Whoever you are, whatever you do, you have a confidant that you can run to whenever you need to get anything off of your chest. Again No man is an island. Whether we talk about emotional dilemmas or problem solving we all need someone to bounce ideas off of. Not every man has all the answers, which is also why confidants are needed, to share knowledge as well as guilt. Almost every hero has a confidant, but the relation of the confidant to the hero tends to be different all the time or, in some cases, the amount of confidants is different. The hero’s confidant can be many things :

• an employee like Alfred Pennyworth(Batman)
• a loved one like Mary Jane (Spider-Man)
• a friend like Cassidy (Preacher)
• a mentor type person like Whistler (Blade)
• or a figment of the hero’s imagination like the memory of Shelly (The Crow)

In certain cases, like Batman, you may have multiple confidants or colleagues to chat with. Batman has his butler Alfred Pennyworth, his side kick Robin, his colleague Nightwing (a later version of Robin), and another sidekick Batgirl.

There are a few important aspects as to writing a confidant or members of the inner circle. The obvious is to think of who, but the less obvious is to think of how/why. The how/why, or how/why it comes up, usually happens either by choice-coming out with the truth-or by accident-which can involve the confidant finding you injured or unmasked.

Beyond that there is the even less obvious, which is how does this information effect this person and what will they do with it. Not every confidant is Lois Lane, they don’t all keep secrets. A great example of a bad confidant would be Karen Page, who sells Daredevil’s secret identity, for a drug fix, in the Daredevil comics.

Ok, now get out your notebook and a writing utensil, it’s time to brainstorm.

1. Imagine you happen upon an actual superhero on the street battered and beaten. You take him or her home. You take care of them as best as you can, but their mask happens to fall off. It happens to be someone you know. They tell you everything. How do you react?
2. Now that you know, will your friend talk to you in costume from now on, out of costume only, or in both forms?
3. Does this put you in danger in any way?
4. Take into account your normal life style and choices, is there any way that you would end up giving away this secret?

Remember: Knowledge can be good or bad depending on how it is used.

Like The Beatles said “All you need is love.” It is a typical human emotion. Dating when you are an average Joe can be difficult especially when both people have conflicting schedules. Having jobs that clash can put a strain on the relationship enough, but when you add a crime-fighting alter ego, whether or not you have super powers, it can put an even greater strain due to the running out all the time. Think as if you are in a relationship and your significant other is always late to everything, forgets about you multiple times, or is always running out to be with their friends. Would you become suspicious, maybe even follow them? You might suspect them of cheating or not caring about you. The point is that no man is an island and we all want love, so a man with super powers should invariably be the same way. The girlfriend or wife tend to be the anchor for the superhero, someone to come home to and relax with, even if they do have problems. Spider-Man may be the hero to the greater Manhattan area, but when he takes of his mask and goes home Peter Parker needs to be Mary Jane’s hero.

Think of your relationships in terms of your character though. Can he or she have a long lasting relationship (like Spider-Man) or a series of small relationships (like Daredevil)? Maybe they stay single (like The Crow)? Are they are in a series of situations with the same person that they care about, but somehow things don’t always mesh quite right? Is it physically feasible for your character to date this other person? Can they be honest with who they date about who they are or must the keep it a secret? Does the person your character is dating know about your characters secret life? How did they figure it out? What does your character learn from his or her relationships? Do they help make your character who he or she is?

Some of you may be saying right now “Hey, man, you sound like such a girl. This is soap opera stuff! This isn’t in comic books.” You would be half-right, it is a lot like a soap opera, but it is in comic books ever since they started. In the beginning it would be simplistic story lines with Superman rushing off to save Lois Lane so they could live happily ever after. That was how significant others in comic books were portrayed for a long time, damsel in distress. However, after a while a few new story lines emerged in comics such as Daredevil and Spider-Man that changed the role of the girlfriend in comic books. Daredevil ended up holding his girlfriend, Elektra, in his arms as she died. Spider-Man ended up losing his first girlfriend, Gwen Stacy, in a rather mysterious way too, yet it has an enormous effect on Spider-Man

Ok, now let’s get to writing. Pull out your writing utensil and a notebook or notepad.

