Reimagining the Superhero

[Ranxerox]

The standard superhero in spandex who saves the world while working to hide his secret identity is what really sells in comic book stores, but I've noticed that many players shy away from spandex and other superhero tropes when building their characters. Certainly, even once you stipulate that a character will have super powers and spend their time saving the world you aren't limited the standard comic book superhero. You could have super spies, soldiers, police, entrepreneurs, performance artist, rescue workers, politicians and so who knows what else.

 

So my question is what alternate visions of the superhero would you be interested in playing or plopping down three bucks at the comic book store to read about?

[BobGreenwade]

Re: Reimagining the Superhero

 

One of the groups in my Legacy Universe is the NYPD Special Abilities Unit (SAU), each of whom has some realistic "minor" superpower. The most fantastic are the commanding sergeant, who is a cyborg, and a "young" woman (actually with the brain of a male nonagenarian) who can heal totally from any non-fatal injury. Other members have ultra-fine vision and motor control, a special affinity for all types of animal, lightning calculations, incredibly dense bone structure, and other unusual traits.

 

So... I do think that a "superhero" group like that would be cool, in a comic.

[Clonus]

Re: Reimagining the Superhero

 

Oz Incorporated are a security company whose super-powered reaction force swing into action when one of the advanced alarms they sell goes off (with the occasional diversion into private investigation and bodyguarding)

 

The Misfits are an underground community of the more freakish superhumans who constantly fight to hunt down the Others, a society of monsters who indulge their taste for human flesh, blood and souls.

 

The Jannissaries are a team of super-powered humans abducted as babies by aliens to act as the enforcers for their empire, until they rebel and set off to find their home world.

[The Main Man]

Re: Reimagining the Superhero

 

When it comes to imagining superheroes, I always like to think that superheroes, at their core, are heroes that have been given extraordinary means to accomplish what they do, many entering the realm of the fantastic.

 

Not only that, but they are truly made super by having obstacles that are designed for only them to be able to resolve.

[Duke Bushido]

Re: Reimagining the Superhero

 

I'm with Main Man: A Hero is who a person is, what a person is. What he can do is secondary.

 

I read a story because I enjoy the character or the tale or perhaps just the telling. The abilities of the character are secondary to the way or ways in which he chooses to use them. And certainly the only real opinion I have on costuming is that the outfit be true to the setting and to the character himself.

 

I don't particularly need brightly-colored spandex commandos engaged in high-profile battles over the center of the city to enjoy the tale. Actually, looking back at the few times I've played supers over the years, very few of them actually wore "costumes" as established by comic book tradition. Even fewer of them could actually fly. In fact, one of my favorite supers characters came from a player who specifically wanted a low-key character in a low-level "darker" campaign. He had a very small power set:

 

He had a great deal of Running and x8 NCM (required a turn mode), but only a SPD 3. He had a 30 STR, but it cost ENDx2 to use more than an STR 15 unless he was running at half-move or more. He had a very small but solid Force Wall that was Linked so that it only worked when he was running (originally to protect him from collisions, but put to really creative use to defend the occasional bystander or teammate). A couple of minor "brick tricks" and a couple of skill levels with Throwing (to represent his background in sports) and a couple additional DCs with Move-by / Move-Through rounded him out.

 

The character was, by day, a college student who had gotten to a non-prestigious school on a football scholarship (running back, natch ) and who helped his folks run a small local grocery when he was able. His only "costume" was a pair of olive-colored Dockers and a tank tee. It didn't happen on purpose:

 

He got into heroics almost by accident when he witnessed a group from a local gang robbing a local shop. He was coming home from practice and had his letterman's jacket and is jersey (with his name) on. He stripped them off and hid them in a trash can (for fear of retribution) and then went out to prevent the thieves from hurting anyone.

