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Related to the above question, which LMBP members have had significant shifts or changes in power over the years and what were they? (there, that's a challenge for you. )

Pants are often misplaced among the LMB, never to be found again. My theory is they are somewhere on Earth-4, captive of the villain “Clothes Fall-Off Fred” (since our Earth-1’s Clothes Fall-Off Fred is dead).

Year Seven in LMB continuity, I believe.

Year One: Early Days of LMB, LardLad Term (longer than usual)
Year Two: Lash Lad Term, Loser Lad Term, Crusader Term
Year Three: Seahorse Term, Stu Term, Faraway Lad Term
Year Four: Cobalt Kid Term, Ultra Matt Term, Roman Tetrarchy Term
Year Five: Early Days of Legion World, Princess Crujectra Term, Stu Term, Vee/Quis Term
Year Six: Outdoor Miner/Reboot Term, Kid Prime Term, un-official Yellow Kid/Harbinger Term, the Good the Dark and the Dead
Year Seven: Post Good, Dark & Dead (roughly three months into it)

This is of course the final months of Year Five in real life, as continuity stretches a little farther out to accommodate the sheer volume of LMB stories, which is often referred to as the Real Life/Continuity overlap.


But it’s only the Year One posters and some early Year two ones, so don’t worry!

Hm, that’s something I never really thought of. When I think of continuously active, I always just assume it means actively posting on the message boards. So, I guess my answer would be: “er…I don’t know ”

To add to the list for any that might not know, Stu has been around since roughly Spring 2001, approximately end of Year Two and Beginning of Year Three. He (and Seahorse) are also usually credited for keeping the LMB alive during one of the most infamous periods of inactivity and getting the group revitalized!

I just caught up to it, and am glad to see Whordru finally fleshed out. Now that you’ve started that little tidbit, you know I have to do something with it

It’s been awhile since I’ve had a child…

Hm, I remember Pov’s posting decreasing, but I don’t think he ever actually stopped posting for a bit. To be honest, my memory is a little fuzzy on this one. I thought he always maintained some presence even during his health problems.

Dean, Beigeseid appeared in the Fall/Winter of 2000, way back in our early days in a thread called “The Never-Ending Tag Thread”. At the time, this was the longest tag thread we’d ever done, up to seven pages before it finally ended. Unfortunately, this has not been archived and was lost to us. The Beigeseid saga (and Plaidseid) was the last two pages of that thread, although we never gave it an official ending. You can see that here: The LMB Never-Ending Tag Thread (Year Two) .

Globe Girl was your creation, who came about during that same period. I believe you created her using the same photo-manip model that was used to create Silicon Sandra.

She became a member of the LMB that wasn’t a poster or an alt, which is a category we now refer to as “honorary members”. She actually was in a few LMB tag threads and story ideas, until the above mentioned “Never-Ending Tag Thread”, where it was yourself who explained her origin, which included her being created by Sketch Lad and based on the body and mind of Silicon Sandra (to me it always seemed like a Wonder Man/Vision type thing). In the end of that post, Globe Girl made the ultimate sacrifice and became one of the earliest LMBers to die in battle.

However, over the years a lot of the LMB authors have forgotten that you had Globe Girl die in that thread, and she’s occasionally appeared again. To try and sort out the reasoning why, Lardy gave an updated origin for Globe Girl to better understand her subsequent reappearances, which also connected with to the origin of his old alt ID, HUGEMANBREASTS. See here, for the retconned origin of Globe Girl .

The LMB Continuity & Timeline is moving along nicely and close to finished, and I’m about up to the beginning of Kid Prime’s Term of last fall. So, I haven’t gotten to adding in your Onevision (and power changes) yet, but I’ll add them in shortly when I do those sections, as they are very much a part of LMB continuity.

So, all your stuff has a place always Dean, and thanks for the comments! Your artwork has always been an inspiration to LMB authors and a springboard for story ideas, from the days when you created that kick-ass ‘Hummer Lass/Space Tart on the town’ pic!

*Gulp* I’ll never get any work done at this rate

Let it be said now that many LMBers have had powers that have remained the same from day one. Further, some LMBers were members for awhile before ever establishing a power, and thus didn’t get their power until later. I’m not going to count these.

OK…power changes. There’s really two kinds: (1) powers that have slowly changed as the years have gone on inside of continuity and (2) powers that have retroactively been established.

Here’s a list, which I’m certain will have left things out:

The House of Jectra
Cru originally began his LMB career as Newcru King, who had the super-sanitation powers that could make things super-clean. This lasted through Year One and Year Two, towards roughly the end of his term as leader and into the next era.

During the end of Lash’s term we had the reboot versions of characters appear and he created Princess Crujectra. He had so much fun playing her that he kept the character and introduced her in LMB Continuity. This is all here, in The Reboot Reality of the LMB! . Crujectra had the basic powers of illusion at first, but as the months moved on began to show more telepathic powers.

