Humor

Random brainstorming for a superhero RPG

Moderator: Joshua

User avatar
Joshua
Gibbering
Posts: 2987
Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2009 11:59 pm

Humor

Post by Joshua »

Humor is a sentient emotion. Specifically, joy. Humor is also a sociopathic, psychotic killer. He loves killing people in violent, sometimes ironic ways. He prefers to do things he finds funny, but remember "Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall down an open sewer grate and die."

Powers:
  • Incorporeal: Humor is a possessing entity. In his natural state he's less physical than most 'typical' spirits.
  • Possession: Humor can grab a host body and take total control. This can ONLY happen if the host has no joy or humor left inside of them and experiences some traumatic event that would cause them to snap. Even in a city as large as New York, there is usually less than a dozen suitable hosts for Humor at any given time.
    This act pushes the victim's conscious aside, BUT keeps them aware of everything that goes on. Well, almost. The host spirit does not feel any of the physical pain until Humor leaves. Humor can be forced out through the following ways:
    1. If the host spirit has a genuine laugh. (Humor is helpless to stop this from happening and can sometimes sense the inevitability of such a laugh.)
    2. If the host is killed. (Specifically, the host has to flat-line; the heart is the seat of Humor. They may be later revived.)
    3. If Humor gets bored. (He has left when the host body has been arrested.)
    If forced out by the last two methods, Humor CAN repossess the individual. Only genuine laughter can prevent repossession. (The laugh doesn't have to be while they are possessed.)
  • Sense of Humor: (ouch, the pun) Humor knows EXACTLY what will make his host laugh, and in a mockery of his original purpose, will avoid it like the plague. Some versions can sense what his victims will find funny, and Humor loves making them laugh despite the pain and death.
  • Weapons Cache: Not a power per-se, but Humor is in full control and knows where any of his previous hosts have hidden weapons or the like. It comes up a lot.
  • Hand-to-Hand Expertise: Humor has been described as a virtuoso of martial combat, effortlessly integrating unique elements of his new host into an efficient killing method. Sometimes, Humor doesn't bother to fight to his full potential. After-all, it's just a host body that's dying. All he cares about is who gets hurt and how it makes him laugh.
Weakness:
Genuine laughter will prevent him from taking a host and can drive him out of a host.
Humor has most supernatural hunters and elements as enemies. There are some times when he's been utterly screwed by Fate.
Fundamentally, his host is just a typical mortal.

Publication History:
The Interregnum (Between Golden and Silver ages): Humor's first appearence was in Tales of Horror #3. A horror anthology aimed at adult readers in the 1950's. His story about a deadly laughing force that possessed a humorless recluse was scary enough to be cited as why the "comic's code" was needed.
(s)Laughter: A short six-issue mini series along the same lines, but only about Humor. Humor's nemesis, Cupid, was introduced in the first issue.
User avatar
Joshua
Gibbering
Posts: 2987
Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2009 11:59 pm

Re: Humor

Post by Joshua »

During an amalgam crossover event it was revealed that the Joker can choose to turn on and off his own ability to act as Humor's host at will. A fact that scares Humor, and is perhaps the only thing to have ever scared Humor.

Cupid, the embodiment of romance, was a sometimes foil for Humor, but never rose to any popularity. Cupid is similarly a sentient sense of love/caring. He cannot possess anyone, merely appearing in mirrors and reflections or whispering in his host's ear. He appears to lost, heartbroken individuals, and attempts to give them hope that there is someone out there for them. Similar to Humor, Cupid can sense people who would be romantically compatible with his host. Humor's actions take Cupid out of his normal goals, attempting to get his hosts to be heroes. On the plus side, since Cupid doesn't take complete control, his range of hosts is significantly larger than Humor*.
_____________
*: It is theorized that Humor COULD appear to a larger range of victims, if he wasn't so focused on possession and mayhem.