Freedom Forces Howling Commandos: The Duke

REAL NAME: FRANKLIN JIMMY JAMES DUKES

CODENAME: THE DUKE

NICKNAMES: JUMBO. GIANTSIZED. GIANT. THE BLOB.

APPEARANCE

HEIGHT: 7 ft 6 in.

WEIGHT:  347.900812 kg (766.99 lbs).

POWERS

 SHOCK ABSORPTION: This Power allows Franklin to absorb the shock caused by physical blows.

ADIPOSE TISSUE MANIPULATION: This power allows Franklin to control the bodily fat/adipose tissue of himself and others, allowing him to freely alter and manipulate it, increasing and decreasing the amount, placement, type (white adipose tissue (WAT)/brown adipose tissue (BAT), energy storing efficiency, etc. As of current times, Franklin primarily uses this to freely manipulate his body fat to adhere to any objects that enter in contact with it, causing them to sink into his body afterward. It also provides a high degree of protection, making him very resistant to conventional forms of attack and grants him the ability to absorb the energy from enemies's attacks and release it in a single attack.

But it may also have other applications that he has not discovered yet, such as manipulating his body temperature by manipulating white adipose tissue, which helps to maintain body temperature via a similar process to Superhuman Thermoregulation, and Hormone Manipulation since white adipose tissue also has receptors for insulin, sex hormones, norepinephrine, and glucocorticoids.

SUPERHUMAN STRENGTH:  The power to reduce the production of functional myostatin, allowing muscles to grow more dense and tougher. Marked by great physical power, the user exerts a force from the muscles far beyond that of a human. In Franklin's case, it's possible that his body doesn't even produce, it, resulting in his large height and superhuman levels of strength, which also helps him to be able to move his gigantic body freely, along with granting him significantly stronger and denser bones resistant to age-related wear, a sort of anti-osteoporosis.

GRAVITATIONAL MASS ALLOCATION: Blob's main superhuman ability is to become virtually immovable at will as long as he was in contact with the ground. He does this by bonding himself to the earth beneath him by force of will, which in effect creates a mono-directional increase of gravity beneath him. This gravity field extends outwards in an eight foot field radius from his center of balance. Thus if there is sufficient power to uproot him, it would take the ground beneath his feet in an area corresponding to the radius of the field. Through intense concentration, the Blob is able to extend the gravity field beneath him even farther.

LEÓN GENETIC SEQUENCE (“LGS”): Grants an extended lifespan, albeit not to the extent of a healing factor power.

BIOGRAPHY

The son of Bobby Joe Dukes and Lillyana Mcpherson, he was a massive human being even as a baby, a clear chip off of his father with similar levels in appetite to his own before his body would properly adjust. As an infant the boy ate three large chickens a day and once old enough to walk their largest sheep for breakfast and lunch and a horse for dinner. As he grew up so did his appetites and Franklin took some big jobs to keep up with not only his own needs but those of his family.

Fortunately, the money he'd made from his time in the army during WW1 was able to hold things together. It got even better when he got his construction job.
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Now, mind you, in the 1920s, workplace injuries and deaths were common and, in many cases, labor conditions were nothing less than grueling. Movies played up unsafe conditions, including silent-film comedian Harold Lloyd’s iconic 1923 picture Safety Last!—where a worker is seen dangling perilously from the hands of a large clock near the top of a 12-story building. Government regulations were nearly nonexistent, workers’ compensation was still largely voluntary and labor unions hadn’t yet emerged as a significant force. “It was a different era with entirely different thinking,” says Tom Leamon, adjunct professor of occupational safety at the Harvard University School of Public Health.
Over the past century, changes in occupational safety have benefited society by radically reducing accidents and deaths. In 1913, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics documented approximately 23,000 industrial deaths among a workforce of 38 million—a rate of about 61 deaths per 100,000 workers. Although the reporting system has changed over the years, the figure dropped to 37 deaths per 100,000 workers by 1933 and 3.5 per 100,000 full-time-equivalent workers in 2010.

