Upshot
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| Brace fer impact, bucko! | |
| Upshot | |
| Player: @Shibboleth | |
| Origin: | Technology (alien?) |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Defender |
| Security Level: | 50 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Steward Madison Mitchel |
| Known Aliases: | Uppy, Cowboy, Stew |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 76 |
| Height: | 5'10" |
| Weight: | 145 lbs |
| Eye Color: | light blue |
| Hair Color: | greying brown |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | US Citizen |
| Occupation: | Media Historian, Photographer |
| Place of Birth: | Lawton, Oklahoma |
| Base of Operations: | Provo, Utah |
| Marital Status: | Never married |
| Known Relatives: | One daughter, three grandchildren |
| Known Powers | |
| Magnetic induction, nanotechnology | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Energy blasts, electrical discharge, tornado force winds | |
| Equipment | |
| League communicator, digital camera | |
| Secret identity casual | |
Contents |
Overview
Upshot was early on imagined as an absurdist hero who witnesses the impossible every day, and doesn't seem to bat an eye. Despite his off-the-wall adventures and strange company, Upshot was always conceptually a real person in bizarre circumstances. He is the accidental hero falling from one cliffhanger to the next, whose powers serve best to land him in a mess. His only response "well shioot" make a bigger one. In the Liberty League, he's always playing catchup.
Upshot is a full-color modern cowboy in a bad four-color plot arc.
Inspirations
- Visual: Technomages of Babylon 5, 'Cowboy Tetsuo'
- Thematic: Maximums/Squadron Supreme (big time), Manbot from Freedom Force, Longshot (particularly Ultimate Marvel)
- Theme song (These are always bad): Guns 'N Roses = Appetite for Destruction - Nightrain, Duo w/ Tunguska: Clutch = Blast Tyrant - Weathermaker
History
Steward Madison Mitchel was born in L-town, Oki between the wars. His Episcopalian father was an army butcher, serving at nearby Fort Sill. His mother was a seamstress and housemarm. Stew was the fourth of six children in the Mitchel residence, which by all accounts was a scrappy bunch of ne'er-do-wells with a strong sense of duty. While both parents were devout and disciplined, the hardships of the Great Depression left them somewhat lapse in the order of their household and some of the younger children grew up little more than feral. Stewie was a middle child, not so stern as his two older brothers and dutiful sister, never so untamed as his younger brother and sister.
Throughout the thirties the Mitchels tightened their belts and stuck to their land, despite the hardships of local farmers, due to their family ties to the military. Conditions and discipline improved with their family's involvement in the Fort Sill museum during the late 30s, where young Stew learned a love of broad vistas and things that go boom. The Oklahoma wind and artillery forever instructed him down the years. His career took a further turn when a Chicago Tribune photographer came to town in March of '39 to document dustbowl agriculture. The journalist brought (fairly tame) portions of his photo collection from The Great War, and Stew decided then and there to become a combat photographer and airman.
From these days onward, Stew was frustrated in his desire to grow up sooner. He watched two of his older brothers go off to war, hearing only of their doing-do in occassional letters. Unfortunately for his ambitions, the war progressed all too swiftly for his participation, forcing him instead to live vicariously through news reels and radio bulletins. His boyhood dreams were crushed (with much consolation from his family) when the battle of Berlin ended in May of '45, but this only motivated the boy to take on "The Japs" before "all the good fightin' was done". He enlisted as soon as was remotely practical at the age of 16 in July of 1945. His family and the military personnel they knew at Fort Sill accepted this as the best way to give positive direction and discipline to the wild and frustrated young man. Little did they know that while the war itself would end in barely two months, the repercussions for lil Stewie would last the rest of his life.
Origin
The sequence of events that catapulted Upshot into hero status is not entirely clear, but it is clear the seeds of emergence were sewn during nuclear weapons testing in Nevada. Steward participated in the Desert Rock V nuclear weapons test series, code named Upshot-Knothole. As a combat photographer seeking the guts and glory he was bombarded with as a child, there could be no greater spectacle. All was not well with the passionate young soldier, however. Although his superior officers remarked on the high spirits of all the men, Steward spent much of his free time composing gloomy allegory, which stands today as the only primary source material not classified secret.
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Missing years
Paragon or Bust
Affiliations
- Close associates: Tunguska (former nemesis/best chum)
- Supergroup: Liberty League
- Former Supergroup: Atlas-TV (cancelled)
Powers
Upshot's body has been thoroughly colonized by highly adaptable nanites originating from an orbiting alien satellite.
Magnetic Induction
Nanosystems
Personality
Fun facts
- Upshot and Tunguska have worked in international black ops as a duo, always assigned code names to contrast their cold war affiliations, among them: Bourbon and Vodka, Cowboy and Bolshevik, Omsk i Kazan, Red and Blew.
- His first 'costume' was an accident of convenience with a motel bedsheet, and has stuck ever since.
- Upshot's dietary needs include heaping quantities of Magnesium and Beryllium, and restrict consumption of high-sodium foods such as jerky, sausage, and french fries (among his favorites). He has been particularly conflicted in the presence of corndogs.
Rogues Gallery
Coming Soon
