Hello guys. Long time reader and first time poster. I've done a lot of online writing stuff, mostly world building for shared universe fanfics and the occasional RP design. I wanted to know if there was a procedure. I have fully formed pitch, and several follow-up ideas that I could use, but I wanted to know if there was some kind of editorial or other group that I could give the pitch to for a yes/no. I can start writing as soon I would get marching orders (page number/ characters allowed etc.) due to my loose schedule but I wanted to know how this is run. Sorry if this is uncouth or if I had missed something glaringly obvious. Thank you for your time.
And
just so I don’t seem like I signed on just to shill:
EGO returning could very well be
akin to the return of the Phoenix in AVX or that of Amazon in JLU. Very
powerful forces coming back to Earth. Make the story less about EGO and how the
various characters REACT to EGO.
Reform Iniative for
Superpowered Entities seems like a great name.
A thing you would notice is that
after big disasters, the Powers that Be always try to reestablish support in the
status qou. After HU falls, I believe that the Government (USA) would establish
a public, high profile State-Sponsored team that would be seen as a
counterpoint to HU, as the PR of Superhumans must be very low after the New Roscoe
disaster.
Think
a deliberate in-story reboot of the Heroes concept. Kinda like how Scott deliberately
made the Astonishing X-Men to be as heroic as possible after Morrison’s Darker
Run, or how the new Uncanny X Men were deliberately made to be a bit warlike.
All fiction is meta fiction and I think it would be cool to have a bit of levity
if the characters feel they need to re-add the confidence of superheroes in their
world just like we feel we need to steer somewhat away from the darkness that
reached its climax at New Roscoe.
All
that was just a very longwinded way of saying that I believe that if any “Revival”
efforts would be made in-verse they would be design to evoke the original HU as
much as possible, but “better” as to restore faith. So something like “Heroes
Unlimited” or “Heroes Unleashed” or “Heroes Universal” or “Heroes Union”.
Something like that.
Start publishing on
DD Comics!
Advertise with us
HA Stories
Stories & Storylines
mind_reader: Ah, a "Venom bomb" type of thing? I could see that. It's an opportunity for some nice imagery. I think it'll hinge on some details - which characters will this story ultimately be about, and what will they do? Also, I could see this either as a shorter (up to 20 pgs.) or longer (about 30 pgs.) story… but I think a longer story requires a bit more of a twist, which would have to be worked out.
Macattack: If I remember correctly, the premise was to have the younger team members of HA solve a case of their own, so I think we should be faithful to this premise. I also liked the idea of bringing Motherboard back…
Seb: He's your character, so it's your decision.
JimHarbor: Thanks for the input! Usually, we first discuss story ideas here on the forums, since a lot of people will have to commit to it. But a go ahead shouldn't be hard to get, and you're giving the impression that you definitely know what you're writing about! :-) And yes, I also thought of EGO's eventual return to have something of a JLU Amazo vibe to it. Regarding your "superhero revival" point, I think it depends on the interests of the people involved. I'm not sure a government initiative would be primarily concerned with restoring faith in superheroes, but with "getting the job done". In my mind, RISE is exactly such a team: More of a covert ops team, low on publicity, but high on efficiency. It's rather teams like HA, who are more idealist, who have to deal with public backlash in the wake of the New Rosscoe events.
I am currently working on the "time" storyline I mentioned to you, abt. I think I could hjave the rough storyline ready pretty soon - depending on how long I work on it.
I'd also like to show people some storylines that can be touched on -
Magic
I mention this in the upcoming issue I have written - but there is a lack of knowledge in how magics work in terms of the HA - and that's cool. What I have in mind is perhaps the barriers between magic realms and this one are slowly breaking down with so much use the villains have. That way, when a magic guy comes along - we can learn alot. But yeah, the magics breaking down and the HA having to fight stuff they don't understand sounds really cool - I'd like to keep it that way. I also had an idea about perhaps Alicia/Fury being some kind of demon or something magical. That way, someone could perhaps mention something along the lines of "if a demon could possess a little girl's family through the genarations without noone knowing - what else is out there?"
*I would like to point out that I have plan for magic etc and how maybe it could come to a head - not saying now as it would most likely be much further down the line*
Villains
This is alot more loose, but what I think HA needs is a villain just for them - and not for a particular character. I already have two huge villains which I ran by abt a while back - who could be arch nemesis - but I think HA needs someone who, when the issue hits the last page and we find out who is behind it all, we as readers understand how big this villain is and be like "oh, snap! this is huge!"
There are more ideas I have but these two are ones I think are interesting. The magic one, I think, needs good build up and by having the odd issue where magics occur would be cool.
And Here's the Pitch:
THE CONCEPT
The key to my initial concept lies in a recontexulalization
of what it means to be Superhuman, or Superheoric, in a Modern setting.
In my interpretation, rather than have superheroes seen as
walking WMDs, as is the view taken by comics such as the Ultimates, they are
more akin to be seen as Astronauts. Let’s go back to the 1960 zeitgeist that inspired
most of the Superheoric tropes we all take our cues from. The Electric Breath
of eh future was in the air and anything was possible, rather than accidents
being the result of everyman strength or fortuitous births as in the infant
stages of the 1930s and 40s, superheroes were made by the ultimate skills of
science, man’s true testament over the natural world.
This is a world where we have living testaments to humanities
ability to ascend our natural bounds
That’s gonna change some world views.
