Friday, October 03, 2008
Superhwero Pow-ahs!
For starters, I passed my licensing exam. Awhile back... PT jobs are abundant however, they do not want to hire someone for a few weeks only to have that same hireling take two weeks off for their own wedding.
Otherwise, an article on powers as promised! (albeit a few hours later than advertised)
Due to my own particularly odd nerdy history I have somehow avoided the stereotypical favorite heroes. For example I really didn't care for Superman, Spiderman or Batman. See I was a fan of Lex Luther, Venom and the Joker. Growing up I was cheering for the villians. One of my friends was a huge Spawn fan (comic book). Alien vs. Predator (again comic) I was all about the aliens squishing the predators and humans alike.
Even most of my early video games I found the villians to be cooler than the actual heroes.
It wasn't until I learned the term "anti-hero" that I understood what I was so jazzed about when the bad-guy twirled his mustache and cackled.
Maybe I'm going about this the wrong way? I think you get the idea but I really feel the need to drown you in exposition before I get to the good (or in my case bad) stuff.
I have an old fixation on dragons. Just ask my 6th grade teacher. Was I paying attention? No, I was reading "the Hobbit" and wishing Smaug would just set everything on fire to flush that little bastard hobbit out. Ann McCaffery's "Dragonriders of Pern," "Jeremy Thatcher Dragon Hatcher," um... I'm sure there were more. THEN I was introduced to St. George the Dragon Slayer. I was appaled! A "Dragon Slayer"?! This armored pansy on a white horse took out a dragon? Preposterous!
I then started to hate the image of St. George, what a goodie-goodie, running around all white and holy, pure, etc. etc. The epitome of the good guy.
See that's where it started. The next logical step was to dislike good guys and embrace villany. Right, maybe that isn't the way it happened.
So anti-heroes take the traditional super"hero/ine" and turn it upside down. Wolverine from X-men is a pretty good example. He's that tough-guy biker dude greaser (I'm mixing genres?) that you wanted to take home to piss off daddy. Wait. I didn't mean it like that.
For me, anti-heroes didn't have this black and white sense of justice. Superman/Spiderman/Batman all had this faith in the justice system that I couldn't wrap my head around. Granted there is still a fair amount of vigilante-ass-kickery going on but the didn't kill the villian! You're a vigilante, you've already broken the law! Just finish him off!
There was this sense of empowerment that I got from bad guys and anti-heroes. The later being a sort of pseudo-goodguy or maybe a bad guy gone good but really what were the villians usually about? Destruction, power, revenge- all the things a 90 pound nerd would want right before the bully's fist connects with their face? Probably.
This doesn't seguay into my own personal power well but it'll have to work.
Once upon a time there was a game that had some really warped vampires in it. To date I can never remember what they're called or how to pronunciate their name (Tzimisce, took me a minute to look it up). These blood suckers had the unique ability to "craft flesh." I.e. they could take living tissue and mold it like clay. So they would pick up about 20 people and combine them into one big monster. Or scuplt it into wacky craziness.
Macabre right? I'm just getting started. There was another game called Parasite Eve. In this unique sci-fi RPG the antagonist could control mitochondria (these little things in your cells that produce energy for the cell). In this case she, the antagonist, could cause you to overload with energy and combust or maybe just make the mitochondria mutate you into something else entirely.
I'd like something that sort of blends the two. No I don't want to be able to control mitochondria but I'd like to be able to metamorphasize any living organism as I see fit.
Just think: I could modify you AND your DNA such that you had blue hair- and your offspring would have the same trait. I could remove bad genes that cause genetic diseases. I could repair/destroy tissue. I could introduce chlorophyl into animals for a breed of creature that gained sustinence from food and the sun. I could add venom glands and retractable teeth into my own mouth or maybe I can launch it via quills? Exoskeleton chitinous body armour. Limb replacement. Limb removal. Dinosaurs. Sand worms. Living buildings.
See how exciting it would be? I could completely self modify too. Am I being attacked? Did my arm just get blasted off by a superhero? Well let me grow that back, add some armour, and fangs, and venom and let's fight!
Well what would you call such a power? Lifecrafting?
Granted I wouldn't be a match for, say, someone with telekinesis like Syler. Or all the powers like that Peter moron (both from Heroes). Or Professor Xavier's mind control (X-men). But that isn't the point. I wouldn't want to be the all-powerful, just able to be useful and make neat things. I'd be the consumate healer of sorts. I'd have to be in direct contact to mend things but yeah that would be awesome.
