I know, plan fell apart, no blog today, etc. But I'm writing a blog post all the same! In this case, something not part of Red Hood Rider, but which might become part of the Rubyverse. See, prior to Red Hood Rider, I did have a superhero universe, equivalent to Marvel/DC in scale. I had a main universe, and even an equally-fleshed-out bad future universe.
The only thing that stopped me was that the scale was too large for me as a single individual to handle, but I actually think that universe is 100% compatible with the Rubyverse, allowing for a direct import. I think it'd actually add a lot to the world, too, given some of the superheroes.
Here's a few:
-Grappler. He's a superhero who uses a grappling hook (it's more awesome than it sounds), along with a special shield of his own design, to perform incredible acrobatics. A hybrid of Spiderman and Batman, he's just a normal guy, but in peak athletic condition. What makes him unusual for superheroes is that he holds no secret identity; he is open about who he is, and does get attacked when he attends college. (Villains find out that's a hilariously bad idea, though, since colleges are well-defended.)
He has a whole team of superheroes, too. His Lancer is a huge black guy (we're talking 7'8" or so), built like a tank, very muscular, yet otherwise human, who is a gadgeteer genius of sorts, making him a genius brawler. Originally Grappler's rival, they managed to work out an agreement. He uses a gigantic glider to travel on using air currents, which also doubles as a bow (or, when needed, a staff). In a pinch, it can be converted into a jetpack, though he doesn't use it that way often.
Then, there was his apprentice, a young kid using a hoverdisk, a disc to hover on, which doubled as a shield. Think Captain America, only as a kid, who can fly.
Also featured is a morally-questionable, but ultimately good, user of electricity. Specifically, they use the split serrated katana I've occasionally blogged about before: the blade that splits down the middle, has two points on the end, has one side serrated, and is inspired by a hairpin, that thing.
Then, as a fifth ally, he has a paladin-like hero, who uses...well, a stingray-like weapon. It's difficult to describe.
He has a brother, who uses a black chain, and is a sometimes-villain, sometimes-hero character.
Their father is the main antagonist for the city, a man who is made out of some elastic, conductive (electrical) mysterious material, who is biologically compelled to be evil even when he doesn't want to, living a miserable life, one he cannot die in. (He's tried. He can't stay dead.)
A later addition to the group is the Green Grappler, someone with the same abilities as Grappler and even the same type of equipment, only colored green. Grappler approves of this, though, since "The more heroes, the better covered we are."
Their city takes inspiration from New York City and Seattle, but geographically, it's actually a stand-in for either Phoenix Arizona or Las Vegas Nevada, I forget which.
In the bad future, his city is destroyed in an interdimensional invasion, with him (and the villain above) as the only survivor. That event served as the catalyst for the creation of the bad future, even. This, however, drives him to be a much, much, MUCH darker stand-in for Batman, where he becomes a MemeticBadass known as Grappler the Godkiller: someone who doesn't kill not because of moral reasons, but because he fears that if he kills, he will enter a slippery slope with him becoming a villain that all the superheroes and supervillains in the world may not be able to beat.
-Hexapod/Arthropod. This is a superhero whose home city is a hybrid between New York and Washington, D.C. The basis behind Hexapod/Arthropod (Hexapod is 'his' original identity, Arthropod is 'his' later identity) is that 'he' (you'll see why I say that in a bit) is a god-tiered superhero in powers, who is pretending to be a scientific superhero: he tries to pretend he's just a human being wearing an advanced suit of technology.
Progressively, though, as he is forced to expand, it slowly becomes obvious that he's not in a suit, he literally becomes a gigantic insect, with the powers of every insect ever, scaled to human size. (This is pretty strong; an exoskeleton that's bulletproof, being able to leap the empire state building in a single jump/leap across the golden gate bridge for instance, the list goes on and on, but this is roughly akin to Superman at his absolute prime powers-wise pretending he's Batman.)
It later becomes evident, however, that 'Arthur' (his civilian identity) holds even more powers than that. Originally, as Hexapod, it's expected that Arthur had great powers, but limited to that. Later, it becomes clear that he's really Arthropod, and that he has the powers of any arthropod scaled to human size, not just insects. Silk armor. Silk weaponry. (So, like Spider-man in that regard.) Acid weaponry. Various types of poisons. You get the idea. When I said god-tiered, I meant god-tiered.
