I was what sort of techniques you could use to help the reader to connect to a superhero? I was thinking along the lines of presenting some internal conflict that we experience on a daily basis. Anyone have any other ideas? Thanks, Marcus
It depends by the reader, some of them (like me) cannot connect to a superhero. In general, I don't think that internal conflicts are a good idea, probably the most "human" of the superheroes, spiderman, was interesting because he tried to take advantage of his superpowers to make money for his family, which something that most of the normal people would try to do in his shoes.
Maybe. What if, starting out, this particular hero wasn't a hero to begin with, but as the plot progresses, he starts to discover little by little that he has unique abilities? Perhaps this will give some spark of connection to the reader?
I connect best to heroes like Batman or Ironman, who don't do what they do out of some sense of "duty" but choose to use what they have (wealth, etc.) to help others.
Batman got wealth from his family; he got his morals from his family. He's kind of duty-bound to the people of Gotham city because his father tried to help them. It really depends on the type of superhero, though. Nobody will be able to connect with Superman, really, seeing as he's not human (the second coming of Christ will be able to connect with Superman. ). You don't connect with someone like that; you look up to them, you admire them, and it's because of their strength, because of their morals and stuff. If it's like Batman, or perhaps like the Watchmen, where it's just ordinary people, it's easier to connect with them because their storylines still contain elements of them dealing with being normal productive members of society as well as extra-special productive members of society. Giving your superhero "internal conflict" for the express purpose of making it easier for the reader to connect with them is a little bit of a cliché idea. Your different readers will connect for different reasons.
If your superhero is a human being, then he's going to naturally face issues that regular people face. The easiest time to form a connection with the reader is not during the action sequences, but during the times that he's just a normal guy facing a series of problems. Like other stories, it comes down to writing a relatable protagonist who learns and grows through his triumphs and mistakes.
A technique often used by Marvel is to give the hero's powers a serious backside. E.g, Rogue can't touch anyone without absorbing their powers and memories and render them unconscious. Nightcrawler and Beast need to hide their appearances when out in the public. Jean Grey's telepathic empathy made her retreat into a catatonic state. Heroes who have healing powers instead of simply being invulnerable suffer serious physical pain.
This seems like a throwback to the absolutely ridiculous method of thinking (thank you, roleplaying) that a character needs an equal amount of strengths and weaknesses. It's more like Uncle Ben says. "With great power comes great responsibility." Dealing with change is one of the biggest things in a human's life. How the superhero gets their abilities and how they deal with the change of "holy crap, I have superpowers" is what will really define them as a hero/villain, I think.
I'd go with this, but make the character an underdog in the beginning. We can all relate to being the loser in elementary/middle/high school (let's face it, everyone had that short phase in their young life where they were picked on, for me it was 7th grade but it happens to everyone sometime), or perhaps having a mean family or a jerky boss or being terribly bad at something and always being embarrassed by it. That's an immediate connection right there; look at the beginning of the first Harry Potter book, for example. In the wizarding world, Harry Potter is an international hero, but there'd be no connection to him if that's how we met him on page one. Also, make them normal....the perfect person gets annoying after a while.
True, he's probably duty-bound because of his parents. But I couldn't state it any better than you did -- they're still normal members of society as well as superheroes.
I've set it up in the first few chapters so that there are three ordinary people, one poor, one weak and one rich in money and internal conflict Each character will be brought together and informed that they have had these powers since birth. Each and every one of them will remember instances (which have been explained in the book) that seemed unnatural, but they had dismissed them as being the power they posses. Seem too cliche?
