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Character Sheet

Doctor Faustus

Doctor Faustus v2

By Sébastien Andrivet

Source of Character: Marvel Universe (chiefly Captain America issues)

Helper(s): Dr. Piispanen, Eric Langendorff, Roy Cowan, Adam Fuqua

Reasons (1): Doktor Faustus is, of course, the original German name for the play featuring Faust (the guy who sells his soul to the Devil for power and knowledge).

Reasons (2):The use of Broadcast Empath to enhance Character Interaction is documented in the New Rules file maintained at the discussion group.

Reasons (3): Though he might threaten small groups (and has done so in the past), Doctor Faustus is best used in one GM-one player, role-playing-heavy scenarios. He's pretty much the perfect villain for those, and could easily support a long and involved scenario in that format. For this reason, I have decided to be fairly detailed about his plans and how they went in the History section, so GMs can use this writeup to come up with Faustus-style schemes based on his past ones.

Reasons (4): Amazing Spider-Man v1 #169-170 were cool childhood memories, and re-reading them was nice. For those of you more familiar with the Brubaker-written arc on Captain America volume 5 (the death of Cap and subsequent stories), the portrayal of Faustus is unusually well-researched and faithful to the old stories, with many references to previous Doctor Faustus plots. This is generally true of all of Brubaker's work on Captain America.

Reasons (5): The particularly attentive reader will note that the History section has Peggy Carter as the sister of Sharon Carter. Since Peggy is firmly a 1940s character, this has become increasingly impossible and Peggy has since been retconned by Marvel into being the *aunt* of Sharon. Peggy has now been retconned as having aged normally (she's quite aged), whereas Sharon has barely aged since her vintage appearances. See the writeups.org Leon Genetic Sequence article for more on comic book ageing.

Reasons (6): As with most v2s on the site, this is entirely re-researched and rewritten whereas the v1 was largely done from memory.

Game Stuff

Dr. Faustus

"Other men -- lesser men -- have attempted to defeat Captain America before -- and all have failed ! But they did not know what I know ! Whom Dr. Faustus would destroy -- he will first make mad !"

"Though Captain America is one of the most superb fighters of this century... it amuses me to totally destroy him without the use of force.... without leaving a single clue !"

"Ah... this shall be my greatest triumph, Anna. The destruction of a mind all believe to be inviolable !"

"...well, Anna ? What do you think of your Johann now ? Have I at long last proved my value to you ?"

"Excellent ! You gentlemen may gather our android helpers now -- and please -- do not forget [the Franklin Richards] one ! I never could tolerate children !"

"My primal drive is to destroy your mind, Captain -- but it is not an overpowering drive. I would have settled, reluctantly, for having my men destroy your body. Just as now, you force me to utilise a weapon instead of theory -- a weapon which will incinerate your brain !"

"Quiet now ! I must read the ultimatum letter perfectly to impart exactly the psychological effect I wish it to have."

Spider-Man: "Rhino... Man-Wolf.... Morbius... the Shocker... the Vulture... All my greatest enemies -- attacking me together ! This can't be happening ! This can't be real ! I must be losing my mind !"
Dr. Faustus: "Indeed you are, my helpless friend -- and only Doctor Faustus can save you ! Begone, you fearsome phantasms - Doctor Faustus commands you !! BEGONE !!"

"Fool ! My fit of pique was merely a ruse -- a ploy which enabled me to come close enough to you to use my hypnotic smoke once more !"

"I have fought Captain America several times ! I know his every weakness... even as I know yours !"

"How dare you presume to call me mad ?! Kill them ! KILL THEM BOTH !"

"Flood him with the methaqualone, 10 ccs... Calm down Jack... drift.... let the sedatives get inside.... another ten on the metaqualone, stat... dream a little dream, Jack Monroe... let me inside those fortified barriers you've place around your mind... you gave up, Jackie-boy. Gave it all up."

"I can help you even more, Jack. I can help you forget everything I've just put you through. Or I can help you remember it all, clearly, in painfully vivid detail. The choice is yours, Jack. But it is a choice you will be unable to make if you kill me now, or force my men to kill you. So, Jack.... which shall it be ?"

"Don't ask for my help and then spit in my face, Skull. I'm not the one who's sharing my mind with another man."

"I understand more about the human mind and its workings than anyone on this planet, boy... Do you truly think I care if you call me fat ?"

Red Skull: "I will give you one thing, Faustus... you engineer a riot with the best of them."
Faustus: "Pfft. Making people scared enough to turn against their own interests is child's play."

Dr. Faustus

Dex: 04	Str: 05	Bod: 05	Motivation: Power
Int: 09	Wil: 08	Min: 08	Occupation: Criminal, psychiatrist
Inf: 07	Aur: 07	Spi: 07	Resources {or Wealth}: 010
Init: 020		HP: 050

Powers: Growth: 01, Hypnosis: 06 -- and possibly Regeneration: 01, Invulnerability: 06
Bonuses and Limitations:

• Growth is Always On and Already Factored In
• Hypnosis is a Skilled Power and requires either the full range of preparation for such (immobile subject, several minutes, a visual aid such as a pen flashlight, the ability to talk at length with the subject, etc.) *or* exposure to the hypnotic smoke of his CIGARETTES (below)