 

The clerks described his appearance on the scene:

 

"...and then out of nowhere there was this big locomotive of a man! He just smashed right through their car like it was cardboard or something-- he flashed in here and messed these guys _up_! He just flat took them out like nothin'! Then he shoved them in the trunk of their car and said 'call the police!' and took off like a bullet! You can't miss him! I'm tellin' ya he tore through these guys like a freight train!"

 

When the story came in the papers the next day, that was the name he adopted: Freight Train. But his "costume" never really changed, even as the campaign advanced and the character evolved and improved: white tank-tee and dark trousers, usually olive or navy.

 

That particular character, though-- entirely owing to the player, to be sure-- was more fun to run for than the rest of the group combined. Why? He got into the _story_, even above the plot. While the other players were not slouches, this player went out of his way to make his character's life off-screen interesting, and his life onscreen more than a series of battles and deductions and stock-footage secret ID sequences.

 

Much wordier than I wanted originally,

 

but I wouldn't mind reading anything along those lines: a fairly generic-looking character: "standard powers" or "no powers"-- no flashy costume. But with an interesting story, and a personality driven by more than "must defeat villain." Flesh them out; give them some space to grow. Honestly, removing the spandex might help the writers develop the characters beyond big guns and fluffy muscles and into something really worth reading.

[DusterBoy]

Re: Reimagining the Superhero

 

Spandex and flashy supernatural powers do not make the hero. That comes from within.

 

And Duke Bushido - I wish I could role-play that well. I envy you the experience of playing with someone with that amount of skill and dedication.

[Duke Bushido]

Re: Reimagining the Superhero

 

Thanks, DusterBoy. It was a real pleasure having him in the group. He's in the service and was in the first wave deployed several years ago. He's back in the States now, but was stationed somewhere else. Haven't seem him for a few years, but I still revisit the sessions that he was involved in. He just had a gift for "getting into it."

[OMG1337BBQ]

Re: Reimagining the Superhero

 

My local GM is a little stingy when it comes to what kind of game we are playing so i have a char. for each of the little genres we play.

 

My first char. was a martial artist type of character with teleportation powers. Basically he was the head of a local martial arts studio and only "Heroed" around at night. He could summon a giant shruiken that when it hit you, teleported you. The only thing that differed from him during night and the day was his hair was midnight black in the day but snow white at night. Whatever he was wearing when he went out was what he fought in, which was usually his gi.

 

The GM wanted my first sort of Champions experience to sit with the very iconic, comic book style of gameplay. It's still the most popular with our little group but we have occasionally played dark champions and the like.

 

I personally don't like the spandex donning heroes/villains. Some of my favorite comic book heroes are ones that never really took on a costume.

 

To put it shortly, this game is about flexibility and you don't need to be confined to the stereotypical super hero. I unfortunately have fallen prey to the hero who is bent on "Finishing the villain" quite often.

 

I would pay to see an "average joe" sort of hero that had an interesting story.

[The Main Man]

Re: Reimagining the Superhero

 

Another way to look at it - look at the precedents of superheroes - the hero pulps.

 

Most of them did not dress nearly so garishly as their superhero descendents, even though they often did have a rather particular look, but they hardly dressed in anything that would make them stand out too much.

[Clonus]

Re: Reimagining the Superhero

 

There are OTHER ways to diverge from the superhero archetype than to not dress the part.

[Nothere]

Re: Reimagining the Superhero

 

My last charecter fits into this perfectly. The thing that always struck me about superheros was how they only became superheroes after getting their powers. Before they didn't want to fight crime, then boom they dedicate their lives to it.Now I'm not talking about Batman or Ironman and how they got their abilities soley for the ability to fight crime. So I made Scardey Cat who got his powers at a young age, and hid them. He had no interest in crime fighting, so he never did. Then after he grew up he decided to flex his superpowers. The costume was never meant to hide from or strike terror into criminals. It was to keep the cops from arresting him, and his friends from bugginh him to use his superstrength to move things for them. After all the whole you can't go ten blocks in a costume without running into some minor crime only happens in comic books. An hour later his superhearing had picked up a crime, and for the first time muttering his mighty battle cry of "Crap" leapt reluctantly into the fray.

