So I'm writing a short story about a superhero.
I'm in a fiction writing class! I volunteered to be one of the first people to submit a story to critique! This means that I have to have a new story started AND finished by Sunday! I haven't finished a single non-fanfic story in over a year and a half! Yaaay!
I'm writing about a hero. Whether or not he's "super" depends on where you fall on the "can you be a superhero if you use gadgets instead of super powers" debate, but for simplicity I call him a superhero. I'm thinking he uses some sort of fancy robo-suit thing (like an Iron Man knock-off!) but I haven't decided for sure yet.
His hero name is Silver-Man, his real name is Clarence Moffat. (His surname is subject to change, and maybe his hero name. Basically, his hero name was supposed to be Super Generic Hero Name and his real name was supposed to be Wussy Guy Name.)
When he goes out to be heroic, his duty is to stop crimes of the villainous variety, of course. In costume, Silver-Man cranks the hamminess up to 11 and goes out of his way to deliberately uphold and espouse Great American Ideals, in a way that makes politicians all over the country want to book him for photo shoots because it'll be definite good publicity, even though every last one of them thinks he's either the world's most naive idealistic fool or else a very cunning master of using quixotic jibber-jabber to up his approval ratings. (Spoiler: he's the world's most naive idealistic fool.) He's all about Virtue Being Its Own Reward and Saving People Because It Is Right and all that stuff.
And hence, he's dirt-poor. As Clarence, he's two steps above being poor white trash and lives in a trailer park with his mother. He's constantly trying to scramble up the ladder, at least to middle-class respectability, but he's not really qualified for much of anything. Being a strong believer in all of the Great American Ideals he spouts off about as Silver-Man, he has complete faith in the American dream and the idea that if you work hard, you WILL succeed; and since, despite being a beloved hero, he ISN'T succeeding, he can only conclude that he just isn't working hard enough. (He also happens to be dating a villain, but I don't think he knows that about her yet.)
Clarence does not own the rights to Silver-Man; whatever equipment it is he's using, he isn't allowed to keep it with him, and although a helluva lot of money is being made off of Silver-Man (the MERCHANDISING opportunities, good GOD) he isn't seeing any of it. He's basically little more than those guys in theme parks who wear the mascot costumes--they could stick ANYBODY in the funny animal suit, teach him how to wave and hug kids, and have the same thing. At least, that's how he thinks of himself and that's how his bosses want him to think of himself. (I do not know yet who his "bosses" are: if they're corporate, if they're political, why they made the Silver-Man gear...) In truth, Clarence really is something special: he's got the training to use the equipment (true, they could train anybody, but teaching somebody to use the gear is like teaching kids to play baseball: almost all of them can learn how to do it but not many of them are gonna be very good); he can think quickly and creatively enough on the field to, y'know, actually DO HEROICS rather than just wear a costume; and he's got the exact personality and ideals they want in a hero character, not to mention he's great with the press. Seriously, everything out of the guy is quotable material. The news loves him.
In effect, for Silver-Man to be successful, he must be a heroic person who's given the equipment needed to give him an edge; but from Clarence's perspective, "Silver-Man" is the equipment, which happens to need a human to turn it on and let it do its stuff. He's just happy enough he's allowed to play the part and, hey, if he's barely getting above minimum wage for it, that's probably more than he's earned.
So outside of the Silver-Man act, he's got pretty tragic self-esteem, as he's perpetually comparing his own living situation (he has never known a time in his neighborhood when there was more grass on the dirt lawns than in the street cracks) to that of What Successful People Live Like.
Costumed heroes/villains tend to either go the Batman route ("I am the hero; my civilian identity is my mask and it feels unnatural") or the Spider-Man route ("I am my civilian identity; I'm trying to juggle being a hero on top of that"); Clarence is closer to Spidey in that regard. He thinks of himself more as "Clarence Moffat" than as "Silver-Man."
