Let’s say we’re starting a brand new line of superhero comic books - Dope Comics - and we’re the stable of editors responsible for creating all the new characters, teams, organizations, etc. to populate said universe. As the OP for this thread, I claim the title of Editor In Chief and get the veto power over what becomes ‘canon.’
So, of course there are the obvious stock types that every universe seems to include. I’ll throw out the starting ideas, you come up with pitches for these characters.
We need:
A brooding, grim & gritty avenger character.
A patriotic character whose costume incorporates the American Flag.
A busty but tough-as-nails female character.
A super-speedster.
A super-strong guy.
A sorcerer superhero.
An ‘outcast’ hero.
A superhero team.
Now, let’s hear your pitches. If we fill these slots, I’ll throw out suggestions for more characters.
We need a character with a strong sense of “conscience” (social or moral) who’s role is to berate the other heroes for not acting like martyred saints, hinder any efforts at doing anything pragmatic that might keep people from getting killed, and make the reader feel vaguely bad about themselves.
Agent Washington, a secret agent (part of a super secret organization unknown even to the CIA and FBI that could also double as the superhero team) who dresses in jeans and a leather jacket who also wears a mask emblazoned with the US flag.
The mask is actually made of a special polymer that allows Washinton to change his appearance for super-secret undercover missions. He also carries twin guns he refers to as “Liberty” and “Justice”
The sorcerer superhero is Marshall Grant. Grant was hiking in Wales when he came across a mysterious cave that only appears for one night, every hundred years. Curious, he entered the cave, and found it was Merlin’s tomb. Exploring it, he found the Book of Merlin. He read it, and found that he had learned the mystic arts of wizardry. He enjoys these powers so long as he conforms to the Code of the Table Round: to protect the weak, to battle evil, to show mercy to those who ask, and to use his powers for the good of all mankind and not for selfish reasons.
With this knowledge, Grant has become the Blue Wizard, using his power to uphold the ideals of chivalry.
At least two hundred years old, he has been incorporating mechanical parts to replace limbs and organs as they failed since the Lincoln administration. Tireless, relentless and strong a a bull, his mission is to protect his descendants and try to restore pride in their heritage.
Recruited into the Intergalactic Gladiator Entertainment (formerly the Intergalactic Gladiator Federation until they lost the lawsuit to those damn space hippies) in order to save the Earth from a threat Humans may never know existed. Flying his space plane the Danger Sled and armed with his trusty blaster pistols Betsy and Winona, Jon the Intergalactic Gladiator fights to save his home planet with a quick quip and a lopsided grin.
Powers: The mutant ability to not be detected as a mutant by mechanical, psionic, or magical means; the ability to talk to dogs.
Team Identity:
Serious Threat Response - Investigate, Kill, Erase (STRIKE)
A covert unit with the USA Homeland Security department, tasked with dealing with threats which the government specifically DOESN’T want the public scared by (typically because they would distract from the “real” business of government).
The unit has existed since the end of WWI, but composition has changed over time. Current members have all been part of the team for at least several years (backstories and details of how they joined the team to be the subject of special issues - assuming the comics sell well enough).
Members:
The scout - Ghost - is literally a ghost. He is an invisible, insubstantial Roman Legionairre. He can appear in shadowy form, but can only manifest physically during moments of peak emotion.
The tech wiz - Ichiro - is a Japanese anime fan. He dreams of armoured powersuits and giant mecha, but he can’t get his designs to “scale up”. One of his best “gadget ranges” is a series of specialised miniature mecha each about one foot tall. He introduces geeky pop-culture references wherever possible.
The bruiser/tank - Thrug - is a former linebacker who took one too many doses of radioactive steroids. His powers are speed and strength, but neither to ridiculous levels. You could picture him smashing through a brick wall at a run or picking up a car without too much effort. Sports puns and metaphors make up most of his conversations.
