1.  It will be easier to pace the story if the day job can set the hero against the villain. For example, if there’s a new supervillain in town, a journalist has to report what happened, detectives have to investigate his crimes, lawyers might be involved if someone got framed, etc.

2.  Superhero day jobs are often investigative in nature.  Journalists, detectives, lawyers, private investigators and the like are very popular.

3.  Superhero day-jobs usually have a distant boss.  For example, Peter Parker and Clark Kent do most of their work outside the office.  (This makes it a bit easier for them to maintain some independence from their boss).

4.  For dramatic purposes, it’s best to have a tough boss.  That gives you opportunities for conflict and will help make the character relatable and likable.  If the character doesn’t have a boss (because he freelances or owns the company), his obstacles will probably be less serious.  (Alternately, he might have corporate obstacles, like Bruce Wayne having to fight to keep control of Wayne Enterprises, but it’s definitely not as as relatable).

5.  It will probably be most dramatic if the job is stressful and high-stakes.  Would you rather read a story about a superhero that was a professional knitter by day or a superhero that was a detective investigating a grisly string of murders?

If you liked this article, you will probably like Common Superhero Day Jobs.

1)  These stretch gloves are as simple as gloves get.  They will help your hero look more human and relatable.

2) These are also very conventional.  Like #1, they lend themselves to human-looking gestures but are more professional and smooth.  The contrast between the light-gray and charcoal portions gives these a mild sci-fi vibe, but you could easily eliminate that by recoloring the light gray portions.

3) These look poorly-fitted and uncomfortable.  To make these look less uptight, I’d recommend ironing out the pockets of air in the finger and palm.  I like the longer sleeve, though.  It helps makes the hero feel epic and out of the ordinary.  The long sleeve would be very appropriate for, say, Superman (if he wore gloves).

4) The bold seams here give these a gritty, badass feel.  But these could easily be adapted for a light and whimsical character like Static Shock by blending the seams and changing the colors.  The straight lines are clean and striking.  The logo space could easily be adapted for something appropriate for your superhero.

5) These gloves are too bulky around the fingers.  The character’s gestures will probably look unnatural.  However, that could be advantageous if the character is a villain, particularly one that’s supposed to be a faceless henchman.

6) These gloves are gaudily military.  I wouldn’t recommend using them unless the character’s uniform is otherwise very military.  To adapt these gloves, I would reduce the color contrast and simplify them by removing the straps.

7) These look like something Robocop or a dystopian biker might wear.  Armored gloves will always look unhuman, but these are particularly unhuman because of the strange protrusions rising from the fingers.  If you wanted to make this character look more heroic, I’d recommend ironing these gloves out and making them smoother.

These are similar to #2 but more badass.  I’d recommend simplifying these by removing the ornamentation on the thumb.

9) These are more Golden Age.  B-3 pilots crews wore them.

1)  These are classic military boots.  They’ll probably be pretty effective if you’re looking for your character to come off as hardass, professional, disciplined, etc.  If you’d like to make these come off softer, I’d recommend lowering the heel and making the toe protrude less.

2)  These SWAT boots look pretty badass and contemporary, but I’d recommend taking away the zipper.    You can also simplify this boot design by removing some seams to reduce the number of distinct sections.

3)  These British assault boots combine some of the characteristics of the first two pairs.

4)  These British fireman’s boots have a peaceful sci-fi vibe.  They look ceremonial.  I like the white stripe for a slightly gaudy touch.

5)  These boots also feel sci-fi.  The heel makes them look slightly foreboding. Also, Cadet Davis assures me that they are so deadly uncomfortable that he would rather march in stilts… the wuss!

6)  These are civilian office shoes, like what a businessman or IRS agent would wear.   I can assure you they are uptight and not very comfortable.  To make the character seem more relatable, I would recommend making the shoes less shiny– otherwise it will seem like he regularly buffs his shoes, which is a bit creepy.

7)  These Oxford shoes are more contemporary and laid-back than the previous pair.

