Overkill

Overkill is the ruler of much of North America in Gallerra, including almost all of the former continental United States. With the aid of his lieutenant Magenta and many other servants and employees, Overkill rules his domain, which he calls Asgaard, mercilessly, tolerating no dissent and quickly crushing any would-be liberators. Though he has a number of palaces spread throughout his lands, Overkill spends most of his time in the Colossa, his elaborate lair built under and within the former Statue of Liberty.

History

The man who would become Overkill was born Birger Steffensen, an ordinary human of high intelligence and physical health but with no special abilities. As a youth, however, he took note of all the supers around him, and determined to follow in their steps in any way he could—or rather, in every way he could. Not content to pursue a single path to superhood, Steffensen did his best to raise himself to the level of the supers in every way possible. He trained in several schools of martial arts; he learned several kinds of magic; he studied science and engineering; he enhanced himself cybernetically; he also obtained an alien symbiote that gave him certain special abilities, and intentionally contracted lycanthropy, after making sure he had the means to control the resultant transformations. And he excelled in all of these fields, and managed to become the equal of almost any super in any of these individual aspects—which, given his combination of all those aspects, made him a formidable individual indeed. Of course, all this took time, but Steffensen was patient, and his studies of magic and biology had provided him with a number of ways to slow or stop his aging and prolong his life.

Despite his growing power, Steffensen bided his time, developing an elaborate plan and not calling attention to himself until the time was ripe to strike. He used his powers to quietly gather money and resources, building devices and laying groundwork for his schemes. Over a period of many years, he hid high-tech devices and magical talismans near many key locations, left to be activated at the right moment. Finally, all was ready; he waited until the major North American heroes were distracted with other matters, and then he went to the Pentagon, seizing its military assets and putting most of the military personnel there under his control. At the same time, he remotely destroyed the White House, the headquarters of the FBI and the CIA, and several other vital government centers, and used robots and minions to take over important military bases. His plan worked so quickly that by the time the heroes realized what had happened and tried to fight it, it was too late; Steffensen—now calling himself Overkill—had already consolidated his control over the U.S. government, and had powerful devices and talismans positioned at any weak points. Overkill destroyed or captured the most powerful of the heroes that rose against him, and most of the rest fled or scattered. He now ruled uncontested.

Since then, Overkill has done his best to make sure his grip remains strong on his lands and their populace. Almost the entirety of what was the continental United States is part of Asgaard, and subject to his rule, along with much of the surrounding lands, and he quickly crushes any possible opposition. The one curious exception is a part of New England, which, originally part of Overkill's demesne, has since fallen under the dominion of an individual called the Grey Dreamer. Why Overkill was uncharacteristically willing to tolerate her usurpation of a part of his territory remains a mystery, and has led many to suppose that either the Grey Dreamer is much more powerful than she superficially seems, or she has some unexplained personal hold over this most impersonal of cressarchs.

Appearance

Overkill's most immediately notable characteristic is his cybernetic implant; most of the right side of his head looks metallic and covered in gadgets, as well as his left arm (leading to the common quip that he rules with a literal iron hand), both legs, and some spots on his torso. In his non-cybernetic parts, Overkill looks like an ordinary human, by most standards neither particularly handsome nor particularly ugly, slightly baby-faced, with a well-toned but not overly muscular build. He usually wears his blond hair in a simple but practical bowl cut.

Overkill's usual costume is somewhat eclectic, comprising a red-gray cloak over a bronze breastplate which in turn is worn over a black silk shirt; below the waist he wears iron greaves over always spotless white trousers. various rings and amulets bedeck his person. The reason for his motley dress goes well beyond an idiosyncratic fashion sense, however; each item in his wardrobe is itself a part of his arsenal, possessing either magical powers or technological enhancements. None of his jewelry is worn for adornment, about which Overkill cares little; each bauble grants him sort of protection or enhancement.

Powers

No one has a full list of Overkill's powers, and given all of his study, training, modifications, and resources, there are virtually no powers he might not potentially have. It's been said Overkill never uses the same power twice, but this is an exaggeration; certainly there are some powers that he uses more than others, and while a complete list of all his abilities may be infeasible, it's possible to at least enumerate some of his well-known powers.

Overkill has vastly superhuman strength, agility, and resistance; he is very difficult to damage, and when he is damaged he heals very quickly. If there is any particular substance to which he is especially susceptible, no one has managed to find it. He can shoot various sorts of rays out of his cybernetic parts and his various articles of jewelry. His favorite seems to be a simple ray of energy that does raw damage to targets, obliterating walls and reducing human enemies to piles of charred dust. He also, however, is capable of producing freezing rays, paralysis rays, and rays that cause various forms of transmutation, including turning people to stone.

