[General]The Return of CHARACTER CONCEPTS

Moderators: Shroom Man 777, Ford Prefect

User avatar
Shroom Man 777
Global Mod
Posts: 4637
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 7:09 pm
Contact:

Re: [General]The Return of CHARACTER CONCEPTS

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

Maybe like some bad guy had a collection of legally acquired cursed guns, which got stolen when some crooks broke in, and something-something. And like this guy is a card carrying member of the NRA and is on about how cursed guns don't kill people, people kill people.
Image

"Sometimes Shroomy I wonder if your imagination actually counts as some sort of war crime." - FROD
User avatar
Invictus
Posts: 1306
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 11:44 pm

Re: [General]The Return of CHARACTER CONCEPTS

Post by Invictus »

Evil Richard Hiram! The Devil Gunsmith! :P
"This explanation posits that external observation leads to the collapse of the quantum wave function. This is another expression of reactionary idealism, and it's indeed the most brazen expression."
-
REBUILD OF COMIX STAGE 1 - Rey Quirino Versus the Dark Heart of the Philippines
"...a literary atrocity against the senses..." - Ford

REBUILD OF COMIX STAGE 2 - Advent Rey Returns: REVERGELTUNG
Coming NEVER
User avatar
Czernobog
Posts: 1315
Joined: Thu May 22, 2008 9:27 am
Location: Holy Terra

Re: [General]The Return of CHARACTER CONCEPTS

Post by Czernobog »

Invictus wrote:Evil Richard Hiram! The Devil Gunsmith! :P
GUNISHMENT.
You have ruled this galaxy for ten thousand years.
You have little of account to show for your efforts.
Order. Unity. Obedience.
We taught the galaxy these things.

And we shall do so again.
User avatar
Shroom Man 777
Global Mod
Posts: 4637
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 7:09 pm
Contact:

Re: [General]The Return of CHARACTER CONCEPTS

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

He could be an evil Lee Van Cleef with like cases full of cursed guns. The Slinger kills him or something, but his cursed guns get loose and the sequels are filled with all sorts of shmucks coming after the Slinger while wielding cursed shooting irons.

Or a quickdraw tournament with all sorts of participants, and bosses wielding these cursed guns. A cross between the likes of Yu Yu Hashuko and The Quick and the Dead
Image

"Sometimes Shroomy I wonder if your imagination actually counts as some sort of war crime." - FROD
User avatar
Shroom Man 777
Global Mod
Posts: 4637
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 7:09 pm
Contact:

Re: [General]The Return of CHARACTER CONCEPTS

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

ENEMAN
Image

"Sometimes Shroomy I wonder if your imagination actually counts as some sort of war crime." - FROD
User avatar
Booted Vulture
Posts: 965
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 9:33 pm

Re: [General]The Return of CHARACTER CONCEPTS

Post by Booted Vulture »

it is time. Arise from your slumber ye undead thread, forth through the necromantic aura of time to a bold future.

---

Anyhoo, I've been watching a lot of the Teen Titans cartoon. And i was Thinking that comix should have a teenager team of superheroes but the requisite twist would be that their leader was an ex-teenager hero. Saying in their mid-twenties just pushing that time period when they realise they're mortal and their body isn't quite as good as they think it ought to be. (like the age when you say 'i feel so old' when you're not really old at all)

So he's formed a teen team of actually young teenagers, ostensibly to mentor them in the noble art of heroics but subconsciously at least partly to live vicariously through the younger members of the team.

Basically. what if the teen titans were leader by nightwing undergoing a quarter-life-crisis.
Ah Brother! It's been too long!
User avatar
Invictus
Posts: 1306
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 11:44 pm

Re: [General]The Return of CHARACTER CONCEPTS

Post by Invictus »

I remember Speaker ran with a concept like that, except then the team all died and the middle-aged leader works for a supervillain mogul now. :P

But sure, let's start with the leader. Fortunately, teen superheroes aren't that hard to come up with in Comix. Superpowers or a plain vigilante type?
"This explanation posits that external observation leads to the collapse of the quantum wave function. This is another expression of reactionary idealism, and it's indeed the most brazen expression."
-
REBUILD OF COMIX STAGE 1 - Rey Quirino Versus the Dark Heart of the Philippines
"...a literary atrocity against the senses..." - Ford

REBUILD OF COMIX STAGE 2 - Advent Rey Returns: REVERGELTUNG
Coming NEVER
User avatar
Booted Vulture
Posts: 965
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 9:33 pm

Re: [General]The Return of CHARACTER CONCEPTS

Post by Booted Vulture »