During Year Three, Cru totally revamped both characters and changed Newcru King to ‘Crusader’ and showed that both of the twins had strong psyhic powers. At first Crusader was more of a telekinetic and Crujectra a telepath. As the years have moved on, Cru has honed the powers of both characters to encompass a variety of ‘psychic abilities’. The most recent firm explanation of these powers can be seen here, in Shadowspell . Following this, Crujectra and Crusader also have a telepathic connection to Loser Lad and Cobalt Kid.

Seahorse
Seahorse is also the LMBer with the most famously retconned origin, name and powers. Originally LMB Founder ‘Bellbookcandle Kid’, his powers were that he split into three selves: happy, dopey and grumpy. Later, as Year Two came to an end and Year three started, there was the sense of great change in the LMB, as Stu became an active poster, other posters left, etc. During this time, BBC (as we called him) took on the name ‘Seahorse’, and slightly changed his name/origin/powers. Mainly, this remained unexplained, although he became more of an Aquaman-like hero in many LMBers minds.

What people may not realize that there was one post, done by Stu during that time period, that explains these changes, his new name, his new origin and his powers. The post has been lost to us…however, this is another of the tag threads that Loser Lad and myself have saved on our computers, which Lou will add to the Archives. Basically Stu ironed out the inconsistencies, explaining how Seahorse was Seahorse retroactively all along.

Lash Lad
Lash has traditionally had the ‘super-whipping’ powers often displayed. However, during Year Two, Lash wrote a bunch of great Onevisions that showed the adventures of the Living Retcon, and later his life as Floyd (sans powers) with Worthless Girl, who had become the new Living Retcon. A third Onevision, “The Adventures of Seahorse and Lash Tot”, showed how Lash gained the Retcon powers of the Living Retcon, which caused him to have a bunch of adventures, after he turned himself into a Tot (feeling nostalgia for his childhood). He lost his powers at the end of this adventure, although there have been subtle hints throughout the last few years to suggest that may have them still after all, in secret.

Cobalt Kid
Cobalt Kid has always had the magnetic powers from day one. However, in the early months of Year One, in the “Five Years Later” story, it was shown that in the future, he’ll have one day gained new spiritual abilities (as well as a new mature, spiritual personality a la TMK Jan Arrah). These abilities include a healing power and a ‘spiritual sense’ that’s in tune with the universe.

Years later in my Onevision “Price of Security”, I explained how Cobalt has recently gotten these powers in Year Five, and now has them today.

Lucien Lad
Lucien Lad’s powers have always been a duex ex machina, referred to as the “Glamforce”. However, there is another aspect of this ability known as Lucien Lad’s super-nostalgia powers, which allows him to use his nostalgia to focus his powers to change reality in strange ways. The most famous example of this is when Lucien Lad missed Christmas in the middle of summer, and thus used his powers to make it Christmas: thus there was snow, decorations, etc. I figure you’ll be further expanding this in your current Onevision.

Dev-Em
Dev began his LMB career as a half-Daxamite/half-Durlan alien, who had the powers of both races. He later added the name ‘Anchor Boy’ to his moniker, and was deputy leader under Cru.

Later, Dev took a brief break and returned in Year Three, and this time changed his name to “Shift Kid”. Shift Kid had lost all portions of his Daxamite heritage and was fully Durlan, with only the Durlan powers.

Since then, he’s returned on and off and posts as just Dev-Em. His powers remain a little unclear at this point, although other authors have shown him use his Daxamite powers. This of course, can clearly be written away as Dev using his Durlan abilities to make it seem like he was still half-Daxamite when he was not.

Space Tart
During “Hot Summer Nights” and “Doom of the Super-Heroes”, Space Tart gained the power to pull objects out of people’s asses. After Teeds and Crujectra turned this power down and Spacey retroactively as given it, LardLad explained that this stemmed from her previously being held by the Emerald Ass of Ekron in Year Two. This is explained earlier in this thread, IIRC.

Sketch Lad
Dean has recently had his powers altered, which can bee seen above in his post.

LMB Spectre
One of many of the earliest LMBers favorite characters, the LMBP Spectre has an interesting history. In the first tag thread “The LMB Adventures” (which has been lost to us), we see the statue of ‘Foodmaker Kid’, the first LMBer to die in battle. Almost immediately, you can see that a dead member was retconned in. The early LMB would reference Foodmaker Kid every so often during that first month.

Later, during the Road Trips, the trip to Titans World world saw the return of Foodmaker Kid, only this time in the body of Donna Troy. We then saw that he also had the merged essence of the Spectre, Hal Jorden/Parrallax and Jar Jar Binks. This entity appeared destroyed.

Later during Year Five (on Legion World), someone ironed out that the LMBP Spectre still existed and was the mind of Foodmaker Kid, in the body of Donna Troy with the powers of the Spectre. Another poster has since created an username and uses the LMBP Spectre.

The essence of Jar Jar Binks and Parrallax became “Jar Jarallax”, and are an LMB enemy (that bit is my creation).

Faraway Lad
In “Crisis on Earth-4” it is revealed that only the Faraway Lad’s of the various Earths have the power journey from Earth to Earth as a natural extension of their powers.

Dedman
To be honest, I’m not entirely sure, but I think it’s only Dedman’s origin that has changed and not his powers. He’d have to answer that one.