Attitudes about safety in factories and manufacturing plants have also changed fundamentally over the past century. In the 1920s, a general sentiment existed that injuries and deaths occurred mostly because workers were careless, says Patric McCon, industry practice leader for manufacturing in risk engineering at insurance company Zurich Services Corp. “There was a general perception that it wasn’t legitimate work if the job was completely safe.” Lost limbs in factories and large numbers of deaths in coal mines and construction jobs were the norm.

Leading up to the 1920s, the U.S. was among the most dangerous places to work. American workers were two to three times more likely to be injured or killed than their European counterparts. Consider: In West Virginia alone, 18 major accidents occurred in coal mines during the 1920s, according to the West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health Safety and Training. Two of these incidents resulted in approximately 200 deaths, and the total count for the period was 419. By contrast, only two incidents occurred from 2000 through 2009. These events resulted in 15 deaths. Meat packing plants, auto assembly lines, textile plants and others report a similar decline in injuries and deaths as a spate of safety measures have taken hold.
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Fortunately, due to his super strength and durability, Dukes was able to work without worry, even saving the lives of his fellow workers when things would go bad. This not only got him increased pay but he was able to juggle multiple jobs on site: He was the superintendent, bookkeeper, blacksmith, storekeeper, veterinarian, and, sometimes, the cook. Other valuable components to a successful construction company included: a corral full of horses, Number 3 and Number 5 plows, scrappers, a good cook, a large tent, pots and pans, and a collapsible dining table. His crews livedon the project site. Gloves, pants, shirts, socks and drawers were stocked at the contractor’s tent as well as Bull Durham, smoking tobacco, chewing tobacco and candy bars. Each man had a charge account with the contractors’ tent and was able to purchase these items from the contractor. The men were rugged, proud, independent, and accustomed to outdoor life. The men were paid $2.25 plus board per day, six days a week. Teamsters would harness the horses, hook them up to plows and scrapers, and be on the job by eight o’clock. They would “come in” at noon. If the job was some distance away, they would take an hour and a half at noon so the horses would have time to eat. At six o’clock, after nine hours of work, they would unharness the horses, feed them, and then have their own “supper”. At night one of them might bring out his harmonica or guitar and make some music. Some might read a magazine, or play cards for a while, then it was time for bed.

Even better, he was able to do the jobs of entire teams by himself, plowing land with his bare hands and rarely even considered a rest day. When he wasn't working construction, he was assisting other farmers with their lands for a fee.

Coupled with his own farming, he was able to keep his family supported very well despite Franklin's growing appetites.

When Franklin was old enough, he set out to get some work of his own under his father's guidance.
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The minimal role of child labor in the United States today is one of the more remarkable changes in the social and economic life of the nation over the last two centuries. In colonial America, child labor was not a subject of controversy. It was an integral part of the agricultural and handicraft economy. Children not only worked on the family farm but were often hired out to other farmers. Boys customarily began their apprenticeship in a trade between ages ten and fourteen. Both types of child labor declined in the early nineteenth century, but factory employment provided a new opportunity for children. Ultimately, young women and adult immigrants replaced these children in the textile industry, but child labor continued in other businesses. They could be paid lower wages, were more tractable and easily managed than adults, and were very difficult for unions to organize.
Did You Know?

In 1900, 18 percent of all American workers were under the age of 16.

The educational reformers of the mid-nineteenth century convinced many among the native-born population that primary school education was a necessity for both personal fulfillment and the advancement of the nation. This led several states to establish a minimum wage for labor and minimal requirements for school attendance. These laws had many loopholes, however, and were in place in only some states where they were laxly enforced. In addition, the influx of immigrants, beginning with the Irish in the 1840s and continuing after 1880 with groups from southern and eastern Europe, provided a new pool of child workers. Many of these immigrants came from a rural background, and they had much the same attitude toward child labor as Americans had in the eighteenth century.

