What do I need for my comic?

[alchemyprime]

Okay. I'm working on the script for the first issue of my comic.

In it I show:

The hero hding from the villain in the shadows.
A small history of superheroes, to explain how we got to this point, with a plain clothes supervillain.
The hero running around and using gadgets and tricks to get a suckerpunch (er... sucker-lightning-blast) in.
The hero end up with a piece of wood jammed in his arm.
The hero looking magnificent and craking bad puns at the villain.
Then the origin story, explaining when and where each power manifested.
Then the hero going off to fight another villain.


That's Issue 1.

What I have planned

Issue 2 will pop in a new villain that has as his power energy beams of one of the two sorts of energy the hero can't absorb: ultraviolet radiation.

Issue 3 will be him at school, and showing one of the few people that knows who he is: his chemistry teacher.

Issue 4 will introduce a new hero, who will be getting a quarterly series after that.

Issue 5 will be him meeting up with a friend, stopping a hostage situation, then a super-team up with a hero one of my friends is drawing.

Issue 6 will be him finding out his sister is, in essence, the result of Goku from DragonBall Z becoming the Hulk (he hates her mutation).

Skip ahead

Issues 16 and 17 is him going to train with a Golden Age hero (now an old man) and takes a level in badass. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TookALevelInBadass)

Skip ahead...

Issue 21 is the death of Snowstorm by old age.

Issue 22 is the hero failing at everything.

Issue 23 is the hero rejecting the chance for power because he'd be crossing a line.

Issues 24 and 25 are him fighting villains and realizing that a bit more power could be useful.

Issue 26 is him becoming the villain Mr. Vice.

Issue 27 through 30 is the Mr. Vice arch.

Issue 31 is him redeeming himself by


Punching the guy who gave him the extra powers in the face.
Going to a confession (though he isn't Catholic).
Meditating naked under a waterfall (which ended up just being a joke played on him...)
stopping a bank robbery.



Issues 32-34 is him trying to become a hero again in the eyes of the public (they became jaded. They went straight from a Golden Age generation of heroes to a bunch of angsty anti-heroes. These new Slver Age type heroes are weird to them.)

Then I go off on a JLA type deally...




That's all I got. Here's what I need to know:


How do I make the archnemisis memorable?
How do I make the hero relatable?
How do I keep from getting sued?
What makes a comic memorable to you?


Remember, I'm not going for Watchmen here. I'm going for a decent superhero story that enough people like to read that I can wait on CafePress checks.

Or at least get the story I want to tell out there. Either one.

[Admiral_Kelly]

To stop spluttering all your ideas and crucial plot points on message boards.

[UglyPanda]

Most comics don't introduce both the hero and a villain in the same issue. The majority of superhero comics start out with the hero fighting mooks.

All I see so far is that all you've got so far is a bunch of spots for a fight scene and you don't describe anything else. You haven't said what the hero or villain is like, or the tone of the comic. Is the hero supposed to be likable? Is he the classic boy scout type of character? Is he an antihero, playing by his own rules? Or is he just a normal guy who got caught up in the hero business and having trouble dealing with it? What is anyone's motivation?

Heck, what's your writing style? Is this going to be silver-age walls of text, golden age four-stories-per-issue, or modern age decompression?

Have you read Ultimate Spider-man, by any chance? Go through the first fifty issues, it might help or wreck your perspective. Either way works.

[alchemyprime]

Well, UglyPanda, I had more up there originally, but I decided to take some of it out for sompression's sake.

I'm looking for Silver Age, but with the fights being a bit more like modern comics.

As for the character... I kind of hope that I can point out that he was a Boy Scout, he goes out and fights crime because he thinks he needs to due to what he was given. But he also complains a bit because he didn't get the things like being bullet proof (in the first issue he gets a chunk of wood stuck in his arm), regen, super-strength or super-speed.

I want him to be likable, if somewhat absent minded, since his brain runs at about 4 times the average human's thought processes.

I also hope that people can see that his super-personality and his normal personality are essentially the same, that he is one character, but that nobody sees it. They see Steve, the guy who thinks to much and is always nice, and then they see Photostorm, the guy who saves people and analyzes crime scenes. Since he's the same either way but nobody recognizes it, I want him to go through a few thoughts as I progress:

Which face is the one he's meant to be?
What is it about people that makes them instantly accept people in tights with powers that try to save them?
How can they reject their heroes so quickly based on one action?
How exactly does one go about being a hero?


At first, he's going to be very similar to Spider-Man, in that he's this nerdy kid who has powers and goes around saving people. But he doesn't have the guilt angle and his powers actually are what alienated him in the first place, due to his brain running to fast.