1. Think about your day. Plot out your schedule (this includes work, class, and time with your girlfriend)
2. View your schedule and look how busy it looks.
3. Now research the newspaper for stories that involve robberies, accidents, and/or deaths. When did they take place? How far away were you? If you could have been there what would it have cut into in your schedule?
4. Now think about a few of the people you might consider dating currently. How do you get along with them? Are there things they do that annoy you? Could you maintain a normal relationship with them now with your current schedule? Think about how much time you spend with them and plot that out too.
5. Now look over the schedule. How could you manage going about both lives? Do you think you could be honest or would you lie? Plan this out, this sort of drama may seem like a soap opera, but it makes a good story line.

Remember: Some of Shakespeare’s best works was his tragedy. Work with that.

Now for you writers out there we have some overall plotting of the entire story line. For those of you who can make associations this will be easy, but for everyone else this might be stupid hard. We’ll take it nice and slow and see if you can get it. The path of the hero, when boiled down, has the same basic story elements no matter what type of hero you have. According to Joseph Campbell the path of the hero is cyclical containing four nodes (much like a compass pointing North, South, East and West).

Every hero starts off at the top node as a normal human being, even the X-Men who are born with their powers live a normal life until they receive their powers during puberty. This point is known as home because it’s where we all start and come from this is also know as a call to adventure that makes the character choose to strive to be a hero or perish.The second node is a road of trials in which involves the hero getting to know him or herself pretty well. The bottom node is known as Achieving the goal or “boon” which typically results in important self-knowledge and is usually signified by a representation of rebirth (i.e. Jean Grey in X-Men gained the power of The Phoenix, but she never gained control of it until after she died and the Phoenix Force resurrected her). The fourth node is known as the return to the ordinary world where the hero must learn if they can succeed or fail at returning and assimilating themselves into regular society. At this section they must decided whether or not they can return home. Finally the hero applies the “boon” meaning that the hero uses their new found power for the greater good, which is represented by the top node as well, completing the circle.

With that knowledge lets jot out a few ideas for the rough draft of the first issue of this comic. OK now lets get out or notebook and a writing utensil:

1. We have your character, what kind of place does he start off in? How does he start off? What is his “home?”
2. We know his/her home, now lets think about his/her call to adventure. What kind of trials do they face? What kind of decisions do they make?
3. No, achieving the goal/”boon” how do they change, how do they become a new them? How are they reborn?
4. Now lets think about their return home? Do they want to return home? Can they return home? Are they having trouble with this dilemma?
5. Now, if we can, we jot out a few ideas about the application of the boon. Do people want this person back? Is he or she accepted? How do they use their power, if they use their power or even have a power?
6. Now that we have several ideas, look at the ones you are most proud of. Try putting them together. Do they work together? Do others work better together? Is the story unified and coherent?

Remember: Having a few ideas readily available never hurt anyone.

When dealing with power we always return to the great debate: If you had the ultimate power, what would you do? Some of you might conjecture “Hey, Nando aren’t only some powers good and some powers evil?” Truly all power, much like a conventional weapons, can only do as much harm as the possessor. Let’s talk realistically: If you went out to that antique weapon shop in the mall and bought a sword what would you do with it? A sword by itself can’t harm anyone as long as it’s on display, but a sword in motion can hurt somebody.

Now applying it to super powers and testing your character’s status. How does your telepath use their power?

1. To read people’s thoughts and preventing anyone from causing harm
2. To whisper in people’s heads to be mean, but to end up stopping any harm
3. By driving the people completely insane

Now it is pretty obvious that if you chose 1 you have a hero and if you chose 3 you have a villain, but what does that make choice 2? This is a new, usually more popular, persona known as an anti-hero. The anti-hero is still a hero, but not a conventional one. Yes there are also anti-villains too, which are basically reverse anti-heroes. The power and even the way the character dresses don’t define them, but their actions, and thoughts, can generally do that for us. But like a child with a brand new toy, when heroes discover their abilities they will screw around with them for a while until generally someone they love gets hurt. This allows them to sober up and become a hero.

Let’s get to writing shall we? Get out your pen and notebook:

1. Now on a clean sheet of paper, keeping your character in mind, think of their power and limitations and think what would you do as a responsible person. Write them down.
2. Now repeat step one again, but this time think if you were just screwing around for fun.
3. Repeat step one again, but this time think of horrible things you would do.
4. Now hint and pick through each list as to what your character(with his or her attitude) might do (mind you there is a difference between “do”because they are able and “do because they ultimately need to). Keep in mind your character’s look doesn’t define their power nor their personality.
5. Now you got a list of parameters for your characters power usage. This should also explain your character’s persona well

Remember: If you have trouble take a break, come back to it. Try going for a walk or napping, but steer clear of television or movies because those can effect original thinking.