In this world, where they were defined by a united force of
these supermen for some nebulous amount of time, is going to have a very unique
viewpoint for what it is to be superhuman.
So when we have the disaster at New Roscoe, we can draw a
parallel to the great exploration disasters of our time, such as Challenger and
Columbia explosions. And what did the US, do after Columbia? It declared its
Mars agenda.
So here’s the idea, imagine a US Government, seeing this
quagmire of an event wanting to rekindle the optimal optimism of Heroes United,
elections are coming up, and no one wants to be blamed for that kind of
disaster. This is a world were kids
probably have posters of Bombshell in their dorm rooms, where licensed action
figures and documentaries recount tales of heroes going out into the brave and
bold new world of mankind.
Also make a note that Heroes United was an international
project and now that it is over, individual states will surely start their own
programs.
But as I said, rather than contextualizing this as a
Superhuman ARMS race, this is a Superhuman SPACE RACE. These beings are tools
of death and destruction, as we already have the ultimate weapon in the Nuke,
but they are tools of bounty. Imagine Weather Manipulators sin the Sahara,
human electrical generators, and the medical emergency squad headlined by
Speedsters. This is a world in which Superhumans are seen as the ultimate
endpoint of human development and are thus seen as a stars eyes view into the
future.
So given this scenario, of a USA reeling from a major
disaster, questioning the cultural motivation of the last five years or so, and
left with this huge ball to pick up how would they go about it?
So they make this brand new Superteam, not the blackops
style “get ‘er done” methods head by General Lawler and R.I.S.E. but a public
half propaganda, half Vanguard team of Superhumans. Rather than individual
costumes they would be outfitted with Uniforms, designed by the US (and us of
course) to perfectly encapsulate the sheer awesomeness that is a superhero. Combine
the “wow!” fator of “You’ll believe a man can fly” with the “Cool!” factor of
the super sleek 2000s X-Men. Imagine Frank Quietly by the way of Mitchell
Jamieson. Big observable stylized logos, individual color touches, and here’s
the kick, no masks or helmets of any kind. A big image I have in my head is of
this team standing in front of the white house posed like that famous image
of the Apollo crew, shining there
looking out at the nation as saying “This is the Future America, and it is
good.” And that sort of boundless optimism conflicted with the fear of change
is what this proposal is all about.
THE CHARACTERS
Karen Cole - New Girl on the Block
Karen here is the viewpoint charter, a bit of a necessity of
teams, note the narrative purpose Rouge served in the first X-men film and the
way Whedon recycled this archetype in his Eisner-winning Astonishing run with
Kitty Pryde. She’s just turned 18, and as we open to a shot of her room we see
it filled with all sorts of artifacts of the 21st netury youth. Interested
in EVERYTHING, half decked trading card games, posters of Straus-Generational matrixes,
ley lien conspiracy theories and of course, Superheroes, Superheroes, Superheroes.
Karen is our “window” into the HU world, as while the Street level dynamic has
been done before, seeing how one contrasts, and synthesizes, the mundane with
the supreme is the essence of all fantasy fiction.
So we have this girl who gets a letter in the mail form her University
of Choice, saying that her stellar GPA is now null and void because she tested
positive for psychic powers. Now imagine the shock and awe of basically having
one life taken out (the mundane) and replaced with this new fantastic model,
but not by a spider-bite or an alien artifact, but by a piece of paper!
Her powers are based on an emphatic pan-dimensional link (as
many have theorized that human conscious is multi-dimensional in nature) she
can “link” her minds with other’s like it’s a smart phone and extract, or manipulate,
data. She always had “hunches” in her
trivia championships, video gaming contests, tcg playing, school etc. Ad now
she’s coming to terms with the fact that all her life what she thought was
skill was actually just this freak of genetic nature, so she’s having the face
this deconstruction of the changeling fantasy where, rather than it falling
short because it not all it’s cracked up to be, it falls because it IS (very
Huxley I know :P ).
So the US gets a word of a Psychic, and is sooped up, they
open up with one of those fusion draft/recruitment/ Talented and Gifted
programs and she’s taken into a place that reads like a fusion of Hogwarts and
WestPoint, where every indigo child, autistic super savant and otherwise “out
there” person is collected and analyzed to see if the potential for the
greatness of all is within.
(This wouldn’t be fleshed out all at once, as intrusive flashbacks
are usually story killers)
The main point is that she makes the cut, and after they
suit her up in one of those oh-so-fantastic Costume/Uniforms I described above.
She’s standing among giants, and she’s feeling like every High School Senior
that got sent to the NBA. Awe, disbelief, and an unbridled pressure.
Her position in the team as the "Jean Grey” Psychic, non-damaging
power role is part of the "heroic elemental Niche” that you can see elsewhere
(and marvelously lampooned on Adventure Bros.)
Guy Austin -Tazer-In Charge
Guy here is a unique animal in that he’s been with HU from
the start. I love the dynamic he has with Natasha in Aftermath and I would like
to pool that here.
Austin here is basically a soldier without a cause. Imagine
a war vet coming back from ‘nam. He was part of this dream team that sought to
make a better world and it blew up in face, with a lot of people caught in the
crossfire. So why his placement on this
team?
Rather than be a “Sell-out” as Bombshell so apt put it, he
sees this as a chance to make amends and do “Heroes” right. A key quote here is
“Heroes United was a dream we all woke of from, it’s time to make a reality we
can all belie in.” His growing tension
with being on a State team would be a potent undercurrent of the run. While the
President keeps him on as team leader, I image he’d have a very Scott Summers
post-M Day vibe, in which he has the need to fight off the encroaching jaded
view on his life.
