This ludicrously named villain was inspired by the old Superworld adventure Bad Medicine For Doctor Drugs. If you're a fan of adding a "publishing history" metatext to your games, he would have started appearing in 1971 (a nod to the real-world "Snowbirds Don't Fly" story in Green Lantern/Green Arrow) and was dragged out in later years whenever the publisher wanted to make a show of warning readers about the dangers of drug abuse, particularly in the 80s. The Professor probably appeared alongside Nancy Reagan and McGruff the Crime Dog at some point.
Most of his stories were awkward borderline PSAs, but there were some attempts at edgy 90s stuff that played him as a more "realistic" villain. The post-2000s saw deconstructions trying to give him an actual backstory and more believable motivations. The best of those would probably mirror Jekyll and Hyde's themes mashed up with Timothy Leary's advocacy of psychedelics.
In a game his whole schtick might be a very touchy subject, so check with your table before using him as either awkward camp or a more serious threat. Drug addiction and abuse are not subjects to be taken lightly. If you do use him he'd work well in a story arc with the Triple Threat Gang, who gained their powers from a drug called Supe that might easily be one of his creations.
Mechanically, there are two different writeups for the Professor. The first uses the Inventor archetype and is more of a team player, willing to cooperate with other full-blown supervillains when their motivations align. The second is a Loner, and only voluntarily works with those he deems his inferiors, all of whom are invariably users of his drugs in one form or another.
Professor Pusher
Professor John Drummond is a proponent of better living through chemistry in its most extreme form, with a real genius for brewing up wonder drugs with all manner of metabolic effects. Moreover, he's as aggressive about exposing others to his concoctions as he is about self-experimentation, and if that leads to some bad reactions or addiction that's just the cost of progress in his eyes. His "Professor Pusher" supranym started out as a nickname invented by students of his college courses while he was still employed in the teaching field. He's fully embraced it since transitioning into full-time "unconventional pharmacological research" as he calls it. Most people would say it's mad science and outright supervillainy.
In addition to a boundless array of drugs and toxins capable of a wide variety of effects, Professor Pusher has experimented on himself extensively. At this point his own body is capable of synthesizing and combining chemicals internally, resisting and regenerating physical damage, and exuding all manner of helpful and harmful substances at will. He also has access to large numbers of "customers" addicted to his recreational substances and aid from minor villains created through his dabbling in super-solider empowerment serums.
Description: A bald middle-aged man with coke-bottle glasses, wearing a white lab coat and armored black gloves with super-tech needle spitters, chem sprays and injectors built in. He has a wavering falsetto voice and gives off a strange, sweetish chemical scent. Disarming him is harder than it looks, since his metabolism has been altered to the point where he's his own pharmacopoeia.
Gender: Male Age: 55 Height: 5'10" Eyes: Watery Blue, Thick Glasses
Hair: Bald Skin: Caucasian, Chemical Stains On Hands Build: Stoop-Shouldered
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Professor Pusher (enthusiastic cooperative version)
Approach: Overpowered Archetype: Inventor
Health: 45 + (5 x H)
Powers: Inventions d12, Toxic d10, Vitality d10
Qualities: Master of Mad Pharmacology d8, Persuasion d8, Science d6
Status: (# of Inventions/Mods) 4+ - d12 / 2-3 - d10 / 1 - d8 / 0 - d6
Abilities:
Chemical Savant (A) Whenever you create a bonus, increase that bonus by one.
Dangerous Overdose (A) Attack using Toxic. Use your Max + Mid + Min dice. Hinder yourself using your Max die. Take damage equal to your Mid + Min dice.
Shared High (A) Boost yourself using Inventions. Recover Health equal to your Max die. Each of your nearby allies Recovers Health equal to your Min die. Each of your nearby minions or lieutenants whose die size has been degraded at all increases their die size by one step.
Take Your Medicine (A) Boost using Inventions. Use your Max die. Boost again using your Mid die, then either make one of those bonuses persistent and exclusive, or Attack with your Min die.
Upgrades & Masteries (optional):
Brainwashing Drugs (I) +10 Health. While the scene is in the green zone, all heroes' qualities of d8 or higher are reduced by one die size. In the Yellow zone all of the heroes' qualities of d10 or higher are reduced by one additional step (two die sizes total). In the Red zone, all heroes' quality dice are treated as d4. Heroes can remove this upgrade with three overcome successes. If a hero takes a minor twist while taking these Overcomes, they lose access to a quality entirely until this upgrade is removed. If a hero is knocked out while this ability is active, create a new friendly minion with a die size equal to the hero's largest power die to represent the brainwashed hero.
Master of Mad Science (A) As long as you have access to materials, automatically succeed at an Overcome by using scientific principles and inventions.
Tactics
This version of Professor Pusher concentrates on supporting his allies, whether they're other full-blown villains, lieutenants like gang leaders or weaker hired supers or mobs of junkie minions in his thrall. He relies heavily on Take Your Medicine to amp up allies and his own status die while Chemical Savant makes all his Boost actions more effective. He'll selectively use Shared High to Boost himself and heal his entire team as needed, resorting to Dangerous Overdose only when hard-pressed and running out of allies to support.
