Hello,
I wanted to share this with you guys because it's something I've wanted to do for a long time and generally speaking, it's the "big one" in my lifetime goals. I shared this in other places and I thought I'd share here as it seemed appropriate. I have a name for it, but I'm not going to share that yet because I haven't trademarked it.
Also, as the title says, I want to create an original superhero shared universe. The reason for that being that I don't there's enough new ideas for superheroes outside Marvel/DC in this day and age in general, which is a shame since superheroes are more popular than ever, and I look back at the decades past which introduced many universes like Valiant, WildStorm, Milestone, Ultraverse, and others.
For this, my main selling points are:
- More mature content. I feel like many of today's comics are too safe and inoffensive at times. The universe I'm planning is not dark age, but properly mature storytelling. I look to Vertigo, Image, WildStorm, Valiant, many X-Men, Teen Titans, Batman stories, and others before the '10s as a blueprint.
- Focus on world building and continuity. I don't want things to be disconnected or feel haphazard. What happens in one book can affect the other, and everything should flow naturally no matter how different the elements are.
- No ironclad status quo. Death is permanent, characters change, retcons don't happen, any event that affects the world will stay that way, and nothing returns to normal so easily.
- No comic book time. There's a natural flow of time, characters age, and there are time skips at certain points.
- Alternate history. In a manner similar to games like City of Titans, and by extension City of Heroes, the universe has an alternate history where superheroes have changed the way of the worlds' development.
I'm not starting it right now, as I'm still working a part-time job and I'm going to go to college. And it ain't easy in Seattle. But the plan is to make this happen in the future. I've gotten a pretty large cast of characters so far numbering in the hundreds (though unfortunately I wasn't forward thinking enough to keep a lore bible and am paying for it by how hard it is to write everything down now...) and I hope to be able to speak with other writers and artists about it in the future. I also have to get my name out there as a writer, as it would give more more of a resume to make this happen and get noticed for it.
In any case, what do you think of this idea?
I take umbrage with the sentiment that comics are too inoffensive now. They made Captain America a Nazi.
Also have you seen the amount of need rage that gets generated when they change pretty much anything in comics? Safe and inoffensive indeed.
"Let the past die. Kill it if you have to."
That was in the wrong direction and done for the sake of shock value to produce sales.
Comics don't really need to be offensive. You can tackle touchy subjects without being offensive.
"Let the past die. Kill it if you have to."
I didn’t mean being non-PC or like Deadpool. I mean like with properly mature storytelling. For example, Teen Titans at their peak had many dark elements and stories, yet that stuff is almost completely absent now.
They literally had an event in the new 52 that had the teen titans involved in some kind of Hunger Games/Battle Royale thing, complete with murder, for super powered kids.
I don't think not being dark enough is their problem.
"Let the past die. Kill it if you have to."
There’s a difference between dark and mature. It’s a fine line. And using the New 52 example of them doesn’t really do TT justice considering that run is one most would like to forget.
Now can we please talk about other aspects? I don’t want to debate about the difference between dark and make sure because I’d imagine most know it. It’s also pretty well known that many of today’s superhero comics lack that.
When I think of mature storytelling, I think of stuff like this which was groundbreaking at the time:
[img]https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/marvel_dc/images/d/d1/Green_Lantern_Vol_2_85.jpg[/img]
As opposed to comics with gory deaths and nudity. That’s a different kind of “mature”.
Like I said, touchy subjects can be tackled without it being offensive.
"Let the past die. Kill it if you have to."
And this topic has been derailed. I just wanted to put elements that aren’t for kids, not for shock value but to make a genuinely mature superhero universe.
My point was that having mature subjects could definitely be a good thing and I think your idea is very worthy.
Well that’s good.