Power wise I want to have him really let loose with what is power
set implies. He’s not just a guy who makes lightening, eh is a guy who IS
lighting. Imagine a scene of him with his arms fading out into long arcs, or
his hair slicking out little licks of lightening when he speaks up like one of
those ball toys.
This is a guy who can grind vertically up a pole, slide on
it like he’s Cole from Infamous, and have ten huge arc bolts arc from his hands
like Shango come down from on high. It’s because of this that I suggest we move
away from the “living mask” look an go with the Open face uniform as described above,
both encapsulating the theme of the run and also symbolizes his new embracing
of his powers as that of “Freedom.” (There are several ways to write in his reaching
this next level of power, so I would defer to the previous writer on the exact details
of this occurrence)
I basically want to do him, his power set, and his past
trauma what Waid di to Daredevil. He came from a dark place but the dude is
totally unfettered and if the theme is supposed to carry he has to be the guy
here who represent that being a superhero is F#$@!@*KING AWESOME!
The fact that Natasha has been brought back of course is
just icing on the cake.
Natasha Lawler – The Comeback Commander
Oh boy here’s a doozy. Nat has had a lot dragged through her
over the years. She’s our Nick Fury archetype with good backstory and a lot of
interpersonal relationships to make use of, so she can be both a blessing and a
curse.
Now rather than toss everything before under rug unceremoniously
like they did with Iron Man‘s with his brain melt. I suppose we recognize, and transcend.
Natasha, for better or worse, is probably the one person who has the best handling
of how to deal with superhuman operations on the planet, and she’s American. They
would be amiss not to use her. Of course there would be a HUGE tension between
her and Guy, not anything hostile, but the subtle cracks that you find in a
marriage after a couple years and a few indiscretions. With that's said I don’t
want this to be dour, I want a return to the kick ass action Mission-control
Commander we’ve seen before. No longer
in charger, she’s been demoted to a literal “Commander” but still works as the “Oracle” or “voice in
the earpiece” of the team on missions.
Her dads been launched upstairs into a General Position and
now is the head of the USA Superhuman Agency. With R.I.S.E. the new Heroes and
basically the whole of the this Brave New World in his lap, the fact that she’s
back in the “Family business” so to speak will have an effect on her charter
growth and the way she develops here.
THE US GOVERNMENT
Not the cliché villainous or machinating enemy that is often
seen is such stories; it’s something a lot different, human. I’m looking at old
Apollo documentaries about how all this was set up and its relay quiet inspiring
seeing how is all came together. I want
to capture that feel of the Post-Kennedy America Renaissance that had us going
through the hurricane of the sixties while still climbing for the ultimate
heights.
President Dwayne Wilson
A former political outsider
and idealists feeling the burden of office crushing down on him and a coming election
to deal with. A true “prophet President,"
this is a guy who got elected right around the time heroes first became
mainstream, so he’s really tied his image and sense of self of this “Heroic
Age.”
Victor Craid
A Washington Stooge of A Veep , a career politician using this as stepping stone to the Oval Office who was only put on because he needed someone to pull in the establishment votes on the ticket. Dude’s a total
skeezeball, with big glasses and peaked hair, the dude just reeks of opportunism
and scavenging. He’s to be the primary symbol of Bureaucratic obstructionism
and general national incompetence and treachery.
General Lawler
The old dog dealing with new tricks being behind this massive spearhead, there's a lot of back issues between him and his daughter and having them in the same organization,
even tangentially will bound to bring some stuff up. He’s also running R.I.S.E.
on the side and any man with both the Avengers and the Suicide Squad on his
plate is sure to be quite the warhorse. J
Dr. Thomas Finn
The Young teen genius. Jimmy neutron and Richie Rich all
bunched up into one. Imagine this kid who has had the money and brains of Tony
Stark but the wild and limitless imagination of a child. This is Dexter’s lab
on crack, Malachai Nicolle with a defense budget, Willie Wonka
crossed with Bill Gates. So now what happens when this boy becomes a teen and
he’s made the Tech specialist of the Government’s new Heroes Initiative? Awesome
stuff that’s why. If this is the sixties
we’ll need a Q and if this is the Space Race we’ll need a Sergei Korolev. Dude’s
all Doggie Howser and hormones and he’s epic.
THE JOURNIES
With a classic team book, due to the fact that you can’t (or
should not) focus explicitly on the auspices of a single character they will
often become about “ideas" or “concepts” basically using the characters
and their relationships with each other and the world to move the greater story
along. I picture a modular method, in which stories are made one at a time with
a collection of “modules” or different
ideas and hooks that can be picked up, that way, if any piece won’t fit in with
a general idea or direction, and can just as easily be replaced and stepped
back in.
So far I’ve synopsis for at least three “Modules" each of
which could be expanded into a full story arc, of varying length depending on circumstances.
The Villains
Of course, a good story is nothing without good villains.
Rather than have a moustache twirler effect going on I’d like the villains to
be reflections of our heroes, Mirror duplicates of them motivated by the same
drives and ideas but taken in a way that’s
them on the opposite side f the chess board.
Canada
Canada here serves as the perfect example of what I’m
running with here. Not only has its nigh-villainous qualities been set up with MAPLE in
the excellent Wireless, run but the idea of it, Americans nerdy
younger brother kicking ass an taking names, perfectly encapsulates what I mean of the “Seize the
Future” idea here.