Iron Rat
Stu has always been a magic-user over the years, but some people may get confused on his changing of appearances. He’s been able to change his form into a variety of animals, including most famously a bird, a monkey or a duck. In the Ongoing Tag Thread we learned that Stu has a plethora of forms he can take, including StuChiaElephant and StuAmoeba.

Eryk Davis Ester
EDE started out as a powerless friend of the LMB, although he was extremely important to the fate of the universe for mysterious reasons (which were later revealed as his connections to Pornis, the One Called the One and Lucifer Lass). However, the Light Brigade was so impressed by his heroism that made him a member of their team, because he had done such a good job disguising himself. Thus, he became “Boy of 1,000 Faces” in Doom of the Super-Heroes. Later, he joined the LMB following “Super Jailhouse of Space”.

His bad-luck powers a la Calamity King have always been a part of his personality, although I’m not entirely sure this has ever been outright stated.

In ‘Crisis on Earth-4” we learned that by uttering the word “jeepers!” he can summon a luck-lord that will do whatever he asks it to, and even help give do things that will bring him luck if he doesn’t even ask! The reason he never had this before was that the infamous nelly cap he wore was actually the Emerald Nelly Cap of Ekron! Following the battle, he got back his nelly cap sans Emerald Ekron-ness, and now has the power to summon his luck lord with that magic word.

Varalent
A natural extension of Vee’s power is that he can use his super-size changing powers to focus on a specific set of molecules. As he expands these molecules, they gain increased mass and thus increased force, and he can use these beams of increased force to slam into his enemies (i.e. he shoots force beams at people).

Semi-Transparent Fellow
Semi has always had a ‘as of yet unrevealed second power’, although we have never been privy to what it is.

Abin Quank
Abin started out as “New Kid” with super-annoying powers, and was mainly the brother of the much more heroic Space Ranger. He changed his name to ‘Almost New Kid’ and then “Almost, but not quite New Kid” as the weeks went on. Vee began calling him ABNQNK at this point to abbreviate his name. Then, in one of the funniest posts in tag team history, Numf-El first appeared on the scene and had some hilarious dialogue with the LMB. At one point, he said ‘Abin Quank? What the hell name is that?” Following up, I took the ball and ran with it, showing that Abin Quank was indeed New Kid’s real name, and that he was given a Green Lantern ring to become the LMB’s Green Lantern (a la Abin Sur).

Reboot
Previously Sanity or Madness?, SoM had both a Sanity side and a Madness side, and was like an LMB mad scientist type. Upon finding Glitch, he lost the Madness side and gained reboot powers through Glitch, which also do a number of things. He’s explained this more thoroughly elsewhere.

Invisible Brainiac
Not a power change per se, but IB previously had not told the LMB his true powers when he first joined. At first, they believed him to be able to harness his genius when he turned invisible.

However, in the Ongoing Tag Thread, it was revealed that IB actually had total control and mastery over light, and was so strong that he had to use powerful earrings that held his power in check, but even then he could still turn invisible with them on. He was always very bright and a brainiac, but was unable to focus when people were looking at him. Therefore, upon this reveal, he has continued to work hard at focusing his super-powerful abilities and continues to master his power over light in a variety of ways.

Tempest
All of Terry’s characters are different people and exist at the same time in the LMB universe, so there are no real power changes going on. Almost all have been magic-users in a variety of different ways.

I want to say I probably left someone out, but I’m pretty sure its damn close to everyone. Just to clarify, I haven’t included people that had their power all along, but we didn’t know about it until later (i.e. Dr. One, Mondo Joe X, etc.).

I swear, if one person gets mad about me messing this up…I’m going to make them pay in a tag thread…

That's the origin of Abin's name? You know I never knew that before. Cool.

The Glamforce a deux ex machina? Why, I...oooohh... it's no such thing, I...

Eh, alright, it's a complete deux ex machina. I'm not sure if I've ever really stated what Lucien Lad's Glamforce powers are, other than (I think) he's fast, strong and ultra glam. The Brads link to the Glamforce to the Glamforce as well, as does the Palace, but I think they relate as much to his nostalgia/reality bending powers. His nostalgia powers do kind of spring from the fact that he's travelled through time and space repeatedly before actually ending up in the LMBP (some of which I've documented in my One Vision but that i really need to finish off) but they also link to his relationship with the Time Mouse Trapper and Lash Lad and his Living Retcon powers. I'm not really sure how much of that final link I'll actually go into though since while it does play on some established points of LMBP history and Lash's character I don't want to go changing Lash's persona or fixing his past/future history too much without his say so.

Cobie RAWKS!

that's dues ex machina

"Busy November," my you-know-what...

Dad-frickin'-GUM, Cobes... you're incredible. Nice to see someone remembers the Living Retcon!

So, Des...how would you rank the LMBers in terms of raw power? (You don't need to rank all of them---maybe the top ten, with some explanations)

Hope this doesn't stump ya!

Top fifteen (I was ranking, I think I may make this list, I did just nuke a guy)

Jillikers-- does this mean it's time to reveal wether or not I still have the Living Retcon powers...?

Top 10 (or 15)?

Hm…I could probably do that.