Well for starters, I'd suggest learning to balance light and dark elements, since this is for adults more for kids however, I'd start working on more adult humour, just because something's light doesn't mean it's only for kids after all. Next think about themes, and how to present your first superhero, I'd make him or her someone more mature but a little to serious, maybe have him dealing with something that adult audiences could relate to, maybe he just got fired, or if he's a she you could deal with things that women have to deal with today, like you can have it where she it's clear that she has a lot of guy friends who aren't interested in just her body, but after she gets a high ranking job, she finds out that they only hired her so they can pay her less and that she can't really do anything about it unless they wrote it down somewhere, something like that, then start off with a rogue, not a villain, a rogue there's a difference. Rogue's are more like Catwoman, or the recent run of Kiteman. They're meant to be smack dab in the middle of antagonist and ally, the story's frenemy if you will, make him funny and sympathetic, give him a more grounded reason why he's in crime in the first place that reflects why good men today turn bad, maybe he lost himself in a drug addiction, maybe he's brain damaged, maybe he was forced into it by another villain, and that villain made it look like it was his idea in the first place, ruining his life to the point where he can't get a job because of his criminal record. For the first arc have them get arrested by the hero/heroine, then on the way to the police station they get ambushed by the real villain, seems the rogue stole a macguffin that the villain needs, now the villain, I'd make him funny, but funny like an aristocrats joke. This guy practically breaths cruelty and black comedy alright? He snorted a whole bag of the stuff and he is raring to fuck shit up, then show real consequences from his appearance, police and civilians die, the hero gets crippled and it forces both of them to run. The story then focuses on them reacting to the power of this guy, and how they can possibly defeat someone like this, some emotional moments later, with the villain showing up now and again, it's revealed what drove the rogue to his life of crime, big emotional moment and then it get's revealed that he stole the macguffin and has been hiding it on his person because he doesn't want the villain hurting anyone. Then they get a plan, something like batman would have, one based around adaptability and preparation and all that good stuff, but something goes wrong, the rogue gets crippled, treat this like a big moment, the villain jut broke this guys leg and is now trying to torture him to death, the hero's beserk button gets pushed and this is it, the knight fighting the dragon, the lone gunman fighting a town run over by bandits, the lone soldier against a horde of Vietcong, they fight the hero uses every tactic he can get his hands on, hitting every weak spot he can find and every dirty trick in the book, he wins, but at a great cost, he's wounded, his new found ally is wounded, they both survive but at a cost, the villain is deafeated, he's arrested and put in the deepest darkest cell you can imagine that been equipped to cancel out his powers.
not my video just one I lke ===> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6-SdIN0hsM
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I'd also look into the invincible comic series, it uses a lot of the great things about comics but for an adult audience.
not my video just one I lke ===> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6-SdIN0hsM
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[youtube]TyyE8c27-9Y[/youtube]
And here's a video about the type of villain that can help with a fantasy setting, a 2 dimensional one that serves more as a giant monolith for characters to bounce off of. Just understand, that while other characters are based around character development, these guys are based more around personality moments that show off their crazed or cruel nature in interesting ways.
not my video just one I lke ===> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6-SdIN0hsM
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have fun :]
not my video just one I lke ===> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6-SdIN0hsM
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Oh almost forgot, one of the important things about a superhero setting is to make it feel different than our own. If you looks into the DC universe they do this in an interesting way, they make the cities feel like a mix of different cultures from different eras, for example, Gotham is a city where people dress like they're in the 30's yet have modern day technology, and they're city combined 1930's era sky scrapers with 1800's era gothic architecture. tall building Elizabethan era window patterns and gargoyles as far as the eye can see, makes the world feels like it's own thing.
not my video just one I lke ===> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6-SdIN0hsM
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Your idea seems fine and has merit, but I have my own canon in my headspace concerning my characters that I don't like to mix with other people's ideas. Just personal preference, that's all. Keep us posted on the status of your endeavor.
Invincible is so good.
"Let the past die. Kill it if you have to."
