07 – Soul Fire by Beausephus

CHARACTER NAME: Soul Fire
DATE OF CREATION: 1992-3

CONCEPT: A group of young mystics seek to gain supposed “true power” and wind up trapped by the very forces they sought to control.  SOUL FIRE, along with THUNDER CROSS found themselves without a physical bodies , consumed by the power they sought to control.  SOUL FIRE rededicated himself to his study of magic and the mystic arts, determined to control the power that was literally destroying him.  He discovered a way to hinder the energy but not how to cure himself.  Bound in blessed metals and enchanted symbols, SOUL FIRE can now control the elemental energies, but he has seemingly forever lost his true human form and like the chains that bind his burning form, so too is his humanity trapped inside the inferno that engulfs him.

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The original idea that became SOUL FIRE and THUNDER CROSS and his friends started during a period of really looking into and observing the Ditko Doctor Strange and the Simonson Thor runs.  Magic versus humanity.  So I took three selfish young mystics training to in some secret art who desire more and endeavor to find ways of achieving more raw power.  In a Faustian accident brought on by their hubris they find themselves dominated and possessed by the elemental energies they sought to control.  In the end, they decide to redeem themselves by using their powers for good before the energies that grant them their abilities consume them.  This basic origin created three characters – VENGEANCE, THUNDER CROSS, and SOUL FIRE…. magic based spandex superheroes. A recreation of the original design is below.

So when I went to re-envision these designs for the new century, I took everything down a more sinister path.  Instead of the characters merely gaining abilities they have questionable control over, the mystic energies possess and destroy everything that they believe makes them human.  Instead of donning metal gloves and a Ferro-Lad inspired helmet, THUNDER CROSS, must use physics, electonics, and rudimentary magic to create a harness that will allow him to keep a mostly human shape while he seeks a way, with his peers, to pay for their vanity and hopefully restore themselves to their true forms.  Instead of donning an obviously inspired Gambit style costume, SOUL FIRE, like THUNDER CROSS, is immolated by energy and mystical forces, but SOUL FIRE turns to the the truly mystic and magical to control his form.

If the exploration of a hero’s jounrey is what makes one a hero, I believe one first must rediscover who they are.  THUNDER CROSS and SOUL FIRE are examples of a characters whose choices damn them but force them to rediscover their beliefs right  down their very concept of self…. with a bunch of explosions and magic battles thrown in to keep things exciting.

The image above is a new take on a basic spandex superhero, but in all honesty, I like the original design below more than the revamped design above.  While I like the new direction of the characters’ stories, I feel the new THUNDER CROSS design is far superior to the new SOUL FIRE design.  Rethinking the design may be in order…perhaps an update will soon follow….

Category: 2011, Fantasy, Superhero