the Black Marvel (deceased)

Melee RV 10

Coordination RV 20

Brawn RV 20

Fortitude RV 30

Intellect RV 10

Awareness RV 20

Willpower RV 20

Lifestyle RV 10

Repute RV +2

Health: Fortune:

80 50

Origin:

Dan Lyons, the Black Marvel, was originally just a normal human. However, after he made an infernal deal with no less than Mephisto himself, Dan became something... more. Tainted by the supernatural, he has been rendered young again.

Known Powers:

(none)

Limitations / Enhancements:

(none)

Equipment:

Long Bow: though he usually fights evildoers with his fists, Dan is nonetheless a crack shot with this weapon. He can use it to inflict rank value 10 Piercing damage in ranged combat, and can use a variety of trick shots to confuse and befuddle his foes.

Quirks:

Vow: Dan has vowed to prove himself worthy to the Black Feet chief that gave him the mantle of the Black Marvel. As such, he is bent upon performing one hundred good deeds, each of which earns him a notch on his bow. He's far from completing this vow, but he tries nonetheless.

Skills:

Survival: Dan is a true outdoorsman, and can easily keep himself alive in a variety of environments, including savage deserts, arctic wastes, and even the urban jungle. He can even use this skill to recover his bearings should he lose his sense of direction, or to find food if he lacks it.

Skill / Bow 2: while taking the tests of worthiness, Dan demonstrated uncanny skills in the use of the bow; for instance, he hit a bullseye four times while blindfolded! Consider his Coordination with such weapons to be +2 RS for the purpose of attack rolls.

Contacts:

Aside from lingering contacts in the Black Feet tribe, Dan can rely upon the aid of the four youngsters he has given super-human identities to for assistance in a pinch. These four Slingers' fates have been bound to his own - in more ways than one!

Costume:

As the Black Marvel, Dan wore a black stretch fabric suit, coupled with black shorts over the stretch suit, a yellow belt, yellow gloves, yellow buccaneer boots, a red cape, and a black half-hood that covers the man's eyes but leaves the rest of his face visible.

Personality:

Dan Lyons, the Black Marvel, was dead-set on becoming a hero. So much so, in fact, that when he failed in his attempts at heroism that he became dangerously obsessed over the fact, and was driven to irrational and extreme lengths to try and 'set things right'.

Real Name: Daniel 'Dan' Lyons
Occupation: adventurer
Legal Status: American citizen with no known criminal record, legally deceased
Marital Status: single
Alias(es), if any: none
Group Affiliation: none

Height: 5' 9'
Hair: brown, then gray, then brown again
Eyes: green
Weight: 170 lbs
Other Distinguishing Characteristics: none

Story:

After the last three viable candidates fail the many tests of worth, tribal outsider Dan Lyons asked the dying Black Feet chief if he could attempt them as well. Since Dan's father had helped the chief out in the past, he saw no problem with this.

Dan was then given extreme trials of speed, strength and stamina. These included besting deer in a foot race, outswimming salmon in the river, striking multiple bullseyes while blindfolded, and even catching several arrows fired at him from an ambush!

For his last trial, Dan must kill a huge bear... unarmed! Managing this feat with relative ease, he returned to the Black Feet with the dead bear in tow, and upon his arrival he was given the mantle of the Black Marvel - and was admonished to act in loyalty, honesty and clean living!

Promising to live up to the Black Marvel legacy, Dan collected his new costume and vowed to carve one notch in his bow for every good act he committed to help mankind. Happy with this, the dying chief finally passed on and left Dan to get on with the business of heroics.

Returning to the city, Dan found the power cut suddenly and, investigating this mystery, located several armed thugs sabotaging the power plant. Trouncing them, he then interrogated one thug to this destruction a distraction to facilitate their robbery of the local armory!

Breaking up this crime before it was too late, Dan discovered the whole plot was hatched by a so-called Combine of Crime, a corporation of criminals bent on taking over all illicit activity in the city. Naturally, though, the man died of an inexplicable heart attack before snitching further.

Dan never got to the bottom of this so called Combine of Crime though, for he was next seen fighting a gang of Nazis hanging out in the States. They had killed Professor Eisenberg, a man who had fled Germany to dedicate his life to the cause of Democracy itself!

Dan next did battle as the Black Marvel to end the crime spree of the so-called Grinner, a formerly peaceful scientist who had managed to transform himself into a sociopathic freak with a would-be cure for pneumonia. The Grinner lost his mob - and his very life - in battle with our hero.

Wandering abroad, Dan became embroiled in a plot to swindle the Chisolm diamond mine away from its owner in South Africa. Investigating, Dan was overpowered and given to cannibals for lunch, but our hero persevered and stopped the would-be swindler from making off with the mine.

Returning to the States, Dan next mixed it up with 'Longnails' Legarva, a mobster trying to force an ex-con to go bad to rob the bank he's working at now. Naturally, Dan had been hunting him for some time as the Black Marvel and, growing wise to Legarva's plot, foiled it handily.

Though a majority of Dan's further escapades have yet to be revealed, he nonetheless continued to have bizarre adventures like these for the duration of World War II, slowly adding notches to his bow all the while.

In the late 1940s, Dan took a turn for the worse when he failed to rescue several people during a fire at New York's Grand Royale hotel. He managed several saves but didn't get everyone, and this (to him) failure gnawed at him day in and day out.

His guilt only became worse when, years later, a movie about the tragedy served to amplify his self-recriminations. Retiring from active heroism, Dan slowly descended into his own mania, planning to somehow recreate the disaster and save everyone in danger this time.

He temporarily resumed his costumed heroics during a party hosted by fellow Golden Age hero the Angel, and helped to save a weakened Captain America from Zeitgeist, a fellow with a problem regarding super heroes in general - and who was targeting the first of them.

Possibly spurred on by this, Dan was much more amenable than he should have been when he was approached by the diabolical Mephisto. Knowing his desire, the demon made a deal for Dan's soul: he would restore him to his youth, and give him four costumed identities to disperse.

Agreeing, Dan was restored from his aged state to his physical peak, and proceeded to give these four costumes out to college students that came to call themselves the Slingers - a tribute to Spider-Man, who had used all four identities at one point or another.

Active again as the Black Marvel, Dan mentored these youths until they caught wind of his plan to burn down a newly reopened Grand Royale hotel - during which he'd intended to rescue everyone trapped inside. Confused by the panic inside, Dan sort of fell apart during his plot.

Once he was incapacitated by the Slingers, they went on to save everyone in the building he'd immolated. Shortly thereafter, Mephisto came calling to collect Dan's soul, in addition to those of his youthful charges as payment for his apparently 'evil' tutelage.

They rallied around their stricken mentor though, abandoning their super-heroic identities to save his soul. Once freed, Dan's soul then passed on from Mephisto's Lower Depths to a much more amenable afterlife. He has not yet reappeared, but one never knows.

Now that he's been tainted with the supernatural, Dan could theoretically reappear at any time.

Extra Goodies:

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