The first thing I think of is the idea of mentors. Doc Stalwart is Tipo’s first mentor, but that relationship quickly ends – Robin was my favorite character at five years old, and I cannot shake that. I love the idea of following the story of the student. It’s my go-to. The reason I was able to get into writing Doc Stalwart stories quickly is because I framed them from Mikah’s perspective; it ultimately became the story of his journey from young mutant who could read objects to starting to prepare for taking his place as the Chronicle of all Stories.
So, following the student is a good bet to give me a reason
to keep writing. Taking his mentor away on day one is going to help a lot.
As of yesterday morning, I assumed that Doc might enlist Microbe to step in and do a little mentoring – I’d like to get Microbe into a story at some point, so this seemed a good way… but maybe I could back burner that for a few issues. When he starts getting into the research and development this organization is doing, Microbe might be a great character to have along for the ride. Having them crawling through air ducts together might be fun (Tipo barely fits, and the cat who is leading them keeps wanting to eat Microbe who is only an inch tall).
Right away, I see a potential for a student/teacher relationship with this hunter. Tipo is a hunter – he’s a friggin’ cat. They’re hunters. Tipo doesn’t see them that way (which will be a revelation when he finally gets there in his own brain), but others will immediately see him that way, and the potential of that for their own ends. The Hunter who hunts heroes because they are ‘the most dangerous game’ is a bit tired. I have two initial ways this could go:
A Black Panther/Sub Mariner approach – the hunter from another land who comes here because the world of these people (and maybe this corporation) is having a negative effect in that other world. Now I’m suddenly thinking a Hawkman type from a hidden sky city that the pollution is starting to harm. That would be a bit of a twist on it (and hawks/eagles are hunters, too… so it all fits the motif).
I now want him to be up in ‘the City in the Sky’ fighting bird people and constantly trying to keep himself from falling off the edges, bouncing around to avoid their arrows or blowgun darts or energy bows or whatever I come up with.
(Side note: I just opened Youtube on my phone to listen to Sloan’s People of the Sky. If you are not a fan of Sloan, you are missing out. Check out Coax Me if you don’t believe me – my favorite song of all time).
I also like that I could retroactively link these people to the old hero Condorian, who was their last representative. They have a new one, and he’s not nearly as friendly. I suddenly see a potential for Condorian’s death and funeral being some kind of key story event as well. I like having loose threads like this to start pulling at. He needs to team up with Condorian first, in order to build a relationship so that the death matters. I could give him Condorian as his next mentor, but that only lasts for a bit. It’s a team-up of one issue.
My second idea was that one of the gods of New Eternia (the child of the god Orion) is a hunter who goes against the gods to hunt humans he deems as vile. I like this a lot, but the eagle dude from sky city is kind of hard to beat, if I’m being honest. Cats and birds are sort of natural enemies. Bringing in the gods on day one seems a bit heavy-handed. That’s a story I’d want to build up to. The sky bird people thing is more and more viable the more I think of it.
Plus, the added bonus is it gives me more game and world content. If I’m at a crossroads about what to choose, I should probably side with the thing that’s going to give me more cool stuff for people playing the game to tinker around with. Sky city of bird people is definitely in that category.
I already have a character named Condorian, so this could be a title bequeathed by the People of the Condor upon their chosen representative. It’s his nephew who attacks, so it’s kind of personal for the original Condorian to step in at some point (like issue 2). At this point, all I’ve established about Condorian is that he was a hero during the Great War (part of Freedom’s Four), and that he has a brown costume (I published a picture him in the World of Stalwart Book I). I have not done anything else with him, so this is an opportunity to do that. I always assumed that his wings were part of a mechanical harness, but I never established that as canon. I always assumed that he was African American. Not sure why.
General Design Note: This is the benefit of not ‘over-designing’. Create just what you need to and leave enough wiggle room for later expansion. This is a perfect case in point. I’ve had that character out there lingering for a few years, and finally have an opportunity to do something really cool with him. If I’d rushed to establish a weak background for him just to have one in place, I’d be wrangling with how to retroactively fix it. Now I don’t have to!
I look up Condors to see if anything in research helps. I did that with Tipo’s character, and it was huge. I like using research not to bind myself to truth, but to use truth to underpin decisions. Rooting things in the real world (and ‘truth is often stranger than fiction’ is more than just a cliché), can create more story opportunities rather than cutting them off.
Here's what I find out about Condors (in no particular order)…
- Condors show up in a lot of Latin-American mythology! Well, that’s amazing. I’m rooting my story in a Latin-American character, so this is an unexpected and amazing parallel.
- Um. I found THIS: The Andean condor is featured in one of Chile’s most popular comics. This famous cartoon character is called Condorito and he’s entertaining kids and adults alike since 1949. THAT BLOWS MY MIND!
- Andean condors serve as an important symbol in Patagonia, meaning power, liberty and health.
- They are primarily scavengers. Interesting. They are fantastic hunters, but would prefer not to have to. I like the idea that this is a society that is happy to make due with scraps, but they’ve been pushed too far. This character represents a breaking point of the society in its collective view of mankind.
- Condors don’t build nests, but instead lay eggs on the sides of cliffs.
- In a side search, I learn that relations between Chile and Mexico were not good in the 1980s. In 1974 they severed a diplomatic relationship that was not rebuilt until 1990. At the time of my comics, they would have been on the outs. This makes sense for paralleling stories from that era with the real world in some way. Mexican and Chilean descendants who end up in conflict.
See? Research DOES help. I’ll never convince my 8th graders of this, but it’s true… okay, time to do more writing. Plus, I still have a city book to finish and publish (maybe today!).
One more thing I look up – the Spanish word for hunter. It’s Cazador. No lie. The universe really likes helping me right now. It’s throwing up softballs to me at the moment.
Cazador the Condorian he is.
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