Tag: Marginal Men

#30 – Ggr Fzzah, Ruler of Vermin

| November 30, 2010 | 0 Comments

Ggr F’zzah is an ageless alien emperor, calling himself the “Ruler of Vermin”, with vermin being any other being except for him. Ggr F’zzah considers himself the one being entitled to ruling every planet. In his verly long life, he has conquered and worn out several hundreds of worlds, always moving on to the next planet after having had enough distraction from his everlasting boredom by watching every culture on a planet live in fear and die.
Ggr F’zzah is huge (see the human figure next to his foot for comparison) and heavily armored with thick, impenetrable scales.

#29 – Master Mold

| November 30, 2010 | 0 Comments

Master Mold (yes, the name was chosen on purpose) hardly remembers being human. He was a sewer maintenance man once, but has forgotten his name, after he had fused with an aggressive, poisonous mold which infected him somewhere in the depths of the sewer network. Now he is a protector of the homeless and all creatures of the canalization. This brings him into contact with Gator Percy and his alligator family.

#28 – Honest John

| November 30, 2010 | 0 Comments

Honest John is a superhero who must never know. John Canfield, customs officer, emits a field around him that makes people within a 5 meter radius tell the truth. John has never had to face a lie from anybody in person, and considers lying an invention of (bad) authors and television producers. The trouble is, he can’t tell a lie, either. So if he was ever to find out about his powers, he would tell people eventually, and lose his advantage. Thus, the Marginal Men always have to find ways of working with him without telling him.

#27 – Hemp

| November 30, 2010 | 0 Comments

Hemp claims to be an actual elemental, and serves as spiritual consultant for the Marginal Men in their later battles. His element is hemp, and he can control any amount of it completely, using a set of hemp ropes tied around his waist to produce fabrics, clothes, ropes, nets and other accessories. Nobody knows where he came from, he seems to have wandered the world for ages.

#25 – #26: The Voice and Gravity

| November 30, 2010 | 0 Comments

The Voice is a mysterious alien visitor come to annonce the coming of his master, Ggr F’zzak. The Voice has no name, whatever he speaks can be understood by any being in existence in its respective native tongue, and he introduces himself as the voice of Ggr F’zzah. Thus, to the Dutch Xroma he is “de stem”. The Voice has a mighty weapon that appears to be his headset and is capable of controlling gravitation. He is almost invincible with this device, decimating Earth’s heroes, until he is stopped by Glitch.

Gravity used to be Cavity, but after the defeat of the Voice he decides to toy around with the device implanted into the alien’s head, inserting it into one of his cavities through his skull. He merges with the device, instantly gaining access to vast powers and knowledge, leaving Earth in order to explore the depths of space, assuming a new name and slightly changed costume.

#24 – Lambda

| November 30, 2010 | 0 Comments

Lambda is one of the world’s greatest heroines. Capable of running at speeds near the speed of light (the Greek letter lambda is the scientific sign for wavelength), she has saved the planet single-“foot”edly on numerous occasions, once even using her speed to set the world in motion again after it had been stopped by the supervillain Ragnrok.
Careen uses her for a publicity stunt, beating her in a super-fast 100m-dash by a nose, thus appearing as the fastest woman alive.

#23 – Homerun

| November 30, 2010 | 0 Comments

Homerun is a teleporter. He used to be a highschool baseball-star in his younger days, until his power manifested in the final inning of what would have been his greatest game. While sliding towards the home plate, he teleported into the centerfield, and his team lost. The young man’s career ended that day, and he decided to use his talents for a little bit of heroism. He uses an array of trick balls as throwing weapons, is an accomplished martial artist and an inventive gadgeteer. His teleportation powers are limited in their function, though. Homerun can only teleport to the same spot he materialised the first time, the centerfield of his old highschool. Not being able to teleport back, Homerun has a number of vehicles parked in the area. Homerun uses his talents mainly to get people to safety from hazardous situations.

#22 – The Thieving Magpie

| November 30, 2010 | 0 Comments

The Thieving Magpie or “Lady Magpie” is a very shady figure. A thief by day, a hero by night, this cleptomanic young lady believes to have no power of her own, but can copy the abilities of any person she steals from, as long as she holds on to the stolen item. It is Nevermind who discovers that this theory is totally absurd (since “possession” is not a physical law), and deduces that the beautiful Miyo Harada has the potential for near-omnipotence, and that her guilt-complex keeps her from realising this herself. Nevermind suspects that she actually is the most powerful superhuman on the planet, having possessed every power she “mimicks” all along, but unable to access them without a psychological trigger.