The reason he tried to hide all of this, though, is that while he does do superheroics, he tries to keep a low profile, wanting to stay out of the spotlight. He knows that if he's classified has a god-tiered superhero, he'll be forced to fight god-tiered supervillains, but he's content handling small-time crime.
Eventually, after his love interest is killed off by a more powerful villain that managed to knock him out, he is traumatized, disappearing. Arthropod is later drawn out by one of 'his' former rogues, though, a Lex Luthoresque villain who has reformed, and managed to track down Ariana, her new civilian identity.
...Yes, her. She molted, transitioning from a male chassis to a female one. (Because, yeah, Arthropod can do that.) This, interestingly, makes her the first transgender superhero I ever made. (And I made her before I even knew I was transgender!)
In the bad future, though, instead of transitioning, s/he instead lost his/her mind and blew up the entire city by having a literal meltdown, self-destructing and leaving a wasteland in his/her wake.
-Silicone. He is a superhero living in the suburbs of the Portland, Oregon area (or, at least, a stand-in city for Portland), whose base power is manipulation of glass. He basically has complete control over glass, able to make a glass pane be so bulletproof that the bullet will be flattened against the glass and the glass will not even crack at all. He can even reconstruct and reorder broken glass into various shapes, allowing him to construct things.
In the bad future, his power eventually expanded to the point where he could control computers, even becoming code. His base body became made of silicone rather than carbon, but as a result, he stopped technically being classified as 'alive': beings that are interested in killing the living invaded, and he (having lost his home city by that point) wanted them to kill him (think black lantern rings), but...they considered him already dead, thus, left him alone.
He helped orchestrate the plan (along with future-Grappler) to go back in time and avert their fate, creating the normal universe and rendering them a bad-future-that-will-never-be, though as a remnant of this plan, he transferred a copy of his consciousness into "our" (that is, the main Rubyverse) world, to give to his younger self, telling him what to do and what not to do.
-A final import is not a single superhero, but a whole team: BRAVE. That's an acronym for something stupid I made up when I was like fifteen (if that), akin to SHIELD/The Avengers/X-men in that it's an organization of superheroes, a full team of them dealing mostly with powers that are defined in 'dimensions'. This one I'm considering modifying to have the original team be in the 60s, and have the second generation be the 80s, with the third and current generation being now.
The original team consisted of Shell, a guy who could create infinite numbers of duplicates of himself, each with slightly different skills and personalities, effectively tapping into 'alternate dimensions'. He eventually pulled a heroic sacrifice fighting the leader of their opposition (an elemental-based team of villains), which had consequences later-on.
His younger brother, Deja Vu, is "stuck in the past": by default, he perpetually hears and sees things five minutes after they have happened, and then can respond to them. However, he later discovers that he can interact with objects in the past, changing the past by doing so. He also learns to see the future. A later power of his is to interact with alternate reality versions of himself, similar to Shell, but more limited (they're not in his world, there's only two of them), yet also more advanced (Shell's copies are still human, Deja Vu's duplicates have unique powers). He became the new leader when his brother died.
Shield is a girl with the power to create a spherical shield around herself and also her teammates. She later learns how to modify these shields to do other things, and create multiple shields, which she can expand and collapse at will.
She marries a time-based superhero, who has the power to slow down time within a bubble while also speeding himself (and whoever he touches) up, effectively meaning TWO ways of altering the flow of time rather than just one.
Also present is a superhero who can teleport, Nightcrawler-style, and a superhero whose power is that he can shift himself to be anything. He can become intangible, morph his body to become, say, a fly, or a dragon, or he can gain claws, or he can become 50 feet tall, or 2 inches, or gain super-toughness, or gain super-strength, basically, mastery over the molecules in his body.
The second generation are Deja Vu (still leading, but not actively, acting as mission control rather than being out in the field), Shield and the time guy's younger siblings (I swear they all had names, both real and superhero, at one point, but it's ridiculously hard to find), the teleporter (still doing superheroics), and the superhero who can shift himself to be anything (who hasn't aged thanks to his powers, and is the team leader of the generation).
The third generation are two alternate selves of Deja Vu, one who uses what can best be described as Ghost Rider powers, only electrical instead of fire, the other that is a silk-based superhero that's a blatant Spider-man expy, plus the kids of the first generation.
One final thing to note about the import: technically, I already did an import. Jonathan, I believe, originally was from that universe, only he was still a hero, his tragic backstory not having transpired. His canonical Red Hood Rider backstory was actually what happened to him in the bad future, the only difference being that there, he didn't move locations, wailing at the loss of his city.
