I've always wanted to. I think it would be the coolest thing. I love a lot of different heroes, but my two favorites are Spider Man and Wolverine. The thing is, that Wolverine, as cool as he is, is not really as cool without his extra strong skeleton. He can recover from almost anything very quickly, but that really isn't that impressive by itself. I've been watching Heroes seasons 1&2 since we got them for Christmas. There are two characters with this same kind of healing ability. They are very important characters, but in reality they aren't all that strong, There are many other characters that are much stronger. Of course, I have to wonder why they breakup most of the character powers. The super healing abilities aren't really the weakest. There are two guys that fly. Those are some pretty lame abilities by themselves. In the comics heroes often have more than one power. The most powerful have many abilities, like Super Man who has super speed, super hearing, super sign, heat vision, flight, super strength … You get the point right? He's just super. I always wondered how the comic book creators came up with their characters. Do they decide on powers, then the story for the powers, or are they sitting down when a spider walks across the ceiling and think, "he what about a man that got bit by a radioactive spider … what kind of powers would he have?" I think it would be great to come up with comic book characters. There are a lot of lame ideas out there, but I guess you need some lame ideas. The problem is that they like to run with things that work. Batman works, Spiderman work so this means that we should try and put every animal and insect in front of the word "man" and see what floats. Now we have great ideas like Ant Man and the Human Wasp (just a variant). Seriously there are so many twists on this theme out there it isn't funny. I think if I were a character designer I'd start by trying to come up with some interesting powers, then build a deep character around that. There has to be some ideas that haven't been done yet. Let's try, how about a power inverter? This character absorbs and converts other powers into a different kind of power. It would be more or less passive to start with, but the character could learn to store up power for use later. The trick is that each power converts to a given other kind of power. For example, a physical blow is a kinetic power. This would convert into … let's say a mental power of mind reading. So if you hit this character they could read minds. The harder the hit the more powerful the mind reading. Wouldn't it be hilarious to watch this guy get hit over and over trying to read someone's mind? "Don't stop hitting I think I'm almost there, he is thinking … oh hit me harder!" It would be like a reverse interrogation torture. Of course other powers would result in other abilities, like if someone tried reading his mind then he could fly. Each power would have a specific ability that it is converted into. The back story would be harder. I'm thinking a genetic anomaly, but how does the person figure out their powers. That is the fun part. School yard fights, but he start hearing what the other kid is thinking after getting punched? He accidentally gets electrocuted and is suddenly has x-ray vision. Lots of crazy things before it is all figured out. Then the real learning starts. It would take a while before he figured out how to train his body to retain excess power like a battery. Eventually a suit could be constructed to apply some of the forces to help generate the powers, like magnetism that is changes into healing abilities, so electromagnets in the suit activate to make him heal and other forces might trigger impervious skin. The possibilities are really endless. The hardest part will be keeping track of what each force is converted into. Any ideas on the Inverter?
Saturday, January 3, 2009
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8 comments:
I'm here from SCL, and I have to say, this is SUCH a guy post. You lost me on the final paragraph. ;)
Sounds like a good idea, though, creating comic book characters. What powers would a Super Youth Pastor have?
Certainly night vision, to catch kids making out in the back of the room...
Steph,
What can I say, I'm a guy. Of course two major guy posts in a row might be a bit much huh. :)
I'll have to think about Super Youth Pastor a bit. That sound like a good post for the near future.
Anyways, thanks for coming by for a visit and taking the time to comment.
I was watching something a while back where Stan Lee was talking about their character creation process for lots of superheroes like Spiderman and the Hulk and such, and by the time they got to the X-men, they just wanted an easy out so people were just born with powers. I like that sort of reasoning.
Inverter should have one hand that's like an input for something easily obtainable like sunlight, and his other hand could have a resevoir for the energy that he turns into some sort of electrical cannon blast. This will allow the movie to have many explosions and will make Michael Bay excited to work on it. This, in turn, will make sure that everyone in your movie looks good. Then it will sell more, and you won't even have to worry about plot too much.
Seems like a win/win situation.
Like the blog. Not too much guy stuff. Don't worry. We're geeks, it's okay.
Word verification is "Prewing"
Birds in an egg?
On an unrelated note, have you seen the new Eleventh Doctor yet? What are your thoughts? All I can say is I wish him all the best - filling David Tennant's shoes will be VERY difficult.
(Actually, in my books, impossible. I try to come at all the Doctors without prejudices, but Tennant was simply the best of the best of the best to me, and, I truly don't think the show will ever be as good as it was with him. Sigh.)
Still, I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing the new Doctor in action! Can't wait for 2010! (2009 sucks already - No. Doctor. Who.)
Oh, and "Matt Smith". Could you get a more common name?! (And don't say "John Smith" - I avoided that deliberately!)
Anyway, sorry for going all off topic and ranty (ranty - is that a word?) but this is a big deal for Whovians everywhere right now.
Well, allons-y! I gotta go reverse the polarity on some stuff...
Okay - wait - I have some questions first!
Favourite Doctor ever?
Favourite assistant ever?
Favourite episode ever?
Favourite David Tennant episode?
Alright, I'm really going this time. I've got to polish my TARDIS. (Seriosuly, though - I have a diecast model...)
bman,
Thanks for commenting. I'm not sure if I saw the same interview, but I had read something about Stan Lee and why they decided it would be great for humans to be born with powers from the POV of not needing some reason for the powers. The do still have some "normal" humans becoming super human through an event or accident, but that tends to be the exception ever since X-men. I think now they only reason they do it is because they think, "hey wouldn't it be cool if this happened and someone got super powers?"
You cant go wrong with lots of explosions and pretty people. Seriously though, I love the way they handled the new Transformers movie. I was really worried they would do something horrible to a very important part of my childhood, but despite some of the sweeping changes, like Bumblebee, they really did a good job.
Adelaide,
For your answers please see my new blog post.
At last, I have stumbled upon the birth of SYP....
WV= raticate
If all the texting teens used "old school" grammar and actually used the word "eradicate" in everyday life, this is how it would end up looking in text speech.
Jake,
who knew such humble beginnings would lead to ... whatever SYP is now.
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