Name: Obvious Man Server: Guardian Rank: SL2 Powers: Mutation Tanker - Invulnerability/Super Strength Description: The product of a top-secret genetic research program by the Pentagon's Office of Unconvincing Origin Stories (OUOS), Obvious Man fights for truth, justice, and the American way! Also hittin' guys. Battle Cry: "Taste justice, evildoer!" Notes: The first character I made, just a sort of generic Superman-type guy to get the sense of the room. I never really used him extensively.

Name: Virgil Haas Server: Guardian Rank: SL2 Powers: Technology Blaster - Electric/Electric Description: An infamous mad scientist from Venus. As part of his work-release agreement he is using his mad scientist abilities for good, when he can be bothered to. Battle Cry: "Fools! I'll destroy them ALL!" Notes: For yocks I tried whipping up some of the Miracle of Science characters in CoH. It's actually quite difficult because most of the male characters wear long trenchcoats (or lab coats, in Haas's case) and most of the female characters wear long dresses of some sort, neither of which are provided for in the character creator. I could try to improvise, but I honestly can't picture Caprice or Dr. Juruna wearing that absurd miniskirt. Still, this version of Haas didn't come out too badly -- the "lumpy" look works for him. I generally figure this is what he's wearing under that lab coat.

Name: Ms. Seabrook Server: Guardian Rank: SL9 Powers: Science Scrapper - Martial Arts/Super Reflexes Description: The origin of the so-called "nuclear ninja" is unclear, perhaps because it would be just too unconvincing or just because nobody's asked. Battle Cry: "..." Notes: I think Ms. Seabrook is one of the coolest-looking, if not the coolest-looking, heroes I designed -- you have to dig the heavy mask, goggles, and baggy pants look. Heck, even her name is really cool; I'd love to reuse it for an actual comic sometime. It's a pity that at the time I was playing the martial arts powerset was so grotesquely gimped. I loved her but playing her after about level 8 was agony.

Name: (The Magnificent) Goddess Urd Server: Guardian Rank: SL17 Powers: Magic Blaster - Energy/Energy Description: The Goddess Urd had a perfectly pleasant life as Celestial middle management in the Yggdrasil System. Unfortunately, her general irresponsibility (being chronically late to work, never starting a new pot of coffee after finishing the old one, misusing the copy machine) led to a sentence of an indefinite term of community service. Naturally she is very, very happy about the opportunity to help others. No, really. Battle Cry: "Party's over, boys." Notes: Originally created as a joke to see if I could remake Urd from Oh My Goddess! in the character creator. I carelessly tried actually playing with her and it turns out that being an energy blaster is incredibly fun. (Especially after trying to play a martial arts scrapper -- oh, the agony.) I more or less retired her in the end on the grounds that she's, like, not an original character. Urd occasionally had to contend with tells from people demanding to know the meaning of life and other such celestial nonsense.

Name: Shoot-Man Server: Guardian Rank: SL3 Powers: Technology Blaster - Assault Rifle/Devices Description: He is Wilford J. McPistolfarthing, the enigmatic SHOOT-MAN! Battle Cry: "I am COMPELLED to SHOOT!" Notes: Inspired by a silly Norm Scott cartoon. I'm not sure Shoot-Man even makes it to being a one-joke character.

Name: Mega-Pope Server: Guardian Rank: SL6 Powers: Magic Tanker - Stone Armor/War Mace Description: By day, he is the mild-mannered pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. But by night, when crime threatens the innocent citizens of Paragon he becomes MEGA-POPE! Beware, sinners, for he comes not bringing peace but a sword! Or a big honkin' mace, rather. Battle Cry: "REPENT!!" Notes: Now this is what I'm talking about with a one-joke character! I didn't play Mega-Pope much compared to some others, but one cannot deny there's a certain joy to rushing around staving people's heads in with a giant mace and yelling "REPENT!" As a side note for character creation, Mega-Pope is the "huge" character model (the one you'd use for modeling, say, The Thing or The Hulk) with the size modifiers cranked down to minimum. That worked very well for creating the giant-armor look.

