Abt_Nihil: While Virtus is legal, you're probably right. He's way out of Bombshell's league anyway. ;) But as we have seen before, Virtus is not one to get hung up on that kind of thing either.
Golden Age Story: While I'm always up for a time travel story, the parodic concept of having everyone's costumes changing into something more Golden Age-y through applied phlebotinum doesn't agree with me. But I seem to be in the minority here, so I'll just wish you all good luck in getting that story out there and not get involved with it personally. ^^

@Seb: Have fun and enter Monthly Mayhem next month. I'm planning on having a “Superhero Crush” series going on :P

I don't think so. I've had trouble with distractions before. XD

I wanted to say that I'm working on pages for the round robin story idea I brought up. If nothing else, it'll be fun to work on. I just don't want to actually get everybody signing up until I know how many pages I'm actually doing (it's not scripted per se–I'm just working off a story in my head–I know the points I want to hit before sending it off for the next person to take over). But I am enthralled by the cover art I drew. I'm actually afraid to color it, because I may mess it up–I actually drew something well and want to preserve that quality.
I'm also thinking about doing a small story completely by myself. I have the idea in my head, but am running into problems with character designs, since it is villain-centric (with new villains I haven't put in the Villains thread). I wanted to try and give myself the challenge of doing a full story of Heroes Alliance by myself. The problem, of course, being that it would be harder to get the okay from character creators. But then again, I haven't even started working on it, so I have time to get things tweaked in the process.
I also have some ideas, which may be too ambitious, but I wanted to mention them, just to mention them:
One is to take the original concept concept of Heroes Unite Chronicles and apply it to Heroes Alliance in an altered fashion. The way I think such a thing could work is that people sign up with a character of their own that they want somebody to do a story for, with the caveat that they also must do a story. Then characters are assigned to people randomly, and a creator both writes and draws the story assigned to them. Likely this would only work as really short stories, but it most likely wouldn't work at all. I just wanted to say.
Another is a more out-there idea for a story: a villain is tired of Heroes Alliance getting in their way and so succeeds in getting all the heroes transported out of the universe, replaced with their creators. It would be a fun story to actually show us creators trying to save the day, and possibly seeing our characters interact with the “real” world.
I would also love to see a story with every character submission from the Team Building thread. Maybe I got warped from watching Justice League Unlimited in its entirety recently, but I was quite inspired by the episodes “Black Heart” and “The Return”, in which they absolutely packed an episode with characters without losing the story. Of course, it would be evil to ask any artist to draw as many characters as would be required…
A story akin to DC's Crime Syndicate would be fun, too: where our characters meet their evil doppelgangers from an alternate universe. Evil designs can be fun to think of, as well as how a different personality can change a character drastically.

Fun stuff to think about, even if it may never be able to be done. I have recently upped my attempts at art, however, since I recently bought a scanner. It's a godsend, because last year I had to go to the library, which takes me a half an hour to get to from where I live. That, and actually getting my own comic going really inspires me.

shastab24 wrote:
Another is a more out-there idea for a story: a villain is tired of Heroes Alliance getting in their way and so succeeds in getting all the heroes transported out of the universe, replaced with their creators. It would be a fun story to actually show us creators trying to save the day, and possibly seeing our characters interact with the “real” world.
A story akin to DC's Crime Syndicate would be fun, too: where our characters meet their evil doppelgangers from an alternate universe. Evil designs can be fun to think of, as well as how a different personality can change a character drastically.

I don't know… While have a similar idea of Virtus someday meeting his creator (not God, mind you, ME! XD) I don't think that it would work for the HAVerse. It's a great idea to save for yourself so that none of us steal it though! ^__^
I DEMAND to be the one to write this Crime Syndicate story, preferably in three, or at least two parts. I already know who the big bad would be… ^^

Everybody loves the Crime Syndicate. Except Superman, who hates them with a passion, but that's neither here nor there. But yeah, it would be really great fun and, also, interesting to try and design the evil versions of the characters. And since it could be like DC's Crime Syndicate, not all of them necessarily have to be our heroes' doppelgangers. For instance, there could be a character with powers similar to that of Energize, but differed enough to not contradict the nature of Energize's powers (possibly such a character would only have as much power as Energize displayed before he ever faced Oracle–not that I ever even expect Energize to turn up in Heroes Alliance).

