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Description
The Salem Crusader
Real Name: Archie Masters
Powers: Magically Enhanced Physiology; Archetype: The Occultist & Supernatural Hunter; Supernatural Strength, Durability, & Speed; Magical Flight; Hand Blasts; Lazarus Wave Manipulation; and finally Magic
Equipment: A medallion that Archie took from a sorcerer that allows him to properly focus much of the Lazarus Radiation in his body for proper magic.
First Appearance: Thrilling Comics #19 (Aug. 1941)
Reboot Appearance: Deviantart (10/13/2021)

Click HERE to go to the Superpowers Wiki to know what some of these powers are and what they do.

Origin
(---"Archie Masters was a timid, cautious astronomy professor who taught at Grand University in Salem, Massachusettes. Archie himself not believing much of the Supernatural at first and saw it as a bunch of hoo-haa. However one night, his fellow colleagues (who turned out to be warlocks) performed a ritual that called upon the powers of Hecate, The Goddess of Magic & The Supernatural. However the initial test went awry when Masters, preoccupied in his thoughts went into the room where the ritual was being done. He was unprotected like the warlocks were during the ritual and he was bathed in what they called Lazarus Radiation but instead of killing him like his colleagues thought it would, the accident endowed him with various superhuman abilities such as strength, flight and invulnerability. With his confidence boosted, he used these powers to fight crime as The Salem Crusader. Though this name was given to him by both the press and the public at large since he tried to keep himself out of the spotlight. Salem Crusader wasn't his first choice in Hero names since to him it had connections to the Salem Witch Trials. Though he can't just make an interview with the local news to clear things up, so despite his objections and a lack of any better ideas, the name stuck.

During his time as The Salem Crusader, he experienced many different horrors that started popping up all over Salem. Evil Spirits, Covens of warlocks and witches trying to raise armies of the undead to attack the city, ancient horrors that try to drive the entire population crazy, and so on. So early on in his career he had to actually undergo research into the subject of the paranormal to help better combat these new threats since regular science didn't seem to cut the mustard when dealing with the supernatural.

In his civilian identity, he pretended to be a meek pushover he once was, to the endless frustration of his secretary, Jane Peters, who would have loved to be Archie's girlfriend if he wasn't (as far as she could tell) so absent-minded and cowardly. She did seem to have taken an interest in the fact that Archie seemed to start doing research that was well out of his comfort zone of astrology and focus on the kind of subjects that he just blew off as mere superstition. Archie even found himself an ally in the form of Mickey Martin, a young and very eccentric paranormal investigator who has an entire library's worth on knowledge on the supernatural, so he was a great aid to Archie during his fight against things that go bump in the night. Mickey was also able to help Archie use the supernatural energies with himself so as to use a form of magic. Nothing too spectacular, mostly things like flight, hand blasts, creating potions, perform exorcisms and so on. Though as both Archie and Mickey both learned on their journey, magic isn't an exact science like they thought it was so mistakes have been made now and again. However Archie approaches it with a scientist's mindset. Seeing magic as science that hasn't been fully explained yet. And it's this mindset that has helped Archie use the powers of the Lazarus Radiation in more benevolent and practical ways. Like how one has to treat atomic power with the proper care in order to get the most benefits out of it.

During that year's Halloween Night however, both Archie and Mickey were gonna have one of the hardest battles of their lives as the covens that The Salem Crusader had defeated previously came together and resurrected all the dead monsters and entities that Archie had defeated previously, with these beings causing havoc on the entire city. So Archie had to work double time to go around the city and stopping every monster he can find and sending them back to The Netherworld. Archie was slowly getting more and more exhausted as the night went on, but he had to pull through for the people of his city. Unfortunately he spent so much of his energy defeating the monsters and spirits that the united covens came after him in full force and were ready to drain the Lazarus Radiation out of him. Which to them was very valuable with how Archie has made it stronger over the past few months with his constant usage and practice with it.

Fortunately for Archie, something happened that spared him this fate. As everyone around started to feel the earth shake and before anyone knew what's going on, a massive orb of light formed around everyone in that area with the witches and warlocks unable to escape, Archie, Mickey and Archie's girlfriend Jane also. Jane having learned overtime of Archie's activities as The Salem Crusader and actually followed him to the park where this event took place. And when everyone was enveloped in the sphere, the sphere shrunk until it fully disappeared from that reality.

The entire group tumbled through the rainbow-colored vortex for several minutes with the evil magic users & their minions separating from the heroes into a separate tunnel, leaving only The Salem Crusader, the paranormal invesigator and The Crusader's girlfriend. The trio ended up falling unconcious briefly when they saw a bright light up ahead, only to find themself in a completely different city and possibly a new reality judging by the rainbow-colored sky overhead.

They ended up in The Super-Sargasso Sea , specifically in The Broken Wastes in the city of Xebico, home of the local hero known as Dynamic Boy ."---)

Well this character was a spur of the moment if I do say so myself. I got this idea after seeing a picture in a facebook group I'm in that had a black and white drawing of American Crusader . Though with the way the stars on both the head and chest are drawn, people got the idea that that version of AC was more supernatural. Which got my creative mojo running as I made this new version of American Crusader, only swapping out the more science-based accident for a more magical one in his origin story.

This character was made using Hero Machine 3.

The Salem Crusader is an open source character created specifically for use by anyone. Feel free to use it any way you wish. You must also give creator credit.

The image is copyright AFD Studios/heromachine.com and is posted here as a fair use reference.

