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Description
the Thunder from Down-under, defenders of Australia - the Champions of the Commonwealth!
officially formed in 1986 during the repelling of a Cetrius spore-god, a cosmic mycelium creature that crashed to earth and began to spread it's 'gospel' - and itself - outward from its initial landing site in the Ngarkat region and began moving towards Adelaide - heroes from across the country came together to fight back against, and ultimately defeat the creature and became The Champions of the Commonwealth! since then, the team has had many members but is currently led into battle by Opal, this powerful young woman's gem-like tissues make her a terror in combat, ferociously strong, nigh-impervious, and an excellent hand to hand combatant - as a former member of the Australian Army Intelligence Corps, Opal brings considerable skills to the table - she may be quite tight-lipped about how she became the shimmering amazon she is today but on matters of justice she's anything but!

she's joined in battle by -

Waru, The Wizard - in his youth, Waru was a troubled boy - angry at the world, at the treatment of his people, the Alyawarre and indeed all indigenous aboriginal folks. the night before he was meant to go walkabout his grandfather sat him down and they shared a long talk, Waru couldnt understand how his grandfather was so seemingly devoid of rage towards...well, anything - but still, to tried to hear his grandfathers words as he told him "the secret history of what we call the world" - gibberish, surely. the next day, as Waru prepared to leave his grandfather gave him a stick - a staff of sorts, though it looked like it was found at the side of the road that his grandfather called 'the root of the world' and off he went on his journey to manhood - as the days turned to nights turned to days things grew ever stranger for him - ghosts in the trees, the sky a mass of rainbow coils, and the veils over existence itself seem to dissolve as all planes of opened up to him - his journey of discovery open his eyes to the interconnected nature of the world, it let him let go of his anger and hatred and would eventually reveal that his grandfather's 'root of the world' was just that - a sliver of reality, impossibly powerful in the hands of someone clever enough to understand it, and take him down the path of becoming one of the spiritual and existential protectors of mankind and now, years later, he uses his fantastic powers for the betterment of all mankind, the grand-mage of the dreaming, the right-hand of the rainbow serpent - Waru, the wizard!!

Sunhammer - Barbara Cute love her small town, sure - it was boring and nothing EVER happened, and the only she could call friends were less than nice, but it was home - but, one fateful night, some form of alien craft crashed to the earth on the outskirts of town where Barb' and her friends were partying - the craft, seemingly empty had shattered into parts, odd shapes that seemed to pull themselves into odd configurations as the youths approached - her curiosity got the better of her and she grasped at a piece of the wreckage and was immediately blasted back, shocked - but unharmed - and still clasping the handle of what appeared to be a huge flaming hammer! he friends followed suit, grabbing at parts of the ship and being similarly effected - days passed, and Barb' learned that she could summon the hammer with her mind, that it made her strong - invulnerable even - and that with it she could fly, manipulate gravity and conjure up blasts of solar radiation, use the powers of the sun itself - she could use these gifts to help people - though she didnt quite know how.
the answer to that specific 'how' came to her when she realized her friends had no intentions of helping anyone - that the myriad of abilities they had been granted by their portion of the alien device were only going to be put to neferious ends - when her best friend Patricia used her newfound magnetic powers to murder a teacher Barb' knew - it was time to bring the hammer down. crafting a costume and grasping her mighty mallet, she decided to stand for justice - and, even after stopping the threats to her town her old friends posed, she continues the fight - as Sunhammer!

