Category Archives: Cool Characters

Neat characters submitted by HeroMachine fans.

Un-burning Bridges

Un-burning Bridges

By: Andrew Hines

This is the Avengers that we should have had the whole way through. A mix of the first-stringers and those that have been lost in the background for years. The greatest part of this book is exactly what has made the other teams so awesome, the way they interact. The team has almost never seen completely seen eye-to-eye and that's not going to change anytime soon, especially following the events of AvX. As in times past, they come together to get the job done despite their differences. With that being said, I have a feeling this is gonna be a great series.

Writer Rick Remender has had his hands on some great titles in the last few years, such as Venom, Uncanny X-Force and Secret Avengers. Just the intro into this comic, by itself, is fantastic. He gives long-time fans and newbies alike a great place to pick up from where AvX left off. Aside from reintroducing Havok into the comics, Remender also gives us our first look at the S-Men, a group of Red Skull acolytes. Aside from these little goodies, we get to see some good character interaction and above all are reminded what the X-Men were supposed to stand for. Remender's pacing, casting and dialogue are pretty good. My favorite bit, however, has to be Logan's speech at the very beginning. Simply wonderful.

John Cassaday's art (yeah, pencils, inks and colors) is great. It's very new and very good. I love the designs, the flashback panels and the transitions. Every bit of it feels different from a normal Avengers book and that's exactly how it's supposed to be. There are some great action panels here and some really in-your-face moments as well. The art is good throughout and I love the take on the new takes on Thor's and Havok's costumes. Havok's feels classic, yet refined, which is a step up from some of his stuff during the 90s. Then there's Thor's new costume and the biker gloves. Overall, a good issue for art.

This earns an "A" for being better than I really thought it would be. The only thing keeping it from being an "A+" is the weird cliff-hanger at the end of the issue.

Along Came a Doctor

Along Came a Doctor

By: Andrew Hines

As many of you may already know I'm a Whovian (Doctor Who fan). That being said, my solitary heart skipped a beat when I saw this comic on the shelves of my local comic shop this week. It's got history, the Doctor, Amy and Rory, and alternate dimensions. No Daleks as of yet, but give it a few issues, they'll show up.  AnyWho (see what I did there?), it's set in London in the 1850s and in the middle of a bit of mild oddness. A perfect setting for an entrance by the Doctor and the Ponds.

Andy Diggle scripts the first bit of a two-part story arc that is actually very in the feel of the current Who-niverse. There's the classic shtick of the Doctor, where he just pops in unannounced and begins to take things over without much of a fuss. This is Doctor Who at its best in the comic book realm. The writing is good, pacing is adequate and the dialogue feels as if Steven Moffat himself were writing it for Matt Smith. Amy and Rory are exactly as they are in the show, so there's very little missing if anything at all.

Mark Buckingham's art isn't the best I've ever seen, but fits the story beautifully and for that I love it. If it had been in the future, his style would not have worked as well. Given, however that it was London shortly before their industrial revolution, it's spectacular. It works even better when paired with Charlie Kirchoff's colors. It really does feel like the 1850s as you read it. It's a wonderful feeling once you see the machine as a whole. I honestly don't think anyone else' art or colds would have worked for this story.

I give this one an "A", simply because the writing and the art work splendidly with each other. If you're a fan of Doctor Who and a Matt Smith fan to boot, I highly recommend this one.

META: Hall of Fame

I have always been frustrated with my inability to get a proper "Hall of Fame" type of page going where you could see all sorts of awesome characters in one place.

As of today, that frustration is history! If you click on the teaser ad up there in the banner labeled "Featured Character", you will now be taken to the HeroMachine Hall of Fame.

Plus, that little widget is now randomized, so every time the page is reloaded you should see a new character featured there. Neat, hunh?!

Character Contest 66 Winners!

We had a huge response to Character Contest 66: Cyborg -- thank you all so much for sharing your creativity! As a result of the larger than usual number of entries, I also have a larger than usual number of Finalists. There were just too many quality submissions to limit it to the usual 20 or so.

I hope you enjoy browsing through this creme-de-la-creme as much as I have. Without further ado, it gives me great pleasure to introduce to you (in alphabetical order) the following Finalists.

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Character Contest 51 Winners!

With great delight and no further fanfare, I present the following exceptional entries to Character Contest 51: Alien Nation!

First up is Abominal401's "The Shadow of the Demon", which I don't think qualifies as an actual "alien", but which I wanted to show you for the great use of silhouette and posing here. The use of just red as the lone color makes for a very striking effect.

I don't love Asder's "Avatar" homage here, but I do love the background. At first I couldn't figure out how he did the background, but it turns out to be as simple as it is effective.

I thought MMI's "Arachni" was a little more "super hero" than "alien" but I love, love, love the patterning of the spider web onto the smoke trails. That's an awesome look.

AJW's "Equithan" is a nice blend of different body parts to create a nifty looking alien-type warrior.

Cliff went for the ever-popular "Alien Squid Tentacle Guy and Hot Girl in Bikini" motif in his "Sixty Seconds Before" homage, and I liked the alienness of the creature.

DiCicatriz had the best "alien mech" type of entry with "The Unseen". I love the glowing headlight and the simple but elegant arrangement of the body parts to make a convincing crab-like creature.

