How to Make a Comic Book Hero

How do they come up with those wonderful boys?

Comic book heroes are more than a bunch of neat super-powers held together by a human body. The best ones are fully-fleshed characters with goals and motivations, often moved by a bad guy's actions but always with internal conflicts and real-world problems as well. By creating your comic book hero properly, you can ensure your comic, story or game involving the character gets off to a great start.

Excelsior!

Instructions

1. Define your comic genre: spoof, comedic, traditional heroic, X-man style angst, horror or some other genre you have created yourself. You don't have to stick with this genre forever, but remember it is awkward to transition a character from one to another, as when Batman went from angst-driven super hero to Adam West camp.

2. Determine your character's theme. Superman, for instance, was literally more-than-man. Batman was a normal man whose obsession with destroying evil led him to remake himself physically and mentally into crime's nemesis. Spider-man was bitten by a spider and thus became spider-like. Your character's theme does not have to come out in every aspect of characterization, but he should at least have an appearance, origin and powers that are influenced by that theme.

3. Create an origin story. Read through a few comic books to get ideas, but don't copy anyone's idea too closely--in other words, a clever, wisecracking photographer being bitten by a radioactive cricket and becoming Cricket-man would only work in a spoof comic, and even there the idea would probably feel corny.

   Use the origin story to define your character's powers or range of powers, as well as her appearance and super hero name. You can expand on powers later on as you develop the character through stories, but new powers should always be based on that origin and not chosen arbitrarily.

4. Develop your character's personality. Even the most blockheaded characters like The Hulk (green version) have personalities. Use your character's backstory, not origin, to develop most of the personality. The origin can be used to tweak the personality later.

   In some cases, as in Wonder Woman, the origin and backstory are the same. That's fine. Just remember that in other cases, like The Hulk or Spider-Man, they are different, and when different, you must develop the personality using the backstory first and the origin second.

5. Draw an outline of your character's appearance, with notes to the side. You don't have to be a phenomenal artist to do this, though artistic ability helps; you just have to be careful and detailed. If he has a utility belt, say so and define what's in the belt. Define and describe capes, shoes, tights and other traditional super hero accoutrements.

6. Create your character visually. You are creating a comic book hero, not just any character. You will need a drawing to complete your creation.

   If you don't draw well, find an artist who can draw your character for you. Comic artists are easy to turn up with a quick online search, and they hang out in droves at comic, gaming or science fiction conventions. Choose the right artist by asking to see a portfolio first; if you like her previous work, you'll probably like her conception of your character. Unless you are requesting work from an artist who works for one of the big companies like Marvel or Dark Horse Comics, you shouldn't have to pay more than $50 for a single character drawing in black and white. Color drawings will cost a bit more.

Tips & Warnings

• If you're planning to write a regular comic book featuring your hero, develop several heroes and choose your favorite as the central character. Extra heroes can be used as supporting characters or transformed into villains.

• When choosing superpowers, make your hero slightly weaker in some way than the villains she will be fighting. An overpowered super hero fighting weak villains is not very interesting.

References

• Expert Cartoonist: Creating A Comic Book Hero