Crime Lords Month: You’ve been Melvin’d!

Before I launch into the next instalment of Crime Lords Month, a couple of notes:

The UK Nationals are only a couple of days away, and HOLY TOLEDO has UDE upped the ante for the prizes! Check it out here!

Our Crime Lords Month partner, The Brave and the Blog, has posted their first contribution. Get Enforced here!

The concept is spreading, we have our first imitator trying to cash in on the niftiness of Crime Lords Month. It must be a mynock

Huge thanks to Rian “stubarnes” Fike and to all those who voted for me in stu-vivor! I stand humbly appreciative before you… now shower me with rose petals or something :P Read about it here!

And now…

Continuing Crime Lords Month with another sympathetic character, I present the gentle giant known as the Gladiator… or Melvin Potter, given the choice.

The thing that makes Melvin sympathetic is… well, he made a mistake early on by turning to a life of crime, and now all he wants to do is leave it all behind him, but he keeps getting sucked back in. As much as he wants to go back being nothing more than a costume designer (he is a very talented with a sewing needle), those he used to associate just don’t seem to be willing to let him forget his criminal past, bringing back the beast that is the Gladiator through psychological manipulation, blackmail, and even drugs.

He started out of the gate with a grudge against superheroes. Being built like a tank probably led him to think he should take on a life of crime, and thus he designed a rather spikey suit of armour, complete with a circular saw whirring away on each wrist… not that they were really needed, the guy’s very physically imposing, more than capable of a one-punch KO.

After a few run-ins with Daredevil, Melvin hooked up with the Masked Marauder, joined Electro’s Emissaries of Evil (yeesh, alliteration much?), teamed with Death-Stalker, and even teamed up with Whitney Frost to take on Iron Man at one point.

But love has a way of soothing the savage beast.

Betsy Beatty came into Melvin’s life as his therapist, and as is often the way in comics, a relationship developed, resulting in a reformed Melvin Potter and a happy marriage.

No longer wanting to be a bad guy, Melvin teamed with Spider-Man, Elektra, and Daredevil on a few occasions… as I said though, his old compatriots weren’t quite willing to let him go just yet.

Assorted criminally-inclined folks, not all directly related to the Kingpin (I know, shocking ain’t it) tugged at Melvin’s strings, even while he was in the employ of blind lawyer Matt Murdock as a bodyguard when the criminal underworld somehow came under the impression that Matt was Daredevil (… what?).

After killing some innocent folks while under a chemically-induced rage, Melvin ended up back in prison where he serves time with Matt Murdock as his attorney and friend.

So let’s bring Melvin into VS.

He’s intrinsically linked to the Crime Lords… but he’s spent a good while working with Daredevil as well, so let’s link him with the Marvel Knights… but to keep the flavor, let’s limit it to while we control Daredevil, since ol’ Hornhead’s pretty much the only guy he’ll listen to, not to mention the only guy who’ll give Melvin a shot.

He’s no uber powerhouse, but he’s not a complete wuss either – let’s toss him in as a 3-drop. Those buzzsaws, backed by his physical power and skill, as bloody dangerous – they don’t mess around – so let’s ramp up the attack.

… but…

Remember, Melvin doesn’t want to be a villain. He’s a pacifist, constantly manipulated into working on the wrong side of the tracks - not of his own volition.

In an effort to balance the card, how do we represent that?

Simple. He’ll defend himself at any time, but if you want him to work for you, if you want him to go out there and fight aggressively for you, you need to either convince him that it’s the right thing to do, or manipulate him into doing so.

In the end he fits in with the Crime Lords’ theme of providing a really unpleasant option if you want to attack him, while also being somewhat true to the character. Well, I think so at least ;) 

What will be the next Lost Hemisphere’s Crime Lords month contribution? Tune in later in the week to find out!