#21 – Belch

| November 30, 2010 | 0 Comments

Belch is the product of a weird experiment gone wrong. While trying to develop a new light therapy to induce happiness in patients, intoxicated would-be scientist and new-age guru Bryce Bunning suffered an epileptic attack and was transformed into a bizarre creature that can burp incredible amounts of gas, almost defying the laws of physics. Now, whenever he feels gleeful anticipation – regarding ANYTHING – this transformation reoccurs. The creature may have limited mental capacities, but is good-hearted and willing to act as a hero, seeking out the Marginal Men.

#20 – Bandicoot

| November 30, 2010 | 0 Comments

Bandicoot is Gator Percy’s teenage sidekick. His power is to be able to jump in slightly superhuman proportions. The trouble is, he is incapable of moving in any other way, since his overtrained muscles keep propelling him towards the ceiling whenever his feet touch the ground. It’s very difficult for him to maintain a secret identity.

#19 – Paris

| November 30, 2010 | 0 Comments

Allen Paris is your average guy. Except for the fact that every woman falls for him. Unknowingly, Paris has the power over the opposite sex, making him the perfect date, and his female company his willing slave. Not really a member but rather an ally of the Marginal Men, Paris will be crucial in defeating the first major supervillain the Marginal Men have to face.

#16 – #18 – The Repellant Triplets

| November 30, 2010 | 0 Comments

The Repellant Triplets
Flora, Fauna and Dusty are siblings. Flora and Fauna are identical twins, Dusty is their twin brother. Each of them has an allergy so bad that their immunive system totally overreacts, even outside of their bodies. Dusty and Fauna can repel the cause of their allergies, dust and animals, while Fauna makes all plantlife rot away upon the slightest touch, or even across smaller distances.
Rich and spoiled, these yuppies join the Marginal Men without ever having been invited to, just because they are bored.
Fauna is the least repellant sister, but still not easily dealt with. All three are extremely arrogant, defiant and lacking responsibility. To them, Blindsight’s heroic efforts are entertaining at best.

#15 – One Man

| November 30, 2010 | 0 Comments

Albert Fiddles is a big gun for hire. “Big” refers to his size as well as the size of his – well – artillery. With a brain to match, he has on many occasions been the last man to leave the room – alive. This gained him the nickname “One Man”. He reacts badly to Blindsight’s team interfering with his employer’s plans of taking over the underworld.

#14 – Vittorio Santos, Don of the Dons

| November 30, 2010 | 0 Comments

Vittorio Santos is the nephew and sole surviving relative to one of the greatest mob bosses on the Eastern Coast. He is determined to change that by inheriting the entire family and will stop at nothing to “dwarf” any memory of his ancestors. At 5 ft 1″, this is quite a task, for which he has hired the best criminal talent available – One Man.

#13 – “Gator Percy”

| November 13, 2010 | 0 Comments

“Gator Percy” from Australia will be a recurring guest star on “Marginal Men”.

A mysterious fellow who seems to be too perfect to be true. He claims to be the perfect gentleman, completely honest, and an expert in animal handling.

What sets him apart from any park ranger are his further claims of having been raised by and in the company of alligators, which has not only increased his strength to levels rarely achieved by humans, but has also made him the master of alligators.

“Gator Percy” insists that there are sewer-alligators in New York, and that he uses them to fight crime.

Needless to say, nobody believes the man. Yet, he is allowed to join the team since he is skilled in close-range combat and can tie up criminals in under 4 seconds.

It remains to be seen how much of his backstory is actually true.

Alligator Percival is meant to be an absolutely “over the top” character, to have a little bit of comic relief in the otherwise very serious storyline.