But now I want to get to thinking about what evil versions of my characters would be. Sparkle would probably be a simple lackey to the villains, acting as their dumb muscle. This one would have none of the optimism that the heroic version has, always acting bitter and ascerbic. Instead of “Sparkle”, this one would probably go by a nickname the rest of the group foisted upon her, such as “The Pink Lunk” or “Drag Queen from Hell”.
Astral would be a rapist, most likely, and often mannipulate the evil Sparkle to suit his own ends. I don't know what his codename would be, but “Superion” is calling to me–it sounds Silver Age-y, and I love the Silver Age, and it mixes in “Superior”, just to add pretention into what he calls himself. Likely he would hide the true nature of his powers from the other villains, making them believe his astral form is his true form. His real body would probably be hidden away most of the time, only coming out of hiding when he feels threatened in his astral form.

But yeah, if you write the story, Seb, I would definitely want to be an artist.

Actually, I thought of another story possibility: an encounter with superheroes from the public domain, possibly the ones closest to the doubles of our characters (of course). It would be fun to at least think about.

Note that when submitting characters for this story, if I'm writing, people would have to choose whether if they want to see their HA characters or their evil counterparts, but not both in the same story. While a mirror match is cool, I think that it would be a fresh take if rather than facing their own doppelgangers, they face down evil doppelgangers of their friends. The situation would also fit in great with my idea of the big bad's reveal.
We already have a rejected design for an evil Bombshell, Bomber, after all. I'm sure Abt would love to see that one put to use.
As for an evil version of Sparkle, I'd probably name him Sparkplug. The whole “plug” thing is a double entendre in itself. ;) Don't think we could get away with “Drag Queen from Hell”, but “The Pink Lunk” sounds just about as good an idea for a character that while having a silly name, doesn't make him any less dangerous!
That's another story idea which I'll use myself someday. An entire Earth filled with nothing but Public Domain characters… Which definitely gets lampshaded somewhere down the line.

wow… I think this is secretly the month of evil clones :P So far the winner of my “Ask questions about the Wireless Universe” was about an evil version of Wireless, Deviant Universe on Deviant Art this month is to make evil versions of people's heroes, and now this :P
still, it's pretty awesome. I'd be good with either or, though I'll warn you the evil Wireless is pretty vicious… I still have to get that “Crossed Wires” script finalized and going in HA soon…. preferably before I finish this next chapter of Wireless as the one after it makes refference to it

With public domain characters–I'm working off the idea in my comics that all the public domain superheroes I'm using come from the same Earth, where all the stories happened. In fact, I want to do stories that focus on the impact of that: some of the stories contradict each other, in terms of history, and since all the public domain superheroes are alive and operating at their peak, that raises the question of how their different histories mix (some are steeped in the Golden Age and WWII, while there are some Silver Age public domain superheroes, such as Octobriana, that cause a bit of confusion–not to mention all the open source characters who are actually likely in the Modern Age).

I have another story idea, and this time a small one that doesn't deal with alternate realities (weird for me): since Titan has never had a “normal” childhood, some of the other young characters from Heroes Alliance take it upon themselves to take her out to the mall to hang out with people her age. At the mall, they have to deal with a supervillain (or something–I thought of it as a character piece over one that involves too much superheroing).

Yes, I come up with concepts, but one wonders if it's just inundating people with ideas without much to show for it on my end. I mean, I've written a really long story and am working on a couple whose details I'm keeping close to the vest, but I haven't really written about what I post on here. Maybe at some point I will, though.