Skills: Charisma (Interrogation, Persuasion): 10, Charisma (Intimidation): 06, Medicine (Brainwashing, Medical Treatment, 'Surgery'): 09, Gadgetry: 06, Scientist (Analysis): 09, Scientist (Drawing plans): 05, Scientist (Research): 06, Weaponry (Exotic): 06
Bonuses and Limitations:

• His Medicine (Medical treatment, 'Surgery') Subskills are only effective at treating MIND damage -- although he also can attempt to treat SPI damage with a +1CS to OV and RV penalty
• Scientist (Analysis) can only be applied to psychological factors, and is Contingent on his Medicine Skill

Advantages: Genius, Language (German), Scholar (Psycho-active drugs, psychology and psychiatry, android actor programming), Slowed Ageing. After his seeming death at the hands of Nomad, Faustus acquired Iron Nerves.
Connections: Underworld (Low), Unscrupulous actors (Low), the Tinkerer (Low), other illegal high technology providers (Low). He also had a Low Connection to the Corporation back during its heydays, and for some months had Low Connections with both the Red Skull and Arnim Zola.
Drawbacks: Distinct Appearance (Enormous size, presence, intimidating red beard), MPR (Slightly nearsighted - he used to wear glasses but now prefers a monocle), Minor Psychological Instability (See below), MIF of Heights. For a while he had a SPR (Crippled legs), which he lost after seemingly being killed by Nomad.
Equipment: This starts with gear he regularly uses, then lists more plot-specific equipment.

• SPECIAL CIGARETTES [BODY 01, Broadcast Empath: 10, Limitation: Broadcast Empath can only be used to facilitate the Charisma rolls by Doctor Faustus ; Broadcast Empath only works as long as the subject is exposed to at least some of the smoke ; If the effects of Broadcast Empath disappear the effects of Charisma also disappear]. Those cigarettes are loaded with a cocktail of chemical agents invented by Faustus. Those breathing the smoke (usually by being in the same room than a smoking Faustus, though Faustus can blow smoke into people's face for quicker effects) find their ability to resist his mesmerising voice starkly diminished. This was sufficient to vanquish even Spider-Man's superior mind.
• MORE SPECIAL CIGARETTES [BODY 01, Illusion: 10, Ammo: 01, Limitation: The target must be exposed to cigarette smoke for at least two Phases ; Sealed Systems adds to RV against Illusion ; Illusion is an hallucination and is only visible by the target.]
• YET MORE SPECIAL CIGARETTES [BODY 01, Chemical attack: 09, Ammo: 01, Limitation: Chemical Attack is its own AV (+1 or +0 dep. on house rules]
• WAFER-THIN PARACHUTE [BODY 02, Gliding: 01, Ammo: 01]. Due to his phobia of heights, Faustus almost always carries a very thin, concealed parachute under his vest. This has, of course, proved useful in his career as a supervillain - once allowing him to escape a fall from an airplane, which further cemented his habit of wearing this Gadget at all times.
• NOSE PLUGS [BODY 01, Sealed systems (gasses only): 05. Given the amount of gas weapons he uses, it is reasonable to assume that he has a stock of concealed nose plugs, which will undetectably protect him against airborne pathogens, hallucinogens, etc.]
• A vintage locket with a signed photo of his mother.
• Faustus has used a number technological items as required by his plans, but does not always have access to them - those need Lab work to build. Those have included:
  • WILL-SAPPING DRUGS [BODY 01, Mind drain: 09, Spirit drain: 09, Bonus: Mind drain and Spirit drain are Combined, Limitations: Mind drain and Spirit drain can only score, at best, one RAP each per attack - but this RAP cannot be Recovered as long as the subject has significant amounts of the DRUGS in his system ; the DRUGS have to be taken by the subject every 15 APs of time before one attack roll is made after 18 APs of time ; the Mind and Spirit APs that are Drained are not actually gained by anyone.]
  • SURVEILLANCE STUFF. Faustus is often able to have sophisticated surveillance bugs (with full real-time video and sound feed) planted in the most unlikely of places, such as, on one occasion, the heart of the Baxter Building and onboard the Fantasticar. I don't think that there is any reasonable explanation as to how he does that.
  • Mind-Incinerating Pistol [BODY 03, Mind blast: 06, Mental paralysis: 08, Range: 03, Ammo: 06, Bonus: Mind Blast and Mental Paralysis are Combined ; Limitations: Neither Powers have Range (use the listed Range instead)].
  • Hallucinogenic gasses combined with holographic projectors and the like [BODY 02, Illusion (area of effect 3 APs): 09, Limitation: Sealed Systems and Systemic Antidote both add to RV against Illusion]
  • For the Absorbascann and other technologies developed for Larry Ekler, see a future Every-Man writeup.
  • ANDROID DOUBLES [DEX 03 STR 05 BODY 05, Artist (Actor): 04, Chameleon: 06. Note that the Chameleon is not instantaneous - it is actually a long process of 'disguising' the android into the person it imitates. Some ANDROID DOUBLES wear or use additional equipment, and it seems possible to build in a few additional system - for instance an ANDROID imitating the Torch could have Flight: 04 and Flame Being: 04, or maybe Flame being: 04 and Flame project: 04]
  • UNDEFEATABLE OPPONENTS. Those are ANDROID DOUBLES as above, but DEX is 04, BODY is 07 and they have Regeneration: 08, Damage capacity: 04 and Weaponry*: 04. Coupled with MORE WEAKENING GAS, this results in opponents that are very difficult to knock out. Examples include a ULTIMATUM agent with a Uzi and lots of Ammo, a Scourge of the Underworld with the signature .50 carbine of that organisation, one in a replica Porcupine armour, and a MODOK replica with Flight: 04 and Mental blast: 10.
  • HIGH FREQUENCY SCRAMBLER [BODY 02, 'Mind' drain: 10, Limitations: 'Mind' drain has the subject's MIND/MIND as the OV/RV but actually damages both INT and WIL (and any relevant Accuracy (Perception) Subskill) rather than MIND. It can only gain one RAP every minute with a maximum of 6 RAPs, though those RAP is deduced from both INT and WIL (and any relevant Accuracy (Perception) Subskill). It is impossible to Recover those RAPs while in the scrambling field - but subjects gain a 'free' Recovery roll as an Automatic Action within seconds of leaving the field. The Area of Effect of the SCRAMBLER depends on the web of repeaters installed to relay its effects - Faustus usually has an entire building equipped with repeaters.]
  • MIND CONTROL EQUIPMENT [This equipment is either odourless, clear gasses over a broad area, or green gas from a spray. It has Hypnosis: 05 and is generally used to handle crowds or do a 'Jedi mind trick' on some random guard.]
  • WEAKENING GAS [Same thing as the HIGH FREQUENCY SCRAMBLER, really, except it targets BODY/BODY as the OV/RV, reduces both DEX and BODY with its RAPs and can reduce DEX by up to 08 RAPs. Oh, and that Sealed Systems helps defend against it. This odourless, colourless gas is used to weaken a physical opponent, such as Captain America ; much like with the HIGH FREQUENCY SCRAMBLER Faustus will employ it in combination with a gauntlet of traps, distractions and emotionally difficult obstacles so that the Drain can weaken the target without being noticed until it is too late].
  • MORE WEAKENING GAS [Another variant lowered muscle-powered EVs (kicks, punches, Charge, blows with melee weapons, etc. It is possible that it would also work for super-powers like energy blasts and the like) against moving targets - and SPI. Note that the EV reduction is very subtle - the person is certain that he is hitting with full force, but a subtly deteriorated coordination actually results in glancing blows. EV can be reduced by up to 04 APs, SPI by up to 08 APs.]

