Let's create a new superhero universe

I’m sure this has been suggested many times before in places, but how about Crimebusters?

There’s two leaders, one low-key and methodical, and one more outrageous and impulsive. The planner type is also a crack pilot (air, sea and land) and planner; the impulsive one is also a master of disguise (and wacky costumes). They’re assisted by a super-inventor (robots his specialty), a wise-cracking, up-for-anything can-do guy and a as-smart-and-capable-as-she-is-beautiful operative who’s specialty is crafting fool-the-eye illusions and forgery.

Together they take on crime, usually with Mission Impossible-style elaborate schemes, involving unique Rube Goldberg machines often taking advantage of little-known scientific facts, and random artifacts such as samurai swords, polished Greek shields, Chinese drums and Mentos. For some reason, ballistic gel and high explosive and/or black powder feature in nearly every issue. Names, facial hair and racial characteristics are carefully designed to as to avoid copyright, trademark, or libel issues.

Periapt - an astounding, enigma of a super heroine with a blank face and two ruby crystals for eyes, who has an assortment of mystical powers that enable her to shield innocents from danger, capture villains, and heal with but a touch of her hand. Seemingly invulnerable to all forms of damage, Periapt’s secret is that she is but a manifestation of the imagination of Sarah Saunders, an intelligent young woman whose mental powers first grew strength when she was made a quadriplegic after a brutal encounter with a criminal fleeing from the law.

Interesting, well I do have mulpitple teams, multiple worlds, systems, basically my own universe sort of speak but I primiraly focus my attention so far on one called Zorgian in the Universia system.

I have created a horendious ammount of characters alongside 7 books (one already completed the second is near halfway) I have no idea if it’d ever get anywhere :frowning: sadly but I had an idea well a trillion and one ideas.
But here is my team of super heroes known as The Enhancers- they’re famous for fighting against The Rising/Mimics Rising, The Mirror man alliance and thier allies/occasionaly enemies The Undergrounders of Neon City of Lights.

Isaac- Telepathy, Telekinesis, Mental blocking, Mental tracking via mind jumping.
Team leader, exceptional Psychic/Mental being and also capible of eventual soul projection.

Ebony- Fire creation from right hand, Ice creation form the left, Hand to Hand combat, Immunity to Sub-Zero and Extreme heat based temperatures. Second in charge and also her hair glows red/blue on opposite sides to her power emmitance from her hands everytime she activates her abilities.

Chloe- Kinetic channeling/hands, kinetic energy daggers from arms above hands.

Elizabeth- Light particle manipulation/radiation creation, power crossing.

Kyle- Pyrokinetic combustion of arms/emmitance. Also the brother of adopted Ebony.

James- Metallic outer skin/shell (perminantly and near indestructable) reflexes, stamina, speed, enhanced super human strength and the ability to absorb electricity to generate energy fields to move and throw objects/enemies. Kyles best friend/ebonys close friend.

Alec- Superhuman strength/able to press upto about 100tonnes. Physical resistence to long term damages/harm. except his non immunity to fire which causes him unpresidented agony. (reasosn unknwon as to why)

Lexi- Slight super human strength, flight and the ability to generate an inpenetrable golden glowing field of energy around her physical shape as long as she concentrates and holds her breath.

Sarah- Electricty creation/generation/manipulation/combustion. Can use her powers in her human and electrical form. She can also block some forms of mind powers if a forcefield strong enough is created. This is a very hard part of her abilities alongside a few others she never attains.

Lisa- The ability to heal anyone of any form of injury or wound regardless of its cause or nature. However the person has to be still alive or showing living vitals. She’s immnue to all and any known diseases and is obviously the team medic.

Lee- Mind Reading/Communication/Telepathy/ Mild defensive telekinesis. The youngest member of the team rolling in at only 16 years of age. He joined at only 11 when he first discovered his Mind reading. He likely won’t form any other Telepathic abilities but the Telekinesis is questionable.

The Enhancers are one of many teams, solos and beings across the globe and have had extensive allies come and go or keep perminant residence with them during their phases from the Original Enhancers to the Future and the Dark and Last versions. some of these characters/beings are the likes of, Jessica, Holoport, Phillipa, Syndra, Dashoir, Goldrush, War Warrior, Antonio, Estany, Ruby, Ashball and Xzena.

