Quick Brainpick

[Bob Schroeck]

I need a little help for a section I'm adding at the last minute, thanks to a playtester request. Can anyone think of some superhero/supervillain shapeshifters? I wracked my brain today at work and came up with the following list; can anyone add any more?
Morphs
Martian Manhunter (DC)
Skrulls (Marvel)
Metamorpho (DC)
A female counterpart to Metamorpho whose name I can't remember (DC)
Chameleon Boy (DC)
Chameleon King (DC)
Warlock (Marvel)
Mystique (Marvel)
Changeling (aka Beast Boy) (DC)
Plastic Man (sorta) (DC)
Loki (Marvel)
The Dial-H-For-Hero kids (DC)
Impossible Man (Marvel)
The Wonder Twits, I mean Twins (DC)
If I remember correctly, one of the several Clayfaces DC came up with was also a morph, right?
Transformers
(Not as in robots, but as in they power up into a new form to become heroes)
Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family (Fawcett, later DC)
Sailor Moon
Thor (Marvel)
Beta Ray Bill (Marvel)
Wonder Woman (TV version) (DC)
Firestorm (DC)
Miracleman
Silver-Age Jimmy Olsen, every once in a while (DC)
Weres
The Incredible Hulk (Marvel)
The Lizard (Marvel)
The Man-Bat? (DC)
That can't be all of them. Ideas, anyone? Thanks!

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Evil Midnight Lurker]

Morphs:
Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man (DC)
Mr. 104 (DC)
Female Metamorpho: Element Girl (DC, duh)
Clayface 2 (DC), animated-Batman Clayface
Mo-Lec-U-Lar (Silverhawks)
Swamp Thing (DC)
Naraku (Inu-Yasha)
Morph (aka Changeling) (Marvel)
Transformers:
He-Man (Masters of the Universe)
Mumm-Ra (Thundercats)
Mon*Starr (Silverhawks)
Colossus (Marvel)
Ghost Rider (Marvel)
Darkhawk (Marvel)
Thing? (Marvel)
Sesshoumaru (Inu-Yasha)
Pantyhose Tarou (Ranma 1/2)
The Infinity Man (DC, combined form of the Forever People)
Pretty much everyone in Guyver
Weres:
Man-Wolf (Marvel, John Jameson Jr.)
Etrigan (partly were, partly transformer) (DC)
Rei (Urusei Yatsura)
--Sam Ashley
"Moon-Star of Limbo... give me the might, the muscle, the menace... of MON*STARR!"

[Evil Midnight Lurker]

Wait a sec... Mr. 104 is a transformer. (He can change himself into any one element.)
--Sam
"Ancient spirits of evil..." oh, never mind.

[zojojojo]

Transformers:
What's-his-name from X-men... the Big Russian Guy With the Silver Skin(Marvel)
She-Ra
-Z, Post-reader at Medium
----
If architects built buildings the way programmers write programs, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization.

[drakensis]

> What's-his-name from X-men... the Big Russian Guy
> With the Silver Skin(Marvel)
Colossus.
And I believe has a brother Ferro-something?
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

[Bob Schroeck]

Thanks, I knew I'd forgotten someone.
Anyone who feels like adding to the list, do so, as I probably won't be writing this part for a couple more days.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Valles]

Now, I haven't been watching Inu Yasha long enough to see Shippo pull his shapeshift trick, but I do know that he has one...
Saiyans from DB(Z, etc.).
Blessed be.
-n
===========

===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."

[Ebony]

---

Colossus.
And I believe has a brother Ferro-something?

---

Ferro is a tranformer, yes, but he's from the Legion of Super-Heroes (DC). Also from LoSH, although not so effective as Ferro, is Stone Boy, who can turn himself into a stone statue (i.e., he cannot move). Ended up as part of the Legion of Substitute Super-Heroes.
Other suggestions:
Morphs:
Fathom of the Elementals (Comico, I think).
Sand of the JSA (DC).
Morph of the Exiles (Marvel). Sort of a Marvel version of
Plastic Man, written by Judd Winick.

