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Which Origin Story do You Like the Most?

Poll closed Jun 26, 2010.
  1. Origin 1

    1 vote(s)
    100.0%
  2. Origin 2

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  3. Origin 3

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  4. None (please post something that you would like)

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  1. S-wo

    S-wo Active Member

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    Deciding on an Origin

    Discussion in 'Plot Development' started by S-wo, Jun 19, 2010.

    Hey everyone, I've wanted to write a comic book for years and I was thinking about starting it soon. I have thought of several story lines for it so far. It's a super hero comic that starts out with six teenagers gaining super powers and how they slowly become a crimefighting group. I already have mentally developed villains, side characters, major graphic novel-style like story archs to be compared to things like Marvel's Civil War, DC's Infinite Crisis, etc., and even how the comics could be translated into films.

    The hardest thing I've been having trouble with is the origin story. I first initially thought I knew how I wanted the origin story to be like. That's still mostly true, but what I'm talking about here is the origin to how they received their powers and their first villains. I want an origin for it that's interesting, unique, and would be liked from the majority of my future fans. I don't want most of them to say, "I really like (Name of comic here), but the origin story's always been kind of lame."

    Here are three versions of how the group obtained their powers below. All of these need to be fleshed out some, but Please vote on the concept you like the most.



    Origin #1. The main characters are kidnapped while on a school trip to the zoo. Their kidnappers are a couple of men looking for laborers for their drug and human trafficking endeavors. They make the children produce heroin, crack, and cocaine. He molests the two female characters and sometimes offers them up to prostitution. They also serve as the kidnappers' personal slaves. They are held there until they are the ages of 16-17. One day when the kidnappers are coming back from a gambling session, they over hear a man in a business suit discussing to a friend about an invention his company is coming up with and that he should invest in it as he claims that it will change the world. He also offers his friend to take a look at him with it that night.
    The kidnappers listen in for the address of the company's building and late that night they head to the building and steal the invention without detection. They bring it back to their house and out of curiosity to see what it does or if it even works, they test the invention on the main characters. An explosion erupts setting the house on fire. The main characters take the opportunity to escape from the house and shortly a few days later they discover that they have super powers.


    Origin#2 The main characters are in their 3rd year of high school. They never had any real personal relationships with each other before they gained their super powers. One of the characters gets involved with a gang and makes the mistake of screwing up and owing the gang money. He tries to make up for it by leading them towards one of the female characters who happened to grow up wealthy. A few of the gang members goes over to her place when she is throwing a party. The character that ratted her out is with them and as soon as they see the last person leave they go in to rob it. The house isn't as clear as they thought. Besides the girl, five of the other characters are still in the house. They tie them up while they rob the house. They don't want to leave any witnesses to identify them so they take them with them to execute them away from any straying eyes.
    At their holding right before the gang executes their witnesses, several men bust down the door and ask them where their device is. The gang members pretend that they don't know what he's talking about until one of them is tortured enough to speak. The gang member shows them to where they kept the man's stolen property and as son as the man drops his guard, the gang member takes out several of the men and shoots the device, causing it to go haywire and cause an explosion. Most of the gang members are dead and the building is on fire. All the main characters are alive if a bit beaten. The one who ratted out the wealthy female unties the others and escape from the burning building, unaware that the radiation from the blast gave them their powers.

    Origin#3 The main characters are in some sort of program for the summer that's for academic achievement, sports, art, whatever. Anyway during their trip the programs' organization needs human test subjects for their super genetic engineering device. They choose those six main characters and cover up their disappearance to the other students by telling them that they went home. The organization has them in testing for about three weeks, with no results. One day the main characters comes up with a way to escape. A few days after they escaped they discover that they have super powers.



    1 is my favorite out of the bunch, but I fear that it could cause some problems down the line. Since the main characters were in enslavement for ten years, I was wondering how I could make it work for them being in high school. There's the issue of them being out of school for so long and could they socialize with other students after being cooped up in a couple of drug dealers house for ten years and a couple of them were molested on the regular. I think that might make things a bit difficult to be interesting. I just mainly like the first idea because it's the darkest.

