to make an enitrely new Thin Man. He (or she, in the event of a Thin Woman) could easily be the son of the original, out to avenge the deaths of his people and his father's tarnished name. Being related, he naturally has the same powers as his pop, so that could work. Or he could be some other stretchy hero that liked the Thin Man legacy, and decided to use it. Especially since the Thin Man is the original stretchy-type hero. Yes, he was introduced to the comic world a full year before D.C.'s Plastic Man, contrary to popular belief... |
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