Today I want to talk about the other bad guys of the Hundred Dollar Heroes (go back a few entries for Captain Super, the misguided super man), the Black Skulls. Let's start with a brand new picture:
The eagle-eyed among you might note the date, yes, I drew this yesterday and earlier today. I've been having fun with the blog, NaNoWriMo, and reading HDH to my daughter as her bedtime story that I was inspired to actually draw one of the characters for the first time in years! This is a typical Black Skull (if you have suggestions for a better name, I'm listening, it's OK, but I'm not in love with it). They wear black underneath a dirty brown cloak topped with huge furred shoulders to make them look bigger. To look more imposing, they wear skulls, usually of animals like horses as masks. I like to think this group isn't your typical super baddies. They wield guns. Like real guns. And they kill, without remorse. They are bad because of their ruthlessness.
The Black Skulls are a tough villain for the Heroes because of this ruthlessness, their favorite phrase is 'Death to Augments.' I hope they come off as a bit scary, and I think their introduction drives that point home.
One of my favorite aspects of the Black Skulls is the fact that many of their number are Augments themselves. At first this seems contradictory, but the group allows this as long as the member kills a certain number of Augments. Once that number is reached... they have to add themselves to the tally.
All the Heroes know about the Black Skulls at the start of Hundred Dollar Heroes is that they are a relatively large group that is made up of many smaller cells. These cells work with leaders that get their missions from others, but the chain is a broken one, making them extremely hard to track down. The Black Skulls want nothing but to kill Augments, money, power, ambition, that's all beyond them. They want to rid the world of Augments, by whatever means necessary.
Next time I'll try to find a more upbeat topic! I love these villains, but man, are they dour!
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