Saltie Joe - they used to tell stories of a creature in the Mandora Marsh - a beast, stronger than anything, as deadly in the water as on land that shrugged off gunshots and dragged poachers to a hellish end - these are the stories of a young Saltie Joe that led anthropologist and journalist Jim Parker to investigate the wetlands of the Marsh. he thought the tales would be exaggerations, flights of fancy that in reality would be simple Croc' attacks - a week or two into his investigation he found more than he bargained for when he discovered some men dumping the body of a fellow journalist who had been working to expose their company for dumping waste in the marshes - Jim fled, fearing for his life, he took a bullet to the leg and went down - thinking himself a dead man until one by one the men were taken - pulled under, thrown aside - killed as easily as taking a breath - responsible for the carnage? what appeared to be a child - a girl, no older than 12 - scaly skin, golden eyes, and a thick powerful tail - over the coming weeks Jim would return and gradually built up trust with this child, and in the months that followed would teach her english, and eventually lead her out of the swamp and into the worl, even adopting the girl as his daughter, such was his love for her, and naming her Josephine after his late mother - she had no recollection of where she came from before the wetlands, but as she grew she became more and more outgoing, and Jim was happy to report on her triumphs over criminals and villains alike - her 'monsterous' appearance just provided her more of the attention she enjoyed - as she grew, so did her strength, but when her father Jim fell ill the two returned to a small property that Jim owned in Mandora Marsh, which Joe converted to a bar where she still works - but whenever the CotC call, Joe downs a tinny and heads out to help!

Nightslinger - born to a japanese mother and native australian father, Hiro Mansfeld was raised in a happy and loving home - they may not have had much but what they had they were happy to share, and his parents were real pillars of the local community, feeding the homeless and helping the poor in any way they could. Hiro's favourite way of bonding with his father was their time throwing a boomarang about - his father was incredible, a true master of the weapon, and taught Hiro everything he could - one evening, as the family was closing up a local soup kitchen they were witness to a theft - some goons unloading what looked to be a bomb from a truck - Hiro's father called for help, and tried to stop the men but was gunned down - as was his mother - and Hiro looked to be next. but the "bomb" had been struck by a stray ricochet now crackled with dark umber energies - it pulsed and exploded, saturating Hiro in a black liquid that seared into him as his attackers ran. weeks in hospital passed and Hiro was given a remarkably clean bill of health - suddenly in better shape than he'd ever been previously. as days and weeks passed, he realized something was different - he was stronger - quicker - more agile. he had increased hand-eye coordination and miraculously discovered he had an ability to pluck what appeared to be energy boomarangs from thin air. these 'night-o-rangs' (so named for their dark colouration) could manifest a variety of abilites - some could explode,some erupted in a thick tar like goop, some dispersed into dense black clouds and yet another allowed him to switch places with it - throwing the boomarang and then switching spacial places with it - armed with these abilities he decided discover the nature of the device that gave him these gifts and more importantly, to bring the men who gunned down his family to justice - as Nightslinger!

Peacemaker Zed - Zachary 'Zed' Meldrum lived a quiet life in a rural town off the beaten path - not many visitors came that way but Zed didn't mind. he had been an inventor in his younger days, and enjoyed tinkering still, though he felt much of the tech of the world beyond him. a simple man with simple life, his wife had passed a few years back and his only family now were his daughter and 2 granddaughters whom he loved more than anything in the world - his granddaughters loved to visit him at his property and enjoyed playing in the extensive "museum" of military vehicles he kept as a hobby and side business - a man's gotta have interests, Zed would always say - the town where Zed lived had gotten rougher in recent years, with a gang pedaling meth taking root in the community. Zed kept to himself, and for the most part so did the gang - he'll never know what really happened that day, only that while his family were visiting they had gone into town for groceries while Zed tinkered with some engine and when suppertime rolled around and they weren't back, Zed knew something was wrong. the local sheriff arrived - his family had been caught in a crossfire, and killed - Zed's entire world fell apart that day. as weeks rolled by and no arrests were made, Zed started investigating for himself, and could piece enough together to learn that the local gang and the police were in cahoots - enraged at seeing how deep the rot had spread, Zed decided to solve the problem with extreme prejudice - after all, he had nothing else to lose. digging out old designs and making appropriate updates and alterations, Zed built himself a personal mechanized battleframe - A prototype police vehicle he had designed that was never implimented - called a Peacemaker. now armed with a 18 ft war bot, Zed took to town, eliminating the gang and corrupt officals alike - when he was satisfied that he had got em all, he turned himself in, content to go to jail, hell - to die even, having avenged his family. instead, his story saw him drafted to the CotC to pay back his debt to society - as Peacemaker Zed

