All-Purpose Superhero Fanfiction Thread

Well, IMO, only rarely does the dialogue in either of these two webcomics suffers from "bleh"-level lack-of-quality.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Tales Calculated to Drive you Batty.

.... Not bad.

Been working on a concept for a Wonder Woman expy — more specifically, an Alternate Universe version of Asuka from Evangelion^{summary of origin story} Pregnant Kyoko washes on the Amazons' magically-hidden island after being mortally wounded from a plane crash, Amazon queen finds her and pleas for divine intervention to save mother and child, Hera gives choice between her life or the unborn Asuka's, Kyoko chooses saving Asuka's life, Asuka's foetal form is transplanted by divine power to the Amazon queen's womb, Asuka ultimately becomes more or less like Wonder Woman with a headstrong Fiery Redhead personality and a much more diverse set of powers. — who derives her powers from practically every deity in the Olympian pantheon (think Classical Mythology + Lighter and Softer-style Pragmatic Adaptation + Adaptational Heroism to avoid certain Fridge Logic), and now I'm stuck on a few things:

1. What gifts/superpowers would Hera bestow? Right now, I only have "eternal youth" and "Protection of the sky" (basically minor Weather Manipulation where the probability of meteorological phenomena acting in her favor in dire situations is enhanced in inverse proportion to how much it would violate the natural laws of the universe; think of it as spending accumulated Karma Points as fuel to invoke Divine Intervention — no Karma Points left, no Divine Intervention beyond something like a precisely-aimed lightning strike on the threat under a stormy sky). ^note For the record, this Hera is one who shares pretty much all of Zeus's powers (including his Bolt of Divine Retribution) and is much of an Action Girl if not moreso than Athena and Artemis.

2. I'm wondering if I should give distinctive names for the "packs" of gifts/superpowers that several of the deities give to Wonder!Asuka, but just trying to do so for Aphrodite's gifts is giving me a headache. I mean, what single combined term would cover being extraordinarily beautiful, having instinctive Sex God skills, being able to enjoy sex better than any normal human (hey, it's Aphrodite!), and possessing Gender Bending Voluntary Shapeshifting?

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

So your Greek Mythology is something like "Hercules The Legendary Journeys style"? I can get behind that.

Though, I don't believe I've ever heard of Hera being an Action Girl....

For the Aphrodite powerset, um.... Amory, maybe? I mean, it kind of works as a go-between for Love and Lust, IINM....

Honestly, if you need good source material for what powers Gods bestow on their offspring, I'd look up Scion. There's a lot creative and fun powers that aren't common in superheroes.

Also, I think that in one of the previous Batman short fics, I think we're skipping the very important SCARFACE VS BATMAN.

My various fanfics.

Eh, not like that series, but you might be on the right track regarding the scale of change. Maybe. I never even heard of that show, to be honest.

Actually, I was thinking something more along the lines of naming Athena's gifts "Wisdom of Athena".

Then again, maybe I going about this the wrong way. Why tie myself to one word per deity? I'll think this over tomorrow when I'm fully awake.

edited 30th Oct '13 2:30:04 PM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Hercules was the most intentionally campy thing I've seen since the original Batman TV show. There was also Xena Warrior Princess, which was kind of the same thing, but slightly more serious.

Of course, don't you know anything about ALCHEMY?!- Twin clones of Ivan the Great

Say, how would you design Wonder Woman's outfit's color scheme if, instead of a US-American flag being used as the base, it was a modern German flag? Or alternatively, an Imperial German flag?

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Here's something I posted back in the general thread, but I'm putting it here as well.

My first and as of now, only( though I hope to change that in the future when I have the time) Fanfiction:

Superheroes, Fairy tales, and Halloween Night.

I came up with the idea years ago, before the DC reboot, and finally gave it a shot last year. Poor thing only has one review(or at least it did last time I checked).

So I'm hoping this will change that.

One Strip! One Strip!

After noticing a distinct lack of Ancient Egyptian-themed superhero(ine)s in already existing fiction, I've decided that I might have to create my own such superheroine for a crossover story that involves putting a few characters in the roles of certain superheroes — for example, Evangelion's Asuka as a Wonder Woman ersatz.

Any suggestions for an Ancient Egypt-themed superheroine?

edited 25th Nov '13 2:35:46 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Marq: Now presenting EVA UNIT 01's guide to creating a superhero series, mythology edition!

1: How "involved" is the heroine with his/her mythology of choice? Is the character in a modern setting that simply uses Ancient Egypt motifs out of personal preference? Or, like Wonder Woman, is the character's origin, characterization, etc. heavily entwined with the mythology?

