Posted by Paula Richey on September 13, 2012 at 2:38am
Happy Thursday morning! I have a horrible cold and many things to finish before Saturday, and I hope I'm done with the cold by then because I volunteered to do face painting and the sidewalk chalk contest setup at the fair. I don't want to spread the misery :(I would have liked to illustrate today's post with the cover mockup, but it doesn't look like I can do that. So if you like, you can find the cover in my photos and then come back. I'll wait.Back? Okay, here goes:Penance Copper is a super-powered teenage girl - and she hasn't had a home or a family since she was six years old. Her estranged father, Acid, abducted her to train her as an enforcer and assassin to help him in the various deals he had his hands in. As Pen's handler, Acid has kept his hands dirty in a lot of things - among them the capture and sale of "unusual" girls for "the trade." (Pen knows just enough about what's going on to be terrified that she's next.) He uses Pen's fear of the trade - and who she might end up with as her new master -to control her. And now, her first assassination assignment is to kill -or at least take out for a significant amount of time - The Justice. (This is a filler name - I like it okay. But there's probably something better for the person who does the dangerous hands-on work dealing with interplanetary issues.) The Justice is trying to take down this trafficking ring, even though his proper place is in interplanetary affairs. He's the diplomat/defender for this solar system. I couldn't reconcile this until just recently, when I realized that it's an interplanetary human trafficking ring. Of course now it seems so obvious - I already had supply/demand motives worked into an early concept. But Pen didn't realize the girls were being shipped off-planet, either, I don't think. The bad news is that this is a terrifying and difficult development to write. I'll focus on Pen's experience in this volume, and maybe I can figure out more of the plot threads as I go along. She knows just enough to be terrified for herself, but has no idea just how big this ring is.The theme for volume one is the spirit of fear - or overcoming it enough to make a change. At this point in Pen's life, she is ruled by fear. Fear of Acid, fear of death, fear of slavery, sick to her stomach with fear all the time. It drives her to change - she's sick to death of being afraid. Her first instinct is to simply run, then to try to "clean up" her guilt. She latches onto Christ as her salvation - her mother was a Christian, Justice is a Christian, and there's nothing Acid would hate more than for her to be one too. At first she's hoping for a get out of hell free card, then she's trying to make up for her previous life, but gradually she realizes that she is forgiven, she is a new creation, and she can leave her past in the past. She wasn't afraid of Acid for nothing, though - and joining the good guys isn't so simple either. Keep in mind, this is the beginning of her character arc, the overall theme for the series is redemption, and it's not meant to be a kid comic. Secular crossover would be awesome - not to mention miraculous ;)Thoughts? First impressions? Better name for Justice? Other ideas for the cover?
Oh, forgot what makes her different. Well, I haven't researched all possible plasmic-energy superpowers in the universe(s), but I really doubt they have the backstory/origin that she does, and she has significant limitations in this universe - all powers do. What she does is seriously dangerous. I aim never to lose sight of the ramifications (and inconveniences) of having this kind of power. She can't use a cell phone or a computer unless she's very, very careful, for example. In addition, the role her skin chemistry plays in insulating her from her own energy is very important. Changing this chemistry - say, by stripping her skin's oils through a too-aggressive decontamination protocol - would cripple her ability to attack and defend, especially since she's used it as a crutch to win her fights.
Back to the role of powers in this universe. I don't think that an emergence of unusual abilities or even the confirmed existence of aliens is going to lead to X-Men style xenophobia. If Bigfoot was suddenly verified, there'd be more exploitation than panic going on. Society in general tends to gawk, but they aren't quite ready to break out the torches and pitchforks. Yet. Of course, they haven't seen much that's truly dangerous.
I know how it ends :) Going to be interesting getting there. It's really, really different than where she began, and I hope I do a good job getting her there.
Joining The Justice? Well, she's messed him up pretty bad in issue one. And he has a whole other team of people who make their living catching and prosecuting people like her. She has consequences to deal with now. :)
Pen's powers - at base, she's strong and trained in rather sloppy mixed martial arts. She's a fan of the underground MMA circuit in this universe, in which anything goes, including superpowered attacks and defenses, and the fighters have day jobs like "mob boss bodyguard" and "demolition/vandalism expert." (This doesn't figure into the story a whole lot.)
But the big flashy power she has is the ability to manipulate plasmic energy. This takes some history.