Invictus wrote:I remember Speaker ran with a concept like that, except then the team all died and the middle-aged leader works for a supervillain mogul now. :P
Figures all the good ideas have been done already.
But sure, let's start with the leader. Fortunately, teen superheroes aren't that hard to come up with in Comix. Superpowers or a plain vigilante type?
I figure a plain vigilante type who leads a bunch of people with genuine superpowers.
Ah Brother! It's been too long!
User avatar
Invictus
Posts: 1306
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 11:44 pm

Re: [General]The Return of CHARACTER CONCEPTS

Post by Invictus »

Booted Vulture wrote:I figure a plain vigilante type who leads a bunch of people with genuine superpowers.
Complete with back in his day, superheroing was also done while walking uphill barefoot in the snow? I like that.

I wouldn't even mind if he had a few straightforward powers if the rest of his team are all like jaded millennials with postmodern clever for cleverness' sake abilities.
"This explanation posits that external observation leads to the collapse of the quantum wave function. This is another expression of reactionary idealism, and it's indeed the most brazen expression."
-
REBUILD OF COMIX STAGE 1 - Rey Quirino Versus the Dark Heart of the Philippines
"...a literary atrocity against the senses..." - Ford

REBUILD OF COMIX STAGE 2 - Advent Rey Returns: REVERGELTUNG
Coming NEVER
User avatar
Shroom Man 777
Global Mod
Posts: 4637
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 7:09 pm
Contact:

Re: [General]The Return of CHARACTER CONCEPTS

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

The leader is Soothsay. Richard Gray, Age No Longer Twelve. I don't like him. :twisted:
Image

"Sometimes Shroomy I wonder if your imagination actually counts as some sort of war crime." - FROD
User avatar
Invictus
Posts: 1306
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 11:44 pm

Re: [General]The Return of CHARACTER CONCEPTS

Post by Invictus »

Shroom Man 777 wrote:The leader is Soothsay. Richard Gray, Age No Longer Twelve. I don't like him. :twisted:
YES

...I've forgotten what his powers even did.
"This explanation posits that external observation leads to the collapse of the quantum wave function. This is another expression of reactionary idealism, and it's indeed the most brazen expression."
-
REBUILD OF COMIX STAGE 1 - Rey Quirino Versus the Dark Heart of the Philippines
"...a literary atrocity against the senses..." - Ford

REBUILD OF COMIX STAGE 2 - Advent Rey Returns: REVERGELTUNG
Coming NEVER
User avatar
Shroom Man 777
Global Mod
Posts: 4637
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 7:09 pm
Contact:

Re: [General]The Return of CHARACTER CONCEPTS

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

He could gain prescience by inhaling certain chemicals, most usually glue. I am guessing that his powers improve a little bit so that he gets an epiphany after sniffing some other chemicals and having a mystic seance where he gets raped by the ghost of his dead parents.
Image

"Sometimes Shroomy I wonder if your imagination actually counts as some sort of war crime." - FROD
User avatar
Invictus
Posts: 1306
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 11:44 pm

Re: [General]The Return of CHARACTER CONCEPTS

Post by Invictus »

My retcon is more thorough. (and egregious in a published comics kind of way)

Richard Gray was Age Twelve and stayed Age Twelve throughout the Crow's reign of terror, because that was his actual super-power: his form changed according to what he believed about himself, and Wayne Banner was very successful at making him feel like a worthless little shit.

But then as Vagrant Orpheus hinted in some ancient bygone post, the Crow's career wasn't meant to be the status quo and it is to be presumed by the Comix! present he had crashed and burned. Richard Gray Age Twelve went through some therapy and promptly un-regressed back into his TRUE FORM, the result of the life that he should have lived, which is a strapping twenty-something who turns out to be pretty talented at unpowered crimefighting.

...Or maybe he just stuck with unpowered crimefighting because it is the only thing he knows how to do with his upbringing and is still pretty damaged on the inside. But while he remains reasonably confident about himself he's actually pretty badass, but the moment something knocks him out of whack he starts regressing back to AGE TWELVE again.

His earlier precognitive powers are now retconned into incomplete manifestations of his TRUE POWER, some tiny core of self-esteem that survived the Crow's all-encompassing psychopathy that leaked visions of the life he should have lived (i.e. THE FUTURE). But since he consciously suppressed this, it could only be accessed while he was in rare states of euphoria/altered consciousness i.e. while high on glue.

