Jan 03 2008
9 Easy-to-Fix Problems with Superhero Design
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This article will help you design your superhero’s appearance for a comic book or novel cover-art. No matter what your style is, you can avoid these 9 mistakes that cause a superhero’s appearance to sink the story.
Common Flaws of Superhero Appearances
- The character’s appearance lacks a distinct theme.
- The character looks lifeless.
- He looks unrelatable.
- His appearance is inconsistent with his personality.
- His appearance is inconsistent with the story’s mood.
- His costume is too campy or demeaning.
- His appearance makes his secret identity implausible.
- The details of his appearance are inconsistent.
- He has too many accessories.
LACKS A DISTINCT THEME
Superman’s costume does a great job advancing themes and establishing what kind of character he is. It’s bold and it’s open. That does a solid job of characterizing Superman.
- Bold. It makes great use of striking, primary colors. If soldiers wore blue, red and yellow it would be like screaming “shoot me!” But Superman doesn’t care. He’s larger than life.
- Open. Superman is virtually the only hero not to wear a mask and still maintain a secret identity. There’s nothing between him and us. That reinforces that he’s relatively unconflicted and has nothing to hide. (Additionally, we can see facial expressions, which can really help portray what a character is thinking).
Visuals that fail to advance a theme are less effective. When we look at your character, it should be clear what impression we should get and what we should feel about the character. (Conflicting characteristics can work, too, but it should still be clear which characteristics are conflicting. For example, Peter Parker is usually drawn as a likeable dork.
This picture from the Geek Coefficient shows two characters, Green Lantern and a woman (?) in a hood. The hooded woman is far more effectively portrayed. We can see that she’s mysterious, out of reach, maybe enigmatic and cryptic. In contrast, Green Lantern doesn’t have any strong visual themes.
LIFELESS OR UNRELATABLE
Generally, faces are crucial to how an audience will react to a character. If someone’s face is completely masked, that might make him look lifeless. This is often a problem when a character wears a full-body suit, particularly a metallic one.
These tricks can make your superhero look more alive.
- Alter his mask to expose his mouth and lower face. (If you’re up for something radical, take away the mask entirely). I don’t recommend Green Lantern masks (figure 8s). They tend to draw attention away from the eyes to the mask, particularly if the mask is a glaring color.
- Try keeping the mask a sober color. The less it distracts us from his human features, the better.
- If your character wears a full-body suit and you don’t want to take away his headware, try taking away the gloves. (Or at least try cloth gloves that are flesh-toned). After the face and eyes, hands are the most expressive part of the body. The more his hands look human, the more human his gestures will look.
- If your character wears a powersuit, try using rounder edges. The suit should probably look more like an exoskeleton than a robot.
- If your character wears a full-body suit, try something nonmetallic. Firefighters and SWAT officers look more a relatable than Iron-Man. It may also help to make the suit slightly loose, like a surgeon’s garb.
- If you want a metal suit and mask, I’d recommend putting in a visor or sunglasses to cover the eyes. Eyes look pretty strange surrounded by metal.
Is your hero nonhuman? I have a few additional suggestions for nonhuman characters…
- Make his eyes look human. That will help readers relate to the character.
- Human-looking hands will make his gestures easier to understand.
- Symbolic accessories can help us relate to a weird-looking character. Agent Orange has a badge and trenchcoat, for example, because I want viewers to think of him as a government employee first and a non-human second.
- A human’s costume usually looks stranger than the human does. For a nonhuman character, I recommend plain attire because exotic clothes on an exotic body will probably overwhelm the reader. For example, Lizard’s labcoat works quite nicely.
INCONSISTENT WITH PERSONALITY
Hopefully this is pretty obvious, but the uniform should mesh with the character. A Punisher-esque character should have a much different uniform than, say, Dr. Strange.
The most important elements here are brightness/color, the type of clothing (like a trenchcoat instead of a labcoat or ninja-suit) and the level of plainness/accessories.
INCONSISTENT WITH MOOD
Are you writing a gritty story? Gritty stories should probably shy away from bright costumes and superfluous accessories like capes. They also tend to overload on leather (I blame the Matrix). If your gritty story uses masks, I recommend basing them on government-issue masks (probably SWAT team or urban commando) or ski-masks. Those are utilitarian and serious. If you’d like a sci-fi vibe, I’d recommend looking at the US Air Force, Star Wars or Fallout 2.