Then, after a brief stint as a bad guy, he's going to be a bit more Batman-ish. There is a line, I can't cross it. Then, after seeing some old data on an older hero, the All-American (a Knight Templar, to use the trope), he begins to wonder what lines exist. Then he figures it this way: he will protect as many people as he can. He got a second chance after being a bad guy. maybe everyone deserves that. But he is willing to make exceptions.

Whew, that took a long time to write...

Oh, and I read a good chunk of Ultimate Spider-Man. I like it a lot.

[Hoplite]

I like your ideas. What kind of powers will your hero have?

[alchemyprime]

This is Photostorm. His powers:


Hyper-Intelligence (his mind is constantly working at an increased speed, even while he sleeps. This has made him also a bit of a tech head and he can perceive things normal minds block out, like tears in reality and auras of energy)
Pre-Cognition (an advancement/adaptation of his hyper-intelligence, he sees every possible immediate future when focusing, but the most probable ones come as flashes on insight. Without focus, he can see up to two seconds forward. With effort, he can attempt up to a month.)
Energy Absorbtion/Converstion/Redistribution (He can absorb radiatio, electricity, heat, any sort of energy through his skin [except kinetic, "negative", "magical" and Ultraviolet B]. He can then convert it to a new type of energy and then reaim it. Later he learns from Snowstorm how to absorb from a distance, allowing him to have "freezing bolts". However, shooting energy is inefficient, and part is always converted to visible light and given off from thew skin.)
Adaptation (this power is common with his variation of the muated gene. Every seven years, starting at birth, the body essentialy can adapt once. His intelligence adapted in at 5 minutes old, the pre-cog at 7 years and the energy powers at 14 when he was struck by lightning during a freak storm.)

He also tends to have gadgets and skills to make up for his lack of physical powers (he's the only one in his family that inherited the gene not to gain a physical adaptation). He normally helps other supers and himself by making newer and better supersuits and gadgets for them.

Commonly Used Gadget List

Light Ball- a small plastic ball that lights up and projects a sillhouette of himself on a wall as a distraction.
Storm Syringe- A serum made from the blood of himself, and other heroes Firesaint, Skystreak and his sister (who's powers have essentially made her this universe's equivalent of the Hulk), it accelerates the metabolism so that one can heal at six times thier speed. Doesn't work on Skystreak due to his nanite infested blood seeing it as a disease.
Pocket Storms- Small packets that upon removal of their plastic tabs and a hard impact, they explode into a ball of fire or an electric surge, depending on which was used. Typically used to make it seem like he isn't out of energy, to recharge, or to start counterfires against brush fires.
Boom Generator- A small cellphone sized device, when the safety is on it realeses enough sonic energy to knock back all who aren't immune to sonic energy or able to absorb it. Can push up to 10 feet. Good for mobs. Photostorm also can push it to his chest for a quick recharge. 8 hours of charging gives 5 uses.
Stormbolt- Two variety of these darts: Silver ones are homing beacons that send to Photostorm's watch, while the gold ones are Batarangs with a built in taser.
Watch- His watch is his favorite gadget. An hour of sunlight (or equal amount of UVA radiation and visible light) allows it to stay active. Can synthesize voicemails in Steve's voice and send them to inboxes, can intercept police signals and display as text, can tell time, has a stop watch, a cell phone, his work radio frequency at a range of 5 miles and tracks Silver Stormbolts. Has a second battery that takes 24 hours to charge off of ambient energy that activates a teleporter on his suit (not featured until Issue 10) to call in his suit from a distance of up to 10 miles. However, due to hours of TV and memorizing wikipedia, youtube and TvTropes, Suit has a tendancy to be warped in similar to the opening to Da Ali G Show.

Yeah. That covers it.

[bongotezz]

pictures of your characters would be cool.

[Lord Galen]

The most important thing you need is a STORY. A story that you want, or need to tell. Characters, Uniforms, Powers HeroesVillainsexplosionsdynamicangles
flashcomputercoloring can ALL go hang if you don't have this.
I really, really don't want to discourage anyone from contributing to what I consider a truly great and living medium, and the pure fun of making a comic is nothing to be sneezed at, but Rob Liefield.
There I said it.


Have a blast and work really hard on this. Make it amazing. please.

[Durp]

I think it would be best if you stretched it out a little. Instead of everything happening at once in the first comic, you should just have it a little slower. maybe over like, 3 issues.

Issue one: starts being superhero; starts beating up crooks and whatnot.
Issue two: Discovers villain; has big fight, loses.
Issue three: Beats villain in giant fight.

[alchemyprime]

Yeah, I will be stretching it out. But I am starting this a bit in media res. The origin story will be told kinda later in.