Calling All Heroes Runners Up Revealed!

This week's column is dedicated to the creepily smart, funny and talented runners up in the Freedom Force vs the 3rd Reich "Calling All Heroes" contest. I can't reveal too much about Richard Iacono, the first place winner, because there will be a story in the very near future in the actual gaming press about his character, The Bard. I am not snubbing Richard, the Bard kicks butt, I just don't want to scoop the real press and piss anyone off.

Now that I have that out of the way, I have done my best adapting these characters to fit in the space so I hope the winners will forgive me for any omissions. So here are the runners up, in no particular order:

From Richard Tingle we have The London Fog, a WWII era British spy. One very foggy night the spy followed a suspected member of the Third Reich down a London street. The man he was following accidentally dropped a strange, glowing canister which he picked up thinking he had found a new weapon. The canister sickened him and he passed out on the street where he was eventually rescued by friendly agents. When he woke the spy found that he suddenly had the ability to become intangible, a skill that the British government found extremely useful in the war. From that day on he was known as The London Fog. The government increased his duties and outfitted him with a gas gun, which he used to protect England from the Nazi threat. After the war the London Fog became a British hero and used his powers to protect the citizens of his beloved country.

James Malcomson brings us a character known as Panic (real name: Earnest Maxwell) who has the enviable ability of creating what James calls "surrealism fields" which alter standard quantum resonance. He therefore has the ability to conjure objects as needed, although due to the character's wild imagination, these objects don't always turn out quite as planned...Panic got his start as a starving artist who adored progressive art and tired of Patriot City's love of classicism. One night his surly landlord set fire to Earnest's apartment in an attempt to collect insurance money. Earnest's supplies and his work went up in flames. He was crushed but leapt out the window to safety where he landed in a mysterious pool of metallic liquid where he felt a strange energy pulsing through him. He looked up and spotted one of the thugs the landlord had hired to set the apartment on fire. When the police found him, he was hallucinating and trying to eat his own brain. It was then that Earnest realized he had to use his new power over reality to fight crime, he had to make criminals everywhere know Panic.

Thomas La Chac, who happens to run an excellent Web Site about his creation Doctor Manbot, conceived a character called Screaming Eagle (real name Migisi Tonasket). Migisi was a member of the Cheyenne tribe and faced discrimination although his family tried their best to assimilate into the day to day life of 1940's America. Migisi felt deeply connected to his roots and spent time with his grandfather on the reservation learning about the history of the Cheyenne. At the start of WWII Migisi joined the Army where he was assigned to the 101st Airborne known as the "Screaming Eagles". As he left for Normandy his beloved grandfather presented him with a necklace that glowed eerily and was said to have mystical powers. Indeed it did, it was imbued with Energy X which soon transformed Migisi into Screaming Eagle, a man with unusual strength, speed and agility. He also boasts an incapacitating screaming attack

Jeff Niebres sent us Chan Lee, an evil demon who, attracted by a stray canister of Energy X, entered a sacred cave in China where he encountered and a monk. The demon and the monk battled for days but the monk was ultimately victorious. He did not kill the demon but instead was merciful and taught the creature about the wonders of tranquility and meditation. When the monk died the demon dedicated himself to meditation until he sensed the same energy out in the world that had once drawn him to the cave. He took on the disguise of a man, pretended to be a teacher named Chan Lee and went out to search for the Energy X. Chan Lee, also known as Oni has a variety of powerful martial arts skills as well as demonic powers like "death touch" and "demon form". Oni wears a hideous demon mask complete with fangs and horns.

From Paul Callahan we have The Sherman Tank. Sherman was trapped in a wheelchair from a young age. Desperate to escape his dreary life, Sherman became fascinated by experiments conducted in the 40's by his grandfather, Mark Shields. Mark was a professor involved in a secret project to create a man/machine super soldier to defeat the Nazis. The project failed but Mark's research remained. Sherman used his grandfather's notes to experiment on his own body, performing dangerous feats of science. At last he was successful and a ten-foot tall, fully armored Sherman emerged from the lab with a cannon for an arm and the ability to withstand immense damage. From that day forth he was known as The Sherman Tank!

I hope that the runners up with make sure that their characters get into the game through Freedom Force Vs. The 3rd Reich's character creation feature. They are all great characters and I personally would love the chance to play as any one of them. Thanks again to everyone who entered Calling All Heroes. You all gave the Irrational team a great treat, we loved going through all those entries. We are truly lucky to have such a dedicated, creative fan base.

--- Meredith Levine