In contrast, if your story is mostly pleasant and optimistic, you’d probably want a brighter and more whimsical costume. Spiderman and Static Shock are great examples. However, I recommend against capes. The main customer base for superhero stories is 16-25 year old guys. Unless you’re writing for a distinctly younger audience, I’d leave the capes to DC Comics.
WHY WOULD HE WEAR THAT!?! (His costume’s too goofy/demeaning)
If your readers will wonder why your character would choose to wear something so stupid-looking, you have a problem. The best examples of this are Robin and most superheroines. It will probably help to keep these guidelines in mind.
- I highly recommend pants or shorts rather than a bikini-bottom (cough cough Robin). Shirts are also helpful (Namor).
- I’d recommend against using more than three colors in a costume. You have more leeway if the hero and/or the audience are young. For example, Static Shock used yellow, purple and white with black accents.
- A gratuitously revealing costume might distract from the story. This is mainly a problem with superheroines. Drive out to a mall sometime and see what women are wearing. As a rule of thumb, if you’d be embarrassed to show your art to a female friend, it’s probably too edgy.
- Ridiculously attractive superheroes and superheroines are harder to relate to.
IMPLAUSIBLE SECRET IDENTITY
Assuming your character has a secret identity, his appearance might raise plausibility concerns.
- It gives away so much that you’d have to be stupid to miss it. This is the main weakness of the maskless costume.
- The costume is too complicated to don quickly. Unless your character transforms magically, like Wonder Woman or Thor, he has to put on his costume whenever he’s needed. Usually the story tries to explain this by saying he hides most of his costume under his regular clothes, like Ironman. OK, but where would your hero keep his cape?
INCONSISTENT DETAILS
For example, Courtney’s eyes are brown. My first chapter mentions that and it has been in the header art. In another chapter, I once described his eyes as green. Even though the discrepancy is very minor, several readers noticed it.
This is generally more of a problem for novelists because it’s much easier for a novelist to forget how he has already portrayed a character.
If you’re writing a novel, I’d recommend that you keep a list of character appearances (tall vs. short, green eyes vs. blue, blonde vs. brunette, etc). If you ever use one of the descriptions, make a note of it (“Chapter 4 says that Courtney has brown eyes”). That way, if I ever decide that Courtney’s eyes are green, I’ll know where I have to edit. Otherwise, I might have to sift through tens of thousands of words for a tiny detail.
TOO MANY ACCESSORIES/CLUTTERED
Generally, you want one or two focal points that draw the viewer’s attention and reinforce the character’s main traits. For example, Agent Orange’s sunglasses and badge hopefully help viewers think of him as a sci-fi police officer.
I think that’s the right amount of visual action. It’s easy to go overboard. For example, Superman has his center logo, his cape, his signature tuft, and a costume that’s brightly colored everywhere.
Great article! Thanks.
That’s not a woman. Those two are actually the same person. In front, it’s Hal Jordan as Green Lantern and in back, it’s Hal Jordan as The Spectre.
Wait, that’s a man? If I had been overseeing that comic, I’d demand that the artist redo those pouty lips and the dimpled chin.
My character doesn’t wear the Batman/Spider-Man type of outfit, because I think that’s been totally overdone. (Don’t get me started on the outfits female heroes wear!) So I have him in your basic black jacket, with a hood to hide his face.
I have a few reasons for this, but I don’t want it to be boring. The hood enables him to see clearly while hiding the upper half of his face, and so can leave the lower half free to express his feelings. Is there any extra insurance to hide his identity, though? Something which would be easy to put on in public without looking suspicious, and that wouldn’t be picked out if he was asked to turn out his pockets? I think sunglasses would work for the daytime, but they would just make him bump into things at night. And could you recommend any gloves that would be suitable for a teenager, without looking too whimsical or gritty?