Anyway Richard Gray teeters between burnout and getting himself killed when these teenage millennial generation metahumans who seemed to have walked straight out of WORM or KICK-ASS or ONEPUNCH MAN started glomming onto him because they like semi-ironically consider him to be the most hardcore ex-teen sidekick ever. And then Gray finds himself looking after them because they're all enthusiastic hipster amateurs with quirky yet dangerous abilities.

And then Richard Gray, no longer Age Twelve, starts believing in them. And his powers start turning him into a literal memetic badass...
"This explanation posits that external observation leads to the collapse of the quantum wave function. This is another expression of reactionary idealism, and it's indeed the most brazen expression."
-
REBUILD OF COMIX STAGE 1 - Rey Quirino Versus the Dark Heart of the Philippines
"...a literary atrocity against the senses..." - Ford

REBUILD OF COMIX STAGE 2 - Advent Rey Returns: REVERGELTUNG
Coming NEVER
User avatar
Shroom Man 777
Global Mod
Posts: 4637
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 7:09 pm
Contact:

Re: [General]The Return of CHARACTER CONCEPTS

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

That is incredibly fukken awesome.

But, in memory of The Goddamn Crow...

I STILL DON'T LIKE HIM

:mrgreen:



Seriously though. It is an incredible idea. And kind of actually sort of encompasses modern day upper-middle young adult yuppie man-child issues. We've got a generation of super-awesome super-capable super-smart people, the smartest generation ever, but because of the fucked up parenting and upbringing they experienced... this might also be the most fragile and potentially regression-risky generation thus far.

Richard Gray No Longer Age Twelve (I Still Don't Like Him) is us...
Image

"Sometimes Shroomy I wonder if your imagination actually counts as some sort of war crime." - FROD
User avatar
Invictus
Posts: 1306
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 11:44 pm

Re: [General]The Return of CHARACTER CONCEPTS

Post by Invictus »

The other team members need to represent his vicarious rejection of reality as well. Sure, Richard Grey feels on some level that he deserves to live life the fullest after his elongated childhood, and just ride his status as a postmodern superhero icon into literally becoming the love child of Vin Diesel and Chuck Norris. But on another level he also feels that fully embracing said delusional image of himself (since his powers make him have has no objective self-image) would make him no better than his (tor)mentor.

So he lives his dream through his team. Just as Booted originally proposed.
"This explanation posits that external observation leads to the collapse of the quantum wave function. This is another expression of reactionary idealism, and it's indeed the most brazen expression."
-
REBUILD OF COMIX STAGE 1 - Rey Quirino Versus the Dark Heart of the Philippines
"...a literary atrocity against the senses..." - Ford

REBUILD OF COMIX STAGE 2 - Advent Rey Returns: REVERGELTUNG
Coming NEVER
User avatar
Shroom Man 777
Global Mod
Posts: 4637
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 7:09 pm
Contact:

Re: [General]The Return of CHARACTER CONCEPTS

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

His ultimate stage is that his memetic badass powers have an extending field that thus empower his team mates, making the whole "living your dream through others" or whatnot take a literal meaning. In the end he becomes a person, man or child, dreaming about superheroes... and his dreams make them true! His bestest ending is him all wounded and beaten and no longer badass, but his powers are not stymied, he does not regress, instead he sits and as his breasts bleed, his dreams of better things empower his teammates to do awesome things while he takes a step back and watches incredible things happen.
Image

"Sometimes Shroomy I wonder if your imagination actually counts as some sort of war crime." - FROD
User avatar
Ford Prefect
Posts: 957
Joined: Tue May 20, 2008 11:12 am

Re: [General]The Return of CHARACTER CONCEPTS

Post by Ford Prefect »

That retcon is actually scary enough that it might happen in a real comic book.
FEEL THESE GUNS ARCHWIND THESE ARE THE GUNS OF THE FLESHY MESSIAH THE TOOLS OF CREATION AND DESTRUCTION THAT WILL ENACT THE LAW OF MAN ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
User avatar
Shroom Man 777
Global Mod
Posts: 4637
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 7:09 pm
Contact:

Re: [General]The Return of CHARACTER CONCEPTS

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

So from some quick banter with my old Jaded Chronicles collaborator.

Simo Haya, the White Death who sniped a thousand Soviets in the Russo-Finnish war, trains an assassin(s). The result is an ultimate super-killy badass named... The Finnisher.
Image

"Sometimes Shroomy I wonder if your imagination actually counts as some sort of war crime." - FROD
User avatar
speaker-to-trolls
Posts: 766
Joined: Thu May 22, 2008 12:34 am
Location: The World of Men

Re: [General]The Return of CHARACTER CONCEPTS

Post by speaker-to-trolls »

Complete nonsense character idea designed basically to annoy the ghost of H.P. Lovecraft.