 

 

 

Background

Real name: Dr. Johann Fennhoff
Other aliases: Doctor Benjamin of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Marital Status: Single
Known Relatives: Anna Fennhoff (mother, deceased), unidentified father (deceased)
Group affiliation: Former leader of the National Force ; former ally of the Corporation, the Secret Empire and the Red Skull.
Base Of Operations: New York City ; formerly the Lost Souls Asylum outside of Derby, Connecticut ; the Fenhoff Institute (a mental health institute) in upstate New York ; a sanatarium in the Catskills ; the Skull House ; a psychiatric ward in Florida... you get the idea.
Height: 6'6" Weight: 321 lbs.
Eyes: Blue Hair: Red

Powers and Abilities

Faustus's immediately apparent asset is that he is a giant of a man, being both very tall and extremely broad and powerful. He has been compared in that respect to the Kingin, though unlike the Kingpin Faustus is not a mass of solid muscle. While he does not seem to keep himself in shape or to have any special training, Fennhoff's enormous strength and great reach make him a very dangerous opponent in hand-to-hand combat. He's better at swatting aside normal people than at soaking punches, though - his pain tolerance seems to be rather average - but there's still 320 lbs. of meat to take down.

Faustus even might have a physical superhuman power of sorts - he apparently developed or procured some form of age-slowing factor, since he should be about 80 at this point. This hypothetical ability may include some form of low-key regenerative ability -- over the years he recovered the use of his legs in medically unlikely circumstances, recovered from massive coma-inducing shock and choking, and even survived a headshot with a .45 handgun at close range. There are alternative explanations, of course, but Regeneration and Invulnerability as per the stats block are a definite possibility.

If Faustus indeed has anti-agathic and low-key recuperative abilities, it is likely that they are based on the Super-Soldier serum. Faustus had extensive access to Captain America's body and even designed serums that could reputedly counter the anagathic effects of the Super-Soldier serum. His chemical genius may have made it possible to derive a variant.

Faustus's physical strength and possible superhuman resiliency, however, are quite secondary to his intellect and his keen understanding of the human mind. He's a genius psychologist and psychiatrist who has actually demonstrated an ability to treat hopeless cases, such as the near-catatonic amnesia of Peggy Carter, and to handle really weird pathologies, such as the merging of Johann Schmidt and Aleksander Lukin as the current Red Skull. Faustus favours a rather unique approach to repairing or destroy minds - full immersion in perfect reconstitutions of traumatic episodes and key memories. To that end he employs actors, costumes, chemicals, props, hypnosis, androids, etc. as illustrated throughout this writeup. This can indeed trigger very powerful reactions in the target, especially with the help of odourless gasses to magnify emotional reactions and loosen the subject's ability to disbelieve. In modern times he seems to employ VR immersion on bound and drugged subjects more often than his old approach with cinema-like reenaction and mise en scéne.

