The assignment from Sgt. SURGE:
One-page report … choose [invent] a team that falls into one of these categories.
- Teams You Shouldn’t Know But You Somehow Do
- One Hit Wonders
- The No Hit Wonders, Though They Should Have Knocked It Out Of The Park
- The Super Supergroups, And Why They Won’t Die
- Supervillain Groups So Cool You Wish They Were Heroes
Everyone gets assigned a group in one of those categories. No obligation to actually write this stuff down before the game, but you know you want to …
Joey Moore / “Mighty Joe Young”
SURGE - Applied Heroics 101
TEAM REVIEW SUMMARY
I am writing about a “Supervillain Group So Cool You Wish They Were Heroes,” to talk about The Voice of the Wild. VoW is classified as a meta-terrorist organization by the US State Dept and the United Nations, though some national governments provide them covert support. VoW fights poaching efforts and related environmental crimes, operating mostly in subsaharan Africa, but it has also operated in S. America, N. America, and S. Asia.
By fighting against poaching, VoW does something good. The problem is that they do it in violent, brutal fashion. I have seen both poaching kill sites, as well as the remains of poachers who had been tracked down by VoW and killed, and both were really bloody messes, very violent. They say it is the “righteous anger of the Wild” and a deterrent to poachers, and there is some evidence that poaching drops while they are operating, and I really understand why they are doing this.
But a lot of people being attacked by VoW aren’t the organizers or people making profit, but local poor people who are trying to make money. Leaving them gutted and mutilated like the animals being poached is maybe not punishing the people who need to be punished (maybe even like that). I wish VoW could be more like heroes, because their cause is heroic.
Alex Shelby
SURGE - Applied Heroics 101
TEAM REVIEW SUMMARY
Rough and Tumble were a specialty team that helped break up the Mob control over Las Vegas in the 50’s. They previously operated as independent heroes. “Rough” was a durable bruiser who used the name “Shiner” solo, and had previously worked for the Mob before going straight (for classified reasons). “Tumble” was a circus acrobat with luck-manipulation powers (which explained his ability to pull off daring stunts), who went by the name “Super Murgitroid” (apparently slang for someone who was cool or “with it”).
Their technique was as follows. Tumble would enter a casino in disguise, then start winning enough games to attract the Mob’s attention. The fact that he was using superpowers instead of mundane cheating didn’t matter, the Mob doesn’t care how you take money out of their pocket. So they’d escort him to some back room and threaten him. Then he would go to another casino, owned by a different outfit, dressed like someone he saw from the first casino, and act very suspiciously. He’d keep this up until he ran out of luck, usually about the same time that a group of goons would accost him. Then Rough, who had been tailing her partner up until then, would emerge and beat the snot out of the goons.
At this point the Mob, collectively, would know three things: someone had been trying to scam them; an apparent member of one outfit caused trouble with another outfit; and a bunch of the boys mysteriously disappeared. This would foment enough trouble that the law was able to indict the middle managers on provable crimes.
Rough and Tumble had to retreat to anonymous civilian lives following this operation, which spanned 7 months’ time. This wasn’t the first or last instance of vigilante cooperation with the authorities to take down organized crime, but it was one of the most successful - the heroes got away with it, the crooks did time, and justice was generally served all around.