I’ll offer some visual references for gloves, helmets, firearms and shirts/coats later.

]]> http://www.superheronation.com/2008/08/31/government-gear-can-keep-your-superhero-from-looking-campy/feed/ 11 http://www.superheronation.com/2008/02/24/index-writing-about-superheroes/ http://www.superheronation.com/2008/02/24/index-writing-about-superheroes/#comments Mon, 25 Feb 2008 03:47:15 +0000 Cadet Davis http://www.superheronation.com/2008/02/24/index-writing-about-superheroes/  

Creating Superhero Characters

1. List of Superpowers
2. How to Give Your Superhero A Day Job
3. Common Superhero Day Jobs, Part 1
4. Common Superhero Day Jobs, Part 2
5. Superhero Creation Questionnaire
6. How to Create Weaknesses for Your Superhero
7. How to Name Superheroes
8. Modern Superhero Naming Conventions
9. Questionnaire for Nonhuman Characters
10. Random Name Generator for Alternate Identities
11. Three Qualities of Solid Villains
12. How to Do Superhero Gadgets Well

Origin Stories

1. How to Write Origin Stories
2. Plausible Origin Stories
3. Why Secret Origins are Usually Awful
4. “Just Another Comics Blog” Argues Against Origin Stories

Five Common Mistakes of Comic Book Writers

1. Part One
2. Part Two
3. Five Superhero Plots that Need to Die

Other Advice for Comic Book Writers

1. Experiment With Your Panel Layouts
2. Should You Write a Comic Book or a Superhero Novel?
3. Free Comic Book Scripting Software
4. Use the Ending of Each Issue to Sell the Next Issue
5. Make Your Recaps Stylish
6. Sketch Your Pages Before Sending Them to the Artist

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. Superhero Visual References: Boots
4. Superhero Visual References: Gloves
5. Superhero Novel Proposals:  How to Write the Comparable Works Section

Getting Published

1. Publishers That Accept Unsolicited Submissions
2. What Goes Into a Comic Book Submission?
3. A Few Tips on Submitting a Comic Book Script
4. How to Communicate With Editors

1. The hero’s powers can’t be used creatively. Readers really want to be surprised, so it’s very important that the powers be versatile. If your character is only superstrong, you can only surprise them by using different things as weapons.  That gets tedious fast. (Watch a Superman or Dragon Ball Z fight scene). Test your superhero against some of these situations. Can he get through them in an unexpected way?

• Distracting a guard.  (Cliche:  mental control, illusions and possibly telekinesis).
• Nonviolently subduing a guard or cop (cliche:  mental control and/or hypnosis).
• Preventing a building from falling (cliche:  superstrength, telekinesis).
• Getting past a locked door (cliche:  teleportation, phasing, lockpicks, blowing open the wall).
• Finding a password (cliche: anything electronic or electrical, beating it out of a bad guy).

2. The character’s limits are hard to grasp. In Heroes, a head wound will permanently kill the regenerating heroes, but a nuclear explosion won’t.  Huh?

3. The character’s strength fluctuates arbitrarily. Most Superman cartoons feature two battles. Superman will lose the first bout (to raise the stakes) but he’ll win the second.  He hasn’t gotten any stronger, so why does he wins the second time? That usually feels unsatisfying.

4. The superpowers are hard to understand. Ideally, you can explain each hero’s powers in a brief sentence.  “He has spider-powers, like slinging webs and climbing and sensing danger” is OK.  “She can control the weather” is even better.  Please stay away from heroes that have many unrelated superpowers.  What’s the connection between eye-beams, cold breath, flight, superstrength and x-ray vision?  It sort of works for Superman because readers are exposed to him, but it is likely to ruin a superhero story that is completely new to its readers.

5. He’s overpowered. Superman is the best example of this. He can only have interesting fights with supervillains. (Theoretically, he could fight thugs armed with kryptonite, but Superman limping around isn’t much of a fight). If your character is completely immune to bullets and other common weapons, it will be hard for you to challenge him.  Also, humans are vulnerable and we relate more to (somewhat) vulnerable heroes.

