Many thanks to Hammerknight for once again providing interesting commentary, this week on comics. Enjoy! As always, click on an image for a larger version.
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Three middle-aged nerds (including yours truly!) review all of the MCU movies in chronological order. Short, funny, and full of good vibes, check it out and let us know what you think!
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This has made me want to do a team with all those guys in it. You’ve rebooted my imagination HK, thank you!!
Thanks Hakoon.
This would be a good character contest – “Design your own team” or something like that. It’d require multiple characters, but if they have a similar theme it’d allow for some creativity.
An interesting breakdown of archetypical roles amongst superhero teams. The same list applies for villain teams, as well! For example, my Neutron Gang from last year had Mr Neutron (the leader, the natural, & the brains), The Seer (the beauty, the mind reader, & the master of disguise), Strongarm (the muscles, the fighter, & the horror), and finally The Grease Man (the ladies’ man, the rebel, & the wild child). Not all of the character types I used were listed by HK, but his list is still quite comprehensive. Very good piece you’ve put out today, HK! Good job!
Nate, that is one thing I was going to cover in another post,the theme of the teams. I’m going to talk about how not all teams are made with a theme in mind. Look at the Justice League and the JSA, great teams made up of individual heroes that are great on their own. So that is a great subject to bring up.
Thanks Dark, feel free to list any character types that I have left off. You are right about it working for the Villains as will. If you dig a little deeper you will also notice that most of the TV shows that are on today that have teams on them work that way as will.
I just started making a Super-Team yesterday, and I agree it would be a nice contest. Thanks for the 3rd page Hammerknight it will help out.
I seem to be focusing on mystics and antiheroes lately, as well as the low-key hero who uses what little he can. Your comic talk page is definitely great to the greatest degree of greatness- so great it calls upon the powers of redundancy to describe it.
I once had two teams at one time, both cast to survive in their own way. The backstory was the aftermath of a Demon Apocalypse, and the two teams were urban survivors who got around on Rollerblades, and the other were the military, the specialists gathered by the government to push back the terror and reclaim Earth.
The division was clear, the Urban-ers were more ragtag, united by their spirit to protect the people who holed up with them, whereas the militants were precise and organized, but could rub people the wrong way because they figured lives saved vs. lives lost as an equation, not how their civilians would like to be thought of- just numbers.
In the Urban-ers, there was a Puerto-Rican Brother who was the leader, his sister, who I think was the only female (and quite the looker if I recall, as much as could be accomplished with HM 2.0, and the big guy, who actually had a weakness in the fact that he must wear sunglasses at all times because he was very light-sensitive. There were two others, but I can’t remember those at the moment.
In the militants, there was a leader, a communications and reconnaissance expert, the “tough bastard” type character, and those three are the others that have stuck with me.
In reflection, I see how much fun it was making them, and I might have to resurrect them in HM3.
As an added note, I’ve also made twin characters, who work on an interesting dynamic in role-plays. They really can bring out the best and the worst in one another, dependent on the situation and their relationship at that time.
My girlfriend and I even have a whole family team where our pets are twin twelve-year-old children.
Needless to say from my above post, there is no limit to the kinds of teams you can achieve 😀
Thanks Brad.
Thanks for another excellent post, HK. On a related topic, would you consider a tutorial on doing a “group shot” of superheroes using Paintnet (or even the Paint program that comes with Windows)? I’ve done a couple of group shots for my own superhero teams, but they don’t look very good. I’d like some advice on how to do them better.
I can do that. It will be a week or two but I’ll work up something.
Hammerknight, here’s the team I made whatcha think? http://tinypic.com/usermedia.php?uo=8CrmpUc4lOlVcgWQjz87%2B4h4l5k2TGxc Still Need A Name
I think one more member type could be added to the list: The contration. A creature that takes some concept and turns it on its head. This is a bit different from the opposite pairs presented in the list.
Example: Let’s suppose there is a person in a generic superhero world that includes superpowered mutants. This person is a not a mutant, but he is smart and comes to realize that mutants cannot do what they do, because mutation “gave” them new powers, but rather because it damages their minds to the point which removes some mental blocks and triggers some latent powers existing in all people. Then he learns to unlock those powers himself through meditation and there we have it: REGULAR JOE, contrarian superhero – a hero, who gets his superpowers by turning the whole conventional wisdom of superpowers on its head.
Example 2: How about a superhero that can turn enemy’s strength into a weakness. The more powerful his opponent is, the easier time he has in beating him. Aplodes for: BACKLASH. (Sidenote: Parasite could fall the contrarian type, too. He does seem to prefer Superman as an opponent.)
Sorry, an embarrasing typo. The suggested type is contrarian, not contration.
Kalkin, he sounds like more of a villain type then a hero. Being the fact he obsece over one person.
the monster mash:
http://img59.imageshack.us/edit_preview.php?l=img59/8306/hm3beta2.jpg&action=rotate
Well Parasite is a villain, but that’s just one example of the character type that doesn’t stain the entire type. Regular Joe would totally work as a hero and Backlash as an anti-hero. Being a contrarian doesn’t necessarily mean being contrary to the basic concept of heroism (although it is certainly one of the possibilities). A contrarian could be against some heroism neutral concept – like the established definition of superpowers as in my first example. Of course this goes directly to the heart of the question: How do you define heroism? A contrarian hero is always a philosophical study into the nature of heroism.
A very good example of a contrarian hero is Anarchy (Batman’s opponent). He represented a different view of heroism that clashed with Batman’s. He represented a contrarian proactive make-a-better-society viewpoint to the Batman’s concervative protect-the-system-as-it-is side. They struggled, Anarchy’s heroism won (sort of), but then realized that his way to create utopia didn’t quite work so he backed out and made an heroic exit and Batman let him go with an agree-to-disagree attitude. Anarchy got hero’s treatment in the script and commentary revealed writers once intended him to take the place of Robin as Batman’s sidekick. I don’t know what has happened to him since.
@HammerKnight, re #11: Thanks, HK. Looking forward to it.
you forgot the veteran.
The “Stoic”. The guy who stands in the background while the other heroes and villains are fighting. Just when thinks are going bad, BAM! POW! He just whips one out. A common character type in anime.
Variations of The “Fix It”. The “Gadget”. Whether the hero is himself the gadget (usually a robot) or has a utility belt or a jetpack. The “McGuyver” (What’s he doing with that thing?).
There’s “Better Living through Chemistry” man. Which can be the “Jeckyl and Hyde”, “Split Personality” hero. Or even a synergy between two people becoming one hero. Or an inner soul / spirit that takes over when in hero mode.
The “Industrialist” or “Patron”. The guy who ponies up for the costumes, secret lair, R&D, gadgets, vehicles, and bail money.
The “Sidekick”! Everyone always forgets the Sidekick!
Kyle I figured the Military would cover the Vet. I guess from being a Vet myself I am still a little military.
Atomic very good points.
Besides Sidekicks can be another post by theirselves.
Demented your link will not let me see your picture.
Kyle, the Monster Mash is very good. I have always like using the monsters as teams. Creature Commandos( the older group) was a real good read when I was younger.