There have also with their not so friendly allies/villains and ultimate enemies been a few huge mentiones and formidable foes that have sometimes taken more than the or the entire team to defeat or at least try. Some honourable mentions are the likes of The Mirror Man, Warren Wake (aka) Mimicry, Mystic, Blaze, Tidal, Elda, Louis, Climax, Fusion, Dusk, Warp 32, Hypno Disc, The Divider, Byron, The Forest people (The Queen of natures settlment, Ozone, Vilepise, Nightstalker, Blindsight, The Hell Devil, Diamundas, Deepheat and Deepfreeze (brothers) and then there’s a couple of excelling god like and actual god biengs that deserve a mention and from other worlds most part except one who is and still is the first ever Zorgian born god type being and also a member The Enhancers (Sapphire) she is beyond powerful and infact so far known as the most powerful being in the universeand was capible of rpoducing small (car/bus sized) and controlled balck matter orbs and could control nature and the weather at the age of 6. She is capible of some incredbily intense abilites as she begins to age and at about 15 years old can easily use dimensional telepoertaion and universal abilites. other huge gods to mention are the likes of Aeron, Proton, Grey Lord, Grevioul, Greyvious, Synthius, Untamunga, Kelsona, Arbergus one of my personal faves that I plan to add in one of my (pray to god books) i’d love to do and a whoole laod more spin off beings.

This isn’t a list of charatcers from my plans it is a list of charatcers in connection and tied between and with the teams and alliances mentioned. Most part connected to The Enhancers.

Please feel free to admire what I hope to be good work to come i’m ever never endingly changing/re-arranging and double chekcing my characters for obvious reasons and self improvement.

I forgot to mention in a short that here are the others abilities.

Jessica-Empath/Empathic Magika, Angel based flight/energy wings.

Holoport- Ability to use memory or anything map or geographic based to generate a holographic replicate of any given place with instant teleportation to any location of himself and multiple beings. Imagine this guy owning Google maps.

Philippa- Nature/Weather control/Animal communication/ Life creation and can revive the deaths of small animals/plantation. has a stave to enhancer her powers. By far among gods.

Syndra- bodily flame combustion for supersonic flight/ariel evading.

Dashior- superhuman speed/hand to hand fighting skills.

Goldrush- Supersonic speeds of upto 1000MPH as we know of likely much more.

War Warriror- Flight, Solar finger blasts, Superhuman strength/agility.

Antonio- Technopath/Technology manipulation and transformation/internet genius.

Estany- Can increase or reduce temperature of sub-zero/solar levels. Can charge herself electrically knocking people out (like that of a mini living EMP)

Ruby- Empath/Empathic Charm/Touch sensitive memory erasion/imprinting/Dome shaped forcefield (short term)

Ashball- Magma/lava filled balls of ash generated from hands for means of intense attacking. Can detect volcanic activity from any given location which enhances his powers to better control.

Xzena- Telepathy/Telekinesis/Mental astral/soul projection/ Mental Blcoking/Sheilding/ Electricity balls from hands.

Only some bad/villians

Mirror Man- Mirrorshift speeds/Immortality due to reflection of attacks/Mental/Physical/Spiritual immunity/Telepathy/Cunning.

Warren Wake- Power mimicing/copycatting/ can biologically, genetically and organically copy and instantly learn the powers, traits and life of anybody ot thing via physical touch (he keeps the abilities perminently as well) however he only replicates/copies and stores them for himself but no one loses their abilities. He has Telepathy/Cunning/Physical/Mental/Spiritual immunity and Empathic charm/Shapeshifting.

Mystic- Telepathy/Holographic/Projectile Telekinesis/Telekinesis/Mental Illusions?Imprisoning/Tormenting/ Can block mentla tracking.

Blaze- Bodily flame combustion/anatomy flare emmitences.

Tidal- Can maniplulate/bend water at will/breath under water/aquatic communications.

Elda- Blizzard generation/ice daggers form hands/ Sub-Zero immunity/ Combat skills.

Louis- The ability to strengthen/weaken other psychic/mental based beings powers on any level (period).

Climax- Plasmic body appearance/regeneration via this form of any limb/part/ plasmic balasts/body blasts/ shape/size morphing.

Fusion- generates fusion based energy from within his bodies core before firing it from his hands/ can detect energy sources making him a handy gifted being detector/tracker.

Dusk- Nochternal invisibility/fear/illusion creations.

Warp-23- Military creeated robot capible of teleportation/some physical combat/lasers/technopathy/machinery and broad programmed knowledge (prototype).

Hypno Disc- Insane scientist/Zorgians inferior genius/ has a cybernetic/organic/power resistant exoskelital suit with shapeshifitng and morphing abilities/projectiles/ultimate intercommunication and much more. He can withstand series of attacks and is incredibly durable too depsite his complete physical ageing and near limitations. (Has even solod Warren once).

The Divider- Can divide himslef upto 7 times and is an incredbly practical genius too.