The villain he's dating is named Gravestone, who is potentially (although not definitely) the evil clone/doppelgänger/twin/I-don't-even-know of the hero Gemstone, real names of both as yet undecided. She happens to LIKE the bottom-rung-of-the-social-ladder aura Clarence gives off. (That miiight be because she's about half a rung above him.) They are dating in civilian mode; I've yet to decide whether or not they know of each other's hero/villain identities yet, but I do know that if one of them knows then they both do. If they DON'T know, then they will inevitably have to find out before the end of the story.
Gravestone and Gemstone miiight be getting invulnerability-to-injury as their only power (hence the "stone" theme, durr hurr i so clevur); if not (or probably even if so), Gravestone does her dirty work simply by being very violent and then evading capture. She likes weapons. She uses them to commit crimes and to persuade other criminals to commit crimes on her behalf. She will NOT be redeemed to goodness by the power of Twu Wuv, she has never and shall never use flirting/seduction/sexiness as a weapon, and her costume does not involve leather, spandex, fishnet, stilettos, whips, make-up, or cleavage. In fact, the media still isn't altogether convinced on Gravestone's sex. (Same goes for Gemstone; they both wear sensible, non-revealing clothes.) The attitude she gives off isn't evil, per se, just plain old mean; it's like happy and successful people just piss her off.
Whereas Clarence is an unfailing optimist (he'd have to be, to keep on believing that People Who Work Hard Make It, 100% Of The Time), Gravestone is a pessimist, pretty much assuming that she'll get buried alive if the world has its way--but, she also believes that if she scrambles hard enough, then dammit, she WILL be able to claw her way to the top of the hill, from the top of which she plans on flipping the bird to every obstacle she had to mow down as she climbed. Contrast that with Clarence's belief that hard workers win out but he personally just isn't working hard enough and maybe never will and that's just his personal failing. It's like he's a pessimist disguised as an optimist and she's an optimist disguised as a pessimist. Mind trip, yo.
Basically I just love the idea of a self-conscious trailer-trash superhero. Extra so when combined with the idea of him dating a self-confident trailer-trash supervillain.
So what in the world do I actually DO with this guy?
Note: posted at Way Too Late A.M., without going back to check for things like spelling, grammar, and completed sentences. Dumbnesses will likely be fixed at a more reasonable hour.
I'm writing about a hero. Whether or not he's "super" depends on where you fall on the "can you be a superhero if you use gadgets instead of super powers" debate, but for simplicity I call him a superhero. I'm thinking he uses some sort of fancy robo-suit thing (like an Iron Man knock-off!) but I haven't decided for sure yet.
His hero name is Silver-Man, his real name is Clarence Moffat. (His surname is subject to change, and maybe his hero name. Basically, his hero name was supposed to be Super Generic Hero Name and his real name was supposed to be Wussy Guy Name.)
When he goes out to be heroic, his duty is to stop crimes of the villainous variety, of course. In costume, Silver-Man cranks the hamminess up to 11 and goes out of his way to deliberately uphold and espouse Great American Ideals, in a way that makes politicians all over the country want to book him for photo shoots because it'll be definite good publicity, even though every last one of them thinks he's either the world's most naive idealistic fool or else a very cunning master of using quixotic jibber-jabber to up his approval ratings. (Spoiler: he's the world's most naive idealistic fool.) He's all about Virtue Being Its Own Reward and Saving People Because It Is Right and all that stuff.
And hence, he's dirt-poor. As Clarence, he's two steps above being poor white trash and lives in a trailer park with his mother. He's constantly trying to scramble up the ladder, at least to middle-class respectability, but he's not really qualified for much of anything. Being a strong believer in all of the Great American Ideals he spouts off about as Silver-Man, he has complete faith in the American dream and the idea that if you work hard, you WILL succeed; and since, despite being a beloved hero, he ISN'T succeeding, he can only conclude that he just isn't working hard enough. (He also happens to be dating a villain, but I don't think he knows that about her yet.)
