Idea I'll Never Do Anything With #593
I came up with this idea with the creative input of James while I was watching a whole bunch of Cronenberg movies and generally getting into a body horror sort of mindset, while also reading a whole mess of comics. I got an idea for combining the superhero motif with body horror sensibilities.
The basic premise is simple, that super powers exist, but they are innately tied with cancer. One out of every million or so cancerous growths confers supernatural powers and abilities to whoever has contracted the cancer. These abilities are clearly biological and based on the type of cancer that the person has. A person with thyroid cancer might have access to bizarre hormones that allow super speed. Most of the powers would be biological, graphic and not pretty, definately of a body horror bent. Whats more, as the cancer grows and becomes stronger so do the powers, until of course the person dies.
This would have a variety of effects, such as that most supers would be from developed countries, and would be older people. It would mean that to remove the thing which is killing you would remove your newfound powers, and for some people that would be too much. Most people would agree to be registered and treated in special facilities. Others, however, would go rogue, often becoming increasingly dangerous and desperate. Some of them would become violent, and as they neared death would manifest extreme behaviour and shocking abilities, placing people at risk. These would be known as the Malign. Oe example of a malign I was going to have was going to be a young man from India who was born in Bhopal and contracted stomach cancer, who would become involved with a naive group of environmental activists, only to turn on them when they discovered his main interest was spitting stomach acid at people and absorbing them.
Standing against them would be an organisation known as the Benign, an international organisation policing supers all over the world. The main character would have unique powers, deemed vital to the cause. He would be wracked by fear, guilt and conscience as one hand he was often the only one able to stop the rampaging Maligns, and on the other by continuing to use his powers and forgoing treatment he's risking his own life. Eventually it would turn out that some people within the Benign weren't quite so benign, but I never really got that far.
I remember there was a lot of other details that I can't remember, some half-baked history I developed. Something about a Cold War era agreement about Benigns and Maligns breaking down spectacularly in the Kosovo conflict as the children of Chernobyl turn Malign. I can't recall. It doesn't really matter. It's just another idea.
The basic premise is simple, that super powers exist, but they are innately tied with cancer. One out of every million or so cancerous growths confers supernatural powers and abilities to whoever has contracted the cancer. These abilities are clearly biological and based on the type of cancer that the person has. A person with thyroid cancer might have access to bizarre hormones that allow super speed. Most of the powers would be biological, graphic and not pretty, definately of a body horror bent. Whats more, as the cancer grows and becomes stronger so do the powers, until of course the person dies.
This would have a variety of effects, such as that most supers would be from developed countries, and would be older people. It would mean that to remove the thing which is killing you would remove your newfound powers, and for some people that would be too much. Most people would agree to be registered and treated in special facilities. Others, however, would go rogue, often becoming increasingly dangerous and desperate. Some of them would become violent, and as they neared death would manifest extreme behaviour and shocking abilities, placing people at risk. These would be known as the Malign. Oe example of a malign I was going to have was going to be a young man from India who was born in Bhopal and contracted stomach cancer, who would become involved with a naive group of environmental activists, only to turn on them when they discovered his main interest was spitting stomach acid at people and absorbing them.
Standing against them would be an organisation known as the Benign, an international organisation policing supers all over the world. The main character would have unique powers, deemed vital to the cause. He would be wracked by fear, guilt and conscience as one hand he was often the only one able to stop the rampaging Maligns, and on the other by continuing to use his powers and forgoing treatment he's risking his own life. Eventually it would turn out that some people within the Benign weren't quite so benign, but I never really got that far.
I remember there was a lot of other details that I can't remember, some half-baked history I developed. Something about a Cold War era agreement about Benigns and Maligns breaking down spectacularly in the Kosovo conflict as the children of Chernobyl turn Malign. I can't recall. It doesn't really matter. It's just another idea.