A Golden Age villain in the modern day.
John "Jackstraws" Shapiro, the Multi-Mobster
The gangster formerly known as John "Jackstraws" Shapiro gained his super-powers in the late 1940s during a tussle between a masked hero and a mob-backed mad scientist. He took advantage of his new abilities to climb the ranks of the Shapiro crime family during the post-War years, operating as the "Multi-Mobster" - a title given to him by the radio news reporters of the era, but one he's nostalgic about and still uses to this day. His rise ended when he ran afoul of the IRS, of all things. The tax fraud conviction lead to further investigations, and eventually he was sentenced to 60 years for an assortment of crimes. That might have been the end of his career - but his cosmic powers had nearly halted his aging, and he settled in to serve his time quietly while continuing to "keep in touch" with his mob friends on the outside.
"Jackstraws" walked out of prison in 2018, sentence served and not looking a day older. It took a few years to settle back into the groove after his "vacation" but in 2022 the criminal underworld is buzzing with the news. The Multi-Mobster is back, and he means business!
Description: A rather dumpy, average looking middle-aged man in an expensive tailored suit, unremarkable except for his fabulous mustache, one that would make Hercule Poirot proud. Oh, and the fact that he's literally softly glowing with cosmic energies, which brighten as he uses his powers.
Gender: Male Age: 104 (looks about 40) Height: 5'11" Eyes: Glowing White
Hair: Glowing Yellow Skin: Glowing Orange Build: Portly
Approach: Creator Archetype: Legion
Health: 10 + (5 x H)
Powers: Cosmic d10, Agility d8, Vitality d8, Teleportation d6
Qualities: Ranged Combat d10, Close Combat d8, Banter d8, Shapiro Family Mob Boss d8, Leadership d8
Status: (# of Legion Minions) 0 - d12 / 1-2 - d10 / 3-4 - d8 / 5-8 - d6 / 9+ - d4
Abilities:
Cosmic Bodyguard (R) When you would take physical damage, prevent that damage and create a legion minion with a die size equal to your status die (after creating that minion). You may use this reaction more than once per round, but each use after the first deals 1 irreducible damage to you.
Cosmic Underboss (A) Use Cosmic to create a lieutenant of the same die size as your Max die.
Cosmic Wiseguys (A) Add two legion minions with a die size one lower than your current status die, to a minimum of d4.
Energy Reclamation (R) When one of your minions is destroyed, roll its die and Recover that much Health.
Too Many Crooks Spoil the Stew (I) Whenever multiple legion minions all take the same action against the same target, you must roll all their dice at once and use the lowest rolling die amongst them for each minion's result on that action.
Upgrades & Masteries (optional):
Power Boost (I) +20 Health. Increase all Power dice sizes by one (max d12).
Master of Profitability (I) If you have access to great wealth and other resources, automatically succeed at an Overcome to leverage those resources to get even richer, no matter who pays the price.
Tactics
Shapiro's powers all revolve his ability to make identical duplicates of himself out of cosmic energy. They can act on their own but have a limited lifespan and fade away into nothingness if separated from their creator by any great distance - a city block or two, tops. It's not clear if they're capable of truly independent thought. They certainly talk like they're real people despite being perfectly obedient to the Multi-Mobster and having no sense of self-preservation. Both Shapiro and his duplicates temporarily conjure up suitable weapons when making attacks, favoring glowing cosmic-energy tommy-guns for ranged attacks and a mix of equally luminescent crowbars, tire irons, and brass knuckles for a brawl.
While his powers are pretty impressive against regular gangsters and police, Shapiro's probably not quite ready for a modern day super-fight. His opponents in the old days were low powered or unpowered types for the most part, and other than a few super-prison scuffles he's been out of action for 60-odd years. If he thinks he's in serious danger of getting rubbed out, he'll resort to his rarely-used teleportation power to make an escape if he can.
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