I’ll let it be said right now though, that this is purely my own opinion. I’m by no means the end all/say all authority on this, although I do like to think I know the LMB inside and out better than any other living, dead or unborn soul. Here’s how I’d rank all of the LMB, past and present, in terms of sheer power.

First – We’re doing this in terms of raw power, not anything else. So things like super-smarts aren’t going to be counted, especially in light of how many would-be geniuses there are in the LMB. Also, things like craftiness and proficiency with their powers won’t come into play.

Second – I think I want to say something of my own regarding this issue. To me, the LMB has always been (at least partially—and a big part) a group of ‘Heroic Misfits’. They are super-heroes, with the same super-hero qualities that we know, but they are most definitely flawed through and through. Drinking, gambling, sex, etc. are a common theme. And so is screwing up on the job and with their powers. That’s part of the fun. I like to think that the LMB is a group of Samwise the Braves. A little bumbling, but you can rely on them. And Frodo would never got very far without Sam—and that is enough.

Making a character all powerful could be a waste if the character doesn’t have some sort of conflict regarding their powers. Some sort of flaw or character problem that they have to fight through (i.e. the Spectre needs a human host in DC).

And the other major thing is that its characters with more specific, less powerful powers that make the LMB as fun as it is. Just like the LSH and the X-Men, it’s the characters with cool niche powers that really prove how heroic they can be. In other words, Nightcrawler using his teleportation and Star Boy using his super-heavy powers help enrich their respective worlds, other than Mon-El and Phoenix going in and saving the day.

I had to say all that before I could continue

With that in mind, here’s my top list of the most powerful LMBers:

1) LardLad- LardLad has always been (from day one) the LMB’s big gun, and in my mind, he will always be that. The very nature of the Lardforce, which is essentially ill-defined although loosely structured, ensures that it is the most powerful force in the universe, since it ties directly into how the universe itself works and maintains itself. Plus, Lardy is to the LMB what Superman of Earth-2 is to the DCU since he started the “Who Are You’ thread all those years ago. I see him like Johnny Quick sees Alan Scott in “the Golden Age”. He’s our big gun. Further, at the end of the LMB’s story, it will come down to LardLad vs. the entire LMB, and that in and of itself means that he has to be powerful enough to battle all of the LMB, including the next people on this list directly below him. So, he’s hands down the most powerful.

His very nature, including the hedonistic growth of the character and the inner struggle between his good and dark sides are part of what makes his story very Shakespearan and allows the character to move past being so powerful.

2) The LMBP Spectre – Once again, this can’t really be disputed. The LMBP Spectre in the DCU is the most powerful thing in that universe. The Spectre could eat the Marvel U like corndog if he wanted to. The Spirit of Vengeance has one true power: he can do anything. Thus, our very own LMBP Spectre has the same abilities. This is probably why we rarely use the character in our stories, although some of us (I think of Lucien and myself right now) love using her because of how the character has grown, from the dead retconned in Foodmaker Kid to encompassing Donna Troy and other characters to the current LMBP Spectre. The total confusion of the identity helps provide a way to get past the all-encompassing sheer power of the Spectre, and thankfully exists—the less people who actually understand the character, the better in that she isn’t overly used.

*)Lash Lad – I have this listed as a star, as I’m unsure of whether to include a number. Basically, we don’t know if Lash still has the retcon powers. And I’m going to slyly give him a way out of answering that if he doesn’t want to . But, and that’s a big but, if he did still have them, he’d be number three. The powers of the Living Retcon can change reality/time/space/continuity/life. The can change anything and ensure was always like that. If Lash Lad and Cobalt Kid get in a fight and Lash still has the powers…*poof* no more Cobalt Kid, time fixes itself so that it kinda works. Does he still have ‘em? He’s about the only one I’d ever want to have ‘em…

3)Lucien Lad Followed right after (logically) is Lucien Lad, for much of the same reasons. The Glamforce, as Bevis says above, is essentially a deus a machina (if we all had the spelling wrong) and can fix any situation. And the nostalgia force (in my mind) can really even be more powerful, which is why I immediately thought of it during the Infinite Crisis thing as a potential solution. Once again, reality can be altered, although this time in more limited ways, relating directly to nostalgia and glam (which, lets face it, 80% of us don’t get ). The restrictions in that they directly reflect Bevis’s own definitions of these things are what make these powers so damn fun and interesting and often through most of us for a loop. It’s their greatest asset and their greatest flaw, a perfect dichotomy.

4)Magic-Users - I was going to list them all one by one in this top ten, but there’s really no point. The big three mages have always been used in such a way that they could do close to anything in the big cosmic sense, or they could be used to do smaller things in smaller missions. The main focus must always be on the fact that magic-users traditionally have two major weaknesses: they must study, prepare and gather materials for spells, and the also are very weak after using big spells and can’t keep cranking them out (those things essentially make magic-users interesting). Stu (Iron Rat) was our first magic-user, and his ever-changing animal forms add a further layer to this. Tempest (as well as High Priestess Viviane and Luna) also show off these massive talents, and her own history and family ties often prove to be her worst enemy, as well as a temper that I’m sure Terry shows off to show that her characters must always overcome their own human emotions. Pagan Lass is the last of the big three, and has her own limitations that relate directly to her goddess Bast and doing her will. Thus, all three have weaknesses and layers to their characters, which make them more interesting, and all three are immensely powerful.