I know right?
not my video just one I lke ===> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6-SdIN0hsM
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What do you mean by not 'enough new ideas'? [i]My Hero Academia[/i] is getting pretty big, it's really exploded since it started in 2014. I'd say something like [i]Ben 10[/i] is broadly superhero stuff, that's been big for over a decade now. That's just... literally stuff I've seen in the past 24 hours, with top tier commercial success. If we're talking lower tier success, there's published novels, books, about superhero stuff, precisely because the superhero genre is experiencing a revival... [i]Soon I Will Be Invincible[/i], [i]Wearing The Cape[/i], [i]Don't Tell My Parents I'm A Supervillain[/i], [i]The Reckoners[/i] and any number of other superhero books. And if it's just online fame and not commercial at all, there's things like [i]Worm[/i].
Now, if your measure is... there's not much out there which is achieving the kind of universal brand recognition and franchise success as DC and Marvel? Absolutely, sure. There isn't anything else on the level of DC and Marvel. But that's hardly surprising, because they've got decades of market saturation behind them.
But does something need to have that level of recognition to be worthwhile? I'm a huge fan of Kurt Busiek's [i]Astro City[/i], and he's damn well been putting out those comics since 1995. Obviously this is only possible because he's already a big-name comic writer, but still, Astro City is clearly his [i]thing[/i], and Astro City's... arguably, primarily a world or universe, not a fixed cast. I mean, occasionally we get talk of more stuff being done on Astro City, and this year there was news that someone's working on a TV series. I really hope that TV series takes off, I'd watch the shit out of it to support Busiek. But even if it doesn't, even if it remains a comic and just a comic forever, is that bad? Is that enough?
Which brings me to the next question:
Looking beyond your development stages, what do you hope to produce in the near term? You've said to get your name out there as a writer. Are you going to try and publish? If so, what? Sell short stories, get those into the market? Try self-publishing a novel? Are you writing regularly right now? What's the game plan?
This isn't meant to be discouraging or accusatory, now that I've just typed it I realise it could be read that way. It's meant to be encouragement. See, I've been trying to practice my own creative writing, and I need to training montage my dusty art skills as well, precisely to get off my ass and actually [i]make[/i] something of my ideas.
All writers have to start somewhere. Hell, Alan Moore was a nobody outside the UK before his legendary run on Swamp Thing. In the best case, I'm hoping to write stories set in this universe, post them online to build a following, get funded through Kickstarter, build rep, maybe get published by non-Big Two publishers that will own my work, and then try to transition into business. I know comic book companies look for writers all the time in all areas, the trick is that you have to get [i]noticed[/i]. Yes, it's daunting but right now I have all the time in the world.
So, that's basically it. I need to work my lore bible and planned story arcs, which isn't easy and I regret not doing it sooner, but I'm sure my universe will all the better for it.
I enjoy watching Hero Academia (daughter loves it too) I have to say, I don't 100% like their universe. :p I just find some of the powers dumb.
However, going by how they seem to do their universe, I did figure out how to easily translate my main into that universe with just one power :)
Definitely.
On a micro level, then - what's your writing and development process, then? I'm genuinely curious here. On my part, I've found that, in the end, working in something like Google docs is immensely helpful for me, for cloud sync across devices. I've ended up doing a surprising amount of writing and development on my phone. How do you write, and how do you curate your lore bible?
What process do you have for live feedback? I'd been reluctant to go down the route before, but after seeing other people leverage fanfic writing as a stepping stone for professional stuff... I've been posting fanfiction since earlier this year. It's worked out for me. I mean, I can't own any of it, but it gets me useful feedback, lets me know what bits of my writing style work for people, and which don't. It's good practice and, uh, market research or product testing, in the end.
What topics do you research? For worldbuilding, I've always recalled the old line from Terry Pratchett that, if you're designing a fantasy city, the first thing to do is figure out how food and clean water gets in, and how the sewage gets out (or, in the case of Ankh-Morpork, how it doesn't get out). I think I've always been [i]awful[/i] at doing that kind of research and development in an organised way, but... I've found just sitting down to write helps. Because that's when stuff comes up in real time, and then I need to stop halfway through a chapter to furiously google about tobacco cultivation. What's your process?
