Roger Chillingworth (Hyper-Über-Proto Gerosha)

Roger Chillingworth is a supervillain in Dozerfleet Comics, a reinterpretation of the original character from Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. He is Hester's estranged husband.

Powers

 * Freezing
 * Ice manipulation
 * Thermal manipulation
 * Ice beam projection
 * Death touch - can chill someone both physically and in spirit, just by placing his hand on someone

Skills

 * General medicine
 * Able to use this as a cover
 * Alchemy

Weaknesses

 * Power backfire: The right trigger can cause his blasts to backfire on him, leading to him inflicting on himself the injuries he intends for others.
 * Hester's Locket is capable of causing this to happen, even robbing him of his powers for all future reference and amplifying his backfire with deadly results.

Equipment

 * Guidance gloves: To help better control his freezing touch. Chillingworth most embodies the Icy Finger's phrase of "The Finger...is chilling."  These gloves make it easier to direct.
 * A more high-tech form of these are later invented by Cold Digit Labs for use by Miles Charleston, ensuring that he can increase the range and power of his cold blasts several-fold.

Character bio
Corrupted by his newfound Marlquaanite powers, he sets out initially to search the Boston area for Miles Wealthington - who has a price put on his head by the Icy Finger. He also keeps half an eye open for John Domeck, not knowing John is in Lynn with Kicked Deer.

Roger capitalizes on the fact that the Shrouded Entity has been driven out of the forests outside Boston, as an opportunity to use the Entity's old lair to experiment with his own dark powers. He was given a third assignment to recover any Marlquaanite rubies he could find. However, he gets distracted by learning that his estranged wife had an affair.

He vows to find out who is responsible, and take revenge. As his suspicions grow that the town preacher Dimmesdale is responsible, he begins slowly poisoning and causing freezer burn damage to parts of Dimmesdale's body as a way to slowly torture the minister. Dimmesdale begins to suspect with time that Roger is poisoning him. When Dimmesdale decides to confess publicly, this makes Roger desperate. Roger tries to freeze Dimmesdale in public to show off how powerful he has become.

However, his execution of Dimmesdale is interrupted mid-blast when a panicking Hester inadvertently activates the Beamer's Ruby inside her necklace pendant, given to her by Miles. The beam reflects off the letter "A" carved into Dimmesdale's chest, robbing Roger of his Marlquaanite bond and causing his powers to backfire. Roger is soon shattered into a million chunks of frozen flesh.

Personality
While the original is a coldhearted man, very strict, and a bit cruel; this version plays up the cruel angle to the point of making him a sadistic creep.

This version is also a devout follower of Samuel Fortin's cult, combining the Marlquaan with dark arts. As his power grows to the point of being able to freeze objects solid, he loves to "chill the life" out of others. While not the only reason for the Icy Finger receiving its name, his alias of "Chillingworth" in separation from his original Prynne surname - and emphasis on death by freezing - help to cement Fortin giving the cult that specific name.

Far from the original's wanting to appear as a respectable physician to the townsfolk, this one has more of a "Devil in Plain Sight" aesthetic, with his tempting promises of better medicine to the town convincing townsfolk to ignore his creepy persona and voice.

Unlike the original, who uses psychological torments to push Dimmesdale into a confession, this one resorts to slowly poisoning the minister - both out of vengeance for suspected guilt in Pearl's existence as well as to eventually render the town devoid of a minister. With the hopes of replacing the local church entirely with the Icy Finger's more demonic beliefs.

This drives Pearl to be tormented in town not for being "merely unruly," but for beginning to sound like a conspiracy theorist; when she grows to suspect that all is not well with Roger's cyan-dressed friends whom "no one knows, nor dares ask about."

Trivia

 * In the Dozerfleet founder's old high school literature class artworks, Chillingworth was explicitly depicted to look like a Disney villain, as a stylistic and creative choice.


 * Roger's antics would later inspire Miles Charleston in the 21st century to poison the mother-daughter relationship of John's two biggest allies, hoping to cut off John ultimately from the museum that proved to be one of his greatest assets. Like the first Chillingworth, the second one eventually goes mad with power.