Anura - young Wayne Wayland had always gotten himself into trouble - he was a staunch animal rights and political activist, and wasn't going to let something as silly as 'the law' stop him from doing what was right - on one such mission into what was meant to be a small medical research facility to liberate the animals within, he found himself thrown under the proverbial bus by the others with him - 3 of 7 of their team had no interest in animal rights and were there to 'score', and the ensuing scuffle saw 3 of Waynes friends murdered and he himself thrown through a vial of pink bioreactive mutagen and hurled through a glass window into a series of frog terrariums and left for dead. awakening in hospital, Wayne found himself accused of his friends murders, he escaped and was determined to settle this score with the true guilty parties - soon he realized that he had fantastic new powers, he was incredibly strong, could leap fantastic distances and stick to near any surface - he also learned that he had a neurotoxic touch, able to stun, paralyze - maybe even kill - adopting the symbol of the frog as his totem he set out to clear his name as Anura!

Crux - inspite of his parents untimely deaths in a boating accident, Brad Bradley had it all - looks, money, girls - and inspite of it all had also managed not to become a terrible person, he cared about social issues, he strived to better himself and educate others, he helped out in shelters and did charity work whenever he could - what else could a man ask for? all of that changed when he abducted and replaced by agents of the Protostar brotherhood, an astrology obsessed cult - seeking to add his families wealth to further their goals - and to add Brad himself to their experimental subject list to test out the power of their Ultrastar weapon - which used 4 beams of 'starlight' to destroy targets - the tests blew up in their faces however as during their testing they inadvertently triggered Brad's latent metahuman abilities - making him a solar battery, capable of flight and feats of superhuman strength - drinking in the beams of power, Bradley broke free, and struck a mighty blow against the Protostar brotherhood - recruited soon after to the CotC, he took the name Crux, in honor of the 4 stars of the southern cross feeling that since these 4 beams of starlight were meant to be his end, they would instead be his badge of honor - he now serves happily and proudly beside his teammates

as always, all these guys will eventually appear in the pages of Silverback (www.silverbackcomic.com) so be sure to check out the comic

Description
the Thunder from Down-under, defenders of Australia - the Champions of the Commonwealth!
officially formed in 1986 during the repelling of a Cetrius spore-god, a cosmic mycelium creature that crashed to earth and began to spread it's 'gospel' - and itself - outward from its initial landing site in the Ngarkat region and began moving towards Adelaide - heroes from across the country came together to fight back against, and ultimately defeat the creature and became The Champions of the Commonwealth! since then, the team has had many members but is currently led into battle by Opal, this powerful young woman's gem-like tissues make her a terror in combat, ferociously strong, nigh-impervious, and an excellent hand to hand combatant - as a former member of the Australian Army Intelligence Corps, Opal brings considerable skills to the table - she may be quite tight-lipped about how she became the shimmering amazon she is today but on matters of justice she's anything but!

she's joined in battle by -

Waru, The Wizard - in his youth, Waru was a troubled boy - angry at the world, at the treatment of his people, the Alyawarre and indeed all indigenous aboriginal folks. the night before he was meant to go walkabout his grandfather sat him down and they shared a long talk, Waru couldnt understand how his grandfather was so seemingly devoid of rage towards...well, anything - but still, to tried to hear his grandfathers words as he told him "the secret history of what we call the world" - gibberish, surely. the next day, as Waru prepared to leave his grandfather gave him a stick - a staff of sorts, though it looked like it was found at the side of the road that his grandfather called 'the root of the world' and off he went on his journey to manhood - as the days turned to nights turned to days things grew ever stranger for him - ghosts in the trees, the sky a mass of rainbow coils, and the veils over existence itself seem to dissolve as all planes of opened up to him - his journey of discovery open his eyes to the interconnected nature of the world, it let him let go of his anger and hatred and would eventually reveal that his grandfather's 'root of the world' was just that - a sliver of reality, impossibly powerful in the hands of someone clever enough to understand it, and take him down the path of becoming one of the spiritual and existential protectors of mankind and now, years later, he uses his fantastic powers for the betterment of all mankind, the grand-mage of the dreaming, the right-hand of the rainbow serpent - Waru, the wizard!!