#12 – Chalybs

| November 13, 2010 | 0 Comments

Chalybs from the planet Xenon is the ultimate hero. Chairman of the “Alliance of the Just”, savior of planet Earth not once, but a hundred times. Superhumanly strong, impervious to physical force – like the steel he’s named himself after (in Latin) – with the ability to teleport and imbued with lots of other secondary powers he derives from Earth’s core, this hero is a living example of ridiculous overpowering. And while Chalybs is one of the good guys, he is also arrogant and as self-righteous as a law-abiding citizen can be.
He’s the leader of the team that rejected Blindsight in the first place, and continues to make a laughing stock out of all “lowly powereds”.

#11 – Imprint

| November 13, 2010 | 0 Comments

Imprint has the power of fast reading. Filing through a book in a second or so gives her enough time to absorb all the information in that book. However, she does not have a super-memory.
Moreover, having read lots of books, Imprint is bored with reading completely, since she takes no enjoyment from books at all.
She works as cinema operator Lucy Allred, enjoying movies far more than literature.
She gets to know Glitch in a chatroom, and he convinces her to use her powers for good as well. This proves to be harder than imagined, because her powers grant her little actual advantage. Imprint develops a crush on Simulacrum, whom she supports by supplying ideas for further transformations.

#10 – Glitch

| November 13, 2010 | 0 Comments

Glitch is Herb Monroe, a small-time crook who appears to have marginal electrical powers. He makes a living from manipulating electrical devices from a distance and then “repairing” them in his shop.
Actually, Herb has telekinetic powers, which are however very, VERY small. Herb can only move objects no larger than the size of atomic particles. He usually uses this power to stop a handful of electrons from moving or redirecting them, causing “glitches” in electronic devices.

Due to the nature of his powers, Herb can influence many particles at once, as long as they are not connected to structures lager than a single atom of hydrogen.

Glitch is recruited by Nevermind, who falls victim to one of his schemes, but uncovers the truth about the malfunction of his computer once he meets Herb and picks up a thought about “fraud”. Herb is offered a different life as a hero, and gladly accepts, although he refuses to wear a costume.

#9 – Calendar

| November 13, 2010 | 0 Comments

Calendar is a late replacement member of the “Marginal Men”.
She’s a kind of shapeshifter, with the limitation that she can only assume forms of herself at different ages.
While changed into another age, she retains her memories, but is limited by her mental capacities. Thus, she never dared turn into a baby (because she fears she will be unable to return to her original age), and she finds out that she will be suffering from Alzheimer some day, so she doesn’t turn herself too old, either.
Mysteriously, if she turns her age to just over approximately 40 years, a strange scar appears across her chest, leading to the question wether Calendar is not actually more of a timeshifter.

Calendar does not give her real name or age. She aids the team by blending in with the crowd, looking totally unsuspicious, collecting information for the team.

#8 – Killray Thanocloud, Boommaster Of Death

| November 9, 2010 | 0 Comments

One day, a young man confronts the Marginal Men, demanding to join in.

He identifies himself as Killray Thanocloud, Boommaster Of Death, and never gives another name.

Heavy makeup, an emo haircut and his lowered face further hide his identity.

He doesn’t talk a lot, except for a detailed account of his power. He just talks about the death of 200 people in the Tokyo Subway, and how he was the only survivor, that he was the cause for it all.

The team sends KTBD away, but he manages to save the day, when gangsters take all customers of a bank hostage. He tells them about his power, and how he would hate to use it now, and kill everyone, BUT – it’s the only power he has. The gangsters give up.

From then on KTBD is treated as a member. He doesn’t do a lot, actually, but attributes that to his lethal power.

What dark secret is there about his “power”?

#7 – Cavity

| November 9, 2010 | 1 Comment

Cavity may be the oddest hero of all the Marginal Men.

Anthony Hoyt was an astronomer from Hawaii charged with SETI (search for extra-terrestrial intelligence). He found one, and directed it to Earth. The problem was, the alien intelligence was not another scientist, but the equivalent of a construction worker, and a curious one at that. The alien was a kind of livin wormhole, and when it followed Hoyt’s signal, it came crushing down on him and merged with him.

Since then, Hoyt can open wormholes through his body, and decided to become ther hero known as Cavity. He found out that when he opened a cavity through his head, he could still breathe. Although he has no idea how that is possible, he used it for diving without an oxygen tank, and became a protector of the coast, and the ultimate coastguard. Since there’s a hole through his face, he doesn’t need a mask. Unfortunately, he cannot speak with the hole in place. But since he believes to have nothing to fear from fellow heroes, he entrusts them with his identity, and simply shows his face when alone with the team.