The new supply of child workers was matched by a tremendous expansion of American industry in the last quarter of the nineteenth century that increased the jobs suitable for children. The two factors led to a rise in the percentage of children ten to fifteen years of age who were gainfully employed. Although the official figure of 1.75 million significantly understates the true number, it indicates that at least 18 percent of these children were employed in 1900. In southern cotton mills, 25 percent of the employees were below the age of fifteen, with half of these children below age twelve. In addition, the horrendous conditions of work for many child laborers brought the issue to public attention.

Determined efforts to regulate or eliminate child labor have been a feature of social reform in the United States since 1900. The leaders in this effort were the National Child Labor Committee, organized in 1904, and the many state child labor committees. These organizations, gradualist in philosophy and thus prepared to accept what was achievable even if not theoretically sufficient, employed flexible tactics and were able to withstand the frustration of defeats and slow progress. The committees pioneered the techniques of mass political action, including investigations by experts, the widespread use of photography to dramatize the poor conditions of children at work, pamphlets, leaflets, and mass mailings to reach the public, and sophisticated lobbying. Despite these activities, success depended heavily on the political climate in the nation as well as developments that reduced the need or desirability of child labor.

During the period from 1902 to 1915, child labor committees emphasized reform through state legislatures. Many laws restricting child labor were passed as part of the progressive reform movement of this period. But the gaps that remained, particularly in the southern states, led to a decision to work for a federal child labor law. Congress passed such laws in 1916 and 1918, but the Supreme Court declared them unconstitutional.

The opponents of child labor then sought a constitutional amendment authorizing federal child labor legislation. Congress passed such an amendment in 1924, but the conservative political climate of the 1920s, together with opposition from some church groups and farm organizations that feared a possible increase of federal power in areas related to children, prevented many states from ratifying it.

The Great Depression changed political attitudes in the United States significantly, and child labor reform benefited. Almost all of the codes developed under the National Industrial Recovery Act served to reduce child labor. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which for the first time set national minimum wage and maximum hour standards for workers in interstate commerce, also placed limitations on child labor. In effect, the employment of children under sixteen years of age was prohibited in manufacturing and mining.

This success arose not only from popular hostility to child labor, generated in no small measure by the long-term work of the child labor committees and the climate of reform in the New Deal period, but also from the desire of Americans in a period of high unemployment to open jobs held by children to adults.

Other factors also contributed in a major way to the decline of child labor. New types of machinery cut into the use of children in two ways. Many simple tasks done by children were mechanized, and semiskilled adults became necessary for the most efficient use of the equipment. In addition, jobs of all sorts increasingly required higher educational levels. The states responded by increasing the number of years of schooling required, lengthening the school year, and enforcing truancy laws more effectively. The need for education was so clear that Congress in 1949 amended the child labor law to include businesses not covered in 1938, principally commercial agriculture, transportation, communications, and public utilities.

Although child labor has been substantially eliminated, it still poses a problem in a few areas of the economy. Violations of the child labor laws continue among economically impoverished migrant agricultural workers. Employers in the garment industry in New York City have turned to the children of illegal immigrants in an effort to compete with imports from low-wage nations. The recent liberalization of the federal government’s rules concerning work done at home also increases the likelihood of illegal child labor. Finally, despite the existing laws limiting the number of hours of work for those still attending school, some children continue to labor an excessive number of hours or hold prohibited jobs. Effectiveness in enforcement varies from state to state. Clearly, the United States has not yet eliminated all the abuses and violations, but it has met the objective of the child labor reformers and determined by law and general practice that children shall not be full-time workers.
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Naturally the work was long and hard and quite miserable but Franklin was able to weather it easier since not a lot could really hurt him. He even made a few friends in the factory, most notably Gilmore Hodge who would become his best friend. Franklin defended the other kids at the factory and helped them with their work when he could. Initially he withstood the insults and shouting of the overseers and their attempts at abuse up until he finally grew fed up with them attacking Hodge and Franklin, not having any idea of what else to do, ran over and shoved the overseer and tossed him into a wall! The Overseer was knocked out cold. The others attacked him for misbehaving and attacking their boss and he panicked and defended himself under the cheering of the other kids. The grown men were being shoved around and overpowered by a large child!