[Steve]

Re: Reimagining the Superhero

 

When I think of non-costumed superheroes, I alway seem to come back to the comic book series Planetary.

[DusterBoy]

Re: Reimagining the Superhero

 

And Jakita Wagner did wear that leather catsuit. (At least, I think it was leather) She went on adventures because she had a very low boredom threshold and, I think, a sense of wonder.

 

Yay for Jakita!

[The Main Man]

Re: Reimagining the Superhero

 

There are OTHER ways to diverge from the superhero archetype than to not dress the part.

Yes there are.

 

A fundamental change is thinking about what the hero actually does.

 

Most of them are crimefighters or else adventurers, which works fine for action/adventure fiction.

 

But what if the story is a thriller or horror or romance et cetera?

 

These call for different obstacles, and thusly differently defined heroes.

 

Going back to what I said before, a "superhero" for any of these genres could be something remarkably different.

[kickback]

Re: Reimagining the Superhero

 

So my question is what alternate visions of the superhero would you be interested in playing or plopping down three bucks at the comic book store to read about?

 

One that's well written? Something that doesn't cycle through the same four plots over and over and over, and that has characters that behave like human beings?

 

Forgive my cranky old man routine, but every time I look in on the output of DC and Marvel I'm amazed at how bad it is. I'm afraid to reread the comic books I liked when I was a kid. I expect it'll turn out that they were crap too.

 

On a more positive note, I can think of some books that successfully "reimagined" the superhero. Grant Morrison's runs on Animal Man and Doom Patrol were kind of brilliant. (How weird is it that he now writes the latest reality reboot for DC?) Planetary was great. What I've seen of Powers and Ex Machina were promising. Ex Machina is particularly interesting - it's about a guy who uses his fame as a superhero to launch a career in politics. It's sort of like a downscaled West Wing, except that there's some weird stuff going on in the background. The Boys has potential. The first few Wild Cards books were good.

 

I'd love to hear more recommendations.

 

For me, the urban fantasy genre has picked up where superheroes left off. I get fantastical tales in a contemporary setting, but better plots and more compelling characters. Sure, I have plenty of nostalgia for the X-Men and Teen Titans and so on...but I'm much more likely to pick up the latest Dresden Files novel, or rewatch an episode of Buffy, than seek out a comic book nowadays.

 

But superheroes clearly still have a hold on my imagination, or I wouldn't be here. I'm even in a superhero game. But the fun of it for me is in exploring my character's psychology and trying to artfully chronicle his moral decay, not beating up Captain Destructo. I would love to play in a Planetary-style game. Or something more in the horror/occult department, or Warehouse 13 with superpowers.

[Arkham]

Re: Reimagining the Superhero

 

The classic vision of garish costumed flying superhumans clashing over the city is iconic. But due to its popularity, has a great deal of crappy writing ( even if the % of crap remains the same ). But pretty much anything that is well written with compelling characters, setting and plot, I'll read.

 

For playing, again, I can enjoy any game with a decent set of players and GM. One of my favorite characters which I am currently playing is decidedly non-traditional for a superhero in a superheroic setting. He is black-clad with a duster, a wide-brimmed hat, and a blindfold. His only powers originate from a curse which allow him to communicate with and command corvids of all types. Combat with him looks like a scene from Hitchcock's The Birds and to maintain versimilitude, he can't do significant amounts of real damage with a flock of birds. His real use is information gathering, as while blind, he can see through the eyes of every raven and crow within 50 km ( for the first range increment ) (almost) simultaneously (x1000 rapid, +22 telescopic, N-Ray, 360 deg, Transdimensional (land of the dead), Targeting, Sense).

 

But he has a compelling story, has unique and powerful imagery, and contributes strongly to the plots as they develop.

[Ranxerox]

Re: Reimagining the Superhero

 

There are OTHER ways to diverge from the superhero archetype than to not dress the part.