2a: If you answered "yes" to the first question, then is the character a Badass Normal, a la Batman or the second Blue Beetle, or if not, then what sets the hero/ine apart from normals? Is it Powered Armor, or were they given superpowers through some sort of Applied Phlebotinum or Green Rocks?

2b: If you instead answered "yes" to the second part of (1), then most likely, your hero/ine requires a Patron Deity, as well as a Chief Antagonist Deity. Which Deity serves to fill either role is best determined by what kind of person the hero/ine is, and possibly how their powers function. If the hero/ine is motivated by vengeance, either personal vengeance or vengeance for others, a good potential Patron Deity might be Horus, and the Chief Antagonist Deity would almost by default fall to Set. If the character is more akin to The Cape, however, and is an example of Good Powers Good People, then one might instead turn to, I dunno, Hathor or potentially Isis. If the character is a Blood Knight, either by choice or because it's their fate, or they're a particularly dark Anti-Hero, well, Sekhmet won't likely turn down a servant who craves battle. If the character's powers generally involve life/death, the underworld, that sort of thing, then why not have them as an emissary of Anubis or Osiris?

3) After establishing the character's relation to their mythology, powerset, and relationship to the Deitic Pantheon, you now have a hero. However, your hero won't have much to do until you give him/her a Rogues Gallery, so now you need to cook up some villains. There are a lot of archetypes and clichés you can use as a starting point for some of your villains. Sooner or later, you'll need an Arch-Enemy, though your Chief Antagonistic Deity may already have that covered. It might also be interesting to have an Evil Counterpart or two. However, there is one absolutely important thing you must take into account: in a typical superhero story, there are more supervillains than there are superheroes. Consequently, it may not matter even if your hero is Captain Awesomesauce, The Ace and Showy Invincible Hero that everyone adores In-Universe and out, his enemies should be up to snuff to match him, in both characterization and in threat level.

4) Got your hero, got your villains, now you're almost there! Just one thing left to do sonny boy, and that's build yourself a plot! Early on, it may help to go with a more episodic flow initially, in order to find your groove and ease your readers into the setting. After you've got a few villains introduced and a decent supporting cast, that's the time when you start stepping up your game, steadily moving more toward ongoing storylines and plot arcs.

Anything else you need to know? I'm actually trying to work on an original superhero webcomic myself right now, so even though I'm in the planning stages and haven't done any real work on it yet, I've given the subject quite a bit of thought.

... Whoah, you've put a lot of thinking into this.

1. Yes, her origin/characterization is quite entwined with Egyptian mythology.

2. She'd be either a case of direct divine empowerment, or empowered via an Ancient Artifact whom Only the Chosen May Wield with ties to the Egytpian pantheon — the whole pantheon, that is (possibly barring a few exceptions).

What I am mostly concerned with and which your answer-post didn't address, however, is what set of powers to give her (or at least the general theme for the core powers), and what costume she'd wear.

... Oh, perhaps I should also clarify one important thing: The premise of the story is that it revolves around a Cast Herd of "superwomen" — superheroines (and perhaps temporary supervillainesses) who are to the average superheroine what Superman and Wonder Woman are to mortal men and women, i.e. as close to "perfection" as concievable, each in her own distinctive way, within my own intended concept for what traits a "superwoman" would have in-universe (which basically starts with either Amazonian Beauty or Statuesque Stunner as a base). And yes, there would be at least one "superman" superhero within the Cast Herd. Contact me via PM if you're interested in the whole outline, as it may go beyond the scope of this thread.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

90% of my waking hours are free time unless otherwise engaged. Hence, I do a lot of thinking.

First off, I'm rubbish on the visual artistic side of things, and suck at envisioning costumes of any sort. As for powers, that is pretty much entirely up to you. What powers do you feel would be appropriate for the character?

Ah yes, I forgot about your penchant for fanservice.

Is that '"superman" superhero' as in Flying Brick, as in Superpower Lottery, or as in The Messiah/The Paragon/The Cape? Flying Brick offers Black Adam as an example, btw.

And now we reach the point where my advice starts to grow thin, because my 'expertise' on the subject, such as it is, lies with more a conventional type of superhero story, akin to Spider-Man and such. Although there is one thing I'm proud of regarding my upcoming superhero story, and that is that Most Common Superpower is an Averted Trope. Then again, my artist tells me I need to think up more female characters than just the two or three I've got so far....

But yeah, I'll take the whole outline if you like.

Also, the EVA fanfic thread is calling to you, if you haven't checked it already.

