My superhero comic idea, part I
Okay, I'm going to break this into three of four parts: 1) the origin and development of the idea, 2) the concepts and themes I want to explore, 3) the characters, and 4) the early story.
Okay, as I said earlier, I got the idea when watching a really not-great pilot that didn't get picked up called Chameleons. I must have been 12-14... It hit me like lightning and I gunned out a few character ideas right away. I still have that little piece of paper, and it's amazing how much of it lasted.
Another early inspiration was X-Men, which my brother and I had just started getting into, albiet via Wolverine and Classic X-Men. We had bought an issue from the Dark Phoenix Saga ('Run For Your Life!' with Kitty and Dazzler), and my brother had picked up Wolverine 1-5. Some other dude 'temporarily' traded him some more Classic X-Men -- these from the beginning if John Byrne's run -- but ended up never returning the issues of Wolverine. Man, that stack of Classic X-Men was good stuff. The first battle against the Sha'ir Imperial Guard, Phoenix saving the Universe, Mesmero, the best Magneto battle ever, the Savage Land... It's no wonder that run is considered by many to be the X-Men's best... Anyways, I used what I had learned I liked from those to create my characters.
I decided I wanted it to be light, but not too light, with lots of humor. Sort of like the original Excalibur (though I hadn't heard of that book at the time). I didn't want characters who were too powerful. I started shoveling dozens of ideas into this seed. Included were some older concepts I had. One was a dream I had had, which sort of grew into something completely different and was eventually discarded entirely. Another thing I jammed in there was Sewerman, who was a superhero I made up as a kid, basically to annoy everyone.
Ideas flowed very easily and I soon had dozens of villains and well over ten heroes. I used a piece of notebook paper, numbering each line, then summarizing what that issue was about. Soon I filled up 300+ plots. The team split, things got intensely weird, and I decided it was time to step back and look at it. For one thing, in those early days, I had tied the book to Marvel. This became less and less appealing as time went on. Tying it to trademarked characters bound me hand and foot, and it was unlikely I would ever be able to create them for Marvel. Further, I was getting disgruntled with Marvel, as this was around the time the Image boys were wrecking the X-Men.
So the first order of business was to excise all references to the Marvel Universe. Then I trimmed back the stories and characters. I had a lot of dead weight, it turned out. Then I started again. Eventually things got out of hand, and I trimmed them back again. I think the current version is the fourth major revision. In that last one I cut it down to the barest of bones. Heaps of concepts were utterly eliminated. Two major characters were made into one. A hero was written out, but I used her later as a villain. With each revision, I also progressed the plot a bit. Currently I have about 15 heroes, 60 villains, and 150 issues of plot, including a real ending. Every time I would write an ending, I would get a new idea and start adding more! If I ever get this thing written, this will be a huge advantage, I think: I've expansively thought and re-thought the entire series several times over, eliminating weak ideas and beefing up strong ones. Anyways, that is all for now.
Okay, as I said earlier, I got the idea when watching a really not-great pilot that didn't get picked up called Chameleons. I must have been 12-14... It hit me like lightning and I gunned out a few character ideas right away. I still have that little piece of paper, and it's amazing how much of it lasted.
Another early inspiration was X-Men, which my brother and I had just started getting into, albiet via Wolverine and Classic X-Men. We had bought an issue from the Dark Phoenix Saga ('Run For Your Life!' with Kitty and Dazzler), and my brother had picked up Wolverine 1-5. Some other dude 'temporarily' traded him some more Classic X-Men -- these from the beginning if John Byrne's run -- but ended up never returning the issues of Wolverine. Man, that stack of Classic X-Men was good stuff. The first battle against the Sha'ir Imperial Guard, Phoenix saving the Universe, Mesmero, the best Magneto battle ever, the Savage Land... It's no wonder that run is considered by many to be the X-Men's best... Anyways, I used what I had learned I liked from those to create my characters.
I decided I wanted it to be light, but not too light, with lots of humor. Sort of like the original Excalibur (though I hadn't heard of that book at the time). I didn't want characters who were too powerful. I started shoveling dozens of ideas into this seed. Included were some older concepts I had. One was a dream I had had, which sort of grew into something completely different and was eventually discarded entirely. Another thing I jammed in there was Sewerman, who was a superhero I made up as a kid, basically to annoy everyone.
Ideas flowed very easily and I soon had dozens of villains and well over ten heroes. I used a piece of notebook paper, numbering each line, then summarizing what that issue was about. Soon I filled up 300+ plots. The team split, things got intensely weird, and I decided it was time to step back and look at it. For one thing, in those early days, I had tied the book to Marvel. This became less and less appealing as time went on. Tying it to trademarked characters bound me hand and foot, and it was unlikely I would ever be able to create them for Marvel. Further, I was getting disgruntled with Marvel, as this was around the time the Image boys were wrecking the X-Men.
So the first order of business was to excise all references to the Marvel Universe. Then I trimmed back the stories and characters. I had a lot of dead weight, it turned out. Then I started again. Eventually things got out of hand, and I trimmed them back again. I think the current version is the fourth major revision. In that last one I cut it down to the barest of bones. Heaps of concepts were utterly eliminated. Two major characters were made into one. A hero was written out, but I used her later as a villain. With each revision, I also progressed the plot a bit. Currently I have about 15 heroes, 60 villains, and 150 issues of plot, including a real ending. Every time I would write an ending, I would get a new idea and start adding more! If I ever get this thing written, this will be a huge advantage, I think: I've expansively thought and re-thought the entire series several times over, eliminating weak ideas and beefing up strong ones. Anyways, that is all for now.