Cavity is meant to have a “Golden Age” feel, despite his odd powers.

#7 – The Vibe

| November 7, 2010 | 2 Comments

Aaron Leslie Hines never knew he was special, until the very day he became involved into a gang war that alerted Blindsight’s Team, and was almost beaten up by Xroma because he seemed to have snuck up behind her, and refused to answer her questions.

The point is: Aaron is not only deaf from birth, he is also a mutant living completely in a world without sound. His power is that a special vibration pattern of his body prevents Aaron from creating any sound. If he hits a table, no sound can be heard. He cannot talk, not even cough audibly.

However, his shoes DO create a sound on the floor, but still muffled by his powers. But still, since he was deaf anyway, Aaron never even suspected he had any powers at all.

Impressed by the team’s efforts in the gang war, he agrees to aid the team, which is made possible by Neverminds telepathy, which enables him to communicate with the team.

An accomplished freeclimber, Aaron takes over the part of reconaissance.

He uses an array of different projectiles and slings/slingshots as weapons.

Aaron calls himself “The Vibe” for reasons of irony mainly, but also as a diversion from the nature of his powers. Like most of the team, he tries not to give away too much about his powers so that his weaknesses cannot be exploited.

He’s also the one who suggests the team should have a name. Blindsight is against that, and when Aaron is asked why he wants a team name, his answer is the handsign for “family”.

Dedicated and loyal, The Vibe is a true teamplayer, and shows no signs of fear.

#6 – TYLERMAN!

| November 6, 2010 | 0 Comments

Tyler Choe suffers from autism. Aside from that, he is superhuman in most respects. He is impervious to physical harm, and his strength can be compared only to a towering crane – a big one.

The only real connection to the outside world is Tyler’s fascination with superheroes. In his mind he has created the persona of TYLERMAN, and he will only wear clothing with his insignia, a diamond shape with a capital T inside.

Blindsight encounters Tyler during a fire in the sanatorium he spends his days in. Tyler helps Blindsight free a few people from the fire, before he drops back into his dreamworld again.

When Simulacrum joins the team, Blindsight decides to add a strongman to the lineup, so that someone would be able to use the objects Sammy turns into, someone able to wield a 140 pound sword. However, no superstrong hero is willing to join the ranks of the “limited power”-team, and so Blindsigt decides to give TYLERMAN a chance.

Tyler ultimately only agrees because he likes the coincidence that Blindsight is also called “Ty”, and often will make jokes about “big Ty” and “tiny Ty”.

TYLERMAN cannot cope with the world as it is. He is easily overwhelmed by exterior sensations and will then withdraw into a catatonic state. In order to fix that, Nevermind is brought on the team to aid Tyler in processing the sensual input, and ultimately showing him how to interact with the world.

On the downside, as Tyler is eventually cured of his condition through Nevermind, he chooses to leave the team because he reasons that as an invincible hero who can function without the team, his presence would destroy the team, since he would soon become dominant. With him gone, the team quickly has to say goodbye to Nevermind as well, and other heroes along with him.

#5 – Careen

| November 6, 2010 | 2 Comments

Another day I didn’t manage to upload my picture… this challenge is more challenging than expected. I spent half my day running around looking for a connection cable for my new Cintiq. And when I finally got one and plugged it in, I found out it was broken! So I though today would have been the right day for Careen, the fastest member of the Marginal Men. I should have her do my errands!

Careen is actually Kareen Amidou, an assistant tax consultant from New Orleans. During a tax inspection of estranged scientist Thierry Lamont, a freak accident bestowed upon her amazing powers, which seemingly enabled her to move at incredible speeds.

Kareen and Dr. Lamont decided to work together in an effort to understand the exact nature of her powers. Kareen adopted the identity of masked crimefighter Careen (another slang word for moving fast, I know…) and donned a costume that is specifically meant to look like it has to withstand extreme velocity and friction. It is, however, basically a cheap cosplay made of cheapest materials, and Kareen keeps a dozen or so of them in her appartment. The only real part of the costume is the oxygen tank around the back of her waist.

