Totally random questions

[dans]

so we call them 'super heroes' on Earth 1 and 2 and 'action heroes' on Earth 4, and they call them 'Science Heroes' in the Tom Strong universe. What's another term I might use for 'super heroes' in another universe? (apparently Marvel and DC co-own the trademark on the term 'superhero').  In my 'other Earth' universe I call them 'mystery heroes'.

If there were suddenly super powered heroes in our universe, what might you call them? I was thinking something like 'real live funny book heroes' but that's a bit too long...

[redsycorax]

Enhanciles/the Enhanced/the Gifted/Remarkable/Demigods/Hyperhumans/Ultrahumans/Posthumans/Hyperheroes/Ultraheroes/Metaheroes/Legends/Modern Legends/Paragons/Power heroes/Beyonders/Transcended/Elemental Forces/Nth Degree/Quantum Heroes/Supreme Virtues/Children of the Tachyon/Children of the Quantum/Worldsavers/Guardians of Tomorrow

[dans]

Thank you for a very comprehensive list. None of these grab me, but they helped me think. What do you think about 'Poster Heroes'? I want something that a 1940 paper might have used in their headlines. Poster like ''poster boy' or the military recruitment posters of the time? And maybe a little humorous too; they hadn't started taking them seriously yet?

[johnreiter902]

Wonder Heroes

Marvels

mystery men

metahumans (metas)

ultras

[dans]

How about they call all costumed heroes (many of whom have special powers) 'Captains'?

[dans]

it is amazing what blocks me from writing. I can't think of a good term to call the class of costumed heroes many of whom have extra powers and it blocks the whole story!

Anyway, I'm going to call them Parkers. In this universe, Pat Parker was the most widely publicized costumed hero in the late 30s. She probably has some healing powers, and she saved the lives of several important Allied leaders before the US entered the war. So some newspaper somewhere called a male hero 'a male Pat Parker' and the term stuck.

Say, I wonder if the Pat Parker from our universe was any relation to the Peter Parker from our universe? Oops! I think I have a touch of the Thomas virus...

[dans]

Here's one that delves into history somewhat... pretty obscure history, at that...

Traveling medicine men in the depression era went from town to town and sold potions of their own devising that were supposed to be cure-alls. These were usually just some flavoring and a lot of alcohol. I perhaps wrote myself into a corner in a story featuring Doc Yale's Traveling Medicine Show by suggesting that a) Doc Yale had a LOT of inventory and b) that his Mystery Syrup contained a blend of amphetamines and opium. This is in 1938.

Doc was a medic in World War 1 and that is really all we know about him, other than his name, and that he is a consummate showman and salesman. And he apparently has a fairly healthy cash flow - rather than traveling by himself, he travels with a crew and carries his show in two tractor-trailers, plus he has a very expensive luxury car. Now I'm wondering - how does he pay for all this stuff? Where does he get his ingredients? Where does he get his bottles? He probably has a printing press in one of his trucks and prints his own labels, and perhaps he also has a chemistry lab where he mixes up his own amphetamines, but where does he get his opium? And where did he get the money to initially rent or hire the tractor trailer trucks and buy the new car?

Since he is such a good showman/salesman, perhaps he was able to talk his way into possession of the trucks and car, and he is selling a LOT of potions, so that's where he gets the cash to pay his crew, but the opium is the stickler. I might have to go back and change that part of the story to the standard 'flavored alcohol' and note that he has a still somewhere back up in the mountains...

Importing opium for other than medical purposes was made illegal in 1909, so perhaps he is a real doctor, and maybe wasn't making enough money in his standard practice? Any other thoughts, or should I just go back to the flavored alcohol?

It seems possible that he is independently wealthy - but if so, why is he driving around the back roads of West Virginia selling phony miracle cures to the rubes?

I can offer the 5EP Standard Prize for ideas, naming a character with a name you suggest... can't promise they will all be good guys, though!

Thanks!

[DocQuantum]

I think he's an actual genius, maybe with some patents under his name which has made him a lot of money in the past, but his character flaws thus far have kept him from being able to keep his money for long. He probably lost a fortune in the Wall Street crash of 1929 and was forced to start his hucksterism during the Great Depression of the 1930s, and found he had a taste for it. The loss of his money and his earlier experiences in the war made him a bit jaded, but it takes something to change that and lead him along on the hero's journey.

