Archetype Musings: Beyond Astro City

Way back, I posted about comic book archetypes and remixing them for your supers campaigns.

My inspiration then was Astro City -- which has returned, by the way -- because of the carefully crafted superheroes and villains that seem to have tapped into archetypes from DC, Marvel, and other supers comics but managed to realized them visually and with some measure of seeming historical weight for its unique universe.

I'd still like to continue my tour of the many characters there that have somehow managed some measure of iconic stature without a long history -- but I also realized that there are other sources for remixed archetypes.

One of the most obvious: from the publishers themselves!

DC's Trinity

Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman all have been reinvented throughout their careers, back from the 1940s to the current day. Different looks, different takes and attitudes, slightly different personalities and approaches to crime fighting.

Is there a reason that the central figure is showing her butt
to us, while the more modest outfits are to the sides? Nah.
Couldn't be.

My favorite Wonder Woman to date was the George Perez take on the character, with the wonderful visuals, the mythology of the character strongly tied with the original Greek myth, and the clash of ancient and modern mores.

I'm keeping an eye out on the current Azzarello and Chiang run, as their take on 'gods-in-the-modern-era' is very interesting. The feel is very American Gods meets Scion (the RPG, not the comic), and the dark twists are interesting -- even if I have some grave issues with some of the liberties taken on WW's history and past.

And I really like the take on her in Kingdom Come and in the Injustice video game. True superheroine badassery!

Superman came out as more of a vigilante, or rather, a real pulp-inspired hero. The type that used to say lines like "a fitting end for his kind", and was not above coercing confessions from criminals by hanging them upside down from high places, or taking them on kryptonian roller coaster rides in a single bound. Very different from the 'big blue boy scout' we came to know and respect -- one whose moral indestructibility seems to have become a bit challenged in the modern era (Man of Steel, I'm looking at you as the current culprit, but you were not the first). We'll see if it sticks; we may be seeing a more fundamental change in our views of Superman.

After all, the poster child for 'guns are bad' crimefighting -- Batman -- used to carry a gun in his initial forays.

The trick, apparently, is to somehow retain the core of the character's appeal, while updating it for modern (and sometimes even older) audiences, by bringing some surprising (or perhaps less emphasized) aspect of the character to the fore due to its relevance or impact on our understanding of the character.

Perhaps the archetypes are meant to reflect aspects of humanity that resonate in us; mirrors that need to be shifted once in a while to give us a better view of ourselves and our society.

And perhaps in future posts, I'll be able to deal with those through example instead of via vague theorizing.

Character Creation: Animal Themed Supers

One of the most common sources of inspiration for superheroic characters, aside from pre-existing superheroes in comics, is the animal kingdom.

And yet, creating an animal-themed superhero isn't necessarily as simple or simplistic as choosing a cool animal and naming your character after it. There are many approaches to animal-themed characters, but we can group them into three somewhat loose categories: animal-inspired, animal-infused, animal-inherent.

Animal-inspired

This refers to animal-themed characters who take on the name and the look of certain animals in their superheroic personas, without a very strong tie to the specific animal.

One good example of this is Batman, who didn't gain powers after being bitten by a radioactive bat, but instead took on the look of one in order to scare criminals (a superstitious, cowardly lot). Aside from the general bat-like look, the cave and the occasional bat-named gadget, the character is really more of a dark knight detective / caped crusader.

Another somewhat surprising example of this would be Wolverine. This short and ornery mutant with adamantium claws and a healing factor doesn't seem to have taken much from his namesake (wolverines are essentially badgers with worse attitudes) aside from being irascible and having claws. To top it off, he is sometimes shown in pictures alongside wolves -- which of course are not wolverines.

Animal-infused

This refers to animal-themed characters who actually have some claim to the abilities of their namesakes or have some kinship with them.

Spider-man is the classic example of this, thanks to that irradiated spider that bit him and passed on abilities that could arguably be considered as spidery abilities: wall-crawling (cool), proportional strength (ok, sure), spider-sense (uh, what?). Furthermore, he completes the ensemble with invented web-shooters and web-formula to show his dedication to the spider theme.

Hawkman can sometimes be considered to have this, depending on the incarnation of the character in DC Comics. At one time, not only did he fly and have keen eyesight -- he also had the ability to talk to birds! Of course, his huge arsenal of weapons borrows more from the metaphorical connotations of hawks (war-oriented), and he sometimes comes across like Conan with wings, but there's no denying the strong infusion of "hawk-ness" in the character.
 
Animal-inherent

This refers to animal-themed characters who seem have been turned into animals themselves, or have actual animal abilities, or were animals that became humanoid.

Spider-man, at certain points in his career, became like this -- when he sprouted extra limbs for example.

The Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles are another example of this, having been regular turtles before a radioactive isotope that blinded a lawyer further up the street found its way to them and mutated them. While it may be argued that ninjitsu and a fondness for pizza are not very turtle-like, there's considerable weight on the turtleness to keep them in this category.

Kemlo "Hyperdog" Caesar from Alan Moore's Top 10 is another example of an animal-inherent character. In fact, he's essentially an uplifted dog. Out of his suit -- which lets him walk around, manipulate things with fingers, and generally look like a human with a head of a dog -- Kemlo actually seems to be just that: a dog (who's really smart and can talk).

Lycanthropes fall into this category as well, naturally. In fact, it seems that the battle between human nature and beast nature is a common trope of this type of character.

Beyond these categories

There are several types of animal-themed characters that may fall between the cracks of these categories, based on where you want to draw the line.

However, there are metahumans that are able to draw from multiple animal abilities and can be considered to draw from all or none of these categories: the meta-animal superhumans.


Beast Boy / Changeling was able to shapeshift into different creatures from the animal kingdom. Early versions of him had him with the natural form of the animal with green-faced head grafted on top of it. Later versions of him had him look like a normal -- albeit emerald-green colored -- animal.


Animal Man was able to draw upon the abilities of any nearby animal. He could fly if near birds, run a proportional speeds if near ants, gain the senses of various animals when investigating. In many ways, he was like Vixen, who used her Tantu Totem to also draw upon aspects of various beasts.


Last, but not least, there's B'wana Beast. Who had the ability to physically combine different animals together, and retaining the best abilities of each. Like horses and spiders, or sharks and pelicans. Wow, nothing creepy there at all.

Remixed Archetypes: Astro City's Crossbreed

The approach of remixing archetypes is a useful one, since it injects new life into a well-worn archetype as I've tackled in greater detail before.

I often look to Astro City for inspiration on this approach, because it's done such a great job with so many super-hero archetypes -- making them recognizable, yet retaining their own character in the course of the story rather than being another clone.

My topic for today example would not be another of the more iconic characters (Samaritan, Winged Victory, Jack-in-the-Box, etc.) but rather a misunderstood group of super-powereed beings: The Crossbreed.

Perhaps not that obvious when you first encounter them, but after thinking on it for a while you realize that they're the "misunderstood team of freaks or outcasts" exemplified in popular comic culture by the X-men and the Doom Patrol. Here's the official spiel from the Astro City website:

The Crossbreed — known derogatorily as "The Jesus Freaks," the Crossbreed believe their powers come from God, and are to be used in his service. Led by the enigmatic storm-casting Noah, the Crossbreed include the leonine Daniel, the rock-shaping Peter, the winged, angelic Mary, the giant David and the sonic-powered Joshua.

I'm particularly impressed by the selection of the "Jesus Freak" angle, because it allows a lot of X-menish riffs:

• the cross paralleled with the ubiquitous "X" naming of the X-teams;
• the symbol of the cross on their costumes again paralleled with the stylized "X" costumes;
• the religious dress used as the costume template, similar to the early x-costumes;
• the label "Jesus Freaks" as a way to rationalize their outcast nature (without necessarily pushing them to the 'hunted and feared' extreme of our favorite bunch of mutants)

Another thing that I liked was the way they tackled superpowers and codenames: none of them have the direct abilities of their namesakes, but rather from other abilities associated with their namesakes' stories. For example, Noah has storm-based abilities rather the ability to build boats or perhaps gather animals of different types together; likewise, David isn't necessarily skilled with the sling, but can grow to goliath size; and so on.

And much like their predecessors in the comics world, they show that they're much more that the caricatures they're made out to be by popular sentiment and the press.

Usage in superhero campaigns

Instead of the somewhat confusing fear of mutants in a world where aliens and other meta-humans are capable of just as much damage, the shift to a given religious, cultural, or political stance as a rationale for the 'hunted and feared' team is very useful. However, there must be ample reason to fear these ideological differences in a modern day and age -- or at least some reason for hostility from some quarters of the general populace. Perhaps they espouse controversial stances (for or against) the government or the major religions of your chosen setting?

If the team is a team of PCs, they're of course misunderstood -- they must strive against the stereotype to be recognized (or not) as true heroes. If they're NPCs, then keeping the PCs guessing the true intentions is key to retaining tension in the game.

Usage in Fantasy RPGs

It's not so much a stretch to borrow from this in Fantasy settings either. Perhaps the clerics of a given religion espouse controversial views on key issues (genocide, the treatment of men/women/children in society, other races, imperialism, etc.) but at the same time wield great power (clerical spells) and as such aren't seen so much as your friendly neighborhood priest or pastor, but rather a strange and aloof master of mysterious arts.

In a stunning reversal, the mad mages and alchemists of the genre could actually be the preferred and more approachable go-to groups for supra-human intervention and healing, rather than the clerics because of this distrust of the clergy.