The Red Canasta

I posted this across the way at Shamus Young's Blog, but I thought it would be interesting to post over here to show one of the projects I am working on. What follows are descriptions of the members of the Red Canasta, which is a commercial venture of superpowers. The 500 character limit is imposed by what is allowed when describing characters in Champions Online, a Superhero MMORPG.

I’ve been developing a team of superheroes for a while now, and what better way to let them debut here – in 500 characters or less, even!

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Shadows and Ice

Nariko Griffin was in her second year of business school when her powers violently manifested. Coruscating flames of ice and blinding darkness burst forth from here body, freezing her dorm room into a solid block of ice.

She went on to get a degree in Accounting.

Now she has a plan to build a commercial empire, exploiting superpowers for economic gain. Leave crimefighting for the experts – a satellite can be put in orbit for 12 billion USD… why not have a superhero do it for slightly less?

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Captain Awesome

Walden Thoreau was a firefighter on the 50th floor of the South Tower on September 11, 2001, when his powers manifested right as the building collapsed. Unable to save anyone, he has lived with the memory for 8 years. Unable to put his incredible strength, nigh invulnerability and ability to fly to the moon to good use, he fell to alcoholism and self-destruction – Until one day a Ms Griffin approached him about using his powers commercially. Wally hopes that he will redeem himself to the fallen.

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Doctor Wright

Casey Wright was a childhood prodigy, earning her GED at the age of 7 and graduating with a triple major at 12. She went on to get a Doctorate in Materials and Electronic Engineering and Computer Science. Now at the age of 19, she teaches part-time and occasionally models for Maxim between projects. She was recently approached by her longtime friend Nariko about joining a commercial superhero endeavor, and enthusiastically signed on, donning a suit of super-powered armor she had laying around.

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Deathwish

Galahad Jones was given a chem set in his freshman year. Due to a manufacturing error it contained an unknown chemical and he somehow created a black tissue which latched itself onto him. In moments, it had covered his skin, imbuing him with super agility and the power to regenerate from any wound instantly.

Naturally, he began a career as a stuntman.

Some years later, he heard of commercial venture exploiting superpowers, and he has high hopes that his ability to take a hit will be noticed.

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The Schizofriend

Michael Twain always had an overactive imagination, but one day, as he described an idea he had to a friend, his friend saw exactly what Mike was seeing. He found that, with some practice he could change the real world into the dreams he saw in his mind, psychically manipulating his environment. He could create staircases and doors wherever he pleased, change the laws of physics or even create an entirely new world at a whim, as long as he concentrated. Hopefully, this won’t drive him insane.

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Aether

About 10 years ago, a villain traveled back in time and caused the apocalypse to happen in the year 666 AD. While time and space were set right, the dark ruler of the year 2300 from that timeline was so powerful that he refused to fade into non-existence. Aether has fled that dark false-future to this timeline, and while she lost her arms and legs in the distant past/future, she uses her amazing telekinetic powers to create prosthetics out of scraps of metal and to grant herself super strength.

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Frankie Nitro

Frankie Nitro (yes, that is her real name) found that she was abnormally fast in high school track, and every time she timed herself, she only got faster. Eventually this developed not just into super speed, but super durability as well, as long as she was moving fast enough – she found often that she would plow through walls on accident if she didn’t pay attention. Strangely this power does not manifest unless Frankie first gains momentum, so she has no powers until she takes a couple steps.

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I plan on making this team into a Comic book (I’m writing a script for it now, and I have some character designs), but every post that Shamus makes about CO makes me want to see if I can design them in the hero builder… but I want to try it before I buy it, so here’s to hope!

In any event, trying to sum up my characters in 500 characters was a lot of fun, and I think I pulled off. Strangely, the one I had the most trouble with was Deathwish.