Description
The Salem Crusader
Real Name: Archie Masters
Powers: Magically Enhanced Physiology; Archetype: The Occultist & Supernatural Hunter; Supernatural Strength, Durability, & Speed; Magical Flight; Hand Blasts; Lazarus Wave Manipulation; and finally Magic
Equipment: A medallion that Archie took from a sorcerer that allows him to properly focus much of the Lazarus Radiation in his body for proper magic.
First Appearance: Thrilling Comics #19 (Aug. 1941)
Reboot Appearance: Deviantart (10/13/2021)

Click HERE to go to the Superpowers Wiki to know what some of these powers are and what they do.

Origin
(---"Archie Masters was a timid, cautious astronomy professor who taught at Grand University in Salem, Massachusettes. Archie himself not believing much of the Supernatural at first and saw it as a bunch of hoo-haa. However one night, his fellow colleagues (who turned out to be warlocks) performed a ritual that called upon the powers of Hecate, The Goddess of Magic & The Supernatural. However the initial test went awry when Masters, preoccupied in his thoughts went into the room where the ritual was being done. He was unprotected like the warlocks were during the ritual and he was bathed in what they called Lazarus Radiation but instead of killing him like his colleagues thought it would, the accident endowed him with various superhuman abilities such as strength, flight and invulnerability. With his confidence boosted, he used these powers to fight crime as The Salem Crusader. Though this name was given to him by both the press and the public at large since he tried to keep himself out of the spotlight. Salem Crusader wasn't his first choice in Hero names since to him it had connections to the Salem Witch Trials. Though he can't just make an interview with the local news to clear things up, so despite his objections and a lack of any better ideas, the name stuck.

During his time as The Salem Crusader, he experienced many different horrors that started popping up all over Salem. Evil Spirits, Covens of warlocks and witches trying to raise armies of the undead to attack the city, ancient horrors that try to drive the entire population crazy, and so on. So early on in his career he had to actually undergo research into the subject of the paranormal to help better combat these new threats since regular science didn't seem to cut the mustard when dealing with the supernatural.

In his civilian identity, he pretended to be a meek pushover he once was, to the endless frustration of his secretary, Jane Peters, who would have loved to be Archie's girlfriend if he wasn't (as far as she could tell) so absent-minded and cowardly. She did seem to have taken an interest in the fact that Archie seemed to start doing research that was well out of his comfort zone of astrology and focus on the kind of subjects that he just blew off as mere superstition. Archie even found himself an ally in the form of Mickey Martin, a young and very eccentric paranormal investigator who has an entire library's worth on knowledge on the supernatural, so he was a great aid to Archie during his fight against things that go bump in the night. Mickey was also able to help Archie use the supernatural energies with himself so as to use a form of magic. Nothing too spectacular, mostly things like flight, hand blasts, creating potions, perform exorcisms and so on. Though as both Archie and Mickey both learned on their journey, magic isn't an exact science like they thought it was so mistakes have been made now and again. However Archie approaches it with a scientist's mindset. Seeing magic as science that hasn't been fully explained yet. And it's this mindset that has helped Archie use the powers of the Lazarus Radiation in more benevolent and practical ways. Like how one has to treat atomic power with the proper care in order to get the most benefits out of it.

During that year's Halloween Night however, both Archie and Mickey were gonna have one of the hardest battles of their lives as the covens that The Salem Crusader had defeated previously came together and resurrected all the dead monsters and entities that Archie had defeated previously, with these beings causing havoc on the entire city. So Archie had to work double time to go around the city and stopping every monster he can find and sending them back to The Netherworld. Archie was slowly getting more and more exhausted as the night went on, but he had to pull through for the people of his city. Unfortunately he spent so much of his energy defeating the monsters and spirits that the united covens came after him in full force and were ready to drain the Lazarus Radiation out of him. Which to them was very valuable with how Archie has made it stronger over the past few months with his constant usage and practice with it.

Fortunately for Archie, something happened that spared him this fate. As everyone around started to feel the earth shake and before anyone knew what's going on, a massive orb of light formed around everyone in that area with the witches and warlocks unable to escape, Archie, Mickey and Archie's girlfriend Jane also. Jane having learned overtime of Archie's activities as The Salem Crusader and actually followed him to the park where this event took place. And when everyone was enveloped in the sphere, the sphere shrunk until it fully disappeared from that reality.

The entire group tumbled through the rainbow-colored vortex for several minutes with the evil magic users & their minions separating from the heroes into a separate tunnel, leaving only The Salem Crusader, the paranormal invesigator and The Crusader's girlfriend. The trio ended up falling unconcious briefly when they saw a bright light up ahead, only to find themself in a completely different city and possibly a new reality judging by the rainbow-colored sky overhead.

They ended up in The Super-Sargasso Sea , specifically in The Broken Wastes in the city of Xebico, home of the local hero known as Dynamic Boy ."---)

Well this character was a spur of the moment if I do say so myself. I got this idea after seeing a picture in a facebook group I'm in that had a black and white drawing of American Crusader . Though with the way the stars on both the head and chest are drawn, people got the idea that that version of AC was more supernatural. Which got my creative mojo running as I made this new version of American Crusader, only swapping out the more science-based accident for a more magical one in his origin story.

This character was made using Hero Machine 3.

The Salem Crusader is an open source character created specifically for use by anyone. Feel free to use it any way you wish. You must also give creator credit.

The image is copyright AFD Studios/heromachine.com and is posted here as a fair use reference.