50 STATESMEN (Complete)

The Statesmen

the US government has a nominal hero in each state and/or territory. They are mostly a team in order to demonstrate that not every super-group is an independent operation. They rarely go anywhere officially (save for PR purposes) because Congress has to authorize all of their official actions. Most of their operations are individual or unofficial cooperation.
The Statesmen have passed through 3 generations.

The first generation was created early 20th century, not as a real team, but more of a fluff piece in a magazine about the "Heroes of the Nation". Not an official team, just a big list of costumed crimefighters. Can even be pre-Alaska, Hawaii, Arizona and New Mexico.

Generation 2 is when it officially became a team, during the bicentennial craze of 1976. Congress officially approved the first four members of the Statesmen; Cleveland Steel, The Blue Crab, Libertas, and Captain Justice.

Generation 3 is the modern age.
The Statesmen are not the most powerful or influential heroes in the world. As one Anon put it, it is more like “Ms. America” for superheroes. The most novel and interesting heroes in the state, or the heroes with the most political clout are generally the ones who are elected as their state’s representative.

UTAH
Deseret

Meagan is an energetic young member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and was always a fan of superheroes. She was thrilled to discover she had powers and even more thrilled when she was chosen to represent her home state. Given her ability to fly as well form crackling zaps of bioelectric energy capable of incapacitating a full grown man, she suggested going by the name Taser (rejected due to copyright claims) or the Fulminator (too esoteric). Instead, Salt Lake City decided to give her a reserved flight suit with black and yellow details and called her Deseret, the word for honeybee in the Book of Mormon.

Meagan is beginning to realize that they really didn't want a hero, but keeps a dutiful smile for the cameras. Meanwhile, she considers going AWOL every time she hears about a crisis even remotely nearby.
Powers: Flight, Electric Blast

NEW JERSEY
Turnpike

The super-speedster with flash and panache, Turnpike thoroughly enjoys his status as the Garden State's official superhero. Capable of zipping from one end of the state to the other, he always seems to be stopping at least one petty crime every time you turn on the TV. With good looks and an even better smile, he's pretty popular as far as heroes go, and easily one of the standout members of the government's fifty state team. Unfortunately, his powers are a lie. Turnpike doesn't have super-speed. What he does have is an unusual biology that has a unique effect with certain drugs, giving him exaggerated highs with almost none of the lows. And right now, Turnpike is addicted to the designer drug "Sprint." In average humans, it's a stimulant that speeds various processes, leading to a rush of sensation and heightened, though partially uncontrollable, reaction times. In Turnpike it manifests as superhuman quickness. But it's starting to take its toll. How long before New Jersey's favorite hero grinds to a halt?

Powers: Super-Speed, Enhanced Reactions

WYOMING
Black Hole Man

He's John Johnson, also known as the Null, the least interesting man in the world. His very presence causes apathy and calm to settle in and actively (though not permanently) diminishes many sources of super-powers in his presence. The Null has some control over the radius of his effect and is pretty good about not disabling teammates. Mostly, the Null works as crowd control, quelling riots or panicked crowds.

(Let's not pretend that there's nothing in Wyoming, though. Some gorgeous landscapes, pretty much what I think of when I think of the American west.)

NEW MEXICO
Extra human

New Mexico's super is a gray that tries its dardnest to pretend its human, with a very poor "Groucho Marx" style human disguise, that also has another layer of disguise that is a "Superhero Persona".

Gary Gray was just your average humble very human skeptic and insurance agent for "Collatoral Care Super Insurance". He lived in a human house, liked human music, and did human things, like watching the radio. Until one day he discovered something strange. He found that he had more Human juice than was normal in other certified humans. Of which he is a proud card carrying member. He found that he could use his extra abundance of Human-ness to fight crime and go on a crusade.

And so with his enhanced Human-Brain and Human Talents like telekinesis and Mindreading, he became, "EXTRAHUMAN" New Mexico's representative on the "Statesmen".

Also aliens don't exist. But you knew that.

CALIFORNIA
Barnstormer

No, she hasn't quit the Blockbusters, but she was a shoe-in to score the honor of Statesmen after she exposed and helped reform the Hollywood Super System. It's tough balancing being on both teams, but Barnstormer is a tough girl, and the Statesmen is more of a social club designed to encourage inter-state cooperation among supers so it doesn't eat too much into her time.

HAWAII
Pele


Apparently, the goddess Pele herself in the form of a beautiful young lady that is sometimes made of fire and sometimes made of earth and sometimes made of flesh, and sometimes a mixture of all these things. Is she really the goddess Pele? Who knows?

Pele, true to her mythology, possesses a fiery temper but is kind enough to warn people before exploding and has a soft spot for the people of Hawaii, considering them "her" people. She wants to be a popular goddess with temples and shrines around the world and views the Statesmen as her chance to make it big. While most members don't take membership in the Statesmen too seriously she does, and she wants to make the Statesmen into an elite task force. Some members support her, but others think she's a crazy glory hound.

WEST VIRGINIA
Ms. Cryptic

Based on The Mothman and The Flatwoods Monster, this super investigates claims of metahuman activity with a critical eye. Did you know 80 percent of reported metahuman activity can be attributed to witness error and mundane phenomena?

She is also a very weird looking moth/owl thing with big glowing eyes. Her appearance bothers the hell out of her and so she buries herself in her work to the detriment of her social life. She's on the greatest metahuman investigators on the planet having written many books on the subject, but her friends in the West Virginia Investigation Society (WVIS) decided it would be best for her to get out and meet new people, so they entered her into the Statesmen search.

Ms Cryptic has a variety of strange powers. She can fly, red minds, walk through walls, hypnotize people, change her shape-although never into anything that could pass for a human- and project fire from her eyes. But her greatest weapons have always been her critical eye and quick mind.

WISCONSIN

The Milkman

A milquetoast lactose intolerant dairy farmer discovers an aged dairy cow that was once owned by the Norse Gods. He learns that drinking the milk of Ymir's Cow grants one super strength/invulnerability. As such he has to drink from it once in a while to keep his powers up. Ymir's cow gives him super powers - a super strong skeleton, eyesight, teeth, strength, speed.


He's still lactose intolerant though, so he gets sick after every time he saves the world.

KENTUCKY
Kentucky Rain

And to think Graceland is in Memphis...

Kentucky Rain is a good natured fan of The King (not the Japanese one). When he learned that he had the ability to control water he took the opportunity to become the first Elvis Impersonator super hero (after Vegas' Super Elvis, Super Elvis 2, Super Elvis 3...)

He spends his time traveling the world with the international group SUPER BUILDERS who improve infrastructure worldwide at no cost. He uses his powers to optimize rain cycles for crops, separate pollution from rivers and lakes, and bring underground aquifers to the surface...all while dressed as Elvis.

For his humanitarian work Kentucky nominated him for the Statesmen, and his quirky personality and appearance won over the states voters.

He's excited to have the opportunity to join The Statesmen. Meeting new and cool people as the best part of being in the SUPER BUILDERS! Now he can meet even more people!

While he may seem like a complete werido, his wide travels have made Kentucky Rain far more knowledgeable about the world and life than his goofy appearance would indicate at first.

He also harbors a dark secret. It turns out its not just water he can manipulate, but hydrogen and oxygen. He can separate the hydrogen and oxygen atoms from molecules, essentially making him an Alpha-Class metahuman.

Being this powerful troubles Kentucky Rain. He hates knowing that he can obliterate matter with a thought and he worries what people would think about him if they knew he was that powerful.

 MASSACHUSETTS
The Black Minister II

Time for some dark heroes.

Back in the 1930's psychic travel between planets, or at least the spiritual side of planets, became an actuality. This spirit travel created a speculative psychic travel bubble in anticipation of trade with Mars and Venus that left the country in a Great Depression when if finally popped.

This depression caused many to turn toward crime. Violent crime.

Alfred North was a librarian who loved to read to children. He was a man with a wife and children. He was loved and honored by his community.

Alfred North was gunned down by thugs that wanted to loot his library's collection of rare books.

As he lay dying his blood spilt on the pages of an, indecipherable book that unknown to all at the time was once used by the Warlock back during the English Civil War...

His blood summoned a being of shadows that called itself "The Veil". The being offered Alfred North a choice. Either die knowing that his killers escaped justice, or allow the veil to cover him and become forevermore a punisher of evil.

Alfred accepted

The Veil filled him with dark powers. Enough to push out he bullets in his chest. Enough to chase after his would be killers. Enough to do to them what they tried to do to him.

And Alfred remembered a story about a man who was obsessed with sin. And he realized that he had become that man.

The Black Minister was born.

He turned his back on his life, his community, and his family. From the moment he bargained with the Veil there was nothing more to his life but sin-the finding of it and the punishing of it.

The Veil allowed him to see the sins of people. It forced him to see their sins. But it gave him the ability to punish those sins. It gave him a shroud of darkness over his face to hide his identity. It gave him the ability to cloud men's minds with illusions. It gave the ability to move faster than bullets and to hit harder than them as well.He could walk through the shadows themselves. They recognized him as their own and gave passage to their brother. And the shadows carried his many, many weapons for him like eager squires for a grim black knight.