So there is this Lovecraft story called Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermayn and His Family

Spoilers Below



A nervous English aristocrat researches his own geneaology and discovers that his great grandmother (I think) was the princess of an extinct civilisation of albino gorillas. The aristocrat, horrified at his tainted blood, walks into the garden and sets himself on fire.

This story is about Lovecraft's terror at the idea that nice, posh WASPs like him might secretly be a bit foreign, so what if we had a later descendant of the Jermayn family, either Arthur did not freak out so badly or he had a brother or cousin who was a bit more level headed about the whole thing, and today we have, I don't know, Jarod and Jenny Jermayn, who are obnoxiously aware of their mixed-species origins and spend all their time going to Africa and trying to rediscover their culture. And doing constant press conferences and taking out newspaper articles and making BBC documentaries about the evidence and meaning of Their Culture.

Basically in a few generations we go from 'Posh WASPs horrified at being in any way foreign' to 'Posh WASPs playing up any hint of foreignness in their family tree to make themselves more interesting'

Nonsense, I know, but they could be somewhere in the background.
"Little monuments may be completed by their first architects, but great ones; true ones leave their copestones to posterity. God keep me from completing anything."
User avatar
Heretic
Posts: 1750
Joined: Wed May 21, 2008 4:45 pm
Location: IN AMERICA

Re: [General]The Return of CHARACTER CONCEPTS

Post by Heretic »

Taking an idea I had from my own superhero universe I made to compete with a friend in some sort of crossover/multiverse story.

Urban Hunters
So I'll need to re-orient myself on Comix lore and settings again, but I had this idea for a ragtag group of hobos, waste-pickers, urban explorers, drug addicts, crazies, and other undesirables of sorts who fight spooky things in abandoned and forgotten parts of their city. Using shivs, clubs, nets, improvised weaponry of other sorts, and second hand "artifacts" they bought at new age fairs or that DnD convention, these Urban Hunters will fight shadowy Mole Men, Hulking Alligator Dragons, Rakes, and even the skin-wearing officials of the city itself. The reason this shit is going on without much outside interference is that the very corrupt mayor has the media and police under his thumb, allowing for 2Spooks4Me to roam around and feast on the population, who is slowly dying inside and accepting such things as tragic accidents or gang warfare.

I'm trying to think of some characters, and two ideas was a hobo who could see shit most people can't, but has a speech impediment so hilarity ensues. Another is a Kung Fu street performer who now has to learn real, practical Kung Fu in order to avenge his girlfriend or something.
Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy.
-Joseph Campbell
User avatar
Shroom Man 777
Global Mod
Posts: 4637
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 7:09 pm
Contact:

Re: [General]The Return of CHARACTER CONCEPTS

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

Not bad at all, their streetlevelness would give you flexibility, you don't have to be beholden to aspects of the meta-plot or canon-whatevers if you don't wish to be!
Heretic wrote:Another is a Kung Fu street performer who now has to learn real, practical Kung Fu in order to avenge his girlfriend or something.
Suggestion: If you want to do something different from the usual (tired and even sexist) trope of "must defend vulnerable girl or dead/fridged female," why not either have the avenging kung fu street performer *be* said girlfriend, some kind of part Bruce Lee part Imperator Furiosa, or heck have the martial artist be defending people who don't necessarily have to be intimately connected to him/her. Aside from romantic partners in danger, what would possibly motivate a martial arts avenger? (An inner city buddhist temple turned shelter for folks escaping abusive environments?)
Image

"Sometimes Shroomy I wonder if your imagination actually counts as some sort of war crime." - FROD
User avatar
Siege
Site Admin
Posts: 2563
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 7:03 pm
Location: The Netherlands

Re: [General]The Return of CHARACTER CONCEPTS

Post by Siege »

I would totally set this team of street-level dudes and dudettes in Crowtalon City. Have them liaise with Jefferson Amenophis, PI. Get commissions from Jurgen Baccara. Have them find out their mayor is possessed by the GHOST OF RICHARD NIXON. You know, that sort of thing.

