God’s Butler

When you least expect it, you may come across a mysterious, but polite, being, apparently a robot, who only identifies himself as God’s Butler. Speaking in a warm, pleasant voice, he will explain that he has taken a physical form to go on a travel holiday across Creation. If there is any truth to the story is something that simply can’t be known, but what can be known is that if some crime, a murder, a theft, or anything, happens to occur while God’s Butler is around, he will do everything in his power to solve the case.

There’s not much to say about this one. It is very much a superhero that I know nobody else was going to think up. It’s a straight up Murder She Wrote-style amateur detective formula, except it stars a robot with religious undertones and, since he’s on a tour of Creation, instead of just going from small town to small town, he can go anywhere from space stations to jungles to… small towns, I guess.

The Blue Cloak

Network City is the world’s information capital. Boasting the most high-tech computer technology it is home to the world’s biggest tech companies and banks. Like any city, Network City has a thriving criminal underbelly. This one based largely on corporate espionage and hacking. Accordingly, the Blue Cloak has appeared.

None can say for certain what lies beneath the Cloak, for those who see if are seldom capable of telling the tale. It is rumored that the Blue Cloak is capable of travelling through the Internet and appearing in front of wrongdoers in the act. Nobody can say for certain if he works for the police (though they deny it) or one of Network City’s many companies (though he does not seem to favor one in his work). Legends even go around that he is not human at all, but the avatar of some artifical intelligence protecting its own interests.

The inspiration for this one is a vague desire to do cyberpunk superhero and a drawing of a guy in a cloak. Since he’s not addressing any particular societal issue or anything, I guess I might as well just use him to further flesh out the universe where Lex Techno and friend reside.

I think it is long since time I presented another superhero team:

The Crew of the Cosmic are a team of superheroes working for an international space program. In a world filled with supervillains and conquering aliens, a team like this is a necessity. I often encounter an attitude in the real world that space exploration is a useless waste of taxpayer money, so if I were to tell actual stories about this team, in addition to all the usual adventure action, I’d be trying to draw attention to all the very real ways space exploration has helped out everyday lives, and how little funding they actually get compared to programs I like a lot less. But mostly, it would be about adventures.

Moongloves

Sandra Collins’s mysterious moon gloves give her the ability to somewhat control of gravity. Reducing the weight of something, she can lift it over her head with little effort. She can also, at a touch, increase an enemy’s gravity rendering them unable to move. Also, she can punch real hard. The leader of the Crew, Captain Collins is strongly devoted into helping humanity find its place in the universe.

The Interplanetarian

Humberto Noriega is The Interplanetarian. With powers ideally suited to existing in space (he can survive in the vaccuum, fly unaided by technology, and so on), he has joined the Crew for reasons of money and fame. He presents a swashbuckling personality, which can grate on the rest of the team, but keeps him popular with the public. Since space programs are hard up for funding, the public’s love gives him a lot of clout.

Satellito

Satellito (Officially named Satellite-Zero) is the team’s robot, filled with sensors, as well as being their constant connection to Earth. Originally designed by a supervillain, Satellito is also packed with gadgets and weaponry that can help in any situation. What the team doesn’t know, however, is that some of Satellito’s original programming still exists, and it is in a constant struggle to keep from turning against the team.

Hypersquare

Claire Weber wears a suit that allows her to move through space by a kind of teleportation. By breaking herself into a series of two-dimensional squares, Claire can move about and re-form at a new location. It is not as instantaneous as many teleportation processes seen on television or movies, but it is definitely handy in space exploration.

Robotomaton

When the Robotomaton was first built, it was simply a machine, an unthinking device designed to entertain at science expos and fairs or simply by walking around. Over the course of decades, its creators continued to upgrade the machine and add more gadgets and tricks for the machine to perform. Eventually, though, it started acting in ways that they could not explain. The Robotomaton is purely clockwork, though. There is no actual “mind” in the machine, not even in computer form, but the Robotomaton had apparently developed consciousness. But nobody, including the Robotomaton itself, can explain where or when that consciousness began.

Now that it could think and reason for itself, the Robotomaton sought to find a place in society, but society was hesitant to allow it. To gain the trust of humanity, the Robotomaton took to performing humanitarian tasks like fighting fires and crime. When that became a habit, the Robotomaton found its place: as a superhero.

I mentioned with HAULER that I think robot sentience is taken for granted in superhero comics. So while HAULER would be a robot without that intelligence, the Robotomaton could be used to explore the concept philosophically. How did a clockwork man become intelligent, and is it any different than a human is intelligent? These are questions that the Robotomaton would struggle with regularly. Between punching things.

