Hi, I’m Eric Abrams and if you look at the array behind me, you can probably guess that this video has something to do with superheroes. And, you’re absolutely right because here in part one of this two part series, we’re going to talk about what goes into creating an original superhero, villain and the world they live in. In part two, we’re going to show you how to write a compelling story with your original characters but first, a little history.

The first superhero, as we know them today, was Superman who was created in 1938 by two teenagers in Cleveland named Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegal. Today, we take for granted that superheroes can fly, have amazing strength and incredible speed but a character who could do that had not existed prior to the ‘30’s. Superman does have roots in John Carter “Warlord of Mars,” and Hercules and Hermes from Greek and Roman mythology but Superman was a giant leap forward in terms of what came before him. The following year gave us Batman who, in many ways, is the polar opposite of Superman. Batman came to life when Bruce Wayne witnessed his parents killed by a criminal. From that day forward, he decided to avenge his parent’s deaths by fighting crime in all its forms. The character has its roots in Zorro and the Scarlet Pimpernel in that they were both characters who were rich by day and fought crime by night.

Batman has no superpowers but, because he is rich, has access to vast resources that assist him on his quest to destroy evil. Unlike Superman, Batman operates at night and has no problem expressing anger or scaring evildoers.

The next giant step in the superhero genre occurred in 1962 with the creation of Spider-man. Spider-man got his powers when he was bitten by a radioactive spider. Like Batman, he decided to use his new-found powers for good when his Uncle Ben was killed during a robbery. But, unlike Batman and everyone who went before him, Spider-man was a teenager, Peter Parker, with all the problems a teenager has like trying to fit in and get good grades among many others. Prior to Spider-man, heroes didn’t really have personal problems. These problems made the character more accessible to the mostly teenage audience who read comic books. Like Superman, Spider-man works at a newspaper but he is from a working class background and money is an ongoing concern.

The next major evolution came in the 1970’s with the advent of the antihero. An antihero is someone who does heroic deeds but doesn’t display traditional heroic characteristics. If you’ve ever watched an “X-Man” movie or read one of the comic books you’d notice that Wolverine would probably feel almost as comfortable being a super-villain as a superhero. You could say the same thing about Deadpool, Cable and The Punisher. What makes them heroes? They have a strong internal moral code. Wolverine sees good and evil in black and white terms. He wants to be left alone but eventually does the right thing. The Punisher sees good and evil in even more stark and chilling terms.

If he sees someone doing something evil or corrupt, his response isn’t to turn them into the police, it’s to kill them. Due process doesn’t mean a lot to the Punisher. The point of all this history is to show you that there are many different kinds of superheroes so, let’s talk about how you should go about creating your own.

So, when creating a superhero, your first choice is does this character have superpowers like Superman, The Flash, Wonder Woman and Captain America? Or, are they a regular person who decides to fight crime out of a deep personal conviction like Batman, Iron-man and Hawkeye? If you decide to go with the former, how did they get their powers? Were they born with them like Superman and the X-Men or did they gain them due to some kind of accident or man made event like the Flash and Captain America? If they don’t have powers, what causes them to take this road? Let’s face it, fighting crime is dangerous and, unlike the police, superheroes don’t get paid so they need a really strong motivation like personal trauma, Batman, or needing to get out of a dire circumstance, like Iron-man. But, no matter what powers you endow your superhero with, his weaknesses are as important as his strengths.

Why is this important? Because, if a character can’t be hurt, there’s really nothing at stake for them and for us, the readers.

Superman has only one real weakness and that’s Kryptonite which was created during his radio show in the 1940’s because the writers had to come up with a way for him to be hurt. But, even that became tiresome after awhile. That’s why it’s so hard to write a really good Superman story. On the other end of the spectrum, Batman’s weakness is that he’s human. If you cut him, he bleeds. He also refuses to use a gun, because of how his parent’s died, which puts him at a considerable disadvantage. For Batman to win, he has to be a lot better than his foes which makes him relatable and someone you root for. In the 1940’s there was a great but mostly forgotten superhero named Hour-Man. Hour-Man was a scientist who came up with a pill that gave him certain powers for, you guessed it, an hour. What was great about this was that it gave his stories a natural element of tension because the clock was always ticking. And that’s what you want in a superhero, someone who is capable of heroic deeds but isn’t invulnerable. If someone can’t be hurt, they’re not risking anything. Remember, a hero, super or otherwise, is someone who is willing to put themselves on the line, even when they’re scared and can suffer great loss.

