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Jonesy's Heroes
jonesing4
Posts: 800 Arc User
After almost 7 years of addiction to the character creator, I'm finally ready to unleash my toons on an unsuspecting and mostly apathetic public. Yes, it's a very exciting time in the Championsverse. A few things before I start:
1) Pretty much every costume I have is a work-in-progress, to one extent or another. So, if you have advice for any of these guys and girls (suggestions for better color palettes, something that might make them stand out a little more, etc.), I'm all ears. I'm always tinkering and trying to improve them all, so I'll welcome any comments and take them into consideration.
2) My screen-fu is garbage. I just took my first demo to put up some screens of this first guy, and they still look pretty raggedy. I'm working to improve that aspect, since some of the costume threads on here (MG and bluhman in particular, I'm thinking) have pretty awesome production values, and I'd like to get my toons to look half as cool. Again, to that end, any advice y'all have--editing programs that are easy for the non-tech-savvy to use, so forth--will be welcome.
3) I'll post some bio/backstory stuff when possible, but a lot of my characters aren't realized very well beyond a very basic idea. So, once again, if you have an idea you think would be cool within that basic framework, I'd love to hear it. If it sounds like I'm asking the community to do the legwork in fleshing out my toons, you're a smart cookie. I have 130 faces on my character select screen right now, and I'm nowhere near creative enough to come up with compelling story/origin ideas for each of them. But I love talking superheroes, so spitball away.
4) Thanks in advance for reading, looking, and advising!
Well... on to the first one. I mentioned in MG's gallery that I wanted to do a one-per-day thing, to keep me from getting lazy and going too long without posting a toon. That's really ambitious, and I'll undoubtedly miss some days, but I'm starting off 1-for-1. In honor of MG's nudge to start this thread, my initial offering is a patriotic hero from the UK:
This is one of my newer creations, new enough that I have almost no idea about his backstory. Maybe something WWII-ish, but I'm not sure how he got to present day with modern/futuristic tech. Your guess is as good as mine, at this point.
More coming tomorrow!
1) Pretty much every costume I have is a work-in-progress, to one extent or another. So, if you have advice for any of these guys and girls (suggestions for better color palettes, something that might make them stand out a little more, etc.), I'm all ears. I'm always tinkering and trying to improve them all, so I'll welcome any comments and take them into consideration.
2) My screen-fu is garbage. I just took my first demo to put up some screens of this first guy, and they still look pretty raggedy. I'm working to improve that aspect, since some of the costume threads on here (MG and bluhman in particular, I'm thinking) have pretty awesome production values, and I'd like to get my toons to look half as cool. Again, to that end, any advice y'all have--editing programs that are easy for the non-tech-savvy to use, so forth--will be welcome.
3) I'll post some bio/backstory stuff when possible, but a lot of my characters aren't realized very well beyond a very basic idea. So, once again, if you have an idea you think would be cool within that basic framework, I'd love to hear it. If it sounds like I'm asking the community to do the legwork in fleshing out my toons, you're a smart cookie. I have 130 faces on my character select screen right now, and I'm nowhere near creative enough to come up with compelling story/origin ideas for each of them. But I love talking superheroes, so spitball away.
4) Thanks in advance for reading, looking, and advising!
Well... on to the first one. I mentioned in MG's gallery that I wanted to do a one-per-day thing, to keep me from getting lazy and going too long without posting a toon. That's really ambitious, and I'll undoubtedly miss some days, but I'm starting off 1-for-1. In honor of MG's nudge to start this thread, my initial offering is a patriotic hero from the UK:
Air Raid
This is one of my newer creations, new enough that I have almost no idea about his backstory. Maybe something WWII-ish, but I'm not sure how he got to present day with modern/futuristic tech. Your guess is as good as mine, at this point.
More coming tomorrow!
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1) Get the screenshot I want. Now this might be with Demorecord to get that precise moment and angle easier or I might just take a screenshot on live. If I am lucky (or lazy) enough to get the right angle and pose on live, without going through the rigmarole of Demorecord, then just before taking the shot I switch to /renderscale 2 to get a nicer image.
