The Superhero Creators Covens

I didn't mean to kill it.

New idea: A science hero who received his powers as a result of being an unlucky, unwilling participant in the Philadelphia Experiment. I don't have any background for him other than that, as he'll be dead by the time of the story that I'm writing currently (which is about superheroes and can be read by following the link in my signature). The only name I have for him is Doc October. Despite evoking Doc Ock and not having any connection to the Philadelphia Experiment (save the fact that it happened in October), it's grown on me.

What're his powers? Can he turn invisible?

I was thinking more along the lines of teleportation (non-instantaneous and heavily affected by the movement and curvature of the Earth; good thing he's a genius), though invisibility would work too.

What do you guys think about superheroes using weapons? I'm considering giving one hero a pair of hook swords to compliment the fact that he use praying mantis-style kung fu. Meanwhile, another hero used to use a Scottish claymore, but gave it to a museum when she decided she didn't like killing people and she could just pound them into the dirt anyway.

Sounds good. Scottish claymores are underrepresented in superhero fiction.

Superheroes using weaponry is hardly unprecedented. In fact, because of the Merchandise-Driven nature of the business, tokusatsu heroes using weaponry is the rule instead of the exception.

Now then. Here's another character sketch of Cloaks and Daggers (the Vanguard story), based on an archetype we've all seen before countless times: the android trying to be human. Inspirations include Kikaider, Astro Boy, the Vision, Red Tornado, and Kamen Rider Double.

Somewhere beneath Oregon, a cadre of scientists and alchemists managed to do something incredible and immensely stupid. Namely, summon the raw forces of creation and destruction, which took the forms of two green and black whirlwinds. The only reason the entire universe was not shattered by their conflict was because of a side project of one of the scientists, an experimental android that possessed two separate computer systems, one controlling the left side of the body and the other controlling the right.

Since this project was so stupid and embarrassing, the scientist didn't activate it, and said entities of unbridled and mindless concept found their way into said android and animated it, curious of this "alien" world. Instead of breaking into two, the two forces became almost as one, creating an entirely new being, an Engine of opposite moralities, a fusion of good and evil, as said scientist proclaimed loudly in his silliness.

The android, having a burgeoning sense of literary appropriateness, took that name, and asked in return an answer to his question; namely, what was "good" and what was "evil".

Engine then proceeded to roam civilization, before being recruited by Byron and found by a much older empowered android who calls himself Ingin Unus, created in the eighteenth century by alchemists, who seeks to teach him how to play a song.

In character, Engine is the ever-curious child with the body of a super-robot, the intellect and knowledge of a philosopher, and the power of mutation and ruination sparking at his fingertips. He does whatever he wishes, trying to learn both the boundaries of social acceptability as well as personal responsibility.

edited 16th May '11 11:27:20 AM by Kraken

I generally refrain from giving superheroes weapons, unless they don't have powers or their powers aren't conducive to actual fighting. The hook swords guy uses them to increase his reach, which is useful as his nemesis favors a flying guillotine.

Can Engine be easily manipulated? Like, someone encouraging him to act one way or another under the pretext that it's socially acceptable?

He can and does. A large part of the story will involve him making many mistakes and trying to make up for it.

It seems that this particular group has died, then?

Ah well. I'll just hijack it to talk about my newest pet project, then. Namely, a new character development for Cloaks and Capes (yes, I changed the name again. Last time, I swear.)

Today, I'm going to tackle the Thief of Planes, the Corsair of the Wind, the WWII aviator-adventurer named Skyjack.

When you hear about aviation hijacking, you instantly think of the great tragedies of terrorists and fanatics, but long before such a concept was even considered, the Polishman Jakob Sikorsky made his heroic fare by stealing the aircraft of enemy pilots in Trojan-Horse plots whilst in the middle of dogfights. And then you think how someone survives that sort of thing without dying horribly. Thing is, Jakob didn't survive his first plane-stealing. Or his second. Or his third. Or his fourth, fifth, and so on.