Clarence does not own the rights to Silver-Man; whatever equipment it is he's using, he isn't allowed to keep it with him, and although a helluva lot of money is being made off of Silver-Man (the MERCHANDISING opportunities, good GOD) he isn't seeing any of it. He's basically little more than those guys in theme parks who wear the mascot costumes--they could stick ANYBODY in the funny animal suit, teach him how to wave and hug kids, and have the same thing. At least, that's how he thinks of himself and that's how his bosses want him to think of himself. (I do not know yet who his "bosses" are: if they're corporate, if they're political, why they made the Silver-Man gear...) In truth, Clarence really is something special: he's got the training to use the equipment (true, they could train anybody, but teaching somebody to use the gear is like teaching kids to play baseball: almost all of them can learn how to do it but not many of them are gonna be very good); he can think quickly and creatively enough on the field to, y'know, actually DO HEROICS rather than just wear a costume; and he's got the exact personality and ideals they want in a hero character, not to mention he's great with the press. Seriously, everything out of the guy is quotable material. The news loves him.
In effect, for Silver-Man to be successful, he must be a heroic person who's given the equipment needed to give him an edge; but from Clarence's perspective, "Silver-Man" is the equipment, which happens to need a human to turn it on and let it do its stuff. He's just happy enough he's allowed to play the part and, hey, if he's barely getting above minimum wage for it, that's probably more than he's earned.
So outside of the Silver-Man act, he's got pretty tragic self-esteem, as he's perpetually comparing his own living situation (he has never known a time in his neighborhood when there was more grass on the dirt lawns than in the street cracks) to that of What Successful People Live Like.
Costumed heroes/villains tend to either go the Batman route ("I am the hero; my civilian identity is my mask and it feels unnatural") or the Spider-Man route ("I am my civilian identity; I'm trying to juggle being a hero on top of that"); Clarence is closer to Spidey in that regard. He thinks of himself more as "Clarence Moffat" than as "Silver-Man."
The villain he's dating is named Gravestone, who is potentially (although not definitely) the evil clone/doppelgänger/twin/I-don't-even-know of the hero Gemstone, real names of both as yet undecided. She happens to LIKE the bottom-rung-of-the-social-ladder aura Clarence gives off. (That miiight be because she's about half a rung above him.) They are dating in civilian mode; I've yet to decide whether or not they know of each other's hero/villain identities yet, but I do know that if one of them knows then they both do. If they DON'T know, then they will inevitably have to find out before the end of the story.
Gravestone and Gemstone miiight be getting invulnerability-to-injury as their only power (hence the "stone" theme, durr hurr i so clevur); if not (or probably even if so), Gravestone does her dirty work simply by being very violent and then evading capture. She likes weapons. She uses them to commit crimes and to persuade other criminals to commit crimes on her behalf. She will NOT be redeemed to goodness by the power of Twu Wuv, she has never and shall never use flirting/seduction/sexiness as a weapon, and her costume does not involve leather, spandex, fishnet, stilettos, whips, make-up, or cleavage. In fact, the media still isn't altogether convinced on Gravestone's sex. (Same goes for Gemstone; they both wear sensible, non-revealing clothes.) The attitude she gives off isn't evil, per se, just plain old mean; it's like happy and successful people just piss her off.
Whereas Clarence is an unfailing optimist (he'd have to be, to keep on believing that People Who Work Hard Make It, 100% Of The Time), Gravestone is a pessimist, pretty much assuming that she'll get buried alive if the world has its way--but, she also believes that if she scrambles hard enough, then dammit, she WILL be able to claw her way to the top of the hill, from the top of which she plans on flipping the bird to every obstacle she had to mow down as she climbed. Contrast that with Clarence's belief that hard workers win out but he personally just isn't working hard enough and maybe never will and that's just his personal failing. It's like he's a pessimist disguised as an optimist and she's an optimist disguised as a pessimist. Mind trip, yo.
Basically I just love the idea of a self-conscious trailer-trash superhero. Extra so when combined with the idea of him dating a self-confident trailer-trash supervillain.
So what in the world do I actually DO with this guy?
Note: posted at Way Too Late A.M., without going back to check for things like spelling, grammar, and completed sentences. Dumbnesses will likely be fixed at a more reasonable hour.