2) Next I edit the image. For this I use Befunky (https://www.befunky.com/). For my needs it's the best free photo editor and collage maker online. It's also easy to use. Generally I just use it to crop my images, compile them into a simple collage and save the results as PNG for better quality. Then with the saved result I usually open it in Windows Photos to very slightly adjust the lighting, contrast, shadows, highlights, etc so that the character themself is clearer as I usually find that the saved screenshot is darker than it seemed when originally taking it.
I'm also a fan of making individual screenshots a bit smaller..... more reminiscent of comic-book panels.
So, with that first screenshot, I would go from this...
To this...
This is just a quick edit and also just personal choice, but your character is now much clearer and the image is now a lot more focused on him. I also would have taken a screenshot of him more from the front with some sky in the background (during the day) to cash in on the 'Air' part of his name better. I get why you took night shots though, given that air-raids rarely happened by day.
For this guy I would probably go for a legacy hero take on the character. I would make him a decendant of the original Air-Raid who was a WW II hero and honorary member of the Royal Air Force. Perhaps the original Air-Raid had actual wings growing from his back (gives a good excuse to make a Golden-Age version with real wings and a slightly cornier costume befitting those times). I would write about both of them in the bio.
I'm imagining the original Air-Raid, after a very successful career of bashing the boche, having his wings ripped of in a grisly scene by his arch-nemesis Captain Nazi-Bastard in the last days of the war, homaging the death of the Red Bee by the hands of Baron Blitzkrieg in DC Comics...
So if you don't wanna go with the legacy hero take then that could explain the need for the tech wings as a replacement for his original ones.
He's a great character and I love his costume and overall vibe ......nice work and RULE, BRITANNIA!!
I look forward to it mate.
Click here to check out my costumes/milleniumguardian (MG) in-game/We need more tights, stances and moods
Also, thumbs up to MG as well for sharing that backstory and also passing on sage advice as far as screenshots and image editing.
And also thanks to MG for the useful tips. Your version of the screenie is definitely an improvement, so my next order of business (when I have more time to actually fiddle with it) will be to get/start using befunky. Sounds like exactly what I'm looking for.
Re: Air Raid's story
I do like the idea of a legacy hero, but I initially nixed that for AR since I already had a family set of British costumed vigilantes. One of the first toons I made in CO was (creatively named) Legacy, whose granddad was a hero during WWII--simply named The Lion. The Lion, however, was a relatively old guy even at that time period, old enough that his son probably could've been active in the golden age... maybe that son should be the original Air Raid. Then subsequent generations would also work under that name, till this generation where two sons go into the family business--current tech-y AR and Legacy. That seems appropriately convoluted for comic book families.
Either way, love the idea of losing the wings, necessitating the jetwings. I need to think on it some more.
Telesma
The troubled heroine now known as Telesma began her crime-fighting career as a minor-leaguer called The Wraith. She had no powers, probably not enough training, and a strict policy against killing adversaries. While trying to foil a DEMON plot, she became the object of a powerful demon's ire, and was placed under a horrible curse. If she does not kill one person by her own hand every month, the demon will claim two lives as punishment.
Not taking the curse seriously enough, she initially refused to kill. After the passage of the first month, the demon struck. Her beloved aunt and uncle were found dead, with no apparent cause--yet with each bearing the blackened imprint of a demonic claw over their hearts.
In seeking a solution to the curse, The Wraith eventually found two allies who served as mentors. One, a Punisher-like lethal vigilante (see, don't have names for everybody yet, still working this stuff out). If you have to kill somebody every month, why not find a low-life who deserves it and do the world 12 favors a year? The other, an elderly magician she sought out to help break the curse, was only able to offer help through giving her a talisman (that's where 'Telesma' comes from). This magical artifact can identify those whose lives will end prematurely. (My idea is that it's activated through a blood ritual; if she puts three drops of blood on the charm, it will give her a vision of a person who will die in three days. Four drops for four days, etc.)
Sometimes, she punishes the guilty, spilling their blood to avoid the loss of innocents. Eventually, however, she has come to see the talisman's powers as a gift she can give. She finds someone who will die soon, and does everything in her power to make sure that those people are prepared to go (life insurance policies, stealthily finding out and fulfilling 'last wishes', making the last days very happy, etc.), before taking their lives to save two.
