Today's hero writeup is a nod to inept Nineties fan service. Admittedly, every era of comics has had its own brand of eye candy (looking at you, Phantom Lady) but the Nineties pushed the amount of skin to new highs while deliberately catering to the part of the speculator market that liked their books a little sexier than usual. When you combine a poor grasp of human anatomy with attempts at extreme fan service, that is a recipe for a Bad Nineties Comic. There were a lot of books full of inhuman proportions, impossible poses, and wildly inconsistent character models. A particularly egregious recurring issue was contorting characters (usually female) so you could see their butt and their chest at the same time, something my shop's subscribers called the "Chiropractor's Nightmare" pose. We had one guy who went out of his way to collect every book with at least one example of that particular bit of artistic malpractice, and I believe he'd filled a long box with them by the end of the decade.
I've also done my best to capture the feel of some of the less nuanced character concepts that showed up during the decade, some of which approached the level of Mary Sue fan fiction rather than professional writing. Good editors tend to reign in that sort of overenthusiasm from a creator, but they were in short supply back in the day - and downright unwelcome at some publishers.
Valentina
Valentina Devine had it all even before becoming a superhero. Beautiful, artistically talented and highly intelligent, she was also an acknowledged expert in the study of ancient occult traditions. She gained her powers while on an archeological expedition in Central America when one of the senior researchers accidentally opened a dimensional gate to some hellish plane of sapient infernal shadow. The world might have been doomed if it weren't for Valentina improvising a binding ritual that re-sealed the breach. In the process she bound part of that realm's dark, seductive power to her will, and now she finds herself bearing the mantle of a world-class super-mage and defender of reality.
She doesn't mind the extra responsibility, although having to replace her wardrobe so often is getting a little tiresome.
Meta-textually the character concept was already struggling a bit due to being something of an edgy Mary Sue. A sarcastic know-it-all who also just happened to be drop-dead gorgeous and a versatile musician, singer, sculptor, painter and writer to boot wasn't very relatable to start with. Bemoaning the fact that her amazing black magic powers tended to leave her with a lot of skin on display every time she got in a fight didn't help matters. Her book initially sold on the strength of a very talented art crew, but they moved on by issue six and their replacement had definitely flunked their anatomy and figure drawing classes. With a pretty unlikeable personality, mediocre storylines, and now laughably bad artwork sales plummeted until cancellation in under a year.
Description: Stereotypical "Playboy centerfold model" look, albeit without staples in her navel. In her civilian guise she tends toward a "sexy librarian" look. When adopting her heroic form, she goes through a fancy anime-style transformation sequence that shreds her regular clothes and leaves her "dressed" in a skintight bodysuit that could easily be confused with a coat of glossy black paint, supplemented with a pair of mothlike black wings with deep purple patterning. The more she uses her powers (especially those the produce minions) the less her "suit" of infernal shadows covers, although she never quite winds up breaking into an R rating. Even minor damage tends to cause "artistic" rips and tears, although she never bruises and rarely bleeds beyond a tasteful scratch or two that won't leave any scars. Her voice is, predictably, melodious and she sings like an angel, incorporating a fair bit of song in her incantations.
Gender: Female Age: 22 Height: 5'6" Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blonde Skin: Pale Caucasian Build: Pure Fan Service
Background: Academic Power Source: Supernatural Archetype: Minion-Maker
Personality: Sarcastic Health (G/Y/R): 30/22/11
Powers: Infernal d10, Intuition d10, Suggestion d10, Flight d8
Qualities: Magical Lore d12, Creativity d10, Leadership d8, Renaissance Woman d8, Otherworldly Mythos d6
Status: Green (30-23) - d8 / Yellow (22-10) - d8 / Red (11-1) - d8
Abilities (choose which name to use between the Class / Crass options)
Green
A Lady's Favor / Just Do What I Say (A) Boost another hero or one of your minions using Suggestion. Either use your Max die, or use your Mid die and make that bonus persistent and exclusive.