On a smaller note, there have been other magic-users over the years (six years and a very common theme), but I wouldn’t put them at this level. To have a really powerful character, the real life poster themselves need the staying power to add depth and layers that give a deeper explanation.

5) Invisible Brainiac – What some people forget or don’t realize (if they haven’t read the tag teams) is that IB’s real power is to harness the immense and total power of light. He’s so strong, that it is a burden on him to reign his power in and control it, so he has to use artificial devices to do so, which is why his earlier days as an LMBer made us believe he had other power. Thus, he has the potential (and is working towards) to develop complete mastery over light, and all of the aspects of what that truly means. To be light essentially means you are immortal (and invulnerable), and can do things Flash, Green Lantern, Airwave, Sun Boy, and a whole plethora of others can do. Light is one of the strongest forces in the universe, and the notion that IB has to continually repress and control this power (his own very brilliant idea) understates what a potent force it is. This also introduces another interesting layer to the character’s powers (and the character himself), and just what, say, an Invisible Brainiac ten years in the future could do.

6) Dev-Em (also Engine Joe and the deceased Space Ranger) – I used to not be in this mindset, but I believe the powers of the Kryptonians and Daxamites really are this high on the list. Even over other incredible universe shaking powers as gravity, magnetism, etc. It took me to reread some Silver Age Superman stories, and even Superman of Earth-2 in Crisis to get a real sense of how strong these beings could be. I’m actually very glad there aren’t more of them in LMB lore. The total powers of Superman, including speed, strength and invulnerability that he possesses is the ultimate weapon against antagonists—but even more, the ultimate weapon against illogical enemies like entropy, dimensional barriers, etc. It took me a long time to think this way, but I believe that now.

On a smaller note, another LMBer to have this power is Kara. We (LMB tag authors) once wrote Harbinger to have the power, but I believe this has been altered in LMB lore. Engine Joe never really did anything in LMB missions/stories before. IMO, Space Ranger was the best portrayal of these powers, and was kinda of the Mon-El (power-wise) for the LMB.

Dev-Em’s powers are extremely tricky, as my above post on power changes will show—he might not even have the Daxamites anymore. He also posses full Durlan abilities, so the combination of the two by far makes him the front-runner here. However, if her were to only have the Durlan ones, I’d lower him on the list. With Space Ranger deceased and the others never having a long stay like the others here, this would make this category temporarily moot.

7) Abin Quank – Abin mind be shocked to here me say it, but he’s right here on the list . The Green Lantern ring truly is that powerful, which is why I found it so amusing when I presented it to him. It is essentially the most powerful weapon in the universe and there is little it cannot do. Anyone curious should note that Abin and I have established it does not have a yellow weakness, although recent Green Lantern issues may give Abin room for thought on the fear/yellow angle, but essentially, the LMB Green Latnern has no known weaknesses, other than the limitations of his imagination, his willpower and full use of his brain.

Abin, like Lardy, is a true master story-teller however, and has always used posts in LMB tales to play up the fact that the very human-ness of Abin Quank (and all of us) makes us very flawed, despite our powers. The way Abin writes Abin, you might not realize how powerful the character is, because Chuck taps directly into what the LMB is—Heroic Misfits. But I’d put him here.

8)Varalent/Emerald Emperss – If the Emerald Empress were still alive, I might do this differently. But as it stands, I’d probably still keep Vee this high up on the list. Here’s why.

Vee’s power has always been defined as his ability to make things grown and shrink (including himself), making him very different from other size-changing heroes in comic book lore. The ability to alter matter in that type of way is an extremely powerful power. Some time ago, however, we saw some even further insight into how powerful Vee was, in the idea that he could focus his power so sharply that he could increase the size of small molecules in specific matter and fire them at some one. Essentially, he could create bursts of pure force, which is essentially molecules speedily growing in size. I thought about this for awhile, and have always meant to use this ability in a tag thread in a very DC Silver Age super-science sort of way. The way I see, Vee controls one of the fundamental elements of the universe, in the sense that he could alter matter and molecular stability into more explosive elements—which theoretically alter the very nature of the universe itself. Thus, if the world was about to be engulfed in a giant anti-matter hole, Vee’s power, with the write author using logic and bullshit to back it up, could explain how Vee’s power could increase or decrease the molecules (or both) into a more compact force, which could cause it to explode (a bomb-type weapon), implode (eliminate the threat) or some other crazy thing. The possibilities are there.

Now, add on the fact that Vee has just come into possession of the Emerald Eye, which is another all-powerful item, which is only limited by the constant struggle of the Eye versus its master. Perhaps Vee will in some way connect these two powers into something even more coherent and logical? Time will tell, but these are two very potent forces within Vee.

