Like, how old is Samson? Is he out of the mist of history or descendant of ancient forbears? They seem contradictory, unless it just means his ancestry goes back into the mist of history, but then so does everybody's.
It seems comical today that anyone would have ever thought a threat to Europe would be coming out of Tibet, instead of, oh, say Germany or Italy. Tibetans are rarely portrayed as villains, and it's more likely that Thorga's army is just passing through Tibet from China or Mongolia -- with Mongolia often being perceived as a threat in pulp fiction and early comic books, despite having not been a threat to anyone for about 500 years.
High frequency thought transmitters may seem like super-powerful trophy items, given the range implied here...but are they really any more than telephones with flavor text enhancement, if they are limited to transmitting surface thoughts?
That wide screen TV, though...that looks like it would make many a person with a home entertainment center today envious.
Mad scientists must have the lowest wisdom scores; Thorga could have become a billionaire had he marketed that widescreen television with telepathic transmitter. Even the super-explosive could have made him a tidy sum.
A battallion is 300-800 soldiers, making Samson one of the most powerful superheroes. His buffing powers must have remarkably long durations, as this battle would take at least 57 turns, unless morale saves failed and ended the battle sooner.
Samson's first fight is remarkable both for his results -- he apparently defeats an entire battalion bare-handed, but how he does it, with no obvious use of powers. He fights soldiers two at a time with punches, apparently with Multi-Attack since in H&H you don't normally get two attacks per turn with fists if your opponent is armed. He might have some other power buffs in place, like Get Tough or Nigh-Invulnerable Skin (since he is just in furry underpants).
Thorganians? Did Thorga name his country after himself?
A possible weakness in the various Raise powers is that they increase incrementally at first, so that Raise Car can lift 2 tons, Raise Elephant can raise 5 tons, and Raise Trolley Car can lift 8 tons. That leaves a huge gap for Raise Bridge to cover, that would include hefting tanks and chucking them around.
If I had increased the Raise powers so that they went 2 tons, 20 tons, 200 tons, then the 3rd level Raise power would handle tanks, but would also handle small bridges too. So...
A better question here is, if Samson is as powerful as he appears to be, why dodge the bullets? He's going to be bulletproof, like most Superman clones, right? Well, maybe he's not. Or, his defensive buffs were up for so long in the giant battle that they've expired now and he's vulnerable now.
This page is peculiar in terms of just what is going on here. First of all, the narrator says Samson leaps up to the plane, even though we clearly see his foot still on the ground. Then he pulls the plane out of the sky -- how do we handle that game mechanics-wise? Is he making a grappling attack on the plane, and we're treating the plane as an enemy combatant? Is he somehow reversing one of the Raise powers?
It might not be as clear, since throwing and exploding are in the description, but this is flavor text added to Samson using his wrecking things power. He's not turning the plane into a missile weapon, since the pilot is inside it and not being aimed at with the plane. And yet...the Editor would be within his rights to say the explosion still causes damage to Samson, for being so close to it, unless he threw it further away than it appears here. And in that case he is using the Wreck at Range power.
That the pilot emerged unharmed is perfectly in keeping with how the wrecking things mechanic works, since wrecking only affects inorganic objects.
How fast can Samson run? If the "Thorganians" reached a European country, and assuming Samson is even just running as far as Tibet, that is at least 2,000 miles. If he ran that distance from noon to dusk, and assuming that was 6 hours, then he ran 333 MPH. That means he is using the 4th level buffing power, Invisibly Fast.
Samson seems to be displaying unusual and unnecessary stealth if he is as invincible as he was in the battle against an entire battalion. The best explanation I have for this is that he can't be at full power all the time -- and powers work just like that in Hideouts & Hoodlums.
The combat is a little off, unless Samson is using Multi-Attack again. The power doesn't specify this (yet), but I guess you could use different attack forms in the same turn and split them between your available attacks with Multi-Attack. Otherwise, you should not be able to maintain a hold and kick a new opponent in the same turn.
I wonder if those hood antennae are the high frequency thought transmitters we've heard about...
Samson seems extremely vicious here, cold-blooded murdering an underling just for getting in his way. And yet...in H&H, to confront a main villain before dealing with underlings first requires a save vs. plot. Samson could have failed his save, yet already activated a damage-buffing power (like one of the Get Tough variants), and it was too late to stop himself before unleashing all that damage on the underling.
Despite the fact that Samson is attacking bare-handed, he's dealing "death-dealing blows". Now, technically, any attack on an unconscious person in H&H is a death-dealing blow, but the pacing on this page does not suggest that he's taking the time to murder the guards and let Thorga run further. Maybe there needs to be a power called Death-Dealing Blows, that let's attacks do lethal damage if they drop an opponent to zero hit points. I would reserve something that dangerous for at least a fourth level power, though.
(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)
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