I like the fact there [i]are[/i] "dumb" characters and powers in MHA, because there's something great about a setting and series that can do really silly gags and [i]still[/i] pull off some serious storytelling, with very nuanced examination of ideas and concepts.
"I make scotch tape from my elbows" just makes me sad :p
I'm rather ashamed to admit that I've been keeping a lot of it in my head, not something I'd recommend. I've been using Google Docs more myself, but the lore bible is a work in progress. I'm starting to write character bios, storylines, events and the like, but I'm still having to get into the habit of doing that. It'll definitely help though, because when I've written scripts I've had the issue of forgetting things or not planning for something to come up and being stumped, or having to create a character out of nowhere because I didn't have anyone filling the particular role. If I gave it in one place, I can have a well to draw from.
As for feedback, I have some good friends who I show my ideas to, and they tell me what works and what needs to be improved.
And for research, I've been reading a lot of comics and looking up historical events. I'm trying to absorb the full spectrum of the comic book medium, as well as history in general, to get an idea of the world I want to create. I've also put myself in the head of someone writing a world where superheroes exist, and have for a long time, and the world has adapted to them. To that end, City of Titans has been massively helpful because it paints a good picture and is a source to draw from. I have historical events that happened in my setting that involve alien invasions, alternate dimensions, demonic beings and more. It's not just something that's forgotten on an issue-to-issue basis, but is actually ingrained in the world's history.
I'm kind of aiming for something similar to Valiant, a superhero universe that was intended to be shared from the beginning. While many superhero worlds are fantasy kitchen sink, what if that factor has actually affected the world? One of my complaints with Marvel/DC is that all the fantastic is treated as separate from the mundane. Again, City of Titans has been very helpful in that it the fantastic is integrated into the lore so heavily that it makes it truly unique and feel whole. If this takes off, I'll be happy to cite CoT as one of the influences on my worldbuilding.
I'm not sure that's a [i]bad[/i] thing, though, because... well, for me personally, it's [i]when[/i] I hit gaps that I [i]know[/i] I need to invent something. Creating a character just for a slot isn't a bad thing, it's only bad if you don't [i]backfill[/i] that character's place, and subsequently consider implications of said character existing. The way I handle it, myself, if I need to invent someone off the cuff, I will, but... if a character has a major speaking role, then they [i]shouldn't[/i] be a one-off, and once they exist, I try to use them again later down the line.
This is a massive challenge, I think. Because most fictional worlds don't really manage to show the impact of superheroes on the setting. There are some exceptions, e.g. Alan Moore's Watchmen, they have electric cars because Dr. Manhattan can transmute elements for batteries easily, and pirate comics are popular in the Watchmen-verse rather than superheroes. But you just... don't really SEE that being handled a lot. Most of the good examples I can think of for this aren't mainstream DC or Marvel.
Actually, the best worldbuilding I've seen in this regard is by Dave Van Domelen, who's part of the City of Titans team and does writing for the Hijinx official CoT comic. He has his own shared original fiction universe - https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/ASH/
ASH is hands-down the best writing I've seen for extrapolating the long-term impact of superhumans on society in a really huge way. I mean, yeah, it's just a little web fiction thing, but seriously. And, well, one of Van Domelen's ASH collaborators [i]is[/i] an award-winning professional author now, so...
Well Watchmen is capepunk, not necessarily a superhero comic. It's meant to deconstruct superheroes, not play it straight.
not my video just one I lke ===> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6-SdIN0hsM
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That's cool, I'll check it out. I'd love to check out more original superhero universes that don't have ironclad status quos to adhere to so I'm open to suggestions. I mean, against my expectations I checked out the new Chad Bowers/Jim Towe Youngblood: Reborn! comic and it actually got the worldbuilding part down by showing the effects of superheroes on the modern world where an app called "Help!" exists to call nearby superheroes when needed, where supers are rated by their performance (like deducting stars for blowing up the store they were supposed to protect). Basically a fantastic Uber/Yelp that would exist in our world if supers were a thing.