It’s so important to make your superhero someone the reader can live through vicariously. Let’s face it, superheroes are escapist literature and that’s something we all can use. Who wouldn’t want to be Superman? You get to fly, beat up bad guys, not have to worry about money. Sign me up.

Look at Spider-man. We can all remember what it was like to be a teenager. You’re an adult but you’re not. Quite often you don’t feel like you’re in control of your own life. But, what if you could climb walls, be really strong and swing through Manhattan on a web? Sounds pretty great to me and it sounds pretty great to the teenagers reading Spider-man comics.

Another way that allows your reader to live vicariously through your hero is for them to engage in behavior that we’d like to do but never would because of fear and the legal and moral repercussions we’d suffer. The reason why vigilante / pulp characters like the Spider and The Shadow flourished in the ‘30’s was because corruption was rampant and people had very little recourse. And while they couldn’t punch Al Capone in the jaw, the Spider could. The same thing happened in the 1970’s with Daredevil, the Punisher and Batman. By having a character do something we desperately wish we could allows us to live through them and that’s what you want. Now let’s talk about the thing that every good guy needs the most and that’s the bad guy.

So, now that you’ve created your superhero who is capable of great things what you now need is a worthy adversary. Superman versus a mugger isn’t exactly a fair fight, is it? Superman versus a brilliant, manipulative scientist who’s made it his life’s mission to bring down the Man of Steel, now there’s a battle I’d like to read about.

The best villains have a personal connection with the heroes. For example, in the 1989 “Batman” movie, it’s revealed that it was the Joker who killed Batman’s parents. What a great idea! Not only does Batman wants to bring down the Joker, he wants to strangle him with his bare hands but it’s his strong, moral code that prevents him from doing so. Dr. Doom was friends with the Fantastic Four before he became disfigured for which, he blamed Reed Richards. Lex Luthor was childhood friends with Superman. Captain America and the Red Skull were created by the same scientists so, in a way, they’re brothers. By making it personal, you make it more important to the characters in the story because there’s a history to draw upon. Also, when creating your villain, make sure they match up well with the hero. Again, with Batman and the Joker, Batman craves law and order, the Joker is a nihilist. He cares about nothing and no one which makes him extremely dangerous. Spider-man and Venom have roughly the same powers but Venom is a sociopath who feeds off of rage. One last thing about villains, make sure they have a clear motivation as to why they do what they do. No one’s just “bad.” They probably don’t see themselves that way. Magneto, arch-villain of the X-Men, feels, with justification, that humans have treated mutants unkindly. So, he has no compunction about making their lives hell. Thanos thinks he’s doing humankind a favor by eliminating half of us because he thinks he’s saving us from over. population.

Now, let’s get back to the good guys specifically, the world they live in.

We’re all creatures of our environments and so are superheroes. Superman is bright and sunny. Most of his adventures take place during the day and if you read the comics books you’d notice that in Metropolis, the skyscrapers are shiny and mostly glass. It projects a feeling of optimism. Batman fights super- villains but he also goes out on patrol at night where he has no problem bashing in a drug dealers skull. Remember, the entire reason he became Batman was to avenge a crime that took place in Gotham City. It makes sense that Gotham is dirty and grimy. Iron-Man is very much a “look at me” type of character so it figures that he’s in Los Angeles. The Avengers are the upper class of superheroes so they’re based in Manhattan. Peter Parker is working class and based out of Queens.

So, when deciding where your hero should be based ask yourself these questions: what kind of stories do I want to tell with this character? Are they bright and sunny like Shazam? Are they dark and grim like Daredevil? The other question is why did the superhero decide to become a hero in the first place? Again, Batman is the best example. Gotham created him and not the other way around. He couldn’t exist in Metropolis. Superman would feel out of place amongst the shadiness and corruption of Gotham.

So, now that we’ve talked about what goes into creating a superhero, a super villain and where their adventures should take place, in part two we’ll talk about how to construct a story that brings out the best in all three elements. I do hope you’ll join us or, as Stan Lee would say, excelsior! And on that we