The leader - Sarah “Longsight” Smith - has supernatural firearm skills. Ichiro, Ghost and Thrug compete for her attention, but she holds them at a professional distance.
Opponents:
Typically not supervillians. The storylines tend to focus around investigation of corporate wrongdoing and terrorist threats. The main villian is typically physically weak, although they will have plenty of supporting firepower to keep the team fit.
The Cobra. A former enforcer of an underworld kingpin (possible supervillain) who was hypnotized to brutally torture and maim those working against the kingpin. He was also loaned out to the highest bidder in murder for hire schemes.
One of these schemes involved one of the foremost hypnotists in the world (and the one who taught the kingpin everything he knows). He recognizes the mind tricks performed on The Cobra and frees him. Now, using some of the kingpin’s stolen wealth, he fights for others.
The Ideal: A mutant, she has the power to draw upon the collective power of humanity. Her power has reshaped her into an idealized woman ( thus she is, yes, busty ), hence her name. Drawing upon the collective strength of billions makes her physically very tough and strong, although these abilities weaken or vanish the farther she is from Earth. In all ways that she is not superhuman, she is at least peak human. She also possesses at least some access to humanity’s collective knowledge, a form of telepathy ( due to being linked to everyone ), and flight ( because flight is such a collective fantasy of humanity, plus it’s such a hero standard ).
Weaknesses: As mentioned, she loses power if she is shifted across space or dimension. Also; she is NOT superhumanly fast.
She also has trouble getting along with people; she really IS superior, and looks so goddess-perfect as to inspire either jealously or intimidation. Given that her ability is due to her drawing on everyone’s collective power, people close to her also can “feel” her presence. Besides giving her away, this increases the awe-and-jealously effect; people near her tend to feel either disgusting, weak and ugly ( she is the Ideal, she is better than them, and her psychic presence is constantly rubbing their face in that ), and either hate themselves for it, or become angry at her for making them feel like that even if she can’t help it. All together, this means she has very little ability to cooperate with others much less join a super group without destroying it. Angst fuel. And she’s tough as nails in part because she has to go it alone; she is idealized by, but mostly separate from humanity.
Outcast character: Judson Courthope was the sidekick of an unpowered urban vigilante who kicked him out when Jud suddenly developed superpowers after a minor cosmic event. Lost without guidance, he was soon tempted over to the dark side and fought as a bad guy for several years, until his former mentor died/disappeared under odd circumstances.
Claiming to have turned over a new leaf, he took the mocking name Turncoat and set about trying to redeem his name…though there are still a lot of questions about his past, and how well he has reformed…
Let’s add The Suit: A Hollywood movie mover & shaker type. Has the ability to insinuate himself into any evil super-villian entourage and then slowly change a good plan for world domination into a watered down, simplistic piece of crap that will fail right out of the starting gate.
Another idea for an “outcast hero” ( and it’s not like there can’t be more than one ).
Timeshift
Caught in the backwash of a failed experiment to view alternate timelines, Timeshift was granted superhuman powers. However, as a side effect he and all of his similarly affected alternate universe selves are constantly randomly drifting across the timelines, replacing each other. So, on an irregular basis, Timeline will suddenly slightly or greatly change in appearance, powers, and memories. Having him suddenly not know what the mission is can be awkward. As can having him suddenly turn into a recently killed corpse during a conversation. Or on rare occasions, a version of him that went villain or insane showing up.
So; he’s outcast for several reasons. Unreliability, because you can’t be sure if he’ll maintain the powers need to do the job, or even recall what the job is. And because he lives in a world full of people he never really gets the chance to know, and because no one really gets the chance to know any particular version of him. Plus, there’s always the chance of a villainous lunatic suddenly replacing him.
Advice–cap the max power level. Too much power kills the challenge factor.
Advice #2–Heroes are about helping people. People with faces. People with names. Will Eisner, in his Spirit series understood that. Marvel doesn’t. Local crime fighting, with an emotional connection to the victim, can be a lot more interesting than 2 hyperthyroidal goons slugging it out over nothing.