Faustus is also an excellent technologist and a master of persuasion and manipulation, with an incredibly modulated and convincing, almost hypnotic, voice. He's remarkably observant, especially when it comes to the behaviour of others - for instance he immediately noticed that Daredevil was acting almost like a blind person would.

Furthermore, Faustus is independently wealthy and very well connected with various criminal sources of advanced technology. In particular, android doubles that seem nearly as sophisticated as the LMDs used by Tony Stark or S.H.I.E.L.D. often play an important role in his manipulations and scenarios. The most likely provider of such sophisticated androids is the Mad Thinker.

Setting up hidden high-tech bases with androids, traps, weapons, extremely sophisticated surveillance systems, etc. is a recurrent part of Doctor Faustus's modus operandi, and he never seems to have problems financing or organising all of this.

In recent years, Faustus' hypnosis and brainwashing techniques seem to have gotten even more sophisticated - for instance under his hypnotic yoke Carter kept hearing her own voice nagging her, telling her she was guilty for killing Steve Rogers, that she should stop thinking and just listen to the doctor, that she was a bad person, etc.

History:

Johann Fennhoff was born in the late 1920s or early 1930s in Vienna, the only child of two highly educated and successful parents. During the Black Friday of March, 1938, when the Nazis rolled into Austria, the Fennhoffs used their wealth and connections to arrange for a swift exile to London.

Their exact motivation was not revealed, though likely possibilities include that they were Jews, and/or Communists, and/or Austrian nationalists who had publicly opposed the pro-Reich activists. Fennhoff's psychiatric issues around his mother nagging him for being a nogoodnik would be an old self-mocking Jewish joke and may have been meant by the writer as an hint in that direction.

The Fennhoffs's desperate escape left them without their fortune, their reputation or their social network, in a London that would start experiencing the devastation of the Blitz a few years later. Herr Fennhoff died in the early 1940s, a broken man.

Not faring much better, Frau Fennhoff aged badly and invested all the money she earned into the education of her son, hoping that his becoming successful would avenge the wrecking of their lives by the Nazis. Although nothing was ever sufficient to please his mother, Johann became an eminent doctor in psychiatry, devouring the literature and making it to the top of his profession ; Anna died during that time.

While he was a very successful psychiatrist and researcher, eventually emigrating to the US, Johann Fennhoff was occasionally haunted by visions of is mother. This hallucination urged him to become always more important and successful - even feared. Driven by these schizophrenic episodes, Fennhoff started calling himself Doctor Faustus after the classic play. As Faustus, he wished to prove his mastery of the human mind by plotting to break the psyche of the most remarkable and resolute persons he could locate -- such as super-heroes.

Captain America

Doctor Faustus's first documented scheme was the psychological destruction of none other than Captain America, whom he had arranged to meet during a TV show. Using drugs of his own design to slowly weaken Cap's sanity, he convinced the star-spangled avenger (whom he knew was Steve Rogers) to start seeing him as a psychiatrist, allowing him to feed Cap even more drugs.

Faustus then infiltrated an actor as the bellboy of the place Rogers was staying in, making it trivial both to deliver drugs and to monitor his subject. Using actors equipped with quick-change masks, Faustus started persuading Rogers that he was hallucinating even in broad daylight (such as glimpsing the missing Sharon Carter in a New York street, or having random beat cops suddenly seem to have the Red Skull's face). Furthermore, whenever Rogers came to Faustus's place for therapy, odourless gasses would weaken his willpower, and actors and hidden props would be used to plunge him into nightmare situations right from the days of the second World War, such as being interrogated and killed by Gestapo agents.

However, Captain America's extraordinary intelligence and willpower allowed him to get wise just before Faustus would deliver him the final pill of his 'treatment' -- a chemical designed to overcome the Super-Soldier serum and induce overnight ageing back to Rogers's chronological age. Suspicious at last, Rogers had the pill analysed by S.H.I.E.L.D.. The law enforcement agency then swiftly devised a disguise, allowing Rogers to appear old and senile.

Thinking that Cap had swallowed the pill, Faustus urged the seemingly aged Cap into yet another 'flashback' to the death of Bucky to finally break and kill him, again using actors and cinema props. Cap turned on him after he simulated being psychologically broken, and he and nearby S.H.I.E.L.D. agents closed the sting operation and arrested Faustus and his agents.

Faustus soon recovered his freedom under unrevealed circumstances.

Get Carter

The doctor then attempted to find another angle. Researching the past of Captain America, he eventually unearthed an obscure fact. For a few weeks in 1944, Cap had had a relationship with a young American woman who had joined the partisans of the Forces Françaises de l'Intérieur under the French Partisan code-name "Mademoiselle". They lost sight of each other during the liberation of Paris, an explosion inducing amnesia in the young woman.

After having been spotted in Belgium by a relative, the hopelessly amnesiac and almost catatonic Mademoiselle (whose actual name was Peggy Carter) entered the US psychiatric system ; but despite the wealth of her parents no cure was found.

Reasoning that this woman, Cap's only known lover, might know something about his foe that he could use, Faustus assured the aged Carter parents that he could cure their daughter. He actually did so, with a key part of the treament being letting Peggy witness a faithful reconstitution of a battle in Paris where she had fought alongside Cap.