Supplying ideas is always good, to keep things fresh and people motivated. I think the danger is that if you supply too many ideas, while none get developed, the credibility of the whole enterprise suffers ;-) Of course, it also has to do with the fact that the actual comic is always lightyears behind the concepts we're toying with on the forums.
As for any variation of evil doppelgangers, I have to admit I'm only mildly interested myself - but that just means I won't interfere too much at the writing stage, so it's all good :-)
If I had to choose between some huge alternative dimension/evil doppelganger epic and Shastab24's Titan-going-to-the-mall story, I'd always choose the latter. With one excpetion: if the huge epic is infused with relatable philosophical concepts, it could be very interesting for me. If it's just “let's see what that characters looks like if he were evil”, well, that's more of a gimmick than a story for me. All the great comic authors have always managed to do both things at once - to play with the genre stereotypes, while making them relevant for today's sensibilities.
A little aside regarding the Bombshell X Virtus thing: I haven't really gone into her tastes, and I guess it's realistic to assume she wouldn't date anyone “out of her league”. However, I really liked the Palmiotti/Gray/Conner Power Girl story in which a young boy sort of coerces her into hanging out with him. That seemed like a much more interesting pair than anything that would have been “in her league” :P

As someone currently working on five… rather different kinds of scripts at the same time right now I can see where you're coming from. I haven't quite figured out which strategy works better yet. Focus on one script till you finish it and then go onto the next one, or work on one script till the well runs dry then switch the the next. I do think we have a bit of an off balanced script to art ratio right now that's going to take a while to catch up with :/ though at the same time I'd be reluctant to say “let this forum dry up completely”
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I also have to admit I'd love to see some more character study chapters written up, just so that we can have reason to really feel emotion for the different heroes when stuff happens to them. I don't know if the best strategy would be a subtle Justice League strategy where you have your core members that are in the great majourity of all chapters with special guest appearences by non core members and maybe one or two fun episodes focusing mainly… if not all on non core members or if we'd prefer a more up front approach of litterally having whole chapters that are set entirely for character development. I've seen both strategies work and both strategies fail

I don't think there's one single right way to do it. I'll just try to keep a balance between different kinds of stories. My own view is that superheroes with a given power set are a dime a dozen, so what really distinguishes one “clone” from another is whether they are thoroughly developed characters, whether their powers make sense from a character-standpoint, and whether they are integrated well into the fictional environment. And also, whether reading about that character is fun or not :P
Working on five scripts at once won't hurt in principle, but you shouldn't expect all five to be made into comics in a reasonable time frame. Since we're rotating writers, it would take maybe 25 chapters for your 5 scripts to be turned into comics. I guess you should pick one or two which you'd like to see realized rather sooner than later. Working at several is good insofar as it will give us more options to choose from.

hah sorry. I meant working on five COMPLETELY different scripts :P as in different comics entirely. And ya, I see your point

Haha! Well, then it's not my business :P

So, I now know how many pages I'm doing for the jam issue I proposed. Do people think it would be a good idea to post a topic for it, or should I sit on it for a while until at least the current chapter looks like it's going to get back into a good updating groove? After all, the plot events as I've done them so far do take place after my What You Believe chapter, so things could understandably be pushed back. I just like the thing and can't wait to see what others would do with it, as well as what can result from such a project.

The current chapter should resume regular updates in a reasonable time, and the chapter after that is also pretty much accounted for. The question is, when do you think “What you believe” will be ready to update?

That's a good question. I haven't heard back from all the artists, so I may actually assign myself some more pages. I want to get it done so it can go up after the upcoming chapter. A big factor is that, until people are done with pages for the current chapter, I can't reasonably expect them to finish pages for What You Believe. I don't want to make predictions until things become more solid. The most recent artist I assigned is one I gave a March 1 deadline for getting his page done. Therefore, I would assume sometime after that, and I should put that deadline in the What You Believe post. After all, it still says November.
But the current chapter is one I can't wait to see what's next. It still seems quite fun, and I understand the delay. Sometimes life likes to throw a wrench into the gears.

Sebastian_Sandberg wrote:

shastab24 wrote:
Another is a more out-there idea for a story: a villain is tired of Heroes Alliance getting in their way and so succeeds in getting all the heroes transported out of the universe, replaced with their creators. It would be a fun story to actually show us creators trying to save the day, and possibly seeing our characters interact with the “real” world.
A story akin to DC's Crime Syndicate would be fun, too: where our characters meet their evil doppelgangers from an alternate universe. Evil designs can be fun to think of, as well as how a different personality can change a character drastically.

