(For those that don’t get it, this video helps explain things.)

 

Name:

 

Ben Cooper

 

Supername:

 

Web Man

 

Ben previously went by Web-Man until he learned that the hyphenated version was already claimed by a superhero from New York.

 

Introduction:

 

Originally set on becoming a gadgetool inventor, Ben decided to try his hands at superheroes to see how his inventions truly handled in the field. As he once said in an interview, “It just didn’t seem right to me to expect others to trust their lives to gadgetools that I had no personal experience using.” Now, with so many of his gadgetools optimized to respond to his powers, Ben isn’t sure whether or not to become a full-time superhero and leave gadgetool manufacturing behind him.

 

Average Grade:

 

A+

 

As expected of a kid who makes his own gadgetools.

 

ERC:

 

3

 

Personalized Curriculum:

 

ERC 3 with a focus in gadgetools, Gadgetool engineering

 

Gadgetools have long been a part of superheroics. Captain Midnight used blackout bombs and spring-string. Spy Smasher used a gyrosub. Ben originally wanted to focus on gadgetool engineering, but added ERC 3 with a focus in gadgetools to his curriculum so that he could test for himself how useful his gadgetools were.

This eventually led to a problem. Ben’s gadgetools, his Black Thread Gear, were created with black threads that he and he alone could telekinetically control. They were optimized for his use–and his use alone. Take for instance his bat wing device. For him, it s highly flexible protective screen that can be rolled up and stored in one of his pumpkin bucket robots with just a thought. For others, its too cumbersome to be of practical use.

 

Now, Ben either has to modify his gadgetools so that they’ll be useful to other superhumans, or forgo such modification to focus solely on making his gear work the best for himself. Ben figured that ERC would be complementary to his gadgetool engineering, but now finds the two paths in opposition.

Ben isn’t sure he’s going to be both in ERC 3 and gadgetool engineering. He thinks he’s going to have to give one up for the other, but he’s not sure which one to give up.

 

What he wants to be, either a superhero or an engineer, is a question only he can answer. We, as his teachers, can only advise, not decide.

 

Contact Education:

 

Esplumoir Enterprises, The Red Cardinals of Mainline City

 

We have Ben working with one of the most prestigious gadgetool repair companies in the world. His threads make incredible tools for diagnosing and repairing gadgetools. They can hit through the smallest cracks, measure electrical levels, and can even serve as temporary repairs in their sticky form.

 

Since Ben isn’t whether or not to continue as a gadgetool creator or devote himself full time to gadgeteer superheroics, we have him working with the Red Cardinals of Mainline City, one of the oldest organizations of gadgeteers in the world. The Red Cardinals see great potential in Ben as a gadgeteer. The Red Cardinals do a lot of detective work, and Ben’s ability to suspend himself and his gear by telekinetically levitating the black threads that compose them makes him a very stealthy superhero. He can also sense movement through his threads, much like a spider senses movement through its web. According to the Red Cardinals, this makes Ben one of the best gadgeteers they’ve ever had help them on stakeouts.

 

Hyperstasis:

 

Variable matter generation augmented with technology

 

Ben can create and control black “web” threads. These threads can spawn anywhere within Ben’s field of vision, though he can also spawn them “blind,” for instance, behind his back, though with less precision than if he could see the thread spawn before his eyes. The threads can spawn in midair, inside objects (which can then be easily broken by telekinetically flexing the threads), or attached to objects via an extremely strong atomic bond.

 

Once created, Ben can telekinetically control his threads and seemingly elongate them by making them stretchy and pliable. But he cannot add mass to a thread once its created.

 

A thread’s physical properties cannot be changed once its summoned, but before its summoned, Ben can choose to make it extremely adhesive, slippery, flexible, rigid, conductive, magnetic or however he wants it.

 

Ben can get any kind of thread he wants–so long as its in black.

 

By augmenting his threads with technology, Ben creates Black Thread Gear, his signature gadgetools.

 

Black Thread Gear (BTG)

 

Spider Robots

 

These scuttling, eight-legged robots used Ben’s black threads as locomotion. They can move independently through electronic motors or by Ben taking direct control of their black threads and manipulating them like puppet strings. Ben’s spiders aren’t designed for combat, rather for covert actions, but they’re equipped with force projectors nonetheless. They are remarkably silent, especially when Ben assumes direct control and lifts them into the air by their black threads causing them to hover in perfect silence.

When you’re talking to Ben, be sure to look up. Odds are there’s a spider robot dancing just above your head.