Canada’s place as subservient, politically to the UK, Socioeconomically
to the US, has put it in a bit of a cultural crisis. Now with the metahumans
coming up and the Governments reaction to them, I believe we should evolve this
direction.
Rather than have the fear of the Superhumans manifest as gotta
“purge them all, Canada is “gotta catch ‘em all” SO as opposed to the various
reactionary methods started across the world in this “New Space Race” we see a
new political party rush into power and a charismatic PM declaring that the
Superhumans must be used for “The Common Good.”
In a twisted inversion of the idea of using Superhumans for
public works, as recommended on this thread, he imparts the Canadian superhuman
presence along a massive cultural resurgence.
People tatted up with Maple leaves screaming Canada Pride! Very special episodes of Degrassi about what
to do if you spot a Meta, that kind of stuff. As the sleeping giant wakes up, enter…
The Metamen
These guys ARE the future, a classic villain team in opposition
to the heroes, they represent the dark mirror of the Scientific
Self-Determination at the heart of a superhero narrative, rather than being
individuals with talents, naturally raised, these beings are abominations born
of science and impiety.
Colonel Canada -The Human Regiment
Decked out in the white and red, an
ultra-patriotic leader of the Metamen and a dark play on the “Captain Country”
theme. Not only is he equipped with the
best purview in human enhancing hardware and bioware imaginable, but his brain
is linked up to a hyper neruobionet. A Colonel is nothing without his Regiment
and a legion of the Dominion’s Finest stand with him as the shock troopers of
the New Agenda. These guys just aren’t mooks, but their brains are his brains, and
so every command execution, all their training, skills, abilities, not to
mention all sensory input, is wired right into his brain. A Colonel IS his
regiment and with the combined skills of the 1000 best men in the Canadian
military he is an unstoppable strategic, physical and commanding force. Jingoistic,
commandeering and egotistical, His entire motivation is based on petulant pride
and general self-loathing, every high School Jock writ large and with a couple billion
dollars’ worth of superpowers behind him
MuscleMind- When The Brains ARE The Brawn
Who said all the cool names are taken? MM is a play up on
the MODOK/Dr Zola idea. A big ol face in a sci-fi boxjar but with a huge brain spiraling
out the top, until it curves and comes down into muscle fists, walking like
gorilla on his own brain lobes. MuscleMind's brain has been energized into a giant
muscle, giving him brain and brawn, using GalvaKinectic stimulation, the more
he “works out” his super strength empowered Muscle/Arm/Brains the smarter he
gets and as he pummels you he can calculate the way the battle is going 2,365 moves from
now.
The Blitz- Zoom Zoom Boom!
A riff on the classic flying brick archetype, He has graviocentric
spheres embedded all across his body giving him that “gratuitously over
designed sci-fi look.” Each sphere can generate force, which can be used for
burst speed, invulnerability, flight or superstrength. But rather than the
controlled method of say superman, imagine something more akin to The Bullet.
Blasting out, zigg zaging midair and making very abrupt and sharp turns, putting
uncontrollable pinball chaos in a jar.
Chaos Brain- The Future is His
A Dark figure, the top of his head replaced with the clear
black pulsating, dark mass in a case, with it coming down to two big view screens
were his eyes were. Chaos Brain has the power of quantum foresight, meaning he can
see every event at once and take the most optimal one. This guy can walk
through a room of guys all shooting at him and make it to eth other side
without a scratch. When seen are shown from his perspective, they look like
this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v;=T2OytHzZ72Y
Zarathustra- God exists and it is Canadian.
The big one, filling in my favorite design scheme of “boundless
unlimited power that needs to be held in and can only be let out it little pieces”
Cyclopes, The Wind Tunnel from Inuyasha, Black Bolt etc.
The look is what would happen if you took Xorn/Zorn and did
it in Ancient Iran, All body features totally unidentifiable, not even a
gender. A Huge facemask and every orifice covered up in hard metal casing. In
the abdomen a large pulsating warp core glowing green. When using these powers (“When
Zarathustra Speaks) large amounts of energy come out of the release valves in
the armor. Usually the holes in the hands, but if really powerful, it opens up
from the mask holes. They will blast anything anywhere: volcanos, under the ocean,
the sun, powers limitless. The Transport member of the team and also the most dangerous
since there is a literally Rapture Bomb* in its chest.
*An explosion is merely the act of taking an object's components
and moving them elsewhere in a radius. Now imagine each individual atom of a structure
being teleported a thousand miles away. Boom.
I have several more in mind, (Heroes Infinite, Ben Peor and
Lady Asherah, The Coming of EGO, World War S but it would be impetuous to list
of further modules after this one. I don't know exactly how you handle
editorial and writing assignments. But I’m good as a plotter working with a
scripter and should the ideas be liked but spots already taken with other
writers, I could join on with them as an “editor" to try to bring what you
liked into my pitch into their work.
I have a few ideas for future stories:
The first is a biggie, one that I brought up with Nepath as an idea, and would hope someone will take up–since he has abandoned Energize Stormfront in his comic, I say we take the pages he already did and use them to make it into a Heroes Alliance story, finishing everything and putting a capper on the Stormfront storyline. Of course, this is in part because I don't want to see great art go to waste, but also because it can have a cool scenario where Heroes Alliance can be seen as coming to the forefront in the public's mind, that there is a team after Heroes Unite. Plus, the fun battles that can happen and the true impending dread of knowing their enemy is the villain that in one future took out all the heroes in the world.
