Top-Notch Comics #2 - pt. 1

Today we come back around to MLJ's Wizard, the Man with the Super Brain. You would think he would be strong evidence of the need for a Scientist class in Hideouts & Hoodlums, but up close he looks a lot like a superhero. In fact, many of his hi-tech gadgets could just be flavor text for prepared powers. But we'll get to that soon!

First, The Wizard has a closed-circuit TV set, as some other comic book characters do. There isn't really any power or spell that covers this, so I'm more inclined to believe this is an actual trophy item.

The super-charged speedster, or rocket car, is a trophy item, unless this is flavor text for the Race the Train power. Although, since it's only to get somewhere else that is not a dangerous place and without any time restrictions, I'd be inclined to hand-wave any method the player wanted his Hero to get to the airport.

The "strato-amphibian" is either a trophy item or flavor text for powers, depending on how it gets used...

It takes a commercial flight about 9 1/2 hours to go from Washington, D.C. (where I think The Wizard is based) to Anchorage, Alaska, but it only takes a "few" hours to make the trip.

The "Syberians" are obviously meant to be Siberians, though they look like yellow peril hoodlums in the pages that follow.

You would think a strato-amphibian would be what you would use to travel by water after arriving in Alaska, but instead he produces a separate rocket sled. It could be that the duration on his Race the Plane power expired and he needed fresh flavor text.

The "vibra-ray gun" somehow stops mechanical machines, similiar to how an electromagnetic pulse disrupts electronics. The 3rd level power Hold Plane might duplicate this if the snow tanks are light enough, or it might be a not-yet created 4th level version of Hold Plane (Hold Tank?).

Panel 5 is curious. Is he using the push mechanic on three people at once? I suppose that is possible by using Multi-Attack and then transferring all damage into distance pushed.

Reverso-ray neutralizer sounds like a double negative to me; if it reversed the neutralization, isn't it just a ray? I'm also perplexed if this is another setting on the same gun or an entirely separate raygun.

I can't decide if the design of those snow tanks is pure genius or pure nonsense. It seems like the helicopter configuration on top might help generate enough lift to keep the tanks from getting mired in the snow...? Regardless, this is for sure a trophy item.

It seems really odd that the enemy commanders are working in an unguarded shack.

Vacu-suction gloves -- or the Wall-Climbing power?

Isn't every gun a high velocity propulsion pistol? They propel bullets at high velocity...

I really like the visual of that panel 3.  Leaping between tanks looks like he's using the Leap I power and probably also Nigh-Invulnerable Skin to buff his backside's Armor Class.

I wasn't going to mention anything about snapping wires with his bare hands, but snapping chains is definitely wrecking things. Of course, even a non-superhero can wreck a chain with a really good roll.

Uprooting a ship's mast, though -- that is definitely superhero-level wrecking things.

Pinning those troops down looks an awful lot like the effect of the Hold Person power.

A machine gun, at short range, isn't even fazing The Wizard? He must be buffing himself with a higher-level defensive power now.

"Visualizing exact positions" seems an awful lot like the Locate Object spell, and maybe there needs to be an equivalent power.

As much as you may buff your superhero defensively, none of the buffing powers cover an area of effect. So, while your Hero might go unharmed, what he's standing on can easily still be destroyed.

"Secret chemicals" may be the flavor text by which The Wizard operates his wrecking things ability.

Capsizing boats...I'm hesitant to assign the wrecking things mechanic to this, as the boat is technically not being damaged. But, on the other hand, I can't assign a save vs. science to something that does not have a level or Hit Die total. I don't think it should be a skill and can't see Mysterymen automatically overturning boats.

And then there's this awkward part where it sure looks like The Wizard is dragging the soldiers underwater before tying them up so they'll drown...

Solidifying the fuel, unlike capsizing a boat, does sound like it is meant to wreck something and I would use that mechanic, wrecking vs. generators.

The timing of the start of the bombardment seems like it was always at the Editor's discretion to start in the scenario, rather than a randomly generated start time.

Now, put aside all the incredulity of this story so far and think about this fluttering paper. The Wizard was just underwater, so either he had this card concealed in a watertight container on his person this whole time, or he found colored markers on the boat and drew the flag while waiting for the bombs to hit.

I had to hold in a lot of jokes while writing this page. But I'm going to share one:

"Need any help?"

"Snow tanks!"

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)