 

Pumpkin Buckets

 

These heavily armored, rolling jack-o-lantern shaped robots are designed for storage. Every gadgeteer knows the importance of carrying extra parts around. The pumpkin buckets also transport Black Thread Gear.

 

Given that they’re highly durable and reinforced with perkunite alloy, the pumpkin buckets are useful distractions. Ben has them equipped with powerful lamps (contained in the Jack-o-lantern face, of course) and coiled threads that when telekinetically vibrated create an eerie sound. It’s hard not to look at the buckets when they start up.

 

Bat Wings

 

This protective cloak is highly foldable, so much so that it can be rolled up and stored within a pumpkin bucket. Composed out of black threads treated with various chemical processes that make it resistant to heat and energy weapons, the cloak can also allow one to fly by having Ben telekinetically levitate the Black Threads.

 

Thread Dissolver

 

Technically not an actual piece of Black Thread Gear, as it uses no black threads, but is an important part of his arsenal. If he ties someone up that needs to be untied, it may be dangerous to move the threads. Imagine someone trying to yank off the world’s stickiest band-aid. Here enters the thread dissolver, a spray bottle with a liquid molecularly coded to dissolve black threads.

 

Night Sword

A specially treated series of flexible black threads that share the same hilt and alloyed with rhecite for added strength and flexibility. The black thread blades can flex like whips and move like the fingers of a claw when under the influence of Ben’s telekinesis in what he calls the “hand of night” configuration. The blades can also unfurl themselves in a circular pattern to form a shield.

 

The blades are so flexible that they can fold up so that they extend only a little ways from the hilt and in this way can be stashed in pumpkin buckets.

 

Ghost Strings

 

Ghost strings are monomolecular-thin black threads suspended within an electromagnetic field. They are projected and controlled through a cylinder, though Ben can control the strings through the threads and bypass the cylinders.

 

The electromagnetic field tracks, strengthens, and blunts the strings so that they can safely ensnare opponents, though this field can be lessened so that the strings’ true cutting power is unleashed. Effectively invisible, ghost strings can deliver unseen blows to opponent, just like a ghost.

 

Behavior:

 

Exemplary

 

Ben is a creative, playful young man as his arsenal of Halloween themed gadgetools demonstrates, but he never lets his playfulness get in the way of his work. He’s very serious about giving his all to his work, and its why he has such a hard time deciding on whether or not to balance superheroing and gagetool making or to devote himself full-time to one or the other. He doesn’t want to feel like he’s wasted himself in any endeavor.

 

Appearance:

 

Ben wears his custom “ripple armor.” Ripple armor is made of rhecite, the flowing metal, and can shift its mass around the frame of the armor to better respond to trauma. The name comes from its glossy, wet appearance. Some say it looks like a trash bag. Ben’s armor contains his black threads which allow for optimized reflexes. He moves the instant he thinks of moving, as the threads respond to his thoughts and act far quicker than his own muscle fibers. The difference can be measured in fractions of a second, but that’s how small the margin of victory in a fight can be.

 

Please don’t say anything about Ben having WEB MAN on his forehead. He likes it being there. He says it helps prevent others from confusing him with the other Web-Man from New York.

 

Opinions Of Others:

Izzy Skenazy, Xerography

 

“Like he would say, he’s neat! I like his energy. He’s not far from being a multiverse kid with how new and weird everything is to him. Good for him sticking around. Speaking of “sticking around,” I still feel kind of bad that the first time we interacted I webbed him up…”

 

Sam Kinsley, Rumble

 

“He gets the struggle. There’s only so much even the strongest superhuman can do, and ERC 3 calls for a lot of sacrifice. It’s nice to talk to someone that gets the struggle.”

 

Edith Ogden, Dragongirl

 

“Well, they call her the hallway meteor for a reason. I get she’s got, you know, issues, we all do, but sometimes I wonder why they don’t put her on a leash–and yes, I am still mad she dented my pumpkin bucket.”

 

Harmony Hascoe

 

“She is so annoying. I can understand playing games and messing with people, but she takes it way too far. She likes hurting people, that’s the bottom line.”

 

Henry Dutton

 

“He’s an ace. Always good to team-up with him in ERC. Awful tastes in girls, apparently.”

 

Robert Marblehead 

 

“My bro. Doesn’t have the temperament for superheroics, but that’s okay, he’s real smart and real creative. I wish I was as good a gadgetool maker as he was.”