That's what I've got for her so far, at least. Kinda odd in that she's not really a full-time crime fighter, but I liked the idea of someone who is very opposed to killing (and is really a good, kind person) facing a moral imperative to do so.
I'm unsure of the red on the shield. Initially I had it the same color as boots/belt:
But I'm not sure if that's too 'matchy'; I like the extra splash of color, just not sure those go together so well. Actually, her first costume was green & red:
Till I realized that I already had a couple of people using stuff pretty close to those colors, so I tried something a little different.
The Blue Ghost
I got the name from the USS Lexington, an aircraft carrier that was nicknamed "the Blue Ghost" because of its tendency to keep coming back after the Japanese believed they'd sunk it. I envisioned him as a cross between Cap, Bucky/Winter Soldier, and *the Spirit. Accordingly, I made him in his current costume:
* While I think the Spirit movie was generally pretty bad, I prefer the way they handled Denny Colt's origin/nature, keeping his status as either alive or dead much more nebulous. In the comic strip, he was definitely just a normal living guy, despite being 'killed' in the first few pages of his debut and continuing to live in a cemetery. I find it more interesting when we don't know exactly what he is.
Lady Alpha
Gifted with powers, trained to use them, and brought up believing that she is the perfection of human existence, Campbell is a superheroine-shaped gun that has been pointed at several worldwide powers. Who are her handlers? What are their goals? Campbell herself may not even have the answers to all these questions.
I picture her origin very much like the movie Twins, but with shadier scientists and without Prime Danny DeVito. She's not just 'female Superman created in a lab'; she's also been trained, educated, and physically nourished in a specific way, to make a virtuous/noble superhero. In the course of her story, we find out (unsurprisingly) that the scientists who made her are more than a little nutty, so this Big Red Girlscout is actually being manipulated into some less-than-savory operations.
But, the basic concept of the character is a flying brick with peak human intelligence/strategic abilities and some low-level energy projection. I decided I wanted to make her after discovering that the Teleios lore "Perfect Being" perk also gave that title. Had to be done.
Gratuitous action shots:
Nice work mate.
Click here to check out my costumes/milleniumguardian (MG) in-game/We need more tights, stances and moods
Doc Halcyon
Armed with exceptional training, futuristic armaments, and unwavering zeal, Doc Halcyon works from the shadows to achieve a brighter day.
I still wish I could edit all the colors on that sweet-looking military jacket, but I (think I) was able to make it work within a more subdued color scheme. Doc H. gets to use all the fun-but-not-optimized powers, like Orbital Cannon, Gas Pellets, etc. Lots and lots of gadgets and tricks, to make him feel as future-y as possible (hard when normal-looking dudes are walking around shooting lasers out of their eyes).
Thorayya
I made Thorayya to take advantage of one of flowcyto's general build skeletons: the combo blaster. I liked the idea of being able to use both archery and single blade, somewhat effectively, on the same toon, and giving her equipment to match.
Her design was much more novel (to me) when I first made her, because there were only a few things you could do with a character's legs while wearing the New Shadows waist-cape. I've always hated the deformed skinny legs that "Medium Skirts" category used to lock you into, but the archer pants were usable in-category back then, and had actual human shaped thighs (in addition to fitting the theme well). Fortunately, you can now put that cool waist-cape on everything.
Thorayya
I made Thorayya to take advantage of one of flowcyto's general build skeletons: the combo blaster. I liked the idea of being able to use both archery and single blade, somewhat effectively, on the same toon, and giving her equipment to match.
Her design was much more novel (to me) when I first made her, because there were only a few things you could do with a character's legs while wearing the New Shadows waist-cape. I've always hated the deformed skinny legs that "Medium Skirts" category used to lock you into, but the archer pants were usable in-category back then, and had actual human shaped thighs (in addition to fitting the theme well). Fortunately, you can now put that cool waist-cape on everything.
Yellowbird
Down-on-his-luck football coach/teacher finds a mysterious amulet in his backyard one day. Touching it gives him ability to fly, create force fields, and fire energy bolts. Tries to conceal powers; young son observes him flying late one night. Makes yellow and black avian-themed costume with son's help after explainable decision to become superhero.