For added verisimilitude, Faustus procured some choice actors - a captured trio made up of the real Cap, the Falcon (in a US Army sergeant uniform) and Peggy's much younger sister Sharon Carter (looking very much like Peggy, and wearing the exact same clothes her sister wore in the 1940s). Seeing the real Cap, some American soldiers and her own spitting image fight Nazis in a reconstituted Paris shocked Peggy Carter from her catatonia.

As the older Carter was reorienting herself, the three heroes managed to vanquish Faustus - although a gauntlets of fantoms and illusions, starring the ghost of Bucky, almost stalled Cap, who only got moving again with the help of the Falcon. They acted too swiftly for the doctor to learn anything special from Peggy Carter, and the older woman even saved Cap when she hurled a candle holder at Faustus's head.

Faustus was handed over to the authorities, though he likely got out quickly since there was not much to accuse him of. Peggy Carter would soon adapt to a new world and accept it was not 1945 anymore ; years later she would even join the Avengers' "ground crew" of support personnel.

It is in this general time frame that a psychology student named Karla Sofen became the much older Faustus student, mentee and lover. Learning many unique techniques from her mentor, Sofen would eventually become the super-villain Moonstone (see her writeups.org entry).

A fiendish plane

It wasn't long before Faustus (with Sofen's help) launched another incredible scheme. This time there was no complex psychological manipulation. He simply used his extraordinary power of conviction on dozens of hardened criminals from Los Angeles. Faustus persuaded them all to board a luxurious chartered Boeing 747 flying to New York City and thus join his new criminal venture.

During the flight, Faustus briefed them about the details of the amazing plot. Highly sophisticated Stark industries weapons had been stored aboard - thanks to a Stark employee Faustus had convinced to go renegade. With his army of unprincipled killers and these potent armaments, Faustus intended to blackmail New York City - and, if the mayor refused to abide by his terms, to inflict untold devastation to the metropolis by storming it.

Captain America intervened, and during the fray one of the hoodlums fired a concealed gun. The shot went through a window, resulting in decompression that sucked Faustus out of the jet airplane while it was cruising at 15,000 feet. Shortly after that, Captain America landed the plane and the numerous criminals were greeted by a large NYPD tactical contingent.

Faustus easily survived, using his concealed parachute, and soon started plotting anew. His next plan involved finding the master batch for the antelope flu vaccine, which was soon to be distributed nationwide. He intended to sneak into the lab and pour a special additive in, which would make millions of Americans greatly susceptible to his hypnotic powers.

His spider-sense alerted when he randomly happened to swing by over some of Faustus's henchmen, Spider-Man intervened. The webslinger was about to take out all of Faustus's henchmen when the doctor stepped in. Using special cigarette smoke, he first induced a terrible hallucination in Spidey, who thought all of his enemies were now indestructible ghosts attacking him to rip him to pieces. Faustus 'banished' those phantasms while exposing Spidey to more smoke, which made the wall-crawler think he was now an ally of his saviour, doctor Faustus.

Faustus thus turned the hero into his greatest asset, as Spider-Man could easily defeat the sophisticated security measures protecting the vaccine batch. He took Faustus and his men to their goal, but once in the lab the air filtration system cleared the smoke and he recovered his free will.

With some good rolls, Faustus managed to batter Spider-Man back and earn a brief respite. Still, he wisely decided to run after Spider-Man took out his henchmen, dazzling the hero with yet another puff of hypnotic smoke to deter pursuit. The reeling Spider-Man neverthless managed to stop him by plugging back in the security systems. Faustus was felled by the automated paralysis beams.

The National Force plot

Faustus resurfaced yet again, however - with his epic National Force plot.

The plot may have started when, through Corporation contacts, Faustus discovered Steve Rogers and Jack Monroe. The two men had been the fake, anti-Communist "Captain America" and "Bucky" of the 1950s -- see the Jack Monroe entries for more detail. They had grown insane and superhumanly strong since their Super-Soldier serum injection had not been completed with other treatments, and had been put into suspended animation, The duo had already been reawakened in the 1970s, which led to a paranoid assault against Cap and his friends. After this "Cap" and "Bucky" were transferred to a sanatorium by the government for treatment. Faustus found them there, in the Catskills.

Faustus turned both men into his fanatical (though somewhat dulled) henchmen. He even tested Rogers's loyalty by seemingly having him shoot Bucky in the head. The bullets were blanks - whilst Rogers thought that he had killed Monroe to prove his loyalty, "Bucky" was still alive.

Using his manipulative abilities, Faustus (doubtlessly inspired by what he had seen as a kid in Vienna) then built up a neo-Nazi political party, complete with an underground militia and numerous highly-placed supporters. The National Force goons harassed or assaulted Blacks, Jews, homosexual persons, feminists, etc. and started gaining support from the more reactionary segments within the American population.

Faustus's political contacts ensured that the police would not to touch them, making the National Force look increasingly powerful and appealing. Furthermore, Faustus gave the National Force a charismatic and strong figurehead - the Grand Director (secretly the false Steven Rogers). The Grand Director ran public rallies, KKK-style (complete with burning crosses) and used mind-control machinery designed by doctor Faustus to turn the attendees into a violently racist mob.

Even Sharon Carter, who was attending one such rally in Central Park as part of S.H.I.E.L.D. surveillance, was mesmerised and turned into a white-clad National Force harridan uttering racist slogans - though later information indicated that it likely was a subterfuge to infiltrate the party. Carter's much older sister was also dragged into the plot. Faustus had National Forces goon attack Peggy and send her to the hospital - knowing that once there she would be directed toward a certain "doctor Steven Rogers".