It also highlights the returning characters as being older, washed up, disgruntled has-beens while taking the out of universe scorn for Youngblood and applying it in-universe, while critiquing the '90s era they were born in as a regrettable time by all, including the former members. The new Youngblood team that's formed tries to be a redeeming replacement to the old one. The genre could be referred to as "post-capepunk".
If it wasn't already clear, this is basically them admitting the original Youngblood comics were terrible and now they're setting out to make it better. Then again, I've heard a statement that's rung true: "Any Liefeld comic can be good when it's not written by Liefeld".
It's almost as if liefeld has some good ideas sometimes but sucks as a writer and artist.
"Let the past die. Kill it if you have to."
I love Cable in the DP2 movie.
I never cared for him when he was introduced. To me he was the pinnacle of over-the-top 90s comic book heroes. When people talk about the 90s style he just instantly pops in my head. And not for a good reason.
But I really liked the Josh Brolin version. And I heard he was good teamed up with Deadpool in the comics. So I think there’s a lot to the idea that Liefeld’s characters just need someone else to do them.
It’s like George Lucas. His best Star Wars films weren’t screenwritten or directed by him (thank you Irvin Kershner and others for ESB). When he had pretty much 100% control and everybody just said “yes” to him you got Jar Jar Binks.
Yeah, Binks was a pretty bad for the main character of Phantom Menace. But he is far from the worst thing in those three movies.
"Let the past die. Kill it if you have to."
Yeah. The worst thing in the Prequels was Jake's acting and Natalie's acting, when she acted with him. :p
I've read where Natalie Portman claims that the Star Wars movies nearly ruined her acting career. At first the notion of that seemed preposterous - how could being in what's arguably one of the movie industry's biggest franchises "ruin" someone's career? But the more I thought about it the more I started to agree with her. Her portrayal of Padme is easily the "worse" acting role of hers I can think of and I lay the entire blame for that at Lucas' feet.
To me George Lucas is sort of like the Wright brothers. Like Orville and Wilbur with the airplane George will always go down in history for creating a very incredible thing. But also like Orville and Wilbur once they created that very incredible thing they never really managed to [b][i]improve[/i][/b] on the original and basically needed OTHER people to come in and save their wonderful creations from their original creators.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
The worst part was the writing and direction.
"Let the past die. Kill it if you have to."
Writing and directing only go so far. Her being unable to act with Jake was all on her. You could see it in her face and hear it in her voice.
She had an eight year gap on Jake in real life, and a 5 year gap character wise and that messed with her acting.
"OMG! He's supposed to become the love of my life?! EWWWW!"
I'm not saying I can't blame that reaction, but as an actress she should've done better.
Also, the SW didn't ruin her career. She just expected more from it :p
I blamed the writing and directing for Natalie’s poor performance in Star Wars. After all she was a great actress when younger (Beautiful Girls, The Professional).
Then I saw her in the Thor movies, and realized it was all her.
Eh OK... I'll compromise by saying it was like maybe 10% her fault. It was Lucas' dialogue and directing and Jake's wooden no-chemistry acting that was still the other 90%.
To be clear I never claimed she was the world's greatest actress to begin with. ;)
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Well I mean Capepunk isn't a bad genre, a lot of great content can be made from it, heck I'm planning on making a Capepunk Noir turn based strategy where the mass power granting event happened in the 1920's. My only real issue with it is that people keep wanting to replace Superhero fiction with it.
not my video just one I lke ===> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6-SdIN0hsM
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That’s something I should mention, my world is very much a superhero setting through and through. There are a lot of original stories lately that try to “deconstruct” the genre by making it more “realistic” and showing why it doesn’t work in real life. While it can be interesting, the thing is that I look superhero stories as an escape from the real world. So I don’t like the implication many writers and fans have that this is the way the genre “should be”.