So I'm not Jack Kirby. Sadly, this is one of my oldest characters (#2 on the select screen, putting him at Oct. 8, 2010), but I've been unable to come up with anything remotely interesting for him. I do love yellow and black together, though.
Yellowbird has a ton of alternate tights costumes, but this design is the one I like best (and the least hacky out of them, probably). He's traditionally used that orange-yellow row of colors in the tailor, because the one that I think is supposed to be straight-up "yellow" has always struck me as too green. Nevertheless, one of his alternates is this same pattern, but with a hue in that greeny yellow family, with slightly grayer/lighter black.
Force powerset for the loss!
Soubriquet
Just the skeleton of an idea for this one; she's a former actress of screen and stage who suffered a nervous breakdown and got stuck in character as a vaguely Victorian-era masked vigilante. I have two possibilities for exactly how this delusion manifests itself. In one version, she is herself when she wears the mask. That is, the character she becomes ("Soubriquet") is who she actually is and has always been. When she is doing things that normal people do, like going to lunch with friends, going to the bank, etc., she views that as 'acting'. She takes it seriously, and becomes a reasonable facsimile of a regular person, but in her mind she's just playing along until night falls when she can be herself again.
In the other possibility, she has simply taken her job playing this part way, way, way too far, to the point where she is 'acting' away from the job by actually doing the stuff the character does. So, she studies crime patterns/gang activity/police reports (her version of 'reading a script'), then goes out and cleans up the streets.
Obviously either version needs work (including, how did she get so proficient with knives?), but that's where I am right now. I picture her as being very pleasant when in costume, yet coming across as very creepy and unsettling. When she is Soubriquet, she is clearly insane.
Some costume parts, I have a hard time NOT putting on all of my characters. The female "Winged" boots that Soubriquet wears are a constant temptation; I really like their shape, and that they have just the right amount of fussiness about them--ornate without being gaudy. The Victorian blouse/vest combo is another one that I have to resist putting on casual or era-specific costumes for my girls. In this case, nothing else looked remotely appropriate for the character, so it had to be done.
The Crusader
Bursting onto the scene with no preamble, a masked superhero began taking out the criminal trash in Los Angeles. Dubbed "The Crusader" by newspapers, this mysterious but powerful do-gooder seemed to work tirelessly and endlessly for the safety of citizens. Soon, he became the most wanted man in the state, with criminal gangs putting out enormous bounties on his head. Unable to best him in combat, and with no clues to his true identity, evildoers have (so far) come up empty, and continue to take heavy losses.
Unknown to them, this Crusader is actually two men. Identical twins separated at birth, Lane and Ward Strickland spent a majority of their lives totally unaware of each other's existence. Their powers, once manifest, helped them find one another. Now reunited, they realized that both of them shared a vision of using their incredible might for good.
At each full moon, Lane Strickland is the most powerful man in Los Angeles, possessing super-strength, near invincibility, the power of flight, and burgeoning abilities with energy projection. Also at each full moon, Ward Strickland is simply a normal human. From that point, Lane's powers decline and Ward's grow, till their roles are reversed at the new moon.
Having forged a new identity as John Land (a man with no siblings), the twins have created the perfect cover for their superheroic identity. The sibling with greatest power takes to the streets for an exhausting month-long assault against crime and corruption, while his brother recovers, rests, slowly gains power, and shows the world the public face of John Land. Together, they are the Crusader!
After coming up with the 'twins' idea, I wanted to make a classic tights costume that evoked the idea without giving it away too ham-handedly. I decided to go with the half-and-half color design on the head, hands, and feet; keeping them uniform (black left, maroon right) creates a little bit of an illusion when looking at him directly from either side. From the left, it looks like a basic costume with black mask, gloves, and boots:
From the right, you get the opposite effect:
Not a terribly dynamic costume outside of that, but I had to keep it simple in order to keep it from being busy (and because I didn't want to use black or maroon elsewhere on the costume; can only use so many colors at once).
Even more great stuff there. Thoraya's and Sobriquet's (great name btw) costumes have some really nice layering going on there and I reeeeaaaally like the description of Sobriquet's mental state.
The Crusader is Golden-Age goodness. I like how his bio is a take on the twin brothers Michael and Lance Gallant who are Captain Triumph.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Triumph
And his costume is reminiscent of the original Daredevil... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daredevil_(Lev_Gleason_Publications)
Those are two great Golden-Age references right there.