His upgrade limits heroes pretty badly, and makes the risk of going Out much worse for them while in effect. The Professor might even throw a Dangerous Overdose attack or order massed fire from allies at a vulnerable-looking target to spawn a free brainwashed minion. His mastery works mostly with chemical science, but he's also dabbled in nanotech to emulate pharmacological effects in artificial or exotic lifeforms.
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Professor Pusher (sneeringly superior version)
Approach: Overpowered Archetype: Loner
Health: 45 + (5 x H)
Powers: Inventions d12, Toxic d10, Vitality d10
Qualities: Master of Mad Pharmacology d8, Science d8, Leadership d6
Status: (# of Other Villains) 0 - d10 / 1-2 - d8 / 3+ - d6
Abilities:
Dangerous Overdose (A) Attack using Toxic. Use your Max + Mid + Min dice. Hinder yourself using your Max die. Take damage equal to your Mid + Min dice.
Metabolic Tolerance (A) Attack using Toxic. Use your Max die. Recover Health equal to your Mid + Min dice.
More Where They Came From (A) When a non-minion ally in this scene is defeated, roll your single Science die to Boost yourself.
Shared High (A) Boost yourself using Inventions. Recover Health equal to your Max die. Each of your nearby allies Recovers Health equal to your Min die. Each of your nearby minions or lieutenants whose die size has been degraded at all increases their die size by one step.
Upgrades & Masteries (optional):
Brainwashing Drugs (I) +10 Health. While the scene is in the green zone, all heroes' qualities of d8 or higher are reduced by one die size. In the Yellow zone all of the heroes' qualities of d10 or higher are reduced by one additional step (two die sizes total). In the Red zone, all heroes' quality dice are treated as d4. Heroes can remove this upgrade with three overcome successes. If a hero takes a minor twist while taking these Overcomes, they lose access to a quality entirely until this upgrade is removed. If a hero is knocked out while this ability is active, create a new friendly minion with a die size equal to the hero's largest power die to represent the brainwashed hero.
Master of Mad Science (A) As long as you have access to materials, automatically succeed at an Overcome by using scientific principles and inventions.
Tactics
This variant of Professor Pusher won't tolerate working with other proper supervillains, relying on masses of addicted minions and lieutenant-grade minor supers he's empowered himself for protection. He'll still support them with Shared High but is more likely to resort to Dangerous Overdose early, then heal up with repeated Metabolic Tolerance attacks before repeating. Defeating lieutenants (or other villains, if he's being forced by circumstance to work with them) just helps him out with More Where They Came From. He has a lot of self-healing as a Loner, and will tend to put any bonuses he accrues into Recovering Health even faster.
His upgrades and masteries don't change, but his higher damage output and more aggressive play style will make getting a brainwashed hero more likely.
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Professor Pusher will almost always have some allies around for an action scene, ranging from low-quality minions to minor supervillains. Their one unifying trait is that they've all sampled his drugs in one way or another, and most will be addicted to them. He always includes chemically-triggered "kill switches" in his formulas so that he can counteract their effects at will, depowering supers he's created and putting "recreational" users into a life-threatening withdrawal.
Pathetic Addict d6 minion usually, might be d8 if well-armed or using actual combat drugs, or d10 if high on a super-drug that enhances strength or agility beyond human limits, but those are usually reserved for lieutenants
Description: They can look like anyone from any walk of life, although long-term users become increasingly sickly-looking and often get careless about maintaining appearances. Some people insist that there are always telltale signs of a user, but they're kidding themselves. It's far too common to go real far down that road before anyone catches on.
Desperate For A Fix: Whenever you roll the maximum possible result on your die, treat the result as two higher. Whenever you roll a one, count the result as zero and reduce your die size by one step. If this would reduce your die below a d4, you are defeated.
D-List Supervillain d10 or d12 lieutenant
Description: These are minor-league villains who've gained their limited powers from Professor Pusher's experimental super-serums, doing his bidding either to get their next hit or because he's got them under chemical mind-control. They're as likely to be wearing civilian clothing as not, and when they do have costumes they tend to be pretty obviously home-made or repurposed from Halloween costumes. Their powers tend to be pretty limited, although most all of them show superhuman resistance to pain and injury.
Hard To Stop: You gain a +1 bonus to saves against damage. In addition, at the start of your turn you may remove any -1 penalties on you.
Sort Of Super-Powered: Use the rules on pages 287-289 to select one or two abilities from an appropriate clone archetype to represent your powers.
Empowered Addict d8 or d10 lieutenant
Description: Almost as varied as pathetic addict minions, but they tend to be drawn from the ranks of overtly criminal groups and often display gang colors, tattoos, and similar marks of allegiance. A few may be corrupted police or other authority figures, and may attempt to confuse the issue about which side they're actually on. All display inhuman strength and tend to slip into a berserk rage at the drop of a hat.
Berserker: Whenever you roll a save against damage, whether you pass or fail Boost yourself using the same die roll.
Desperate For A Fix: Whenever you roll the maximum possible result on your die, treat the result as two higher. Whenever you roll a one, count the result as zero and reduce your die size by one step. If this would reduce your die below a d4, you are defeated.
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