Power Ring
(Pre-Crisis Earth-3)
Sequence
Before reading this profile, be positive to peruse :
- The Ages of DC Comics article. Unless you’re well familiar with all the Crisis and alternate Earths stuff.
- our “base camp” profile for the pre-Crisis Earth-3 Crime Syndicate of America. It explains all the context, so this profile doesn’t have to.
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Background
- Real Name: Unrevealed.
- Known Relatives: None.
- Group Affiliation: Crime Syndicate of America.
- Base of Operations: Eyrie of Evil, Palisades Mountains, USA, Earth-3.
- Height: 5’10” (1.78m). Weight: 160 lbs. (72 Kg.).
- Eyes: Unrevealed. Hair: Brown.
Powers & Abilities
Power Ring wields a power ring. It works roughly like the Golden AgeSuper-hero comics from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Green Lantern (Alan Scott) ring.
It comes with a power battery. But whether Power Ring needs to recharge it is unrevealed.
Power Ring deployed standard Green Lantern force manifestations, such as :
- Giant hands (occasionally chains) to move large objects. Or even small buildings.
- Green flames. These could burn by themselves or with a decorative acetylene torch shape behind them.
- Physical attacks. These have manifested as :
- Mace-shaped projectiles.
- Giant drills.
- Giant buzzsaws.
- Flights of giant mosquitoes.
- Enormous mallets on a flexible energy tendril.
Interestingly, Hal Jordan could pump green willpower energy into Power Ring’s ring. This made the ring’s creations too heavy for the villain to handle. This might indicate a commonality between the two… or it might be a green herring.
It’s a kind of magic
Like Alan Scott’s ring, it was also capable of magical feats. The ring could apparently do anything.
Curiously, Power Ring almost never had his ring use magic on his own. It was always when prompted by a third party suggesting to manifest a specific magical effect.
Such spells have included :
- Opening doors and windows between dimensionsOther realms of existence that are not our universe.. Or altering vibration rates to slide people between parallel Earths.
- Creating a contingency spell capable of transdimensionalSomething that goes across two or more universes. travel upon uttering a code word. Or even when a nearby person spoke about a general idea.
- Creating teleportation warps.
- Mesmerising the JLA into keeping their hands stuck against a table, immobilising them.
- Creating a mystical conduit that could allegedly knock the Earth out of orbit.
Even Earth-2’s Doctor Fate could only suspend these spells for a while.
When damaged, the power battery leaked magical radiation. It turned people into aggressive, muscular, unreasoning goblinoid brutes. Curiously, this energy could be manipulated by Captain Comet’s mutant mental powers.
History
Power Ring mentions that he received his mystical artefact from “a poonghie” named Volthoom.
This is a dated spelling for the Burmese word “phungyī” (well, ဘုန်းကြီး), meaning a Buddhist priest/monk.
Description
The insignia on Power Ring’s chest, ring and power lantern is pretty much a sans-serif green X.
Adνеrtisеmеnt
Personality
Like Superwoman, Power Ring acted competitive. He thrived on being challenged, and wanted to maintain his fighting edge.
He had some sort of rivalry going with Johnny Quick, and was something of a blowhard.
Power Ring did a fantastic job at underestimating the Huntress (Helena Wayne) for being a woman without powers.
DC Heroes RPG
Tell me more about the game stats
Power Ring (pre-Crisis Earth-3)
| Dex: 05 | Str: 03 | Bod: 04 |
| Int: 05 | Wil: 04 | Min: 05 |
| Inf: 04 | Aur: 04 | Spi: 05 |
| Init: 014 | HP: 035 |
Skills:
Accuracy (Volthoom power ring): 07, Evasion (Aerial only): 07
Advantages:
Expansive HQ (Eyrie of Evil).
Connections:
Crime Syndicate of America (High).
Drawbacks:
MIA to underestimating women (SIA if he knows they have no powers), Misc.: using the RING’s Sorcery is Minor Marginal unless somebody else suggests a specific application.
Motivation:
Power Lust.
Occupation:
Supervillain.
Wealth:
008
Equipment:
POWER RING [BODY 25 SPI 20 /BODY/ 08, Flight: 10, Force Manipulation: 16, Sorcery: 22, Note: All Powers are Mystic-Linked, the RING can use its own SPI when using Sorcery].
Design notes
These stats are closer to the Mayfair statting approach than the writeups.org one.
So they assume heroic values, rather than the numbers demonstrated in the story.
This is in part to keep Roy’s old estimates whilst rewriting the entry many years later. And in part since, as a Silver AgeSuper-hero comics from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. character, Power Ring and his ilk work fine with cookie-cutter, highballed stats. These do not interfere with the four-colourSomething goofy from over-the-top early comic books. stories they appear in.
We have a whole technical framework to model power rings. But it doesn’t seem to apply in this case, particularly when it comes to User Linking.
With Power Ring we also run into a recurrent problem – how vulnerable was that version of Superman to magic at that point. The 1980s Mayfair numbers (use flat 04s for all values) are often unworkable. Here we’re assuming something like a -2 or – 3C OV/RV against Power Ring’s force constructs.
Source of Character: Pre-Crisis DC Comics (and scattered post-Crisis stuff).
Helper(s): Maficklin.
Writeup completed on the 27th of September, 2019.