Second, I have an idea of a man who goes about stealing superhumans, or at least their weaponry if they don't have powers, in order to somehow augment their power onto his own in order to become powerful enough to possibly be considered audience with the Elder Gods (or whatever name one wants to use for Lovcraftian gods) in order to join their ranks and possibly rule the world, leaving it up to the non-powered, now-unarmed heroes to rise up against him, both to save their fellow heroes and villains (I'd imagine the process transferring the powers would also sap their lifeforce) and to prevent the Elder Gods from destroying the Earth should they enter our plane of existance (as they are likely to do without even realizing it exists).
Third, something I've had cooking for a bit, and not quite as big as the last two (involving my characters, of course)–someone has tampered with Relik's belt, causing him to be transported to another dimension of vicious monsters when he puts it on. Sparkle gets sucked in with him, because she had entered the room trying to build the courage to ask Brad out. Bombshell and Astral, the latter of which had been urged by Sparkle to ask Bombshell out if she was to do the same with Brad, are the first to find out about this and work to get the two heroes free, as Relik and Sparkle fight for their lives.
abt_nihil: Yes, Venom Bomb (and the film: Prometheus, in ways) is where the idea came from. Regarding characters - I'm currently going through the roster now of a few and Shell and Relik are definites (they have armor for protection) - maybe Titan. For those who get infected I have : Bombshell, Bleeder, Comet Kid, Peligroso - and more. I have sent you the roughy plan, though, for the issue via personal quack. Let me know what you think. In pages - yes, I think it will come to around 25 pages, maybe less :-)
@Jim:
Out of the downfall of the HU came two things that are already established. 1) Heroes Alliance 2) The Heroes Unite - which is a small team headed up by Tazer with Natasha (a.k.a former commander) now calling herself Mercenary.
Your idea is very indepth and interesting but if it does work out as an HA chapter at some point it would be minus Tazer and Natasha.
Yeah Nepath, i was originally tryin to pitch this in the HU Forum, but since ite was inactive, I asked Abt and he told me to come here. It's supposed to be a follow up to the current HU run in the same way Whedon's astonishing X-Men follwe Morrison's New X-Men. So it wouldnt be happneding concurrent with what's going on now if your worried about scheduling conflicts.
@JimHarbor:
Frankly, I'm not sure what you're aiming for. A reboot? Relaunch? Parallel universe? New series? Elseworlds? Whatever it is, how do you think we could pull off MAKING it? With a community project, that's always the primary question. What we've been trying to do for the past few years is, slowly but surely, establish an ongoing series, integrating new characters as we go along. We've hardly cashed in on what we've established so far. Why should we start something completely new at this point, something that doesn't acknowledge present continuity, but rather reshuffles the deck completely?
Here's an update on stories which are currently in the works. The numbering is more or less tentative, of course.
HA #8 "Shinobi" written by ironhand (upcoming chapter)
HA #9 "Wrath of the Zombie Queen", a three-act story currently being written by myself; introducing R.I.S.E., built around a script by sux
HA #10 "Fandango", written by PIT_FACE, featuring a clash of RISE recruits Bones and Desperado
HA #11 - no title yet; this is where I try wrapping up some loose threads from previous chapters and solidify HA's place in the world, including specifying their relationship to RISE. I've written bits and pieces, but this is still quite vague. I'd like to write this around a confrontation with a new villain, but the villain's motivation should be rather simple so the chapter won't get cluttered. Any suggestions?
HA #12 - I'd always liked the idea for this season to consist of 12 chapters, which would make this the season finale… but we don't have anything tangible for it yet. The "Army of JOD" story by AzuJOD would be an option, but I think it could also make for a nice season 2 opener… it's up for discussion.
Also, "Crossed Wires" may be in the works…? And anything I forgot?
I agree that 12 issues is a good place to finish off the first "series" and also that the army of JOD storyline does make a good opener rather than an ending. What I would suggest is that we make each series very different. Perhaps we should raise the stakes in series 2? Make it darker? By doing that, the JOD story definitely fits in there.
In regards Issue 12 - I would say that it has to be big and a pretty solid ending: in that maybe it doesn't wrap things up but does solve one or two things as well as open stuff up. So something pretty big needs to happen that will showcase the main cast. I mentioned to abt before that it would be good to have HA go "public" by the end.
Give me a bit of time and I will come up with some suggestions for Issue 12 as I think I have something in the back of my mind I just can't seem to dig it up at the minute.
How would people feel about doing a play-by-post role playing thread on the message board? I found such things to be entertaining on the Pride High message boards and can help people get a better feel for characters, as well as creating interaction and relationships for the characters without the pressure of it being part of a particular issue of the comic.
Of course, I ask because I'm running a crossover for the year and I figure it's the easiest way to get Heroes Alliance involved. I would want it to be drawn after it's done, but wouldn't be incredibly hurt to see such a thing remain in text form. In any event, it could be a way for each person to bring their characters into such a thing and know they are treated well, while also maintaining good interaction and the like with the others.
Such a role-playing thread would be a story of sorts, where each person posts their additions, using their own character(s) to further the plot. This is a thread I ran on the Pride High message boards that I think can show how things can work. Do you guys think such a thing would be something you would take part in?
Depending on how it times well with other stories, perhaps HA #11 Would be best developed as a sort of "Pilot Finale" Kind of like in Stargate or SGU, a story that ends the threads of one ongoing metanarrative but develops toward a new one. Forn example, putting a JOD type of set up that establishes the Staus Quo that story is working off of.