Careens exact powers are temporal. Due to the accident, she is able to build up a “time dilation field” which removes her from the timestream. Since it is an emitted field, it grows weaker with distance from her, enabling her to move and interact with the world instead of being completely removed from our timescape and simply vanishing from existence.

While her powers are active, Careen appears to move at speeds near lightspeed, while she herself notices no difference at all. If she is sent across town, she still has to run across town and will be running for – what appears to her – hours.

The dissipating time dilation field around her also has severe side effects:

Careen has almost no air within her “time bubble” and needs an oxygen tank for respiration. She cannot touch things, because the field pushes everything back, even beneath her feet. So basically, Careen is constantly floating, and cannot stop running, or she will literally vaporize the floor beneath her. Even while running, the floor takes noticeable damage wherever she treads. She cannot take larger objects or persons with her into the field.

Careen is able to deliver hard blows by just slowly approaching targets with her fist. A quick blow will result in death and destruction, since the destructive effect of the field increases radically with proximity to Careen.

Careen has been training her condition and running speed constantly since the accident, but still her effective range is limited tothe amount of oxygen she is carrying with her and the distance she can cover on foot without her powers. Careen can cross smaller bodies of water, but will sink immediately if she stops. Running to China would be entirely impossible for her. Sending her to Alaska would mean that she would have to run the entire distance like a normal person. It’s just that nobody would notice, except for her accelerated aging while she was gone.

In order to be accepted into the superhero community, Careen decided to keep these restrictions a secret. She joins Blindsights team after a shared adventure with Xroma, who convinces her that superheroines are at a disadvantage anyway, and she should establish herself as part of a team in order to be taken seriously.

#4 – Nevermind

| November 4, 2010 | 3 Comments

Douglas Carlin had it all.

In Highschool, he became an athlete at the peak of human fortitude, excelling in boxing, wrestling and football as linebacker.

His IQ developed beyond the scale of common tests, through intense training, meditation and self-disciplining. In the opinion of his classmates, he bordered a demigod.

Then he crossed the border. When trying to push his mind beyond the limit of human comprehension, suddenly something snapped in his brain and unlocked access to a cerebral area that enabled Doug to transcend his own mind an enter that of others. He became a telepath, capable of planting words in the mind of others, and reading surface thoughts (those you form before speaking).

He grew obsessed with this newfound power,  tossing aside all other accomplishments, and became a psychologist, achieving his doctorate by the age of 24.

He grew discontent when he realised that there was a definite limit to his power. He could influence people, even control their actions, whenever they were in an impaired state of mind (sleep-depraved, sleepwalking, suffering from any form of mental illness), but could not break another person’s will.

He eventually contended with helping mentally ill people recover, but a certain degree of frustration remained.

Years later, Blindsight offers him a chance to make a real difference in the world as a hero, joining his team in order to help another hero, and as communication beacon between the team’s members.

Dubbed “Nevermind” by his teammates, this mountain of a man is one of the central posts for the team, until he later on persues his professional career again.

#3 – Simulacrum

| November 4, 2010 | 0 Comments

Sometimes I hate my job. I wasn’t able to upload this character yesterday due to pressing deadlines. So today, there’s two updates.

Thanks a lot to Vito Delsante for helping me find a name for this hero!

Meet Samuel “Sammy” LaCroix, a.k.a. Simulacrum, third and final “core” member of the team to be known as the “Marginal Men”.

Samuels powers manifested early, when he gave his parents the shock of their lives by apparently vanishing from his crib, leaving behind nothing but his teddy bear. His father, renowned physicist Dr. Herb LaCroix – one of the keenest minds on Earth – quickliy noticed something odd: firstly, the teddy was already lying outside of the crib, and there was a facsimile in the crib. Secondly, the teddy inside the crib left an imprint in the sheets, it was far too heavy to be a toy pet.

Lifting the teddybear out of the crib, Dr. LaCroix ran a few tests and discovered that the bear was formed out of highly condensed organic molecules, mimicking the plush of the teddy. The copy reverted back to baby Samuel after 8 hours, 47 minutes and 6 seconds. His parents were glad to have their son back and decided to investigate the incident further without consulting a doctor, because Sammy seemed to be just as well as before his change.

Years of testing showed the full extent of Sammy’s power, and gave him a measure of control over it. Apparently Sammy’s DNA had been affected by some sort of radiation and could now generate a morphing field around Samuel’s cells.