The National Force militia continued to ramp up its activities and obtain military-grade weapons. At one point a confrontation with local mobsters in Harlem escalated into a running gunfight that was barely kept in check by Captain America and eventually the National Guard. After a shouting match with the National Guard, Cap left to find Peggy.

The hospital Peggy Carter had been transferred to was a gauntlet with low-quality armed android doubles of Sharon Carter, a booby-trapped elevator, holograms of Modok and the Red Skull, and other minor obstacles. The real goal of these measures was to expose Cap to an odourless gas that dramatically weakened the sentinel of liberty without him realising it. Thus, when Cap finally reached "doctor Steven Rogers", realised that this man was the Grand Director, and then discovered that the Grand Director was apparently himself, he was quite rattled.

Capitalising on this, the fake Steve Rogers defeated the real star-spangled avenger. Faustus hypnotised Cap to turn him into a National Force stormtrooper, his famous shield painted with a burning swastika. However Daredevil found the mesmerised sentinel of liberty, and managed to shock him back to his senses. Faustus had an entire burning warehouse collapsed upon them, but the two heroes survived this.

Moving ahead with their plan, Faustus and the Grand Director then prepared the release of massive quantities of mind control gas over Manhattan, using a zeppelin (what else ?). Catching up in a biplane while dodging the fire of other WWI replica airplanes, Captain America managed through incredible acrobatics to board the airship. He then proceeded to defeat all National Forces men inside, free Peggy Carter and narrowly prevent Faustus from gas-bombing Manhattan.

The zeppelin being on fire and very unstable, Faustus was caught under a falling stack of heavy bombs while he attempted to manually open the bombs bay. Although Captain America saved him from drowning after the airship crashed at sea, Fennhoff was now crippled.

During the National Force plot two important players - the Grand Director and Sharon Carter - seemingly committed suicide at Faustus's behest using the incendiary charge in their uniform. Carter survived unhurt, though she had to lay low for a while. Not even Cap knew that she was still alive - it had been a S.H.I.E.L.D. ruse to exfiltrate their agent within the National Force and pass her for death. As to the Grand Director, he survived but was so badly burned that Faustus had him placed back into suspended animation.

The every-man to the fantastic

(Faustus's next appearance, narrated in the next few paragraphs, depicted him as being still able to walk - but it was established in his appearance after that one that he should have been shown in a wheelchair. My attempt at No-Prizing this would be that, trusting his possible superhuman power of recovery, Faustus decided that he could walk again far too soon. He thus ended up back to the wheelchair by his next appearance, having worsened the insufficiently healed damage due to his enormous mass).

Faustus started plotting against another mental powerhouse -- Reed Richard. However, while he was going through prep work, something went awry and Faustus had a schizophrenic episode, starting to hallucinate the presence of his mother. She kept telling him that he was a failure and that his plan would achieve nothing.

Faustus had already managed to have one Larry Ekler (formerly the insane villain called the Every-man), Reed's nephew, transferred to his 'care'. Faustus did not cure Larry at all - in fact he moulded Ekler's psychological issues to turn him into a new version of the Every-man, armed with an incredible weapon called the Absorbascann and the ability to draw on the strength of crowds to acquire fantastic superhuman brawn.

Using the Absorbascann, Every-Man managed to halve Mister Fantastic's brilliance, an important first step in Faustus's redoubtable plan. However, the Every-Man technology then went into overdrive and forced Ekler to flee away from any populated zone. Richards managed to restore his superhuman intellect with the help of Spider-Man in the aftermath of that encounter. Still incensed by what had been done to Ekler, Richards immediately left to investigate the medical facilities where his nephew said he had been turned into a new version of the Every-Man.

The Fenhoof Institute where Ekler had been 'treated' was of course a trap. An actor wearing a Spider-Man costume accompanied Richards - pretending to have discreetly clung to the Fantasticar back in New York City to help. Badly wounded android duplicates of Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm were found, explaining that they had been tortured almost to death. "Johnny" explained that Franklin had been kidnapped too, and Richards' emotional response at this revelation was artificially amplified -- through a high-frequency mental scrambler blanketing the building and making it hard for him to think.

The charade continued with a mentally broken android double of Susan Richards and finally an appearance of a fake Doctor Doom and a fake Franklin. As Mister Fantastic's state of confusion worsened from the scrambler's effects, "Doom" unmasked to reveal a perfect simulacra of Reed's face, then unleashed a barrage of missiles and other attacks that killed everybody but "Spider-Man" and Reed. As the leader of the FF was in shock, "Franklin" came in and accused him of being responsible for the death of the FF. "Spider-Man" agreed with him, and "Franklin" produced a pistol and shot Richards, who by now was in such a state that he would die of shock.

Richards was playing possum, though . While even he had actually been fooled almost all the way, he had finally understood that something was wrong back when he looked into the eyes of the "Susan" android. Getting back up after having been shot by "Franklin", he beat up Faustus, who was having an argument with his hallucination of his mother.

Faustus, however, soon recovered his composure and escaped from whichever facility he was being held at.