I also like Yellowbird's upper chest/head combo. That mask works well there. I would be tempted to use the Nighthawk cape or the 'Cape Flaps' cape on him, but I'm saying that just on instict without actually trying it out in the tailor.
Click here to check out my costumes/milleniumguardian (MG) in-game/We need more tights, stances and moods
It's amazing, reading some of the old characters (most of whom are now public domain), just how 'ahead of their times' some of the stories and origins were. They got crazy and goofy sometimes, yeah, but they came up with a lot of ideas that were good crazy. Oddly, I've never tried the Nighthawk cape on Y-bird, but I have no idea why. It's a great-looking thematic piece. The cape he does wear (Art Deco, I think? Unsure of the name) has been that way since the beginning, and despite dozens of re-workings, it's still there. I'm going to look at it, for an alternate look if nothing else. Thanks for the compliments and advice!
The Ranger
Etta Zane works as a Dallas court reporter by day; by night, she works as The Ranger, a high-risk bounty hunter, apprehending the most dangerous criminals in the Southwest. And that's pretty much all we know.
Her costume is a pretty straightforward take on the "flag as costume" theme, using the Lone Star of Texas to fit a gunslingin' cowgirl.
I've chosen The Ranger as my designated female 'master of disguise' (I have a male toon that serves a similar function). In addition to themed alternates (noir, western, pirate, etc.) many of her alternate costumes are takes on various in-game factions (the ones where a gun-wielding human would be appropriate, at least)--VIPER, Argent, Black Aces, Shadow Army, etc.
I did take screens of her basic alternate uniform, a more 'realistic' costume, i.e., how they might dress her in a movie:
The Tribune
On an earthlike planet in the far reaches of space, somewhere in the Whirlpool Galaxy, a young alien named Samylocre was born into the warlike culture of an ancient people. Peaceful by nature but blessed (or cursed) with innate tactical brilliance, he quickly rose through the ranks of his city's military force while fulfilling his mandatory service. In time, he was appointed as a tribune under command of one of his people's greatest generals--the second most powerful being aboard an elite intergalactic battlecruiser that searched the stars for conquerable planets.
As the reluctant tribune wrestled with the morality of war, he continued to serve well; enough so that the general grew anxious about his ascent. The ruthless general knew of one way to deal with the problem; he sent Samylocre to a turbulent planet in the Milky Way Galaxy with false intel and a discretely sabotaged scout ship. If the ship held up long enough to enter the planet's airspace, it would undoubtedly be shot down, scavenged, and studied by the militant natives. And that is how Samylocre crashed upon the Earth.
Despite his pleas for peaceful dialogue, his surviving crew members immediately attacked the UNTIL forces that discovered the wreckage of their vessel. In the end, all were killed in the skirmish except for Samylocre and a badly wounded human officer. Without a second thought, the alien took the man to safety and aid. From that seed a valuable friendship was formed between Samylocre and UNTIL, who refer to the alien by his rank as an almost ironic nom de guerre: the Tribune.
I liked the idea of a wise, benevolent, peaceful alien who nonetheless had to become a warrior (and became implacable in battle). I guess most alien characters in comics end up being 'last of their kind' types, which I didn't totally avoid with the Tribune. There are others out there, earth just hasn't met them yet, and we really don't want to. This also gives him somewhat unique motivations; he isn't nostalgic about his home planet or people, since he didn't really fit there to begin with. And, he's too peaceful to want to get back home for the sake of revenge. He's firmly in the 'war only for the sake of peace' camp, and wants earth to be prepared in case we have to tangle with the likes of his race.
Costume-wise, I wanted something that evoked Star Wars more than a classic space suit or alien soldier. I like the idea of a nomadic alien wanderer, so his armor is techy but a bit piecemeal.
Gratuitous action shots:
Rampant
Another one that I don't know much about, yet. She's young and energetic, with more experience in training scenarios than actual battle situations. Has access to hi-tech despite this, so maybe she's from the future or something. Still figuring it out.