Typical hero's journey in literature:

1. The Ordinary World. We meet our hero.
2. Call to Adventure. Will they meet the challenge?
3. Refusal of the Call. They resist the adventure.
4. Meeting the Mentor. A teacher arrives.
5. Crossing the First Threshold. The hero leaves their comfort zone.
6. Tests, Allies, Enemies. Making friends and facing roadblocks.
7. Approach to the Inmost Cave. Getting closer to our goal.
8. Ordeal. The hero’s biggest test yet!
9. Reward (Seizing the Sword). Light at the end of the tunnel
10. The Road Back. We aren’t safe yet.
11 . Resurrection. The final hurdle is reached.
12. Return with the Elixir. The hero heads home, triumphant.

[DocQuantum]

Dec 10, 2022 21:23:59 GMT dans said:

so we call them 'super heroes' on Earth 1 and 2 and 'action heroes' on Earth 4, and they call them 'Science Heroes' in the Tom Strong universe. What's another term I might use for 'super heroes' in another universe? (apparently Marvel and DC co-own the trademark on the term 'superhero').  In my 'other Earth' universe I call them 'mystery heroes'.

If there were suddenly super powered heroes in our universe, what might you call them? I was thinking something like 'real live funny book heroes' but that's a bit too long...

Some common ones I've seen are "masks" and "capes" and "costumes", referring obviously to the specific types of clothing favored by many superheroes, even if they don't wear all or any of those. These are probably what typical citizens would call them. I can't see any ordinary person calling them something like "transcended" or anything too out there.

[reichsmark]

I like the term the extraordinaries for this earths superheroes. Does this world have a Harvard? Would it be too cutesie to have his nemises be named Harvard?

[DocQuantum]

Feb 22, 2024 0:30:57 GMT reichsmark said:

I like the term the extraordinaries for this earths superheroes. Does this world have a Harvard? Would it be too cutesie to have his nemises be named Harvard?

Doc Yale's full name is actually "Doc" Harvard Yale.

[dans]

maybe his nemesis will be named Cornell Princeton

[dans]

Feb 22, 2024 0:24:32 GMT DocQuantum said:

I think he's an actual genius, maybe with some patents under his name which has made him a lot of money in the past, but his character flaws thus far have kept him from being able to keep his money for long. He probably lost a fortune in the Wall Street crash of 1929 and was forced to start his hucksterism during the Great Depression of the 1930s, and found he had a taste for it. The loss of his money and his earlier experiences in the war made him a bit jaded, but it takes something to change that and lead him along on the hero's journey.

Typical hero's journey in literature:

1. The Ordinary World. We meet our hero.
2. Call to Adventure. Will they meet the challenge?
3. Refusal of the Call. They resist the adventure.
4. Meeting the Mentor. A teacher arrives.
5. Crossing the First Threshold. The hero leaves their comfort zone.
6. Tests, Allies, Enemies. Making friends and facing roadblocks.
7. Approach to the Inmost Cave. Getting closer to our goal.
8. Ordeal. The hero’s biggest test yet!
9. Reward (Seizing the Sword). Light at the end of the tunnel
10. The Road Back. We aren’t safe yet.
11 . Resurrection. The final hurdle is reached.
12. Return with the Elixir. The hero heads home, triumphant.

A lot of that sounds good. thank you.


Maybe it would be a good thing to take the opium out of the mix, and make it a mix of alcohol and amphetamines instead. Would be cheaper and easier to obtain.

[reichsmark]

We could always do the old searching for someone/something trope. His hucksterism might be a ruse while he's searching for an enemy or artifact of some kind.

[dans]

He's definitely a showman, regardless of his motivation. If he were an agent of someone, that would help answer some of my own questions, like, where did he get all the glass bottles he uses to sell thousands of bottles of Miracle Syrup every year? But I don't think there is some underlying motivation for his behavior, except to make money and maintain his lifestyle. 

Just had a thought, he _could_ be money laundering, but I don't want to make him a crook, really, he's more like Professor Harold Hill...