A night at the Skull House

Wanting to gain revenge on Captain America for his crippled legs, Faustus later discretely set up a base in the base of Cap's greatest enemy - the Red Skull's Skull House. Once he was ready, he produced enough suspicious activity to attract Captain America. The following preparations in the Skull House were textbook Faustus and can be used as a template:

• Everything had been coated with a low concentration of Faustus's hallucinogenic/hypnotic compound to reinforce the impact of the other manipulations. Futhermore, the chemicals were making Cap hit moving targets with much less force than he felt he was using.
• A sophisticated hologram of the ghost of the Red Skull, with no nearby projector, greeted and challenged Captain America. He spoke in a way that established he had to be the Skull (Faustus found very detailed data in the House) and destabilised Captain America, and introduced a complex notion of the afterlife having to be balanced by Captain America's death
• The Skull then theatrically produced the 'ghosts' of other men - the ULTIMATUM agent Cap recently had had to kill, followed by three men who had died despite Cap's efforts - MODOK, the Scourge of the Underworld and the Porcupine. These sophisticated androids proved to be impossible to knock out and kept coming back, in part because of Cap's subtly sapped strength.
• Even after Cap got rid of the LMDs, Faustus turned up the gas dosage and produced LMDs of Bucky Barnes, Sharon Carter (still believed to have died during the National Force crisis) and Cap's parents. Those LMDs delivered more babble about the rules of the afterlife and how Cap had to die to atone for killing of the ULTIMATUM agent a few weeks before - but by giving his life freely, not by dying in battle as the "ghost of the Red Skull" had explained. Given the chemicals Cap had been subjected to and his great guilt over the man he had killed, this very nearly worked. "Sharon Carter" guided him to walk into the light, but Cap stopped a few steps short of what was actually a cremation oven and rejected the "ghosts".

Infuriated, Faustus then activated all the traps in the Skull House, hoping that the weakened and low-on-HPs Cap would fall prey to them. As he rolled his wheelchair out of the command centre, he was suddenly confronted by what seemed to be the actual ghost of the Red Skull, who was incensed that Faustus was using his house and his library, and fighting his nemesis. The ghost attacked Faustus and choked him - though it did not manage to kill the huge man, he left him in a state of shock bordering on coma.

Breaking Nomad

The evil giant psychiatrist eventually fully recovered - even his legs seemed to have mended to a small extent, as he now occasionally ambled around with crutches and casts and was not always confined to a wheelchair.

Escaping from prison, Fennhoff started building a power base for himself, his goal being to become the equivalent of the Kingpin for Florida. The main rival crimelord was of course the Slug, and Faustus chose an indirect approach - break Jack Monroe aka Nomad. Monroe already had an history of violent conflict with the Slug, and had been a close associate of Captain America. Faustus planned to turn Nomad into a henchman, who would assassinate the Slug and certainly prove invaluable as an enforcer during the take-over of the Floridan underworld.

Faustus had Monroe captured by a very minor band of mercs called the Wanderers, who waited until he was completely drunk to grab him and deliver him to the Doctor. Although Monroe proved resilient (in part due to the enormous amounts of psychiatric drugs he had ingested during his weird life), the determined and ruthless Faustus eventually managed to brainwash him and send him after the Slug.

While working on Nomad, Faustus unearthed very rich childhood traumas that Nomad had long repressed about his early years, and the Nazi ring that existed in his hometown (see the Bucky III (Jack Monroe) entry at writeups.org for details). This shook Nomad very badly and sent him in a terrible loop of violence and self-loathing, with Monroe declaring himself to be a "card-carrying Nazi".

And this would have worked, too - if not for the meddling of Captain America. The living legend had been tipped off by Nomad's ally Giscard Epurer, who told him Faustus was free, in a Florida sanatarium and messing with Nomad's already quite damaged mind. Cap easily broke into the sanatarium, swatted aside Faustus's henchmen and interrogated the doctor. Fennhoff told him that if Cap took the time to arrest him, he would then be out of time to prevent Nomad from becoming the murderer of the Slug.

Cap managed to prevent Nomad from killing the Slug, but Monroe fled and circled back to Faustus to kill him. However, the hulking doctor offered to either make Monroe forget his painful childhood memories, or help him unearth everything so he would remember it all. After some hesitation, Nomad renounced his plan to kill Faustus and accepted his offer to make him forget.

Thus Monroe underwent Faustus's brutal psychiatric techniques again, with the evil doctor telling him he first had to make all the repressed memories surface, then hypnotise him into profoundly forgetting it all. After Faustus gave Nomad all of his childhood memories back, Nomad went postal, refusing to continue through the next phase so he would forget, and attempted to kill Faustus.

Captain America stopped Monroe, and Faustus was sent to a minimum security prison (likely because his legs were still crippled). Still traumatised and hating Faustus for having unearthed the truth about his childhood, Nomad thought Faustus was not being punished enough. He broke into the prison and shot Fennhoff in the head with a .45 pistol.

