TheShifty

What I want to know, is if Tornado is considered broken because of its AI? Does Cryptic know that it follows but doesn't ever follow close enough to affect anything unless the target ends up moving backwards into it?

The scattering effect is bad but tolerable. The AI bug is a very sore spot that hasn't ever been mentioned. Is the bugfixing team aware of this or are just at a loss on how to fix it?

This is a pretty serious problem with the power.

Yes! I always liked the look of the Sky Raiders, s'nice to have more of them.

Focusing on the idiosyncracies of your characters will help to give them personality and it should also naturally provide you with an idea of how this person would react to the events in your story. Careful, make these idiosyncracies uncommon or diverse or else you may end up with something that easily fits into a mold(This may not always be a bad thing if that mold was the original goal).

Example: Let's take something we all know...Oracle from the matrix. She is easily characterized as the cryptic mysterious know-it-all. However, she has a dash of the dear old granny. Since the actor knew the script has her as an old woman who takes cares of many children, the actor used easily recognized stereotypes of the "dear old granny" mold. Oracle bakes cookies, talks slow, smiles benevolently, worries about those younger than her, and has a relaxed demeanor that comes with her age. All these traits added up into a person, but see, already the character falls into the archetype of the know-it-all and the old granny.

In terms of this particular comic-book setting, try your best to avoid comic conventions if you want to be interesting. Too often in comics we get the generic "My (family member/bestfriend/lover) has died, now I have powers and I want revenge on bad guys"


Reread and revise, wonderful ideas can often end up as...to put it bluntly, crap. If something doesn't work, don't be afraid to delete something that seems wonderful on its own but doesn't work with the rest of your piece. It's hard to let go, but editing is crucial to flow.

Similar to the previous reply...it all sounds fairly forced. Try not to make things about your character known too explicitly. Superman's origin when told as "Superman is from another planet. He can fly. He is very strong". Stating the facts about the origin is more of a description.

Try instead to give information about your character by talking about how the character came to know the information himself. Like "He is invulnerable" becomes an episode whereas he's exploring his other newfound powers and expects to die when his very first mission goes awry...and he survives hurt but alive. That's a stripped down example, but it shows how you can let the audience know the hero is "invulnerable" without just saying it. This all makes learning about your hero more involving.

This format may make an episodic storytelling form the best way to explain your character. It'd be nice to see how your hero came to know so much about how his powers work, how come your regular joe becomes a hero and somehow knows his power is drawn from the astral plane?

I like you've noted how awkward it could be to have 2 people living in the same body. Weaknesses are crucial to the protagonist, can't be a hero if there's nothing to overcome(This is why many people loathe superman in favor of batman). Milk the weaknesses for all they're worth and it really helps you understand your own character and how he'd act.