Perhaps Overkill's greatest "power", however, is his versatility, a product of his exceptional power redundancy; most of what he can do, he can do several different ways. If he is up against someone with defenses against magic, he'll use his nonmagical powers; if he is up against an enemy that can disrupt electrical circuitry, he will not make use of his electrical devices. (Though his cybernetic enhancements are very useful to him, he has made sure to design them so that he is not seriously inconvenienced if they are nonfunctional.) Overkill seems able to compensate for almost any apparent weakness, and function at nearly full power under almost any circumstances.

In any case, nowadays Overkill seldom if ever has to fight opponents directly. Between his numerous minions and hirelings and the fact that he controls a vast amount of territory and runs all government functions within it, he can nearly always find someone else to do for him what he needs to be done. This does not mean, however, that he's let himself go, or that he has in any way grown careless or lazy. He didn't come as far as he did to fail to hang onto his power once he attained it, and anyone who does somehow end up facing him directly will find him every bit the formidable adversary he always was.

Relations

Overkill does have living family members, though only one closer than a great grandnephew or distant cousin. Five years ago, Diabola kidnapped Overkill's younger sister and brother, threatening to kill them both unless Overkill conceded to her demands. When Overkill did not respond to her ultimatum, she followed through on her threat. Still getting no reaction, she kidnapped their children—Overkill's nieces and nephews—and repeated her demands, vowing to continue killing Overkill's relatives until he did what she wanted. She got all the way through killing all but one of the nieces' and nephews' children, and two of their children, before she finally resigned herself to the fact that her scheme wasn't going to work—threats against Overkill's family had no effect, because Overkill clearly didn't care about his relatives.

As it is, then, the people closest to Overkill are his underlings in his government—although their relationship with Overkill is purely professional, with no feelings of friendship or devotion on either side. Aside from his lieutenant Magenta, his highest-ranking officials and assistants include his counselor Tesseract; his security chief, Bulldog; his chief interrogator, the Tapir; the engineer Dr. Triangle; and the Gathering, his information chief.

Personality

Overkill's manner tends to be unemotional to the point of blandness. He is terse and straightforward in his speech; he tolerates no deceit or beating around the bush by others, and sees little point in deception himself except in pursuit of some tactical goal. Overkill seems to have no sense of humor, and never smiles except in satisfaction at the execution of a successful plan.

Overkill's intense focus on magic and technology and other sources of power has left him with virtually no knowledge of anything else. Literature and the arts are alien to him, and even a well-known Shakespeare quote is likely to fly over his head. Naturally, Overkill does not see this is a cause for concern; if he thought the arts were relevant for his goal of conquest, he would have devoted some time to them, and if others see him as uncultured he doesn't much care. He has no more use for social niceties, and has little sense of decorum, courtesy, or normal interpersonal interactions. If Overkill has a significant weakness, this is it; he gets along with no one, and while he does have an enormous number of people working under him in various capacities, they all do so only to share in his money and power (or out of fear of his reprisals), and none of them have any genuine affection for or loyalty toward him. Nor does he have any real allies among his fellow cressarchs; on the contrary, most of them have a probably justified fear that he covets their own territory, and it's often happened that in order to stop one of Overkill's plans other cressarchs have struck up temporary alliances with some of their enemies—even at times with one or more of the superheroes who oppose their rule.

Goals

For the moment, Overkill's intentions toward the rest of the world aren't entirely clear. Though it would be in keeping with his ambitious nature to want to annex more territory, he has yet to show any overt hostility toward any other cressarchs. Then again, though, there are many who remember the means of Overkill's initial conquest, building his forces until he could muster a single, overwhelming strike, and worry that he may be planning a similar ploy—and wonder, if so, when the strike will come.

It could be, however, that Overkill is uninterested (or at least not greatly interested) in acquiring further territory in Gallerra because he has turned his eyes toward territory outside Gallerra. There is mounting evidence that Overkill's plans include the spreading of his territory to other worlds entirely. These worlds certainly include various alternate Earths, and may include more alien worlds besides. He has already devised several means, magical and technological, to travel to these alternate worlds, and has assembled a number of teams to do so, under the aegis of an organization called the Agency of the Exterior.

This has become considerable cause for concern not only for Gallerra's heroes, but for other cressarchs as well; even if his pursuit of power elsewhere has temporarily distracted him from further conquests in Gallerra, it also potentially means that he can garner much more power with his extramundane activities, making him (even more) unstoppable once he does decide to expand his Gallerran dominion. For this reason, a few other cressarchs have begun to sponsor task forces of their own to explore other worlds and stop Overkill's plans, most notably the Nagin, with her Vishate; and Dreamtime, with his Worldwalker Corps.