The making of a super-hero.
I’m a little under-the-weather this evening but wanted to keep the posting streak alive, so I’m going to post a column I did about five years ago that was specifically about creating characters for super-hero comics.
There are no hard and fast rules on how to create a character, but there are certain elements that make up a good one.
First is the name, or names if the hero has a secret identity. The hero name needs to be appropriate to their powers, easy to remember, in line with their personality and most important, can it be yelled out quickly on a battlefield. Their real name should also be something easy to remember. Marvel and DC both had tricks for creating real names. Most of the time Marvel used alliteration, the first and last name started with the same letter. Reed Richards, Bruce Banner, Sue Storm, Scott Summer, Warren Worthington, Wade Wilson and the list goes on. DC on the other hand was very fond of the “two first names” method, such as Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent, Barry Allen and Hal Jordan. Let’s use our favorite Webhead to see if he passes the name tests. Hero name Spider-Man: he has spider like powers, it’s easy to remember, he was a teenager when he created it as a wrestling name and if it’s an emergency, people call him Spidey. So the hero name passes. As for the real name, Peter Parker is a classic example of alliteration.
Second would be their powers. You want to give them a power that makes sense to the reader and is somewhat believable. When Marvel was giving Spider-Man his powers, they could have given him organic web shooters, but everyone knows that a spider shoots webs out of their abdomen, not their legs. So it wouldn’t make sense that he would grow webspinners on his wrists and they couldn’t have him swing around by his ass, so they had him create the formula for the webbing and design wrist shooters.
Third and the most difficult is to limit your hero. Every good character needs a weakness to keep them humble and believable. If Superman was completely unstoppable, then where is the danger or suspense? Hence the need for Kryptonite. Spider-Man doesn’t have any physical limitations, but he has social ones. He has never been accepted by the general public, vilified by the Daily Bugle and feared by many, including his own aunt. So a limitation can be anything from Daredevil’s blindness to Moon Knight’s borderline split personalities.
Fourth would be the character’s motivation. Why on earth would anyone put on a costume and go out to possibly get killed? Spider-Man’s motivation is very simple: he had an opportunity to stop a criminal and didn’t, then that criminal murdered his uncle. So his motivation is guilt. Batman’s is anger over his parent’s death. Superman and Captain America fight for a sense of duty. Deadpool does it for the cash. Motivation is very important for a well-rounded character. Too often the character has no real motivation and the readers lose their connection to it.
Finally, you must decide on the character’s personality. Is this going to be the guy the readers identify with, or is he comic relief? The role your character is going to play in the story should help dictate the personality. If the character is supposed to connect with the reader, then he needs to have redeeming qualities and be the type of character that people would like to be. Characters that started out to be hard such as Wolverine and the Punisher became much more human when they became the focus of their own series. Solo books are limited in personalities because the reader needs to identify with the main character, but in team books you have a more to play with.
To recap the second step, give your character:
1. An appropriate name.
2. A believable set of powers.
3. Limitations.
4. A reasonable motive.
5. A definitive personality.
I’m a little under-the-weather this evening but wanted to keep the posting streak alive, so I’m going to post a column I did about five years ago that was specifically about creating characters for super-hero comics.
There are no hard and fast rules on how to create a character, but there are certain elements that make up a good one.
First is the name, or names if the hero has a secret identity. The hero name needs to be appropriate to their powers, easy to remember, in line with their personality and most important, can it be yelled out quickly on a battlefield. Their real name should also be something easy to remember. Marvel and DC both had tricks for creating real names. Most of the time Marvel used alliteration, the first and last name started with the same letter. Reed Richards, Bruce Banner, Sue Storm, Scott Summer, Warren Worthington, Wade Wilson and the list goes on. DC on the other hand was very fond of the “two first names” method, such as Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent, Barry Allen and Hal Jordan. Let’s use our favorite Webhead to see if he passes the name tests. Hero name Spider-Man: he has spider like powers, it’s easy to remember, he was a teenager when he created it as a wrestling name and if it’s an emergency, people call him Spidey. So the hero name passes. As for the real name, Peter Parker is a classic example of alliteration.
Second would be their powers. You want to give them a power that makes sense to the reader and is somewhat believable. When Marvel was giving Spider-Man his powers, they could have given him organic web shooters, but everyone knows that a spider shoots webs out of their abdomen, not their legs. So it wouldn’t make sense that he would grow webspinners on his wrists and they couldn’t have him swing around by his ass, so they had him create the formula for the webbing and design wrist shooters.
Third and the most difficult is to limit your hero. Every good character needs a weakness to keep them humble and believable. If Superman was completely unstoppable, then where is the danger or suspense? Hence the need for Kryptonite. Spider-Man doesn’t have any physical limitations, but he has social ones. He has never been accepted by the general public, vilified by the Daily Bugle and feared by many, including his own aunt. So a limitation can be anything from Daredevil’s blindness to Moon Knight’s borderline split personalities.
Fourth would be the character’s motivation. Why on earth would anyone put on a costume and go out to possibly get killed? Spider-Man’s motivation is very simple: he had an opportunity to stop a criminal and didn’t, then that criminal murdered his uncle. So his motivation is guilt. Batman’s is anger over his parent’s death. Superman and Captain America fight for a sense of duty. Deadpool does it for the cash. Motivation is very important for a well-rounded character. Too often the character has no real motivation and the readers lose their connection to it.
Finally, you must decide on the character’s personality. Is this going to be the guy the readers identify with, or is he comic relief? The role your character is going to play in the story should help dictate the personality. If the character is supposed to connect with the reader, then he needs to have redeeming qualities and be the type of character that people would like to be. Characters that started out to be hard such as Wolverine and the Punisher became much more human when they became the focus of their own series. Solo books are limited in personalities because the reader needs to identify with the main character, but in team books you have a more to play with.
To recap the second step, give your character:
1. An appropriate name.
2. A believable set of powers.
3. Limitations.
4. A reasonable motive.
5. A definitive personality.
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