I don't know… While have a similar idea of Virtus someday meeting his creator (not God, mind you, ME! XD) I don't think that it would work for the HAVerse. It's a great idea to save for yourself so that none of us steal it though! ^__^
I DEMAND to be the one to write this Crime Syndicate story, preferably in three, or at least two parts. I already know who the big bad would be… ^^

But…but Villian's Unite! I thought we all had plans to have evil dopplegangers cloned of the main team? Abt made a neo-nazi anti-Bombshell, and everything!

But if you wanna jump in ahead of the Season 2 finale, that totally makes sense… alternate universe can be different from evil demonic clones, I guess. Right?

Dave

Instead of a “Crime Syndicate” reality, what about a “Justice Lords” reality? It would be interesting to examine where our characters could go if they're not careful.

And I've been thinking a lot about the “heroes meet their creators” idea. It just seems so fun that I can't help but think of what to do with it. As I see it: a lackey to a Kirby-esque villain feels he can appease his master by getting rid of many heroes from Earth in one fell swoop, enacting a spell to have them replaced by their creators. A long-standing adversary of the main villain contacts the newly-arrived creators to tell them who is responsible, and gives them an ability to fight back.

The main villain, meanwhile, captures Nepath (who would not have been in the same place as the others due to Energize's distance from the other heroes–everybody else would have been replaced with a hero who was at the HA base at the time) and the other creators realize they must save him, or else risk the entire universe being destroyed (held since Heroes Unite is basically Nepath's baby).

However, when the heroic creators storm the base of the main villain, he can only laugh, for it was his plan to get them all in his base together, where he can have them switch places with the heroes again, and he can do what he wanted to do all along: defeat each hero personally in one-on-one combat, before enslaving the Earth, as he has done countless times before.

Of course, it is a bit of wish-fulfillment, to see me become a superhero, especially as the “tools” given to the creators could either be weapons or super-powers (I thought it would be nice to take the idea that each of us gets a heroic identity which is a hero we have not used anywhere, and that the one who gives them has a limitation in that he can't make anybody a Mary Sue). However, I keep imagining, as well, a particular scenario to keep my character out of the action: if one of the main villain's lackeys sends some dogs to attack us, that would keep me out of it (I am very afraid of dogs I don't know, even chihuahuas). I'd probably be backed into a corner not knowing what to do.

Obviously, such a scenario would not work with it being a solo project for myself. I don't think such a villain would be worth a small effort, anyways. I don't have a character that could really go against a Darkseid-like character (well, Sparkle could technically, but not incredibly), and I could imagine a character like this could give Energize pause (though probably not as powerful as Stormfront is likely to be). Plus, my efforts to design characters are lackluster. Considering I would want the villain to evoke the grandeur of a Jack Kirby creation, I wouldn't want to screw it up and just make somebody who looks terrible.

there are a lot of cool ideas for stories here! *sorry if I missed this in an earlier post or something but:
what is the next chapter after this current Going Green story?
*also: is that dinosaur story actually finished/happening?

One thing I'll point out is that if the Crossed Wires short script can come in some time within 40 ideally, but up to 70 weeks it would work great for my story :) I know I'm still waiting for an edit from Seb

Nepath had trouble with his equipment, so I've toyed with the idea of having the Crossed Wires story up next, but right now it looks as if the HU/HA Energize tie-in is up next.

