Salkafar

'course, with our luck it would go like this: "And one more thing... by next fall, we hope to have in the theatres our newest production... Bio-Booster Armor Guyver! At the helm will be acclaimed producer, writer and director - " Then again. It could be good. Imagine you keep it kind of mysterious just how Chronos is creating those monsters they are sending after our hero... and the Shyamalan-twist is that humanity was created as biological weapons.

How long did it take to set up a system that complex and comprehensive? And, evidently, it has always worked so far. Prometheus/Strigoi* is the first entity in the multiverse to attain a level of awareness that high? This is looking pretty bleak. He must have had a lot of time to consider his position, yet continues to relentlessly pursue his meaningless, futile ends, regardless of the cost. And apparently opposing him, let alone stopping him, is virtually impossible. And he can travel anywhere - there is no escape. To be blunt, it looks kind of like you painted yourself in a corner there, drama-wise. A powerful antagonist is good, but if he's so powerful that you need a Deus Ex Machina to make a happy ending possible you might have overdone it. And it's like he never makes critical mistakes, either. Even though he is merely one person with high-level human intelligence. Even the Creators made mistakes. So did the Engineers. Risking mistakes is an integral part of Hunter culture. Humans make so many mistakes it might as well be our qualifying trait. And Xenomorphs don't make mistakes only because they can't really be said to make complex decisions. Can any combination of these cultures, no matter how purposeful, yield a being so perfect in his thinking he manages to take all the hurdles he must have had to face on his way to practical godhood? * I am not so sure Prometheus is a good name for this guy. Prometheus was a good guy, after all, who was punished for the help he offered humanity and endured millennia of suffering.

Here's another thought... the multiverse is theoretically infinite. How long before he runs into someone who had the same idea he had? And even if that doesn't happen, he has to take that possibility into account.

And, really, when would you wear it? Boy, I really want a Guyver movie... a good one.