He waged a bloody war on crime and sin throughout up until the 1950's. Post-war America stabilized itself following the war and was determined to carry out some house cleaning. Many remember this "house cleaning" in a negative light as many super humans were questioned as "potentially subversive", but the house cleaning also cracked down on violent vigilantes like The Black Minister.

The Black Minister was captured by ATOM ACE and quarantined as scientists struggled to understand the weird science that allowed him to see sin and walk through shadows.

They weren't able to study him for long. Unable to punish sin the Black Minister shriveled up and died just as the man in the story did. And like the man in the story the Veil did not lift the shadow around his face, and he died an unknown.

He became a "cape mystery" like CHESS MASTER and CHESS ISLAND. Many wondered if he had really died or if he was still out there punishing evil and working in the shadows he called home. Several vigilantes would adopt the costume of the Black Minister in an effort to terrorize criminals with the legacy and name.

But the mystery was solved in the current year.

Jeremy North was a descendant of Alfred North. He was a criminal psychologist specializing in low-level metahuman criminals. During the trial of a certain metahuman criminal HEADSHOT he was brought on by the prosecution to argue that HEADSHOT was not insane. His testimony scored HEADSHOT a life in prison.

HEADSHOT never forgot him. And when he escaped in one of America's infamous super prison busts Jeremy was the first on his hit list.

And as Jeremy lay dying the Veil came to him and offered him the same bargain it offered his ancestor, and Jeremy said yes.

But he did not let the Veil control him as it had his ancestor. He did not give in to despair although the Veil showed him thousands of hidden sins.

He forgave. He did not kill.

He now works with the FBI, who employ him as a special agent and work to find legals ways to employ his "visions of sin".

It's not easy being him. The Veil bombards him with private sins. It's disappointed in him, and lets him know it. Grandfather was blood letter. Grandfather wasn't a pussy.

As a result he's a bit too fond of alcohol and depressant substances.

For his work furthering non-violent solutions to crime and for heroically shouldering the burden of The Veil he's been nominated to the STATESMEN. And although he was voted through many believe the FBI had a hand in helping him. The FBI is always trying to recruit supers away from private organization into the fold and having their "golden boy" on the Statesmen could up their prestige in the Super community.

Jeremy puts up a humorous facade, using laughter to combat the darkness. But what he really needs is a friend that understands the burden of power. Its why his FBI handlers hope the STATESMEN can be a good experience for him.

But Massachusetts police have recently found several suspects spanning several unrelated cases murdered...with a scarlet M for murder burned into their foreheads...

Jeremy has a sister. But she died at a young age. Crossfire in a super-gang war. It was the reason he became interested in criminal psychology....

 SOUTH DAKOTA
Four Fathers

A Mount Rushmore take on Man-E-Faces.

a stone golem with rotating presidential masks each with a special ability.

Biting through steel with wooden teeth.

Weilding a big stick.

Hat based firepower.

Purchasing large tracts of land.

Penning the Declaration of independence.

 ARIZONA
Alien God Killer

Nayenezgani in the language of the Navajo.

http://navajopeople.org/blog/nayenezgani-navaho-slayer-of-alien-gods/
He does what the name says. He kills alien gods. The more alien the better he can kill them.

In the ancient dream-time when spirit and matter were one on Earth there were the dragons and that giants. Primal spirits that had to be fought by the first gods. All cultures speak of this battle. Zeus and Typhon. Marduk and Tiamat. Ra and he Ogdoad.

The Navajo speak of Nayenezgani and the giant monsters. Monsters that were like men and objects and beasts and yet like none of these things. Man-eating bird, Rolling stone that crushed all in its path, Man bigger than a mountain, Antelope that killed without mercy, tracking bear. He killed them all, for they threatened to crush the world under the weight of their breeding.

Anti-Lovecraft guy basically.

And now he's back in response to the incursions such as Caspak, the Strange Universe, and all the multiverses that ARGO explores.

He's a dour, grim, serious god who speaks little and thinks much. He enjoyed his sleep in the dreamtime. It was peaceful. Now he's been woken up and he's grumpy.


He has been convinced to not act against the alien presence on Earth. People want to learn from Caspak and the Kaiju, not blow them to smithereens. But he watches it warily.

He will not allow aliens to destroy the Earth of his mother.

It is hoped that by joining and interacting with the Statesmen he learn how to interact with the modern world and treat it as something to live in as well as protect

He's dismissive of Pele, calling her a young goddess, practically a baby compared to him. He remembers a time before volcanoes after all, when matter and spirit were one.

This of course makes Pele furious, and she's tried to pick a fight with him on several occasions.

But Alien God Killer does not pick fights for his amusement.

OHIO
Buckeye

Daniel Block was not the first Statesman from Ohio. That was the supremely popular and well-loved Cleveland Steel. Steel passed away from, of all things, a malignant tumor (despite his impenetrable metallic exo-sheath, he was still flesh and blood inside). Buckeye - the name that the focus group chose for him - was tapped as his replacement. Daniel shares his predecessor's super durability, though without the metal skin, and packs a super-strength punch. What he lacks is Steel's natural charm.

FLORDIA
Waveracer

A Cuban immigrant, Giancarlo Fernandez is one of the Statesmen's few aquatic heroes. While relatively capable on land with some super-strength and durability, he is most in his element when he's in the water. He swims like a bullet, can tolerate heavy pressure, has rending claws and some vague animal empathy. Since Florida has one of the longest coastlines of the states, it makes sense that Florida's official representative would be someone who could patrol those waters. Naturally, people speculate if he's part Atlantean, but he tends to dodge questions like those.

It's easier to do this than some variant of sun warrior for the Sunshine State. Plus, there's not many aquatic heroes.

SOUTH CAROLINA
Palmetto Bug

Something of an outcast among even his superhero compatriots, Palmetto Bug is a humanoid blattarian entity that primarily goes costumed simply to avoid creeping the hell out of his fellow humanoids with is natural appearance.

His 'skin' is a chitinous exoskeleton that functions as a hardened carapace of armor, and as one would expect from a humanoid cockroach he is super-humanly fast, strong, and hard to kill. Actually deaf, his sense of vibration is so keen that it functions as a sort of 'danger sense' that allows him to stay one step ahead of danger, reacting with programmed reflexes almost before he even realizes there is a threat. As a result, he can seem skittish or twitchy to others, this is simply him reigning in his natural instinct to react to danger with flight.

Other abilities include compressing himself to slip through incredibly small spaces and limited short distance flight via the set of wings growing out of his back.

None of this, however, makes up for the fact that he disgusts his fellow heroes and public alike with his horrific appearance (and eating habits), and would be a complete pariah if not for his commitment to justice.

INDIANA
The Hoosier

Of course. Every single Statesman Indiana has ever produced has been called The Hoosier.

The current incarnation is Jake Davis, nicknamed Crossroad before he made the Statesmen, who drives an incredibly souped-up racing car packed with Bond-style gadgets. He's so new his car still has his old Crossroad logo on it. He's a genius mechanic and racer, but has no superhuman abilities.

He's young, and nervous about his new position: he's nowhere near as powerful as the last Hoosier, who got the ability to generate and control limestone from an ancient alien burial mound. Being a `limestone green lantern' made him a powerhouse, and one the Statesman often relied on.

At least he's not as bad as the the Hoosier that was from Gary, though.

VIRGINIA
Virginia Daring
the Starfire/Meggan (the Excalibur one)/Ms. Martian/Cyclone of the team. She's the powerful, sexy girl that acts a little strange at times. She's thoughtful-something too thoughtful, and tends to ramble on to herself with her head in the clouds. She's very frank, and isn't afraid to tell others what exactly shes thinking. She's also very brave, and cannot tolerate a bully.

Think Eilonwy from the Prydain series.

She's marketed as a fun loving ditzy sex bomb, almost like a super Marilyn Monroe. She even has a line bikinis she models for (and even wears nigh-indestructible swimsuits into battle). Virginia has also used her image to market their beaches to tourists. But while friendly and outgoing she has her head in the clouds more from too much thought and less form lack of thought. She's very well read, particularly in the fantasy genre and has read from Tolkien to Dunsany to Borges. She can often be found in The Librarian's library bothering him for some sort of out of print Victorian fantasy book.

She's a tall statuesque woman with a 10/10 figure across the board. Her skin is as white as snow and glows like silver. Her hair is long and crimson, and her eyes are bright pink without pupils. She is extremely strong and can fly, and can change her shape to appear as any kind of creature except with white skin/fur and glowing pink eyes. She adopted the name Virginia Daring in honor of the legend of Virginia Dare, the first colonist born in America to the Roanoke colony who legend has it transformed into a white furred doe.

Where did Virginia Daring come from? How does she have these powers? She insists she just happened to develop them one day, and declines submitting her secret identity being very happy to have someplace to retreat to that's out of the limelight. Her state understands. Secret identity or not she has proven herself a hero countless times to her state.