After years of prctice, Sammy could assume the form of any inanimate object, invariably keeping his full mass, and invariably returning to his original state after 8 hours, 47 minutes and 6 seconds, during which he has no consciousness at all. Like a memory metal, he returns to the exact state he was in before his change. If, for instance, the 140 pound teddybear (this is approximately the mass of the grown-up Samuel) was torn to pieces, the molecules will reform after 8 hours, 47 minutes, 6 seconds, leaving not trace of the attack on Samuel.

Dr. LaCroix spent the families fortune on the production of several sets of clothes generated from Samuel’s DNA so that the clothing could change along with Samuel, in order to support him in living a life adequate to his potential.

Sammy always had the full support of his family, and eventually the entire family clan was let in on his secret. The family moved back to Louisiana, where the family had its origins, mostly for financial reasons and to help Sammy remain undetected by having him grow up on the coutryside.

Sammy decided in his early teens to become an unsung hero, surreptitiously aiding people in need, for instance turning into a ladder to help children get out of a well. Rumors spread about an invisible superhero, for little did people know that there WAS no-one to place the ladder, but the ladder itself was the hero.

Sammy grew obsessed with aging, and uses his power to fight against time and death itself, mostly by sleeping only every three to five days, spending the night changed into a lifesized puppet of himself, thus saving time. However, because of this he is very unfit, always tired and looking pale and ill.

One day, Blindsight managed to locate Sammy by following rumors on the invisible hero, and offered him a place on his team. Sammy reluctantly joined in, his main reason being a search for profit, in order to restore his family’s fortune, which he felt was wasted on him.

Assuming the name Simulacrum, Sammy joined the team mainly as an infiltration expert. Sammy cannot wear a costume. He has only three sets of his special clothing left, changing them into solid blocks of diamond every 8 hours 47 minutes 6 seconds, whenever he’s not wearing one.

In order to keep the nature of his power a secret, he made up a cover story about blending in with the crowd, appearing as a civilian to deceive criminals.

Samuel is a very brooding type in the beginning, owing also to his constant fatigue. He can be very rash in his emotions, especially to fits of rage, out of his frustration for being practically useless on his own.

This changes with the development of new team strategies over the course of time.

Simulacrums favourite moves include grabbing somebody by the wrists and then turning into 140 pound handcuffs, or hurling himself at somebody and changing into an array of weapons, from bowie knives to webs.

Since the mass remains constant, the density of the reproduced object can greatly vary. If Simulacrum changes into an aspirin, it would be harder than diamond. If he changed into a car, it would not withstand an impact with common flies.

Samuel has amassed a vast common knowledge, in order to most accurately imitate anything from Chippendale chairs to Ming vases. This makes him very inventive, and also a good strategist for the team.

He is also destined to be the last of the “Marginal Men”.

#2 – Xroma of the Marginal Men

| November 2, 2010 | 5 Comments

This is the character that started it all. I’ve played her as Chroma in several online newsgroup-rpgs, and every time the super-team made her the leader after only two days. After a little bit of reconceptualising, she became Xroma (still pronounced Chroma, but spelled like the original Greek word, meaning colour).

Xroma is Sarah Bloemdahl (pronounced somewhat like Bloom-darl, which means “valley of flowers”) from Amsterdam, Netherlands. Sarah found out early in her life that she had the power to affect the light-reflecting and light-absorbing properties of exposed surfaces – colours. She kept it a secret, and used it to train herself in the arts.

Unfortunately, the colours she invokes don’t last, so her career as an artist was cut short by a harsh reality-check: nobody wanted paintings that faded after 8 hours. Sarah’s power can be maintained by shere concentration, but this will put her under an extreme strain. Objecte the size of a penny stay coloured for about 8 hours, but the colours fade instantly from a wall, if Sarah diverts her attention to somewhere else.

Sarah found out that she wanted to use her superpower for super-heroism, just because she was special, and specially gifted people should be heroes. Sarah trained herself to become a professional gymnast, and has participated in the Olympic games and various championships for the Netherlands, winning Olympic Bronze a few years ago. She has since started to teach gymnastics in order to pay her bills.

