Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Commander Steel

Commander Steel History


There is an excellent write-up of Steel's origin at comicvine. Alternatively, you can just read the comic book panels below, taken from All-Star Squadron #8.


Stats


Hank Heywood is one of those typical golden age characters who is drawn as tall, handsome, and very athletic. So I gave him base physical stats to reflect that. But he's also a Princeton college student who helped Professor Giles invent the "bioretardent" formula, so he's also really smart.

Abilities


Originally Steel, whose name is changed to "Commander Steel" in issue #8, was said to be able to lift "1000" pounds. Later, in the All-Star Squadron, he is described as having "super strength" and is shown crushing a pistol into so much junk. I assumed he would need to be able to average at least 9 points of damage to break a pistol, so I gave him enough strength to do that (the average of 2d8 is 9).

Steel wears a "steel-mesh" suit, that provides him with protection from at least small arms fire (pistols, rifles, etc.). But the suit is incredibly heavy, slowing him down and even heavy enough to put cracks into a concrete surface that he is standing upon. Thus, I built his Armor the way I did. Without his suit, he is subject to being damaged by bullets, as he is in issue #9 when he is knocked unconscious by Nazi guards.

He carries a "flare pistol" capable of blinding his opponents. I built it using Flash Control B, with range, gear, and charges modifiers.

At one point, in issue #8 I believe, he talks about how he can push his micro-motors to achieve a speed of 50 mph. Thus, I gave him the  Speed ability. Note that even while slowed down by his heavy steel-mesh armored suit, he can run at a top speed of 29 mph, or 58 mph if he "pushes".

The Heightened Expertise and the Weakness of having a reduced sense of Touch round out his character and put him at exactly 150 CPs.

Commander Steel (PDF)




Commander Steel is a trademark owned by DC Comics

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