Friday, July 24, 2020

Hero Project 2 : Meet the Bravos


See:  The pilot. Part One.

Virago

Virago, leader of the Bravos, [is] sort of a cross between the Golden Age Superman and Doc Savage. I think she was a retiring but benevolent millionaire adventurer (something I find hard to square with my socialist sensibilities) and I remember she was headquartered in Analog Tower in Seattle.

I had actually talked about Virago several years ago, in a slightly different context. Virago started out as a riff on Wonder Woman  - you can even see a headband in one of the scribbles below - but got less straight superhero-y and more pulp-hero-y as time went by. As I said elsewhere, the early costume concept owed a lot to Thundra, who (originally, in my memory at least) had a slightly different body type than the norm in comics, although I think that has changed.





Osprey

Osprey [was] a reclusive winged freak/mutant/something from the Oregon Coast, where he lived the life of a hermit, known only to locals, whom he helped out when he could, until he was recruited for the Bravos. He has those Nightcrawler-like prehensile feet and, IIRC, is a good marksman/sniper as well.

Osprey's backstory was a nod to my first landing in the PNW in Portland (currently ground zero for authoritarian tactics, it seems). I spent a lot of time on the coast and could easily see a winged person being able to hide there, known to but a few. The wing design evokes my affection for folks like Falcon, Black Condor, and Man-Bat with regard to more traditional winged wonders like Hawkman, Angel, or Dawnstar. The under-arm wings have a great look to them IMHO, although they do pose problems with carrying things and people - which is why Osprey developed from typical white-guy-with-wings to a more alien-like appearance with prehensile feet. He even went through a phase with more membrane-like wings rather than feather, but that didn't stick. And he's a marksman, because, you know, raptor-vision and stuff.











 


Moxie

Moxie [was] named for the erstwhile soft drink and the current metaphorical sense of brio associated with the word. She was a random young woman who under a moment of stress - some sort of crime thing - manifested the power to produce bio-blasts (that's what I recall them calling the Wasp's power bursts, innit?). She wears a Marty McFly vest and in her original incarnation, leg warmers (yep, she's been around a while).

Moxie actually started out as two different characters, IIRC: a stress-induced power blaster and victim-turned-crimefighter with lethal hand-crossbows. I think somewhere along the line the concepts got merged. Her look has stayed fairly consistent, with one foray into gym clothes. She lost the leg warmers but I gotta say she's keeping the vest. If I were drawing her regularly (and had talent), every issue her T-shirt would have a different saying.



 
Monad

Monad [was] a research scientist experimenting with quantum-mumble-mumble which somehow accidentally reduced the intra-atomic spaces in his makeup, compacting him to about 18 inches high and, of course, granting super-strength and durability. His protective science-guy suit is pretty invulnerable too, since it shrunk with him.

Monad started off as just an alt-Atom, but shrinking to just one size instead of everything between six inches and sub-atomic. As he came into his own, though, he became a guy who just got stuck at a foot and a half - albeit with the recompense of super-powers. He was going to be inwardly troubled by his transition but outwardly flippant and breezy, appearing frequently on talk shows and going to fund-raisers and suchlike.




Next up: Cheshire Cat, the unofficial Bravo

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