I’m feeling uninspired by the Gale Force series these past few days. I will finish the story at some point and do more images (the Wizard and witches have yet to be re-imagined and I’m pondering a group shot of Dorothy’s troupe). But for now, I’ll get all you Forumites up to speed on what I have entered into this week’s Public Domain Comics challenge.
I started with the Atom Wizard, a non-powered crimefighting nuclear genius with two previous incarnations to draw upon. The second Atom Wizard had no costume, so I used the first Atom Wizard and the contest’s leading image as my inspiration:
As you can see, I paid homage to the original Atom Wizard cover with this one, but I streamlined the costume a bit. Unless you’re Superman, a cape and saggy underwear don’t cut it as a costume anymore (even the Man of Steel got his Super-Diaper modernized out in his latest movie), and the silly oversized blue gloves had to go. So I went with a red torso and carried the blue throughout the rest of his suit for a more ass-kicking-friendly look. The mask and logo persist as requested.
After running into a perplexing plethora of protagonists with painfully patriotically paletted pantaloons placed upon their persons, I came across the yellow-tinged Flame Girl. Sure, her costume still contained traces of red and blue, but the yellow was something new, and as you know, I have a thing about fire-based superheroes. Flame Girl was the first superheroine I clicked on that didn’t bore me to tears at a glance. But she still needed an upgrade in the kick-ass department, so I did this:
I got the idea that maybe the new Flame Girl would be a daredevil motorcyclist (carrying over the Ring of Fire gimmick from the original), and so made her boots and gloves more streamlined and extended the blue piping through the upper body, making her costume double as a motocross racing suit. Having her mask on under the helmet also kind of gives her that “glasses-no-glasses, Clark Kent-Superman†secret identity thing that persists even though it makes no sense.
Next I submitted Kor-Sekra’a the Alien Scarecrow, whom you may recognize from the previous post. So I won’t repeat myself any further.
I thought my Clockwork project could use another addition, and when I saw that Icarus was on the list this week, I did a re-work on a character that had been collecting dust on my hard drive for months, coming up with one of my stranger concepts:
She has no backstory, but yes, Lady Icarus (codenamed Three O’Clock for the purposes of Clockwork) is a three-eyed angel ballerina in a pink unitard and fake wings. I think watching Black Swan while I was drunk had something to do with it.
For my next entry, I thought I’d try to do more intensive effects stuff, and I had this idea for a spider-woman (no, not the Julia Carpenter, etc, etc, etc. Marvel Spider-Woman) crawling up the side of a building and stopping to stare in through a plate-glass window:
Lena Black is the daughter of Lenore Black, who had the power to spin webs from her fingers and transform into a giant spider. Unlike her mother, Lena was born in a state halfway between woman and spider, and has yet to figure a way to transform one way or the other. She survives mostly by keeping to the shadows and feeding on small rodents throughout the city. Her six eyes give her a second sight that lets her see the true nature of people (those of a corrupt nature are usually normal thieves and murderers, but Lena has squared off against her share of demons, werewolves, vampires, etc. in her search for an end to what she believes is a family curse extending back to Ancient Greece). At night, she goes about the city hunting corrupt souls, wearing a belt fashioned from the skulls of her victims as a ward against supernatural evil.
Note: it’s time to play “Spot the Poe Reference!â€
Finally (unless I get inspired by something else before Sunday morning rolls around), I followed the now-much-hated convention of rebooting through gender-swap (although in this case, the character design was so laugh-inducing it begged to be done).
Boy King and Giant is one of the goofier-looking Golden Age teams. For one thing, Boy King is a stupid superhero name. For another, it looks like Boy King has the same tailor as Baron Zemo and the Rose…I mean, what kind of parents dress their son in purple chainmail, red gym shorts, and blue leather thigh-high boots? Is this meant to distract the villains into spleen-rupturing fits of laughter while the kid’s pet statue steps on them? What’s with the cumbersome furry cape? Time once again to streamline the character and up the ass-kicking factor.
Eh, maybe not so much with the streamlining or ass-kicking…you be the judge.
The streamlining here is in the fact that I combined Boy King and Giant into one character (the Golem Queen), and less so in the costume itself. There’s still the thigh-high boots, the purple top, the regal cape, and the red…um…shorts? I just decided the costume would look better on a female hero, and it does. I know, I’m a sexist pig like any other comic book…um…artist? out there, but who cares?
As for the ass-kicking, her costume isn’t exactly the battle-ready skin-tight unitard look that’s conducive to hand-to-hand combat, but Golem Queen is actually an intellectual hero learning from the spoils of war. Her costume (she’ll eventually be able to change it to something less unweildy as she develops her powers and finds herself in more hands-on fights) has that Magical Girl Anime feel to it, which is enhanced, I think, by the weapon she carries.
On with her backstory: Regina Grant was an archaeologist hired by Eldritch Thule, a German historian, to locate a legendary Biblical artifact known to some as the Spear of Destiny. When Thule supplied her with an archaeological team of his choosing and insisted on accompanying Regina on her expedition, she grew suspicious. But as this was potentially a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, she reluctantly agreed to his terms and they began excavating for the Spear.
Regina was lucky enough to find the Spear of Destiny first, but Thule was close at hand, grabbing the Spear at the same instant as Regina, and the two were locked in a tug of war which she was somehow able to win. She could feel a strange power surging into her body from the artifact in her hands, and brandished the Spear at Thule and anyone else who tried to advance on her.
Thule revealed himself to be Heinrich Himmler, the presumably deceased former head of Adolf Hitler’s S.S. squad, and current leader of the ancient occultist Thule Society, of which his team of archaeologists were all members.
He ordered his men to kill Regina Grant and take the Spear by force, and as they drew their guns, Regina closed her eyes and wished she could survive this terrible situation. The Spear of Destiny glowed and the sounds of gunfire were followed almost immediately by gasps of bewilderment as lead ricocheted off of stone.
With a prayer, Regina Grant had become the Golem Queen, a royal figure with skin as resilient as stone and the strength of ten men.
Himmler and his Thule Society fled in fear but they would return time and again until either she or they were no longer living.
As Regina became more skilled with the Spear of Destiny (which could be stored or retrieved from a pocket dimension by uttering the word “Longinusâ€), she discovered it also gave her the power of flight and could be used to conjure golems from any rocky surface nearby. The Golem Queen currently lives in seclusion somewhere in the Swiss Alps, developing her powers which she mostly uses to rescue people from avalanches without thus far alerting them to her presence.
However, repeated sightings of the Golem Queen’s stone “subjects†have caused word to spread of mythical rock creatures roaming the countryside, so it is only a matter of time before the Thule Society rears its ugly head once more. And when they do, the Golem Queen will be ready for them.
Hope you enjoyed this little walk down Public Domain Lane.