9) The House of Jectra – I usually include Crujectra and Crusader together, since the two are two sides of one very powerful concept and force. These psych powers, including telekinesis and telepathy especially, are some of the most fundamentally powerful forces in comics. One only has to look at Phoenix (which has been defined as these two forces to their most maximum ability) or the use of telepathy in the Marvel U in the last 25 years to see that. Telekinesis essentially becomes a force to move matter in all of its forms, and even more potent, telepathy becomes the ultimate weapon and defense against the mind. And the mind, almost always, is the one greatest weakness of any enemy, hero or villain. A quick look at the above mentioned heroes shows that each and everyone is susceptible to a mind attack, and can fall in that way. Should Crujectra enter the mind of the LMB Spectre and play up the destructive nature of the personalities there, she could essentially stop the Spirit of Vengeance. The mind is a very hard to defend weakness and a very potent way of shutting someone down. Cru knows this, and also understands that the mind is a much more complicated thing than the old 1960’s ‘shut his mind down’ type offense. It’s Cru’s understanding of the variety of ways telepathy can be used and stopped that makes it such an interesting power. Further, its basis, like Abin’s, is based on willpower, which always makes for an interesting conflict. I’d put that here on the list, above things like Ultra-powers, lightning, and other stuff, because an assault on the mind is a very dangerous weapon to possess.

10) Reboot – To be completely honest, I don’t fully understand Reboot’s abilities or Glitch’s (his weapon/ally for those who didn’t know). He’s explained to me before, and I fully welcome him to do so here. But he does have the ability to reboot himself in the fullest sense of the word, which makes him able to find ways to deal with almost any situation. At first, I thought his power seemed like another duex a machina, but he’s developed these powers more in depth and shown there are limits and weaknesses, which further reveal just how powerful his powers truly are. Needless to say, I think he would make the list right here.

Before we continue, some more thoughts
- Any one of these heroes could essentially beat the other, given the writer and the circumstances. I could easily explain in one paragraph why Cobalt Kid could beat each and everyone on this list in a clear, concise victory with the enemy defeated. That’s the way it goes, especially with powers that are completely and utterly imaginary.

- Any of these people on the list could be beaten by a group of heroes, depending on the writer and circumstances. Same as above, it’s the way it goes. Still, a really good writer would have to explain the hows and whys, and it would be interesting to see. Further, no battle can be fought without some emotional human involvement, making it much harder for Lardy to beat Loser Lad, say, than Lardy to beat Paste Pot Pete—essentially, he has a history and friendship with Lou.

Honorable Mentions
Ultra Matt – Matt, of course, has Ultra powers, which are Superman’s abilities, with the weakness that he can only use one at a time. This weakness, to me, gets him off this list, but makes him still one of the most powerful LMBers. Further, some LSH issues and topics have explored the full use of Ultra powers, in that they may be limited by Jo’s mimicking Superboy…that possible, they could extend to things like time travel and all sorts of other things. But that’s all theoretic at this point.

Cobalt Kid – I know just how powerful magnetism could be, which is why I picked it so long ago. I almost wanted to put myself on the list, but I see my powers as being more along the lines of 11th or 12th on the list. Magnetism is essentially one of the strongest forces in the universe, and is directly relating to gravity, the forces holding the universe together and the forces allowing molecules to bind themselves together. These are all things that magnetism, on its most potent level, could easily do. Although often associated with metal, the true definition and studies of magnetism reveal that all things have magnetic pulls and forces, and the polarity of other things, like water, could allow for magnetism to be used in a variety of other ways. The common comic book concept of magnetism is already pretty firm—one only needs to look at Magneto in the Marvel U to see that. It could truly be used to make tremendous cosmic and galactic progress in stories, if used right. Further, Cobalt Kid has the spiritual abilities he inherited in “Price of Security”—magically allowing him to heal almost any wound, as well as giving him a spiritual awareness that may or may not grow into his best defense against magic and cosmic entities.

Eryk Davis Ester – Eryk’s status in the LMB has always had him down among the lesser powerful members, but his acquiring of a Luck Lord under his control puts him well into this area of the countdown (er, or up). The Luck Lord can essentially do anything he wants it to, and usually does things for him that he never even thinks of, ensuring he has good luck. The very concept of this itself makes it interesting, as does the fact that its not always something people would have in mind. A very powerful, and even reliable ability, but one that has results that may not be obvious before using it.

Space Tart – Space Tart can pull critical objects out of people’s asses. Its essentially the most LMB of all duex a machinas, and one that often times will kill the person whose asses is getting stuff pulled out of it (say, if it’s a tractor or something). The limits on this, of course, is that you might not always get the thing you need, although sometimes, you can exactly what you need, like when Spacey pulled the universe out of someone’s ass. The limits of this power are entirely up to whoever is writing it. The very nature of the power made me put it here, although the argument is there for this power to be right under Lucien Lad’s. The reliability of it is something that needs to be more defined before I would do so.

Drake – If Drake has all the powers of Wildfire, he’d be in the top ten, hands down, above Dev-Em. But I’m unsure if he does, since he’s never really defined his powers or LMB character and we’ve never really used him. Mm…something to do in the future. But Wildfire’s powers are a whole different subject and I’m running out of time…needless to say, their quite powerful.