She won election to the Statesmen in a close race against pulp legacy hero THE GASSER (who took up the mantle of 20's Virginia's "Mad" Gasser). Gas gadgets and the ability to transform into a cloud cannot defeat a super heroine fiercely proud of her body and having several steamy catfights available on youtube with villianesses such as the sand-woman and bully BEACH BABE and mischievous fire spirit and arsonist SPITFIRE.

She likes knowing that her advertisers like her being on the Statesmen. She isn't too proud of her much-marketed image, but a paycheck is a paycheck and she appreciates it, whatever her civilian life may be.

Things have gotten more complicated for her when FAIRY FINDER asked her "Do I know you?" She stated later that she was mistaken, but the damage was done. People believe Virginia Daring must have come from one of FAIRY FINDER's Fairy lands in the spiritual Earth. After all, could a "normal" super girl be THIS hot?

She's forgiven the young girl, but her fans have never been as annoying as they are now. Now she's an "Unsolved Mystery". What IS her true origin? It certainly didn't help that her ad team ran with it, marketing her as "The Virginian Mystery Girl!"

And the truth is she really is just a normal girl, who spends her civilian life taking care of her grandfather crippled beyond the help of modern super-medicine from one of the super-weapons used in one of the many, many alien attacks on Earth. She gets home and she paints her face and put in complex contact lenses and puts on a wig, and she steps out of her swimsuit and puts on a shirt and blue jeans. And she's happy for the few moments she has with her dad until its time to be weird again for the public.


TEXAS
 Captain Justice

Noah Moore inherited the role of the Statesman 'Captain Justice' along with the family wealth upon the death of his father

Previous Incarnations of the Cap have been about up close and personal brute force to crush those damn liberals

However on account of Noah being frail and pretty weedy he has instead updated the Cap for the 21st century, ensuring his own protection with a large armoured suit more defensive than offensive, and a number of non-lethal grenades he is capable of adjusting the composition of on the fly, varying from sleeping, stunning or even anti gravity

Captain Justice has a strict code of being warm and welcoming to his opponents, giving them the opportunity to surrender multiple times in a fight. BUT you aren't getting away from this guy, he'll saddle up and chase you down if you run.

OREGON
 The Weatherman


Portland native Ethan Knight is graduate student who was born with the mutant ability to predict the weather with 100% accuracy, which while impressive was not actually very useful. After an accident with an experimental environmental manipulation device (which he was there to protest the usage of rather then test) his powers magnified hundreds of times, granting him flight and the ability to control and manipulate weather patterns at will rather then simply predict them, as well as the ability to transmit and transform his body into various weather phenomena such as clouds and lightning.

Despite his transformation into Weatherman and becoming a member of the Statesmen his personality and activities have largely remained unchanged; he still crusades for environmental protection, is politically liberal, an animal rights activist, and regularly butts heads with modern conservative Easter Oregon state officials over various issues. Despite his political activism this he mostly keeps to Oregon and the Pacific Northwest unless called upon directly (often claiming that "the East Coast hardly pays any attention to us anyway, so why should I bother their superheroes). Causes mild controversies now and then for wearing a Cascadian "Doug" flag (which his costume is patterned on) and his open usage of marijuana. Often described in media as "that Portland hippie superhero with all those powers he never uses".

OKLAHOMA
Tornado Allie

First off, this black gal from Oklahoma is, in fact, named Allie. Alison, to be precise. Technically, her powers are kinetic-based; she's very good at vibrating things and uses this to create huge, sustained gusts of wind. The name Tornado Allie was picked by some bureaucrat in Oklahoma City. Alison wanted to be called "The Vibe." As you can probably guess, she's flirty and just a bit lewd and crude, but she was picked for her powers rather than her personality. As is, she's a walking media faux-pas waiting to happen, but they've got no other good candidates. Tornado Allie loves being a hero, enjoys the camaraderie with her fellow Statesmen (especially the good looking guys...and girls; she's not picky!), and loves being able to take what she's good at and help out.

ALASKA
 Dr. Glacier

Dr. Karen Piper was a meta-sociologist studying the sometimes friends sometimes enemies ICE PEOPLE from the frozen north. This mysterious race of beings might be an offshoot of the great race of LEMURIA, and Karen was trying to learn their history.

Unfortunately she became a casualty during one of their attacks on Alaska. They fear being able to only exist in cold, barren places on Earth and conservative elements in their government believe they must freeze the planet or leave themselves vulnerable to warm-blooded metahuman-spawning humanity.
She was crushed beneath one of the mobile ice fortresses the ICE PEOPLE use to navigate the seas...but she did not die. The trauma activated her metahuman potential and she became a living being of ice like the ice people but more so.

Think Swamp Thing but with Ice.

Karen single-handedly ending their invasion of Alaska in the 90's by forming an enormous ice wall between the Ice Kingdom and Alaska's waters until a strike team of capes could infiltrate and stabilize the kingdom.

She's a heroine, but an unhappy one. She roams the cold waters of the north thinking and ruminating. She's a freak. She has no more love for the Ice Kingdom sense they made her a freak. When ships pass her she pretends to be a glacier.

She was voted into the Statesmen for her actions during the 4th Ice Kingdom micro-war and because it was hoped that by meeting superhumans likewise disfigured by their powers she could find a kind of peace.

She tends to keep to herself floating in the Alaskan coast, forming habitats out of her ice body by through which she can cultivate and study marine life. It's her new hobby. Its something to do. She usually has to be coaxed into coming to Statesmen meetings, and sometimes Statesmen come visit her.

Think of her like the Rock Biter from Neverending Story. Large, powerful, and melancholic.

Power wise she's a "cold ghost". Her body is gone but her spirit lives on. Ghosts normally suck the heat from an area creating "cold spots". Dr. Piper does this to an extreme. She freezes the air and water around her forming ice that she can control.

An Alpha class super, its unknown what if anything can kill or hold her. She's declined to test just how cold she can make things and just how powerful her ice form is. Many estimate that she could rival the mightiest Kaiju from Japan if she really tried.

She's found something of a rapport with MS CRYPTIC, seeing her as another woman who has been cursed by fate to inhabit a horrible body. She tries to get MS CRYPTIC to see EXTRAHUMAN, figuring that they two make a great match and that if she cannot find love at least her friend can. She also likes talking to BLACK MINISTER II, seeing his curse to see sins as a disfigurement on his soul like her ice form is a disfigurement on her body. She finds him remarkably brave to be so polite to people knowing their innermost sins with a glance.

And its DR Glacier. Not "Glacier" or "The Glacier" or "Miss Glacier". DR Glacier. Her PHD is one of the few things she's retained from her "past life" and she's furiously proud of it. She likes to think having Dr in her name balances out her monstrous, brutish appearance.

IOWA
Booker Robinson Gutenberg aka The Librarian

Total bibliophile and the custodian of a pocket dimension that houses a library that contains a copy of every book that ever existed and several books that don't exist.

the villain's diary? its in there. The Necronomicon? Which edition? Greek, Arabic, or John Dee? Want to actually read some Sutter Cane? You can!  You did bring your library card with you didn't you?

He's more of an information broker, but has esoteric and mystic limitations on what information he can give out. (two book checkout limit, steep punishment for tardy books, no talking in the library, etc)

MICHIGAN
The Brown Recluse

The Brown Recluse is a masked vigilante based in Detroit, Mi. The Recluse is the alter ego of investigative journalist Abraham Axel, who uses his masked persona to fight crime and uncover evidence for his reports. His vigilante tendencies rub some in the statesmen the wrong way, as he has a tendency to disregard laws and conventional ethics in his single-minded pursuit of the truth.

He is assisted in his operations by his close friend and confidant George Striker, a talented automotive engineer who maintains the Recluse’s technologically advanced car.

The Recluse is a proficient hand to hand fighter and possesses genius level deductive skills. He is naturally soft-spoken, in contrast to the vitriolic tone of Abraham Axel's written work. He prefers to work in the shadows gathering information and slowly letting his enemies back themselves into an inescapable corner.

Origins

Five years ago Axel lost a libel case involving allegations of corruption against local industrialist Martin Dundo. Axel was sentenced to three months in prison and ordered to pay hefty damages and costs.

In order to preserve his reputation and prove his allegations against Dundo, Axel created a persona which would enable him to conduct investigations without fear of legal repercussions. He chose to theme the persona after the Brown Recluse, a small but dangerous spider which often goes unnoticed until it has had a chance to strike. In his operations as the Brown Recluse, Axel wears a face mask displaying 6 sets of eyes and a brown leather jacket, patterned with the image of a violin on the back.

MARYLAND
 The Blue Crab

Truman "T" Rawling is the creator and sole pilot of the experimental submersible known as The Blue Crab. With a reinforced armored core that withstands tremendous pressure, a scuttling legspan of 18 feet, and dexterous pincers capable of shearing underwater cable as easily as they cradle delicate samples, The Blue Crab is the perfect vehicle for ocean-floor work and exploration.

Though he's hardly the only member of the original guard, Rawling is viewed as something of a senior member of the Statesmen, not the least because he's pushing retirement. He's an old salt to the core and refuses to quit. Rawling acts as a father figure to more than one hero, and even a reformed villain or two counts him as a valued mentor. He's also a tireless advocate for preserving the ecology of the oceans, and being one of the few aquatic heroes, is on good terms with Waveracer.

