Kineto - Portrait of a Supervillain

Welcome to part two of my biographical profile of Kineto, a Supervillain NPC created by my friend Willian Corpening for his epic, long running Champions RPG campaign, 'The Age of Champions'.

Kineto is, without a doubt, my favorite Superhero genre villain and it is my hope that this post, in conjunction with the one that came before it, will give you some inkling as to why.

Now more than 40+ years old, Kineto still appears in my Champions RPG campaigns to this day. In fact, the version I am covering is the one that appears in my current 'Champions: UNITY' game, set on the parallel world of Champions Earth-Alpha Delta-1A.

Following the tragic death of Kineto's wife and his violent reaction, Kipling Kennison disappeared for nearly two decades. Neither friend nor foe, nor authorities mundane or extraordinary could find him. Many tried. What is now known is that Kineto spent this time amassing resources, allies, building hidden bases, and making plans. 

The 1950s saw a steady decline in superhuman activity. Even more superheroes [and supervillains] passed away or retired and fewer new ones were appearing. Paranormal and super-physical events were likewise rarely occurring. By the end of the decade, the Champions were down to three full-time members who rarely teamed-up or needed to. The greatest hero group on Earth only largely existed in name only. 

By the early 1960s this situation had changed. A small number of new heroes and villains appeared around the world, with more heavily populated areas naturally seeing higher numbers of them. In the mid-60s a new team of Champions formed with a membership consisting of both recently appearing heroes and legacies, those caped crimefighters descended from heroes of the past. It wasn't until the 1970s however that the presence of the superhuman community blossomed and the time was right for Kineto to make his return. 

The 1970s iteration of the Champions (aka 'The Silver Age Champions') consisted of Garrison, The Legionnaire, a teenage Omni, Tachyon, and Tower. Their first major mission together had them face off against Doctor Destroyer - Yes! THE Doctor Destroyer - who resurfaced after years of hiding in the (fictional) South American country of Madoras*. The evil Doctor set out to steal an experimental variant of the Avenger Super-Soldier Formula, itself based on his own Destroyer Formula. As the Champions and Dr. Destroyer's forces engaged each other, Kineto appeared to complicate things. 

The Silver Age Champions

Left to Right: Omni, Tachyon, Garrison, Tower, and The Legionnaire

Kineto announced himself and his own team of minions in heroic fashion, declaring he was there to finally put an end to Destroyer's villainy. A longtime adversary of Dr. Destroyer, the heroes initially saw Kineto as helping, a powerful ally in this fight. Once Destroyer's henchmen were defeated and the Avenger Formula variation secured, the Doctor himself escaped. Instead of giving chase, Kineto went to seize the formula. This brought him into conflict with the Champions - arguing at first and then partaking in a physical battle. The experimental serum was vaporized during the conflict. With his prize eliminated, Kineto and his team departed. 

This would establish the MO of many encounters with Kineto, painting him as the anti-hero or even as a 'Heroic Supervillain'. He would show up to fight another bad guy, acting like his old superhero self, and seemingly helping the PCs. Then you would find out he did it because the villain was doing something counter to Kineto's own plans or so that Kineto could take the MacGuffin for himself. In the case of former Golden Age villains whom he had a history with, such as Doctor Destroyer or Baron Nihil, Kineto would honestly want to defeat them because they were evil - any additional benefits of doing so were just icing on the cake.

After a number of similar confrontations, Kineto enacted his first truly villainous action. At an international summit on the subject of 'Superpowers and The Superpowers: How Governments Deal with Supers', Kineto showed up unannounced with an entourage of other supers and demanded to speak. Because of his previous activities, positive and negative, there was a delay in deciding how to react to his presence. Ostensibly, Kineto was there to talk on behalf of the 'Superhuman Community' and wanted to make sure he and his fellow metahumans were heard. This didn't quite hold when his associates didn't let anyone leave the event while Kineto was talking. The scenario began to resemble a hostage situation and a number of UNTIL Agents and other security personnel sprung into action to ensure the safety of everyone present; a number of heroes were also present providing additional protection. As the situation escalated, several members of the Champions, the New Knights of the Round Table, and a handful of others were called in. Kineto was peacefully talked out of any hostilities by Omni and Britain's Maiden Fair.

Maiden Fair (Silver Age Costume)

Kineto was quite smitten with Maiden Fair, whom he'd met in England some years earlier. She was unaware of this as he had been in disguise at the time. In addition to resembling his deceased wife Margret Miller, Maiden Fair was definitely Kennison's type - British, blonde, beautiful, smart, and selfless. Over the years, Kineto's crush would develop further but his past tragic loss made him reluctant to act on it more directly. 

It should be noted that here we first start to see several of Kineto's conflicting quirks and traits. He has an agenda, one which he was slow to reveal but which he assured everyone was for 'the greater good' - allow Supers a greater say in the laws and regulations governing their activities. Eventually this will be expanded upon.

Furthermore, Kineto still sees himself as the hero ultimately but realizes sometimes even good guys need to bend or break the rules, use excessive force, etc. At the same time, he has his principles. He won't directly fight a woman unless he has to and then only defensively. He wants to appear honorable and reasonable in the eyes of the public so he won't fight if provided sufficient reason or incentive not to. He always keeps his word and won't go back on promises he makes. On numerous occasions this has been used against him by Omni and others.  

Kineto gets into a violent confrontation with the supervillain Sundown that threatens to cause a near nuclear explosion at a energy research facility in Pennsylvania. This is their third encounter and the two men despised each other. Gigaton, a former US Marine whose powers come from a similar experiment to the one that created Sundown, shows up and sides with Kineto. The Champions arrive and team-up with The Masked Patriot II and Flint in order to break-up the fight. Some of the villains are apprehended but Kineto, Sundown, Gigaton, and a few others on each side manage to retreat and escape. 

The Arch-Enemies of Kineto

Doctor Destroyer, Mechanon, Sundown, and Holocaust

Kineto and his villainous opponents began to divvy-up the super-criminal community, picking team members like children in a schoolyard game. Kineto's 'gang' largely consisted of people who didn't see themselves as villains and who were down with his general message: Superbeings are super - as in superior - to normal beings and as such, shouldn't be subject to normal Human judgement and control. Only supers are worthy of judging supers and only superhuman leadership will ensure a safe and prosperous future for the Earth and its people.

This didn't mean all supers were inherently good in Kineto's eyes. Rather, it meant good supers could achieve a greater good than mundane good people could. Likewise, supervillainy had the capacity to cause greater harm than any mundane evil. It was up to the Superheroes, the 'Good Guys' of which Kineto was surely one, to take charge of solving this situation. The Champions? In Kineto's view they were good natured supers who meant well but they still took orders from normal people and would therefore never come to understand what really needed to be done. 

Part III is coming soon...

AD

Barking Alien

*Madoras, the fictional country in South America where many former Nazi's hid, ruled by Doctor Destroyer, and eventually taken over by Professor Muerte and Terror Incorporated is named for the a similar fictional location in the 1968 film 'They Saved Hitler's Brain'.