So here’s an example of adapting an existing character to CLotU.

Hawkeye!

a.k.a. Kate Bishop

(Hawkeye is copyrighted, and probably trademarked, by Marvel. This is just “fan art”, so to speak, and isn’t explicitly authorized by Marvel Comics in any way.)

This version of Kate is primarily based on Kate from the Hawkeye television show, but we’ll try to avoid spoilers. Secondarily, it leans on the version appearing in Marvel Comics, including Young Avengers.

1. Class

Obviously, as a normal human being with with no actual super-powers, just archery and a bow, Kate would be …

• Class: Knight

The Knight

Most other heroes – with the exception of some Inventors – have superhuman powers and abilities. You’re not like them. Your own training and talents are what made you what you are: you may have a minor super-power, you may have high-tech devices, but ultimately it comes down to your skill against someone else’s.

2. Approaches

There are 5 different Approaches in the game; each starts at 1 and we get 5 extra points to spend to spend. This represents her about right, as a first pass:

• Action 3 (Kate Bishop isn’t nearly as brash as Clint Barton, who would have a higher score for his Action approach)
• Adventure 4 (she’s highly adaptable and creative, so this is her high stat)
• Detective 2 (she probably thinks she’s a great detective, buuuuuut)
• Mystery 2 (Kate doesn’t always reveal everything she knows)
• Suspense 3 (This is awareness/alertness/perception – she isn’t always on guard)

That totals up to … uh … 14. It should be 10. So here’s revised Approaches for Kate:

• Action 2 (Kate Bishop isn’t nearly as brash as Clint Barton, who would have a higher score for his Action approach)
• Adventure 4 (she’s highly adaptable and creative, so this is her high stat)
• Detective 1 (she probably thinks she’s a great detective who doesn’t miss any clues, buuuuuut)
• Mystery 1 (Kate tends to wear her heart on her sleeve and may even telegraph her moves in a fight)
• Suspense 2 (This is awareness/alertness/perception – she isn’t always on guard)

That comes out to 10, which is perfect!

3. Prime Ability

As a Knight, Kate gets this prime ability for free:

Peak Human Potential

You represent the pinnacle of human achievement. If you have any powers, they’re minor in comparison to your extensive training.

This is reflected in both your large number of skills and your combat prowess:

Choose one additional Fighting Style.

(We’ll get to Fighting Styles and Skills in a sec.)

4. Fighting Styles

(hey, that was a quick sec.)

Kate gets two picks of Fighting Styles, unlike most (non-Knight) heroes who only get one. So let’s give her …

• Acrobat Reduce by 1 the cost to counter a Crisis move targeting only you.
• Sharpshooter Add 2 dice when you use a ranged Weapon to advance the Smash goal.

The second one is obvious – the Sharpshooter fighting style is basically in the game ONLY for Hawkeye(s) and Green Arrow(s).

The first one makes it easier for her to jump out of the way of attacks aimed at her, which seems like a good fighting style. It’s also possessed by Robin/Nightwing/Dick Grayson. (And most Robins, in fact.)

5. Skills

As a Knight, Kate gets mad skillz:

You have the Criminal, Investigator, and Spy skills, plus four additional skills of your choice.

Criminal is the skill you use when your hero wants to break into a building without setting off the alarms. Investigator is what you use when you go to a building and look for clues as to who broke in. Spy lets you maintain fake aliases, break codes, and sabotage locations or vehicles. (Spy is basically “the Black Widow skill”.)

Here’s the complete list of skills, with the ones possessed by Kate crossed out.

• Academic
• Artist
• Bureaucrat
• Criminal
• Deputy
• Engineer
• Explorer
• Hacker
• Historian
• Investigator
• Journalist
• Lawyer
• Mystic
• Performer
• Physician
• Pilot
• Politician
• Scientist
• Socialite
• Spy

Based on what we know about her, Socialite makes the most sense – she’s from a rich background, and Socialite lets you mingle with the upper classes successfully, something that nearly any version of Kate Bishop seems to be able to do.