It seems to me you have created a very passable supervillain there. You mentioned the Yautya (aka the Hunters from the Predator franchise). Their technology is extremely advanced - they had interstellar space travel capabilities 10,000 years ago - and they are always looking for the perfect game to hunt. I hypothesize this is because, as a race, they attained such a high level of scientific advancement that all challenge in their individual lives was lost. Without want, warfare, natural threats or even time as an enemy, their spiritual lives withered. So, they voluntarily returned to a more primitive lifestyle: every Yautya male, upon reaching adulthood, has to venture out and risk his life in a hunt, and basically live like Bear Grylls. Those who do not, are viewed as inferior, as eunuchs, and are disdained by the women. (Again in my hypothesis, most Yautya females - who canonically are much bigger and stronger than the males - do not hunt, instead expressing themselves with art and science. A hunter female (A lesbian?) would be a terror indeed.) The braver and more honorable the man, the higher his position in society - a necessity in a post-scarcity society where material wealth has lost all meaning. That they risk death at the jaws of Xenomorphs or the hands of humans would be a reasonable price to pay to feel truly alive. Since the Alien and Predator franchises have been officially linked and the Engineers came from the Alien series, my headcanon is that the Engineers were using the Xenomorphs as biological weapons to fight the Hunters, and had derived the transgenic black substance from Prometheus from them (After all, Xenomorphs are already depicted on murals in the Engineer vessel). They chose the Xenomorphs because they knew the Hunters considered them the most formidable game of all. The transgenic black substance seems to transform any life form that comes into contact with it into a variation of whatever kind of life the Xenomorphs are - an extremely deadly, aggressive version of the original organism. In the end, they lost and those Engineers that survived all went into hibernation to escape detection. Earth, or rather humanity, was created as a 'back-up' - like a camouflaged race of Engineers with a whole bunch of epigenetic markers turned off to suppress some vital traits like giantism, super strength, longevity and enhanced intelligence, which is why we don't look like them very much despite having identical DNA (What a load of crap that was! In truth, I don't really like the movie Prometheus, but I have to try to make it work). The Hunters discovered this anyway, but decided not to destroy humanity; their culture has a complex code of honor, which, among other things, means they don't kill helpless or non-aggressive prey. (They don't always keep their code, but then, why would they act any differently than humans in that regard?) Instead they sort of 'herded' humanity, creating primitive societies and a religion which involved sacrificing some lucky individuals to produce Xenomorphs which the Hunters then would hunt and kill as a rite of passage. In any case, humanity is, cosmically speaking, a non-entity. The Xenomorphs, although ancient (According to 'The Destroying Angels', they predate Cambrian life) and spread to many worlds because of the actions of the Hunters, have no space-travel capability of their own and are therefore limited to the planets they already inhabit. The Hunters are the most powerful race on a local level, practically dominating life in the Galaxy (not to mean they populate all planets in it, only that they can go anywhere and everywhere and nobody can stop them; if they actually had worthwhile enemies, they would not breed hunters, but warriors). (If you really want to be cute about it, you can have humanity invent an advanced computer system to coordinate their missile defenses - Skynet. Heh.) Anyway... suddenly, into this pretty stable system where humans live on one world, Xenomorphs live on many but don't travel about, Engineers sleep on certain worlds and Hunters are basically everywhere, you inject something that has no precedent. A singular attack force that is the equal of any individual planet. And the only opposition it actually has - and of which it apparently is unaware - is a sort of extradimensional 'council of Guyvers'. I am not so sure outright attacking Strigoi would be the way to go. Shocking him out of his isolation into the realization ultimate unassailable power is futile - because what does he actually want? Does he want to be untouchable? Seems to me he already is - might be a more fruitful endeavor. Appeal to his humanity? Explain to him what happened to the Hunters - how they attained the pinnacle of power as a race, only to trade it in for a return to a more primitive lifestyle? Show that he is basically becoming a Xenomorph himself - a thoughtless creature that is completely focused on survival and goes about it by destroying all other life? Has he ever met Archanfel? Archanfel is what he is - incredibly powerful, biologically unique, commanding armies of living bio-weapons and completely alone. Where do you want to take this?

Or a crotchgrab just to shake things up. Too bad it wouldn't apply to anybody in battle form. Imagine Guyot's face though if Agito had kicked him in the bollocks.

Well, just look at the read-up. "his experiments have brought global extinction to countless worlds. His spaceship (...) is powerful enough to destroy entire fleets and within it grows a brood of Xenomorphs (...) these creatures can wipe out entire populations in a matter of hours." That is pretty OP. Haven't the Engineers responded in any way? They have been at this game a good long time longer than he has. Also... he seems extremely smart. Extremely. Mastering several different kinds of alien technology - on his own? Chronos scientists are infected with a virus that boosts their mental faculties, but it also kills them unless they are given frequent booster shots of an antidote that protects them from the side effects. While I can believe the Guyver would protect the host from that - would it also maintain the brain at the heightened levels? ...Actually I think it might... or would the effect fade if the virus is flushed from the system? Anyway... for one lone person to achieve all that, all in the name of his own self-aggrandizement... it seems too much, really.

So what we have here is a character whose background is a mystery (so, in practice, he has none), who is for all intents and purposes completely invincible, who doesn't do anything except torture and destroy, and whose goal consists of 'becoming even more invincible'. And who will be the hero of his story? Because this guy is the villain of the piece.

Does this fellow have a designated enemy? An opponent of comparable power?

Does this character have a weakness?

Maybe it's intentional. We're in classic 'kyodai hero' territory. Archanfel is no Rita Repulsa, but he did come out of a container after a really long time.

And what stories will you tell with this extremely powerful character?

Get it? As in you want to own it? Wouldn't that be hella expensive?

And what does he do with all that power?

Yeah. Don't remember why I stopped: maybe I felt - he said from atop his high horse - that the translations had become more polished?

I feel I should get back in the game. It's been ages.