Well good on you, maybe someday you can prove that superhero can be adult without being deconstructed :]
not my video just one I lke ===> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6-SdIN0hsM
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Update:
I'm beginning the process of starting the universe. After spending time brainstorming and writing things down (should've done that from Day 1), I'm starting things up with a five-issue miniseries. I'm not starting the company yet (that doesn't come until later), but I plan to get my story out there. Thing is, this is a very daunting task because I've built up this large universe and I need to start off well for it to continue. An issue is 22 pages, and it needs to be able to illustrate the story and build the world while pacing itself well. Quite difficult I must say.
Right now the plan is just to focus on building everything myself. I do want to work with other writers later, but it's best to do this on my own for now. I imagine it'll be set in an ongoing story, plus spin-offs and one-shots. Currently, I have multiple settings planned that I want to write. This includes present, past, and cosmic. It might be a lot for a single writer to handle, so I'll have to take it easy. I'm planning to get the miniseries done and then post it online, I'll share progress here as I go along.
I don't suppose you guys would have any advice going forward? It'd be nice to hear from the other writers on this website.
I created an account on this site just so I could reply, haha.
I'm doing pretty much exactly the same thing as you: creating a superhero universe from scratch. Like yours, my universe is not full of people coming back from the dead (with one exception), and there are no retcons or fixing everything with time-travel (again, with one exception or so). I'm drawing a lot of inspiration from the early days of comics, when heroes were heroes and represented the best humanity could be. I do like the modern stories that delve into gritty realism, but I want to create something a little more pure and unrealistic.
I'm not an expert or anything, but my advice to you is to give yourself permission to create something that isn't perfect. If you wait to publish something until its "good enough", you'll never publish anything. You're the boss, so you get to make mistakes. No one's going to fire you. I'm publishing my stories on Wattpad as minimalistic superhero prose, writing them as quickly as possible and not caring too much about how good it is. I just want to get the lore into words. From there, I can rewrite, polish, change the plots, take out characters, and make something that is better. Superhero universes are usually multiverses, so the hastily written stories I'm publishing right now can just be one universe out of many.
I'd love to see your work whenever you get it out there! I'll check back occasionally to see what you're up to. If you want to read my stuff, you can go here: https://www.wattpad.com/user/_rebelplanet_ There will be more to come soon. I've got a ton planned out.
Good luck!
Welcome aboard, RebelPlanet, and thanks for that link! *scurries off to read*
Foradain, Mage of Phoenix Rising.
[url=https://cityoftitans.com/forum/foradains-character-conclave]Foradain's Character Conclave[/url]
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Avatar courtesy of [s]Satellite9[/s] [url=https://www.instagram.com/irezoomie/]Irezoomie[/url]
Thanks!
So I didn't even know what City of Titans was until I read the About page. Do you guys know of any place that people can discuss things like this (original stories and projects)? It'd be awesome to find a community and maybe even do some simple collabs and stuff.
The [url=https://cityoftitans.com/forums/media-sharing]Media Sharing[/url] section seems appropriate. Also, there's a lot of on-forum RP in the [url=https://cityoftitans.com/forums/role-playing]Role Playing[/url] section. And [url=https://cityoftitans.com/users/kartanian]Kartanian[/url] has a link to his books in his dot-sig. ^_^
Foradain, Mage of Phoenix Rising.
[url=https://cityoftitans.com/forum/foradains-character-conclave]Foradain's Character Conclave[/url]
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Avatar courtesy of [s]Satellite9[/s] [url=https://www.instagram.com/irezoomie/]Irezoomie[/url]
Alright, I might as well share what I have for the superhero universe so far. Note that everything you see is subject to change and it may not include everything.
Here it is:
[b]The Legends Among Us[/b]
This is a shared universe with a rich history that I plan to explore every facet of the more I write. There are actually multiple settings I explore: specifically the past and the present, and the two exist in synergy with each other. Because this is an alternate history, events that happen in the past will play into the present, and characters from the former will appear as older versions of themselves in the latter if they're still alive. It adheres to continuity and doesn't retcon things away when convenient.