None of the rest really make sense; they’re not really what she does for a living. (Most skills in CLotU are based on professions, so they’re harder to assign to characters who don’t have a “normal” profession, such as Lawyer. Which, incidentally, is “the She-Hulk or Matt Murdock skill.”)

According to the Marvel wiki at fandom.com, Kate is an accomplished cellist, so I am going to give her Performer. Performer also lets you take a specialty, instead of being an all-around well-accomplished singer, actor, and musician, so let’s give her Performer (cello).

• Skills: Criminal, Investigator, Performer (cello), Socialite, Spy

6. Volume

Most versions of Kate Bishop are presented as relatively new to being a superhero, usually in contrast to Clint Barton’s more jaded Hawkeye. So this version of Kate we’re gonna stat up as a Volume 1 (i.e. “beginning”) character.

• Volume 1

7. Abilities

Kate already has Peak Human Potential as her prime ability from the Knight class. Also, every starting character gets two abilities from their class’s Volume 1 Abilities list. Those abilities, for Knights, are:

• Team, Together!
• Toughness
• Trick Arrows
• Weapons Locker

Kate can also choose from the list of generic abilities at Volume One:

• Arsenal
• Break the Fourth Wall
• Dependable Allies
• Digital Interface
• Faithful Pet
• Hero Cave
• Hero Without Fear
• Local Hero
• Three-Point Landing
• Well-Connected

I’m going to go with Trick Arrows (which is basically the Hawkeye(s)/Green Arrow(s) ability) and the Faithful Pet ability. Here’s what that first ability says:

Trick Arrows

Prerequisite: You can’t have another Arsenal Ability. You have specialized weapons, each for a different job.

[Dynamo, Paragon]{.crossover} At the start of each Storyline, pick a number of Power Words from the Dynamo or Paragon Personal Power Words lists equal to the Volume.

You can use each Power Word as a Core Power Word once during the current Storyline without paying any Might.

This is an Arsenal Ability.

This lets Kate have a small quiver of arrows with specialized effects, such as “glue” or “boxing glove” or whatever.

Trick Arrows are specifically called out as an Arsenal Ability; you can only have one Arsenal ability on your hero, so she can’t get other Arsenal abilities.

Faithful Pet

Prerequisite: You can’t have another Pet Ability. You have a pet, that may or may not be more intelligent than other creatures of its type.

This animal partner has three Core Power Words – one chosen from the Totem Class’s Totem Nature Power Words List, representing the animal form of your pet – and two others from the Totem Class’s Personal Power Words List. You can use each of these Core Power Words for free, once per Hero Phase, whenever your pet is present at a Crisis.

Whenever you pick a new Personal Power Word, you can instead choose a new Core Power Word for your pet, from the Totem Class’s Personal Power Words list.

Your pet’s Health and Might are equal to the Volume. Your pet’s approaches are all 1, except for one Approach of your choice that is a 4. Choose one Skill possessed by your pet and a Fighting Style. You can use that Skill or Fighting Style whenever your pet is present at a Crisis.

During any Hero Phase, either your hero can make a move or your pet can make a move – not both.

This is a Pet Ability.

(Likewise, you can only have one Pet Ability, so Kate can’t have a huge legion of super-pets that accompanies her.)

Okay! So this will be Lucky, the Pizza Dog.

• Name Lucky, the Pizza Dog
• Class Pet
• Health 1
• Might 1
• Approaches Action 1, Adventure 1, Detective 1, Mystery 1, Suspense 4 (as a dog who has had a hard life, he tends to be rather alert, thus Suspense)
• Core Power Words Dog, Smell, Hunger
• Fighting Style Non-Combatant You aren’t skilled at fighting, but somehow manage to avoid the worst of a fight. You can spend 1 Might or 1 Success from the Teamwork Pool to counter any Crisis Move affecting only you.
• Skills Lucky doesn’t seem to have any particular human skills. I’m going to go with: Explorer – it’s pretty common for animals to have. It lets Lucky find food to eat, essential skills for a(n urban) scavenger.