The Blue Crab's secret is that is health is starting to fail. He knows the hero business isn't good for his heart, but he can't give up the life, either.

ILLINOIS
Ghost o' Jarone

Andy Jarone was the boss of one of the toughest gangs during the Prohibition Era, until during a firefight, when he was shot and wounded, his own gang abandoned him. In his last dying moments, he realized that in a life of crime, even his own gang could turn against him if it'll get them out of a pickle. When his soul went to hell, a Demon Lord offered him a new job; Return back to life, and deal punishment against the scum of the earth.

He's not entirely alive, rather just a well-dressed skeleton. He was also loaned a few powers, like super strength, and immunity to death. He was also given a few gadgets, such as a car key with a skull on it that can summon a black 1931 Cadillac with skull patterns on it. Damage to it after it's summoned will remain after it is returned, but while it is unsummoned it will slowly heal. He also got his old Tommy Gun, Colt 1908, Sawed-off Shotgun, stileto, and brass knuckles. He also received a golden chordless phone with skull patterns, which can be used to call his Demon Lord.

Ghost o' Jarone's hardly the same person he was in life; He has a cold confidence, regardless of the situation. Unlike other heroes, he has no mercy for criminals. Per his contract, he also has to send one criminal's soul to hell once a month or his "Contract" will expire. He also has alot of trouble getting by in today's society, because he's a skeleton wearing old clothes. He's vulnerable to holy objects, and he's on the 'permanently banned from heaven' list.

He first joined the Statesmen because he would no longer have to dodge police to carry out his work, even if other the other Statesmen don't trust him.

NEW YORK
 Rat Pack

Over the years a lot of strange shit has found its way down the drains of New York City, mixing together in the sewer system to bizarre effect. One such mixture became food for a hungry colony of rats, which soon found themselves awakening into a gestalt psychic consciousness. This newly formed intelligence survived for years beneath New York City, fighting C.H.U.D.s and albino alligators, never realizing that there was anything beyond its world of pipes and sewage.

One day, a titanic battle in the city above cracked open the colony's little world, exposing it to the violence above. The rats sprung to defend their home, and in the aftermath the victorious heroes managed to make contact with the gestalt, teaching it about the place above its sewer home.

The newly christened Rat Pack became the guardian of the dirty and downtrodden of the city, protecting them from the threats that slithered up from below. When the time came for the state to nominate a hero for the Statesmen, the Rat Pack found itself pushed into the spot, as the city's politicians found the unconventional entity distasteful, and saw this as a way to keep the Rat Pack at a comfortable distance. For its own part, the Rat Pack looks forward to the opportunity as a way to see the wider world, and has left a contingent of hobos it trained in the psychic arts to defend its turf.

the position of the New York Statesman be a hotly contested seat, but Rat Pack is the chosen candidate of the City.Rat Pack has a lot of that old New York grit and grime and huddled masses of american immigrants vibe. But the powers that be would rather someone less grimy and unsavory (a horde of telepathic rats), be their rep.

Pack Rat is constantly under scrutiny, and has other supers vying for the position as part of their story arc.

Georgia: Johnny the Fiddler, who won a magic golden fiddle in a contest with the Devil, who also cursed him with immortality so that he'd never get to Heaven and his pride would eventually damn him. Orpheus-tier musical ability, able to charm all living things and quite a few nonliving things by playing, and some healing factor to go with his immortality.

WASHINGTON
The Axeman

Another armored hero. AXEMAN is one of the world's leading experts on para-biology and para-ecosystems. He spends most of his life inside a special containment bubble due to his natal power. He absorbs the life force from any living thing in miles, and was raised in a containment building in the Washington forests where scientists studied is condition looking for a cure.

They were not hopeful. But he was. And he spent his life learning and researching and experimenting until he invented a cure for his condition. His "DRYAD" armor, humorously duded "wood armor" by the press because during his first press conference he compared using it to "being inside a tree". It is from this quote that the armor took its original name MERLIN before it was found too obtuse a reference.

DRYAD is a living armor (like the Guyver) which can retreat beneath AXEMAN's skin if he wills it. DRYAD is powered by the ambient radiation and sunlight. AXEMAN experimented with other "power source" suits that his power could leech off us, but it was only with DRYAD that he found a power source that balanced replenishing itself with flowing its energy orderly and readily into his being.

DRYAD manages his waste, his breathing, his homeostasis, everything to keep him healthy and comfortable.

He hopes to create more DRYAD suits to assist in the human exploration of hazardous and extreme conditions. Think of the suits as environment and life support all rolled into one, capable of protecting an explorer whether they be in the Strange Universe or The Ice Kingdom.AXEMAN was one of several scientists recruited to develop the "self contained reality" suits used by members of the New York based multiverse exploration team ARGO.

AXEMAN likes the great outdoors, having spent his childhood dreaming of walking through forests, and the multi-tool with an axe shaped head he carries has been called the "axe" of "Washington's finest woodsman", although it is a toolkit for taking and examining samples in an environment.

Yes, it can be used as an axe. And he played up the multi-tool being his "axe" as a way to force the press to call him AXEMAN which sounded a lot better to him than "Woodsman" or "Woodman".

PLEASE do not call DRYAD a suit of wood...

AXEMAN is one of the most inspiring super success stories in America if not the world, going from bubble boy to a person that relishes exploring the wide, wide world that was once denied him and doing it all through is own grit and determination. Its why he was a shoe-in to win election to the STATESMEN.

He's rather dismissive of the honor however. He sees it as advertising for his suit, but feels his time could be better spent developing his suits instead of playing chit-chat.

He believes in the human spirit and believes in human perseverance. He empathizes with people like DR GLACIER but ultimately finds himself feeling a degree of contempt. Why doesn't she fight instead of resign herself to her condition? His isolated upbringing has left him as impatient and gruff as he is hopeful and diligent.

And it ended up getting him thrown from Anchorage almost to the North Pole when he told Dr Glacier to quit being a "Big bitch about herself".

The Ice and the Forest do not get along...

PENNSYLVANIA
The Pitt Fighter

Alan Jackson, better known as the Pitt Fighter, was one of Pittsburgh's premier heroes in the '70s and '80s. However, following the collapse of the steel industry and the subsequent desolation of his blue-collar community, Alan fell into a long funk, only occasionally roused from his semi-retirement by the odd world-threatening crisis. Following the most recent of these events, Alan realized how quickly his age had caught up with him, and joined the Statesmen, as he was barred from more prestigious teams by his age and dormancy, in a last hurrah to reclaim his heroic status.

His Pitt Fighter suit has more in common with those of the old British hero Ironclad than the modern armoured heroes. It's a bulking mess of hydraulics and smog-spewing combustion engines designed with a gladiator motif, though despite appearances it manages to keep up with more stylish technology.

NEBRASKA
Coyote

The government says he's one William Crow, a member of the Ho-Chunk tribe, but he claims no other name than Coyote. Not the son of Coyote, or the Scion of Coyote, or the Emissary of Coyote. No, he's just *the* Coyote.

Why would Old Man Coyote, the trickster, be a super hero? "Well, of course I want to help people!" is his response. He's certainly effective, though sometimes it seems like he treats the whole Statesmen gig like a temporary game.

He wields impressive mystic powers, with the usual range for a magic-based hero. Blasts, shields, teleportation, divination...all are within his purview, but illusions are his favorite trick of all. He's also a hell of a talker, his constant prattle serving to confuse and befuddle his enemies (and sometimes his allies).

Is he the real Coyote? Well (insert name of SORCERER SUPREME, MASTER MAGE, or PROMINENT MYSTIC here) seems to think he's a charlatan, albeit one that doesn't use any mystic signs or sigils he's used to. As for the Ho-Chunk? They remain silent on the matter.

KANSAS
Fairy Finder

Based on Dorothy and Ozma and their relationship in the Oz books. L Frank Baum wrote Oz with the intention of it becoming an "American" fairy tale. Can't get more American than that!

Francine Spinner is a breezy, courageous tomboy farmgirl that treats people and gods the same for she has seen much of both and know little separates them besides power, and power has never impressed her.

There are many questions about Francine, because attempts to read her and the phenomena around her usually fail. One only has her testimony about her self to go on--when she's around to give it. She's often away in the FAIRY ROADS which are thought to be the "spirit" side of Earth hinted at in Atlantean records and hops in and out of Earth usually to visit a museum or take in a movie.

The Federal Government rigged the STATESMEN voting in the hopes to draw her out and learn more about her.

Apparently she lived on a farm in Kansas that's no longer there. She says she moved her family and farm to a place called "IX" where she is treated by its fanciful inhabitants like a princess. She says that she's a member of IX's "Royal Exploration Core" and travels the Fairy Lands to map and record them for the "Queen of Faeries" who has apparently recruited many beings from Earth and "other places" to be her explorers.

She's identified and named potential "Earth Folk" as her fellow explorers, but background checks have been inconclusive so far.