Here are some stories I plan to tell. Currently, I'm writing them as miniseries; and like the late and great Stan Lee, I'm doing all of them until I get collaborators I trust.
With that said:
Asterisk denotes story set in the past. Double asterisk denotes story set in present. Triple asterisk denotes story set in multiple eras. This is in alphabetical order.
[list]
[*][i]Atlas Group:[/i] The modern day super team, feared and respected by all, and considered the successor to the Harriers in this sense, especially since they're also based in New York City. They form in response to an invasion from an alien race called the Collective. Since then, they've become the dominant force, the mightiest heroes of all.**
[*][i]Bad Company:[/i] They say you're defined by the company you keep. What about Bad Company? They're incarcerated supervillains and criminals who undertake dangerous missions for reduced sentences. They're not coerced, rather they willingly sign up as an alternative to rotting prison, and outside of that are based in the Barge island prison located between Brooklyn and Staten Island.***
[*][i]Col. Freedom:[/i] The origin of World War II soldier Jack Franklin who became a powerful and immortal demigod, changed history and inspired many superheroes from thereon. It's set in the '40s, and shows just how he changed the world, and continues to change it to this day.*
[*][i]Decipher:[/i] Billionaire conspiracy theorist with no superpowers, but is one of the most feared superheroes in the world. We see his origins and how he joined the big leagues, along with his day-to-day routine.***
[*][i]Future Fighters:[/i] The young, non-evolved super team of the setting. They're essentially the junior Atlas Group, as young heroes who wish to join the big leagues. The team gets gathered together by the members of AG as a sort of "weekend social club" meant to mature the young supers. Of course, gathering a bunch of teens together and having them fight evil leads to all-sorts of hijinx on-mission and off.***
[*][i]Harriers:[/i] Set in the late '60s, details the forming of a super team as the superhero boom is in full swing. The team is formed in response to a time-traveling, dimension-hopping dictator named Titus the Traveler, who wishes to invade Earth and add it to his collection. It also focuses on the moments leading up to the forming of the Harriers as much as it does when they start, and focuses on their adventures afterwards. Based in New York City, they were considered the greatest team of their time. They actually remained as a team for twenty-eight straight years, albeit with a fluctuating lineup, until a certain event called the Chrono Incident led to their disbanding in '96. They're obviously a take on the Avengers.*
[*][i]Millennium:[/i] Feared, part of an oppressed race of super-beings called the Evolved, the Millennium form to mend the relationships between their race and the others. They also start their own academy for other evolved in Northern California, and features how they go about their lives while fighting for their rights. While they take after the mutants and X-Men, there is a major point of difference: rather than manifesting through puberty, their innate powers are awakened through trauma. That's why so many evolved go bad, and thus increasing stigma against them. Like the Harriers, this takes place in the '60s but the team continues in present day.***
[*][i]Next-Gen:[/i] If the Millennium are the X-Men, the Next-Gen are the New Mutants. Young evolved heroes, who wish to join the big leagues in the future, are assigned to the Next-Gen to serve as the "junior" branch of the organization. While their missions are meant to be lower risk than what the Millennium takes on, the nature of what they do is still dangerous, and they're known for punching above their weight.***
[*][i]Starbird:[/i] A human-like alien from a distant world, she finds herself on Earth where she becomes both a superhero and a celebrity supermodel. She's inspired as a combination of Wonder Woman and Ms. Marvel.**
[/list]
As it stands, I value quality over quantity. I'd rather have 10-15 ongoing titles and some miniseries/one-shots rather than 50+ ongoings at once, it'd be a lot easier to keep up with for everyone.
If you have any questions, let me know.
First question (and it's one I had to consider when running a tapletop supers RPG set in the Marvel Universe): what is it that distinguishes The Evolved from "non-evolved" supers? Is it a difference that can be detected by tech or magic? And if so, how easily?