7. Power Words

7a. Core Power Words

Core Power Words are determined by your class. As a Knight, Kate’s core power words are:

• Core Power Words Prepared, Gambit

7b. Personal Power Words

Most heroes get 6 Personal Power Words, but Knights only get 5 – they’re more about their fighting skills and gadgets than about super-powers.

Personal Power Words for Knights are:

• Acrobat
• Aim
• Armor
• Fear
• Fearless
• Hidden
• Improvised
• Line
• Photographic
• Remove
• Ricochet
• Sense
• Shield
• Snare
• Throw
• Unerring
• Vehicle (specific)
• Weapon (specific)

I’m going to choose, uh … Aim, Fearless, Line, Unerring, and Weapon (bow).

7c. Nova Power Words

Kate’s Nova Power Words can only be used once she’s unlocked all of her ideals (which we’ll get to in a sec). Most Nova Power Words are actually a Nova Power Phrase, and it’s often a catchphrase (like It’s Clobberin’ Time!) or sobriquet (such as The Man of Tomorrow or The Man Without Fear or The Merc with a Mouth).

Kate doesn’t really have any of those, but looking at her marvel.fandom entry, I see there’s a quote we could use:

• Nova Power Words Being, a, super, hero, is, amazing.

Technically she doesn’t need “being”, “a”, or “is” – you can use those in a Power Display, Stunt, or Combo for free; it doesn’t cost any Might, but neither do they add any dice.

8. Ideals

Each hero is motivated by up to 5 different Ideals, which can be conflicting if you want them to. Once you’ve marked off all 5 of your hero’s ideals, you unlock their Core Power Words.

You can use your hero’s Ideals in a dice roll during a Crisis – you get to add 2 dice to a dice roll when you do! – or you can touch on your Ideals between Crises, with a Vignette between your hero and another hero, or your hero and an NPC who you request from the Editor (gamemaster).

Re-reading Kate’s marvel.fandom entry, I hit on these as Ideals for Kate Bishop:

• Ideals Blunt, Help, Independent, Legacy, Stubborn

(I highly recommend “Legacy” as an Ideal for any adapted character that is taking the name of a previous hero; it helps a lot with characterization related to the legacy of that name.)

9. Initial Storyline

When you create a CLotU hero, you describe a Storyline that you want to play out. For this, I’m going to choose:

• Storyline Kate meets her hero, and finds out he’s not quite what she expected.

Remember the old cliche, Never Meet Your Heroes!

Conclusion

Okay, so that’s a pretty good interpretation of Kate Bishop, at least the earlier one that we’re seeing the in the first season of the Hawkeye television show and her early appearances in Marvel comics!

(Since she doesn’t have any Abilities that increase her Health or Might, Kate just has the starting values of 10.)

• Name Hawkeye
• A.k.a. Kate Bishop
• Pronouns she/her
• Volume 1
• Class Knight
• Approaches Action 2, Adventure 4, Detective 1, Mystery 1, Suspense 2
• Health 10
• *Might 10
• Ideals Blunt, Help, Independent, Legacy, Stubborn
• Skills Criminal, Investigator, Performer (cello), Socialite, Spy
• Fighting Styles Acrobat, Sharpshooter
• Abilities Peak Human Potential (prime), Trick Arrows (Volume One), Pet (Lucky, the Pizza Dog: dog, smell, hunger; non-combatant; Explorer) (Volume One)
• Power Words
  • Core Power Words Gambit, Prepared
  • Personal Power Words Aim, Fearless, Line, Unerring, Weapon (bow)
  • Nova Power Words Being, a, super, hero, is, amazing.