— HEROES — HEROES “Only the cosmic framework itself—or such individuals as symbolise principles (or defiances of principles) of the cosmic framework—can gain a deep grip on my imagination and set it to work creating. In other words, the only ‘heroes’ I can write about are phenomena.” — H.P. Lovecraft, letter to E. Hoffman Price, Aug. 15, 1934 (SELE ct ED LE tt ERS V, p. 19) or each hero, the first paragraph gives a quick summary of their origin and pow- Fers, and briefly discusses their mainstream Nedor Comics career. The second paragraph focuses on their appearance in the Lovecraft lines: Dream Master and Adventures Into Darkness. (For the Dream Master and Nodens, two heroes essentially restricted to the Lovecraft lines, the first paragraph simply discusses their pow- ers and origins.) It covers some of their particularly popular or iconic adventures, nemeses, etc. in those books, but is obviously far from complete. THE AMER ic AN EAGLE A strange “black light ray” struck government sci- entist Tom Standish and his youthful assistantSample Bud file Pierce, granting them both the ability to fly and fight like true American eagles. As the American Eagle and Eaglet, they battled the Axis, starting in Exciting Comics #22 (October 1942). The American Eagle THE AMER ic AN EAGLE PL 8 debuted alone the month before, in America’s Best Abilities: STR: 26/13 (+8/+1) DEX: 22 (+6) CON: 15 (+2) INT: Comics #2. The American Eagle’s flight can easily keep 15 (+2) WIS: 19 (+4) CHA: 12 (+1) pace with a car, and he is strong enough to lift and Skills: Acrobatics 2 (+8), Craft (electrical) 3 (+5), Disable Device throw a heavy construction crane. 1 (+3), Intimidate 4 (+6), Knowledge (physical science) 7 (+9), Knowledge (technology) 7 (+9), Medicine 2 (+6), Notice 5 (+9), Lovecraft borrowed the American Eagle for a guest Profession (scientist) 4 (+8), Sense Motive 5 (+9), Survival 4 (+8) appearance in Adventures Into Darkness #35, in which Feats: Benefit (security clearance), Evasion, Fast Overrun, he fought “shantak-birds” summoned by Lucifuge. Favored Environment (air), Move-by Action, Sidekick 5 In a longer story (issues #40-44) the American Eagle (Eaglet), Stunning Attack, Teamwork explored “the Sargasso of the Skies,” battling not just Powers: Enhanced Strength 13, Flight 4 (100 MPH), Super- shantak-birds but giant vampiric moths, the fungoid Strength 3 (Heavy Load: 3.45 tons) Outer Ones, rogue night-gaunts, and all manner of Combat: Attack +7, Damage +8 (unarmed), Defense +7, other winged monstrosities. At the climax, the Eagle Initiative +6 discovered his old nemesis the Little Führer at the Saving Throws: Toughness +2, Fortitude +7, Reflex +9, Will +7 center of the phenomenon. This villain, originally Drawbacks: Vulnerable (blow to the head; common, moderate) -3 from America’s Best Comics #12 (January 1945), was The Math: Abilities 36 + Skills 11 (44 ranks) + Feats 12 + a midget super-genius who controlled a super-strong Powers 27 + Combat 28 + Saves 9 - Drawbacks 3 = 120 - 8 - — HEROES — AC E BU C KLEY PL 9 CA pt A I N FU T URE PL 14 Abilities: STR: 14 (+2) DEX: 16 (+3) CON: 18 (+4) INT: 18 (+4) Abilities: STR: 33/13 (+11/+1) DEX: 14 (+2) CON: 14 (+2) INT: WIS: 14 (+2) CHA: 14 (+2) 28 (+9) WIS: 18 (+4) CHA: 16 (+3) Skills: Acrobatics 4 (+7), Bluff 6 (+8), Diplomacy 8 (+10), Skills: Concentration 4 (+8), Craft (electrical) 12 (+21), Craft Disable Device 4 (+8), Disguise 2 (+4), Escape Artist 2 (+5), (mechanical) 9 (+18), Diplomacy 5 (+8), Disable Device Gather Information 4 (+6), Handle Animal 2 (+4), Investigate 7 (+16), Drive 3 (+5), Investigate 5 (+14), Knowledge 4 (+8), Knowledge (history) 4 (+8), Knowledge (physical (earth sciences) 4 (+13), Knowledge (life sciences) 6 (+15), sciences) 10 (+14), Knowledge (technology) 2 (+6), Medicine Knowledge (physical sciences) 10 (+19), Knowledge 12 4 (+7), Notice 8 (+11), Ride 2 (+5), Search 2 (+5), Sense (technology) (+21), Languages 3 (French, German, Russian), Motive 4 (+7), Stealth 4 (+7), Survival 4 (+7). Medicine 2 (+6), Notice 4 (+8), Pilot 4 (+6), Profession (scientist) 10 (+14) Feats: Attack Specialization (.45 automatic), Defensive Roll 2, Dodge Focus 3, Equipment 3, Improved Initiative, Inventor, Feats: Attack Specialization 2 (energy bolts), Attractive, Jack-of-All-Trades, Luck 2, Master Plan, Precise Shot, Sidekick Eidetic Memory, Inspire, Interpose, Inventor, Leadership, 5 (Toni), Well-Informed Seize Initiative, Sidekick 4 (Grace Adams), Stunning Attack, Equipment: Colt 1911A1 .45 caliber automatic pistol (+4), brass Ultimate Skill 2 (Craft [both]) knuckles (+1), binoculars, leather jacket (+1 Toughness) Powers: Blast 12, Enhanced Strength 20, Flight 9 (5,000 MPH/ Powers: Device 4 (time machine; can be taken away easily) Mach 6.5), Force Field 10, Super-Strength 10 (Heavy Load: Time Machine: Comprehend 2 (languages; Extra: Affects Others; 1,200 tons) Flaw: Limited to local historical languages), Super-Movement Combat: Attack +6 (+10 