Sons of Anubis (JSA enemies) (DC Comics)

Sons of Anubis


“Fighting the love children of King Tut and Rin Tin Tin, what’s up with that ?”
– Jack Knight, the Starman

Context

These are undead shock troops, which is certainly convenient to have.

This lot appeared during the early run of the 1999 volume of JSA.


Powers and Abilities

The Sons of Anubis are spectral military units that can possess and animate corpses.

As they emerge they will magically dress the corpses with pseudo-Egyptian (think Stygia) garb, and summon bardiches, poleaxes, ranseurs, halberds, glaives and the like to fight.

The mummified corpses are strong and martially proficient, and can employ decent tactics. Examples include :

  • Climbing on trees to attack by surprise.
  • Wrestling their opponents underwater (to capitalise on their lack of need for air).
  • Suicidal charges (since they can always get more corpses) for diversion and the like.

History

The Sons of Anubis are undead shock troops.

In 1999, they allied with the Dark Lord to prevent the Cycle of Khepri – that is, the creation of a new Doctor Fate using the artefacts associated with Nabu. Green Lantern (Alan Scott) mentioned having encountered them before.

The Sons of Anubis and demons vs. the JSA in a Escher-esque temple

As they chased Fate (Jared Stevens) to take his Nabu-enchanted knife, the Sons ran into the JSA and were destroyed.

Undeterred, the spectres went after potential reincarnations of Doctor Fate in British Columbia, Tibet and Italy. Guided by the Scarab, the JSA thwarted them, but the Dark Lord briefly captured the fated child.

When the Lord of Chaos named Typhon took over the Tower the Fate, he had the Sons of Anubis defend the magical structure. However, a joint JLA/JSA team came to retake the Tower, and the Sons were routed after Typhon fell.


Description

The Sons look more like mummies than zombies, as befit undeads with Ancient Egyptian roots.


Personality

Not much.

The Sons of Anubis emerged from a cemetery


Quotes

Undead leader: “We, who serve the Opener of Ways, have traveled from the Western lands. Surrender Fate’s artifacts.”
Sand: “Over my dead body.”
Undead leader: “As you wish, for we use your dead vehicles.”

“We want the child ! We will have him !”



Game Stats — DC Heroes RPG

Tell me more about the game stats

Typical Son of Anubis

Dex: 03 Str: 04 Bod: 04 Motivation: Mercenary
Int: 02 Wil: 02 Min: 03 Occupation: Demonic warrior
Inf: 03 Aur: 03 Spi: 04 Resources {or Wealth}: NA
Init: 008 HP: 000

Powers:
Digging: 02, Self-link (Animate dead): 04, Spirit travel: 08

Bonuses and Limitations:

  • Digging is only usable to emerge from the ground.
  • Spirit travel is Always On unless the Son gets to use Animate Dead.
  • Animate Dead cannot result in the corpse they ride having stats below the Son of Anubis’s baseline DEX, STR or BODY. It lasts as long as necessary, being self-linked – but by the same token they can only animate one corpse at a time.

Skills:
Acrobatics (Climbing)*: 03, Charisma (Intimidation): 01, Weaponry (melee): 04

Advantages:
Insta-Change, Life Support (Full).

Connections:
An unclear range of demons, hellspawns, evil mystical lords, etc.. But probably nothing at High and only the leaders have those connections.

Drawbacks:
Strange Appearance, MPR (if their current host corpse is destroyed, they cannot use Self-Link (Animate Dead) for the next 20 Phases).

Equipment:
Polearm [BODY 04, Enhance (EV): 03 (cap is 06), Descriptor: Usually piercing and slashing, but quite varies depending upon the head(s)].


Operation torch

While it is not demonstrated, it is quite likely the Sons have Partial Attack Vulnerability (Flame, -1CS RV). Mummies usually do.

By Sébastien Andrivet.

Source of Character: Early JSA comics (1999 run).

Helper(s): Kal El, Chaplainchris, Danielle Mendus.