Here are my reasons for not having a spandex/armour style costume:
Reason 1: In reality, if a superhero popped up and started doing heroic things, they’d be bound to build a fanbase. I have no doubt that somewhere in Gotham city there would be a few Batman enthusiasts. But true fans do cosplay. You don’t see people in the background of Spider-Man movies wearing Spidey costumes, do you? They would be inconvenient, and would also make you look pretty darn stupid. So, I think it would be an advantage to have a costume which regular, everyday people could wear too. It’s easy to get ahold of a black hoodie, and so he could walk around the city without anyone pointing. They’d think he was another fan. Then it would be a simple matter to pull up the ol’ hood and run to the nearest evildoings.
Reason 2: In a similar vein to reason 1, when escaping the press or a supervillian, all he has to do is walk into a crowded area and wander around. They would never be able to tell him apart from all the fans who were simply copying him. So if you think about it, every teenager in the city is part of his disguise!
Reason 3: His parents would see nothing suspicious if they found a hoodie in his room. In the Spidey comics, when Aunt May found Peter’s Spider-Man costume, she knew what he was up to. (I’ve never read them, but I have an encyclopedia of superheroes and it said it in there. With all the parallel universe and alternate timeline things going on, I can’t keep track. I’ve never read a DC or Marvel comic in my life.)
Reason 4: When Spidey’s costume gets shredded by angry villains and their bombs/winged tracking-thingies/mechanical arms etc, he would have to repair his suit or make a new one. Now just how is he meant to fight crime if he’s sat at a sewing machine? If he had something easy to get, he could stick the old, damaged one into a bag under his bed or the nearest incinerator. It would be a simple matter of strolling into a shop, posing as one of his own fans and buying another jacket.
Reason 5: Spidey hears an important announcement on his police radio, and it’s imperative that he be there to throw the giant alien space-whale back into its spaceship and tell it to get lost. But, oh no! He’s in his jammies! Now he has to get into his suit and swing over there! The whale will have crushed half of New York by the time he gets there. If he had a simple jacket he could slip it on and get there in time to save Lady Liberty from being destroyed by a giant fin.
Reason 6: This point was raised under the “Implausible Secret Identity” section, but this is more to do with the civilian clothes.
While wearing the costume beneath regular clothes or in a ring works in movies and comics, I’ve always wondered where Peter Parker and Wally West stash thier civilian clothing. I mean, if you saw Spidey throwing a shirt up a tree, you’re going to want to steal it. It DOES belong to Spider-Man, after all. So something that can be worn over civilian clothes is more handy because there’s no need to throw his pants behind a ventilation shaft. Another thing, when there’s trouble a’brewin’ and Spidey runs through the crowd towards said brewin’ trouble, he’s taking off his shirt to reveal the well-recognised spider symbol. Am I the only one who thinks that someone would actually notice him doing that? Or is every civilian in every comic book just a LITTLE blind?
Heheh, I guess this has been more of a rant than a question… But I think I raise a few good points. I believe it’s a better idea to look more normal and less fantastical in the superhero world. Also, I apologise if any parades were rained upon. But if I may offer an umbrella, if all superheroes looked totally normal, comics would be more boring than a six hour mathletics tournament. Also no offense to mathletes.
Now, to the question I was supposed to ask before I began my little rant.
The thing about just having a black jacket is that it’s plain, and I don’t see much that I could do with it. Also, the jacket is really the only essential piece for him. There isn’t really any point in having specific “hero” pants in his wardrobe next to the “school” and “going-out” pants, because who wants to take off his pants in public to put on some others? And changing his pants wouldn’t help keep his identity secret in any way, because who’s looking at the hero’s legs? Most teenage boys tend to wear pants rather than shorts, anyway.
What kind of thing could I do with it to spice his outfit up, yet still make it easy to reproduce so that everyday people could get a hold of one?
Thanks, and sorry for any soaked parades. But I’m sure the marching band will be able to shelter under their drums. (Joking! Yeah, a bad joke.)
Oh, and I may possibly bring in a female hero later. She’s only a teen, so she doesn’t want to show large amounts of chest or leg. I want a similar costume with the jacket to my other character, but more feminine than his. Though her pants and shirt etc will be different each time, how practical would this sample be? A bolero-style hoodie, with a vest beneath, a skort and a pair of mid calf boots. I mean, what female hero wants the criminals to catch a glimpse of her underwear every time she kicks them? Would there be any practicality problems with this outfit?