To that end it may help to have input from the composers of what comes after to work with it.
Also on the subject of Equilibrium, the project was up in the air, and if no one wants to take it I'm asking if it woud be ok for me to start composing it.
I've also talked with A LOT of people over A LOT of time about my HI concept and from what I can tell I'm ok to wait and then see how viable it is to do.
In the meantime I want to establish myself as a Huniverse Regular so please send me all the writing chorse you can manage. ;)
This is true. I might be reading too much into EGO's dialogue with Blue Beacon. Before that EGO had literally known no purpose but to fight. I was left with a vision that his eyes had been opened to new possibilities by Blue Beacon's speech and he had gone off into the stars to do some soul-searching and find himself.
V'ger (or for that matter NOMAD) from Star Trek is a great analogy: A storyline where EGO has fused with alien technology and is operating from(at first) incomprehensibly alien motivations is much more interesting to me than one where he's an outright villain.
I also really liked JimHarbor's analogy that the story could be as much about the heroes and their differing opinions what this all means. I'd hope Blue Beacon could make a repeat appearance.
Is the EGO storyline still going ahead, btw?
P.S. Loving the hero reform idea! I'm a massive fan of the old Suicide Squad…
P.P.S. Not loving the new quote system anywhere near as much. -_-
Abt_Nihil wrote:
irrevenant's comment about EGO:
The point about EGO is that he's programmed to do what seems logical/reasonable. I didn't mean that he's actually "convinced" by the aliens to attack the earth, but rather that either his programming is tinkered with or that the aliens sort of expand it (i.e. his "mind") (Think of V'ger from Star Trek - The Motion Picture). I do see your point though - his decisions should definitely made palpable in light of what's been established, and not just have any "character development" (whatever "character" he might have) be reverted. What happens should be viewed as further development. Note that at no point did he oppose his being used as a military tool. What he opposed was his destruction.
Also note that EGO, ebing a machine, doenst have human mnotobvations.
He knows nothign of rage, greed, jelaousy, love etc. So why he does what he does will ukltimatly be from a standpoint toatlly alien to any organic thougt.
Also the Equilbrium outline is done! What do you think?
So Abt and I just discussed a sort of "Gaiden"
project that I'm going to shop around here.
If any of you follow Mainstream comics, you'll know that
back in 2006 or so, DC made 52, a weekly comic written in collaboration by
their four best writers.Rather than focus on one story or character, it was an
ensemble that acted as a showcase for the DCU as a whole. Less a normal comic
serial and more a TV series crossed with a DND campaign.
The idea here is to do something similar. A handful of writers, all of which who
have ideas and background aspects that it may not be feasible to fit into full
comics, would band together and make a master plot.
This plot would then be broken down into chapters and posted
in prose format on say… fictionpress or some such place. The writers would
take turns rotating the chapters and focus, giving a story analogous to Wild
Cards or Game of Thrones in scope; with shifting perspectives and characters in
a wide developed universe.
Not only could it serve as a "sourcebook" providing background data and agreater exploration of the Universe than can be done on the Duck WebcomicModel, but it could be used as a platform for what we CAN bring into the comics.
Going just by what I know I can handle, I'm confidante that
with at least three regular writers who can do a chapter a month or so that we could
keep up the pace of a well done work on ff.net.
Abt is pretty busy with just the HA business so I'd be
handling most of the logistics, reporting to him with pertinent information so
as to make sure nothing is disturbed.
So, do I have any takers?
I have a story idea and I wanted to run it by you guys for input and comments, to see if it's suitable (and to see if it's okay to use the characters of Titan, Comet Kid and Bombshell in my script).
It's a short story (for the new Brave and the Bold-style "Hero Features Presents") that introduces a new hero (Chaos) and a new villain/minion (the R.E.S.P.O.N.S.E Drone) and leaves a dangling thread in the form of a plot by an unknown (probably but not necessarily roboticist) villain.
NEW CHARACTERS
Chaos: Ben Wyndham was a teen genius (he's now in his early 20s) and a bit of a scientific superstar who got rich off his patents by the age of 12. He used his wealth to indulge his private fascination for the martial arts, training with masters from around the world, obsessed with discovering the elusive formula for martial arts perfection. Despite his best efforts and a high degree of natural aptitude, he found himself unable to break martial arts mastery down into a scientific formula and . Until one day, he was visiting his sifu in China for his monthly lesson and always ineffectual attempt to defeat sifu in hand-to-hand. He watched and waited while sifu graciously assisted in training a group of novices. Sifu had one student come at him to demonstrate defensive posture. The student tripped and sprawled flailing, striking sifu and knocking him down as he fell. Ben laughed and laughed and laughed and, as the koans say: at that moment Ben was enlightened. Profoundly absorbing the lesson, Ben became the embodiment of randomness, his moves equal parts unpredictable and implausible. As the hero Chaos he wears a costume composed of a biopolymers of his own design across which bright colours constantly morph and shift (imagine if Rorschach's mask covered his entire body and was composed of bright clashing colours).
Prudence (on comms)
Prudence is Chaos's intelligence and base-command. She is the surviving half of the heroic once-duo Prudence and Patience and was saved by Chaos in the encounter that left Patience dead. She only appears on Comms in this story. (Hmm, maybe in a HUD in Chaos's costume?)
