Jacthripper

Waffles are delicious

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Jac's Character Exposition #1

Welcome

I quite enjoy the battle forums, but am getting rather sick and tired of seeing the same 20-odd characters repeatedly used in battles, because for me, finding new characters is half the fun. So starting today, and every consecutive Friday, I'm going to add here a character (from comic books, anime, manga, novels, live action shows, cartoons, anything), who doesn't receive a whole lot of recognition in this forum. I'm going to review their powers and capabilities, their strengths and weaknesses, as well as what makes them an interesting character to use in a battle. Then maybe, as many people who read these might improve their knowledge of characters and use them in the battle forums.

Holden Carver a.k.a. The Conductor

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Holden Carver is a character from the Wildstorm Universe, which is now owned by DC Comics. As such, he has not made an appearance in the New 52. He appears in the graphic novel Sleeper by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. (WARNING Sleeper is a comic rated 18+)

Backstory

Holden was your standard black ops soldier working under IO (sorta like the SHIELD/Checkmate of Wildstorm). When leading a team in recovering an alien artifact, Carver touched the artifact. Upon doing so, it bonded to his nervous system. This unfortunately resulted in the death of his team (it is presumed he transferred the pain of having this happen to all of them, though it's not entirely clear). The incident left Holden with a lower level healing factor, an immunity to most forms of psychic assault (including TAO's voice), as well as an immunity to pain and the ability to transfer the pain to others. Upon returning, he was assigned by John Lynch, a former member of Team 7, to infiltrate TAO's organization as a sleeper agent so that he could eventually bring it down. However, Lynch was put into a coma, and as a result, Holden was trapped on the side of a maniac.

Strengths

The greatest advantage of his powers is that he can ignore mortal wounds such as head shots and heart shots. In addition, most blunt force trauma is not severely damaging. He's also a very good shot. In his line of work, it means he can get shot a lot, then shoot back a lot. Throughout his career, he faced several intimidating and dangerous opponents, and has come out on top in his few fights, even when it seems like he should have lost.

His most impressive fight in this regard would be against Grifter. He was assigned by TAO to bring a washed up Grifter in. His compatriots were almost immediately shot, as was he. The important part of the fight is that Holden was pretending to be down, rather than keep fighting Grifter, so that when Grifter got close to inspect his "corpse" he simply reached up and KO'ed him. He knows when he's outmatched, and instead uses trickery to take his enemies down.

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Of course, while trickery is great, Carver can hold his own in a fistfight as well. When he faced a superhero known as Turbine, a man with an enhanced exoskeleton suit, he not only shrugged off hits from a man who could spin heads around one-handed, but was able to survive whatever type of energy blast used. And despite not really wanting to kill him, Holden wasted the hero without any hesitation.

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Now this scan just explains that Holden can walk around with bleeding wounds without any thought.

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Weaknesses

Holden's greatest disadvantage would be that while his healing factor can deal with mortal wounds, it is poorly suited for healing large amounts at a time. For example, he fell off a building after the fight with Turbine, and was paralyzed for a while, so he instead took a nap. Another example is when he had his leg severed, and it had to be placed so that it could properly reattach after several hours.

Appeal

What makes this guy interesting? He not only has a deep internal conflict about whether he is on the right side, or if sides matter, or whether he is justified in killing, but he also is put through what could be considered hell, and in the end "slays the dragon" at great cost and is finally let to rest.If you have a suggestion for the next character expo, PM me, or leave it in the comments.

As far as battles are considered, Holden is useful in low street scenarios, below Batman levels. He's also very useful as far as power is concerned when used in scenarios and amalgams. All in all, he is a character who can be used very potently in combinations.

-Peace, War, and all that Jazz

Jacthripper

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