I've always liked the 'big robot hands controlled by human hands' idea, provided by the Retro Sci-fi gloves, but didn't have a character built around them till recently. Scaling hand size/length up to the max ended up with pretty good proportions for her actual hands. She's only a lvl. 6, so only Force powers for now, but it's going to be fun to land Haymakers and Roomsweepers after her build fills out with those enormous robomitts.
Click here to check out my costumes/milleniumguardian (MG) in-game/We need more tights, stances and moods
Fusillade
On his 18th birthday, a rival gang wiped out half of his family's operation, including daddy Grigoryan himself. Grief-stricken and enraged, Frank saw the tragedy for what it was--part of the endless cycle of violence that organized crime feeds off of. He became determined to truly protect his (and all) people, and improve their lives, by waging war on such criminal elements. Working with the police rather than against them as a registered hero, he has taken his lumps in urban warfare and grown into a grizzled veteran of the fight against organized crime.
Raining fire and lead on his enemies with two guns and too many grenades, he is--Fusillade!
Fusillade was conceived around my fondness for the Foxbat belt. It was easy to see the ping-pong balls as grenades, and as someone raised on Schwarzenegger movies, I've always thought that if you can put a row of grenades on an item of clothing, you should definitely do it. The name needed to start with F, of course, so "Fusillade" seemed the best option for a guns 'n' grenades guy.
Incidentally, he became lots more fun to play after the Munitions pass. His old build was much more of a tech/laser rifle build, with very little use of actual thrown devices. Now he has 3 kinds of grenades to toss at people, which I know he secretly enjoys very much.
Action-packed first issue!
Captain Karelia
Like Captain America, only Finnish! (And with power of flight, and fiery swords.) Honestly don't have a ton of info here.
This one worked from the name outward. I've tried to use some of the classic comic-book naming conventions on some of my heroes; I'm bad about getting into the 90s-00s rut of just picking a cool-sounding word as a name (see Fusillade above). So, I've got some "Doctor _____", "_____ Man", "Miss _____", "_____ Girl", etc. to balance things out. For my "Captain _____", I did sort of want to go the national route; Karelia sounds cool, looks like an awesome place to visit (if pictures are any indication), and has a history as contested land.
The coat of Arms of Finnish Karelia is primarily red and white, with gold trim and blue accents; I chose black accents rather than their blue, because another bright color didn't look right where I was using it. The coat of arms also features two arms with swords, one of them resembling a scimitar. Cap'n K's costume and powers came together pretty quickly after my research.
Some basic info on Karelia.
You know the drill:
Click here to check out my costumes/milleniumguardian (MG) in-game/We need more tights, stances and moods
The Atlantean
Well, that's the legend, anyway. In reality, the hero known as the Atlantean isn't from Atlantis, he isn't a king, and he isn't thousands of years old. He's a guy named Vince from Charleston, who began manifesting powers in his late teens--he has immense strength and incredible physical durability, and he doesn't need to breathe to survive. A lover of the sea since his earliest days, Vince soon realized that these abilities uniquely suited him to work as the protector of the Atlantic.
Equally capable of defending the defenseless above the water, Vince mostly stays in the ocean because... well, he's just a chill guy, and he doesn't get bothered as often down there.
Action collage!
So here's my obligatory aquatic hero. These guys are tough, to me. There are only so many directions to go with the color scheme, and it's hard to put something together that doesn't feel like it's been done before. I guess that's true to an extent with other heroic archetypes, I just feel it more pointedly with undersea hero/ines. I made the Atlantean many, many years ago and have been refining his costume ever since, till this present iteration that I'm actually pretty happy with.
For the backstory, it seemed fun to have a guy who just really liked swimming and diving, so when he developed powers he just said, "What the heck, I'll be the water guy." When you think about it, the main aquatic guys don't do anything Superman can't do, except for fish telepathy (Aquaman) and being a complete tool (Namor). Supes can survive anywhere, and would figure to be very nimble and graceful underwater because of his strength. So, the Atlantean is basically a Superman-type who just prefers hanging out in the ocean (and who has done nothing to curtail the mythology developing around him).
His primary alternates are a more heavily armored costume:
And a sleeveless/barefoot thing more suitable to a 'swimmer':
Side note, the site MG recommended (befunky.com) is a lot of fun; these images are my first experiment there, and I think I may be able to find a format I really like sometime soon. I hate when things aren't uniform, so I'd like to figure out exactly what I want these posts to look like, and then standardize them. This may be close to what I'll be doing in the future.