The death of Captain America

For years, Faustus was believed dead - but he actually came back for another epic plot that would result in the death of Captain America. As of this writing, the plan is still underway (it's a *big* machination, and has ran into delays), so the exact role of Faustus is not yet known. The key actions taken by Faustus at this point are:

• Being one of the two specialists recruited by the Red Skull, along with Arnim Zola. Why Faustus willingly joined a Nazi is unknown (the National Force conspiracy would indicate that his relationship with Fascism is complex), but leads to suspecting that he had a private agenda, not matching his employer's.
• Conducting therapy sessions and designing treatment to relieve the grave psychological tension of his employer, whom a previous misadventure had merged with Russian businessman and criminal Aleksander Lukin. Faustus made it bearable for the two consciousness to coexist, if barely.
• Faustus also directed efforts to create strong, worsening unrest and protests throghout the United States, and started coaching and writing the speeches of a puppet politican who created the Third Wing Party. This catspaw started gaining popularity at a rapid pace.
• Impersonating S.H.I.E.L.D. psychiatrist Dr. Benjamin, thanks to Red Skull support and an image inducer. Among other things, "Benjamin" left at least twenty agents with detailed post-hypnotic orders, leading them to open fire with live ammunition on a crowd of protesters in front of the White House. This occurred at a key moment to advance the Skull's plot and weaken the government and S.H.I.E.L.D.
• As Benjamin, Faustus expertly manipulated S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Sharon Carter with a combination of hypnotism, psychology and brainwashing. He renewed her love for Captain America so they resumed their relationship. Carter, and possibly other brainwashed agents, later played a key role in having the relationship between Cap and S.H.I.E.L.D. take an explosive turn toward hostility.
• It is possible that Faustus had Carter slip some chemicals to Cap, affecting his uncharacteristic surrender at the end of the Civil War - but this is a personal, unsubstantiated hypothesis.
• When Cap was arrested, then wounded by sniper fire, Carter's post hypnotic conditioning kicked in and she closed in before, unseen, seemingly killing Cap at point-blank with her sidearm. She instantly forgot about what she had done. Later on, Faustus allowed her to remember about the shooting to crush her with guilt and despair, and put her further under his power. Carter started hallucinating that she saw Faustus's face in reflective surfaces, talking to her, and discovered she had post-hypnotic blocks preventing her from communicating about the fact she had killed Cap - and preventing her from committing suicide.
• Faustus pulled the Grand Director out of suspended animation, and Zola healed "Rogers" despite the considerable damage from the burns. The Skull now had his own Captain America, who started making public appearances and endorsing the Third Wing party.
• Carter then started working as an agent of Faustus. However, her strong willpower allowed her to corrupt to an extend his conditioning. She arranged for a captured Bucky (aka the Winter Soldier and soon to become the new Captain America) to be released.
• Faustus then betrayed the Skull and left. He covertly hypnotised the Skull's daughter, Sin, leaving her with several orders that damaged the Red Skull's plan ; gave Carter her S.H.I.E.L.D. GPS emitter so allies would soon find her ; and let Carter go free. His motivations are still quite unclear, but he seemed to uncharacteristically respect Carter, and even erased some recent traumatic memories of her captivity to ease her pain. Faustus may have fallen in love with agent Carter, or may have intended to betray the Skull from the very start - or something else entirely might be going on.

Description:

Like many large characters, Faustus is occasionally drawn taller and bigger than the official Height and Weight values given above in the Background section. This is not systematic enough to warrant suggesting higher values, though - he's sometimes drawn with roughly the listed size.

Faustus's voice is extremely modulated, authoritative and charismatic - matching the very best actors in that area. Most Americans in their late 20s or early 30s might assume a voice not unlike that of the voice actor who did Optimus Prime in the US release of Transformers, though Faustus is very flexible and has an uncanny ability to change his voice as needed to produce the best effect.

In his modern appearances, Faustus has let his beard grow much longer - to 'eccentric genius' lengths. He entirely shaved it before betraying the Skull though, so as to be less easily recognisable.

Faustus tends to dress in dated men's clothes from the 1940s and 1950s - usually suits, hats and other proper attire for a successful forty-something man from those decades.

Personality

Fittingly, Faustus is driven by his childhood trauma and neuroses. Even when he's not hallucinating he is driven to demonstrate that he is the most powerful person alive. In his frame of reference, he can do that by psychologically breaking very powerful men to demonstrate his superior mentality. A typical target is Captain America, though other major adventurers reputed for their willpower, such as Spider-Man or Mister Fantastic, have been the target for Faustus's sophisticated machinations.

Although he has issues, Faustus hates being called a madman, and will angrily deny and order his men to attack if somebody points out that his sanity is not that steady. This may not be the case anymore though -- his recent appearances had him much more stable, almost unflappable. The modern Faustus was not in the least afraid to confront the Red Skull, which is more aplomb that most people can hope to see in their whole life. This writeup assumes that this change (Iron Nerves, in game terms) took place after Fennhoff's near-death experience at the hands of Nomad.

See the History section for numerous examples of Faustus's modus operandi. An additional note is that he seems to have difficulties wrapping his head around the notion that super-heroes can reliably beat many times their numbers in highly-motivated henchmen - several times he seems to assume that a small group of armed and ready retainers had a decent chance of stopping the likes of Captain America, Daredevil or Nomad.

Faustus's ego is as mountainous as his body. However, this ego is mostly a manifestation of his deeply-set fear of failure. In his own mind, Faustus simply does not fail and never commits any mistake, since that would break his implicit pact with is late mother. He will scornfully dismiss any implication that he may have failed, shift responsibilities (but in a competent, credible way) and generally acts with exaggerated, almost grandiose self-confidence and haughty competence.

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