11- Atlas by Beausephus

CHARACTER NAME: Atlas

DATE OF CREATION : 1987-ish…

CONCEPT: A normal joe gains superhuman strength and invulnerability.  he struggles to adapt to normal life with his newfound abilities and decides throwing on a light blue spandex outfit to fight crime is the best way to experiement with his abilities, do good, get some recognition so maybe someone can help him discover the origin of his powers and if they have nefarious side-effects…

_____________________________________________

ATLAS was the pure escapist creation of an elementary school mind.  He was the giant bruiser who just wanted to do good but really had no idea what he was doing.  At one time ATLAS, in his pre-powered days, wanted to become a cop and do what he saw as good, and now, newly empowered he dons a costume and tries to figure out how to fight crime based on his limited exposure to just what that entails.  He meets up with other super-folks who he regularly teams up with and they open his eyes to the network of alliances and dastardly intentions that criss cross the superhero scene.  Essentially, ATLAS is a first person avatar to explore a new superhero environment without having to disguise exposition.  Of course, the limitations of my emerging writing ability didn’t fully comprehend this concept, I just liked the fact that whenever ATLAS met new characters they could go into an origin story of their own.

ATLAS starred in two or three photocopied and hand colored issues of a comic book bearing his name.  In his adventures he tried to stop a nasty fellow wearing a green unitard and packing as many uzis as my young self could fit on the character.  This fellow was had numerous clones and an evil corportation bankrolled a mad scientist to create the whole thing.  ATLAS wound up teaming up with a rogue green unitard clone who fought alongside him to take down the evil organiztion, which, as it turns out might have had a hand in ATLAS’s powers…. cue melodramatic reveal music.  I don’t remember much else about the stories.  I know there was a guy who had a helmet that looked like a giant eyeball that shot lasers out of the pupil, but that’s it.

I do remember the cringeworthy costume and design of the character.  Blond mullet.  Bright blue costume with matching headband and a plunging neckline and flared collar that was more disco that superhero.  I tried to stay close to the original design but toned down the huge collar, and lost the mullet.  The basic blue bracelets that covered his forearms were anime-d up to give some more shape and design to the very basic original costume design.

Not an overtly amazing character but one that I cared about very much in my youth, but looking back, I’m pretty sure I liked drawing and coming up with new characters for him to meet more than ATLAS, himself.

Thanks for checking out my stuff.

Beausephus

Category: 2011, Superhero