starting out

So this is it!
I love comics. Yeah I'm not afraid to admit it, and about eighty times or so I've tried to get to doing this project. I've wanted to take the time to build my version of the classic super hero genre that I have always enjoyed. This is it. A collection of ideas and characters I've wanted to use that has been building since i was young.
Yeah I know what you're thinking, it's just another comic book with super heroes right? Kind of, but it's not conventional in any sense. Although it's based in our world, a series of events causes everything to be turned upside down, and this is the first time people with augmented abilities and capacities alike those found within the pages of traditional comic folklore, have emerge to public knowledge.
Maybe I should go into more detail...

Synopsis

Just over two years ago a meteor threatened to destroy the earth. Our nations united to head the disaster off at the pass. Using a series of angles from locations across the planet a grid series of rockets were developed and successfully neutralized the meteor before it destroyed us. Unfortunately some of the trajectories were slightly misaligned, and the meteor was destroyed too close to the planet. The debris was caught in the earth’s orbit and eventually formed a ring around the planet. A section of the debris immediately and continuously broke out of geosynchronous orbit and began crashing to the earth causing mass devastation, while in the process knocking out satellites destroying the world’s international communication networks. The only reason things got up and running was due to commercial interest. The corporations banded together again to fill their pockets once more, by restarting the economy and building corporate cities ran by their rules and restrictions.

The planet saw minor temperature, and climate change from the new planetary ring of floating debris, but the real change was noticed as a phenomenon on a global level. By the time the planet had made one rotation around the sun with its new ring, the energy from the sun had acted as a catalyst to ignite a latent unknown energy source found in the debris. This unknown energy blanketed the planet, only visible at night and appearing much like the aurora borealis in a vast array of colours. Furthermore, the unexplainable energy signature seemed to affect the planet’s biosphere. In some cases it caused certain species to become extinct, and in other rare occurrences, it altered certain members of different species by transforming and altering their genetic structure, no species more so than that of Homo Sapien Sapien. This energy seemed to alter the genetic structure of one in one hundred and fifty. Many of which who seemed to harbor or display strange ‘inhuman’ capabilities.

Between the altered people trying to grasp what had happened to them, and those who would abuse these new faculties, this whole situation put a stress on system that was in no way ready to handle it on top of the catastrophe clean up.

This caused dissent amongst the population of these changed peoples and the general public. Distrust formed inside many of the general public breeding a prejudice against the people affected by this life altering genetic change. Discriminated against, and referred to as G.M.O.’s or Genetically Modified Organisms, many bigoted minds have divided the line of humanity to exclude these people who have been genetically changed.

Well that's the general idea. Thanks for checking it out. I'll be following up with some character, production, and cover art.

This time I'm posting some pieces that are samples from the upcoming first full issue debuting after the upcoming preview book. First is of the Character Mer, she has an ability to control water like magneto wills metal. The masked bounding individual is Wukong. He likes Monkey Kung Fu, and moves as fast as lightening, and his suit... well, you'll learn more about both these personalities later when I post about characters.

So now what?

Well now that you have a slight clue to what's going in the story, whats this project about? Well as I mentioned this is my way of doing the classic superhero comic book genre. I love that I finally have a forum to create the stories that I've wanted to do for so long. So as I finally make these steps I focussed my attentions on what I felt was important like continuity.

Not only will this be seen in print, but it will also be an animated production, whether it's seen on t.v, the internet, or direct to d.v.d. release. The graphic novels will supplement the stories further through introspective narration. Or put into more important terms: The story between its different modes of purveying it will NOT change continuity. Something that drives all fans of the genre crazy!

The next aspect I felt needed consideration was characterization. I feel this is what sets what I want to do aside from the general genre. There is a large blanketing of characterization of the cast in comics to stereotypes. I think it works at times to take these stereotypes and use them as story devices to help the audience get a quick understanding of the ideas of the characters, but I like it even more when a writer uses that to help pull the wool over the eyes of the reader even more. Example, the use of a stereotype/archetype of a character so the reader has a guise of what that represents so that they have built up a straw man character (or false understanding/belief of the character concept), only to use that to pull the rug out from under them. I think this is one reason I really looked forward to working in this genre.

The characters in my world who have what would typically be called "powers" have been altered genetically like mutants in the Marvel Universe (copyright!!!), or the meta-humans in the DC Universe (copyright!!!). Unlike these worlds it is almost non existent for their "mutation" to go unnoticed by others, as they have been genetically altered by cataclysmic phenomenon it has physically changed their structure in visibly clear forms of mutations alike albinism, gigantism, syndromic craniosynostoses, melanism, syndactyly, and etc., only they have been taken to extremes. The transformed characters are all coming to grips with this in their own different ways all the while they are surrounded by a world coming to grips with them.

Another area I really wanted to focus on is the larger than life scenarios. I really wanted to put characters in these massive situations and have their personalities and beliefs really guide the story and not just plot ideas with the characters dragging along, which does happen in comics a lot as many fans would be forced to agree with. Not only that but, who doesn't enjoy the world shaking stories between the crime and grit of the harbinger of justice tales.

In this time line martial law has been declared now that a semblance of order has been built up, after a long patch of anarchy occurred. There is a lot of repercussions to a corporate controlled city, unamended transgressions after a time of chaos, and the face of human existence changed through genetic modification.

There are a lot of shades of grey surrounding motivations and action, and nothing is black and white, good versus evil. I think it rounds off the abrasive edge of cut and dry. The story investigates issues at hand with a new world order, and the effect on an entire public, who really benefits, and who suffers under the wheels of change.

I thinks that's about all I should say for now. I hope I'm coming at a classic genre with a bit of a new spin on things. There are four story arcs and I REALLY want to get to them, so I'll keep you posted as things go.