Major Story Arcs
Doppler is hired by Camden Stone to be the first of a new generation of super-powered, costumed villains. The last supervillain, Skylancer, was defeated by the superhero union in 1960s Chicago, C.O.W.L. a short time ago. With the supervillains gone, the city isn’t sure that C.O.W.L. is still necessary, and wants changes in their contract. The union leader, Geoffrey Warner, makes a deal with the devil: he hires Camden Stone, a mob boss who normally works out of C.O.W.L. jurisdiction because he doesn’t hire costumed criminals, to do precisely that: start hiring supervillains so that C.O.W.L. looks necessary to the city once again.
Pursuant to this deal, Stone hires Doppler to cause some high-profile trouble. He starts by robbing some newspapers from a gas station, but forgets to wear his mask while using his powers to rough the owners up, so he has to ask them to tell the cops that he was wearing it while commissioning the crime. Stone has to emphasize to him to wear the mask the next time he goes out.
Doppler next kidnaps Alderman Lowe and holds him for ransom. Other, unnamed supervillains also hired by Stone start pulling off more crimes. These acts create increasing pressure throughout the city, and the mayor starts to lean towards giving the union what they want. The C.O.W.L. members are conflicted. They don’t know about Warner’s deal, and think the kidnapping is real, and want to help, but are on strike due to their contract problems.
Doppler shows a sadistic side, telling the alderman that he may have to kill him. However, at that moment Radia, one of C.O.W.L.’s most prominent members, breaks in. She has had enough with politics, and people telling her what to do, and just wants to do what heroes do: the right thing.
After a fight in which Doppler breaks her ankle, she beats him up with her fists, instead of using her telekinesis. Doppler is arrested and taken to jail.
Powers & Abilities
Doppler can, as he says, direct, amplify, and rework sounds, creating a number of effects. He says “Doppler ain’t exactly the right phrase for it. But it’s close enough.”
He can create damage by amplifying sounds to dangerous levels. For instance, he has amplified the sound of crumpling newspaper to create a disablingly intense loud sound field, and amplified subway sounds to break through a window. He used the sound of running to break Radia’s ankle.
He can create physical effects with sound. For instance, he has used the sound of a gunshot to create a sonic shield to deflect the bullet from the same gun, and turned a scream into a physical force that he used to slap a woman. He turned a scream into a cushion so that he could soften his landing when jumping out of a multi-story building.
He sometimes turns the drawings of classic comic book sound effects into visual weapons. For instance, when a man was running away and making a “klop klop” sound, he turned the “o”s into hoops and tripped the man with them. Another time, someone said “OH THANK GOD!” Doppler grabbed the “D” out of his word balloon and hit Radia on the head with it. He turned Radia’s heavy breathing during a fight into physical chunks of sound that choked her.