Sunhammer - Barbara Cute love her small town, sure - it was boring and nothing EVER happened, and the only she could call friends were less than nice, but it was home - but, one fateful night, some form of alien craft crashed to the earth on the outskirts of town where Barb' and her friends were partying - the craft, seemingly empty had shattered into parts, odd shapes that seemed to pull themselves into odd configurations as the youths approached - her curiosity got the better of her and she grasped at a piece of the wreckage and was immediately blasted back, shocked - but unharmed - and still clasping the handle of what appeared to be a huge flaming hammer! he friends followed suit, grabbing at parts of the ship and being similarly effected - days passed, and Barb' learned that she could summon the hammer with her mind, that it made her strong - invulnerable even - and that with it she could fly, manipulate gravity and conjure up blasts of solar radiation, use the powers of the sun itself - she could use these gifts to help people - though she didnt quite know how.
the answer to that specific 'how' came to her when she realized her friends had no intentions of helping anyone - that the myriad of abilities they had been granted by their portion of the alien device were only going to be put to neferious ends - when her best friend Patricia used her newfound magnetic powers to murder a teacher Barb' knew - it was time to bring the hammer down. crafting a costume and grasping her mighty mallet, she decided to stand for justice - and, even after stopping the threats to her town her old friends posed, she continues the fight - as Sunhammer!

Saltie Joe - they used to tell stories of a creature in the Mandora Marsh - a beast, stronger than anything, as deadly in the water as on land that shrugged off gunshots and dragged poachers to a hellish end - these are the stories of a young Saltie Joe that led anthropologist and journalist Jim Parker to investigate the wetlands of the Marsh. he thought the tales would be exaggerations, flights of fancy that in reality would be simple Croc' attacks - a week or two into his investigation he found more than he bargained for when he discovered some men dumping the body of a fellow journalist who had been working to expose their company for dumping waste in the marshes - Jim fled, fearing for his life, he took a bullet to the leg and went down - thinking himself a dead man until one by one the men were taken - pulled under, thrown aside - killed as easily as taking a breath - responsible for the carnage? what appeared to be a child - a girl, no older than 12 - scaly skin, golden eyes, and a thick powerful tail - over the coming weeks Jim would return and gradually built up trust with this child, and in the months that followed would teach her english, and eventually lead her out of the swamp and into the worl, even adopting the girl as his daughter, such was his love for her, and naming her Josephine after his late mother - she had no recollection of where she came from before the wetlands, but as she grew she became more and more outgoing, and Jim was happy to report on her triumphs over criminals and villains alike - her 'monsterous' appearance just provided her more of the attention she enjoyed - as she grew, so did her strength, but when her father Jim fell ill the two returned to a small property that Jim owned in Mandora Marsh, which Joe converted to a bar where she still works - but whenever the CotC call, Joe downs a tinny and heads out to help!

Nightslinger - born to a japanese mother and native australian father, Hiro Mansfeld was raised in a happy and loving home - they may not have had much but what they had they were happy to share, and his parents were real pillars of the local community, feeding the homeless and helping the poor in any way they could. Hiro's favourite way of bonding with his father was their time throwing a boomarang about - his father was incredible, a true master of the weapon, and taught Hiro everything he could - one evening, as the family was closing up a local soup kitchen they were witness to a theft - some goons unloading what looked to be a bomb from a truck - Hiro's father called for help, and tried to stop the men but was gunned down - as was his mother - and Hiro looked to be next. but the "bomb" had been struck by a stray ricochet now crackled with dark umber energies - it pulsed and exploded, saturating Hiro in a black liquid that seared into him as his attackers ran. weeks in hospital passed and Hiro was given a remarkably clean bill of health - suddenly in better shape than he'd ever been previously. as days and weeks passed, he realized something was different - he was stronger - quicker - more agile. he had increased hand-eye coordination and miraculously discovered he had an ability to pluck what appeared to be energy boomarangs from thin air. these 'night-o-rangs' (so named for their dark colouration) could manifest a variety of abilites - some could explode,some erupted in a thick tar like goop, some dispersed into dense black clouds and yet another allowed him to switch places with it - throwing the boomarang and then switching spacial places with it - armed with these abilities he decided discover the nature of the device that gave him these gifts and more importantly, to bring the men who gunned down his family to justice - as Nightslinger!