6. The hero’s superpowers ruin the drama. In particular, time travel, reading minds, erasing memories, and resurrection are particularly bad here.

• Time travel:  if your hero can undo anything bad that happens, nothing will ever be dramatic.  “Why doesn’t he just go back in time?”
• Reading minds: surprise, suspicion and uncertainty are all dramatic.  A story about a psychic is all-but-unable to use any of them.  (To some extent, lie-detection suffers from a similar problem).
• Erasing memories:  this is probably the lamest way to protect a secret identity.  It will also confuse readers because we can’t keep track of who actually remembers what.
• Resurrection:  if someone can bring people back from the dead, death will become banal and the action will suffer.  “He died, big deal.  Why don’t they just bring him back?”  This is almost as serious as time-travel.

Did you like this article? If so, please do me a favor and share it on Stumble.

1. Especially if you’re writing for an older audience, [Adjective] [Noun] probably isn’t the most name for a superhero, particularly if the noun is Man (or Woman or Girl or Boy or Lad). It’s outdated. If you want to create Strong-Man anyway, I suggest removing the hyphen (Strongman). The hyphen looks bad and forces an awkward-looking second capital letter. Readers Hate Seeing Lots of Capitalized-Words And Hyphen-Phrases.

2. In the modern era, the most effective names are usually nouns or [Title] [Noun], like Dr. Octopus. Compare Dr. Octopus to “Octopus-Man” or Venom to anything you could do with “venomous.” Nouns are usually more evocative and feel less goofy than adjectives.

3. Please stay away from animal names. It worked for Dr. Octopus and Batman, but it’s a tired convention that rarely works.

4. It’s still remotely acceptable to do [Rank] [Noun]. Captain America is the best example, but Superhero Nation has Captain Carnage (who’s wacky) and Major Bogey (who’s sober).  However, [Rank] [Adjective], like Captain Stupendous, is usually awful.  Please note that names with ranks often feel goofy, particularly when you do puns with “Major” and “General.”

5. The name’s most important role is to develop the character. Let’s say your character’s key trait is being noble or moral.  If you named him Moral-Man, readers would hate that.  On the other hand, Luke Skywalker worked quite well.  For more tips on making emotionally effective names, please see this article.

6. How do people refer to your hero in casual conversation? “Hey, Mr. Fantastic!” sounds awkward. “Hey, Richard” sounds much more natural, but that only works if everybody knows what your hero’s first name is.  If your character’s identity isn’t public, you still have options. For example, the character might be referred to by his rank. “Hey, Cap’n!” beats calling him Captain America all the time, although it’s not as natural as a first name.  Alternatively, the character might make up a fake name for casual conversation.  “I’m Captain Carnage, but you can call me Jim.” That will confuse some readers, but not too many if his actual name is something similar to Jim (like Jamal).

7. Finally, I recommend a name that makes strong use of sounds. B, M, F, and R sound firm but not menacing. K, V, X and H sound harsh. A, O, S, L, and U sound smooth and lofty. Finally, readers usually prefer names that string stressed syllables, like Superman, Carnage and Spiderman.

1)  It’s harder to write in a plausible secret identify for a power-suited hero… but that might make the story more interesting. If he wears most of his powersuit under regular clothes, like Tony Stark, it’s hard to believe no one would notice whenever she hugged him.  From the author’s perspective, that’s an opportunity.  A difficult situation allows you to show how your character protects his secret identity with his finesse and quick wits.  How does your hero deal with some of the tricky situations that come up?

Here are a few that I thought of…

• Anyone that touches him might feel something metal.
• The hero sets off a metal detector.
• A bystander notices that the character is very heavy.  The character’s footsteps may be noticeably louder and he will probably sink in snow or mud.  If his suit is very heavy, he may break a chair or cause elevators to malfunction.

2)  Powersuits usually make the character look lifeless and unrelatable. That’s obviously a problem for comic books, but even a novelist might want to put his character on his cover.  The good news is that making the character look less artificial is pretty easy.