The maps she brings back to Earth are blank. She claims one needs to be able to see in "Fairy" in order to see them just as one must first know English to read English.

She claims to be best friends with the Princess of Faeries and claims that she watches over her with a magic mirror that can "See Everything, and the places around and between it as well". Her magic protects her, and this has been shown when Francine was caught in the crossfire between DAGGER agents...

RHODE ISLAND
 Herbert Hutchinson and the Unfathomable Otherthing.

Originally born under a dark sign of even darker prophesy, the older brother has since been trying to steer is monstrous twin towards the side of good. Will as a scholar of the occult is all too aware about sinister things going on, but has become a gifted investigator and student of the unfathomable, but ultimately meek on his own. And in times of crisis he can call his twin brother, a dangerous eldritch creature to do the fighting for him (Gigantor style). Were it not for the sibling bond the monstrous twin would definitely be all too willing to let those darker impulses take hold and wreak havok.

Otherthing is considered the Statesman rep proper, Herbert is his "handler".

Herbert's a little paranoid and a bit twitchy, with good reason, while the Otherthing is SO damn eager to do what it does best.

 TENNESSEE
The Haunter

A kaiju seeded a city in Japan with mental entities that hatched, grew, and bonded to humans. But just as there are alien kaiju and native native kami there are natives to the mental plane of Earth.

The Theosophists call them "Thought-Forms". They are the flora and fauna of the mental side of Earth. And sometimes they are able to press through and affect physical space.

The Native Americans of the plains called them Thunderbirds or Haokah. The invisible storm, and the plains of North America are thick with these mental spirits just as Japan is thick with kami, although kami are of a spiritual substance while these "Thought-forms" are of a mental substance.

Unlike the modern restless kami the thoughtforms of the mid-west break through and rage for a time before dissipating back into the mental Earth, and these actions contribute to the mid west's "tornado alley" image.

Sometimes, men and women of a sensitive nature call to these thought forms and establish an unbreakable bond with them. The thought-form nourishes itself on the psychic powers trapped into the sensitive, particularly the power found in the unfettered Id.

Betty Harper was girl with an imaginary friend.

Her friend talked back.

Her friend threw things.

And people.

Betty Harper, like many before her was a "focus" for a poltergeist, a thought-form bonded to the emotions of a sensitive.The thought-form took on the persona of Betty's subconscious, as poltergeist often do when their focus has deeply repressed emotions. It called herself "Mad Mary" and claimed to be the ghost of local super villain Mary Wiesman.

This was of course a cover. Poltergeist are partly of the thought-forms will and partly of its focus' will. The guise of Mary Weisman allowed the Poltergeist to enact Betty's fantasies of revenge against her family and community.

Most poltergeist typically disturb a single household

The "Belltown Haunter" disturbed the entire town. Such was the untapped power inside Betty Harper's mind.

"Mad Mary" began as an imaginary friend that talked to Betty and played with her. But over time she became increasingly violent. She threw dishes, then furniture, then tress, then houses. She appeared as a horrible, skeletal wrath, other times a ball of fire. She promised to make the town "pay" for what they "did to her".

She began with simple pranks. Teleporting drivers to a different road. Scrambling clocks and timepieces. Shorting out the electricity. Demanding song and dance on her birthday. But these pranks gave way to displays of outright violence. Picking up people and throwing them. Then choking them. She never killed, but came disturbingly close at times.


Her most vehement displays of violence were directed toward her ex-playmate Betty Harper and her family. She left Betty bruised and battered and her father with several broken bones, allegedly because he had been on the jury that sentenced her to life in prison

But investigator MS CRYPTIC understood how poltergeist hauntings worked. "The Belltown Haunter" was altogether like other poltergeist cases except for its raw power.

Betty Harper had been abused by her father for years. When confronted with this fact Betty set off Mad Mary into a whirlwind that nearly leveled the entire town and would have if not for the intervention of Kansas cape DUST DEVIL who contained the rampaging poltergeist within a tornado of his own creation.

Years have past sense the "Belltown Haunting" and Betty Harper has learned to not only live with "Mad Marry" but to control her.

"Mad Marry" (no longer disguising itself as Mary Weisman she nonetheless grew fond of the name) is now Betty's closest friend, sharing all her secrets and thoughts. And sometimes she's her bitterest enemy. Mad Marry is pure id. She wants what Betty wants but even more so.

But strangely Mad Mary does not hate Betty. As a matter of fact she's rather fond of her. She is after all as much thought-form as she is Betty, and when she harmed her she was simply expression Betty's won self-hatred.

Betty has grown into a calm, collected young woman that calls herself "Haunter" to accept the title the press gave her and make it her own. She controls Mad Mary through music, because music helps focus and channel her thoughts and emotions. She views Mad Mary as a being with a body of vibrations and a heart of emotions, and she views music the same way.

For simple actions such as moving objects or appearing in the visible form of a sinister Hag Betty uses a flute or she whistles. For complicated actions such as controlling the weather or stopping time she uses her trusty violin.

Haunter was chosen to join the Statesmen in recognition of her turning personal tragedy into triumph. And although she has proven herself defeating super villains and assisting in disasters and crises she feels undeserving of the honor of joining the Statesmen. She can't help but feel inadequate when compared to members like DR GLACIER and AXEMAN.

She's kept in touch with MS CRYPTIC throughout the years and views her as a favorite aunt and was delighted to find that she was on the team as well.

So basically Poltergeist articles from Fortean Times + Bell Witch + Carrie + Johnny Thunderbolt.

NORTH DAKOTA
Rugaru


Tom Sullivan was never the smartest man, or the richest. Fact is, he was pretty dumb, and damn poor. He was so dumb and so poor that he tried to rob the mansion of a creepy old woman who everyone else in his town had the good sense to avoid. As it turned out, that old woman was a witch, and was right pissed that Tom had broken into her home. She cursed him on the spot and drove him into the wilderness.

Angry, afraid, and twisted into an inhuman form, Tom couldn't think of any better plan than to stay out there, becoming something of a legend. It was years later that Ms. Cryptic came to investigate the wildman of North Dakota, and discovered the scared, near-feral man. She brought him back to civilization, where he was nursed back to health and sanity. Tom put in an application for the Statesmen as soon as he heard "that nice bug lady" was joining up with them.

Rugaru, as Tom's now called, is a ten-foot tall ape-man strong enough to wrestle a gorilla with one arm and a grizzly bear with the other. When he flips out on a rampage he gets even stronger. He's also got steel-hard teeth and claws, and a hide tough enough that small-arms fire just makes him mad.


VERMONT
Libertas

Libertas's first memory is of waking up in a cornfield in Vermont, in the year 1777, the same day the state signed the abolition of slavery into its constitution. She was taken in by the family who farmed that field, and they taught her how to survive in this strange world she found herself in. It was maybe a month later that Libertas had an oddly real-seeming dream, one that led her to joining the Underground Railroad. Almost a century later a similar dream drove her to Washington, to advise and protect the newly elected president Lincoln. Her ultimate failure in this task is one of Libertas's greatest regrets.

So it was for the long centuries of her life, cryptic dreams leading Libertas from one cause for freedom to the next, as though there were some higher purpose guiding her. She does not know whether she is an angel, a god, or something stranger still, only that she may never rest until freedom rings in all corners of the globe. Libertas believes her latest dream involves the Statesmen somehow, and thus sought membership on the team.

In terms of powers Libertas is able to fly, and can break any bonds on herself or another. She also has centuries of experience in protecting herself, though mostly with archaic means like sabers and muskets.


ALABAMA
Snakecharmer


A devout, though very unorthodox, Christian who hopes to use his position in the Statesmen as an opportunity to preach his beliefs to a wider audience. His religion can cause friction with his teammates, particularly with Alien God Killer, who he sees as a false deity.


At a young age Snakecharmer was bitten by a viper during a church service, which resulted in a near-death experience that awakened his latent magical abilities. He insists that his abilities are miracles granted by God, and puts forth the fact that he must speak in tongues to cast magic as evidence of this. Snakecharmer specializes in protective and healing magic, and in controlling snakes.

MAINE
The answer to everyone that wanted a female foil for Waveracer.

Before even the Black Minister began his violent crusade against crime the docks and shores of Maine were protected from smugglers, pirates, and all manner of outlaws by The Fisherman!

