City of Heroes: Saga of the Reichsman

The Reichsman is an enigma. There probably hasn't ever been another character in City of Heroes history whose popularity was so disproportionate to his presence in the game. Game developer Joe 'Hero 1' Morrissey has received frequent requests for Reichsman's inclusion, and yet this (literally) ubervillain has never been mentioned in more than a few lines of text.

Joe even boggled that the players seem to want him so much: 'I checked up and as far as I can tell he's just a line or two on the website and the fact that one guy could have that much momentum behind him. We always get asked, "When are you going to bring this guy out?" It's so funny, because we always like, "Wow, really? Him? Okay."'

So who is this guy, and what's his appeal?

He's often mistaken for a Fifth Column villain, but like Tyrant he's actually an alternate version of Statesman, from a dimension in which the Nazis won World War II. This dimension used to be visitable by players, and even featured sinister militaristic Germanic-sounding voices echoing across the debris, before it was rejigged as the Council Empire.

Reichsman and his Amerika Corps tried to invade our dimension, but were beaten by the Freedom Phalanx. Currently, like many a good evil genius, he's frozen in suspended animation. To get specific, he's in the old Freedom Phalanx headquarters, which is under the bomb-ravaged streets of Boomtown.

Reichsman possibly captured the players' imagination because several years ago, then-developer Sean 'Manticore' Fish assured them he'd be appearing in the game, leading a reborn Fifth Column. This never happened, but Reichsman continues to be one of the most demanded features. This may be a case of wanting something because you were promised it, but it's also true that many players just plain love to beat up Nazis, and the biggest, baddest one of all simply hasn't shown up to the fight yet.

There aren't even any known models or images of the Reichsman. This fanart by uziel21, which we would love to claim was leaked concept art (it isn't!) draws on the themes of vampirism as well as an appropriate uniform and Tyrant-like armor. It remains to be seen whether the Reichsman will ever appear in the game, or whether he'll remain locked in his icy prison forever, breaking free only in the imagination of players.