With the overseers unconscious the kids ran wild and took off the weights and irons and took the food and water for themselves.

They ran all over town for awhile laughing and running and playing before being caught by the police, who were stunned silent, puzzled by the factory full of beaten overseers. The kids lied and said men broke in and attacked them and the police rolled with it. Who'd believe a kid beat them all up?

While eventually the factory opened back up, the overseers were forced to be a looooot nicer lets they anger Franklin again.

The kids even got paid!

While factory work was still dangerous, it was safer than it used to be now.

Once he was old enough, Franklin left the factory and bounced from job to job with Hodge at his side and they became a troublemaking duo who got into shenanigans together.

They eventually set up a scam where they'd bet a lot of money against men who would try to beat or even move Franklin! It worked like a charm. Every single time there would be strongmen who'd underestimate his size and shape and they would try and try but they couldn't hurt or move him at all and they were raking in cash even when they weren't at work. Eventually he moved up to wrestling dangerous animals, from out muscling bears, gorillas and even elephants. People would pay top dollar to see his raw power at work with Hodge working as his spokesperson. They were content with this, traveling the country and putting on a grand show with his super strength as Franklin set whole new records with his raw power, eventually moving into boxing which Franklin swiftly dominated to become the undisputed champion of boxing around the world....while all around them the world was starting to change.
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America officially only entered World War 2 two years into the war on December 8, 1941, when all but one member of Congress passed the motion one day after the attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Although America formally maintained neutrality up until that moment, the U.S. has long been involved in the war, providing support to the Allies. In the first two years of the war, America remained politically neutral, but president Franklin was working hard to prepare the Americans for what he regarded to be an inevitable conflict. He felt that the war was threatening U.S. security and tried to find ways to help the European Allies without being formally involved in the war. He persuaded Congress in November 1939 to repeal the arms embargos that were part of the neutrality law and pass the Fourth Neutrality Act, which allowed him to trade arms with countries whose defense he would seem to be vital to the security of the United States. The U.S. would also provide its air force and navy to “escort” British convoys that transported supplies “leased” from America to protect them from enemy submarines. The U.S. military was also deployed to replace British forces in Iceland after the British invasion there. In coordination with the Dutch and the British, the U.S. was running a very successful oil embargo against Japan. At that time the Japanese were advancing on China and French Indochina and, because they imported 90% of their oil, they became desperate. A lack of oil threatened to end all of their war efforts and as they were refusing America’s demands to stop fighting China, the Japanese decided that war with America was inevitable, their only hope was to attack first.

On December 7, 1941, just before 8 a.m. on that Sunday morning, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes descended on the Pearl Harbor Base, where they managed to destroy or damage nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight battleships, and over 300 airplanes. More than 2,400 Americans died in the attack, including civilians, and another 1,000 people were wounded. The day after the assault, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan.

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise, but Japan and the United States had been edging toward war for decades.

The United States was particularly unhappy with Japan’s increasingly belligerent attitude toward China. The Japanese government believed that the only way to solve its economic and demographic problems was to expand into its neighbor’s territory and take over its import market.

To this end, Japan declared war on China in 1937, resulting in the Nanking Massacre and other atrocities.

American officials responded to this aggression with a battery of economic sanctions and trade embargoes. They reasoned that without access to money and goods, and especially essential supplies like oil, Japan would have to rein in its expansionism.

Instead, the sanctions made the Japanese more determined to stand their ground. During months of negotiations between Tokyo and Washington, D.C., neither side would budge. It seemed that war was all but inevitable.

Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, is located near the center of the Pacific Ocean, roughly 2,000 miles from the U.S. mainland and about 4,000 miles from Japan.

Therefore, no one believed that the Japanese would start a war with an attack on the distant islands of Hawaii.