Thanks! Again, sorry for my rant! I get carried away sometimes, especially when I’m on a roll. Okay, I’ll shut up now.
So he wears a basic black jacket with a hood. I really like hooded jackets. They are remarkably effective at hiding an identity but so innocuous that they wouldn’t draw attention to his alternate identity. For added protection, he could use a black TMNT-style ribbon around his eyes. It’d be much easier to hide that on his person than a mask, and he could easily smuggle it inside a glasses case or wallet in case anyone checked his pockets. Alternately, you could try a ski-mask with a cut-off mask, but that would be harder to hide. You could try a baseball cap and a tight hood. Those will help him keep his hood on in battle.
As for gloves, please see this collection of gloves. I think #2, #4 and #8 will probably fit into your story best. Alternately, you can use #1, but those look really cheap. For the colors, I think that a neutral or bright green or yellow would be the most visually effective with a black hood, but those gloves might be incriminating if his parents found them. (Or his parents might just conclude that “dammit, it seems like every kid in the city is in on this fad”).
I love the use of copycats as a way to protect your identity. One of our book’s scenes makes fun of the tendency of modern comic-book characters to wear leather by having a villain escape the hero by running into a Matrix convention. So I think it’s an excellent way to have your hero have his costume ready without attracting too much attention. However, I’m not sure how much copycats would help your hero escape from a real villain, because the villain would probably just start killing them indiscriminately. It would almost be like the hero was using human shields.
Generally, I think your costume idea is very strong (although perhaps slightly overdependent on having lots of teens in the city wearing hoods to emulate their hero).
The black hooded-jacket would be very plain, but you could make up for that by making the gloves marigold, golden, or Kawasaki lime. Also, you might have his powers change his appearance in some way. For example, he might have an energy aura when he’s “on,” particularly if this is a manga-inspired comic book. (I think Dragonball Z and Yuyu Hakusho typically use energy auras).
Yeah, I don’t know what to do about pants. Readers don’t seem to notice the pants and leg shots are pretty rare anyway. I’d recommend just giving him blue jeans or whatever. In fact, his costume’s pants might change from day to day, depending on whatever he was wearing when the police sirens went off. If anyone notices that his blue jeans look a lot like the ones that the hero was wearing, well, pretty much all blue jeans look alike.
So, to recap, I recommend a plain black hoodie… visually gripping gloves, ideally with a strong and bold color, and a black TMNT eye-mask. A baseball cap may help explain how he keeps his hood on.
I like the bolero-style hoodie for the female hero. I think it will look attractive and won’t scare away female readers. I’m not too familiar with skorts. My brief Google Images search showed some skorts that I think would be pretty effective, but others that are probably too short to be functional. I like this one– it looks long and loose enough that it won’t limit her mobility or decency. On the other hand, if it’s too loose, then your artist might be limited when it comes to drawing her kicking.
The TMNT ribbon and baseball cap thing could really work. As for the gloves, I like # 8, it seems to fit with what I’ve already written about him.
Haha, running into a Matrix convention! That’s gold!
I don’t get what’s so great about leather, wouldn’t it be a bit constricting? I mean, it’s the same with PVC. I don’t understand how Nina Williams in Tekken can just kick someone in the face when she’s so restricted by her clothing.
I was planning on one scene where he’s escaping from the evil guy, because he’s already exhausted from overusing his powers, and the villain starts attacking anyone wearing the same outfit. So he has to fight back to save everyone, at the cost of almost passing out. Or passing out and being kidnapped. I haven’t decided.
I did a basic doodle of him with a haze around his hands when he makes the energy pulses. In my writing I say that the pulses themselves look like energy created by a Tesla coil, or heat rising off a road in summer. I think it would be easy to do with PhotoShop. I also want something around his head, because it’s a psychic power. Maybe something to do with his eyes. Any suggestions?
I was inspired for the bolero type hoodie by Aerith’s outfit from Final Fantasy VII. I think it makes her look sophisticated, like she actually has some self-respect while not making her look like a complete prude. That’s what I’m aiming for. Is there a way I could dress up my character’s jacket without making it too cluttered or hard to get ahold of? The same applies for her when it comes to having fans.