But at night, she dons a white iceskating suit and mirrored glasses, and fights street-level crime in the streets and subway of Amsterdam. Using her powers in unique ways like branding fugitive criminals with a glowing green X, blinding them by turning the outer layer of their eyes (or the tear fluid) black, or entering a camouflage mode, Sarah has earned the respect of the local authorities.

When her existance became public eventually, Sarah realised she needed a name. The letter X is hardly used in the Dutch language, so Sarah picked a fitting name that would make the X her very own. She became Xroma.

Xroma is a very light-hearted heroine, loves physical activities and full contact martial arts. Although fun-loving and cheerful, she is very determined about her heroics.

When she finds out about Blindsight’s quest for fellow heroes, she seeks him out and volunteers, even moves to the US, building up a new school for gymnastics there.

Being a foreigner, Sarah has a few quirks, especially her lousy English. Often, she will mix in Dutch words or entire sentences. Within the “Marginal Men”, Xroma is the field commander, since she is an exerienced combatant and master of improvisation. She’s also the one to cheer everyone up. The fact that underneath her mask she is quite pretty also helps keeping the male members of the team together.

Sarah is secretly in love with Blindsight, who in turn is also fond of her but refuses to admit it because of his constant fear to cause anybody harm. What fascinates Xroma most about Blindsight is his almost complete immunity to her powers. Blindsights x-ray-vision does not perceive colour in a normal way. Since Blindsight keeps the nature of his powers secret, Xroma constantly tries testing her powers on him, which she perceives as “flirting”.

Yesterday: Blindsight
Return tomorrow for Simulacrum

#1 – Blindsight

| November 1, 2010 | 4 Comments

Blindsight, of the Marginal MenThis is the first concept sketch for one of the three main characters of my new superhero title “Marginal Men”. I chose to participate here mainly to finally get myself to work on the story visually, and define the characters. This is the first one, although chronologically, he was invented second.

Tyson Reese grew up believing to be blind. Then, at 13 years old, he contracted a cataract, and darkened.

That was the day he first saw the sun rise.

Ty confided to his eye doctor, Dr. Helm, and together they found out that he had a unique mutation. Tyson had been born with a sort of active x-ray vision. His eyes were able to emit what Dr. Helm called “phased photons”, which could penetrate any matter, with one exception: if they went through matter that conventional photons – any form of light – were already passing through, there would be an interference, and Tysons’s vision could not see through.

That was why he had not been able to see: his vision was not able to pass his transparent pupil.

Tyson had to learn how to see completely anew, and realised the potential of his newfound power. Although he could not see like normal people (colour is still mostly a mystery to him), he understood that his vision was in most aspects far superior, after he had learned to control the depth of his vision.

Dr. Helm agreed to keep Tysons condition secret. He created a cover story about a new operation technique that had restored Tyson’s vision, and Tyson decided to use his power to heroic ends.

Since he could still not see through glass (mirrors appear black to him, windshields appear blackened out) he became a rescue firefighter, being able to see through thickest smoke effortlessly, in buildings where most of the windows had already burst from the heat. With a lot of protection from his captain who always suspected that something was odd about his eyes, but never doubted his heroic efforts and results, Tyson did ten years of service as a hero.

There was one problem though: he had to paint his gasmask black in order to be able to see and breathe. One day, he went into a burning building, trying to bring out a six-year-old boy, who had – by an odd coincidence – been terrorized by his alcoholic father with stories about the “bogeyman” who would come from burning hell and steal his face to replace his own, lost one.

The boy died, running from Tyson into the fire.

Tyson quit his job, devastated, altough he was cleared of any misconduct. But his heroic conviction still remained, and so he became a superhero, Blindsight, using his all-seeing eyes to follow criminals and find hidden evidence.

But when he tried to apply for membership in a renowned superhero group, he was sent away when they realized that he actually could not see through a common window, or tell how much milk was left inside a bottle without picking it up. They laughed about him, calling him “merely human” or a “limited power superhero”.

Frustrated, Blindsight began traveling the world and roaming the internet, searching for others like him: people with definitely superhuman powers, who were willing to use them for good. He founded what was to become known as “The Marginal Men”, a group of people caught between two worlds – not quite human, but not accepted as superhumans – and with “marginal” powers like himself.

Return tomorrow for: Xroma