 

Yes, there certainly are. I just mentioned it because I've noticed that an aversion to spandex is pretty common, and I wanted to know what other ways people were interested in breaking the classical superhero mold.

 

 

Oz Incorporated are a security company whose super-powered reaction force swing into action when one of the advanced alarms they sell goes off (with the occasional diversion into private investigation and bodyguarding)

 

The Misfits are an underground community of the more freakish superhumans who constantly fight to hunt down the Others, a society of monsters who indulge their taste for human flesh, blood and souls.

 

The Jannissaries are a team of super-powered humans abducted as babies by aliens to act as the enforcers for their empire, until they rebel and set off to find their home world.

 

These are all good examples of campaigns with supers that don't fellow norm. A comic based Oz Incorporated doesn't really grab me, though if I heard enough good things about it I might give it a try. Both The Misfits and Jannissaries sound interesting either to read about or play in.

[Ranxerox]

Re: Reimagining the Superhero

 

One that's well written? Something that doesn't cycle through the same four plots over and over and over, and that has characters that behave like human beings?

 

Forgive my cranky old man routine, but every time I look in on the output of DC and Marvel I'm amazed at how bad it is. I'm afraid to reread the comic books I liked when I was a kid. I expect it'll turn out that they were crap too.

 

On a more positive note, I can think of some books that successfully "reimagined" the superhero. Grant Morrison's runs on Animal Man and Doom Patrol were kind of brilliant. (How weird is it that he now writes the latest reality reboot for DC?) Planetary was great. What I've seen of Powers and Ex Machina were promising. Ex Machina is particularly interesting - it's about a guy who uses his fame as a superhero to launch a career in politics. It's sort of like a downscaled West Wing, except that there's some weird stuff going on in the background. The Boys has potential. The first few Wild Cards books were good.

 

I'd love to hear more recommendations.

 

For me, the urban fantasy genre has picked up where superheroes left off. I get fantastical tales in a contemporary setting, but better plots and more compelling characters. Sure, I have plenty of nostalgia for the X-Men and Teen Titans and so on...but I'm much more likely to pick up the latest Dresden Files novel, or rewatch an episode of Buffy, than seek out a comic book nowadays.

 

But superheroes clearly still have a hold on my imagination, or I wouldn't be here. I'm even in a superhero game. But the fun of it for me is in exploring my character's psychology and trying to artfully chronicle his moral decay, not beating up Captain Destructo. I would love to play in a Planetary-style game. Or something more in the horror/occult department, or Warehouse 13 with superpowers.

 

You make a really good point about urbane fantasy, it kind of is superheroes but different. It has characters with power beyond that of normals living in a modern setting and usually battling foes as powerful as themselves. So it just like superheros but with different tropes.

 

Do you know of any good urbane fantasy comic books? I've seen Anita Blake at the comic book store, but so far I have not picked it up.

 

Of course, I'm kinda of cheating since you asked for recommendations and here I'm asking you what is good. So allow me to recommend Air and DMZ. Neither has superheros (though Blythe from Air has some interesting abilities) but they are both IMO good reads.

[Ranxerox]

Re: Reimagining the Superhero

 

My last charecter fits into this perfectly. The thing that always struck me about superheros was how they only became superheroes after getting their powers. Before they didn't want to fight crime' date=' then boom they dedicate their lives to it.Now I'm not talking about Batman or Ironman and how they got their abilities soley for the ability to fight crime. So I made Scardey Cat who got his powers at a young age, and hid them. He had no interest in crime fighting, so he never did. Then after he grew up he decided to flex his superpowers. The costume was never meant to hide from or strike terror into criminals. It was to keep the cops from arresting him, and his friends from bugginh him to use his superstrength to move things for them. After all the whole you can't go ten blocks in a costume without running into some minor crime only happens in comic books. An hour later his superhearing had picked up a crime, and for the first time muttering his mighty battle cry of "Crap" leapt reluctantly into the fray.[/quote']

 

 

The classic vision of garish costumed flying superhumans clashing over the city is iconic. But due to its popularity, has a great deal of crappy writing ( even if the % of crap remains the same ). But pretty much anything that is well written with compelling characters, setting and plot, I'll read.

