Thin Man

Strength 7d

Agility 6d

Intellect 8a

Willpower 6d

Hand Size: Edge:

4 (25) 2

Origin:

Doctor Bruce Dickson, the uncanny Thin Man, is a polymath explorer that was transformed into something more than human by the power of the people of Kalahia. Altered beyond mere mortal limits, he can expand and contract his physical dimensions at his leisure!

Powers:

Natural Psionics (Metapsi Powers):

Armor (t) (s): the pliable nature of Bruce's body allows him to shrug off large amounts of damage. If attacked, his form will usually distort as it absorbs a large portion of it, before rebounding back into his original shape. He possesses intensity 13 (+3) body armor.

Elongation (t) (a): in addition to his body's pliable, plastic state, Bruce can extend his physical dimensions far beyond what his volume would indicate is possible. He may do so with intensity 13 ability, reaching anywhere within far missile distance with relative ease.

Personal Weaponry (a) (s): one of the more recent abilities Bruce has demonstrated, he can transform his limbs into brutal implements, either rendering them exceedingly sharp or striking with more surface area, inflicting +2 bashing or slashing damage in melee.

Plasticity (t) (a): Bruce has the ability to force his body into a highly pliable state. In this condition, he can stretch, deform, compress, or expand his body (or any part of it) as he sees fit, molding it into virtually any shape. He can do this with intensity 13 ability.

One of Bruce's favorite tricks with this power is making his body extremely thin (hence his heroic identity), which allows him to slip his body through any cracks or seams. He can make himself as thin as a slice of paper, though he cannot actually achieve a two-dimensional state.

Super Senses (s) (w): wielding tricks involving the stretching of various sensory organs, Bruce can easily gain enhanced sensory input from them, whether it's his fingertips or his nose. He can physically bolster his senses with Excellent (20) skill.

Natural Psionics (Psimotive Powers):

Dimensional Transit (a) (i): one skill he mastered after discovering that Agent Axis had destroyed Kalahia, this psimotive art allows Doctor Dickson to slip between the borders of dimensions, roaming the multiverse at will. He can shift into other universes with intensity 8 skill.

Teleportation (a) (i): simple boundaries of geography no longer seem to hold any sway over Bruce. Having mastered the more advanced Kalahian skills, he can seemingly shift his body with ease. He can teleport with intensity 12 ability and range (approximately 10,000 miles).

Hindrances / Augmentations:

(none)

Equipment:

Stratoplane (i): an artifact of Kalahia that Bruce brought with him to the 'real' world, this aircraft is built from Duragen steel, which apparently has the ability to resist corrosion for over one hundred years. Advanced years beyond its contemporaries, it has these capabilities:

* Bombs (i): these two explosives are can be dropped upon targets below the Stratoplane, and if they hit, will affect everybody within near missile distance with an intensity 12 explosion. Of course, targeting a moving target with a bomb is highly difficult (average difficulty action).

* Comm-Link (i): 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.

* Flight (a): as an airplane, one of particularly advanced design for its time, the Stratoplane can in fact fly. It does so with intensity 9 ability, being capable of reaching close to the sound barrier - though isn't quite powerful enough to break through.

* Machine Guns (a): these twin machine guns fire 'heat bullets' that act as +5 shots per burst. One is mounted on each wing of the Stratoplane, and both can be used in concert for a total +6 effect, making them exceedingly lethal.

* 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), particularly if not carrying its bomb payload, but this has yet to be revealed.

* Resistance to Corrosion Attack (s): since the Stratoplane is made out of Duragen steel, it is assumed that it has intensity 20 (+5) resistance to specific corrosive attacks, at least. In addition to the plane's material strength of 8, this adds up fast.

* Sensor / Viewer (w): 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 Telescopic Vision, with an applicable intensity of 3.

Skills:

Boxing (s): Bruce is rather talented in the sweet sport, if you will, and can easily target a body for a good beating. He can split his total action score between two melee attacks (if declared at the beginning of an exchange), the last of which is considered a contingent action.

Detective / Espionage (i): after the War, Bruce joined up with the CIA, using his talents and inherent powers to track down war criminals that had, so far, evaded justice. As such, reduce the difficulty of all investigative card play Bruce is called upon to attempt.

Engineering (i): one of several sciences Bruce had mastered before his fateful rediscovery of Kalahia, this skill describes his ability to design and build things. When attempting to perform such actions, Bruce may attempt to do so at a reduced difficulty level.

Medicine (i) one of several areas of scientific expertise that Bruce has mastered, this skill represents his advanced knowledge of physiology - both in human and other species. This gives him a difficulty reduction on medicinal actions, and lets him help others recover from damage.

Piloting (a): 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.

Psychology / Philosophy (i): supplementing his study of both man and machine, Bruce has hard at understanding the very nature of the human mind. He can make actions regarding knowledge of ethics and human behavior at one difficulty level lower than is usually required.

Taunting (w): 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 barefisted (or with other instantaneous attacks), which he cannot use skills to enhance.

Contacts:

Bruce was a member of the Liberty Legion, and as a result can rely upon most of his Golden Age heroic contemporaries for aid; he had recruited many of these individuals into his New Invaders team. In addition, he has multiple contacts in international intelligence circles.

Calling:

Idealist, later Vengeance: Bruce originally just wanted to share Kalahian enlightenment with the world, but after his adopted home was annihilated by Agent Axis, all he wanted was vengeance! He has pursued Nazis and their ilk mercilessly ever since the late 40s.

Costume:

When he first left Kalahia to bring Enlightenment to the human race, Bruce wore a costume that consisted of a tight, collared blue jacket over a green T-shirt, yellow gloves, a yellow belt, red trunks over blue stretch fabric pants, blue and yellow boots, and a blue and yellow cap.