The 1920's Fisherman was actually a family named (what else) The Fischers working together using the image of a invincible super hero to frighten criminals. The Fisherman appeared as a man in a yellow raincoat and boots, his face concealed with a black bandanna. Sometimes the Fisherman was portrayed by George Fischer, sometimes by his son Paul, and sometimes by his brother Mark. Regardless of which Fischer he was at the time the Fisherman was always the weakest of the weak in terms of powers and skills. The Fischers were fishermen, not combatants or masterminds. They fought crime through their knowledge of the coast and waters and with simple theatre illusions Mark Fischer read about in books. Their solution to an aggressive smuggler was to throw a net at him, and if that didn’t’ work through another net at him. Even back in his heyday the Fisherman was often the subject of jokes especially when compared to the bloody supernatural war of the Black Minister or the two-fisted justice of the Crime Buster Club. But they were loved by the little coastal town they protected. Some of the smugglers they apprehended even joined up with them, adding tricks and skills to the Fisherman’s arsenal. To this day the inhabitants of Maine say that no super, no matter how omnipotent, knows as much about the coast of Maine as the Fisherman
When WW2 broke out young Abraham Fischer was drafted. When OSI started seriously investigation anonymous vigilantes in an effort to tabulate how many metahuman fighters Uncle Sam had in his corner they found young Abraham, while without powers, was skilled enough in “guerrilla aquatic tactics” to be put in charge of a group of commando frogmen tasked with sabotaging German U-boat pens. So again the second Fisherman was not a single man but instead a US commando unit.
Abraham Fischer’s son Peter Fischer grew up hearing stories about his father’s fight against the Nazis. His favorite was about the time his father and a few of his Fishermen boarded an advance German U-boat set on autopilot toward the world of phantom islands, The Mystic Archipelago. As he and his crew fought fiercely for control of the massive submersible they saw through the enormous observation windows that the clear blue water was filled with…dragons with bodies like brass pipes and wings like boat sails, cities made out of pink coral with glowing windows that pulsed like lungs filling with air, and best of all women-beautiful women swimming like fishes with skin only shades removed from the color of the water. They eyed the men locked in brutal combat with innocent, curious eyes that glowed like emeralds in sunlight.

With such beauty and innocence and wonder watching them the men could no longer fight. They struck a truce and tended to their wounded and tried to establish communication with the women. They exchanged symbols, alphabets and numbers and words by drawing on the windows. One, whose eyes Abraham would see time and time again in dreams, locked eyes with him and drew three symbols on the window.

Then the mighty German vessel lost its bearings in the mystic archipelago and in a whirl of waters and bubbles found its way back to German waters.

The soldiers departed, the Germans in their vessel and the Americans in an escape raft. They could not bear to resume fighting after what they had experienced.


The pre-war scientific community turned its attention to the stars, using astral projection to explore the spirit sides of the moon and Mars and Venus and other planets and places. The post-war community focused on accessing Earth's own spiritual side. It was as if barriers placed in front of man preventing him from accessing this side were beginning to erode, as if a great will that had resolutely blocked progress into the spirit of Earth suddenly had doubts (Atlanteans again keeping physical Earth and Spirit Earth separate)

Peter Fischer was recruited by the earliest incarnation of ARGO to help lead expeditions into the mystical archipelago. Attempts to translate the writings of the water-nymphs had been unsuccessful. But now Peter was determined to know what it was the angelic woman wrote when she met his father's eyes.

The Argo research vessel using unearthed Nazi research found a path through the physical oceans that lead to the mythical land of Thule. They found the land no longer innocent and peaceful. The WW2 voyage had frightened its leaders. They reacted with violence to the new arrivals, commanding the water itself to destroy the vessel.

Many died when the vessel ruptured, but a few including Peter escaped in environment suits that would form the inspiration for AXEMAN'S earliest attempts at creating his DRYAD suit.

The stuff of legends happened. Peter and his friends allied themselves with the Thule (ian?) daughter of the woman his father has seen, a brave woman that embraced rather than fear the unknown just as Peter did.

Together they overthrew the corrupt Queen and the rulers of Thule. Together they began construction of a way to return to Earth and establish peaceful contact between Thule and the nations.
They had a lot of time while the water-gate was being constructed. A lot of time to get to know each other and experiment.

They both loved the unknown, remember?

When they finally had a working water-gate between physical Earth and Thule they brought a little daughter home with them, half Thule and half Human.

She wore a necklace of the three symbols Abraham saw, three symbols whose meaning her grandmother saw in the eyes of her grandfather before she wrote them. PEACE, IS THE DAUGHTER OF, COURAGE.

Her Thule name incorporates these three symbols, but she finds it easier on the throat for people to just call her "Laura".

She's apart of a legacy of explorers and peacekeepers, and her hybrid heritage has given her enhanced strength, speed, and a control over water itself that bests even Thule's greatest Aquakinetics. Her skin is a rosy pink color and her eyes a deep sapphire blue. Unlike other Thule, she has a head of black hair she's rather fond of, loving the way it whips around as she darts through the water. Also unlike other Thule her hands and feet are not webbed, but she has their pupil-less eyes.

Waveracer sometimes teasingly calls her "Sea Monkey" because of her pink skin.

She typically wears a bright yellow bikini or one piece to honor the legacy of the 1920's Fisherman, but sometimes switches to a more color-conscious dark blue set given to her as a gift from German fashion company UBER SPIEGEL.

She proudly wears the name FISHER-GIRL to honor her legacy, and those that mock her choice of handle (usually Waveracer) feel her wrath.

She's an adventurous, playful, sporty tomboy. Her best friend/enemy is WAVERACER, and the two constantly exchange flirtation and challenges. Their underwater races and sparring session are hot youtube videos and their desire to one up the other just makes them like the other all the more, much to their mutual frustration and excitement.

MONTANA
Reverend Luther (or "The Reverend")

Reverend Isaac Luther is a young-looking catholic priest of a small congregation in Montana, who claims his powers come directly from God.
He is stronger, faster, and overall physically superior to a human in every way. There have been reports of him catching bullets shot at him and catching up to runaway cars on foot and overturning them.

The truth behind his powers is that he was doing missionary work in Africa in the 1960s when he found a tribe of men hidden in a cave system. They claimed to be "guardians of god" and gave to him an ancient human-looking skull engraved with mysterious runes as a gift "from the first prophet to the last".

It took him years to decipher any of the markings on the skull, having to work through hebrewic scriptures, sanskrit, and even ancient sumerian scripts, to work out that the tribesman had given him what he calls "the skull of Enoch".
The first of the words he managed to decipher and work out how to say was "might", but as he uttered the word in the ancient language, his body changed. He was empowered by the word, and came to the conclusion that it must be the language of God.

Since then, he doesn't look like he's aged one bit, and he has deciphered a few more of the words, but he refuses to utter any of them unless there is no alternative and he can be sure no one can hear him, because although the power behind them is great, every time he uses them he feels a little less human.

He was voted as Montana's representative in the statesmen in the 90s after decades of crime-fighting, and people find that his youthful vigor hasn't diminished at all even after almost four continuous decades worth of heroism.

The Statesmen themselves aren't quite sure how powerful the Reverend is, as he 'barely' won the Rugaru in arm wrestling, then proceeded to stalemate against Dr. Glacier with just as much effort.

In addition, the idea is also that as he learns more of the ancient language of the Words, he can activate different buffs and effects, but they would leave marks on him and make him both feel and become less human each time. If he'd be reckless with the usage of them he'd slowly turn into a "biblical angel".. you know what I mean.

And I think his relations with most of the Statesmen would be rather good, especially with the Librarian who would be interested in what all the notes in ancient dead languages that the Reverend has been studying for decades mean. Rugaru would probably not like being one-upped in his field of choice by "a mere human", some of the more sciency Statesmen would be curious about where his powers come from, and Alien God Killer would probably be on edge around him.

Well, he got his powers from words engraved on a skull preserved for him from "the first prophet" and kept safe by "guardians of God". It's a very elaborate plot of some cosmic entity if it isn't God... unless that's what 'He' is


NEVADA
Atomic Cowboy

Inspired by Jack Kirby, Steve Dikto, and Terra Man

Ever been ripped from your comfortable 1850's homestead by some dude's time travel experiment conducted 100 years later on the same spot you had your house on?

Cow Puncher Tod Garza was the victim of a experimental "time bomb" tested by the US government in the 1950's. The bomb was designed to "make the H-bomb look like a sparkler" and destroy "entities of an extra-dimensional nature that might prove invulnerable to conventional means".

It vaporized him is what it did, all because the paperwork said nothing lived in the location for a hundred years.

His spirit drifted through the cosmic aether, unstuck in time and space. He found himself faced with insane vistas of living emptiness, dimensions of fractured reality and sense, micro-verses and quasi-realities.

He handled it like he handled everything in life. With yankee grit and ingenuity.

Think Dr, Strange in the middle of one of his reality-warping deals subbed out for John Wayne.

He brought peace to the seven whispering faces of Za-Tor. He left his name (but not his full name) in the silver book in the rainbow city of dreams. He defeated Death-Collector and liberated the micro-multiverse he fed on.

He has no damn idea half of what the fuck he saw or did. He just took things as they come. If someone looked like they needed help he helped them. If they looked like an asshole he punched them. He's sure he fucked up quite a few times, but he also knows that he did some good things along the way.

And eventually he found his way back to Earth and become an overnight sensation with his story and homecoming. He had rather hoped to have found 1850 Earth, but hey, it's just another strange place. He's seen weirder, except for maybe New York.

He calls himself Tod, but the press call him ATOMIC COWBOY for his appearance. he looks like a bunch of colored lights scrunched together to make an image, Like looking at a television too close. He looks like atoms glowing and vibrating together to make an image of a cowboy in a ten gallon hate.