    I was obviously lazy on the third one. I feel the concept on that one was overdone, but just vote on the one you like the most or don't. This is for y'all anyway.

    All feedback or personal suggestions appreciated.


    Edit: Dang I misspelled something in my post and I don't think I can edit polls.
     
  2. Banzai

    Banzai One-time Mod, but on the road to recovery Contributor

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    You can't; I can ;)
     
  3. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    It's your story. Choose the one that you can do te most with.

    Write it well,and the readers will like it. Write it poorly, and it won't matter which one you choose.

    You're the author. That means the tough choices are yours to make!
     
  4. S-wo

    S-wo Active Member

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    I appreciate that.
     
  5. Islander

    Islander Contributor Contributor

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    If origin #1 and #3 take place in a modern country, I think it's a little far-fetched to kidnap school kids to use as slaves/test subjects. If I were an evil drug lord/scientist, I'd choose a runaway who nobody would miss, or better yet, set up the operation in a third world country where the governement doesn't ask any questions as long as it gets its bribes.

    On the face of it, the appearance of the device that gives superpowers in origin #1 and #2 seems a little far-fetched, but as Cogito poins out, it all depends on how you write it. In origin #1, you could use a new experimental drug instead of a device to give it a logical connection to drug trafficking.

    Origin #1 is a little gritty, but overall, I think it sounds best.
     
  6. w176

    w176 Contributor Contributor

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    I'm not sure in what style you are planning to tell the story in but I like to voice the opinion that "less is more". All three concepts can be work into something good but i think it you want a nice original orgins story tone it down, make it less extreme, more down to earth is the right way to go.

    If something is cliche about origins stories it is "AND THEN THIS SUPER TRAGIC EVIL AND DRAMATIC THING HAPPENED AND THEY GOT SUPER POWAHS AND TOGETHER THEY FIGHT CRIME!"

    Origin stories that focus on some other angle like Rising Stars, Dr Manhattan in Watchmen, Niel Gailmans rendition of Black Orchild rises above the rest that follows the capital letter formula.
     
  7. gabelpa

    gabelpa Banned

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    You have some real possibilities here, Stockholm syndrome, brainwashing, reluctance and even shame for being different.
     
  8. S-wo

    S-wo Active Member

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    Which origins did you get this from or are these some of your original ideas?

    I do appreciate you all for giving your opinions. I believe I can make a definite decision now.
     
  9. Derivi Dave

    Derivi Dave New Member

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    I really like option number one. If you were to downsize the time frame and build a feasible scenario around that, it definitely would work. I agree that option number one wouldn't construct well in normal society, but ask yourself: is this a normal society that they live in?

    Remember, you can create any world that you want.
    Remember, being confident in your own choice will make any choice successful.
    Remember, you are the author. Only you can write the story.
     
  10. ChickenFreak

    ChickenFreak Contributor Contributor

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    None of the three really work for me. I tend to prefer origin stories with deeper, subtler roots, preferably roots that go well into the past.

    The kidnapping concepts only work for me if the kidnappers need these _specific_ kids, rather than just some random kids. Which would make that need into part of the origin story.

    For example, maybe the kidnappers need people with specific genetic profiles for some Nefarious Bad Experiment, and they've scoured the country for them. For that matter, maybe they scoured the country when these kids were still babies or toddlers. (What genetic profile? Maybe they're all distant descendents of the same person or family? That doesn't mean that they have to look the least bit alike, as long as the connection is distant.)

    Continuing that theory, let's say that The Bad Guys kidnapped the several kids and placed them all with adoptive parents in the same geographic area, where they could keep an eye on them, because they need to do the Nefarious Experiment after they become adults. Or they've been Experimenting on them all along, infiltrating their medical care.

    One or two of the kids learn that they're adopted and that there's something fishy about the adoption - maybe they see old "missing child" pictures that look too much like their own baby pictures, or maybe one of them was old enough to have some memories? Maybe all of the original parents were murdered and now, over a decade later, an investigator makes it to town, about to crack part of the case, and after his first tentative contact with one of the kids he's found dead? If you want more angst, that investigator could be a relative of the kid that he contacts. Whatever gets them started, those kids keep researching and find the other kids. And then off you go.

    ChickenFreak
     

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