I considered writing along those lines here, but then I decided to do the opposite, and create something joyful.
Here's a drawing of a super hero I created.
His name is Atticus, and he's been with me for a good long time. Yes, maybe naming a guy Atticus is pretty cheesy, but he's supposed to be a good guys good guy.
In fact, as far as my various characters go, Atticus is the most impossible to write. No question- impossible.
What he became for me relatively early on (that is to say, once I decided to actually look at my main characters as characters, seeing who they are and what distinguishes them) was a call back to those original Golden Age characters, those who confidently leapt into battle, never lost their cool, and were always in the right.
Such characters haven't really aged too well- because of the outcry for realism in stories the Golden Agers have been revealed as reckless and arrogant when they keep relatively close to their original portrayal, or else they've grown with the world to become aware that they aren't always correct in their morality, and will have their own faults and insecurities.
The most obvious example of this happening would be old Superman, who has been accused in the modern era of being a ditherer- always stopping to decide whether or not his interference is warranted and the right thing to do.
The way I've described it here, you may think I don't like the changes to these characters- not true! To have a character be how they were portrayed back in the Golden Age is to have an impossible character- it's not even really a character at all!
And yet that is what I have made of my Atticus- because what he really is is a literary device. A dramatic 'deus ex machina'. And though he'd never say it, or even think it- he is still "aware" of this fact.
The result (or at least, the goal)? This is a figure that will always succeed in the end, who is always comforting when he's trying to be comforting, immediately trusted and trustworthy, will never fall for the old "villain tricks him into compromising position" (because Atticus would always see the deception coming- MAYBE he'll play along). If something terrible happens and he couldn't stop it in the course of the story he doesn't uselessly angst about it, he goes on to the next thing that needs to be done, and yet no one would accuse him of coldness at this fact.
The good guys love him because they wish they could be him, and the bad guys hate him for the exact same reason.
I think after all that, you'd agree how impossible it is to write this guy, especially without front and center saying all of these effects of his are his "super powers"... because if I did that, said he gained peoples trust as a sort of power, well, then whenever he left the room characters would always think "do I really trust this guy, or am I being manipulated?"
All this would make him a sort of "Mary Sue" character- except I'm hoping the fact that I'm so aware of this, always having him wink to the camera and smile at the audience, that I can get away with it.
But of course in practice, he can sound preachy and boringly practical. The end scene of issue 3 of my comic has him give a pep talk to a kid that ran away from home- and it's a pretty weird transition from having my one character, Warp, who had really been the focus of the whole issue and has spent the most time with this kid, at the end lean over to Atticus and say "hey, could you talk to this kid?" Very awkward transition.
The saving grace I've thus far enjoyed is his sense of humour, having him use the 'buddy system', and chase after another hero type because he wanted to shake his hand and that was it- it's funny because of the situation. I keep imagining that at one point he'll go off and have some adventures without his friends, and all of these singular adventures would be like a crazy 50's comic. Specifically, I'm waiting for the issue where he'll get turned into "A Zebra-Atticus" and he'll be coloured all in black and white stripes. That's funny to me because Batman did it. Of course it would only have been partially silly when Batman did it. Hmm, maybe more than partially silly, this is 50's Batman after all.
In case you were wondering- Atticus' powers in story are flight, super-strength (though his friends don't realize that until issue #4 "Why didn't you tell us you had super strength?" "Nobody asked!"), and super-ventriloquism. The last of which he would never use for any practicle purpose in battle... though I've only written 85% of issue #4, and have the outline for issue #5, and know what'll happen in issue #6... issue #7 is called "Talent Night" and of course Atticus would put on a ventriloquism act.
And as far as secret identities go- he calls himself 'Aaron Finch' (yup, pretty obvious name, that's kind of the plan) when out of costume. But that really wouldn't come up too much.
Man, i've got to finish writing those comics. And/Or re-write them to make them better. It's been a loooong time since I've really worked on them. I'm glad I took the time to draw Atticus today.
These characters have been with me in one form or another for a long time... third grade! He's changed a lot since then (as have they all)- though his costume has been pretty recognizably his throughout the whole process. Oh, sure, he started out with little triangles on the bottom of his cape (they were supposed to look like Batman's cape... but even to my 7th grade self or so those things reminded me of the flags they have set up at Car retailers) and there was that briefest of time when he had a symbol on his chest (like, a day- even as a kid I could tell that look wasn't going to fly), but it's been pretty much constant now for, what? Twelve years now? Sheesh.
Consciously done or not, it's pretty clear what two OTHER characters shaped the way I dressed old Atticus:
That's Mon-El, a longtime figure from the DC universe, in a panel from the first Superboy comic I ever read/owned. Though he was sometimes going by 'Valor' in this continuity, he was still doomed to get put into that Phantom Zone to spend a thousand years waiting to join up with the Legion of Super-Heroes. Happens EVERY SINGLE CONTINUITY. Like clockwork. Maybe for that reason Mon-El should be thought of as the DC version of Sisyphus.
Mon-El has always had a lot in common with Superman personality wise, and therefore it should come as no shock that he often fits a Golden Age style mold. But, as is ever the case these past twenty plus years, he's got a fair amount of angst to his name now.
So take Mon-El's suit and mix it with Darkwing Duck...
Yeah, that's definitely the parentage of Atticus' look.
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