The Grey Owl
While crime may not be much different away from M.C., fighting it certainly is. The Bad Guys in other places are bolder, strengthened by so little superhuman policing. They have no fear of law, conducting their business unchecked. So, as a nearly solitary operative facing many threats and adversaries, Claire devised a plan.
Beginning her vigilante career as the Grey Owl, she took to the streets with little mercy, immediately establishing herself as a real threat to the criminal underworld. At staggered intervals, she gradually introduced more personae to create the illusion of more hands on deck. Wearing different costumes, slightly altering her tactics, striking at different times but always without warning, each 'new' hero who came to Windsor seemed to exhibit a growing force of opposition against evil.
The one-woman assault she has aimed at her city's most dangerous citizens has taken a toll on her, as her many disguises require constant work. Will more heroes notice her crusade and note Windsor as a place where they can help make a difference? Time will tell...
*Disclaimer: I have no idea if this is true in real life, at all. I picked Windsor because it's close to Detroit.
^ First costume above is her updated, more 'tactical' attire. The lower one is more of a classic tights look, with a built-in wingsuit for gliding.
Many have joked about the concentration of heroes/villains in one or two cities. How dumb does a supervillain have to be to rob a bank in Marvel's New York City? Go to Cleveland or something, nobody with godlike powers will try to stop you there. So, I liked the idea of one hero who fights crime 'somewhere else'. She doesn't have a team, she doesn't have allies, she doesn't even have the threat of other good guys showing up when she's taking down the mooks at the docks. How would you approach it?
My plan was to use the old tactic of making your side seem stronger than it is. Claire can only be one place at a time, but she can make the bad guys think that these many heroes can be several places at a time. Every bit of psychological leverage helps, and it might check some of their activity.
I also like playing with the idea of identity. Secret identities and alter egos are interesting to me; my favor aspect of many comics is the balance between hero/ine and average person. Spider-Man is fascinating because he's also Peter Parker. How does he keep the secret? Does he really have to? Should he? etc.
So, Claire's many alter egos bring up some fun things to think about (for me, at least). It would make it more difficult to keep that balance between Claire Mathias and her various masked forms, since it requires a ridiculous amount of work. At the same time, though, it means less enemy concentration on one heroine. Every single baddie in Gotham City is trying to figure out who Batman is; if there were 5 or 6 Batmen who attacked in erratic patterns and places, it might make it tougher to crack the mystery.
Anyway, that's the Grey Owl.
Her other personae and their costumes include:
Little Red
Queen Krait
The Specter
Graymane
Here's yet another guy that I really don't know much about. Probably some sort of alien, or someone from a different dimension (essentially the same thing). He's catlike, but I don't want him to be just a manimal; he has a kind of aristocratic bearing, so he's from a well-formed and sophisticated culture that isn't of the earth. Just not sure exactly what, yet.
While I love this costume, unfortunately, it's pretty much held together with duct tape. Ye gods, the clipping. It looks fine when he's stationary and not breathing, but when he starts moving, the shirt clips through the tabard, the legs clip through the kilt, the sleeves clip through the bracers, the shield clips through the arms, etc. I have a more mundane kind of 'casual' costume that I use for him when actually running content, but it's not anything worth showing off (not to say this one is).
Graymane has a pretty fun build. He mixes Unarmed with HW, mostly using the click attacks with cooldowns (knee, backhand chop, whatever the HW one that knocks everybody up is called, etc.). Some of those have been nerfed since he was first conceived, but initially those powers were all surprisingly good DPS on their own--you just can't spam them. So, I decided to take enough of them to be able to spam something (though I guess it's not spamming if you're using different powers, it's just a combo). Far from maximized, but it's entertaining.
Action collage!
Golden Tabby
Kidnapped by a yakuza organization as a young girl, given experimental genetic treatments, trained as an assassin, eventually rescued by benevolent warrior monks and reformed.
