Supervillains of Note: Mountain Man

Today's "Supervillains of Note" takes us back to America, and someone who's provoked a lot of political discussion.

Mountain Man

Mountain Man is the alias of Jeremiah Hendricks, tax protester and all-around weirdo. He's Stage 4 and pretty tough. His power is control of rock. He lives in a cabin surrounded by rock on all sides, and he uses his stone control powers to move it to different places around the Appalachian Mountains. One day there'll be nothing, the next day, there's a big wooden cabin, dogs under the porch, the whole works.

Mountain Man doesn't believe the U.S. Government has the right to collect taxes, and by Odin, he means not to pay a dime. He's got a point in some respects - as a super, he has almost no need for the services government is supposed to provide for that money - but most villains I know acknowledge the 16th Amendment, we just don't give a shit. So there you are.

He's got a lot of other ideas about who really did 9/11, the JFK assassination, and so on. He endorses a lot of the weirder theories from groups like Wavelength, like the Killclone theory and ancient astronauts seeding super-powered potential in early humans. So far he doesn't have any proof of what he says. Many people listen to him because he's a super and they think that gives him some sort of inside information. For that matter, he could totally be right about half of what he says.

Mountain Man brews his own "super-moonshine", which will probably flat-out kill a regular human being and knocks a Stage 4 on his ass. I make my own mead at home, natch, so I appreciate a guy who takes the time to account for the super-metabolism.

Overall, a great guy to know about, because he's a departure from the "wreck-it-and-run" villain you might all think you have to be. He knows what he wants, he's not afraid to get it, and he thumbs his nose at the Man the whole way.

Past

Hendricks got his powers when he was young. He was involved in an avalanche or cave-in while exploring the mountains at an early age (specifics differ, even when he tells the story). He walked out of the hills covered in rock, and didn't return to normal for two days. Since then he was on the receiving end, and later the giving, of a fair amount of bullying at school. His dad took him out and home-schooled him for the rest of his adolescence. His mother died early, from what I'm told. He has no living siblings.

Position

Mountain Man is a solo villain. He drinks a lot, he hunts, he wanders the mountains, he entertains visitors. He's friendly if you're friendly, but mostly he just does his thing all day.

He is at the center of a few online communities. He posts regularly, reads fan mail, does all that stuff. He could probably start a cult if he wanted to, but mostly he prefers politics to religion. He gets a fair amount of attention on sites like Quatloos and Libertarian-leaning forums.

Personality

Did you see an old show called "Grizzly Adams"? He's a lot like that guy. He's got a big thick beard, a big smile, and he's just generally a big guy. He acts like the big guy - always friendly, unless you push him, and then he turns super-dangerous. He's semi-immortal and he knows it, so he's living life his way.

Powers

He can merge with solid stone to armor up, and he can move or throw or shape stone. His ability to move his cabin (or anything else) through mountains is pretty much the main reason the Feds haven't been able to shut him down. Obviously he's got the usual Stage 4 power platter.

The Transhuman Capability Catalog assigns him TCC E2 - control over elemental earth.

Problems

Mountain Man doesn't have too many problems that he isn't causing himself. His strident political views are probably the major reason the Feds want him. He does make a lot of good points about government taxation of supers, and a lot of villains are on board with his views. His outlandish ideas in other areas don't always endear him to people who might be allies, but that's life.