with Blast), Damage +11 (unarmed) +12 (temporal movement to any point in the past; Power Feat: 2 (energy bolts), Defense +6, Initiative +2 Progression 3 [1,000 lb.]; Extra: Area [inside time machine]; Flaws: Action [one minute], Fades [machine must recharge]), Saving Throws: Toughness +12/+2, Fortitude +9, Reflex +6, Will +8 Teleport 9 (Power Feat: Progression 3 [1,000 lb.]; Extra: Accurate, Drawbacks: Power Loss (all, must recharge powers) -1, Area [inside time machine], Linked to temporal movement; Flaws: Vulnerable (blow to the head; common, moderate) -3, Weak Action [one minute], Long-Range) Point (head blows only) -1 Combat: Attack +8 (+10 with .45 automatic), Damage +2 The Math: Abilities 43 + Skills 25 (100 ranks) + Feats 16 + (unarmed) +3 (brass knuckles) +4 (.45 automatic), Defense +6 Powers 92 + Combat 24 + Saves 15 - Drawbacks 5 = 210 (+6 dodge), Initiative +7 Saving Throws: Toughness +4 (+5 with leather jacket, +7 with the 1690s, Ace crossed paths with Edmund Carter, the jacket and defensive roll), Fortitude +7, Reflex +6, Will +6 sorcerous ancestor of both Randolph Carter and the Drawbacks: Vulnerable (temporal attacks; minor, uncommon) -1 Fighting Yank. Ace Buckley also helped the magician- The Math: Abilities 44 + Skills 20 (80 ranks) + Feats 22 + scientist Roger Bacon defeat Professor Fenton in a Powers 12 + Combat 28 + Saves 10 - Drawbacks 1Sample = 135 memorable file tale in Adventures Into Darkness #61 that some fans believe was actually scripted by Alfred Bester. minion named Hans. Most fans recall this story not for the writing, but for artist Sheldon Moldoff’s rendering of the Little Führer’s zeppelin headquarters. CA pt A I N FU T URE Mild-mannered scientist Dr. Andrew Bryant discovered a unique interference pattern created by “gamma AC E BU C KLEY and infrared waves” that enabled him to “throw off Ace Buckley invented a time machine in October of his normal meekness.” Like later heroes exposed to 1940 (debuting in Startling Comics #3), and with his gamma radiation, Bryant gained immense strength, lovely assistant Toni got into the usual scrapes. Among in his case accompanied by flight, and the ability his historical adventures are the Battle of Marathon, to shoot “energy bolts” from his hands. The gamma the Crusades, the Spanish Armada, the Jamestown radiation suffusing his skin projects a micro-thin colony, the Revolutionary War, and the struggles of force field that resembles invulnerability. He must Simon Bolivar. He has only the powers of a standard occasionally recharge his powers with his machine. pulp adventurer, and his trusty gun. Like many Nedor heroes, Captain Future is not totally Beginning in Adventures Into Darkness #24 (November invulnerable—a blow to the head can still render him 1943), Lovecraft used Ace to set up various adventures unconscious, perhaps because coshes move slowly in archaic settings, especially Atlantis (where he met enough that they don’t trigger the field. As Captain Haldor, a Conan ripoff from Thrilling Comics #26) and Future, Bryant fights the Axis menace and all other colonial-era America. In a number of stories set in threats to the world. His girlfriend Grace Adams, who - 9 - — HEROES — the two heroes teamed up to travel “by etheric translation” to the planet Yaddith, where they helped friendly and advanced aliens named the Yug-Soth battle giant worms. Captain Future was too powerful for the gen- eral run of villains and monsters in Adventures Into Darkness, and his appearances were concomitantly rare. His most notable guest role is his fight against Dagon in Adventures Into Darkness #48. (This Captain Future is not to be confused with the works pulp hero Captain Future, created by Edmond F. for her Hamilton, who starred in Nedor’s Captain Future Aunt Agatha’s pulp magazine serial.) detective agency, keeps him alerted to THE CAVAL I ER crimes and mysteries. “Strange but true—when the Duc de Chantrey’s Captain Future debuted portrait changes its expression to a grim frown, then gal- in Startling Comics #1 (June lant, two-fisted Rance Raleigh forsakes his workaday role 1940), and starred there for forty to become … the Cavalier!” So says the splash page from issues. Lovecraft sent the Dream Master Thrilling Comics #53 (April 1946), which goes on to into Captain Future’s dreams in Dream describe how the “curio shop owner” dresses up Master #25. This tale proved very popular, in costume and fights crime with a sword. though not popular enough to keep Dream The Cavalier only appeared two other Master a monthly in the face of wartime paper times in the straight Nedor lines, rationing. But Lovecraft did write a sequel in which and would probably have dropped into total obscurity if the combi- THE CAVAL I ER PL 9 nation of a Douglas Fairbanks-style swashbuckler and Abilities: STR: 13 (+1) DEX: 20 (+5) CON: 14 (+2) INT: 10 (+0) a magical ancestral portrait hadn’t caught Lovecraft’s WIS: 14 (+2) CHA: 16 (+3) Samplefancy.