Making MHR Characters: Gazer (ANOHotMU #4)

Pre-Apocalypse

Gazer is a good example of how Marvel can take an interesting, low-powered character and make them boring and overpowered.

When we first meet Gazer, he's alone in the middle of space, the only one who can survive the terrible radiation of his space station thanks to his mutant powers. He's alone and he's happy, content to live life on the edge of space, interacting with people only at a distance. And, yes, there's some narrative play with the idea that a person who's so good at seeing the detail in things keeps people as far away as possible.

And then, as happens, he spots a race of evil aliens headed straight toward Earth, so he does he knows he has to and contacts the X-Men, hoping they can save the day. They come up to his space station, intruding on his personal space more than a little, but he copes with it well and even has a few minor moments of heroism.

Post-Apocalypse, in all his lesser-known
henchman of Skeletor-like glory

You like Gazer, or at least I think you're supposed to.

And then Apocalypse happens. Well, first Gazer, like a lot of mutants, loses his mutant powers in M-Day, tries to kill himself in the inky blackness of space, and then Apocalypse happens, turning the hapless depowered mutant into yet another one of his Horsemen. War, in this case.

And he's powerful and driven, a shattered shell of the person he used to . . . y'know what, I'm not going to finish that description because it's silly and pointless and frankly he already had a perfectly serviceable character arc before the writers started mucking around with him. Short story, he gets turned into yet another of Apocy's disposable antiheroes and goes around killing stuff and stabbing stuff until he is, in his turn, stabbed. The end.

So, this one's a twofer - you first have Gazer as he was earlier, as an interesting support character who might be kind of fun in a low-level mutant campaign or something, and then later, as a powerhouse.

Gazer (First Appearance)

Solo 1d10

Buddy 1d6

Team 1d8

Distinctions

Comfortable In Solitude

I Just Watch

Laughs to Cope

Mutant Powers

Superhuman Senses 1d10

SFX: Immunity - Spend 1 PP to ignore stress, trauma or complications from any type of radiation

Limit: Mutant - Earn 1 PP when affected by mutant specific Milestones and tech.

Medical Expert 1d8

Science Expert 1d8

Tech Expert 1d8

Vehicle Expert 1d8

Gazer (as War)

Solo 1d4

Buddy 1d6

Team 1d10

Distinctions

Born from Pain

Heartless

Loyal Soldier of Apocalypse

Mutant Powers

Enhanced Durability 1d8

Enhanced Stamina 1d8

Psychic Resistance 1d8

Solar Blasts 1d8

Superhuman Strength 1d10

SFX: Absorption - On a successful reaction against a radiation-based attack, convert your effect die into a Solar Blasts stunt or step up Solar Blasts by +1 for your next action. Spend a die from the doom pool to do so even if you failed the reaction roll.

SFX: Burst - Step up or double a Solar Blasts die against a single target. Remove the highest rolling die and add 3 for your total.

Limit: Mutant - Add a die to the doom pool when affected by mutant-specific Milestones and tech.

Apocalypse Tech

Superhuman Durability 1d10

Superhuman Speed 1d10

Superhuman Stamina 1d10

Weaponry 1d10

SFX: Self-Repair Cycle - Before you make an action including an Apocalypse Tech power, you may more your physical stress die to the doom pool.

Limit: Gear - Add a die to the doom pool to and shut down Apocalypse Tech. Activate an opportunity to recover.

Combat Expert 1d8

Menace Master 1d8

Science Expert 1d8

Tech Expert 1d8

Vehicle Expert 1d8