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Designing a character

Posted: 2005-01-23 05:58pm
by Rye
Ok, I've been thinking up a new character for my comic universe, but haven't really got a mental image for what he looks like or his costume, or maybe his name (it seems a bit obvious).

A little background for those who don't know much about my personal universe, i.e. everyone but me:

Several people have been exhibiting powers, that for all intents and purposes, seem to alter the rules of existence, the fundamental forces, and express them in a form according to the person's will or emotional state, it all seems quite arbitrary, and without a better word for it, magical. Each person that exhibits their abilities appear to have their abilities unique to them, and they can't be reproduced in close relatives, including identical twins, so they remain perhaps the biggest mystery of the new millennium.

In an effort to deal with these often very powerful individuals, governments of the world set up extensions of police, military or church, dependent on political climate, to train as civil protectors from other parahumans, as well as support for infantry and the like in wars. The extra arm of the police force in this universe's version of the USA is called Phalanx, and deal in mainly parahuman investigations.

Now, I've come up with a few of the characters in Phalanx (and several villains for them to fight), and came up with this guy and his sister.

Ok, so this is the character:

Callsign - insomnia
Real name - Norman Gates
Former Job: Chartered Accountant
Powers manifested: 28 years old, under stress working on some mobster'saccounts after being threatened.
powers: Superhuman speed/reflexes, strength, jumping ability, resilience and regeneration.
weaknesses: his powers increase, hulk-like, the longer he stays awake, with serious deteriment to his mental health. his personality becomes much more unperdictable and destructive while his powers increase geometrically day by day. For instance, after having a good sleep one weekend, he'll be at normal human levels, by the end of the day, he'll be increasing to about half spiderman, by the start of the next day he'll be at about spider man lvel, end of the next day he'll be at a hulk-like level, the day after, like superman, and soforth.

This will lead to some interesting stories, I'm sure, but yeah, I'm thinknig he'll look something like Daniel Jackson before his spiderman time, but I need some constructive ideas for his costume, and maybe some character ideas in general.

I'm considering the idea of giving him a sister in the force too, with psi powers that grow grotesque with her migraine, though she probably goes insane and requires being permanently drugged.

Posted: 2005-01-23 06:09pm
by Melchior
Should the costumes look flashy and be hideously impratical or should them look more like uniforms?

Posted: 2005-01-23 07:19pm
by Rye
Well, given he's one of the ones with more "hands on" superpowers, the more flashy, impractical kind is fine. The more uniform options are for the agents with less ability or dislike of the customised costumes, that usually go to the better known agents who double as a PR campaign for the program as well as being "superheroes".

Posted: 2005-01-25 06:37am
by Pcm979
Just a quick Q; Can other people use your universe?

About the costume; Something that can stretch to fit his form, for a start.

Posted: 2005-01-25 06:25pm
by Rye
Pcm979 wrote:Just a quick Q; Can other people use your universe?
Yeah, sure, if you want to write a story or something in it PM me if you want specific details about things and try and keep away from stuff that blows up the earth or kills off the majority of the human population and it should be fine. I have a massive overall story for it planned out, but that follows mainly a small group of people with lots of creative opportunity outside the main city it takes place in.
About the costume; Something that can stretch to fit his form, for a start.
To be honest, I was thinking of avoiding the hulk-like thing and having his powers increase more like a "field effect" or something. I'll scan the first pictures I do of him tomorrow.