Her mother had a rare ability to affect electricity and magnets - making lights flicker and compasses spin at will is something some people can do, but Pen's mom could direct a charge from a wall socket to a lamp. Sometimes she could do it without setting a fire or blowing a fuse. This was primarily a psychic ability.
Her father, Acid, is named for a caustic chemical from his skin - he isn't harmed by it, and it was hardly noticeable when he was younger, but as he's aged, his body chemistry has changed to the point where an ordinary human can't touch him without getting a chemical burn.
In Pen, these two traits have combined in a way to protect her as she pulls energy to herself. Her skin is not caustic, but insulating. She has the psychic ability to pull energy to herself and either release it in flares or circulate it around herself as a sort of force field, but it's her skin that keeps her from burning to death.
The Powerful - weird, rare "urban legend" people, only recently positively identified. There are people who've had the family legend of extraterrestrials marrying in, or a family with the healing touch, or those who never die of simple old age (if it wasn't for that accident, great-great-grandma would still be here!), and bizarre accidents like spontaneous combustion. There's been recent proof of aliens - those signals SETI was looking for! :)
Gotta go - I'll be back to finish this answer :)
what are Pen's powers? what makes them different from similar powers existing comic character's have elsewhere?
what is the role of The Powerful in your story, are they common? rare? how does society view them?
what role will Pen play after she joins up with TJ?
have you figured out how your story ends, or are you wanting to go with an episodic approach?
i'm digging the idea so far, and want to know more, and want to push you into figuring it out some of the parts you might be missing, looking forward to moar discussion!
Comments
Oh, forgot what makes her different. Well, I haven't researched all possible plasmic-energy superpowers in the universe(s), but I really doubt they have the backstory/origin that she does, and she has significant limitations in this universe - all powers do. What she does is seriously dangerous. I aim never to lose sight of the ramifications (and inconveniences) of having this kind of power. She can't use a cell phone or a computer unless she's very, very careful, for example. In addition, the role her skin chemistry plays in insulating her from her own energy is very important. Changing this chemistry - say, by stripping her skin's oils through a too-aggressive decontamination protocol - would cripple her ability to attack and defend, especially since she's used it as a crutch to win her fights.
Back to the role of powers in this universe. I don't think that an emergence of unusual abilities or even the confirmed existence of aliens is going to lead to X-Men style xenophobia. If Bigfoot was suddenly verified, there'd be more exploitation than panic going on. Society in general tends to gawk, but they aren't quite ready to break out the torches and pitchforks. Yet. Of course, they haven't seen much that's truly dangerous.
I know how it ends :) Going to be interesting getting there. It's really, really different than where she began, and I hope I do a good job getting her there.
Joining The Justice? Well, she's messed him up pretty bad in issue one. And he has a whole other team of people who make their living catching and prosecuting people like her. She has consequences to deal with now. :)
But the big flashy power she has is the ability to manipulate plasmic energy. This takes some history.
Her mother had a rare ability to affect electricity and magnets - making lights flicker and compasses spin at will is something some people can do, but Pen's mom could direct a charge from a wall socket to a lamp. Sometimes she could do it without setting a fire or blowing a fuse. This was primarily a psychic ability.
Her father, Acid, is named for a caustic chemical from his skin - he isn't harmed by it, and it was hardly noticeable when he was younger, but as he's aged, his body chemistry has changed to the point where an ordinary human can't touch him without getting a chemical burn.
In Pen, these two traits have combined in a way to protect her as she pulls energy to herself. Her skin is not caustic, but insulating. She has the psychic ability to pull energy to herself and either release it in flares or circulate it around herself as a sort of force field, but it's her skin that keeps her from burning to death.
The Powerful - weird, rare "urban legend" people, only recently positively identified. There are people who've had the family legend of extraterrestrials marrying in, or a family with the healing touch, or those who never die of simple old age (if it wasn't for that accident, great-great-grandma would still be here!), and bizarre accidents like spontaneous combustion. There's been recent proof of aliens - those signals SETI was looking for! :)
Gotta go - I'll be back to finish this answer :)
what are Pen's powers? what makes them different from similar powers existing comic character's have elsewhere?
what is the role of The Powerful in your story, are they common? rare? how does society view them?
what role will Pen play after she joins up with TJ?
have you figured out how your story ends, or are you wanting to go with an episodic approach?
i'm digging the idea so far, and want to know more, and want to push you into figuring it out some of the parts you might be missing, looking forward to moar discussion!