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B. Mac provides another set of gear to help you design superheroes that don’t look goofy.  (See his collection of boots here).

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B. Mac provides these references for boots.  These will help you design a character for a comic book or novel-cover.

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This site allows you to rank some of your favorite types of colors and then it suggests possible color schemes. What really impressed me was how smoothly it integrated its free features with a gentle offer of (paid) web designing services.

Creating a Superhero Character

1. List of Superpowers
2. How to Write Effective Origin Stories
3. NEW: How to Write a Plausible Origin Story
4. Superhero Creation Questionnaire
5. NEW:  How to Create Weaknesses for Your Superhero
6. How to Name Superheroes
7. Modern Superhero Naming Conventions
8. Questionnaire for Nonhuman Characters (Transformed Humans, Aliens and Otherwise)
9. NEW:  Random Name Generator for Alternate Identities

The Mechanics of Writing a Superhero Story

1. How to Write Superhero Fight Scenes
2. How to Pick Superpowers that Make Your Story Work
3. Common Problems with Superstrong Heroes
4. Common Problems with Psychic Superheroes
5. Common Problems with Powersuited Superheroes (like Iron Man)
   

Marketing and Visual Issues

1. Easy-to-Fix Visual Design Problems for Superhero Characters
2. How to Make Your Story Less “Weird” and More Novel
3. NEW: Superhero Visual References: Boots
4. NEW: Superhero Visual References: Gloves

Writing a superhero story?  Try to keep your hero’s powers from committing these mistakes.

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This article presents six tips about what works and what doesn’t when you’re naming your superheroes and villains. Find out why Mischief-Man is much worse than Mayhem.

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Are you writing a novel or comic book about a powersuited hero, like Iron Man or Steel? Powersuit stories often suffer from the following problems, many of which are easy-to-fix.

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Beat’em-up superheroes like the Hulk and Superman often suffer from these six problems.

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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

1. The character’s appearance lacks a distinct theme.
2. The character looks lifeless.
3. He looks unrelatable.
4. His appearance is inconsistent with his personality.
5. His appearance is inconsistent with the story’s mood.
6. His costume is too campy or demeaning.
7. His appearance makes his secret identity implausible.
8. The details of his appearance are inconsistent.
9. He has too many accessories.

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This superpower list will help you write a superhero story or design a superhero. At the end, I also have tips to help distinguish your superheroes from other heroes with similar powers.

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Questions Related to Total Physical Transformations

In Superhero Nation, one of the characters gets his body turned into Katastrofy (damn anime spelling), one of the villains on the hit cartoon show Hegemon. (“Gotta kill ‘em all!”) Some of these questions may also prove useful if you’d like to write a nonhuman character and are wondering how bystanders in your story should react to him.

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This questionnaire will help you design a superhero or supervillain, whether you’re writing a novel or comic book.
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