Punchline Q&A

While a lot of you are familiar with my lead character, many of you aren't. So I wrote some questions and then some answers about Punchline, to help you get familiar with him. These questions mostly have to do with his back story. Ideally, in a longer comic series, I would go back and write about some of these things in story form...but since the past isn't going to be the main focus of the story, I'm safe in throwing it all in here now.

If you've got questions about him (or anything else relating to the setting and/or history) ask away, and I shall answer as best I can. It'll be fun!







1. Who is Punchline?

Punchline is Beacon City's first costumed criminal; he specializes in boxing glove guns and bad jokes.


2. Who is he when he's not in costume?

His civilian identity is Dexter Yates. Before he embarked on a life of crime, he worked in a physics/chemistry lab. His specialty was in designing non-lethal weapons.


3. So he's educated?

He has a doctorate in physics and a master's degree in chemistry, both from University of California at Beacon City (Go Yellowjackets!)


4. Why did he become a criminal?

Thrill seeking, mostly. When Yates first created the special polymer that forms his special boxing glove bullets, the Cowboy was still new to the city and mostly dealing with street crime. Dexter knew that a proper nemesis could make both their careers, and stepped in to fill the void.


5. How'd that go for him?

You might call it a marginal success. Sometimes he was able to get away with his crimes. Sometimes he wasn't, and was hauled off to jail. Fortunately, Lockwood Penitentiary is notoriously easy to break out of--Punchline has done it on no less than seven occasions.
Overall, it wasn't too bad for his professional life. For his personal life, it was a complete disaster.


6. Personal life? Is he married?

Not anymore. Denise (don't know her maiden name yet) divorced him shortly after (accidentally) learning his secret. She took their son, Eric, and left town.

Strangely, she has never informed the police, or anyone else (to the best of Dexter's knowledge.)


7. How about friends? Does he have any? Does he have any left?

Sure, he's got a few. His closest friends, though, are fellow villains--Isaac Rothschild (aka Critical Mass), Randolph (Needs a New Last Name) (Witch Doctor), and Mary MacDonald (Hail Mary.)

8. You're a terrible person.

I know. Also, that's not a question.


8b. OK, fine. Why did he choose "Punchline" as his villain motif?

Dexter wanted something fun and flashy. This angle allowed him to play up his (previously undiscovered) showmanship skills. Also, while his talent was in science, he always had a great love for comedy.


9. Can he tell a joke?

No. His delivery is better when he's in costume, but the content is worse.


10. What does this guy look like? I'm guessing he's not a huge lunkhead.

You're guessing right. He's well under six feet tall, and pretty thin. But he's pretty wiry, and has solid endurance (when you're not a huge muscly person, running becomes very important.)


11. And you're saying this guy was a successful criminal?

Marginally successful, yes. Most of the rough stuff was handled by his trusty weapons (one or two shots would be enough to knock out a normal person) or his hired goons ("henchman" is a very popular line of work in Beacon City.) He did fairly well for himself for the first five or six years, before things turned south.


12. What happened?

It started with the emergence of new villains, with actual powers. Suddenly a guy with a goofy gimmick doesn't seem like such a big deal. He still managed to stick around for a few more years, before things turned dark. The next wave of villains didn't care about collateral damage, and often actively targeted civilians. Eventually Punchline realized that he didn't have a place in the city anymore, between this and his wife leaving him. Not long after that, he hung up his guns and left town.


13. What did he do after that?

He headed out to the east coast, initially to visit his niece (who was the only family that still talked to him.) He soon got involved in the supers scene out there...but while he had a few high-profile victories, he never felt like he belonged there. He stayed out there for two years, but came back after hearing of the Cowboy's death.

(This is in reference to the Equinox game. Obviously, I can't use the stuff that actually happened there without getting permission from all the other people who took part. And that's work. I can still use my own contributions, but a lot of it will be repurposed in some fashion.)


14. The Cowboy is...dead?

I'm surprised you didn't hear about it on the news; it was a pretty big deal. There was this horrible beast from another dimension that was tearing up the city. He managed to stop it, but died in the process. It made a lot of people very sad, including Dexter.


15. They didn't hate each other?

Well, the Cowboy wasn't real wild about Punchline for a long time, what with the crime and the punching bullets and the awful jokes. But over the years they developed a certain respect for each other...and they always understood each other more than anyone else did.