Well, that's the thing: Unlike with Greco-Roman mythology, the Egyptian myths leave much to be desired in terms of inspirations for superpowerful heroes, in no small part due to the distinct lack of actual mortal or demigodly heroic figures in said myths. AFAIK, about the only things that anyone seems to think is appropiately Ancient Egyptian-themed superpowers are sorcery and necromancy. Heck, look at DC and Marvel: None of the few (Ancient) Egyptian supers that they have come up with have anything better than peripheral/remote connection to Ancient Egypt in terms of superpowers or appearance (barring one supervillain, and he's still quite uninspiring otherwise).

Is "fanservice" the new buzzword for "sex appeal-related Author Appeal"?

As in "Flying Brick who won the Superpower Lottery". (Of course, somone in the Cast Herd would also be The Paragon — or at least, trying to be one.)

As for Black Adam, see my point above about DC and Marvel's Ancient Egypt-related supers.

Right. I'll try to whip up a semi-summarized version of it later today and send it via e-mail (you have it publicly viewable on Ala Iridia, right?), since I've just realized that this site's PM system doesn't work well with extended conversations comprised of exchanging long messages.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Superman in Inaction Comics # 1.

No, but honestly? Realizing that was the base did kill some of my interest in the project.

But beyond that, though, powersets really should be something you come up with yourself. The best advice I can give is to start small, with only a few characters, and work them over 'til your satisfied before moving on to others.

It occurs to me that Egypt had, well, kind of a thing, about how the kings were pretty much gods as well, and the high priests were only a step or two down. So, perhaps your hero/ine has a Compelling Voice to reflect their divine/semidivine status/affiliation?

You mention that the story 'revolves around a group of superwomen'. Well, that's all well and good, but what do they do? Do they run around righting wrongs and punishing evil in the name of the gods? Is it some Slice of Life thing where the girls just sit around doing nothing in particular save looking pretty?

In the superhero thing I'm working on, Oliver Readman is a Teen Genius that believes in everybody, who grew up on superhero comics, living in what basically amounts to a Wretched Hive akin to Empire City, and was inspired by said comics to create a suit of Powered Armor (that borders on Mini-Mecha) to try and bring in the various supervillains - who've pretty much had the city by the sack for years. Said supervillains got their powers from the 'original' superhuman Genesis, who in turn got their powers due to genetic manipulation by Human Aliens.

I've got a Playing with Fire villain who's The Sociopath and disturbingly cool-headed for his powers; what basically amounts to a VERY bitter Dark Magical Girl whose power is somewhere between Master of Illusion and inflicting Interface Screw on people; a Wild Card Reality Warper who isn't as much a Game-Breaker as you'd think, since the concept behind me creating him was 'make a Reality Warper who isn't a frigging nutbar, and then nerf his powers until it's believable for him to actually be defeatable'; a true Game-Breaker villain who's basically what you'd get from crossing Superman's powers with Sephiroth's brain; and the aliens are actually refugees, since their homeworld was ravaged by warfare and pollution, and while most of them would prefer peaceful integration and immigration to Earth, they're cowards/civilians who can't stand against their Knight Templar of a leader whose goal is to conquer Earth, first by creating supervillains to cripple humanity's governments and infrastructures, and then appear to rush in out of nowhere to save the humans from said supervillains.

And now I need to get back to expanding the supporting cast.

It should be publicly viewable, yes. PM me your email so that I can find it if it gets flagged for spam?

edited 26th Nov '13 8:55:30 AM by EvaUnit01

How encouraging.

They're crimefighters, but most of them are doing so simply because their sense of justice and morality, however varied in detail it may be, dictates that that's what they should be doing with their superpowers (like, you know, most superheroes), not in the name of whatever gods they may or may not recognize/worship. That said, the story focus would be split between the crimefighting and their "off-duty" interactions, depending on whether there are any major threats going about.

Done.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

(This won't make a whole lotta sense if you don't remember Mask of the Phantasm and the animated episode The Last Laugh).

Holy crap, I... I actually got the joke. Something OM wrote, and I got the bloody joke. Just.... wow.

Were they Joker's Stands?

My various fanfics.

Explanation for those of us who are woefully disadvantaged in their DCAU lore?

edited 2nd Dec '13 7:57:11 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Those were robots the Joker either built or modified to kill Batman, and he showed them a damn sight more concern than he ever did to Harley.

Of course, don't you know anything about ALCHEMY?!- Twin clones of Ivan the Great

I can't find any pics for Hazel — though I did find a few mentions of her in what seem to be partial transcripts of Mask of the Phantasm dialogue.

edited 6th Dec '13 11:17:49 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

...Yeah, I'd forgotten that episode.