Brad Carter

Context

Brad Carter is an obscure Marvel Comics character. He appeared for a few pages in a 1968 Nick Fury story.

Improbably enough, he returned during the 1970s, becoming part of Ulysses Bloodstone’s supporting cast.

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Background

Powers and Abilities

Brad Carter was in excellent physical shape, a decent brawler, and as far as we can tell, a competent actor. He *reportedly* got an Oscar for his acting in Tomorrow I will cry.

His familiarity with monster movies allowed him to take weird situations in stride and come up with possible solutions to exotic problems. Carter was also trained to operate the advanced technology on Bloodstone Island.

It was implied that Carter did his own stunts in his movies. Indeed, he could perform spectacular manoeuvres even in real-world conditions. He was pretty strong and quite muscular.

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History

Brad Carter was a minor American actor from the 1960s and 1970s. He’s chiefly remembered by fans of vintage monster mashes. He was the favourite star of “P.D.Q.” Werner, a prolific producer and director of monster movies. Werner often cast Carter as the square-jawed, handsome hero of the piece.

According to journalist Samantha Eden, “PDQ” Werner (pronounced “Vairmer”) was a grade-Z director. But he had a devoted cult following, drawn in by the kitsch. Though PDQ fancied himself an international celebrity and major director, this was an eccentric affectation rather than a fact.

He was nicknamed PDQ because he shot his movies “pretty damn quick”. He used this abbreviation a lot when directing actors.

Carter reportedly got an Oscar, yet when encountered was but a niche actor in bad genre films. It is possible that after a brilliant early career he became typecast as a manly adventurer hamming it up. This would severely limit his casting opportunities.

Return of Kong

In 1968, “PDQ” Werner took his crew and his star to a remote tropical island in the Pacific. They were to shoot a movie featuring jungle adventures and, of course, a gargantuan ape monster named “Kong”. ”Kong” was the other star of the movie, being a fully mobile giant robot covered in fake fur.

(Our No-Prize Hypothesis is that he was one of the creations of special effects star Bob O’Bryan, also the builder of It the Living Colossus).

As it turned out, the lost island was secretly the base of Centurius, a genius creating exotic life forms. The movie crew did not realise this. They were more concerned with the ego-ridden Carter not getting along with the female lead, a platinum blonde named Tiffany.

During the shoot Nick Fury, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., crashed the set whilst pursued by a large tyrannosaurus rex. Carter saved the intrepid secret agent from his predicament by re-enacting a stunt from one of his Tarzan clone movies.

Vengeance of the return of Kong

To Fury’s surprise, the movie crew refused to flee. They were dead-set on helping him. Given PDQ Werner’s habit of shooting in strange and dangerous places and on a budget, they had become accustomed to trouble. They also were fairly well armed.

Thus did Brad Carter, Tiffany and the rest fight Centurius’s inhuman agents, with their powerful giant robot ape engaging the tyrannosaurus. Albeit the movie crew took casualties, they managed to evacuate when Centurius’s base blew up and ravaged the island.

Despite the dead and wounded, PDQ Werner had shot the whole thing. Thus, The Return of Kong would have incredible footage to splice into a rewritten story, which Werner started feverishly making up. And in the end, of course, Brad patched his differences with Tiffany and got the girl, because that’s what Brad Carter did.

Reportedly, the movie was never released due to the projected IP litigation costs about Kong.

While PDQ Werner was dreaming up his next Brad Carter vehicle, Carter had an affair with journalist Samantha Eden in Marseille. But they eventually broke up and Carter married Tiffany.

If you’re going to San Francisco

In 1975, Carter was shooting a new PDQ Werner movie in San Francisco when the city was attacked by the Dweller from the Depths. Monster hunter Ulysses Bloodstone repulsed the Dweller. But he was then attacked by a possessor, who manifested as a giant humanoid alien.

Undaunted as always, Brad Carter used sound equipment from one of the vans to hurt the possessor and distract him. The possessor returned fire and destroyed some movie equipment. When Carter closed in to rescue the seemingly unconscious Bloodstone, he was caught in the mental link the possessor had established to probe Bloodstone.

Thus, Carter mentally saw Bloodstone’s origin as the possessor was mentally leafing through those memories.

Carter tried to use Bloodstone’s shotgun to destroy the possessor. He nearly broke his own arms since this firearm was designed for a superhuman shooter. However, Bloodstone had recovered his full strength. He drew the possessor into mental combat, destroying it.

The Bloodgem suggested to Bloodstone that Carter was part of his destiny. As a result, the monster hunter joined PDQ Werner’s crew for a few months.

In late 1975, Bloodstone hired Carter as his aide. The actor finally had an opportunity to be the real-life hero he always had wanted to be.

The monster hunter

Much of Carter’s career as an aide to Bloodstone is undocumented. Since his employer was not a secretive man, it is likely that Carter met and worked with a number of Bloodstone allies of that era. These may have included Adam – aka the Monster of Frankenstein.

In 1977, Brad Carter ran into Centurius again. The giant monster Goram had stolen a fragment of the Bloodgem and Carter was shadowing it to determine where it came from. However, Centurius’ men captured him. A joint raid by Bloodstone, Iron Man and S.H.I.E.L.D. troops freed him some days later.

Some months later, Bloodstone and Carter realised that they couldn’t reach the Bloodstone Island computers. Carter travelled to the island to investigate. To his shock, he found that the entire base had been blown up, possibly using a nuclear charge.

Carter was trying to salvage a radio to warn his employer when a servant of Centurius shot him dead from ambush.

Brad Carter could still be used in a campaign as a background detail. For instance, perhaps a Player Character’s  mother has an autographed photo of him.

Description

Brad Carter was your typical manly action hero of the times, to the point of becoming typecast. He could also look excellent whilst shirtless.

Personality

Carter tended to think of himself as a real-life version of his grade-Z adventure movie characters. He seemed interested in being an actual action hero and adventurer, perhaps because his career as an actor was at best stagnating.

Brad had… a bit of an ego (quite a bit, actually) ever since he reportedly got his Oscar. He had a tendency to remind everybody how cool and brilliant he was in this or that movie. All of these features apparently had corny titles.

Nevertheless he was clearly a good guy – very courageous, always ready to help others (especially if that’ll look impressive), loyal toward his friends, quick on his feet both physically and mentally, etc.. He was curious, and particularly interested in learning, through direct experience, about the fantastic world of superhumans and the paranormal which he knew was out there.

Quotes

“You know, I sometimes wonder why I work for you – P.D.Q. Werner, king of the monster mashes !”

“Whoever he is… that guy’s not goin’ under if Brad Carter can help it ! Baby, haven’t you ever seen me in Forbidden Jungle ?” (jumps, grabs a vine and performs a daring Tarzan-like rescue).

By Sébastien Andrivet.

Source of Character: Marvel Universe.

Helper(s): Darci.

Writeup completed on the 16^th of December, 2009.