Peacemaker Zed - Zachary 'Zed' Meldrum lived a quiet life in a rural town off the beaten path - not many visitors came that way but Zed didn't mind. he had been an inventor in his younger days, and enjoyed tinkering still, though he felt much of the tech of the world beyond him. a simple man with simple life, his wife had passed a few years back and his only family now were his daughter and 2 granddaughters whom he loved more than anything in the world - his granddaughters loved to visit him at his property and enjoyed playing in the extensive "museum" of military vehicles he kept as a hobby and side business - a man's gotta have interests, Zed would always say - the town where Zed lived had gotten rougher in recent years, with a gang pedaling meth taking root in the community. Zed kept to himself, and for the most part so did the gang - he'll never know what really happened that day, only that while his family were visiting they had gone into town for groceries while Zed tinkered with some engine and when suppertime rolled around and they weren't back, Zed knew something was wrong. the local sheriff arrived - his family had been caught in a crossfire, and killed - Zed's entire world fell apart that day. as weeks rolled by and no arrests were made, Zed started investigating for himself, and could piece enough together to learn that the local gang and the police were in cahoots - enraged at seeing how deep the rot had spread, Zed decided to solve the problem with extreme prejudice - after all, he had nothing else to lose. digging out old designs and making appropriate updates and alterations, Zed built himself a personal mechanized battleframe - A prototype police vehicle he had designed that was never implimented - called a Peacemaker. now armed with a 18 ft war bot, Zed took to town, eliminating the gang and corrupt officals alike - when he was satisfied that he had got em all, he turned himself in, content to go to jail, hell - to die even, having avenged his family. instead, his story saw him drafted to the CotC to pay back his debt to society - as Peacemaker Zed

Anura - young Wayne Wayland had always gotten himself into trouble - he was a staunch animal rights and political activist, and wasn't going to let something as silly as 'the law' stop him from doing what was right - on one such mission into what was meant to be a small medical research facility to liberate the animals within, he found himself thrown under the proverbial bus by the others with him - 3 of 7 of their team had no interest in animal rights and were there to 'score', and the ensuing scuffle saw 3 of Waynes friends murdered and he himself thrown through a vial of pink bioreactive mutagen and hurled through a glass window into a series of frog terrariums and left for dead. awakening in hospital, Wayne found himself accused of his friends murders, he escaped and was determined to settle this score with the true guilty parties - soon he realized that he had fantastic new powers, he was incredibly strong, could leap fantastic distances and stick to near any surface - he also learned that he had a neurotoxic touch, able to stun, paralyze - maybe even kill - adopting the symbol of the frog as his totem he set out to clear his name as Anura!

Crux - inspite of his parents untimely deaths in a boating accident, Brad Bradley had it all - looks, money, girls - and inspite of it all had also managed not to become a terrible person, he cared about social issues, he strived to better himself and educate others, he helped out in shelters and did charity work whenever he could - what else could a man ask for? all of that changed when he abducted and replaced by agents of the Protostar brotherhood, an astrology obsessed cult - seeking to add his families wealth to further their goals - and to add Brad himself to their experimental subject list to test out the power of their Ultrastar weapon - which used 4 beams of 'starlight' to destroy targets - the tests blew up in their faces however as during their testing they inadvertently triggered Brad's latent metahuman abilities - making him a solar battery, capable of flight and feats of superhuman strength - drinking in the beams of power, Bradley broke free, and struck a mighty blow against the Protostar brotherhood - recruited soon after to the CotC, he took the name Crux, in honor of the 4 stars of the southern cross feeling that since these 4 beams of starlight were meant to be his end, they would instead be his badge of honor - he now serves happily and proudly beside his teammates

as always, all these guys will eventually appear in the pages of Silverback (www.silverbackcomic.com) so be sure to check out the comic