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.

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.

Deconstruction in RPGs

I was reading the intro to one of the Astro City comics compilations and read something along the lines of "what's the point of taking things apart and learning how they work if you're not going to try to make something better?"

They were of course referring to the slew of 'grim & gritty' comics that came out in the 80s and 90s, along with the various deconstructionist treatments of various iconic super-heroes and super-hero teams -- some of which were watershed events in the history of the art (The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, Marvelman / Miracleman) while others were mediocre to bad attempts at the same fare. And some were just on the bandwagon to cash in on the trend of tearing down specific super-heroes or the entire genre itself.

Astro City, on the other hand, was successful in deconstructing and reconstructing superhero comics to achieve a different type of effect: having a surface story that appropriates many of the tropes and archetypes of the genre and layering it with more character and metaphor.

It was a revelation for me on two levels:
(1) it is possible to do satisfying riffs on superheroes and villains without being total rip-offs by drawing from earlier archetypes and / or mixing and matching;
(2) tearing apart stuff you liked while showing what parts don't work helps if you attempt to build something new after learning from the old.

So the big question is: how does this marginally interesting observation and possible epiphany relate to RPGs, thus justifying its inclusion in the blog?

1. Character creation with archetypes

When it became more possible in games to build the character that you wanted to play (character creation) rather than a character that you rolled up and made the best of (character generation), the desire to portray specific characters from inspirational material -- short stories, comics, novels, movies, TV shows, history -- was easier to satisfy.

Assuming that the game system, game setting, and game master were able to accommodate you playing a fairly well-known character ("Do you think you can stand against the power of Vecna, Conan?"), and assuming that it is capable of replicating the feats that these fictional characters are known for ("Vecna fails his saving throw, and loses the drinking contest. Conan wins!") sooner or later you'll run into the issue of canon -- because the player, or the GM or some other player will feel that the main body of work in being contradicted or even violated somehow ("No, I refuse to portray a female Conan just because of that stupid sex-change trap -- and tell Vecna to stop laughing!").

The next obvious step is to create someone reasonably close to, but not exactly like that character, often with an allusion in the name ("Call me Mississippi Smith."). Another tack is to create a character that amalgamates elements of characters into one. ("Of course we have a room for you and your female companion, Mr. James Westbondkirk.")

Some of the attempts (well, a lot of them) are juvenile, and there's nothing wrong with that. It's all for fun, and if it doesn't contradict the gameplay style being attempted, go for it.

However, Astro City has a plethora of characters that show that with some care mixing and matching the quintessential and archetypal elements of well-known super-heroes can create new characters that are familiar enough to draw upon the connotations of those archetypes, yet different enough to allow different portryals and stories to emerge.

In the above picture, there's a statue of the Silver Agent -- which appeared and was mysteriously alluded to in nearly every storyline of the series but whose history and significance was only recently detailed with a story -- a character who, despite the lack of a shield, has echoes of Marvel's Captain America and DC's Guardian.

Because of this visual short-hand, it suggests a character who upholds ideals at great cost, but is also a leader and an inspiration. I suppose that's why the mysterious story of the Silver Agent (only recently revealed) begged telling. Especially with a statue / monument to him with the following words inscribed below it: "To Our Eternal Shame".

In the future, I do plan on revisiting other characters from Astro City and other comics that have drawn on other archetypes. In the meantime, I invite you to search online for Samaritan, Winged Victory, and Jack-in-the-Box and see if you can identify their respective inspirations (visual and otherwise).

2. OSR, D&D, and various retro-clones and neo-clones

This was my first RPG experience:
reading T1 without a ruleset. It was
still awesome though I had barely
a clue about how to use it.

Of course, the other point here is relevant to what has gone on with the OSR movement -- and in theory with every RPG that was inspired by one or more RPGs that have come before.

I see the OSR movement, and the indie movement, and the whole mess of games coming out now, and the analysis of these games in terms of system and setting, and the house rules and the rules editions as part of this process and passion.

I think that at some level we're all going back to those games that first made our eyes light up in wonder, that took us to places we'd never been to before, that taught us how to see things differently, how to say things differently, how to think about things differently. I think we're trying to find out, with our older and wiser minds and hearts, what made these things work for us and for our friends.

And I'd like to think that the ultimate goal for all of this is to make games better, so that more of our circles of friends and family and strangers might experience what we did -- only better.