It's the reason I thought of this, in fact.
The only thing that stopped me was that the scale was too large for me as a single individual to handle, but I actually think that universe is 100% compatible with the Rubyverse, allowing for a direct import. I think it'd actually add a lot to the world, too, given some of the superheroes.
Here's a few:
-Grappler. He's a superhero who uses a grappling hook (it's more awesome than it sounds), along with a special shield of his own design, to perform incredible acrobatics. A hybrid of Spiderman and Batman, he's just a normal guy, but in peak athletic condition. What makes him unusual for superheroes is that he holds no secret identity; he is open about who he is, and does get attacked when he attends college. (Villains find out that's a hilariously bad idea, though, since colleges are well-defended.)
He has a whole team of superheroes, too. His Lancer is a huge black guy (we're talking 7'8" or so), built like a tank, very muscular, yet otherwise human, who is a gadgeteer genius of sorts, making him a genius brawler. Originally Grappler's rival, they managed to work out an agreement. He uses a gigantic glider to travel on using air currents, which also doubles as a bow (or, when needed, a staff). In a pinch, it can be converted into a jetpack, though he doesn't use it that way often.
Then, there was his apprentice, a young kid using a hoverdisk, a disc to hover on, which doubled as a shield. Think Captain America, only as a kid, who can fly.
Also featured is a morally-questionable, but ultimately good, user of electricity. Specifically, they use the split serrated katana I've occasionally blogged about before: the blade that splits down the middle, has two points on the end, has one side serrated, and is inspired by a hairpin, that thing.
Then, as a fifth ally, he has a paladin-like hero, who uses...well, a stingray-like weapon. It's difficult to describe.
He has a brother, who uses a black chain, and is a sometimes-villain, sometimes-hero character.
Their father is the main antagonist for the city, a man who is made out of some elastic, conductive (electrical) mysterious material, who is biologically compelled to be evil even when he doesn't want to, living a miserable life, one he cannot die in. (He's tried. He can't stay dead.)
A later addition to the group is the Green Grappler, someone with the same abilities as Grappler and even the same type of equipment, only colored green. Grappler approves of this, though, since "The more heroes, the better covered we are."
Their city takes inspiration from New York City and Seattle, but geographically, it's actually a stand-in for either Phoenix Arizona or Las Vegas Nevada, I forget which.
In the bad future, his city is destroyed in an interdimensional invasion, with him (and the villain above) as the only survivor. That event served as the catalyst for the creation of the bad future, even. This, however, drives him to be a much, much, MUCH darker stand-in for Batman, where he becomes a MemeticBadass known as Grappler the Godkiller: someone who doesn't kill not because of moral reasons, but because he fears that if he kills, he will enter a slippery slope with him becoming a villain that all the superheroes and supervillains in the world may not be able to beat.
-Hexapod/Arthropod. This is a superhero whose home city is a hybrid between New York and Washington, D.C. The basis behind Hexapod/Arthropod (Hexapod is 'his' original identity, Arthropod is 'his' later identity) is that 'he' (you'll see why I say that in a bit) is a god-tiered superhero in powers, who is pretending to be a scientific superhero: he tries to pretend he's just a human being wearing an advanced suit of technology.
Progressively, though, as he is forced to expand, it slowly becomes obvious that he's not in a suit, he literally becomes a gigantic insect, with the powers of every insect ever, scaled to human size. (This is pretty strong; an exoskeleton that's bulletproof, being able to leap the empire state building in a single jump/leap across the golden gate bridge for instance, the list goes on and on, but this is roughly akin to Superman at his absolute prime powers-wise pretending he's Batman.)
It later becomes evident, however, that 'Arthur' (his civilian identity) holds even more powers than that. Originally, as Hexapod, it's expected that Arthur had great powers, but limited to that. Later, it becomes clear that he's really Arthropod, and that he has the powers of any arthropod scaled to human size, not just insects. Silk armor. Silk weaponry. (So, like Spider-man in that regard.) Acid weaponry. Various types of poisons. You get the idea. When I said god-tiered, I meant god-tiered.
The reason he tried to hide all of this, though, is that while he does do superheroics, he tries to keep a low profile, wanting to stay out of the spotlight. He knows that if he's classified has a god-tiered superhero, he'll be forced to fight god-tiered supervillains, but he's content handling small-time crime.
