Acton Lord

Acton Lord is a net.villain created by Dave Van Domelen. See also Acton Lord II and Acton Lord (20).
Alter Ego:	Richard Franklins
Aliases:	Sig.Lad, Kid Pocky
Primary Writer:	Dave Van Domelen
Status:	See Kid Pocky.
Usability:	Reserved

History

Acton Lord was born when an alternate Sig.Lad was captured in an echo server and trapped for thousands of years, coming out a twisted and insane version of himself linked to the Corruption Force.

He first appeared during (at least one version of) the Cosmic Plot Device Caper, attempting to stop Table from using the Ring of Retcon and the Cosmic Plot Device to gain absolute power – for who better to know the dangers of absolute power? Anticipating the Great RMGrouping and the end of rec.arts.comics, he employed Netlurker to create gif.clones of himself. However, Sig.Lad interfered, introducing errors into many of the gifs.

In the Kinda Big Darkness Saga, Acton Lord pretended to be Flipseid so that he could conquer Looniverse MUSH, but he was turned into a toad and squashed for his troubles. The gif.clones activated to take his place; unfortunately, they were all imperfect, due to Sig.Lad's interference. These included wReamed Acton Lord, Golden Age Acton Lord, and PrimeClone Acton Lord. In the end, PrimeClone and Golden Age merged into a "perfect" clone, but were taken down by Sig.Lad, and Ultimate Ninja tricked wReamed Acton Lord into destroying himself.

Another gif.clone planned to take control of the Pega.SYS for simple net.villainy, but Action Lord confronted him and told him about how he could use the Pega.SYS to gain the true meaning of Absolute Power. Acton Lord reached for the Source Code, that from which all stories spring – and failed utterly, crashing to earth. A new gif.clone body activated, but the failure did not fade from his mind.

When Doublecross invaded the Net, he captured Acton Lord and Sig.Lad, using them as a nexus of power. This inspired AL to look for links to other worlds that he could corrupt, leading him to try and usurp the power of the Multiversal Office in Bad Forms. He nearly succeeded, trapping the Secret Dvanders and extending his power into other worlds, but at the right moment, Merlin Ambrose stepped in. When Acton Lord faced Sig.Lad directly, it was revealed that the two were part of a far older fictional archetype – King Arthur and his bastard son, Mordred. With the Sword of Sig standing in for Excalibur, Sig.Lad slew Acton Lord and stabilized the Office.

Shortly after, Looniverse Adrift! happened, and Acton Lord went seeking a hideout in case he was forced from his home newsgroup. Searching in alt.toys.transformers, he found the RoboMACs 2163 setting. His plan was to take Roughhouse and Corkscrew as minions, and dispose of them after he'd built loyal duplicates... but they doublecrossed him, and began a Robot Invasion! However, things were going just as planned – and after the LNH took care of them, Acton Lord was left with advanced technology from another dimension and a clean record.

At the climax of the Grand Tour (a crossover between the Superguy altiverses and the Looniverse), Acton Lord used the distraction afforded by DeFacto V's power play to once again attempt to enter the Source Code. Stopped by Constellation, he was given one guaranteed free-will choice over where his life was to go, and he chose to give up the role of Acton Lord, becoming Kid Pocky.

Personality

Intelligent, forceful, and fearsome. Goes after his goals relentlessly, including his goal of true control over his own destiny...

See also Kid Pocky.

Powers and Abilities

Was linked to the Corruption Force, living embodiment of the corruption that increased power brings in the comics. Also possessed the vast resources typical of your average reality-conquering supervillain, including his very own island nation of Andale Atoll. However, he gave up these powers when he changed his identity to Kid Pocky.

Appearance

Wears a blue (ask Dave what to call it) jacket with red trim, gold buttons, and a stylized letter A in red on the lapel; red domino mask; red over-the-shoulder cape; and black military pants.

The picture which launched a thousand stories, drawn by Dave Van Domelen way, way back in 1992.

From Dave's [http://www.dvandom.com/drawings/lnhgallery.html art site : When I spotted the Czar Nicholas II figure from the Anastasia toy line on clearance, I realized I had a perfect base for an Acton Lord figure. The way the arm joints worked meant I had to alter the color scheme, but hey, Acton Lord probably had multiple outfits. I "shaved" the excess beard, added the crossbar to the "A" sash, filled in the hips, changed the hairstyle, added goggles and made a cape from thin cloth. I really lucked out on the cape, it looks spiffy. I also had to glue the toy's feet to a Lego piece, because Czar Nicholas II couldn't stand up on his own. Neither could the toy. 4/13/98]]

Awards

In 1994 and '95, he won Accies Favorite Villain.

Appearances

• See also Sig.Lad, Kid Pocky.
• First Appearance: Cosmic Plot Device Caper (version including post-Two-and-a-Half Month Gap posts)
• Sieze Dangerous
• Kinda Big Darkness Saga
• The Sound of Clashing Metal
• System Corruptors #1-4 (The Bellerophon Gambit)
• Paper Tigers
• Bad Forms
• Constellation
• Dvandom Force