R.E.S.P.O.N.S.E Automated Drone: A large robot (about the size of a van) designed to scan heroes and adapt its capability and skills to oppose them. Even without using that ability it is very tough and well armed.
PLOT SUMMARY
Scene: The annual Future Fair where the best and brightest of upcoming technology is showcased. Futuristic gizmos (including the clearly labelled R.E.S.P.O.N.S.E Automated Drone) and milling crowds are everywhere.
Comet Kid (CK) is having a great time looking at all the cool stuff and happy to keep saying so. Titan's demeanour is more serious. She reminds him that they're not there to have fun, they're there because Bombshell has received information that a villain will be attempting to assassinate an unknown target at the Fair.
At the podium is former child/teen scientific prodigy (and now run-of-the-mill adult multi-disciplinary genius) Ben Wyndham giving a talk on something fascinating and impressive.
Behind Titan, the R.E.S.P.O.N.S.E Drone begins to move and sends out beams, scanning Titan from behind. Ben shouts "Look out!" and points. As Titan turns and leaps at the Drone, it states "Analysis complete. Designate: Titan. Strength and durability exceeding rated combat parameters. Response: Remove from combat zone". A blast catches her mid-leap, blasting her upward and leaving a roughly Titan-shaped hole in the roof. The crowd scatters.
Titan lets CK know via comms that she's okay but she's been knocked a few miles away and he needs to contain the Drone while she gets back. Meanwhile Ben changes into his Chaos superhero duds hidden behind the podium/stage thingy.
The Drone pops out several arms, each ending in a nasty looking weapon (some ranged) or claw or hand. Chaos pops up and there is a moment where CK assumes he's a second assailant but they both decide to avert that cliche. Comet Kid engages, managing to blow away a few of the arms before the Drone analyses him and somehow produces a repellent coating that protects it from Comet Kid's energy constructs. CK is genre-savvy enough to use his powers to pick up stuff and attack the drone with it, but his ability to hurt it is reduced. Chaos uses a few tricks against it (including some sort of nifty adhesive goop which locks up one arm before it adapts) but is expending most of his effort in just not getting killed.
Chaos asks Prudence for input over his commlink. She points out that martial arts, even if they are transcendentally unpredictable is useful against street thugs and not so much against killer robots of doom. She suggests "run".
The Drone manages to knock CK away for a moment and scans Chaos, identifying him as a non-powered human martial artist and setting to work analysing his style. Prudence has tried to research the R.E.S.P.O.N.S.E Drone but has discovered it was not an enrolled exhibit at the fair. Also, the Drone seems to be sending a signal but not receiving one.
Chaos gets in the Drone's face, distracting it and drawing its focus. Frustrated (in a Dronesque way) by its inability to hit him, the Drone pours more resources into trying to anticipate his movements, growing more erratic and flailing as it is unable to. At which point Chaos asks the Drone "Forgotten anybody?" and it is torn in two from a single blow from behind by Titan.
Later: Bombshell has turned up for a debrief. Titan laments that they still don't know who it was intending to assassinate and that maybe they'll find out once they pull it apart back at base. Chaos passes on what Prudence mentioned about the Drone sending some sort of a signal. Bombshell suggests maybe the assassination plan was just a ruse to lure HA here so they could be analysed. Chaos advises care in taking the Drone back to base in case it somehow uses the opportunity to analyse more of the team and Bombshell agrees it's a good idea to have it taken somewhere off site for analysis instead.
Bombshell mentions that they're aware of his heroing efforts and extends her usual offer to Chaos to think about affiliating himself with the team. He's chuffed that someone of Bombshell's stature would have even heard of him until she points out that fighting crime at night wearing the equivalent of a dayglo lava lamp tends to make one fairly conspicuous. Embarrassed, he agrees that she has a point there and that normally he works alone (to a *coughcough* in his ear from Prudence) but he'll definitely think about it.
END
Any thoughts or input? Does it seem suitable? I'm not sure what length we're aiming at for "Hero Features Presents" but it would be a comparatively short tale (something like 8-12 pages at a guess).
Thanks.
I've been thinking about opening up the role-playing thread I mentioned, but want to know what sort of support I have for it. I'm posting the cover tomorrow to the storyline of Astral and Sparkle dealing with an invasion tied to the crossover. I would hope this could run concurrently to the role-playing thread, either interweaving with it or, in a simpler way to do things, I could only play as my other HUniverse characters in the role-playing thread (I have a few–Locomotive, Noggin, Technica, Purple Power, the Herculean, and the Ammon Kid–so I know it wouldn't be hard for me to find another character). But it would be nice to see Heroes Alliance get involved in the crossover in a way that doesn't take over the actual Heroes Alliance comic (though I would still desire to make the thing into a comic–likely in a separate place, though, to, again, not take over the actual comic–I would likely take a lion's share of art duties, if not doing all the art).
I just want to know what support I have because I don't want to start a thread nobody really cares about in the first place.
On another note, like it says in the latest post in my What You Believe thread, I still need coloring on those two uncolored pages. Try as I might I can't do it, and I lost contact with RazielArt. Anybody up to it?
I read a comment in an old thread that a lot of recent stories have featured hordes of enemies and large numbers of heroes and that it would be nice to have a story that focusses on a smaller group of heroes (and give the artists a bit of a break from massive crowd scenes. :)).