I figure if Millar and Hitch can turn Samuel L. Jackson into Nick Fury, Galahad should be able to make him an alien as he did with "Samuel L. Zaxmar".

Kaldath put together a nice ocean scene along with a cool looking aquatic alien to populate it with "Pyronling".

I thought Kingslaughter did one of the best "scenes" I've seen yet in terms of layout and creative use of posing. I wish the coloring had been more cohesive and not so ... jarring? Regardless, very well done.

Another MMI entry is the neat looking "Drop From Above Alien". I thought the background in particular was cool, but the creature itself is also excellent.

I really liked Mr. Vampire's "Brain Spider" for the concept -- zombie-making space aliens in EVAC suits is downright scary.

Sutter Kaine's leonine alien hunter came out great.

Rozenstal made a comment on his entry that he thought there were too many "humanoid" entries, and he wanted to do something not based on our basic build. I agree, actually -- I was hoping for some really "alien" entries. So when deciding which of the great entries would win, I ended up narrowing it down to the following batch of "non human" aliens.

First is Rozenstal himself, with a nasty looking reptilian beast.

Watson Bradshaw's "Alien" looks like a robot I've seen before but I can't quite place it ... Still, nice job!

Our First Runner-Up is from Tango, titled "Mynzithrum". I love the reflected face in the glass, the water effect surrounding the alien, and of course, the alien life form itself. The design, coloring, and overall layout are all exceptionally well done.

Finally, the Winner of this contest is, as far as I can remember, a newcomer to these endeavors, and I think he knocked it out of the park with all his entries. While stories or explanations aren't necessary -- this is 90% a visual competition -- but I absolutely loved his. I mean, take a look at his explanation for the "Tateroids":

Tateroids are potato shaped, silicon based life forms that spontaneaously change sex if suprised or frightened, often causing the unexpected release of a single, nerflike egg. Tateroids are, understandably, sociophobic and don’t get out much.

And here's the image:

A wonderful combination of imagination, writing, and art. I loved it. Here are a few more, but do yourself a favor and check them all out, they're just great.

So for embracing the challenge of creating aliens both visually and texturally, and for doing such a kick-ass job all the way around, I am happy to pronounce PapaKrok the winner of his choice of any item or any portrait to go in HM3, or a "Sketch of the Day" style illustration.

Congratulations to him and to all our Finalists, and thanks to everyone who took the time to enter!

Character Contest 50 Winners!

Wow, we had a phenomenal number of absolutely outstanding entries for Character Contest 50: Lord Random III! This may be a record number of Finalists, I'm not sure, but regardless everyone should be very proud of themselves this week. I really appreciate all the hard work and creativity on display.

Without further ado, therefore, your Finalists! As a reminder, the challenge was to put together a concept using names randomly generated from the Seventh Sanctum site.

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Character Contest 41 Winners!

The only thing worse today than the massive head cold I am sporting is my craptacular internet connection. Thus I am at the library using their wireless network while spreading my germs to the other patrons. Don't say I never gave you anything, library lovers!

Since the latter item meant it took me three hours just to download half the entries for Character Contest 41 and the former item means I feel like death, I am not going to post the individual images of the Finalists like I usually do. Instead I am going to put them all into a gallery, where you can click through to each one.

Congratulations nonetheless to all of our Finalists, however -- Alex, Blue Blazer, Decolda, Gargoyle323 (x3!), Imp (x2!), Kaldath, Knitesoul, Morzan, Mr. Q., Phatchick, Rosco, Watson Bradshaw, and Zyp. Well done, all of you! Some of these I liked a specific element or technique, others were great designs, and others were just fun. I will leave it to all you healthy people to figure out which was which, and why you think these made it to the Finalist status, in the comments.

Somehow I managed to put each one in twice. I don't know how I did that, or how to make it stop, so get ready for twice the lovin'.

Finally, out of all those I had to pick one winner. And I had to agree with those who exclaimed in the comments how awesome this one is, because I just love it. All of the effects work, the design is spot-on, and the character just looks utterly fantastic. Definitely one of the best entries we've had in the history of this series, just a great, great job by Morzan with his "Junkie":

Morzan, let me know either via email or in a comment to any post what item or portrait you'd like as your prize. Thanks for the illustration and congratulations!

Character Contest 35 Winner!

The entries for "Character Contest 35: Road Warrior" were oustanding, thank you everyone for putting up such excellent illustrations! I really think you outdid yourselves this time around, so I've got a bunch of Finalists after the jump. Even then, I left out quite a few more that I think were also great, so this is definitely a week you could go through the comments manually and check them all out.

Before we get into them all, though, I wanted to start out with one that made me both laugh and wish that there were a movie or comic in the works for the featured character. I think it will get things off on the right foot, so I turn it over to Ian Healy's "Undead Elvis of the Apocalypse":

And away we go!

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Twister Sisters

"Twister Sisters" by Imp, winner of Character Contest 34.

Character Contest 33 Winners

Many thanks to everyone who submitted the great entries in Character Contest 33. I've picked out the ones I thought were truly exception for one reason or another, and at the end I'll reveal the winner of any item they like, or a portrait of themselves, to appear in the final HM3 versions.

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