Who is your favorite Super(or action)Hero or Heroin? Not as in who has the coolest powers or best backstory but as a person and as a character as well as how and what they fight for who wins your fancy? What lessons in writing characters or in writing 'good guys' do you think we can learn from them?
Superman, I know most people find him boring but I completely disagree. There's reason he's called the Ideal hero, and there's a reason that this character inspired the whole superhero genre. To borrow a line from Hercules, A true hero isn't measured by the size of his strength, but by the strength of his heart, and aside from Supes' god like powers the thing that makes him most amazing is his heart. That he's not only a 'good guy' but a good person, he's kind, humble and completely selfless. Because of his power there's really no way anyone could ever repay him for what he does but that's not why he does it, he isn't even in it for the glory, Yeah he has a tragic backstory and a struggles to find his identity but his motivation isn't that of vengeance or even penance like a lot of others. He's just good for the hell of it and helps because he can, He has absolute power but isn't even slightly corrupted by it. What we can learn from writing is that our heroes don't actually need to be traumatized, dark broody or violent, and that the happy nice character who is usually pushed to sidekick status can actually be literally the most famous superhero the world has ever seen. People don't love superman for his endless list of powers, they love him for what he stands for, truth and justice and hope, that's the reason you'll believe a man can fly.
Ok, my favorite hero is probably one you have never heard of, Strong Woman Do Bong Soon. She is from a Korean tv show called Strong Woman Do Bong Soon. Now the reason I love her is she never gives up (even if she has no powers). So she was born into a family where every female has super strength since birth. The catch? If they hurt an innocent person they lose their powers. So basically in the show there is a unidentified kidnapper in her neighborhood. He has kidnapped about 7 girls and “marrying” them, against their will. Her best friend comes to visit from another state, when she leaves she gets kidnapped. Strong Woman doesn’t realize this until she texts her friend and the kidnapper responds weirdly, Strong Woman asks about her dog (which is dead) and the kidnapper responds saying the dog is fine. This when she knows her friend is missing. She ends up freeing all the girls but unable to catch the bad guy, but they have found his identity. The bad guy contacts her saying to meet her in private. So she goes there and the bad guy tricks her into hurting an innocent person. She loses her powers and he gets away. Now during this entire time she has been working as a body guard for a famous ceo, while working as a game designer (she was originally hired just to be the body guard but faught for this position trying to prove herself worthy (yet another example of how she never gives up)), while helping the police with the kidnapper, while helping a group of high schoolers learn to do the right thing, while trying to live a normal love life. While at work the bad guy breaks in takes Strong Woman and attaches a bomb to her and ties her up. Everyone flees the building except for help love interest (the ceo) who tries to save her but can’t open the door to get to her. She knows she will die but continues to tell him to leave, he refuses, yet she still continues to protect any innocent person. She gets her powers back breaks out, throws bomb into sky and save the ceo. Bad guy tells her to meet him again at a shipping yard thinking she has no powers, she goes but this time she brings her friend from the police department and ceo. Ceo has a flying drone with camera so he can see where bad guy is. She fights bad guy letting him think she has no strength, bad guy shots her in the chest, she falls down. Her friend goes and gets mad so he lures him in to a trap of cargo bins, while ceo watches him with camera. Strong Woman gets up and throws a cage over the bad guy, him being surprised because he shot her and thought she had no powers. Before they went to the shipping yard the ceo made Strong Woman wear a bulletproof vest. They finally catch the bad guy.
I would recommend watching the show (its only 1 season long) it’s a comedy, romance, thriller. I only covered the thriller part, lol. I also love her because she is genuinely relatable and someone her size shouldn’t be able to do anything thing she does.
This is not going to be nearly as long as everyone else’s, but Tony Stark. (From the MCU)
Not because he has a cool suit that he made himself. Not because he’s a brilliant scientist who remade his life when he realized that his weapons were being used for the wrong reasons.
But because he’s a man. There was no magic serum, no cosmic interference.
Anthony Edward Stark is a man, and it will hurt if he falls; but he keeps going anyway.
@TurtleOfFreedom_MissesSly
(Hey unrelated question but is your username supposed to be in honor of that thing Captain America does when where he curls up his whole body behind his shield like a tiny like armadillo of patriotism?)
//yep
Spawn. Without a doubt Spawn. He's less of a superhero and more of an antihero. Not to brag, but there's a reason Spawn has outsold even Batman and Superman as an independent series.
Spawn is a story about a man who isn't just trying to save the world, it's a story about a man trying to save himself and his loved ones along the way.
He's cold, gritty, and downright vicious. But his heart's in.the right place. Spawn is a character who refuses to be broken through the worst of it, and Todd McFarlane knew what he was doing. But most of all, it's because he's different. Lt. Colonel Albert Francis Simmons, dies at the order of his boss, Jason Wynn, after the two butt heads about the amorous things done by the government. He is sent to He'll, for knowingly killing innocent during his tour, and makes a deal with the demon Lord Malbolgia, to go back to Earth one last time to see his wife, Wanda Blake, one last time in exchange for Spawn becoming a ranking officer in Hell's army, a Hellspawn.
Surprise twist, the Demon Lord sends him five years into the future with a shattered mind, and defunct demonic body, unable to remember his wife, but knowing… Furthermore, he places a counter on Spawn's powers, reading 9:9:9:9, and When it reaches zero. Spawn starts off trying to make a difference in the world with his powers meanwhile still trying to figure out who he was and learning that he was supposed to be cultivating souls for Bell's Army on Earth, and when angels turn his ex-boss, Jason Wynn into the Redeemer/Anti-Spawn, they fight, causing Spawn to evolve. And that's only First Age Spawn! He has a role in saving the world from the Dark God Urizen, and he plays a main role in Armageddon. Trust me, it gets pretty metal.