Name: (The Courageous) Winter Storm Server: Guardian Rank: SL25 Powers: Technology Blaster - Ice/Ice Description: It's possible that this superhero is actually a very ordinary person. It's possible in fact that she might be an anonymous low-level administrative assistant in a Crey lab company who, upon being no longer able to ignore the lawlessness and tragedy of the world, decided to put on a mask and a "borrowed" pair of Crey Super-Automated Patent-Pending Antarctic Gauntlets and make it a better place. Lots of things are possible, really. Battle Cry: "Well, you know." Notes: Winter Storm is unquestionably the star of the show, and I'll note that ice blasters are even more fun than energy blasters: you've got all sorts of powers that not only blast hordes of folks but also mess 'em up with slow effects and paralysis. I also think the character concept and the character design came together in a remarkably synergistic way -- the description says she's an ordinary person wearing a costume and the Antarctic Gauntlets, and dangit, there you go. At Level 20, characters in CoH can obtain an alternate costume, so I whipped up this utterly badass "Glacier Armor" costume for her. I also toyed with some civilian duds for in case she ever made it to level 30.

Name: Red Nina Server: Guardian Rank: SL14 Powers: Magic Scrapper - Dark Melee/Regeneration Description: "Red" Nina Rackham was once an infamous pirate queen in the late 18th century. Bearing a letter of marque from the newborn United States of America, she and her privateer crew preyed on British and Spanish ships up and down the Atlantic coast. Her career came to an abrupt end one day when her ship was caught in a mysterious storm off Cape Hatteras, and sailed out of the vortex into Independence Port two hundred years later. Her crew quickly found gainful employment as taxicab drivers, consultants for pirate movies, and Hellions, but Red Nina was left without purpose to her life until she finally decided to find a new way to serve her country. Battle Cry: "And the hits just keep on coming." Notes: Blasting gets boring sometimes, so I tried making another scrapper. I'd read on a message board that Dark Melee/Regeneration was entertaining, so I decided to give it a shot, and indeed it's a rather sweet power combination. The Dark Melee hits are fast, unlike most other scrapper skills, and Regeneration is all about restoring your hit points and endurance in mid-battle -- something which scrappers usually come to grief with. Overall, a fun character for when I wanted to try something different.

Name: Expiration Date Server: Freedom Rank: SL4 Powers: Mutation Scrapper - Spines/Dark Armor Description: Life's funny that way: drink some milk that's gone over just once, and the next thing you know you've made a sudden, severe, and permanent career change. Battle Cry: "It does a body good!" Notes: A character I created on Freedom server to play with a friend of mine who was there. I have to say that Spines is just a peculiar powerset. As well, Dark Armor is kind of annoying in a character-centered game, since it mostly centers around your character being hidden in a nasty black cloud so you can't see him.

Name: The Quiet American Server: Victory Rank: SL2 Powers: Mutation Controller - Illusion Control/Storm Summoning Description: His job is to make this country a better place, but all strictly on the Q.T., like. Battle Cry: None Notes: It's a pity that Illusion Control and Storm Summoning are some of the dullest powers in the game; I couldn't even bear to finish the tutorial with them. I do think that "The Quiet American" is a great superhero name. Hah! Suck me, Graham Greene!

Name: Ms. Seabrook Server: Victory Rank: SL7 Powers: Natural Scrapper - Katana/Invulnerability Description: The mildly famous "Nuclear Ninja" from Secaucus, New Jersey. Her secret origin -- some bunch of malarkey about a terrible accident involving hundreds of pounds of paperwork for certifying atomic power stations in the northeastern United States -- is as unconvincing as ever. Honestly, not even she really believes it. Now with more sword! Battle Cry: "..." Notes: I remade Ms. Seabrook as a katana scrapper on Victory server to play with another friend who was there. Eh, it was okay, but there was just something missing about her.

Name: Dr. Implausible Server: Victory Rank: SL3 Powers: Science Blaster - Fire/Electric Description: While filling out grant applications for the National Science Foundation, Dr. Trevor Plausible was nearly crushed to death beneath a stack of historical abstacts. However, this freak accident left him with amazing elemental powers! Battle Cry: "Time to make the donuts!" Notes: An extremely silly and perhaps, um, excessively flamboyant (it wasn't on purpose, I swear) character for in case I felt like playing a blaster on Victory server. Note the common thread of freak accidents involving paperwork.

Name: Metal Curse Server: Victory Rank: SL9 Powers: Mutation Tanker - Invulnerability/Fire Melee Description: Oh nice lady, with the hitting and the punching and the glavin and things that HURT me! Battle Cry: "Sit down." Notes: Okay. Metal Curse is just awesome. I started out by trying to create a Masamune Shirow-style character and was confronted with the brutal truth that it's not quite possible, so I just made someone big, scary-looking and color-coordinated. This character would definitely have a higher security level except she ran through all her missions early in level 9 and I have no patience for street-sweeping. Additional amusement was derived from other players seeing just the name "Metal Curse" in the looking-for-group dialog and assuming the character was male, then being confronted by this tall and extremely butch tanker lady. Yes, one takes one's entertainment where one can find it.