Tod is utterly unflappable. He's seen it all, and even if he hasn't he'll just react to it with the same shrug of the shoulders and acceptance he's used throughout his strange life. Tod's not sure if he's dreaming or if he's dead or if he's an alien with memories of being a cowboy or whatever, he doesn't see all that worrying as important. What IS important is action, and Tod Garza is a man of action.

And the transformations his environment inflicted upon him have made him more than ready for action. His strange form can be dissipated through energy fields, but it always forms back. He has several senses but he "tries not to pay attention to them all otherwise I won't be able to find where -I- am in all the noise and such". He's armed with what appears to be two colt single action army revolvers but are instead what he says are "extra dimensional canons from a micro universe". They are capable of firing bullet-sized "planets" that can travel through dimensions as well as through time. He is also armed with what appears to be a shotgun slung over his back that fires "baby big bang buckshot" or what Todd calls "4b".

It does in fact seem to radiate a destructive force of infinite energy over several feet like a shotgun burst. But scientists aren't sure exactly if it really is -that- powerful. The shotgun breaks all the instruments.

Scientists don't like Tod. Unless they're New York scientists. They love him.

Tod has shown the ability to alter molecular structure at will, but is loath to do so because "it's like pulling a petal off a flower. I can't put it back once I pull".

Given his colorful, sudden appearance Tod was quickly voted the winner of the Nevada STATESMEN election, beating up five time winner COWBOY.

No Atom, no win.
Tod admits he's mostly good for just shooting stuff, and mostly keeps to himself catching up on television until he's called to shoot something big and weird and dangerous.

They call him to shoot something that looks like bad seafood that eats reality and craps insanity, he does so, and he tries to understand why everyone think he did something cool. He just shot a varmint. A big varmint is just a varmint.

That's Tod Garza. "A big varmint is just a varmint".

He's glad to find so many people that can relate to his weird, weird life in the STATESMEN. He's trying to organize a weekly poker game. He's also trying to find something to do with his powers that isn't blowing up universe eating monsters. He's envious of his fellow STATESMEN that are able to work "within" the world and change it while he just feels like a big scarecrow for big scary reality eating birds. He's talked to people like THE LIBRARIAN, FAIRY FINDER, AND AXEMAN, and they believe that in a few years he might be able to use his molecular powers with enough stability to shape matter like a C-class matter manipulator.

Tod is looking forward to learning something useful.

BASICALLY:

Tod might be controversial because he's an OP bastard, but I wanted to kind of make a point about OP characters. Sort of Doctor Manhattan meets One Punch Man with that Captain Atom scene from Multiversity. Tod is good at killing Yog-Sothoths and Galactus's and not much else. He shoots good, but there's more to life and super heroics than shooting good.

MISSISSIPPI
The Ashman

Real name Eli Rhodes
As a young teen Eli took up smoking like many others to fit in. As his love for tobacco greatly increased, so did his attempts to keep people impressed, ultimately leading to his stealing an old Indian peace pipe and smoking from it. Smoking from this pipe opened a connection between him and the Country's native spirits, who taught him the arts of turning any smoke he could produce into arts, illusions, tools weapons and all sorts.
However this power came with the cost that he must remain one with spirits and nature, requiring him to become a drifter constantly sleeping under the stars and ensuring a healthy balance between man and the spirits
Now a little older and in his mid 20s, Eli is a little more knowledgable about the world, but still hotblooded and eager to entertain


ARKANSAS
Razorback

A good old boy and college football star who was disgraced when it was discovered that he was taking an experimental supersteroid. Razorback begged his way into a nomination, seeing it as his chance for redemption in the eyes of his family and fans. He gets along well with Captain Justice and Ashman, and idolizes Atomic Cowboy, but has gotten into more than a few squabbles with Weatherman over their politics.

Razorback's costume is a modified, armoured version of his college football uniform, with tusks and spines attached to the helmet. Residual effects of the supersteroid have left him with superspeed and -strength. Despite his brutish appearance Razorback possesses a keen tactical mind.

DELAWARE
Emerald Blaze


Born of an extremely well-to-do family (in a state where corporations outnumber the population), Cassandra Carter was - and still is, to an extent - as blue-blood as they come. Despite this, she insisted on not being pampered (too much) and eventually developed a legitimate interest in aviation, what with the Dover Air Force Base in the area. She earned her pilot's license and was soon in the skies. However, while flying over Nevada, a violent cosmic crosswind caused by a clash between the Atomic Cowboy and a new device the famed Doc Chase was testing buffeted and wrecked Cassandra's plane, causing her to crash in the desert. Miraculously, however, she survived and found herself with new and amazing powers.

Cassandra had newfound control over a radiant green energy that subsumed her. She could project and control this energy from her body in various ways, such as releasing blasts of power, creating a destructive aura around her that lets her destroy whatever she touches, internalize her energy for increased strength, project a protective shield around herself that also protects her from the elements and even allows her to breathe in space and underwater, and even fly. Her skin turned a little pale and her eyes turned green, but she can live with that much.

Cassandra returned to Delaware safe and sound and promptly made a name for herself using this "emerald fire" as a hero. With a specially-comissioned jumpsuit (seen here in partial undress), the energy controller christened herself the Emerald Blaze; she promptly rose to local prominence and was a shoe-in for the Statesmen. Plus, she gets to fly all she wants with her powers, and what better feeling is that?

NORTH CAROLINA
Holograham

Back when he was human Graham Buchanan was an engineer working on light-based teleportation technology for a firm in Raleigh. One night he was working late in the lab, too engrossed in his work to notice that a tornado warning had been posted. When the tornado blew through it caused a catastrophic accident, exposing Graham to the raw energies of his prototype teleporter. Thought dead by the world, Graham painstakingly reconstituted himself out of the photonic substance his body had been transmuted into. For him, the Statesmen are as much of a support group of fellow freaks as a superhero team. Holograham maintains frequent correspondence with Dr. Glacier, who he sees as the only one on the team with a scientific mind to match his own.

Power-wise Holograham is able to project hard light holograms like a much weaker Green Lantern, and produce silent illusions. As a being of light he's immune to many of the frailties of humanity

WASHINGTON DC
The Representative AKA Public Service

It took years of lobbying by the residents of the District of Columbia for their resident hero to be included in the Statesmen, which is unfortunate, because it is hard to imagine a better fit for the team than the politically minded Representative. Born the son of a civil servant and a schoolteacher, Ed Norton has spent his entire life fighting to preserve the ideals of justice and the democratic process.

Origins
While finishing his law degree at Yale, Ed led a campaign to convert the school to clean energy using an experimental reactor designed by the school’s student engineers. The reactor generates infinite energy by moving atoms along spiritual lay lines. (see black minister, fairy finder)

campaign was a brilliant success despite vocal opposition from the school board, and for his help Ed was allowed to press the button bringing the reactor online. As the reactor came on line the surrounding area was converted to intangible energy for a brief moment, including Ed. When he flickered back into reality, Ed was forever changed.

He found that he possessed abilities far beyond the ordinary man. He can make himself intangible at will, allowing him to pass through objects. He can teleport across the globe in an instant. At will he can phase atoms of his body into another person, allowing him to a limited telepathic bond with that individual. His connection to the spiritual plane also permits him limited precognition.

Since his election to the Statesmen, Ed has spent the majority of his time defending the President from superpower threats. However, he still thinks that civil advocacy is the real way to save the world.

COLORADO
Mountain Lion

Abbey Grant was a high profile environmental terrorist who served 20 years in prison for her connection to a plot to destroy the Hoover Dam. Her time in the penal system instilled in her a fierce respect for the ideals of justice and order. She created the persona of Mountain Lion upon her release in order to protect these ideals. Many people find her tactics unnecessarily ruthless, but her unrivaled ability to bring wrongdoers to justice earned her the respect of the public and a spot with the Statesmen. If the public every learned her true identity however, there is no question that she would be unceremoniously voted out.

As Mountain Lion, Abbey relies on the skills of tactical guerrilla warfare she acquired as an environmental terrorist. 20 years in prison have also left her in peak physical condition and an incredibly skilled hand-to-hand fighter.


NEW HAMPSHIRE
Ushabti

A golem-like magical construct animated by a Dartmouth College secret society who dabbled in ancient Egyptian magic. After the society's magical mishaps came to light, those responsible were promptly expelled, though Ushabti was allowed to remain on the college grounds and became something of a Dartmouth mascot. Over the years Ushabti has protected the college from threats both internal and external, from berserk robotic engineering projects to an insane psychic looking to drain the brains of its staff. When the spot on the Statesmen for New Hampshire opened up, Dartmouth students rigged the voting system to guarantee the position for Ushabti.

Ushabti tends to be quiet, dour, and practical, though it is fiercely loyal towards those it considers its charges, and has a tremendous appetite for learning. It has weakly superhuman durability from its clay body, though Ushabti's true power lies in its immense knowledge base, having studied with the best and brightest of Dartmouth for decades

MINNESOTA
Erik the Red

Erik grew up in a little town that time forgot in central Minnesota, on the shores of pristine lake and just off the edge of the prairie. His was the quintessential midwestern life, a loving family, church on the weekends, football in the backyard with his friends. His parents never wanted nor expected him to grow up into anything but a happy, ordinary person. However ,this wasn’t exactly the case. Erik did grow up, into a hulking 8 foot tall giant of a man. Each of his arms has the thickness and strength of a gnarled old oak tree, and his chest brings to mind the freight ships which carry iron across Lake Superior. His unnatural size and strength blue his kind demeanor however, and he is capable of surprising gentleness.