Eventually, after his love interest is killed off by a more powerful villain that managed to knock him out, he is traumatized, disappearing. Arthropod is later drawn out by one of 'his' former rogues, though, a Lex Luthoresque villain who has reformed, and managed to track down Ariana, her new civilian identity.
...Yes, her. She molted, transitioning from a male chassis to a female one. (Because, yeah, Arthropod can do that.) This, interestingly, makes her the first transgender superhero I ever made. (And I made her before I even knew I was transgender!)
In the bad future, though, instead of transitioning, s/he instead lost his/her mind and blew up the entire city by having a literal meltdown, self-destructing and leaving a wasteland in his/her wake.
-Silicone. He is a superhero living in the suburbs of the Portland, Oregon area (or, at least, a stand-in city for Portland), whose base power is manipulation of glass. He basically has complete control over glass, able to make a glass pane be so bulletproof that the bullet will be flattened against the glass and the glass will not even crack at all. He can even reconstruct and reorder broken glass into various shapes, allowing him to construct things.
In the bad future, his power eventually expanded to the point where he could control computers, even becoming code. His base body became made of silicone rather than carbon, but as a result, he stopped technically being classified as 'alive': beings that are interested in killing the living invaded, and he (having lost his home city by that point) wanted them to kill him (think black lantern rings), but...they considered him already dead, thus, left him alone.
He helped orchestrate the plan (along with future-Grappler) to go back in time and avert their fate, creating the normal universe and rendering them a bad-future-that-will-never-be, though as a remnant of this plan, he transferred a copy of his consciousness into "our" (that is, the main Rubyverse) world, to give to his younger self, telling him what to do and what not to do.
-A final import is not a single superhero, but a whole team: BRAVE. That's an acronym for something stupid I made up when I was like fifteen (if that), akin to SHIELD/The Avengers/X-men in that it's an organization of superheroes, a full team of them dealing mostly with powers that are defined in 'dimensions'. This one I'm considering modifying to have the original team be in the 60s, and have the second generation be the 80s, with the third and current generation being now.
The original team consisted of Shell, a guy who could create infinite numbers of duplicates of himself, each with slightly different skills and personalities, effectively tapping into 'alternate dimensions'. He eventually pulled a heroic sacrifice fighting the leader of their opposition (an elemental-based team of villains), which had consequences later-on.
His younger brother, Deja Vu, is "stuck in the past": by default, he perpetually hears and sees things five minutes after they have happened, and then can respond to them. However, he later discovers that he can interact with objects in the past, changing the past by doing so. He also learns to see the future. A later power of his is to interact with alternate reality versions of himself, similar to Shell, but more limited (they're not in his world, there's only two of them), yet also more advanced (Shell's copies are still human, Deja Vu's duplicates have unique powers). He became the new leader when his brother died.
Shield is a girl with the power to create a spherical shield around herself and also her teammates. She later learns how to modify these shields to do other things, and create multiple shields, which she can expand and collapse at will.
She marries a time-based superhero, who has the power to slow down time within a bubble while also speeding himself (and whoever he touches) up, effectively meaning TWO ways of altering the flow of time rather than just one.
Also present is a superhero who can teleport, Nightcrawler-style, and a superhero whose power is that he can shift himself to be anything. He can become intangible, morph his body to become, say, a fly, or a dragon, or he can gain claws, or he can become 50 feet tall, or 2 inches, or gain super-toughness, or gain super-strength, basically, mastery over the molecules in his body.
The second generation are Deja Vu (still leading, but not actively, acting as mission control rather than being out in the field), Shield and the time guy's younger siblings (I swear they all had names, both real and superhero, at one point, but it's ridiculously hard to find), the teleporter (still doing superheroics), and the superhero who can shift himself to be anything (who hasn't aged thanks to his powers, and is the team leader of the generation).
The third generation are two alternate selves of Deja Vu, one who uses what can best be described as Ghost Rider powers, only electrical instead of fire, the other that is a silk-based superhero that's a blatant Spider-man expy, plus the kids of the first generation.
One final thing to note about the import: technically, I already did an import. Jonathan, I believe, originally was from that universe, only he was still a hero, his tragic backstory not having transpired. His canonical Red Hood Rider backstory was actually what happened to him in the bad future, the only difference being that there, he didn't move locations, wailing at the loss of his city.
It's the reason I thought of this, in fact.
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