Archive for November 25th, 2011

#24 “Supernicus”

Universe/Storyline: The Beacon

To read a sketchy comic introduction to The Beacon featuring some horribly drawn stick figures, feel free to visit this photobucket album.

At first glance, Supernicus looks like a harmless old guy– gray hair, glasses, and very, very short. However, Supernicus has a superpower: an intellect beyond genius, which he uses to invent nefarious devices that he then sells to common criminals or uses to commit crimes of his own. His crimes are planned out to even the smallest contingency, and always executed perfectly. He has devices that can stop any hero from laying a finger on him, making him practically unstoppable. In other words, Supernicus is a practically unheard of successful supervillain. At this point in his career, he only robs to show off his latest inventions, and the heroes don’t even make an attempt to stop him when they see him.

His latest plot, to rob Heroes Bank (exclusively serving those with secret identities) runs into an unexpected road bump in the form of The Beacon, just setting up her new secret identity’s account. Supernicus’ intellect is able to process exactly what’s happening as he is unable to stop himself from rescuing The Beacon from the scene of his own crime. He makes it his personal mission to find out more about her and possibly devise a way to destroy her, the only foe he can’t personally hurt.

Supernicus is so belligerent because he has trouble relating to people. He has no friends, because no one can keep up with him in conversation or really understands him as a person at all. His only solace from loneliness is keeping busy working on the latest project. He found that no one wanted to buy or use inventions unless they destroyed things, and had been used successfully in a public venue. So, Supernicus dedicated his life to committing crimes as a way of showcasing his advanced weaponry. He doesn’t know what to do with all the money he makes.

25 – Bastion by Beausephus

CHARACTER NAME:  Bastion

DATE OF CREATION:  Early 1990s

CONCEPT:  A take on the shield wielding superhero, Bastions reflective armor pieces and shield absorb various forms of electromagnetic and solar radiation that he can refocus as short bursts of offensive energy blasts or blinding light energy.

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Every character who carries a shield will be compared to my favorite comic character of all-time, Captain America.  The circular shield is almost off-limits in terms of character design because the shape is so iconically linked to Capt. America.  If a new character carries a shield how long until that shield becomes an offensive tool and the creator is torn down by using the only weapon the character has – throwing a shield is as linked to Cap as the Bat-Signal is to Batman.

So what if a character who carried a shield could not throw it as a usual behavior?  What if the shield was too linked to the power structure, or the design of the shield was too bulky to be an aerodynamic weapon of choice?   So here’s Bastion, a shield bearing superhero whose reflective armor absorbs solar and various other energies that he refocuses as energy blasts of blinding light attacks.  His shield, also is a huge conduit for this absorption and so losing the shield means losing a huge reflective surface for his powers.  Als, his shield is thick and bears three large, halfed spheres in relief on the shield’s surface…collection modules for the energy…whatever justifies their presence best.

Bastion’s shield is a bludgeon and not a dynamic piece of engineering slicing through the air or through enemies.  He can charge the shield with his collected energies and use it as a battering ram, but the shield needs to be i contact with the character for the maneuver to work.  Bastion is  term that calls to mind defense and steadfast loyalty/protection.  Visually the character is thick and not acrobatic.  Bastion rooted and immovable and his power set allows him to physically get in between those he is defending and those he is attacking, being a physical defense as well as a physical threat.

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So, I’ve been going through an artistic realization during this 30-Day challenge, and with this submission I’m really feeling the lack of practice over the past decade come through in my drawing.  I’ll post moe on this after the whole challenge is complete, but I’m not very happy with how this drawing looks and I need to start being more active in honing my craft if I am going to continue posting my work to the public like this.

Again, more on this later and perhaps a few additional posts journaling this crisis of self criticism…

As always, thanks for checking out my stuff…

-Beausephus