Transformers:
Captain Mar-vell (not so much transformed, but swapping
places with Rick Jones) (Marvel)
Captain Marvel/Photon (Marvel). The other character to
have the Capt. Marvel name, she changed it later on.
Superman (DC). When he was blue and sparkly.
Box of Alpha Flight (Marvel). Small, crippled man into big
robot.
Ultraman (No clue; Japanese TV)
Dr. Henry Jekyll (and Mister Edward Hyde). Both classical
and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Black Adam (DC/Fawcett).
Shadow Thief and The Shade (DC). Both of these guys
have essentially the same powers. Man tranformed into
shadowy figure.
Weres:
Wolfesbane from the New Mutants/X-Force (Marvel)
Ratman from the Elementals (Comico)
Monolith of the Elementals (Comico).
Dracula. And other vampires. Bats and wolves and the like.
(Marvel, if you're looking for comics, although other
companies have done vampire comics)
Sasquatch of Alpha Flight (Marvel)
Snowbird of Alpha Flight (Marvel).
Ebony the Black Dragon
Senior Editor, Living Room Games
www.lrgames.com
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com

"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."

[Bob Schroeck]

Ebony, thanks for the extended list. I'm annoyed that I forgot to list Wolvesbane in my original post, because I mention her explicitly in the book already!
A couple of those names I don't recognize; I don't know if I'll have the time to research them. And I'm clearly out of touch with comics these days, because the phrase "when he was blue and sparkly" makes me go, "Say what?"
Anyway, I'm doing some heavy-duty number-crunching for all the sample shifters. When that's done, I'll go back to the new text, including this stuff. That means, anyone wants to keep adding to the lists, by all means please do so. I'll let you know when there's no more need. (And if I don't, you can stop on Friday, because I will never have gotten around to finishing that new text..[/i]
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[zojojojo]

Oh yeah... I can't believe I forgot this one...
Transformer:
Shazam! (DC)
-Z, Post-reader at Medium
----
If architects built buildings the way programmers write programs, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization.

[Bob Schroeck]

---

Shazam! (DC)

---

That's the same as Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family (and Black Adam, too). It just happens to be the title of the book they appear in, since Marvel got the lockon "Captain Marvel" after Fawcett went under.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[zojojojo]

ah. all i know about shazam i learned from a single book published a few years ago, whose name escapes me at the moment... it was a glossy special edition thing with pretty much all the dc heroes in it and a major showdown between them... and shazam dies at the end...
i was more of an x-freak...
-Z, Post-reader at Medium
----
If architects built buildings the way programmers write programs, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization.

[Guest]

The "blue and sparkly" thing was when Superman was transformed into a blue energy being that had to remain in a containment suit.(Fortunately he could transform into a powerless Clark Kent).He had immense problems using his new powers and even split into Superman Blue & Superman Red (both which had opposing heroic personalities).It culminated in the rising of the three Millenium Giants,and the two "Supermen" sacrificed themselves to save the world.
Superman then awoke back in his parent's farm in Smalville and discovered he was back to his old self.
(Sheesh....and people complained about Mort Weisinger's writing.....)

[Bob Schroeck]

Dear god. Do you seriously mean to tell me that they resurrected that ancient "Supeman Red and Superman Blue" gag? That was, like, the archetypical stupid Silver Age one-off "what if" story.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Bob Schroeck]

---

ah. all i know about shazam i learned from a single book published a few years ago, whose name escapes me at the moment...

---

Ah, well, you see, I was about ten when DC snarfed all the rights to Fawcett's heroes in the early 70s, and I got big into the huge reprint books DC put out using all this old Marvel Family material from the 50s and even earlier. It wasn't until after the Crisis that I actually read very much in the way of DC-generated Shazam stories.

---

it was a glossy special edition thing with pretty much all the dc heroes in it and a major showdown between them... and shazam dies at the end...

---

Sounds like a typical "big show" book.

---

i was more of an x-freak...

---

Yeah, that was how I got back into comics in the early 80s.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[zojojojo]

---

Sounds like a typical "big show" book.

---

more or less... it had a fairly good story, but i'm too lazy to go digging for it...
-Z, Post-reader at Medium
----
If architects built buildings the way programmers write programs, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization.

