I first ran into Daily and Davidson (they even sound like a law firm) when I was doing research for my first novel, Wearing the Cape. Their website, Law and the Multiverse, acquainted me with the facts about state actors and why superheroes who worked closely with law-enforcement could easily mess up a case when … More Laws Unto Themselves?
Real men don’t wear tights. It should be obvious to anyone who’s read my books that I love superheroes. Despite this I haven’t picked up very many comic titles recently, for a reason I imagine I share with a lot of older readers: the sheer weight of superhero mythology. What do I mean by this? … More Marvel Mystery Men
Author’s Warning: I normally fill this space with book reviews, ruminations on writing, superheroes (of course) and other general items. What follows is something much more specific–if you are not interested in GURPS (the Generic Universal Roleplaying System) and superhero role-playing games, ignore this and subsequent GURPS-related entries. Everything below is essentially a character-sheet with … More Rush Rush
I found my cover-artist on Deviant Art (an art posting site that’s cleaner than it sounds, at least if you engage the adult-filter), and I regularly surf the site for desktops and inspiration. I ran across this charming picture not long after I published Wearing the Cape, and promised myself I’d track the story down … More Small Victories.
Sometime last year I admitted the RPG origins of my superhero fixation, and even put up some character stats for Astra, using the GURPS Supers rules. While writing WtC, I used these rules for scaling superpowers and damage, and sparked a lot of ideas off the discussions of the genre I found in the supplement. … More GURPS Wearing the Cape
The first half of 2012 has been a great year for both Wearing the Cape and Villains Inc. Both have spent several months among the Top 10 titles in Amazon’s superhero category. WtC remains in the Top 10, while VI holds steady in the Top 20. Not everyone has a Kindle, however, so for readers … More News, and Ruminations on the Superhero Genre
Welcome to the finish of the longest “origin story” in history. It began with Iron Man, went through four more movies establishing characters, and has now concluded with an epic story that, in the highest superhero tradition, threatens the world and destroys half of New York. It’s always New York. Captain America: “You take the … More Assembling Avengers
“With great power comes great responsibility,” is one of the most famous lines in comic-book history, and in most superhero universes anyone who gets bitten by a radioactive spider, doused with exotic chemicals, or just spontaneously mutates is going to pull on the tights and go fight crime (or experience a psychotic break and start … More Oh Lord, It’s Hard To Be Humble.
The Hulk has always struck me as the perfect example of Character Degeneration. In the “original” origin-story, Bruce Banner was a nuclear physicist designing bigger and better bombs for the US government; think of him as another Oppenheimer. On the day they test his new Gamma Bomb, after the detonation sequence has commenced, he sees … More Hulking Up
In the run-up to this summer’s superhero blockbuster, The Avengers, I’ve decided to take some time and look at the core heroes of the much-anticipated movie. This is partly an exercise in meme-mining for my own uses, since I have a deep interest in what makes successful superheroes iconic, but mostly because I just find … More Captain America, Superpatriot.
Marion G. Harmon, A Writer in Vegas. 