Jakob still breathes and flies because every time he dies, he fights the very messenger of death itself for his right to another chance at life. Again and again and again. Each time a different battle, a different guise, a different arena. He's wrangled the Devil's own steel-hoofed herds, traded punches with the Shadowboxer, reaped wheat with a bony man in a black robe, and dueled quips with a teenaged goth girl. Life for Jakob is no longer a joy that it once was.

Gone is the sensualistic hedonist, replaced with a shell of a man who lives and seeks pleasure simply because of habit. Adventure, liquor, the pleasures of the flesh and the thrill of the hunt...all itches to be scratched and nothing more. The only sensation that feels the same as it did is flight and the thieving of vehicles. He is a smoker who 'lights-up' simply because he's been doing it for so long.

Only time will tell if any part of the man of honor and principle (skewed as it was) will resurface in the ensuing revelations.

Being a WWII ace pilot and having a very long and varied career in superheroics and weird adventures, Jakob is one of the best pilots in the world, able to think quickly and swiftly, and is able to pilot with ease anything from a Chinook to Da Vinci's tri-tank to a Baragorean shift-ship to a paddle-wheel migrate-steamer, and thus serves as the Shadow Team's troop lift and getaway driver.

edited 3rd Jun '11 7:39:10 PM by Kraken

I don't know if I've said this before, but I think all your characters are awesome.

And yeah, this thread died. There's a superhero thread in World Building, though. I haven't checked it out.

Blah blah blah, Cloaks and Capes, blah blah blah.

In this week's enchanting episode, we look at the more cosmic side of superhero comics (such as Green Lantern, Nova, etc.) and their representative, Marshal Matt Starwind.

Matthew Starwind was born in 1862, near Tombstone, Arizona. Matt lived as a delinquent to a small-time gangster before reforming and becoming a carpenter. Moving in his middle age to Tombstone for work, he was trampled by panicking horses set free shortly after the gunfight at O.K. Corral, and was spirited away to a distant planet, his life returned to him by the Peacemakers, beings of immense power who sought peace for all beings to thrive and grow. The Marshals enlisted his aid as their lawman of that corner of the universe, gave him a badge, put him on the payroll, and injected him with a wonder-serum that allowed him to bring his tattoos to life. Since then, Matt has lived for many years fighting the good fight, putting criminals in both mundane and intergalactic prisons, and fought alongside many heroes throughout his very long life.

At least, that's what he tells the world at large. The truth is, yes he was at the O.K. Corral. Yes, he did almost die. Yes, the Peacemakers did give him superpowers to enforce law and order. What he doesn't tell say is that he wasn't given a choice. The Marshals are a force of slave police, press-ganged into risking their lives for reasons not their own with no compensation whatsoever. As such, Matt would really like to be free, one way or another.

Years of service for the Peacemakers' agenda and the fear of being punished for dissension has left Matt with many emotional scars. Repression and false faces have taken its toll on his psyche. Where the world sees an friendly, patient and grandfatherly person, inside Matt hides his pain, rage, bitterness, and desire for liberty. Matt plays only convincing lip service to the ideals of justice and peace and mercy, but in his heart little else matters but his freedom.

Matt resembles a weather-beaten looking man of fifty-eight years, but is in reality much older. He possesses many tattoos which he obtained during his youth, having the power to animate them to do his bidding. For example, his revolver tattoo can shatter steel with a single shot, his stallion tattoo can gallop amongst the stars, his barbed wire tattoo can wrap opponents, and his hawk tattoo gives him eyes and ears in the air.

That. Is. Awesome!

^^ My first impulse is to ask whether you've seen Speed Grapher (the only other work I can think of that has that superpower.) That character got a lot of use out of a): a tattoo of a shield, and b): a tattoo of a giant spider (though I suppose the latter isn't very heroic.)

