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Write a superhero story by starting with a unique hero’s origin, crafting a compelling villain, building a supportive cast, and setting in a dynamic world. Balance action and character growth, and weave in real-world themes for depth.
It’s about making your stories resonate on multiple levels, ensuring that they not only entertain but also make readers think. We’ll explore different aspects of superhero fiction, from character creation and world-building to the importance of a worthy antagonist and the art of blending genres.
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- In a post-apocalyptic world where time is running out for the last remaining humans, two superheroes must put their differences aside to find a way to save humanity before it's too late.
- A superhero must find a way to stop a mad scientist from launching a rocket that will release a deadly virus into the atmosphere within the next 24 hours.
- In a race against the clock, a veteran superhero and a rookie sidekick must put their differences aside to stop a mad scientist from detonating a doomsday device.
- A hero and their time-traveling adversary are stuck in a small town in the past and must find a way back to the present.
May 1, 2022 · But not this time. This time it’s going to be different. Fatale is a rookie superhero on her first day with the Champions, the world’s most famous superteam. She’s a patchwork woman of skin and chrome, a gleaming technological marvel built for the next generation of warfare.
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Well, for superheroes, you generally need superpowers — although of course Batman got around without them. But then, some might say that his Crazy-Prepared abilities, superhuman level of easily accessible monetary wealth, and alleged company favouritism are superpowers in and of themselves... At very least, then, we can say that you need characters...
What sort of powers do you characters have? Are they active all the time, or is there a sort of on/off switch between their regular persona and their hero persona, with only the hero one superpowered? And where do these powers come from? Magic is certainly a possibility, but may turn away a good chunk of your audience for various reasons (religion,...
Your characters need to have personalities. They have to be people, instead of merely a reasonto show off whatever powers you cook up for them. And they need to interact in a realistic way. Also, everyone is sick of "teams" who fight each other more than they fight the enemy. Stop doing that. Oh, and don't forget weaknesses. Only one superhero ever...
Superpowers featured in comic books tend to be grand, idealized and desirable - super-strength, for instance, or flight. A possible subversion is to grant your character powers that, on the face of it, do not seem particularly useful, and then explore how they can nevertheless use them within superhero situations. Removing Required Secondary Powers...
Suggested Themes and Aesops
Comes Great Responsibility is one of the biggest themes of a lot of superhero works. Just having extraordinary powers is not enough, as there are many people who would use such powers for less-than-heroic things. What makes a superhero is the decision to use such powers to help other people, not for mere personal gain. One of the best ways to show this is to pit your hero not against a villain with powers opposite to those of the hero (though that villain can still be a valuable addition to t...
Potential Motifs
Lots of superheroes end up with power-based motifs: flames, ice, birds, plants, the sun, what have you. You can also have a motif to go with your theme; for example, in Watchmen, in keeping with the deconstruction theme the motifs of the various superheroes are often subtly based around their various neuroses; for example, the Comedian is a sociopathic nihilist who believes everything's just a bitter joke.
Suggested Plots
You have the option to make the powers the basis of most of your plots, or even specifically The Plot, but it's better to include character-based plots as well. Still, it makes sense for your characters to grow into their powers or have to learn how to make their powers work. For a character with complicated powers, the story line can include not only character growth, but developments as the character learns new ways to use his or her powers. Even for a character with simple powers, like the...
Set Designer / Location Scout
Traditionally, superhero comics are set in the modern city. While this affords many classic possibilities, if you want to do something different, consider playing with the time-frame or the population density. How many superheroes are found in suburbia, or protect the wide fields surrounding a farming village? There have been a few superheroes spotted 20 Minutes into the Futureas well as a few further out still, but rarely many modern-style superheroes in places inspired by times prior to the...
Props Department
Actually, the more powers you have, the less useful actual weapons become... depending of course on the type of powers the characters have. Why use a gun when you can shoot fire from your fingertips? In this regard, you get more leeway when dealing with stuff marketed at kids, because while a gun is "teaching kids imitable violence," fireballs are, well, not exactly something they can emulate. As far as we can tell, at least. However, if you're doing something for more of an older demographic...
Costume Designer
Spandex, Latex, or Leather? Spandex has been done to death; so have tights and body suits. Do you want to go with Civvie Spandex, for a mixture, or maybe even dump the body suit altogether? Are you going to go for actual crunchy armor, sentai-style? Is this a form of Powered Armor? Is it going to be futuristic, or is it going to be old-school metal armor? The Mighty Thor wore the latter. The choices really depend on the flavor of both the character and the setting — Batgirl wearing Magical Gi...
The Fails
Much of the work of Rob Liefeld tends to be criticized as being representative of many of the faults of The Dark Age of Comic Books- poor art, ludicrously over-muscular and over-macho characters and dialogue, poor plotting and an overly-adolescent idea of 'maturity'. His work is often considered a good example of what to avoid. Outside of comic books, the later movies in the original Superman and Batman movie franchises (particularly Superman IV: The Quest for Peace and Batman & Robin) are ge...
Jul 24, 2018 · How to Write Fresh and Original Superhero Stories. Looking at last year’s Logan to examine how superhero tales don’t all have to be the same! pixabay.com.
1. Choose the type of series you want to write. One of the first things to consider if you want to write a series is what kind of series you’d like to write. This will dictate your story’s structure and development over time.
