Sep 06 2006
Tom Tompkins
This site provides writing advice. If you're writing a superhero novel or comic book, please also read our superhero writing articles.
Would you like to subscribe to our RSS feed?
Purpose:
- TT will primarily serve to develop Catastrophe’s character. I feel that Hunter (as he currently stands) can only do so much because I want Hunter and Cat to be combatative.
- Additionally, TT can serve to demonstrate what society thinks about the bizarre Catastrophe in a way Hunter, an extraterrestrial, cannot.
Traits
- An eager journalist
- Insecure and desperate to prove himself.
- His father, Tom Tompkins Sr., became a titan of journalism after he taped the “Battle for Monster Mile”, a Chicago showdown between Hunter and an 150-feet kraken thing that became known as Squidzilla.
- His father isn’t nasty about it, but he is markedly not proud of his son.
- A few years out of journalism school, Jr. still has no big stories to his name. He’s still on a high-profile beat for the St. Louis Deadline, which has led many to accuse the Deadline of nepotism.
- He’s brought into the story because Catastrophe causes Hunter (and everyone else) to have horrible luck. Hunter is attempting to hide his true identity and Tom Tompkins Jr. is likely to realize who he really is (he’s a journalist looking for superheroes and he is well-versed with the Battle of Monster Mile). Also, Jr. is desperate for the story that will make him. If he DOES get some enormous scoop, he would be very inclined to run with it even if doing so were irresponsible.
- He hates his name. (God, wouldn’t you hate the name Tom Tompkins, Jr.?) He also hates being called Junior, but even his given name is a reminder of what he hasn’t achieved.
- Very curious and inquisitive. This trait, which I assume is pretty much universal to journalists, will help place him in dangerous situations that call for a superhero. That probably works out to his advantage, too.
- Unconsciously judgmental (Catastrophe)
- Fairly distrusted by his immediate editor, who has been burned by his lackluster performance before. The boss can’t get rid of him because the senior managers are sure that he will amount to something… eventually.
- Not particularly compassionate. He sees a story unfolding in front of him, not real people facing real losses. For example, he suggests the headline “CHEMICAL CATASTROPHE” for his article describing the “accident” that causes Fox to become Catastrophe. He later dubs him Catastrophe– “it’s got punch. I like it.”
Language
- Pretty standard. College-educated diction, but it won’t be loaded with, say, scientific or military jargon.
- Tendency to ask probing questions.
Super-powers
- Absolutely none. He isn’t even an above-average journalist.
- Catastrophe’s powers have dropped a potentially earth-shattering story in his lap, if he can see it. I suppose you might say that he has super-good luck, at least as long as Catastrophe’s powers don’t turn on him…
- You think you have solid, indisputable photographic evidence of something real newsworthy but inherently implausible, something like a government agent turning out to be a crocodile or alien. But then it turns out that your camera has no film, your digital camera has a dead battery, and that your trustworthy assistant and corraborating witness is actually a Hezbollah operative.