• Round the edges on his suit.
• Make the suit nonmetallic (or look nonmetallic).
• Give him normal-looking gloves (like cotton).  That will make his gestures look more natural.
• Real-looking boots are also helpful.
• Hulking armor usually doesn’t look aesthetic.  I recommend going slim, but not form-fitting.  For example, I really liked Samus’ suit.
  

3)  Readers may feel that the character is too dependent on his suit. One way you can encourage your readers to think of him as heroic is by giving him skills independent of his suit.  For example, he might be savvy, persuasive, or tricky with his hands.  However, scientific and mechanical expertise are kind of cliche and expected.  Personal or physical skills will probably feel fresher.

4)  The character is often overpowered. If supervillains are the only rivals powerful enough to have a real fight with your hero, writing fight scenes will be difficult.  If your hero is too powerful, fights with mere mortals won’t interest an audience.  One way to keep a powersuited hero weak enough is by making his suit not completely bulletproof.  That worked very well in Weapon, a sci-fi novel about an android.

5)  You will probably have to explain the logistics of how he got his armor and keeps it running. But explaining the hero’s logistical support (like Steel’s helpers) is often boring and distracts from the story (Steel).  One way you can make the logistics interesting is by introducing conflict.  For example…

• His mechanic sidekick wants to work on something safer for his family.
• The hero works for an organization he disagrees with (perhaps the US Army, the Justice League, a mob cartel, or a SWAT team).  He may have different goals and ideas about how and when the suit should be used.  He may be trying to get away from the organization.  He may have been drafted against his will.  Does the organization need him specifically to operate the suit, or can they train a replacement?
• The hero and his sidekick are ideologically conflicted.  For example, Lucius Fox’s libertarian impulses led him to part ways with Batman in The Dark Knight.
  

1) Winning a battle with raw strength is rarely interesting. When people rave about the Matrix fight scenes, they mention the insane acrobatics, not Neo’s ability to slam a crater into the ground. X-Men 2′s White House scene was far more gripping than anything the Hulk has ever done. It’s hard to surprise your readers with a character that’s just super-strong. It may help to give your character a minor power or two to help him mix it up.

2) It’s hard to write dramatic fights for superstrong, supertough characters. A fight can only be dramatic if the protagonist faces some plausible threat.  But if the hero can survive a bullet to the eye and is only vulnerable to an extremely rare mineral, then that means that only a supervillain can have an interesting fight with him.  In contrast, Batman and Spiderman can have interesting fights with bank robbers and other low-powered thugs.

3) Incredible feats of strength are usually cheesier than feats of agility. Readers can accept even the most ridiculous acrobatic stunts. For example, Live Free or Die Hard (which isn’t even a superhero movie) was believable even though its acrobatic stunts made Batman look clumsy.  In contrast, it was damn cheesy when the Hulk threw a tank and Superman pushed a planet out of its orbit.

4) It’s very hard to apply superstrength creatively. If a superhero can only solve problems with brute strength, it will get tedious very quickly.  It might help to give your superhero a minor power or two so that he can mix things up a bit.

5) Superstrength is generic. That’s both an asset and a liability.  Readers can understand generic powers more easily.  But you’ll have to work harder to distinguish a superstrong character from other superstrong characters because there are so many of them.

6) Superstrong characters are harder to relate to. Humans are vulnerable; Superman isn’t.

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.

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.

1. 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.
2. 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.

1. 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.
2. Try keeping the mask a sober color. The less it distracts us from his human features, the better.
3. 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.
4. If your character wears a powersuit, try using rounder edges. The suit should probably look more like an exoskeleton than a robot.
5. 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.
6. 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…

1. Make his eyes look human. That will help readers relate to the character.
2. Human-looking hands will make his gestures easier to understand.
3. 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.
4. 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.

1. It gives away so much that you’d have to be stupid to miss it. This is the main weakness of the maskless costume.
2. 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.

If this article helped you, submit it to Stumble!