So Lifecrafting, my superpower.
Otherwise, an article on powers as promised! (albeit a few hours later than advertised)
Due to my own particularly odd nerdy history I have somehow avoided the stereotypical favorite heroes. For example I really didn't care for Superman, Spiderman or Batman. See I was a fan of Lex Luther, Venom and the Joker. Growing up I was cheering for the villians. One of my friends was a huge Spawn fan (comic book). Alien vs. Predator (again comic) I was all about the aliens squishing the predators and humans alike.
Even most of my early video games I found the villians to be cooler than the actual heroes.
It wasn't until I learned the term "anti-hero" that I understood what I was so jazzed about when the bad-guy twirled his mustache and cackled.
Maybe I'm going about this the wrong way? I think you get the idea but I really feel the need to drown you in exposition before I get to the good (or in my case bad) stuff.
I have an old fixation on dragons. Just ask my 6th grade teacher. Was I paying attention? No, I was reading "the Hobbit" and wishing Smaug would just set everything on fire to flush that little bastard hobbit out. Ann McCaffery's "Dragonriders of Pern," "Jeremy Thatcher Dragon Hatcher," um... I'm sure there were more. THEN I was introduced to St. George the Dragon Slayer. I was appaled! A "Dragon Slayer"?! This armored pansy on a white horse took out a dragon? Preposterous!
I then started to hate the image of St. George, what a goodie-goodie, running around all white and holy, pure, etc. etc. The epitome of the good guy.
See that's where it started. The next logical step was to dislike good guys and embrace villany. Right, maybe that isn't the way it happened.
So anti-heroes take the traditional super"hero/ine" and turn it upside down. Wolverine from X-men is a pretty good example. He's that tough-guy biker dude greaser (I'm mixing genres?) that you wanted to take home to piss off daddy. Wait. I didn't mean it like that.
For me, anti-heroes didn't have this black and white sense of justice. Superman/Spiderman/Batman all had this faith in the justice system that I couldn't wrap my head around. Granted there is still a fair amount of vigilante-ass-kickery going on but the didn't kill the villian! You're a vigilante, you've already broken the law! Just finish him off!
There was this sense of empowerment that I got from bad guys and anti-heroes. The later being a sort of pseudo-goodguy or maybe a bad guy gone good but really what were the villians usually about? Destruction, power, revenge- all the things a 90 pound nerd would want right before the bully's fist connects with their face? Probably.
This doesn't seguay into my own personal power well but it'll have to work.
Once upon a time there was a game that had some really warped vampires in it. To date I can never remember what they're called or how to pronunciate their name (Tzimisce, took me a minute to look it up). These blood suckers had the unique ability to "craft flesh." I.e. they could take living tissue and mold it like clay. So they would pick up about 20 people and combine them into one big monster. Or scuplt it into wacky craziness.
Macabre right? I'm just getting started. There was another game called Parasite Eve. In this unique sci-fi RPG the antagonist could control mitochondria (these little things in your cells that produce energy for the cell). In this case she, the antagonist, could cause you to overload with energy and combust or maybe just make the mitochondria mutate you into something else entirely.
I'd like something that sort of blends the two. No I don't want to be able to control mitochondria but I'd like to be able to metamorphasize any living organism as I see fit.
Just think: I could modify you AND your DNA such that you had blue hair- and your offspring would have the same trait. I could remove bad genes that cause genetic diseases. I could repair/destroy tissue. I could introduce chlorophyl into animals for a breed of creature that gained sustinence from food and the sun. I could add venom glands and retractable teeth into my own mouth or maybe I can launch it via quills? Exoskeleton chitinous body armour. Limb replacement. Limb removal. Dinosaurs. Sand worms. Living buildings.
See how exciting it would be? I could completely self modify too. Am I being attacked? Did my arm just get blasted off by a superhero? Well let me grow that back, add some armour, and fangs, and venom and let's fight!
Well what would you call such a power? Lifecrafting?
Granted I wouldn't be a match for, say, someone with telekinesis like Syler. Or all the powers like that Peter moron (both from Heroes). Or Professor Xavier's mind control (X-men). But that isn't the point. I wouldn't want to be the all-powerful, just able to be useful and make neat things. I'd be the consumate healer of sorts. I'd have to be in direct contact to mend things but yeah that would be awesome.
So Lifecrafting, my superpower.
Labels: hero, heroes, lifecraft, superpower, villian
