Writing Wednesday: Superheroes
Today was the first time I checked a book of my university library for recreational reading. It's called The Psychology of Superheroes, and so far I've read about how living with the Kents shaped Superman's personality, why the Justice League functions so well as a team, and whether superheroes are truly happy with their lives. I've been wanting to incorporate more heroes into Gloves Off, and this book has been a good inspiration.
I don't know a whole lot about superhero culture (I've never been much of a comic book reader), but I consider there to be four kinds of heroes, at least in regards to powers: ones that were born with superpowers (X-Men), ones that grew theirs from an accident or experience (Spiderman), ones that have powers because they are a sort non-human super being (Superman), and ones that have no powers and rely only their human abilities (Batman).
Magna-Man, aka Max Morales, is my "born this way" superhero. He controls magnetism and metals. He may have a few other secondary powers, maybe some enhanced strength, but the magnetism is the main thing. The powers developed early in life and his mother, the mayor, feared that he would be mistreated or put in danger because of them, which is part of the reason she pushed to have superheroism legalized and made part of the city's justice system, so that he could have a way to show people that his powers were for good.
Stanley Sometimes, my example of an experimental hero, was one of the first characters I ever had for Gloves Off, although he never went past the original idea: someone with a superhero identity so secret he doesn't even know he has it. A normal teenage boy that blacks out and finds himself miles away and injured with no idea of how he got there or what happened because his superhero identity has completely separated itself from his everyday one. I don't know what his power is or who gave it to him or why, but someone has experimented on this kid to give him the power and turn him into what he is. I also don't know how sentient the superhero identity is. Does the hero know that he's Stanley, that he has a home life and a high school and friends? Does he know what happened to make him a hero? Why is he a hero? It's a confusing concept and there's so much to think about, and I don't even know how the character would fit into the rest of this story, but maybe this could be interesting.
Parvola is my non-human hero. I went the Superman route with her, alien royalty sent to Earth, because it's something close to an archetype of the cartoon superhero world. She's very human, though, in both behaviors and looks, but that could change. I still have a lot of decisions to make about Parvola. What exactly are her powers? Why is she on Earth? Where is the rest of her family/race? How did she come to live with Harrison, a surly sorcerer who lives on a houseboat and hides from all his problems?
Harmony was originally the fourth kind of superhero, someone who had no powers but decided to take the abilities they did have and do good for the sake of doing good. Then I decided I wanted a set of elemental characters and she became a controller of wind and air and a former member of a group of similarly-powered kid heroes. I like the story I have now, but I'd still like to have an example of a non-powered hero, so I guess I'll just develop another character. I'll need another accident/experiment too, if I can't make Stanley Sometimes work out.
I have two other ideas for superheroes. I've always wanted to have a hero with the power of impenetrable skin, and call them The Diamond because nothing could cut them. It's a great power to have, never worrying about being stabbed or shot, but it leaves the hero vulnerable in other ways: if they got sick, there would be no away to inject medicine or do surgery. I also have a character named Infinite Just, a woman that can copy herself. She's a lawyer that represents superheroes in court (for disputes over property damage and such) and uses her power to be everywhere she needs to be at one time, researching, meeting with clients, arguing in court.
Like I said, I really need to flesh out this world and put more superheroes in it. Parvola and Magna-Man need superhero friends and teammates, and there has to be someone for all these villains to fight.