I chose a singlet because it gives her arms more freedom and shows that she isn’t afraid to show off her arms, while maintaining that she’s not in the same vein as Black Canary and Huntress. The skort was picked because it gives her a feminine aspect, while not causing her to accidentally flash the criminals. Then the boots because they’re sturdy and could probably help her deliver a solid kick.
I’ve noticed that even in comics written for girls, the female characters seem to be well-endowed and wear clothes that show it off. It just makes me cringe, it’s like no one knows how to draw a shirt and pants anymore! Seriously, sometimes I feel like slapping the artists. I have never seen anyone wear anything as degrading as what some female comic characters do.
I like that skort you picked out, I think it would suit her.
“I did a basic doodle of him with a haze around his hands when he makes the energy pulses. In my writing I say that the pulses themselves look like energy created by a Tesla coil, or heat rising off a road in summer. I think it would be easy to do with PhotoShop. I also want something around his head, because it’s a psychic power. Maybe something to do with his eyes. Any suggestions?”
Generally, I think that doing something with his head would probably be easiest with his eyes.
1) You might consider whiting out his eyes. That’s what Heroes does when it shows a character painting the future. The effect is generally creepy. You can see a similar effect here.
2) You could use a glow effect. I particularly like this one, which mixed in steam to give off the impression that the eyes are burning hot (which sounds a lot like the steamy summer road you mentioned before). You can see a particularly intense version of eye-glow here, but I think it’s too distracting. For a more subtle effect, I’d suggest looking at Starcraft’s Archons and High Templars. For example, you can see them here and here and here.
3) You could replace the eyes with a straight color, probably a light blue or yellow or purple, without using a glow effect. This would entail relatively little effort. You can see two Pokemon samples here with Abra and Mewtwo here. Check out 1:33-1:35 of this Warcraft video as well.
Thanks for your help!
My main problem with the word “skort” is that it sounds like one of those made-up words that standardized tests use to test kid’s memories and word-learning skills. “A glib is a ball. Remember, a glib is a ball.”
My character’s superhero name is Sketch, wears a black full-body suit with blue accents, over the suit he wears white cargo shorts and and white scarf. His boots are black with blue trim and white straps. He wears the cargo shorts and scarf for fashionable and artistic flair.
Excessive? Needs more?
I should probably tell you some personal stuff about Aadrello/Sketch so you know what type of alien he is:
Positive Traits:
Youthful
Fun
Fashionable
Creative
Emotional (can be negative)
Energetic
Happy (can be negative)
Negative Traits:
Naive
Blind to reality
Hyper
Defiant
Moody
Not-so-smart (about techinal things)
Physical Traits:
Thin
Lanky
Purple-skinned
Eyes are shiny black
Weak
Fast
Flexible
Black suit, blue accents, white shorts and white scarf… OK, it seems like the two dominant colors are black and white, in that order, with blue accents. A mostly B&W theme is difficult because it will look drab. That’s unhelpful, particularly if you’d like the hero to look vibrant and creative. I would recommend replacing the white with a rich gold and make the blue either a bright cerulean or a radioactive neon. Those may offset the black better. I picked out a few samples here.
Unless this character has really distinctly nonhuman traits, I’d recommend just making him a human. I mean, he does graffiti. He lives in a city. When you market this comic to readers, you’ll probably focus on the character’s relatability… but it will be very difficult to do that unless he’s human. Are you really attached to him being an alien?
You could probably convey youthful/fun/naive through your character’s eyes. I’d recommend making them large and bright, much like anime characters (Yu-Gi-Oh comes to mind). There seems to be a bit of discrepancy between the dark and gritty world and a young character, but I think readers can handle that. Also, make sure that the color scheme is bright.
To convey thin/lanky/weak, you could make his limbs slender and long. I’d recommend making the character short.
Well, there is no Earth in my story so I saw it fit to not add humans. The story is set on a multitude of planets. I thought it would be good to have my main character a basic human-like alien as a universal symbol, in contrast to those that are hulking, amorphous, and have tentacles. I love your ideas for the color scheme, blue and yellow go awesome together, I forgot they were complimenting colors. I’m going to re-draw him to fit the new scheme I’ll get back at you with the results soon
The character is supposed to be, metaphorically, a bright star in a dark, bleak universe. He comes in looking and acting all weird and crazy, he kicks some ass or gets his ass kicked, but whatever he does he leaves his mark, graffiti or otherwise.