Faraway Lad – Far can send anyone far away, although he does not have the greatest control of doing so. However, the potential for sheer power is there to really move across space as easily as Far could want to do. Further, this means a direct correlation to time, something we’ve never even touched on in our stories. Could Far move through time? Possibly. We’ve also established that the Faraway Lad’s of various Earth’s are the only ones that can move across the multiple Earth’s—an ability unique only to them. That opens up a whole new series of questions and possibilities of the very nature of Far’s power, and how it can be used to navigate space/time/reality (and send people across these things).

Wow, I write a lot

This is what happens when you're not a simple flying brick or Deus Ex Machina, huh? (I don't care if it's the right spelling, that's how I spell it )

1) Rebooting - altering the form of myself and/or others, one at a time. This can be shapeshifting and/or to invisiblity/intangibility, but not to completely inert (i.e., non-living) matter.
2) Energy sponge - I soak up energy, mostly to power various gadgets I carry. If I charge/discharge too quickly, it tires me out, and if I overcharge, Bad Things Happen since I go screwball while my power level jumps enormously, and do things like Rebooting a bunch of insects into an army of Daleks
3) 10th level intelligence - mostly used to create gadgets, of which the foremost two are my trusty forcefield and teleporter . I also have various specific gadgets like the one I used to kill a load of Cobalt clones and depower the original .

Glitch - sentient keytool, which communicates with me telepathically, which is heard by everyone else as whirrs and clicks. It can either turn into an on-the-fly gadget (e.g., communicator, zip/hover board, blaster) or maintain a pre-existing gadget while I'm distracted by something else.

Got it now?

And you've spelled it right!

Thanks 'Boot

Given the altering the form of others (altering living matter) and soaking up energy, the combination of the two does ring true of being able to reboot things. Further, I would keep you on the list where you are, given your powers and limitations.

Thanks!

One other thing: if anyone thinks I'm missing a mega powerful LMBer, by all means tell me!

Yay, I made the list!!

Des, I'm really flattered that you put Lardy at the top of your list. I wasn't necessarily expecting that!

I guess one thing you based his placement on was that I've stated the only limit to his power is Lardy's imagination. It's also been stated that he's definitely the most powerful of all the Lard Knights. It's even been said that no other comes close. As I develop Lard Lass, I hope to show how she compares as possibly the secondmost powerful.

I also don't really see his power as deus ex machina. Lardy's never created from nothing something like the Ultimate Nullifier, for example. What he does do is access an extradimensional energy that seems attracted to some beings who are either obese or have some other connection to fat cells. Maybe their parents were obese, or in Lard Lass's case, her mom specialized in liposuction in a plastic sugery office. The easiest way to wield the power is to manipulate fat cells. But the most adept users can channel the energy to rise well above that limitation. Lardy can teleport, create force fields and fire energy blasts (among other uses) which have nothing to do with manipulating fat cells.

But Lardy is also potentially the weakest of all LMBers because of some debilitating character flaws: He's a drunk. He's a whoremonger. And he's shut down the part of himself that allows him to love or even show any emotional pain. When he does show intense emotion, it usually takes the form of a violent rage. Those first two things recently bit him in the ass when he got his powers stolen a while back. The magic 8-ball says he'll eventually get them back, but it also says that doing so will probably cost him again.

So Cobalt, you hit the nail on the head. Seemingly all-powerful foes are much more interesting when they have powerful flaws to go with them. And as you hinted, Lardy's flaws will really cost the LMB in the future.

So do you think "Reign of the Dark Lard" is/will be the last LMB story? Or do you just mean it's the last known story chronologically to be told with nothing scheduled at this time to happen after it? There are times that I thought it could be the former, but I've leaned toward the latter. Certainly, I've never planned for all the LMB to be killed off in the story. But the outcome of it all could be a trigger to bring the LMB down.

Or...hell, I'm not even close to writing the thing yet! So it's rather pointless to get in a deep tirade about it. And even if my writing output wasn't cosmically slow, I would keep finding other ways to put it off! I mean, it's a daunting thing to even think about writing the definitive climax of a character I've put a lot into. And then there's the fear that it'll be a real letdown to you or anyone else who might be wanting to read it. Damn!

I'm not sure what I'll write after "Turning Point". I'll probably think of something else to put "Reign" off! Maybe "White Twilight". Funny thing is, when I came up with the basic outline for "Reign" (and yes, I've always known most of the bullet points of what happens in it), I knew almost immediately another story I wanted to write that took pace about 20 years after it! Oh my aching head.....

Oh! And by the way, just how did Space Ranger and Emerald Empress die? I missed those...was that part of our version of Infinite Crisis? (missed that too) Did I glance somewhere that Faraway died, too? (I'm guessing that was overturned since he's not listed as deceased in the list)

Anyone else of note die recently? If so, who and how?

