The Book of Abigail Brand

[Lazy Orang]

I believe they weren't given Agent synergy as that was deemed too powerful. It's worth noting they can still be activated by Nick, they just don't bond with an Agent squad while doing so and can't be dropped on height. Not played it, but I imagine that would be quite effective, mobilising spotters with Nick while offering covering fire with S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents, then you activate a sniper afterwards. It'd be nice to see someone give them a tad more synergy, though, down the line, but you'd need to be careful and it would need to be thematically justified.

[Soundwarp SG-1]

Thanks for the comments all

Originally Posted by johnny139

Very interesting. My main worry is that, being a Mutant and being able to recruit Mutants, she's going to be pretty solidly pegged into Mutant builds. Which I guess shouldn't be a worry - she's an X-Men supporting character first and foremost - but still feels a little out of spirit for the character.

I don't think the Mutant synergy would be too bad. She'd basically just be a Mutant Sidekick if you weren't leveraging the Agent stuff in someway. Like you can keep it 'in faction' by using her to make just herself, Banshee, and Mystique into 'sidekicks' for Cyclops, but you'd lose nothing by branching out and putting in some non-Mutant Agents. At that point it has become more of a hybrid army, which is kind of the goal here. I feel like she'll have plenty of options without another Mutant around at all too.

For name/secret identity, I'd honestly just go with straight ABIGAIL BRAND and no other secret identity. She's usually a commander but has filled other roles (like currently, when she's more like second-in-command under Carol Danvers).

I don't especially care on the name front, I'm good with whatever. The main reason I went with Commander Brand was in case the Alpha Flight version has ended up/will end up different enough to justify another card at some point. It will be easier to tell them apart if one is 'Commander Brand' and the other is 'Lt Brand' or what not instead of Abigail Brand (I) and Abigail Brand (II) I'd think.

If we did go with Abigail Brand as the name, wouldn't she still need a Secret ID? Brand isn't her real last name.

Originally Posted by Yodaking

I could see a mutant agent based army build, but I don't think that will prevent her from being in a straight agent build. I was initially excited about the ability to move a SHIELD Spotter, not attack, then move and att. with a Sniper, but that actually doesn't work because the Sniper isn't an Agent and is a Human so they can't be recruited. Would people be okay if we added Sniper to her bonding options?

I like the idea of allowing the Snipers and Spotters to pair up a bit better, but not really feeling it here. Brand really shouldn't be working with Snipers in general, so she'd have to be calling out the Shield Snipers specifically or some-such which doesn't make much sense either.

It would be a cool idea for a generic Shield Lt or a minor named Shield guy though, especially if it could be done in a way that integrated better with Fury. Shield has plenty of thematic room and usable mins to expand out with too, the generic agent side of Shield is rather untapped at the moment. Maybe even expand it a bit to something like 'Before using the Director of Shield special power to take a turn with a non-agent Hero, you may first take a turn with one Common Agent Hero you control'. That could give you a cool new way to play Fury where he can assign some agents to support Thor or whoever, then clean-up with some Sniper/Spotter kill teams.



Also, I think I can tag the rest of the CRB now, so I'll go ahead and do that. @dok @Dysole @weebaer

[Spidey'tilIDie]

No, she has never said otherwise. Brand is her real last name, just as Fury is Nick Fury's. Is it a secret agent name? Maybe, but that's who he/she is now. There is literally no storyline reason to believe her name is anything else.

[Soundwarp SG-1]

Originally Posted by Spidey'tilIDie

No, she has never said otherwise. Brand is her real last name, just as Fury is Nick Fury's. Is it a secret agent name? Maybe, but that's who he/she is now. There is literally no storyline reason to believe her name is anything else.

So she's what, weaving a cunning lie here or something?

[Spidey'tilIDie]

Hmm, I stand corrected. Those look like Breakworld soldiers, so that’s from her very first appearance. It’s likely that someone had plans for that (writer) and it’s been completely forgotten. If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say the best bet is that her Earth name is so different from her alien name that she had to create an Earth identity. I stand by the Nick Fury comparison though. Abigail Brand is who she is.

[Lazy Orang]

Originally Posted by Soundwarp SG-1

So she's what, weaving a cunning lie here or something?

Well... no. It wouldn't be her given name. 'Given name' is equivalent to 'first name' - it's your personal name, as opposed to your family name. Brand would be her surname, family name, last name, whatever.
Odd thing to shout in that sort of situation, though, so I'm going to assume the writers got the meaning of 'given name' wrong.

Originally Posted by Spidey'tilIDie

Hmm, I stand corrected. Those look like Breakworld soldiers, so that’s from her very first appearance. It’s likely that someone had plans for that (writer) and it’s been completely forgotten. If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say the best bet is that her Earth name is so different from her alien name that she had to create an Earth identity. I stand by the Nick Fury comparison though. Abigail Brand is who she is.

Then explain to me why Superman's secret identity is Kal-El rather than Clark Kent?

[Scapemage]

The title discussion returns! We have Commander Rogers, Reverend Stryker, etc. so I've not problem with Commander Brand and then her homeworld name as her secret identity. I'd even be okay with Abagail Brand and then her secret identity being her alien name. An eventual Clark Kent design would have to operate that way to prevent drafting him and Superman together.

[Spidey'tilIDie]

@Lazy Orang I wasn’t aware Superman’s race required a mutated tongue in order to speak their language. Oh wait, they don’t. But Abigail does.

[Lazy Orang]

Originally Posted by Spidey'tilIDie

@Lazy Orang I wasn’t aware Superman’s race required a mutated tongue in order to speak their language. Oh wait, they don’t. But Abigail does.

We gave Lobo his name as an SI even though the untranslated form can't be pronounced. And it is probably the best secret identity in the game...

[japes]

Clark Kent's Secret ID is Kal-El and he is known in universe by that name...Bat's often calls him Kal instead of Superman. Of course that could be more because of Bat's aversion to accepting that Kal-El is a Superior Man...who knows.

[Yodaking]

Guys and gals, I regret to inform you that Abigail Brand is my ex-wife. Brand wasn't her last name when I met her, we had a whirlwind romance that resulted in a Las Vegas wedding, the real Elvis was there and everything (he is an alien after all)! We agree to both take Brand as our new last name, when the marriage ended she kept the name but I went back to my original last name. Even though is ended in divorce, was the best 2 years of my life. Only spent a few weeks on Earth during that time. I could tell you what her last name was when she was born, but then she literally would hunt me down and kill me.

[johnny139]

Brand is definitely an assumed name, but since we don't know her birth name and have moved away from "???" In identities, I'm fine with just using it here. Keep it simple.