That’s the reason for a grittier world and a bright character.
Hmm. That contrast between the grittiness and his brightness seems very logical. I like it. And, I hope, audiences won’t get disorientated by the incongruity. After all, Spiderman manages to sell Carnage/Venom, even though they are far grittier than the rest of his villains.
I thought of an addition to his costume that may set his costume over the edge. For one, I’m going to keep the cargo shorts but change the color– white blares too much for the darker atmosphere. I’m not sure about the color yet.
To better match the neon city/brightness in space theme, I want to add neon strips to the costume. Now I want the strips to be rounded and protruding, not too far from the body, but enough that you could see them in a forward silhouette. They will be neon blue and yellow I’m not sure of the placement but I definitely want them. They can “cut off” so it won’t be inconvenient for him, maybe until he gets use to his suit and since they are not fabric they could serve as slight protection. Also, I may lose the scarf.
What do you think? I love the neon strips but I could, tearfully, part from them.
No, it’s cool. It could totally work provided you don’t portray it in a way that looks goofy. As I see it, this is an all or nothing, hit or miss. Either people are gonna love it or hate it. I am tentatively siding with the “love it” camp. As long as they don’t flash, in which case you’ll probably get rejected. Seriously, as tempting as it may be to make your hero a neon billboard, don’t. Glowing is cool, flashing not so much. Also, I think the glowing would look more in-place with plate armor or something similar. That being said, I’m not sure I get the cargo-shorts-over-suit thing. I would get rid of the cargos and add some armor plates over the suit. Not much, just enough to look cool. The scarf should stay, I think it’s a nice cape replacement. Way to be not cliche! (No, seriously, I’m not being sarcastic.)
I appreciate your contribution (honestly) but I’m not big on armor. Also, one of my other main characters wears armor, Emerald, he’s a rebellious prince. I will however consider changing it to something else, maybe just leaving the legs of the suit and adding the neon strips. And don’t worry i’m not going to turn him into a sex club, no flashing haha
Cool. btw, does Sketch carry any accessories (besides his pad) and does he have any weapons? Also, can he “poof” his creations out of existence or are they permanent?
You’re right about literally “poofing” his creations. They vanish if not focused on enough, dismissed, unemotionally charged, or beaten. He doesn’t really carry his sketchbook while in battle it goes into his mind when he “poofs” on his suit. As for accessories, I couldn’t think of anything, as for weapons he’s not a blade or sharp weapons type of person so I was thinking a neon staff, but he can summon other things depending on the situation, seeing as he’s not that physically strong. He is good at gymnastics, however.
What about your character, Alex I’ve never really heard a description of him, is he an actual superhero or just a half-elf with powers? What does he wear?
Alex actually originated quite differently from his current incarnation. He is actually a composite of earlier, less well written characters I created in middle school. For the sake of preserving my dignity, I won’t go into them here. (My writing was so bad back then I thought a partially hatched egg with minions was a good villain. Ouch!) Alex is partially based on me only so far as he’s smart, slightly sarcastic, and somewhat socially awkward. Beyond that, similarities end. Alex is way more obnoxious than I will ever be. Fortunately, that changes during the course of the story and he does have a soft spot.
He actually originated as a textbook superhero, complete with origin story. I changed up the character to suit my new fantasy approach. He has the power of complete control over fire. (*spoilers* His powers can be upgraded by bonding with a phoenix or dragon *spoilers end*)
As for what he wears, I originally envisioned a mostly red and gold flame-patterened armor suit, complete with gauntlets, cape, and visored helmet. Picture a flaming Darth Vader (that came out wrong) with some power ranger thrown in (PR is the first impression many people get from that picture I drew). Lately, I’ve take a more realistic approach to his garb. The armor may make an appearance, but his street clothes are quite different. (They do change by the way). I haven’t thought about it much but as it stands now, his typical outfit is black jeans and shoes, a red shirt featuring a gold flame emblem, and a black jacket (or trenchcoat perhaps) that he almost never takes off. I’d welcome suggestions here!