In the Marvel Universe, the Sentinels are apparently built with tech to detect mutants. But Warlock is an alien; his powers derive are apparently common to his species and his mutation is compassion.
Foradain, Mage of Phoenix Rising.
[url=https://cityoftitans.com/forum/foradains-character-conclave]Foradain's Character Conclave[/url]
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Avatar courtesy of [s]Satellite9[/s] [url=https://www.instagram.com/irezoomie/]Irezoomie[/url]
What started the Evolved wasn't an atom bomb, but rather a passing intergalactic comet called the "Catalyst". It's visited other worlds, and there are evolved versions of other species across the galaxy. One major feature of evolved is that they have an ability to sense each other, because their powers are drawn from that source. For some it's stronger, and while you can learn to suppress it, some feature the ability to sense so strong they're called "Bloodhounds" or "Wranglers". It's especially powerful between siblings.
Because non-evolved supers don't draw from the Catalyst, they can't be sensed that way. This is also a major reason that birds of a feather flock together, as evolved teams and gangs are often filled entirely with evolved over a natural sense of camaraderie. Not in every case, obviously, but it happens a lot.
This kinda reminds me of J. Michael Straczynski's Rising Stars comic, with a touch of Highlander.
This is awesome! I like how you're embracing a lot of the established tropes and archetypes of superhero stories. I'm doing the same thing with my own original universe. I'll have to detail it out on another thread.
I'm intrigued by Col. Freedom especially. There's something about WWII era heroes that fascinates me. Is he operating in the present at all, or is his story completely set in the 40's? What's his power set?
Thanks man. A lot of it was inspired by Marvel, which was one of my favorites for a long time (just look at my avatar) until Disney stepped in and enforced ridiculous policies on them. Apparently, the violence can't get too excessive, women can't look sexy, and characters aren't allowed to be shown doing things like smoking. It becomes no wonder why so many of Marvel's best writers have left for DC/independent companies, because no one talented wants to write in a tiny and confined space -- they want to make actual stories. Then there's the very forced political statements these comics often make...
It was also born by my general frustration with the lack of "middle ground" we see nowadays between light and dark comics. For many years, superhero comics had that perfect spot of somewhere in between light and dark, PG-13 being pushed, violence and sexuality is there and yet still very much fun and can be enjoyed the general audiences. I find a lot of comics are either too light or too dark, and little are in the middle. Why should we have to choose between one extreme or the other?
That's all a major reason why the Marvel Universe up until several years ago plays a huge inspiration for the world. I find that a lot of what Marvel established works, and so I figured I'd use something that was proven to succeed on that front. However, even then, there's always room for new ideas, and so things like the more prominent alternate history and aversion of comic book time came about, not to mention coming up with heroes and villains that feel distinct on their own. You get see how the world differs from past and present, such as how anti-evolved sentiment is higher before whereas many years of heroism and fighting for equal rights has changed perception. That part is kind of a challenge, because it's one thing to embrace your inspiration, but you also got to be sure you're bringing new things to the table in addition to it.
As for Col. Freedom, he has the Superman power set. He's super strong, nigh invulnerable, can fly, and can shoot laser. He can also summon lightning and fire from the gods, and he's immortal. The latter part plays heavily into him, because he appears in past stories and present ones, and looks no older in the latter as he does the former. He's a founding member member of the Harriers, though his tenure is relatively brief, and spends most of his career either as a solo hero or fighting alongside his partner Lady Liberty (a legacy mantle of three different women; his wife, daughter and granddaughter). Then he founds the Atlas Group, and decides to stick with it. Secretly, he has something of a death wish. He's lived with his eternal youth while his loved ones around him grew old and die, which weighs on him internally, but he doesn't angst about it much, as he's supposed to be an ideal hero for all.
My comicverse really only has street-level to city-level events, there're just so many variables to country and planet-level events to account for.
Also it's easier to integrate into a game that's city-level :p
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