Additionally, American intelligence officials were confident that any Japanese attack would take place in one of the (relatively) nearby European colonies in the South Pacific: the Dutch East Indies, Singapore or Indochina.

Because American military leaders were not expecting an attack so close to home, the naval facilities at Pearl Harbor were relatively undefended. Almost the entire Pacific Fleet was moored around Ford Island in the harbor, and hundreds of airplanes were squeezed onto adjacent airfields.

To the Japanese, Pearl Harbor was an irresistibly easy target.

The Japanese plan was simple: Destroy the Pacific Fleet. That way, the Americans would not be able to fight back as Japan’s armed forces spread across the South Pacific. On December 7, after months of planning and practice, the Japanese launched their attack.

At about 8 a.m., Japanese planes filled the sky over Pearl Harbor. Bombs and bullets rained onto the vessels moored below. At 8:10, a 1,800-pound bomb smashed through the deck of the battleship USS Arizona and landed in her forward ammunition magazine. The ship exploded and sank with more than 1,000 men trapped inside.

Next, torpedoes pierced the shell of the battleship USS Oklahoma. With 400 sailors aboard, the Oklahoma lost her balance, rolled onto her side and slipped underwater.

Less than two hours later, the surprise attack was over, and every battleship in Pearl Harbor—USS Arizona, USS Oklahoma, USS California, USS West Virginia, USS Utah, USS Maryland, USS Pennsylvania, USS Tennessee and USS Nevada—had sustained significant damage. (All but USS Arizona and USS Utah were eventually salvaged and repaired.)
Impact of the Pearl Harbor Attack

In all, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor crippled or destroyed nearly 20 American ships and more than 300 airplanes. Dry docks and airfields were likewise destroyed. Most important, 2,403 sailors, soldiers and civilians were killed and about 1,000 people were wounded.

But the Japanese had failed to cripple the Pacific Fleet. By the 1940s, battleships were no longer the most important naval vessel: Aircraft carriers were, and as it happened, all of the Pacific Fleet’s carriers were away from the base on December 7. (Some had returned to the mainland and others were delivering planes to troops on Midway and Wake Islands.)

Moreover, the Pearl Harbor assault had left the base’s most vital onshore facilities—oil storage depots, repair shops, shipyards and submarine docks—intact. As a result, the U.S. Navy was able to rebound relatively quickly from the attack.
“A Date Which Will Live in Infamy”

President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress on December 8, the day after the crushing attack on Pearl Harbor.

“Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”

He went on to say, “No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. I believe I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make very certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again.”
America Enters World War II

After the Pearl Harbor attack, and for the first time during years of discussion and debate, the American people were united in their determination to go to war.

The Japanese had wanted to goad the United States into an agreement to lift the economic sanctions against them; instead, they had pushed their adversary into a global conflict that ultimately resulted in Japan’s first occupation by a foreign power.
Did You Know?

The single vote against Congress's declaration of war against Japan came from Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana. Rankin was a pacifist who had also voted against the American entrance into World War I. "As a woman," she said, "I can’t go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else."

On December 8, Congress approved Roosevelt’s declaration of war on Japan. Three days later, Japan’s allies Germany and Italy declared war against the United States.

For the second time, Congress reciprocated, declaring war on the European powers. More than two years after the start of World War II, the United States had entered the conflict.
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This attack not only woke up the nation but it also awoke a long sleeping sense of patriotisim in the two and they ceased their touring, boxing and schemes to join the army. While Hodge was able to pass the physicals no problem, Franklin's entrance took considerably longer because nobody knew what to think of him. He was a giant mountain of jelly with layers of oily rubbery skin. Not exactly the typical example of a soldier. Still, a letter of recommendation from his father and the stories of his super strength got him in and after being bounced between divisions he was eventually placed in the Strategic Scientific Reserve, a top-secret Allied war agency formed in 1940 to battle the Nazi special weapons division, HYDRA, in the hopes that they can figure him out, with Hodge listed as a potential candidate for Project Rebirth.