GT is on my first page on the character select screen, making her about 7 years old. There are way more ways to create cool martial arts costumes than there are ways to make interesting MA builds, so instead of making dozens of ninjas, monks, street fighters, champions, samurai, etc., I've ended up putting most of my Far East costumes on Golden Tabby. I've made more characters over the years just to have some visual/conceptual variety, but she's still got the lion's share of that kind of thing.
Aside from the costume above, there are three alternate looks that get the most use. One is a masked superhero costume that looks kinda like somebody Daredevil or Wolverine would've fought in the 80s (didn't get any screens done of that). The other two are below.
Red samurai armor:
Shaolin robe costume:
Raoul the Magnificent
As an adolescent, he succumbed to wanderlust, catching on with a travelling circus troupe. Further schooled in the ways of stage magic, throwing tricks, and acrobatics (paying for such education by giving his own lessons in sleight-of-hand), Alain adopted the grandiose persona of Raoul the Magnificent, and quickly became the star performer among all European circuses.
He threw butcher’s knives at beautiful Bavarian women. He wrestled wild bears, and played his fiddle to help the trained ones dance. He made children believe in magic with astonishing feats. He dove into bathtubs from 15 meters in the air. He guessed ages and weights, and invited countless thin young ladies into his tent after the show. He juggled bowling pins, torches, cats, and anything else his audiences could think to throw at him. He was Raoul, and he was Magnificent.
Unfortunately, he was also bored. Even the circus gets old after a while. Lured stateside, Raoul soon found that his skills were not as valuable on U.S. soil. No stranger to wandering, he began roaming throughout the country without complaint, picking up odd-jobs wherever he could. His travels finally bringing him to Millennium City, Raoul found a new way to put his unique skill-set to use--as a vigilante ‘hero for hire’ on streets just as dangerous as the ones where he first learned to live.
I liked the idea of a stage performer using those skills as a masked hero, and came up with a few builds that were pretty fun. There are a lot of powers you could include to represent different things; chain powers (an escape artist could develop skill with them), breathing fire, fencing, might powers as a circus 'strong-man', things a stage magician might use (smoke bombs, a big cleaver to cut people in half with, fireballs from his hand), throwing knives at a target, etc.
Eventually his build came down mostly to throwing knives, fudged with the Boomerang powers. His initial costume worked fine for 'vigilante hero who throws knives':
While I like that costume, it doesn't really do anything to visually demonstrate his roots in the circus. I did have an alternate costume that was his old get-up from the French cirques:
So I decided to combine elements of both into his new main costume. The striped pants and more artistic imagery on the mask and undies give some hint to his heritage, hopefully.
Character creator views of his three primaries:
The Baroness
Another one that I don't know much about, despite her being a first-pager. She's a wealthy socialite, and has powers because her dad did secret trials on her when she was a kid (unknown to her). He ends up being a pretty crazy villain later on. That's about it.
She has a lot of costumes, though most of them follow the same general conventions (blue and white, tights, domino mask). The one pictured above is her new main look, and breaks from her usual pattern of white gloves and boots--almost all of her earlier tights had those:
Similar to aquatic hero/ines, ice types are kinda tough for me. I'm just not creative enough to figure out something beyond the cool colors routine that works for a cold-theme heroine. But, I like the simplicity of her newest tights look.
Thorayya
I made Thorayya to take advantage of one of flowcyto's general build skeletons: the combo blaster. I liked the idea of being able to use both archery and single blade, somewhat effectively, on the same toon, and giving her equipment to match.
Her design was much more novel (to me) when I first made her, because there were only a few things you could do with a character's legs while wearing the New Shadows waist-cape. I've always hated the deformed skinny legs that "Medium Skirts" category used to lock you into, but the archer pants were usable in-category back then, and had actual human shaped thighs (in addition to fitting the theme well). Fortunately, you can now put that cool waist-cape on everything.
Click here to check out my costumes/milleniumguardian (MG) in-game/We need more tights, stances and moods
ok I fixed it
I... didn’t do anything. I have no idea why my account would repost something that I posted months ago. I’m truly at a loss on this one.
Upshot is, seeing this thread has filled me with roiling shame over an abandoned project, so I might have to re-sharpen my demorecord chops, try to figure out editing/posting satisfactory pics again, and get back to work.
I'm digging both Thoraya and Greymane's designs a lot by the ways.