As for the superhero question, technically he is, but he’s more of a fantasy hero than a superhero despite having non-magical powers, a weakness, and a rogues gallery. I do however make a heavy homage to Batman and Iron Man in one segment. They appear as Blacknight and Commander Titanium, bitter superhero rivals who must work together to stop their archenemies, Madcap (Joker) and The Mandolin (obvious). By the way, all of this happens in a tv show Alex is watching before he turns it off and goes to class. Gotcha! (Don’t worry, this is short, painless, and gets to the gotcha moment very quickly. It’s intended to be humorous, not annoying. Batman and Iron Man are my 2 favorite heroes.)
Hmm, your character is coolio but I’m not big on fire power. I personally feel it to be overused and it’s destructive( let me help you with my burning hands hahah). But I think your story is really good.
I’m probably the only kid in my school that draws good. I hate when people say it looks like anime. I hate anime.
Haha! Neither do I. At its core, however, fire is not just destructive, it’s energy. I may explore the concept of Analytia (blue phoenix of healing and protection) showing Alex how to use his powers to heal. I’d welcome suggestions on creative power usage as well as wardrobe.
Ok. I’d welcome suggestions on creative power use as well as wardrobe. (Alex may be taught how to use his powers to heal.)
Well, when I thought of a fire and water character, I made the fire user use extreme heat more often than it’s nearly invisible and still effective. Also, I made a way they can teleport, by quickly becoming heat itself the user will move some where quickly and reform himself. Also, you could play with different colors of fire like
Blue never really misses but is weaker than red
Green can have healing properties
Purple can be evil fire
White is extremely powerful
Just throwing it out there, hope it helps
I like that idea, and it fits well into my mythology, but I’m going to change the colors a little:
Red- powerful, but aggressive. without proper discipline, you will lose control.
Blue- has great defensive and healing power
Green- never misses, but not as damaging as red. more for speed and accuracy.
White- Divine Fire
Dark Fire- evil, obviously.
Fire lends itself to tricks that are probably too obvious and/or inhumane, like burningsomeone’s armor so that they cook inside. However, I can think of a few uses that will be new to your readers. For example, you can simmer a stick to create a crude lie-detector. (No joke– someone under stress produces less saliva. If you put the stick in his mouth and it’s still simmering when you pull it out, he’s probably stressed out, which was taken by some ancient societies as proof of guilt).
If you wanted to propel a flying machine, a jet of fire might be used as a crude retrobooster. (Or to lift/drop a hot air balloon). If you can lift a hot-air balloon, a zeppelin probably isn’t that much of a stretch. (Balloon + Engine = Zeppelin). Alternatively, you could use fire to craft and recraft metal. What do you think?
On the issue of color-based breakdowns for his powers, I think that would probably work better in a visual medium like a comic book than a novel. I’m not sure that readers will be able to remember what his colors of fire can do, or whether you could profitably draw on the difference between his red and green fireballs in a fight.
I like your ideas. Thank you.
I have a few characters who I’m considering using later on, but I have no idea what their costumes should look like. Can you offer any suggestions for:
A girl who gained her powers due to a botched surgery. When removing a clot in her brain, surgeons accidentally stimulated her sight so that she can see clearly at night, and she can also “idea-plant”, making people consider doing something which they may or may not, depending on their willpower. She is known as Owlie. She is fifteen.
A psychic who claims to have lived many past lives. His nickname is Rebirth. He can see and communicate with the dead, but only for short periods of time, no more than four minutes. He sometimes has brief moments of mental insight when there are strong emotions flying around, and gets distressed when a spirit he spoke to died violently or tragically. This sometimes causes brief periods of depression, during which a teammate cares for him. He is twelve.
A guy who is known as Mist, for his ability to form one from water he has drank. If he overdoes it, he becomes dehydrated. He projects it from the tips of his fingers and it can be used to confuse enemies as well as put out small fires. He is seventeen.
An animal empath, who can feel the emotional and (sometimes) physical pain of an animal nearby. She becomes enraged when someone is threatening any animal, and is a vegetarian. Animals also feel connected to her, and would attack if she asked them to. She is sixteen, and known as the Trainer.
A boy with immunity to a lot of poisons and illnesses due to his blood recognizing the enemy cells rapidly, and is able to destroy them before they make him sick. He is good in a fight, but has few other extraordinary abilities. He acts as the group’s (amateur) doctor. He is fifteen.