If I'm posting here, I might as well describe a character, so:

Nobody's quite sure who Knives used to be. She was living on the streets, no friends or family left, when a villain new to his powers used her as a test subject. He got into her head and peeled apart her mind, destroying everything that she was, turning her into a human weapon devoted both to bloodlust and to obeying his every command.

There were three things he didn't expect. The first was that she, and everyone else he shattered and remade, would acquire a power of her own. The second was that somewhere in her mind, she locked away her deepest self, where even he could never find it. And the third was that while she was bound to serve, she needn't serve him.

Knives is short and frail-looking, not a person one would expect to find fighting hand-to-hand. She only eats and bathes when ordered to, so she's thin and perpetually unkempt. She has little capacity left for thought, and simply obeys whatever individual she's chosen as her "boss." But when that boss tells her to fight, she seems a little taller, a little stronger—and her nails and teeth a little sharper . . .

(I'm working on my first story for this setting. I'll link it when I finish it.)

edited 24th Jun '11 9:14:35 PM by feotakahari

No, I haven't seen Speed Grapher.

Don't think it's my pot of tea. Anyway, good to see that there's still some spark of life in this old biddy.

I suppose it's not that good a show, but it is a good source of weird superpowers. A girl who can turn to diamond by eating diamonds, a guy who sprouts dental equipment from his back, a guy who gushes blood that can harden to slice people in half . . .

Thread Necromancy!

So is anyone still working on Superhero stories and comics? Do we have any new writers out there?

I have some ideas I think are cool. I just found this thread, I wish I had found it earlier. I'll probably post a few ideas when I have a bit more time.

I half-started a stick figure superhero comic after spending several gym classes making up characters with a friend. It was nearly entirely a joke, but I still love superheroes.

I called it The Adventures of Captain Corndog. Everything was hotdog-related in some way, except for Starling, a hero from a different city that would come and help out sometimes, and was treated rascistly because she didn't have a hotdog theme. Oh wait, and the police chief and deputy, who have normal names.

The first plot I came up with involved Miss Mustard, one of the sidekicks, turning evil and renaming herself The Pickle Princess and plotting to kill CC with the help of the corrupt mayor and a couple of supervillains, because her dad is Corndog's arch nemesis and she's just kind of tired of being a good guy, because Corndog and Ketchup Kid (the other sidekick) are pretty boring.

I make them, but dont make any media with them. But oh how the villains would tremble before Density Man. Who, somehow, exists alongside Mr. Captain Amazing on one end of the spectrum and Bike on the other. Bike needs sexual release to control her super berserker powers.

I once made up a superhero with my friend.

He was called Bibleman and he led the Bible Patrol.

He was a World War 2 soldier before he was exposed to God himself. He then modified his Thompson so it fired Bible passages and he just adventured around, killing Nazis.

He also had a tank called the Jesus Machine.

We were really bored.

I keep forgetting to post my ideas in this thread! I have such cool ideas and not enough time to do them justice right now. Hmm, who can I sum up quickly...

There's Paragon, an incredibly strong Flying Brick who tries very hard to be a pacifist. He mainly occupies himself rescuing people from natural disasters and sinking ships and so on, rather than bothering with fighting crime or stopping supervillains. Now, if he happens to witness someone having something terrible done to them, he will intervene, but only in a way that will not harm the attacker. (He's strong enough that it's easy for him to do that.) Because he's an all around good guy and rarely interferes with their plans, even the supervillains of this 'verse like him.

That exists:

Oh.

Shit.

Well, I didn't know.

edited 30th May '12 3:11:25 PM by Steventheman

I'm sure it was a cool idea Steven.

BTW guys, I've posted a whole bunch of stuff in the World Building Section. Just look for the Atom James' Legacy Mega-Thread. I'd post it all here, but I don't wanna take over the thread.

IDEA

A comic that focuses on a police force, composed of racial stereotypes, that is forced to deal with a superhero-like rouges gallery. They must use their wits, guns, skills, and guns to deal with the spandex wearing psychos that populate the city.