Call me when he transforms into a truck.

The Fantastic Four are Marvel Comics' first superheroes. It's true that the original Human Torch, Namor the Submariner and Captain America precede them, but they were not made for Marvel Comics but acquired (the magazine in which they appeared was called 'Marvel Comics' but it belonged to a different publishing house; Marvel Comics properly appeared in 1961). They were different from DC's heroes, and even their hero teams. The main difference being that the Fantastic Four are a (fairly dysfunctional) family. Originally, Reed was the older, somewhat aloof husband, Sue was the younger, put-upon wife, and Ben and Johnny functioned as quibbling sons (even though their actual relationship was different, in that Johnny was Susan's brother and Ben no blood relation at all). Later, the dynamic changed when Franklin, Susan and Reed's son was born, and Ben and Johnny had to 'grow up' some. But the fact remains, these people were a family. It's the entire basis for their comic book function. There's basically four classes of superhero in Marvel comics: the heroes who function as a team, like the Avengers, brought together by choice; the heroes who function as a group by necessity, like the various X-teams, brought together by genetics; the lone heroes who do not fit in teams at all; and the Fantastic Four, who are a family. The only other group similar to them is Power Pack, who are siblings, but even they exclude the parents from the equation. Now, one aspect the 2005 movie nailed very well was the familial aspect. The writers had read the comics, and it showed. While Doom was kind of shoe-horned in, they maintained the pattern : He wanted to start a family of his own with Susan, but was thwarted. It goes out the window for the new movie. It's exemplary that Susan is still Johnny's brother, but not by blood - she is adopted. Reed runs away for a year. The rest of the team is pulled in by the army. Now... I have actually not seen the movie (and I'm not the only one) but I have yet to see anybody describe the movie as 'good'. It's a box office bomb, with an estimated loss projected at about 80 million dollars. The 2005 movie made over twice as much. Which just goes to show that 'grim and gritty' does not work if you're trying to make a movie about a superhero family. In fact, I would not be the first to argue that the best Fantastic Four movie is in fact 'The Incredibles'.

- Apollon is Imakarum Mirabilis. His Murakami personality asserted itself when he put on the armor. But he strives to keep his identity a secret. Inversely, the Imakarum personality, currently suppressed, prevents him from killing Archanfel when he is helpless. - Apollon is not a person but a machine, sent by the Creators after they found out Earth still exists (how come they never figured it out before? You'd think they would check). His helmet is, in fact, his head. - Apollon is not a person but a machine, sent by the enemies of the Creators who have defeated them. They are fascinated by the fact humanity resists control. - Apollon is Mirabilis who is now working for the Creators. Or their enemies. - Apollon is not a person but empty armor, subconsciously mentally controlled by Archanfel who wants to reclaim his lost crystals.

Advocacy doesn't charge money, does it? And yeah, 184's translation is a bit unelegant.

That is interesting. And I am suspecting there is more to the names after all than I suspected. 'Zangallo' is an actual Italian name, for instance. Bilfinger is a German name. Bresnel, Curvill and Ziatt are all existing names (and so is 'Getz', of course). 'Gregole' would be spelled the same as 'Gregor' in Japanese. Gustav is a name outright.

Yeah, in all of this we've kind of forgotten that Earth is on a clock. But what is coming? The Creators? Or their enemies?

The Remover was made by the Creators. Those guys built to last. Hell! For all we know it has self-regenerative properties. Everything else they made does.

What about the flyers? Bulerimos - Whisper Devold - Dragonwing Gepatolus - Grotesk Gernold - Gargoyle Barbathos - Shrike Vikarr - Deathcry

It might be Guyot. He might risk using the Remover if he believes he has a good chance of obtaining Agito's unit. ...Kind of hoping for this now. When he was a full Zoalord, the Unit would have made him completely unstoppable, at the very least on par with Archanfel and probably way beyond. But now that he's a proto-Zoalord, it just might not be such an awesome boost.