Halt Evil Doer!

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Halt Evil Doer! is a third party M&M Superlink supplement for the Mutants and Masterminds rules system. It was created by Charles Phipps, Michael Suttkus, and Mike Lafferty. The first edition was a PDF-only release but a Second Edition has since been released. The book describes the setting of Heroic Earth where superheroes are faced against hordes of extremely well-funded and politically-powerful supervillains. The setting contains numerous Captain Ersatz characters mixed-in with a large number of original NPCs.

The book describes a setting where superheroes are linked to mythology and public domain characters. The modern age has superheroes appearing during the Golden Age of the 1940s, a Silver Age during the 1980s, an Iron Age during the 1990s, and now a Nickel Age for the 21st century. The setting is defined by a Bronze Age mentality with superheroes being genuinely heroic but overwhelmed by a large number of supervillains. The only reason the superheroes continue to prosper is primarily because the supervillains hate each other as much as they do the heroes.

Halt Evil Doer! is now available for order from Paizo.com.

Tropes used in Halt Evil Doer! include:


  • Anti-Villain: General Venom, Battle Czar, Red King, most of the Psychotic Seven.
  • Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Pulp era magician hero the Amazing Weiss—better known to mundane history as Harry Houdini.
  • Big Bad: Iron Khan, Death Mask III, General Venom, and Orkus.
  • The Cape (trope): Divinos
  • Casting a Shadow: The Ink Spot legacy.
  • Corrupt Church: The Church of Humanity, a fake made-up religion created by a anti superhuman bigot which states that metamen were created by aliens to destroy the world and non humans are all soulless monsters. (Also a Church of Happyology)
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: Kenneth Kane, the secret identity of Death Mask III.
  • The Cowl: Black Wing II (also a Badass Bookworm)
  • Devil but No God: In the HED! Universe, Heaven has not been proven to exist, but Hell has been established as an existing realm. (Mainly due to its ruler being a Big Bad).
  • Distaff Counterpart: Angel Girl to Divinos. Crimson Wing to Black Wing.
  • Eldritch Abomination: The Darkness Before Time, Orkus.
  • Evil Counterpart: Stain, who's Venom to Splotch's Spider-Man. He also has his own Carnage-like Even Eviler Counterpart, Bloodstain.
  • Fantastic Racism: As with the Marvel universe, there is a great deal of mistrust against mutants (called metamen in this setting), with numerous hate groups and government agencies persecuting them.
  • The Fair Folk: Who's leader, ironically, is a Genre Savvy human, the Dark Undermaster.
  • Great Gazoo: Mister Hoppy.
  • Killer Rabbit: Mister Hoppy
  • Nineties Anti-Hero: Deconstructed with the Psychotic Seven (though they call themselves the Justicars)-by the time the game's "main" time period rolls around, they've been classified as a supervillain group after their thirst for justice at any price lead them to attempt an armed takeover of the US.
  • Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Averted. Most of the scientists in the setting have areas of special concern. Red King=Genetics, General Venom=Robotics, etc.
  • Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Subverted with the House of Serpents-they are a terrorist organization with superpowered members, but when it comes down to it, they're not even the most evil of the Anti-Villain groups.
  • Patriotic Fervor: Deconstructed with General Venom and the House of Serpents; They honestly love America, which is why they plan to overthrow the government-they think it's long since mutated into a form that the Founding Fathers would be disgusted with.
  • Public Domain Character: Dracula is a major villain. Dame Michelle Holmes of the Foundation for World Harmony (the SHIELD/Checkmate organisation) is a descendent of Sherlock Holmes, whereas the Death Masks (and Black Wing II) are descended from James Moriarty. Death Mask's equivalent of Latveria is the original Ruritania from The Prisoner of Zenda.
  • Shout-Out: Lots.
    • Antaeus is a shout-out to the Golden Age Superman. Ditto, Graywing to the Golden Age Batman.
    • Athena is a shout-out to Wonder Woman.
    • Death Mask III is a combination of Lex Luthor (as Kenneth Kane) and Dr Doom (as Death Mask).
    • Divinos is a shout-out to Superman and the Martian Manhunter.
    • Black Wing is obviously a shout out to Batman.
    • Black Wing II is an homage to Nightwing. He also has elements of Tony Stark.
    • Dame Michelle Holmes is an homage to Judi Dench's M.
    • Dawn Wing I and II are homages to Robin.
    • Demon Rider is an homage to Ghost Rider. He's also the Tomorrow Society's Wolverine counterpart.
    • Doctor Aeon is a very obvious analogue to Doc Savage.
    • Doctor S and the Futuremen are homages to the Stan Lee early X-men days.
    • General Venom is some weird hybrid of Baron Zemo, Cobra Commander, the Nomad version of Captain America, and Big Boss from Metal Gear.
    • The Iron Khan is a combination of Lo Pan, Shang Tsung, Fu Manchu, and the Mandarin.
    • Jacob Hunter is an homage to James Bond. A Legacy Character, the original Hunter was the Bond from the novels, his successors are the various film versions.
    • Mr Hoppy is a more malevolent version of Mr Mxyzptlk
    • The New Fighters For Freedom are inspired by the Wolfman-era New Teen Titans.
    • The Patriots are a shout-out to the Mighty Avengers and Justice League.
    • The Psychotic Seven are an homage to the Authority.
    • Puzzles is an homage to Bizarro
    • Razortalon is an homage to Sabertooth.
    • The Red King is an homage to Magneto.
    • The Red Queen has elements of Scarlet Witch and Raven of the Teen Titans.
    • Splotch is a shout-out to the Amazing Spiderman.
      • As well as the Kyle Rayner incarnation of Green Lantern.
    • Steel Commando has elements of Captain America and Iron Man (or maybe more War Machine).
    • Supreme is an homage to Deathstroke the Terminator and possibly Snake Eyes from G.I. Joe.
    • The Tomorrow Society is an homage to the Claremont X-Men.
    • Ultimatum and Valkyrie are homages to Captain and Mary Marvel. (Valkyrie also acts as Kitty Pryde/Jubilee/Pixie to Demon Rider's Wolverine.)
    • Ultramind is a shout-out to Brainiac. Ultramind 2 is equivalent to Jocasta.
    • Ymir is a shout-out to the Mighty Thor. (With the Incredible Hulk's origin)
  • Stable Time Loop: In this setting, Dracula (who was turned into a vampire by Orkus the Entropic Master in the 14th century) was the first vampire, ever. All other vampires are descended from Dracula or people turned into vampires by Dracula. However, vampires have existed on Earth for thousands of years. How can both of these facts be true? Well, Dracula had this little accident with Death Mask III's time machine once, and...
  • Space Station: Divinos has one.
  • Those Wacky Nazis: Death's Head
  • Vampire Monarch: Dracula is the leader of the Vampire Nation. He's also the first vampire, even though there were vampires long before he died; it's a bit timey wimey.
  • Western Terrorists: The House of Serpents is actually a fairly realistic version-they're a lot like a widespread, advanced, and well-funded right-wing militia.
  • Word of God: On the Atomic Think Tank forums.
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