Thanks!
Oh, and the animal empath has a border collie named Spellbind who follows her around the base.
OK here is the finished second draft of Aadrello as Sketch, I added as much of the feet as I could, and I added a hood. I think this is a pretty good cross between superhero and neon inner-city teenager. Tell me your opinions.
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=93096544&albumID=2013827&imageID=35793204
(I know I posted this around a bit, sorry)
Hmm. I think the black parts of the suit turned out pretty well. The yellow provided a surprisingly effective complement. I was less sure about the blue, and I don’t think the red turned out well. Here, I made some sloppy revisions in Photoshop.
Also, I’m absolutely awful at art, so I’m not sure how you would do this with pencils exactly, but I’d recommend shading to create the impression of depth.
The revision is kind of plain and takes away from the character’s theme, but it’s understandable. I actually messed up on the shoe tongue, that’s why it’s so big and I could loosen the sleeves and take out the red. I’m not that good at shading yet, but depth where.
Here is Mz. Corpse. I really think she turned out well her costume matches her theme well and I think the coloration is good, except the face is kind of discombobulated. There is a big space next to her for Emerald. Add the scanner had junk on it, so there are specs.
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=93096544&albumID=2013827&imageID=35850229
Ragged Boy, I wish I could draw like you. The picture of Mz. Corpse is awesome!
I’m working on a picture of Requiem at the moment, and I decided that he needed a signature piece. I chose to include a reliquary.
If you’ve ever seen the 1997 cartoon movie “Anastasia”, it’s somewhat like Rasputin’s green one. But I’m having a little trouble. I want some sort of design to personify death, as after all, communicating with the departed is Requiem’s main power. I was thinking two bat wings stretching out from it, or wrapped around it. What else would be good?
Another thing about it is that if he is in a room or area where someone died, his reliquary glows with a certain intensity and colour. The brighter it is, the more recently they died. The colour depends on the method of death. Red for murder, orange for suicide, yellow for an accident and green for natural causes. Purple shows up if there were multiple deaths of different causes. It picks up the trace emotions caught in time at the moment of death, and relays it back to him by changing. Requiem can use it to calculate how many victims there were, when they died and what each one died of. If the liquid inside turns white, glows and bubbles, as he enters a room, then someone is dying or about to die nearby.
Thanks!
Oh, sorry about the name thing. B.Mac.
Not a problem.
Two bat wings would be effective. Alternately, you could try bones or withered angel wings or leafless branches.
I think that the reliquary will provide a nice visual that associates the character with death. However, it may be hard for a reader to remember all the things that the colors represent.
I suspect that the element that will prove most dramatically effective is when it says that someone is about to die nearby. That could make a scene more urgent (”We had a plan to save the hostage slowly and carefully. Well, screw that. We have to move now!”)
Thanks! Yeah, I want something like that. I plotted out a scene in my mind where there is a clothing shop being held up with five hostages and three staff trapped inside. Then Requiem’s reliquary starts going white and they have to get in before someone dies. Maybe a twist where it isn’t a hostage who dies, but the robber. Maybe one of the hostages gets his gun off him and it fires.
Another thing about Requiem is that he has lived many past lives, and remembers all of them. The reliquary always gets to his new incarnation somehow, like it is spiritually connected. Some of his lives were normal, like when he was living in London in the nineteenth century, the daughter of a middle class man who was a carpenter. Some of them were present at historical events (but never had major parts), such as when he was killed in 1945 when the Nagasaki atomic bomb went off. Each incarnation of him is born at the exact moment when his previous one dies.
This is some art of Adrian the Ringtail. It’s not really concept art becuase you can’t really understand his outfit, but it’s a pretty cool picture, any suggestions and opinions will be honored (couldn’t think of another word).
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=93096544&albumID=2013827&imageID=36288752
I’d recommend shortening his neck and rounding some of the edges (like the top of his head, for example).
Oh, wow that is a long neck, hahaha. And a pointy head. I’m still working on his costume that’s why it looks so funky now.
The scarf looks a bit strange, but I think that you could wrap it around his neck once for an aviator-scarf kind of look.
Oh yeah. That works and it looks fashionable. I want to update the mage look.