Typical Supers

While you may read about the world's major supers, it's probably more rewarding to know about the typical supers around, ones that your characters would have read about and I will probably make active in the local campaign area.  As I use them I'll fill you in, as appropriate, a little more on how and what your character would know about them.

The Artless Dodger (straight from Flaming Carrot comics) is an agile but tasteless thief who robs the most unusual junk culture items.  His agility and combat abilities are amazing but what distinguishes his crimes and attracts any attention is his extreme violence and thus high body count, even over the most trivial items (such as the infamous Pork Rinds Heist). 

Beach Ball has out-survived the various mutant criminal gangs he's been in.  He's a huge inflated Beach Ball who can bounce around a lot.  Due to being few survivors from his attacks, little else is known about him.

Bud Girl is a beautiful, bouncy, swimsuit-clad beer-dispensing babe.  She's clearly seductive and seems to get people drunk somehow.  She's a thief and has also worked with criminal gangs. 

You don't want to run into Existential Man, a free-lance super on both sides of the law, who can induce nausea as well as greatly depress people, to the point of lifelong depression and suicide.  He's known to be much more powerful than your beginning characters.

The Game Show Host can appear as any game show host (Monty Hall, Bob Barker, Chuck Barris, etc.) and is extremely obnoxious.  His crimes are grandiose affairs involving unwilling "contestants" who can actually "win" in that they can avoid being robbed or beaten.  He's as crazy as they come and becomes extremely violent when people don't participate.

Ho the Dragon Slayer is an Asiatic super-villain who got his start in Japan fighting Godzilla and protecting Tokyo.  He's not as tall as Godzilla at roughly three stories tall, wears a huge loose-fitting robe, and is incredibly strong and durable.  He appears to be rather simple.  Despite his gallant start, he moved to America and has turned criminal, usually assisting mutant gangs in all sorts of schemes, apparently for pay.  He's been imprisoned a few times.  Somehow he's escaped each time and equally amazing, despite his size, he can elude capture for long periods of time.  He's somewhat more powerful than your beginning characters.

The gas-masked armored super known as Insecticide is a muttering paranoid who works on both sides of the law.  He has a smog-like gas which can kill but be less destructive and simply sedate.  Rumor has it he can also render any living thing infertile with a gas!  As one would imagine, he has a particular distaste for bugs, but it's unclear as to what he thinks bugs exactly are.  He often is heard referring to normal people as bugs.  He's fought criminals and even delivered them to the police, while in the same period of time robbing banks and killing guards and innocents alike.  No one is sure what he's really about but most consider him insane.  He's clearly more powerful than your beginning characters.

The Lizard King is green, has the face of a crocodile, and sort of that body shape except for the important aspect of standing upright.  He wears an amulet and has claimed to be the king of all lizards, apparently even having some power over them.  He's been spotted under suspicious circumstances, usually singing Doors songs, but little is known about him.

The Mocker isn't well known but has been spotted directing a couple heists.  He's stood out due to his strange orange smiley-face head.  Other than the fact he was obviously the leader, nothing is known about him.

The Mosquito is a tiny villain, the size of a real mosquito, and is not well known other than being a major irritant often serving as a henchman in a gang of bad mutants.  He's considered a light-weight mutant, easily defeated on his own.

Penishead is an unfortunate mutant who is essentially a giant penis, with the powers thereof.  Without getting into methodology (I'm sure you'll figure that out) his known major powers include entanglement (with a linked energy blast), energy blast, force field casting, and he's fast.  He has an obvious vulnerability.  Penishead is noticeably more powerful than your beginning characters.  He's a good guy who's been fighting crime a few years; he's not known to be associated with any particular other heroes.  I promise to try hard to keep him out of the fray!

Pieces breaks apart into multiple body parts, each acting independently and with similar powers along with some individual enhancements.  He's incredibly strong, even as one entity, with great endurance and resistance to damage.  He's also a great fighter.  He's been active for a short time as well, and is noticeably more powerful than your beginning characters.  He's a good guy these days but has a dubious past, where he was known to rob banks.  For some reason he began fighting the bad guys; it's speculated he does so for personal gain (stealing their money while making himself more socially acceptable and thus less hunted).

The Psychotic Stranger is a dangerous serial killer and rapist.  Little is known about him except that his surviving victims/would-be apprehenders have reported seeing historical bad guys (such as Jack the Ripper) and demons.  He's also known as raving mad.  He's very powerful.

Scissorsman is a hero best known for bringing back runaways and has cooperated with local law enforcement.  He has one hand which is a giant pair of scissors and he's extremely agile.  He has muttered something about "The fly told me" in response to why he's done some things/known about some situations.  He's considered harmlessly eccentric and a real good guy.  You've heard he's slightly more powerful than your beginning character.

The Surrealist is also a good guy, a shape-shifting, reality-changing beatnik, often accompanied by a blonde gun-toting female sidekick (who also looks very beatnik).  He also is known to have mind-bending mental powers.  However, he's also known to flip out and lose touch with reality.  He has a particular penchant for animating objects.  He's quite powerful and borders on being one of the area's more powerful supers.

The Worm is, of course, a giant worm-like figure but can stand on his tail.  He's been spotted but nothing more is known about him.