 

For playing, again, I can enjoy any game with a decent set of players and GM. One of my favorite characters which I am currently playing is decidedly non-traditional for a superhero in a superheroic setting. He is black-clad with a duster, a wide-brimmed hat, and a blindfold. His only powers originate from a curse which allow him to communicate with and command corvids of all types. Combat with him looks like a scene from Hitchcock's The Birds and to maintain versimilitude, he can't do significant amounts of real damage with a flock of birds. His real use is information gathering, as while blind, he can see through the eyes of every raven and crow within 50 km ( for the first range increment ) (almost) simultaneously (x1000 rapid, +22 telescopic, N-Ray, 360 deg, Transdimensional (land of the dead), Targeting, Sense).

 

But he has a compelling story, has unique and powerful imagery, and contributes strongly to the plots as they develop.

 

These both sound like very interesting, non-traditional superheros existing in a superhero settings, but that wasn't quite what I was looking for. I'm looking for interesting ways to change the whole setting, not just individual characters.

[Clonus]

Re: Reimagining the Superhero

 

Then there was a parallel universe I once had PCs visit, where their counterparts were part of the oligarchic upper class that resulted from superpowers blossoming in the 16th century and the naturally empowered were under attack by magician and martial artist rebels.

[Ranxerox]

Re: Reimagining the Superhero

 

Was this a "current day" setting or a fantasy past setting? Also, who if anyone was the good guys in this struggle, the oligarchs or the rebels?

[kickback]

Re: Reimagining the Superhero

 

ne of my favorite characters which I am currently playing is decidedly non-traditional for a superhero in a superheroic setting....[snip]...But he has a compelling story' date=' has unique and powerful imagery, and contributes strongly to the plots as they develop.[/quote']

 

This guy sounds awesome. Was the rest of the team composed of more traditional superheroes?

 

You make a really good point about urban fantasy' date=' it kind of is superheroes but different. It has characters with power beyond that of normals living in a modern setting and usually battling foes as powerful as themselves. So it just like superheros but with different tropes. [/quote']

 

And lord knows the tropes can be done poorly, what with the fourth-hand noir cliches and the weird supernatural erotica. But in general the genre strikes me as a little more mature, and that's what grabs me these days.

 

Do you know of any good urban fantasy comic books? I've seen Anita Blake at the comic book store' date=' but so far I have not picked it up. [/quote']

 

Er...they still publish Hellblazer, right? I'm not reading any comics regularly these days. I liked what little I've read of Hellboy. I've heard good things about Fables but haven't checked it out. The Buffy and Angel books are decent, assuming you like the tv shows. The Dresden comic is no great shakes. You should just read the novels.

 

Thanks for your recs. I liked DMZ, so I will definitely check out the other one.

[Pól Ruadh]

Re: Reimagining the Superhero

 

I liked what little I've read of Hellboy.

I'd definitely recommend the BPRD series. It's spun-off from Hellboy, but without the big, red bloke to bask stuff with his giant fist, the team have to rely on a far more investigatory approach.

It's a nice blend of superheroes (most of the characters are superhumans of some sort, but none of them are wearing tights and fighting crime) and investigative horror a la Call of Cthulhu.

[Clonus]

Re: Reimagining the Superhero

 

Was this a "current day" setting or a fantasy past setting? Also' date=' who if anyone was the good guys in this struggle, the oligarchs or the rebels?[/quote']

 

Alternate current day with schizotech. And the real good guys were a group of reform-minded sorts who wanted to compromise, gradually working toward a representative parliamentary system, and passing reform laws.

[novi]

Re: Reimagining the Superhero

 

And for the sake of gratuitous linkage, another discussion on this topic:

 

Not Wearing Tights