Also yeah totally don't fridge girlfriends, that's quite unneeded. You've got alligator dragons, your characters shouldn't need much more in terms of motivation than the fact that they are JOHNNY CAGE and this is their neighborhood, like a proper 1980's kung fu movie.
"Nick Fury. Old-school cold warrior. The original black ops hardcase. Long before I stepped off a C-130 at Da Nang, Fury and his team had set fire to half of Asia." - Frank Castle

For, now De Ruyter's topsails
Off naked Chatham show,
We dare not meet him with our fleet -
And this the Dutchmen know!
User avatar
Czernobog
Posts: 1315
Joined: Thu May 22, 2008 9:27 am
Location: Holy Terra

Re: [General]The Return of CHARACTER CONCEPTS

Post by Czernobog »

So, new idea for a superhero team. They're based, conceptually, on the seven planets of classical astronomy. No clue as to an origin story, but I'd like for them to gain their powers together. Their characterisation is pretty bare-bones as well, shamefully (damn, I haven't even given them all a team name!)

Jupiter
* Strongest power-wise and the leader/father-figure of the team.
* Oldest as well, starting to grey a bit.
* Has basic flying brick powerset, plus electrokinesis.
* Paladin like personality

Luna
* Beautiful young woman, is exceedingly pale and has white hair.
* Slightly enhanced durability, she mainly fights using her illusion powers to deceive enemies as well as projecting "arrows" of funky solidified moonlight. Seems to have a minor luck aura as well, boosting the team in the field.

Venus
* Older woman (in her 30s), still pretty though. Mediterranean in looks.
* Has the ability to heal people and increase their stamina so they can keep fighting longer, as well as plant control. Increased durability relative to normal humans.

Mars
* Young man with red hair and steel blue eyes.
* Can summon magic suit of armour and gladius that massively increases his ability to fight metahuman foes.
* Tougher and stronger than normal humans by a lot, don't expect him to go toe-to-toe with Man Law though.

Mercury
* Speedster, able to take out a room full of mooks in an eyeblink. Gets dog tired after using his powers for a while though, and won't last long in a protracted fight.
* Youngest in the team, barely out of his teens.

Helios
* Most powerful member of the team after Jupiter, unofficial lieutenant.
* Can fly, control and create fire and emit a powerful pulse of light to blind enemies (this counts as sunlight for all metaphysical purposes. Vampires hate him). Can also emit less light to light up dark places and help his team mates fight in darkness. Standard strength/durability increase as well.
* Blond, handsome young man.
You have ruled this galaxy for ten thousand years.
You have little of account to show for your efforts.
Order. Unity. Obedience.
We taught the galaxy these things.

And we shall do so again.
User avatar
Invictus
Posts: 1306
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 11:44 pm

Re: [General]The Return of CHARACTER CONCEPTS

Post by Invictus »

Shroom Man 777 wrote:Not bad at all, their streetlevelness would give you flexibility, you don't have to be beholden to aspects of the meta-plot or canon-whatevers if you don't wish to be!
Heretic wrote:Another is a Kung Fu street performer who now has to learn real, practical Kung Fu in order to avenge his girlfriend or something.
Suggestion: If you want to do something different from the usual (tired and even sexist) trope of "must defend vulnerable girl or dead/fridged female," why not either have the avenging kung fu street performer *be* said girlfriend, some kind of part Bruce Lee part Imperator Furiosa, or heck have the martial artist be defending people who don't necessarily have to be intimately connected to him/her. Aside from romantic partners in danger, what would possibly motivate a martial arts avenger? (An inner city buddhist temple turned shelter for folks escaping abusive environments?)
Or you know, the most elemental of kung fu reasons - he/she likes to kick ass.

And yes, Crowtalon has been established as being weird and magic in the baseline and having an occult underground that goes down to its very foundations, if a bit high-hazard compared to the settings of Comix's other street level characters. Not to mention THE CROW or whatever is up with him in the present day.

EDIT: I misremembered, THE GODDAMN CROW is not in fact based in Crowtalon despite the name.
Last edited by Invictus on Sun May 01, 2016 12:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"This explanation posits that external observation leads to the collapse of the quantum wave function. This is another expression of reactionary idealism, and it's indeed the most brazen expression."
-
REBUILD OF COMIX STAGE 1 - Rey Quirino Versus the Dark Heart of the Philippines
"...a literary atrocity against the senses..." - Ford

REBUILD OF COMIX STAGE 2 - Advent Rey Returns: REVERGELTUNG
Coming NEVER
User avatar
Booted Vulture
Posts: 965
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 9:33 pm

Re: [General]The Return of CHARACTER CONCEPTS

Post by Booted Vulture »

My daily commute has given me the desire for a superhero character with just enough superstrength/telekinesis to shove cars out of the way when they've stopped right over the pedestrian crossing.

I'm picturing a costume made entirely out of hi-vis jackets.

The hero pedestrians deserve but no one motorists need right now.
Ah Brother! It's been too long!
Post Reply