Took me long enough to get back here, didn't I?
@Abt_Nihil: Believe me, I DO have a little deeper story ground for the whole idea of an alternate universe where black and white morality is reversed, where that leaves the grey morality etc. As already mentioned, whereas some stories have Superman facing off against Ultraman in an even fight, I was looking more at the idea of the story having two groups of characters on both sides, interdimensional equilibrium playing a role in the way the realities cross over and playing around with the roles for the characters in each team. Let's just say that the big bad I have in mind is neither a HU Commander that got tainted by an Angelblood or a Bombshell trying to impose a dictatorship on the world…
Also, I read the issue in question with that Powergirl story. And I think we can both safely say that we can't see that form of blackmail happen between Virtus and Bombshell either, no matter how much more interesting it would be. The hero has to have SOME pride.
@Symplesymon: But I remember you saying that Abt_Nihil's Bomber concept looked “too human…?” As you said, there's a difference between a team of generic evil twins created by mixing DNA and a set of alternate reality duplicates. Also, I predict that the evil twins won't get that much exposure than as elite mooks for the heroes to tussle with.
@“Justice Lords” idea: I can do that too, but I really want to do an full-on evil HA more, and I'd rather see the “Justice Lords” and the “Crime Syndicate”-inspired ideas as separate adventures. Or at the very least as two different realities rather than combining them at the cost of story possibilities for one over the other.
@Shastab24 about Breaking the fourth wall/Meta-fiction story idea: I really don't think that such a story would fit the HUniverse. I'm going to be adamant about that.
@Abt_Nihil about Crossed Wires: I wouldn't recommend moving Crossed Wires. I haven't finished my rewrite yet, and I was kind of writing with the mindset of it being set post-the HU/HA/Energize tie-in to avoid confusion and make it more fun for me to write, as I've had the worst case of writer's block with it. :( Moving it up to now would just destroy me.

Josh Holley: Hi, I'm the dinosaur story's writer. I'm not sure about this one either. In any case, you interested in looking at the script?

Three things:

(1) What is that Crossed Wires rewrite business all about? I got an early script from Macattack a while ago, and I thought we really only needed to break it down into pages.

(2) I can NEVER tell the evil superhero-team stereotypes apart. Evil doppelgangers is what I can fathom, trying to make sense of the claim that any variation on that topic is substantially different will exceed my mental abilities :P

(3) Seb, I guess we're always bound to disagree on how far we can go in order to have fun with our characters. When I say that the PG story in question is what I liked, I wasn't implying doing something JUST LIKE IT. I was implying that if you wanna do something that's as much fun, you will certainly find a way.

1- Macattack and I had talks about making it a bit bigger to give it a little focus on Virtus as well, to resolve plot threads left hanging from earlier HA issues and bring closure to the cold shoulder he's been giving the team since their first adventure together. Mac sent me a newer script due to finding himself disliking how his old writing looked, which made it easier for me to do a rewrite with a fresher state of mind. He wrote the parts where he fleshed out Wireless role, I'm writing the parts to flesh out Virtus role. The tricky part for me is to find the balance with the others in the cast, sharing quips and great lines alike, which I can't stress through. And yes, I'm handling the breakdowns into pages as well, which might be part of what gave me writer's block in the first place.
2- What I mean is that in Symplesymon's story, I'm expecting the evil twins to be sub-plot villains, whereas in the alternate universe story, they would be the main threat.
3- Easy, easy! I'm sorry if I sounded snarky, but it's was more or less in the context that you brought it up that irked me. Sorry again.

(1) Ah, that all sounds very very good!

(2) That I can compute :D

(3) Hey, nothing to be sorry about. There are just a few differences we have, which we always seem to get back to… and I always feel I just need to reason a wee bit more, but it never quite works.

ZananIV wrote:
Josh Holley: Hi, I'm the dinosaur story's writer. I'm not sure about this one either. In any case, you interested in looking at the script?

Yep! That would be very cool! PQ or email joshuarholley@yahoo.com thanks!

Josh Holley wrote:

Yep! That would be very cool! PQ or email joshuarholley@yahoo.com thanks!

Done and done! PQ is in your inbox. Thank you!

WH00T!! 2 conversations going at once! It's nice to see the forums so busy :)
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@Abt: yeah I think the delay was mostly my fault. I looked back at my original script and it was APPALLING! Some 20 panel pages, no real direction, panels not specified, not updated for developed characters, incredibly vague… but it was written back when I was more used to movie storyboarding than comic script writing. It probably would have been faster for me to start from scratch but after a few hours I got the script rewritten and I think the improvements are very present. Still though as always, giving people an accurate representation of their characters is a top priority to me and seeing Seb's work in the past I'm excited to see what he brings to the script :)
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So is the HA/HU crossover next? Not gonna lie I'm pretty excited for that one!