It could be the last story of the LMBP 'proper' but with my own One Vision I've put in references to at least some stories happening a little later down the line with Lucien Lad and the Time Mouse Trapper (kind of going on the assumption that TTMT *is* Lash) so at the very least those two survive. Of course if we go off Cobie's most powerful list (I made the top 3! Yay!) it could well be that in the final climactic battle Lucien Lad and Lash were both transformed into their states that we see them at the start of The Rise and Fall of Lucien Lad. Lucien Lad mentions in the first part fo that that he didn't find out who he was until after the Universal Wars and the final collapse of the LMBP. It could easily be that those Universal Wars were actually the same events as 'Reign of Dark Lard', or maybe there was a second generation of the LMBP with the few remaining members (Lucien Lad, Lash and maybe a couple of others?) and he's referring to *their* collapse. The fact that they're talking at the very end of the multiverse means that they're incredibly far in the future and who's to say that there weren't more than one LMBPs? There are a few LMBPers who could potentially be immortal to one extent or another (Lucien Lad certainly is even if he's transformed into a different state, possibly Lash if he is TTMT and/or has the Living Retcon powers, IB as Cobie pointed out, the magic users possibly as well) and if that's so they could be responsible for forming new LMBPs far in the future of the current team.

All that being said I do like the idea that there is a 'final' LMBP story, one that ends with the end of the team. Something else else dark but with a possibility of hope coming through.

To my mind the Glam Force, while being pretty much anything it needs to be, isn't really that huge a power. The Brads are infinite and the Palace could be a useful story device (it can be an interdimensional portal after all) but in and of itself it doesn't really have any great force other than to keep Lucien Lad pretty much immortal and to lend him a certain degree of superstrength/speed/etc. With just the Glam Force as his power Lucien Lad would be way down the list. He'd be fabulous but he'd be the equivalent of... ooh, Jubilee or someone like that. Pretty power but not really that versatile. As you dsay though it's the nostalgia power that's the big one. I don't think it's ever been fully defined, but again as you say the flaw with it (and possibly the strength) is that the reality that Lucien Lad can remember and can recreate is influenced entirely by his own view of it. lucien Lad is, to put it mildly, a little self obsessed and sees everyone through a rather distored mirror in a way. His nostalgia powers don't automatically make things as they actually were but how he thinks they *should* be. It's not quite a Living Retcon power where he can change anything, but it does mean that he can change reality into something that it wasn't before. So far I don't think we've ever really seen his nostalgia powers in a very controlled way. it's either been a bit random (like the Christmas incident) or almost by accident (I think during the whole Lash Tot/Funny animals LMBP stories he kind of automatically reset himself to how he was before without actually affecting the others around him). Of course if he were to fully harnes those powers and understand that it's his perceptions, his world view, that take shape then it could be verging on Living Retcon levels of power. I don't know if I'd ever want to take him that far though (at least not while he's still part of the LMBP) but the potential is there.

And finally there's the whole Gay-lipso powers thing as well. Ok so they were hugely undefined during Crisis and aren't really very like the DC Eclipso powers (he's not affected by sunlight for example) but they are at least to some degree a level of magic use. Almost a step down version of the Spectre's power. Now it could of course be that he was in some way channeling the LMBP Spectre (for her own reasons) and I'm not sure whether his ability to hold reality together was a combination of his nostalgia powers and his Gay-lipso powers but that would make sense (since he had to be Gay-lipso and there had to be two of him to hold reality together). I think he's going to set aside his Gay-lipso powers now though, although there's always the chance that he might take them up again in the future if they're needed.

Oooh oooh oooh, two new questions.

First is, Ok we've had the list of the most powerful LMBPers, how about the list of the most powerful LMBP villains (either including LMBPers gone bad or not as the case may be).

And secondly the LMBp has had a fair few 'celebrity' guest stars over the years (Cher, Elvis, Catherine the Great, Frankie Muniz etc) but who are the most important ones, and were any of them *actually* the real celebs (I'm pretty sure Cher was but I'm not sure about any of the others).

My main problem must be that I can be one cranky bitch!

Hey, it's not my fault, school and work suck monkey-bobo!

Lardy, I’m glad you enjoyed my view of LardLad and his powers and personality, and how the two create such strengths and flaws of his character.

Bevis, I also agree that it’s the nostalgia powers that are the most powerful in Lucien Lad’s character, which potentially can be the powers of the Living Retcon, albeit, it would change things and people would remember, so it wouldn’t necessarily be a ‘retcon’. And the flaw of the powers is what really makes them interesting, and what really makes them more ‘LMB’ than anything else. I’ve always seen them as one of the ‘ultimate tag team weapons’ that a Tag author could use in explaining away posts that drive a tag team story into the ground

Now, I have a question for you though: to be honest, I kind of got burnt out on LMB Infinite Crisis and couldn’t quite keep up with the end. I’m going to reread the whole thing eventually and sort it out, but you can help me regarding Gay-Lipso. Did Lucien Lad and Gay-Lipso (Earth-4 Glamour Puss) remain two people in one essence? Did Lucien Lad keep the Gay-Lipso powers? From your post, I can see we’re already sorting out exactly how to define them.

Terry, I’ve always thought that the temper of your various characters (more Viviane and Luna than others) was a way of humanizing what appears to be an aloof god-like powerful figure, and thus gives them what is potentially their greatest flaw and weakness. It’s always been an interesting conundrum.

I’ll get to all the big questions shortly and I think I’m going to answer a question of my own that I recently was wondering: what is the entire, exact list of dead LMBers? It’s more than you think…