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Freakshow?
bluegrassbeast
Posts: 1,906 Arc User
I've heard a villain in Westside named 'Freakshow' mentioned..something about a serial killer and horror movies. Details would be appreciated!
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Freakshow was born Jacob Sacco, who until 1990 was a janitor at an Advanced Concepts Industries chemical plant in Detroit. Jacob had a lifelong obsession with horror movies, television shows, books and games, and the like. These caused him to be late often enough to be fired from his job. Jacob thought he could get revenge, and make money, by blowing the whistle on the plant's dumping of toxic chemicals in the Rouge River. Going to the dump site to get proof, Jacob was forced to flee from a security guard, and fell into a pool of unknown chemicals. The chemicals changed him physically, granting him super-powers; but also pushed his fragile sanity over the edge. He now lives to cause fear in as many people as possible, like his horror idols. As Freakshow (a name the press gave him) he kills some of his victims, but lets others live so they'll spread the word about him. He's drawn to places where people are likely to be frightened: horror movie theaters, Halloween events, carnival rides, and the like.
Freakshow is unusually strong (although not truly superhuman), but extraordinarily fast and agile. He's tough and hard to hurt, and heals from injuries with fantastic speed. He can induce terrifying "waking nightmares" in someone just by touching them. He sees very well in the dark, and can locate a frightened person even over a great distance by sensing their fear. He carries several large knives, with which he's skilled at both striking hand-to-hand and throwing.
Freakshow stands about 6’3”, but weighs only around 155 pounds — he’s scarecrow-skinny, almost as if starving to death. He shaves his hair into a frazzled orange Mohawk. He dresses mostly in black leather, with a torn t-shirt, spiked belt, and motorcycle boots. He wears thin wraparound mirrored shades, and has a scarred, twisted upper lip. Freakshow gets a full write-up and color illo in Champions Villains Vol. 3: Solo Villains.
FWIW the intelligent zombie returned to life through scientific means has Champions precedent. Mr. Zombie, of the supervillain team, the Brain Trust, was revived and transformed when chemicals from the Overbrain's experiments leached into the ground water of the graveyard where he was buried.
From all that, I infer that the public is generally skeptical of the existence of the undead, as they are of magic broadly speaking. Creatures that look "undead" can be, and sometimes are, something entirely different, or owe their return from death to scientific rather than magical causes. Then there are undead that may look completely human, like many vampires -- only some type of test (which likely aren't commonly performed or available) can determine they're not "alive" in the traditional sense . So I don't think police or the military are inclined to take "potshots" at something simply because it resembles preconceptions of an undead being, or is rumored to be one. Similarly, someone who is a human-seeming undead would probably be treated as a living human by the authorities unless and until proven otherwise. I would also assume that someone who routinely and publicly kills such "monsters" without provocation is going to be treated as a murderer by the authorities, at least initially; if arrested, he'll probably need to prove the status of his victims in court to escape punishment.
The Triple-A Act granting civil rights to non-humans, was in itself a result of a United State Supreme Court ruling in 1978, based on six consolidated cases involving the rights of human mutants and mutates, clones of humans, the undead, artificial intelligences, and extraterrestrial and extradimensional beings, referred to collectively as Tau Ceti II. (See the Champions PnP book, Stronghold, p. 30.) The Court ruled that living sentient beings from human genetic stock count as "persons" under the law, and are entitled to all the protections of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution; but beings outside those categories are not. Congress passed the Triple-A Act the following year. To me this establishes that the American government as a whole recognizes that the undead do exist, although some members of government probably deny or dispute that. Whether a supernatural origin for undead is also officially accepted is a matter for conjecture.
There are a few official "major undead players" in the CU besides Necrull, Mister Zombie, and Takofanes -- that is, creatures who play the game of supervillain versus superhero. Vladic Dracul, who appears in Champions Online in Vibora Bay, is an example of a very powerful (and monstrous-looking) vampire. A very few other vampires are named, most more human looking, and not all malevolent. In fact, a vampire called Shade, described as "kindhearted," is a member of the informal team of supernatural British heroes dubbed "the Nightwatch" by the press (mentioned in Champions Universe p. 78).
Deadman Walkin', also seen in CO's Vibora Bay, is a sort of free-willed supernatural zombie who's a professional assassin. A much more dangerous assassin is called the Curse, who carries an aura of death so potent that it can destroy even inanimate matter. The Curse looks like (and is) a classic Egyptian mummified corpse. Rictus is a mysterious being with superhuman physical and mental powers, but his trademark ability is to reanimate the dead as zombies under his control, potentially in large numbers (and including super-powered zombies if they had such powers in life). All these villains except Vladic Dracul and Rictus are written up in the Champions Villains trilogy. Rictus appears in Villains, Vandals, And Vermin, while VD is only in Champions Online.
A few ghosts are mentioned in the lore, with different motivations depending on what kind of person they were in life. One other official hero falls in this broad category: the Constable, a member of Canada's foremost superhero team, StarForce, is a revenant, the spirit of a slain person returned in a fleshly-seeming form to take revenge on his killer (although the Constable has avoided seeking his own killer, so he may remain in the world of the living to continue to do good). The Constable gets a write-up in the source book for Canada, Champions Of The North.
Then there are individuals who are not themselves undead, but practice the art of necromancy, and so may be responsible for the creation of such creatures. The closest thing to a heroic necromancer is the vigilante called Dr. Teneber (Champions Villains Vol. 3). Dr. Teneber seeks out restless spirits who died before their time, and people of low moral character whom the world is unlikely to miss. Teneber kills the latter in a way that doesn't permanently harm his body, so the spirit will leave it; then places one of the former into the empty body and uses medical skills to revive it, for a kind of reincarnation. Mystic heroes who know of Teneber generally don't approve of his tactics, but he's fought on their side often enough that they tend not to actively pursue him as long as he keeps a low profile. Dr. Teneber's PnP write-up notes that he's being watched by the police, so I assume they suspect his activities but don't have enough evidence to charge him.
One other point I think is important to mention: I would have to assume that if an undead hero is publicly known and has a good reputation, particularly if he works with law-enforcement authorities, those authorities would take a dim view of someone trying to destroy him, whether or not he technically has legal rights. The government might even grant him official sanction if he wants it, in recognition for his service.