ProboscAce

While piloting an experimental aircraft, test pilot Captain Lloyd Taylor encountered an unidentified flying object. He lost control of his plane, then lost consciousness. A week later Taylor awoke as the military found him and the plane safely resting in a forest, but Taylor now had some sort of metallic appendage attached to his face. While he could not account for his whereabouts, Taylor soon discovered that the prehensile proboscis was a handy tool that could lift incredibly heavy objcts, somehow without ripping his face off, and even defect bullets. Making the most of this strange turn of events and he became the military’s new secret weapon: The ProboscAce!

I’m not going to pretend that I can justify this one as anything more than a silly idea that came to me and I knew I had to commit. I didn’t even put enough thought into it to make the pilot aspect as a conscious decision, but once I had a name that included the word “Ace” and I saw those goggle-things that almost remind me of aviation goggles, it all came together. I am confident that if I told a ProboscAce story he would be a bit of a show-off and I can guarantee that he would fly planes with his feet up, his hands behind his head, and his proboscis on the wheel.

Bludgeonak

There is dimension called the Bronze Zone where there is a world ruled by an evil, powerful warlord called Oppressar. Oppressar holds power with the help of an army of pseudo-mechanical henchmen created from a cosmic-energy factory on the planet’s moon. But during a time of special celestial alignment one of the henchmen was created with more energy than was intended, making it smarter and stronger than its brethren. That henchman, designated Bludgeonak, saw Oppressar for the evil he is and escaped. Now Bludgeonak sides with the scattered rebels who live in the underground tunnels of the Exiled Gods of the Bronze Zone.

I was definitely going for a Jack Kirby vibe with this one (specifically his later crazy cosmic stories). Obviously as I am, at best, a reluctant artist, I don’t think I am fit to hold a candle to Kirby, but I couldn’t commit to a year of superhero creation without visiting his style. Bludgeonak was a character made up on the spot at the time of sketching, and his story made up on the spot again at the time of writing this. I don’t know why I decided to go with the headless torso kind of design (maybe I was thinking of Arnim Zola), but those circles on his chest are supposed to be his eyes. For the record, I’m picturing a color scheme of bright oranges and red mixed with black.

Brain Pain

When J. Paul Dean was born, he seemed like an ordinary child, but as he grew older it was clear that something was wrong. While his body grew rapidly, surpassing a normal adult size by the time he was ten years old, his head never changed from its original infant size and appearance. And apart from the physical aspect, there was something else: he could read minds. In his late teens, he was contacted by the Mind Set, a loose community of mind-powered individuals who gave him a home and helped him adjust to society.

Now, as an adult, Brain Pain has become an adventurer working with the Strange Squad. He’s something of a celebrity superhero, appearing in television interviews and getting book deals. Perhaps most importantly: when he goes into dangerous situations, he wears a helmet.

Brain Pain is one of the characters I thought up as a kid (which is also my excuse for the name). The whole tiny head and massive muscles thing was supposed to be a twist on the frail telepaths with big heads that are the more common formula. It’s just clever enough that it stuck around in my memory.

CommandOak

There is a secret magical forest called Arborika, and an evil pollution-loving corporation want to get in there and steal all the magic wood. But luckily for Arborika, there are CommandOak and the Forest Force, magic tree-people who fight the evil corporation’s weekly schemes.

Other members of the Forest Force would include the Maple Leaftenant, Na-Palm, Brigadier Birch, and so on.

Here, I wanted to tap into 80s toy-style heroes so I combined the aesthetics (and terrible name schemes) of He-Man with the military trapping of G.I. Joe and then threw trees into the mix. In case it isn’t obvious, he’s got bark for skin, leaves for hair, and those are supposed to be acorn buttons on his shirt. Also, I picture that gun being bright orange.

(The Captain Planet-style villains are, I admit, more a 90s thing than an 80s one, but whatever, shut up.)

HAULER

The Hundred-Armed Urban Law-Enforcing Robot was designed to meet the needs of a world where superhuman criminals are unfortunately common. While strong and durable, the real feature of HAULER are the side panels that lead to micro-storage units containing a plethora of different arm attachments for a myriad of different uses. Claws, grappling hooks, flame throwers, various restraints, and a multitude of weapons. This is one robot who always has something… up its sleeve. (No apologies)

“Hey PDR,” said nobody ever, “you need to design another robot!” HAULER would be a non-sentient robot, though. Most of the time in comics, it’s taken for granted that the robots can think and feel and laugh and love. This is an exception because there should be exceptions. A story about HAULER would be about have to be about the people who control him, probably from some remote back at police headquarters, rather than about the robot himself. Some sort of procedural soap opera deal, I guess.