Byron- Yet another exceptional genius/electrician/mechanic/scientist/physisist/technocrat and also the owner of the pulsar blasting gloves.

I’m just popping in to mention that I don’t know who this Emperor Kronos guy is, and that he’s certainly not my Skald-esque evil overlord secret identity. I can’t rule out evil twin, though, since I can’t tell if he has a goatee.

The problem with Blue Wizards is that they show up for the team’s origin issue, but then they disappear into the wilderness and you don’t see hide nor hair of them every again.

I’ve always thought super speedsters were handled incorrectly in comics.

What I’d like to see is a super-speedster that could do things 10 times as fast as anyone else. Except that meant he literally went into a state where to him time goes at 1/10th the speed. To everyone else it looks like this guy is a super-speedster. To him he slows everything else down. And now suppose that this time-bending ability is the only ability, without the required secondary powers superheroes conveniently seem to have.

So sure, he can run at 50 miles an hour, but to him that’s like jogging at 5 mph. And it takes just as much effort to run that fast. So after running at full speed for a couple of minutes he’s out of breath. And he could accomplish a task ten times faster, but it still takes the same amount of time from his perspective. Other people see him accomplish tasks at super speed, to him it’s the same old boring slog.

Iron Wrist the Ironist.

“I have a gift. I iron really really well.”

Jam Jar Joe, who is a brain in an actual jam jar. Which still has jam in it.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ALERT! You can’t call it a “superhero” book - that’s a registered trademark The “Superhero” Trademark: how the name of a genre came to be owned by DC and Marvel, and how they enforce it - World Comic Book Review

Perhaps a mysteryman titl… hmm, or a metahuma… umm. Or a title with characters who have Powers… oh.

A catastrophic accident with a temporal transmitter and a copy of The Oxford Book of Irish Literature causes the creation of Wilde Stab, Fatal Shaw and ReJoyce. Oh, and Synge, who sets fire to stuff. Together, they are The Craic Of Doom.

I think a good super hero book needs a fan character:
Ned Nebbish: An average comic book fan who gains electro-magnetic powers. Using his brains he thinks of new and innovative ways to use his powers. He is THE SPARK. He’s super excited when he’s asked to join “The Team”. Perhaps his idealism helps reinvigorate a group that has lost it’s purpose. On the humor side his fan boy eagerness sometimes creates awkward moments.

Heh. If you want a nebbishy comic-book fanboy character, how about making him the one who gets precognitive glimpses of the future?

That way, he gets to excitedly deliver exposition to the heroes – but, see, he’s not some thunderbolt-tossing super in ensuing fight scenes; he’s still just an everyman, with no real combat skills. (And if you like, feel free to have him be kind of a selfish dick about it: hey, we’re all totally supposed to hang out at Comic-Con!)

To borrow from City of Heroes you need to cover the main origin types:

A Character based on Magic.
A Character whose powers are linked to technology they found or developed.
A Character who’s a science experiment gone wrong.
A Character who has no powers.
A Character whose powers are inherent to them (an Alien for example).

I think Mutants are too linked to the X Men so you can leave those out.

There should also be the hero that used to be a villain and the villain that used to be a hero.

One big choice: fictional cities or only real ones?

For the ‘sorceror’ superhero, I’d like to see a guy with mind-control powers that only work on visual clichés. Is he just standing there, wearing a t-shirt and jeans, telling you stuff? Yeah, that’s – not great; he needs a running start. But if he’s clad in a tuxedo and he’s doing sleight-of-hand flourishes with his wand and top hat? Yeah, that’ll get the message across – and so he can now do some minor feats of hypnotic illusion-casting, solely by dint of you realizing what he’s going for.

Though he’s probably going to need a cumbersome blue robe with big gold stars on it, plus maybe a pointy ‘wizard’ hat to match, for major stuff.

Now, against folks who don’t share our cultural references, he’ll have to figure out what they think, and rely on skill; figure he’s a quick-change artist, great with makeup and disguise – because, well, he pretty much has to be. And if they’re facing a bona fide supervillain with actual powers – well, he’d maybe be well-advised to mundanely impersonate that guy, for to apparently duplicate his abilities.

(Is there an Amazon princess with a magic lasso, doing her thing covertly? He’d urge her to go public – and to become as famous as possible! – you know, just so he can keep a Day-Glo rope on hand, for use as a suggestive prop.)

I think the superhero team should focus on actual villains and possibly natural disasters. One trope that seems to occur in a lot of superhero universes that I don’t like is when they make the US government, US military, or UN the bad guys that are trying to reign in the superheroes because “they represent a great threat.” We should stick to actual villains and not make humans in general the bad guys.