Superheros in books

[great2guy]

Hello,

I am planning on writing a series of books with characters based on me and my friends. The characters all have a power which could either be considered as magic or super depending on the person. I am drawing inspiration from books such as Brandon Sanderson's Steelheart series and the marvel unvierse. Would this be a good book series or more of a comic book type idea. I don't have much experience in writing superhero books so any advice would be great.

 

[S.C.Wood]

Whatever you write, in whichever medium, be careful who you're "borrowing" from. You don't want to have one of your characters have "metal claws that extend from between his knuckles."

Comic writing is an entirely different beast since that medium has a very strict set of rules - panel count per page being the biggest. Plus, you'd need a great artist to match the words you're writing.

 

[great2guy]

lol, they don't.

 

[RX-79G]

I've read super hero books unrelated to comics. Ex-Heroes by Peter Clines is a fun read.

 

[MemoryTale]

I've got a superhero WIP, so it can definitely be done. To be honest as long as you don't consciously copy any of the more iconic powers, such as the aforementioned metal claws, you should be alright with whatever powers you put in. There are so many super powered people in comics that I'm pretty sure just about every conceivable power has been done, multiple times. Case in point I was watching a Robot Chicken spoof of DC (hilarious, BTW) and there was one sketch where four different freeze ray toting villains showed up to steal a diamond - and that's just DC!

 

[Ihe]

Wild Cards has a ton of powers, but many are very generic. It's fun anyway, as the powers are often not the main point of the plot.

 

[Mirannan]

There's some illustration of superhero powers and how a suite of them can be made to make sense (at least in a comic-book, wacky non-physical physics sense) in the set of game rules for the obscure game Villians and Vigilantes. A lot of powers are generic. For example, superstrength is common and probably wouldn't get you in trouble; the explanation of its presence might. (Your character being the Last Daughter of Xenon and the powers disappearing under a blue sun, for example.)

I'll illustrate with two of my own characters, who had three powers in common; power blasts (energy bolts thrown, usually from the hands), flight and force shield powers - all common in comics. But the origin (or at least the triggering event) of the powers was completely different, although both were mutants.

For one, the powers were mostly derived from parapsychic forces and the shield and flight were both PK; the power blasts were an anomaly, being anti-neutron beams. (As an aside, she wore costumes with lead in the weave - to protect others around her - and her relationships tended to be short.)

The other's powers were related to gravity control; the power blasts were neutronium nuggets and the force shield was a localised high-g (very high!) field.

Yup, neither of these make any sense - but superhero powers seldom do, at least not the extreme ones. Unless you count "it's magic" as an explanation. For example, exposure to extremely high gamma-ray flux doesn't make you invulnerable and superstrong; it makes you extremely dead.

 

[Langadune]

Would this be a good book series or more of a comic book type idea.

Short answer to this specific question: Either.

It's been posited that there aren't any original ideas left. I'm more inclined to say, there aren't any limits. There really aren't any limits anymore to what fits as a novel or a comic book. There are comic books ranging from the mundane (to some people) subjects such as high school romances, to the fantastic. Same with novels. The real question you should as is "which would I enjoy writing?" Try not to worry about "sellability." Write what you would want to read. Write what appeals to you, I guarantee there will be someone else out there who would like it too.

 

[K.S. Crooks]

For any type of special abilities, whether you call it magic, super powers or something else, it is important for the author to know which characters can obtain the powers, how they get them, can the powers be taken away, what are the limitations of the magic/powers and what can other characters do to defeat the people with these abilities.

Know what you want your characters to be able to do and their goals. Consider the obstacles you want them to face. The more powerful you make the magic/powers the more important the ways to counter them. It is all about being able to defeat people with powers. Whether they are being used for good or evil, otherwise the person with them always wins, which means a boring story.

 

[ErikB]

Here's an idea. Just a thought. Why not write about unheroes?

Meaning your super heroes have powers that go wrong. Maybe you start them out in a facility for psychiatric evaluation when an experimental drug meant to bring out their natural proclivity and to focus their minds instead backfires.

It could permanently alter the genetics of your unheroes. But while they gain super powers it short circuits the mechanisms allowing the mind to control the powers. So sometimes their darker sides in the form of their own mischievous unconscious minds cause the characters to fire off their powers in bad ways, unintended damage or accidents, etc.

It could be interesting, humorous, and tragic all at the same time as you weave the complexities of determined do gooders with a partially uncontrolled dark side.

Just a notion for something new.

Good luck with your writings. Cheers!

 

[RX-79G]

Kind of like the first season of Greatest American Hero, or the comic Concrete, or many of the later X-Men students?