Principle of History / Hardcore Bookworm (A) Overcome a situation involving archeology, history, or puzzle-solving. Use your Max die. You and your allies each gain a Hero Point. Minor twist: How did your obsession with the past cause an issue? Major twist: What ancient force is now making itself known in the present? RP: You have many contacts in the archeological, anthropological, and historical fields.
Principle of Whispers / The Meds Aren't Working (A) Overcome against a challenge that involves knowledge you have no real way of knowing. Use your Max die. You and your allies gain each gain a Hero Point. Minor twist: How did the voices in your head just distract you? Major twist: What are the voices demanding of you now? RP: The voices tell you things, which might be true or false, but they certainly do seem to know a lot.
Shadow Sculpting / Spooky Monster Maker (A) Create a minion using Infernal. Reference the minion chart to see what size of minion it is. Choose which one basic action it can perform. It acts at the start of your turn. You can only use this ability in places where access to the infernal realms hasn't been mystically barred.
Yellow
Beloved of Darkness / Better Than You (A) Boost yourself using Suggestion. Use your Max die. That bonus is persistent and exclusive.
Flashing Shadow / Sic 'Em, Spooky (A) Create a minion using Infernal. Use your Min die. Reference the minion chart to see what size of minion it is. Choose which one basic action it can perform. It acts now and at the start of your turn. You can only use this ability in places where access to the infernal realms hasn't been mystically barred.
Vanishing Word / Watch Out, You Idiot! (R) When a nearby ally would take damage, Defend that ally by rolling your single status die and move them elsewhere in the scene.
Red
Spiteful Hex / Payback Time (R) After an opponent Attacks or Hinders you or a nearby ally, Attack that opponent by rolling your single Magical Lore die.
Inviolable Wards / Don't. Touch. (A) Defend yourself against all Attacks until your next turn using Suggestion. Use your Max + Mid dice.
Sevenfold Sorceries / Walk AND Chew Gum (I) When you use an ability action, you may also perform one basic action using your Mid die on the same die roll.
Out
Final Curse / This Isn't Over (A) Hinder an opponent by rolling your single Magical Lore die.
Tactics
In Green, if there's too much opposition for a minion to survive then use A Lady's Favor to apply bonuses (preferably persistent) to allies. Otherwise you can start building up a minion retinue with Shadow Sculpting, or use one of your Principles on early challenges.
You might be best off taking a minor twist to use Beloved of Darkness round one so you can enjoy the large persistent bonus for as long as possible, and if not it should be a priority in Yellow. Once that bonus is in place Flashing Shadow lets you get immediate use of of your minions while Vanishing Word will help keep them in action or protect and reposition other allies if needed. Don't get carried away with trying to put out too many minions if the enemy has multi-target Attacks to sweep them since your reaction can only save one per round. It may be better to generate more bonuses instead of putting out a third or fourth minion. If nothing else you can always burn bonuses to buy alternate forms, and you have access to entire menu of them thanks to your d12 Magical Lore quality.
Once you reach Red, expect to turtle up behind Inviolable Temptress for the rest of the scene, performing Mid die basic actions at the same time with Sevenfold Sorceries. Between the phenomenally effective and versatile Spiteful Hex reaction and whatever minions you have in play you can still do quite a bit while sitting behind an ~11-12 point Defend (before bonuses) that applies to every Attack against you.
If you manage to go Out anyway, Final Curse keeps right on hampering one foe each round with a big d12.
Design Notes
My only real regret with this character mechanically is not finding a way to shoehorn in an Athletic power to replace Sevenfold Sorceries with Push Your Limits for really absurd reaction shenanigans. It could be done, but I like Flight too much to let it go and the current build is more versatile anyway.
The dual naming on all her abilities is a reflection to changes in her creative team, with her book's "good" period maintaining a classier exotic tone where later writers stuck on a rapidly-failing book adopted a more crass approach that played up her sarcastic nature to an extreme degree. Occasional later crossover appearances have been erratic about which portrayal of Valentina is the "real" one, to the further confusion of many readers.
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