Fighting evil emerged naturally from Erik’s desire for everyone to get along, and soon he found himself appointed to the Statesmen. He took the name Erik the Red as a reference to his favorite football team, the Vikings

LOUISIANA
MADAM DELPHINE

The Voodoo priestess of Louisiana (something like a state-wide sorcerer supreme) specializing in using water as a conduit for her spirit and Loa summoning. She became Vodoo priestess by defeating the previous (her own mother) in a duel-non lethally of course. One tends to not kill readily when one believes in ghosts.

Normally voodoo practitioners have spirits and gods "ride" them. Madam Delphine, being a young practitioner mistress of the mystic arts (in her 20's), breaks tradition by having her summons inhabit water. But Vodoo has always been an eclectic, evolving religion. The old guard support the ways in which she evolves magic.

The more water, the more spirits she can summon to inhabit it.

Her figuring for her style of magic is that spirits that like to inhabit human bodies must like water. Humans are mostly water. So with a little tweaking of the old spells she was able to summon ghosts -through- water so long as she has a lot of it on hand, which is why she usually keeps watch on the bayous and coasts and beaches of Louisiana.

Her most common "summon' is Jean Lafitte and his pirate crew. She can summon them in the water or draw them all into her to make herself super strong.

On land she dressed very prim and proper, almost like a delicious brown Scarlet O'Hara. But in a flash of magic she can strip herself of her clothes and appear sort of like pic related, ready to fight in an outfit that won't restrict her movements in the water (and makes men crazy).
She is a mischievous, roguish young woman. She likes playing pranks and practical jokes with her water-ghosts. It probably comes from hanging out with ghost pirates all day.

She's the 4th member of the "water squad", and Blue Crab's headaches have never been larger. She delights in setting up a romantic triangle with herself, Fisher-Girl, and Waveracer. She finds it good, spirited competition. May the best girl win Florida's Finest-and she intends to.

She likes to tease Fish-Girl with the fact that she's beaten her in sparring more than she's beaten her, but Fish-Girl replies that having an aquatic army is cheating and that one-on-one she has the most wins.
CONNECTICUT
Connecting Cut
“The Man with Steady Hands”

James Hutchling loved reading stories of great knights and warriors as a kid. He spent his childhood practicing swordplay with fallen sticks in his backyard. When he turned fourteen he left home, and traveled across the world studying all variety of sword-based martial arts. He studied fencing in Spain, Kendo and Kenjutsu in Japan, gladiatorial combat in Rome, and historical european martial arts in England. He also became a keen student of metallurgy during this time period, learning to forge and repair his swords.

Having mastered every conceivable style of sword-based combat, Hutchling set out to uncover the great historical weapons of the past.

Hutchling tracked down the Sword of Troy to a small village off the coast of the Caspian sea. The sword was an heirloom of a family of fishermen. Hutchling threatened to slaughter the family unless they surrendered the sword, but an old man stepped forward to challenge him. The old man fought Hutchling to a standstill, and would have killed him had the young swordsman not fled. Confused and hurt, Hutchling could not understand why he had lost the duel. Eventually he decided that the old man had won because he had been protecting his family, and that the truest path to strength lay in having people to protect. He returned to his home in Connecticut, resolving that he would become the state’s champion and in so doing acquire the strength to defeat the old man and claim his sword.

At any given time Connecting Cut carries an Urumi (flexible whip like sword from india), A great sword, a chinese broadsword, a katana, a gladius, an epee, a khopesh, and any variety of shortswords and knives. He also has access to a variety of specialized and enchanted weapons, acquired throughout his travels across the world. He generally uses these weapons when the situation requires it.
IDAHO
Gemstone

A powerhouse of an android which operates by means of an unknown power source, Gemstone is able to convert trapped energy in various valuable stones into a variety of powerful effects.For example, Gemstone gains solar powered flight and cosmic beams from consuming the Star Garnet. He gains the ability to shoot invisible fire from the Pinafore opal. Bruneau Jasper lets him melt into the ground and travel that way, and so on.

Gemstone narrowly won the election to the Statesman over his “brother” a shapeshifting android named Tater Titan. Both of these powerhouse crime fighters were created by the enigmatic Dr. Tuberous, a scientist who has devoted his life to studying the functions of the humble potato. Tuberous has functionally quadrupled the crop yields throughout Idaho and empowered some of the regions most famous heroes. However, his research and demeanor are so boring that no one can ever remember his name or his achievements.

MISSOURI
Bob Cat
a shapeshifting trickster spirit bound to the various rivers and streams of Missouri. Somewhat Tomboyesque, it is somewhat difficult to tell whether this master of ruse and deception is actually on the side of justice. The people love her though, and associate her with the famed antics of fictional Missouri natives Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. When interacting with villains, she often makes use of her catchphrase “Show me.”

"Oh? You think you can rob that river boat casino do you? Show me."

"Oh? You think you can take little ol' me in a fight? Show me."

"You think you're going to get away with that? Show me.”

She's from the spiritual side of the Missouri, loving that the Atlanteans can't force her back because of some trick she pulled on them. She knows Fairy Finder and finds her to be annoying in that she keeps wanting her to join up with her band of adventurers and travel the fairy lanes. She likes the physical side of Missouri way too much to ever go back to the spiritual.



Other supers non affiliated with the statesmen but canonically created in universe:


Albany Man
 believes the Capes in NYC are too cool or too busy for this 50 states thing.


FLORIDA MAN, is a ghostly Deadman-esque apparition that posesses the normal Floridians and grants them the power to accomplish great things.

Rescuing a cat from a tumbledryer by driving through the front door of the local minimart.

Inspiring the local arsonist to stop a bankrobbery by burning down an ice cream truck.

A down on her luck granny saving a runaway bus full of children by tossing a alligator in the way.

FLORIDA MAN always does the right thing, the wrong way. essentially Cape World's version of The Creeper. Nominally a hero, but his methods are questionable and sometimes other heroes have to clean up the mess.


William O’Wisp

a gangster who's been returned to earth with hellfire to punish the wicked and unrighteous in order to work off his own crimes.

But Illinois locals just think he's your standard fire guy.


George Bachmann
Bachmann is a foul mouthed, cynical sorcerer with a heart of gold buried deep underneath his hardened exterior. He spent years studying in The Librarian’s extra-dimensional library, and now uses his otherworldly knowledge to combat a variety of paranormal threats.

He first came into the public eye after vanquishing a coven of vampires which had been terrorizing Cumberland County. Later, when the residents of the small town of North Haven were possessed by the malevolent spirits of a crashed UFO, Bachmann collaborated with the extrahuman in order to exorcise the aliens to the spiritual plane of their home planet. When the town of Little Tall faced destruction in a terrible storm, Bachmann struck a deal with the Devil and traded him the soul of a young boy for the town’s safety. Most recently he has been tracking the activity of a sociopathic cult leader named Randall Flagg, who seems to be gathering power towards some dark end.

Bachmann was in the running to be elected Maine’s statement, but he lost the election to Fischer Girl. He has gone on record referring to the Statesmen as “a sordid collection of has-beens and bureaucrats who can’t take a piss without congressional approval”.

The Hoosier from Gary: A former member of the Statesmen. He was a former astronaut who gained the ability to project an Venus-like atmosphere around himself. He was a living weapon of mass suffocation for a while - often clashed with other Statesmen over him going too far.

Turned out his powers came from an alien parasite, and he became a sentient cubic-mile storm of toxic gases. The Statesmen took it down, and the government disappeared it - they're totally not keeping it just in case, you guys.


storm trooper
a member of the Canadian Expeditionary Force young Alex Addy (names a WIP) was issued a seemly normal Ross rifle to use as a sniper. however this gun was unique compared to it's brethren as it's wood was made from a forest where a first nation tribe made shaman staffs from.
during the battle of Ypres the magic in the wood activated giving Alex power over storms, allowing him to push away much of the chlorine gas as his poor control of the magic could.
he then spent much of ww1 and 2 battling other supers until he retired having become a national icon for many Canadians during that era. his grandson would later find the magic gun and become the storm trooper of the 21st century but that a story for a another time.

now I have a bit of a issue on what having control over storms would mean in terms of superpowers, especially for a soldier. I'd like to hear any ideas you guys have for something like that.

one idea I had was that when ever he used the powers a very small storm would show up messing up the aim everyone but him. think a weaponized version of the storm clouds that show up over a cartoon characters head when they get sad.


Ogopogo
A long thought extinct plesiosaur that patrols the Great Lake at the St. lawerence Seaway, protecting children and the natural environment. research into the Lake Monster discovers that it travels so quickly from lake to lake because it's accessing a portal system that links ALL the lakes in the US together through a small, watery dimension. What else lurks in those murky, freshwater depths?