With that in mind, I present:
LEVIATHAN
A huge, multi-headed beast emerges from the ocean to attack London,heading for the Houses of Parliament. Bombshell and a small HA team are already there having just finished another case and engage the creature, which mops the floor with them before retreating. Bombshell manages to get a tracer on it before it disappears back into the ocean. (For added drama, the creature can swallow the tracer so who knows how long they have before the tracer dissolved in the creature's gut.
Bombshell quickly puts together a team that can weather the ocean's depths (I'm thinking Relik, SHELL, Comet Kid, maybe Titan) and sends them after the creature. SUX proposed a character who found a mysterious suit of ancient steam-powered subaquatic power armour who would fit very well here.
They pursue the tracer to the ocean floor off the coast of England. They lose the signal, but not before discovering a subaquatic city with an aesthetic combining classical architecture with steampunk- the ancient city of Atlantis.
Turns out the reason no one has been able to find Atlantis is it MOVES. The city roams the ocean floor using thermal vents as a power source. (If SUX's character is along, presumably his suit is of Atlantean origin).
As our heroes explore they are attacked by the city's automated defences and have to fight them off. In exploring they find the library and an indication that there was a major disaster and the citizens of Atlantis fled through the "Mouth of Hell". (It helps here if SUX's character has an archaeological background). They also come across a known supervillain with an archaelogy-based background - dead. (Alternately, substitute The Ancient - alive and trapped in some inexplicable bit of Atlantean stasis machinery - but that (a) might make the story a bit too like HA #2 and (b) mute the upcoming surprise).
After a while they reach a HUGE throne room, and sitting in the throne is… Anarch! And a hulking silhouette - the Leviathan! Anarch orders the Leviathan to attack them.
They fight Leviathan and are badly overmatched. Anarch looks on, amused. One of the team recalls that, in some myths, Leviathan would devour the souls of the damned - which suggests 'the mouth of hell' is *Leviathan's* mouth. One of them is brave enough to test this theory (I nominate Comet Kid) by leaping into the beast's mouth and disappearing. After a long enough moment for everyone to freak out, the beast's mouths glow and Comet Kid and a handful of Atlanteans emerge, one of whom is a regal woman. Anarch tries to flee but the team capture him and the regal woman reclaims her throne.
Turns out the 'Mouth of Hell' is a portal to the pocket dimension where the ancient Atlanteans sent their worst criminals. When a disaster befell the city, the Atlantean people were desperate enough to seek refuge in the pocket dimension. Unfortunately, due to their haste, they found themselves trapped there.
Anarch had hooked up with the other villain who knew the location of Atlantis and Anarch took them both there with stolen teleportation powers. He then either disposed of his partner, or his partner was overcome by the city's defences and left behind (depending which option you went with earlier) and Anarch took control of the city - and the Leviathan. He popped into the other dimension long enough to steal the Queen's powers over the city then returned (locking the door behind him, of course). He had the Leviathan attack London - the nearest in a long list of seats of authority he intended to destroy. But unfortunately he couldn't keep control of the Leviathan long enough (perhaps because a certain purity of heart and nobility was needed to control it? or perhaps just because it was never intended for offence) and it returned home.
The HA team return home, having made new Atlantean friends and the city resumes its crawl across the ocean floor.
Anarch can either be taken with the team, or given a taste of Atlantean justice and being thrown back into the Mouth of Hell.
I rather like the idea of playing against type and making the Atlanteans *not* intrinsically aquatic. Instead they're isolationist pioneers who settled the sea bed using advanced steampunk technology - just because they could and to minimise interaction with other civilisations of the time. (Although in their mobile city they did trade with other civilisations occasionally, especially Ancient Greece before they got too annoying).
What I would *really* like to do is make the Atlanteans a colony of ancient Evosians who left Evos over cultural and political differences and made a new home on Earth.
Thing is, I'm not sure (a) If it would be okay to use the Evosians, and (b) If the average Evosian is too powerful for our purposes. We don't want a whole colony of Saroth-level characters rocking around but if they're a *bit* superhuman that would be appropriate.
{EDIT} Nepath gave permission to use the Evosians! Yay! \o/ He said that the Evosian royal family (The Highborn, Quinn, Saroth) had a special connection to the Energize. The average Evosian ranges in Super-humanness from human levels up to (very rarely) Exocet levels, so that's perfect. {/EDIT}
The Leviathan itself I'm very tempted to make a clockpunk automaton, though just how obvious that should be from the outside, I'm not sure.
P.S. Sorry for the double post - I'm not brave enough to face DD's editing system. :/
Advertise with us
DDComics is community owned.
The following patrons help keep the lights on. You can support DDComics on Patreon.
- Banes
- JustNoPoint
- RMccool
- Abt_Nihil
- Gunwallace
- cresc
- PaulEberhardt
- Emma_Clare
- FunctionCreep
- SinJinsoku
- Smkinoshita
- jerrie
- Chickfighter
- Andreas_Helixfinger
- Tantz_Aerine
- Genejoke
- Davey Do
- Gullas
- Roma
- NanoCritters
- Teh Andeh
- Peipei
- Digital_Genesis
- Hushicho
- Palouka
- Cheeko
- Paneltastic
- L.C.Stein
- Zombienomicon
- Dpat57
- Bravo1102
- TheJagged
- LoliGen
- OrcGirl
- Fallopiancrusader
- Arborcides
- ChipperChartreuse
- Mogtrost
- InkyMoondrop
- jgib99
- Call me tom
- OrGiveMeDeath_Ind
- Mks_monsters
- GregJ
- HawkandFloAdventures
- Soushiyo