[cpt kangarooski]

The book you're thinking of is almost certianly "Kingdom Come." Although the guy who dies at the end is Captain Marvel. Shazam was the older fellow who gave those powers to Billy Batson in the first place, and died immediately. Five points to anyone who knows what Shazam stands for without looking.
As for the Red and Blue Supermen, not only did they do it, but according to a handy book on Superman that I have, they were directly inspired by exactly that crappy Silver Age story.
Anyway, there's lycanathropes coming out of the woodwork lately. I'd suggest the various ones in Gold Digger (about eight different types, IIRC), as well as the werewolves in the Hellboy comic "The Wolves of St. August."
Dunno if you'd consider The Elognating Man or Mr. Fantastic as morphs. The Hulk should definately be in there, however, as a transformer. And if you really want a fun transforming magical girl (there's loads) try Nurse Witch Komugi-Chan. I can't figure out if it's supposed to be a parody of magical girls anime or if it's just the ultimate form of it.

[drakensis]

Not technicaly Superheros/Supervillians but Oberon, Dara, Merlin, Jurt and several others from the Chronicles of Amber could shapeshift.
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

[Ebony]

---

The book you're thinking of is almost certianly "Kingdom Come." Although the guy who dies at the end is Captain Marvel. Shazam was the older fellow who gave those powers to Billy Batson in the first place, and died immediately. Five points to anyone who knows what Shazam stands for without looking.

---

Quite good, "Kingdom Come." Alex Ross is a great artist, and Mark Waid creates a pretty good story in it. I like how Ross uses real people as the basis of his heroes' faces; Superman looks a little like Christopher Reeves, Wonder Woman looks like Linda Carter, and Captain Marvel looks like Fred MacMurray (it works, believe it or not; MacMurray had an open, honest face). Avoid "The Kingdom" though. As sequels/prequels go, it was pretty disappointing.
Ahem ...
Wisdom of Solomon
Strength of Hercules
Might of Atlas
Power of Zeus
Toughness of Achilles
Speed of Mercury
Names have power; some have more power than others.
Ebony the Black Dragon
Senior Editor, Living Room Games
www.lrgames.com
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com

"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."

[Bob Schroeck]

---

Captain Marvel looks like Fred MacMurray (it works, believe it or not; MacMurray had an open, honest face).

---

It also helps that the original artist for Whiz Comics #1 (I don't remember now if it was CC Beck or not) actually based Captain Marvel on MacMurray. So it was just a case of the original influences being brought back out and made stronger.

---

Wisdom of Solomon
Strength of Hercules
Might of Atlas
Power of Zeus
Toughness of Achilles
Speed of Mercury

---

Yeah, but Mary Marvel's set was different (and had a ringer). Can you remember them, too?

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Ebony]

---

Yeah, but Mary Marvel's set was different (and had a ringer). Can you remember them, too?

---

Sadly, not without cheating. Nor can I remember Teth-Adam's (Black Adam's). However, you can find anything on the Internet ...
Ah. Here we are ... members.ozemail.com.au/~s...m/#acronym
I would imagine that the ringer would be Hippolyta, Wonder Woman's mother, and (as the retrowrite has recently declared) the Wonder Woman of the original JSA.
Ebony the Black Dragon
Senior Editor, Living Room Games
www.lrgames.com
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com

"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."

[Bob Schroeck]

I don't remember ever seeing Black Adam's SHAZAM broken out, myself.
And the ringer I meant was Zephyrus, who is a male deity pressed into sudden female service by certain writers who couldn't find a goddess or heroine whose name started with "Z". Hippolyta sneaks in under the wire because it's always said to be "gods and heroes", not just "gods".

---

Wonder Woman's mother, and (as the retrowrite has recently declared) the Wonder Woman of the original JSA.

---

Ah. New retcon. That explains a strange throwaway line in a recent chapter of Cat Tales that I didn't understand.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[cpt kangarooski]

Oh, debatable as to whether or not he's a supervillain, but you should definately include the T-1000 in there someplace. (which reminds me -- wait until you see Abenobashi ep #12

[Bob Schroeck]

Oh, I have the T-1000. GURPS already has a version with the serial numbers filed off, called a nanomorph, but I'm explicitly speccing out the powers for part of a section on SF shifters.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Bob Schroeck]

Okay, as it turned out, one of the things that got sacrificed to make the wordcount was the section for which I had solicited all this information. I'm sorry about that, believe me. Maybe I'll turn it into a Pyramid article, or put it on my website.
In any case, thanks for your help, everyone who contributed.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.