Outcast: Hadji Ali, an idiot savant brain-in-a-vat with a perfect memory. The name comes from a freakshow performer known as The Great Regurgitator. What Hadji regurgitates is information.
Hadji is fed enormous quantities of information daily thru an ultrabroadband connection to the optic and auditory processors. It cannot reason, solve problems beyond simple mathematics, or communicate original thoughts, but it can instantly retrieve and regurgitate anything submitted to it, from simple text or mathematical formulae to entire symphonies and motion pictures.
Neuro Tippy
A mutate with remarkable healing abilities, but who suffered from a severe congenital brain injury; a disability that has become a unique strength, as her damaged grey matter constantly rewires itself to adapt to changing situations, leading to a mercurial mind drawing on odd strengths (and drawbacks) of a constantly shifting neuropathology. She might gain the superhuman focus and dexterity of an autistic savant when working on a technical problem…or gain the eerie charm and charisma of a classic sociopath when dealing with a social context.
The side effects of her abilities can be as extreme as any strengths; her brain, for all it’s incredible adaptability, will never be “normal”…and neither will Tippy. She’s likely to manifest at least a couple of different personality disorders as the day goes on, as her brain valiantly juggles inadequate resources to keep itself running, often at the direct expense of other mental faculties. She’s been known to develop acalculia when deeply involved in verbal work…or go temporarily blind as her brain reroutes her visual cortex to other tasks that, technically, don’t require seeing.
Very much “on the outside, looking in,” Tippy’s a hard person to get to know…and she knows it, tragically well. To paraphrase a cruel old joke, “she may be crazy, but she’s not stupid.”
Note: Due to an editorial mandate, one of the few neurological or psychological conditions she never manifests is Dissosiative Identity/Multiple Personality Disorder.
How about rather than the quasi-fantasy level of power of a Flash or Quicksilver, we instead have someone who’s just a single order of magnitude past the human - like, run 100m in under 1 second, maybe dodge bullets he knows are coming, that sort of thing. Coupled with the same order of increase in stamina, so he can run a few (10-20) kms at that 360km/hour+ speed, but not keep it up for longer than a couple minutes. He’ll need a corresponding degree of endurance/damage resistance, too, to account for his bones not shattering/tendons snapping under the strain.
I’d favour an origin that’s Mad Science over Mystical or Alien. So: a failed Chinese super-soldier-suit experiment fuses an ordinary lab tech with the inner nanomaterial suit that was supposed to accelerate human reaction times to match those achievable by the mech suit. Escaping from the lab before his imminent vivisection, he easily manages to evade recapture and makes his way to the America his relatives live in. Of course, when he gets there, not only are both the US government and various other organisations out to recruit him, but his erstwhile nation will stop at little to get him back - to the extent of using local branches of the Triads etc. Things don’t go very well for his family, tied as they are to the Chinese community. So he has to leave and comes to Dopeville for a fresh start.
So - no cross-country trips at super-speed, no breaking the time barrier. But very, very useful against ordinary criminals or as part of a a team.
In the year 3400, Atlantis has risen again as a huge countrycorp called Atlantech, harvesting and reverse-engineering the ancient science of the island. Khel Drashaar, an experienced engineer and Tactical Science Specialist, was chosen to engage in a special experiment: he would be sent back in time in order to solidify their claim on certain patents, as well as to guide it through some early financial problems, and prepare the public to view the company favorably.
Appearing 50 years before the company’s founder was born, he was implanted with a vast array of technology, each coded with a timelock. Every year or so, new pieces of unknown science will wake up inside his body-even Khel isn’t sure what they put in him. His history files are blank until the founder’s birth. He must use these gifts to help people, to make sure they are primed for the young savant who will soon appear and change the world. He is a decent person, and he must present a clean image to the public, so he has taken on the identity of Wireless, a peerless “technical genius” and superhero.