By the time he met Red Raven, he'd switched to a similar costume in different hues. His second costume includes a tight green jacket with an oversized yellow collar, yellow gloves, yellow boots, yellow trunks over green stretch fabric pants, and a green and yellow cap.

Bruce's third costume incorporated Kalahian elements. It includes a green and yellow stretch fabric shirt with a high green collar, green and yellow gloves, green leather boots, baggy green trousers, and a green face mask with yellow, angular markings above and below the eyes.

Sometimes, when going more 'incognito', Bruce will add a brown fedora, a brown leather trench coat, and more conventional accessories such as pistols and a machete, both of which include the appropriate belts and holsters / sheathes.

Personality:

Having grown much more acquainted with the darkness of the world after the Nazis destroyed Kalahia, Doctor Bruce Dickson has become a much more grim, foreboding man of action. He's still glib in and out of combat, but he rarely forgives - and never forgets.

Real Name: Dr. Bruce Dickson, PhD.
Occupation: adventurer, scientist
Legal Status: U.S. citizen with a criminal record
Marital Status: married
Alias(es), if any: none known
Group Affiliation: occasional CIA associate, former leader of the New Invaders, former member of the Liberty Legion

Height: 6'
Hair: blond, later light brown, then gray
Eyes: blue
Weight: 170 lbs
Other Distinguishing Characteristics: none

Story:

Shortly after receiving his multiple degrees, Doctor Bruce Dickson set off on an expedition to the Himalayan mountains, attempting to conquer Mount Kalpurthia. Upon his being hit by a powerful blizzard, he sought shelter in a cave, where he discovered something fantastic!

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 apparent 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.

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 crime 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 plane-full 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 two groups eventually blurred into one big association of heroes.

Towards the end of the war, Bruce and Captain America had an encounter with Agent Axis. A diabolical fascist who was in fact three men in one, Axis was formed in a freak accident from the components of a German, Italian and Japanese operative - all merged into a singular terror.

During the ensuing fight, Agent Axis noted that he'd found Kalahia and intended to visit it after the war. Almost killing him in a rage, Bruce was stopped by the Captain, a deed which turned out to be the doom of his adopted home, although neither hero knew this at the time.

Returning to Kalahia just weeks later, Bruce found the place decimated, his wife and every other man, woman and child within slain. Overwhelmed with grief and rage, he vowed to hunt down Agent Axis, and any other villains of his ilk, and end their threat permanently.

And very painfully. Dreaming daily of Axis' fate at his hands, Bruce began seeking out every escaped Nazi criminal he could find, and would brutally kill them. Some of these feats he accomplished alone, and some he did with the aid of the CIA, for whom he occasionally worked.

During this time Bruce apparently mastered more advanced Kalahian arts, teaching himself how to make playthings of the dimensions, slipping in and out of our space at his leisure. He kept this knowledge to himself though, the better to hunt evildoers with.

Eventually, Bruce tracked down Agent Axis in New York City of all things, having been brought there under the auspices of the U.S. government in an exchange of freedom for advanced Nazi know-how. Putting his plan into action, Bruce summoned Captain America.

He did this because, believing the hero responsible for the fate of Kalahia, he wanted the man to see him end the life of Agent Axis in person. When the hero had arrived, he fought with the tripled agent of evil, and personally slew him in hand-to-hand combat.

Mortified by this, Captain America hauled Bruce off to jail, where he was convicted of the murder of all three men that composed Agent Axis. Flung into jail, Bruce finally found peace with the world - at least for a time - making prey of his new neighbors now and then.

He could have escaped at any time, but found it fulfilling to simply kill deserving criminals as they quite literally came to him. This arrangement lasted until he was approached by Dell Rusk, then the Secretary of State, who had an offer for Bruce that he couldn't refuse.

He revealed the existence of a group called Axis Mundi, who were attempting to Conquer the World! To fight them he needed a powerful team to oppose them, a New team of Invaders, and they would need advanced, powerful technology that Bruce was known to have a handle on.

As John Walker, another recruit assembled the team, Bruce built their equipment, which included not only several Stratoplanes, but the Infiltrator, a powerful battleship that could slip between dimensions and anchor virtually unseen anywhere on the earth.

In time it was revealed that Dell Rusk was actually the Red Skull in disguise, and that he was simply stealing Bruce's Kalahian technology to power his android Pterrorists. But, having built the Infiltrator, Bruce went ahead with the plan anyway, and put the New Invaders into action.

This group wound up including the likes of U.S. Agent, Union Jack, Spitfire, the Blazing Skull, the Destroyer, the Fin, Namor, Tara the Android, and the Human Torch. After months of action against the Axis Mundi though, Captain America showed up to 'shut Bruce down'.

This was bad timing, as the team was about to face down Merrano as he attempted to melt the polar ice caps for the Axis Mundi. Leaving Bruce on the ship, the team let the Captain lead them into the fight, but things went bad when Tara, their android, turned out to be an Axis plant.

In order to save the day, Bruce rammed the Infiltrator into Merrano's thermonuclear trident, and it appeared he died to save the world. Of course, not all of the team believed this... and Bruce himself turned up days later in Mexico, resuming his hunt of depraved evildoers.

He apparently continues in this capacity to this very day, though occasionally he is consulted by various intelligence operatives from SHIELD and such when they need help. So presumably the authorities know what Bruce is up to - but they're not about to stop him!

Extra Goodies:

Return to the Golden Age Thin Man!

Return to the New Invaders main page!

Return to the Marvel Universe Miscellany main page!

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