Concepts too Limited? generic'ed question

What are the prerequisits to make a themed character without it getting generic'ed? I want to make a patriot themed character. NOT Capt. America! NOT Statesman. Patriotic. I want a red white and blue toon, a star on my chest or star pattern, with a patriot themed name as well. I dont even want the shield power! I want swords, or dual pistols, any other powerset! Is this something feasible?

I just feel that no matter what this will get generic'ed. Who would be the best person to PM about this?

thanks for letting me post!

I have several red/white/blue characters, with and without stars, with and without patriotic names. I have seen a bajillion of them in-game.

Just don't call them Captain America, etc., and don't make their costumes like established comic heroes, and you're OK.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

The guidelines on what get the generic bat are vague.

"A patriotic appearance" shouldn't. "Name or costume ripoff" probably will.

Be original, and go for it. If you get generisized, you can appeal, and you'll get a free rename anyways. Costumes may get scrambled, but they don't take much to fix.

Get a concept and google some art on the patriot types.

I'm trying to rack my brain of all the stars-n-bars type heroes out there...

Captain America
Spirit of '76
Statesman
USAgent
(Kirby retaliation character for Captain American...)
...

Any others you can think of?

Yeah, I think you should be ok as long as he doesn't directly resemble anything established. With the addition of shields, there were tons of rip offs. If you just want guns or something you should be fine. No one can generic you just because you are red, white, and blue or if your name was "The Patriot". Now, if you picked both and gave him a shield, probably. Anything else and you should be safe.

Norman Osborn's Iron man armour is sporting the red, white, and blue too. I agree with everyone here. You should be safe.

Flagg
Patriot (Rising Stars)
Whatever Rob Liefelds Cap ripoff was named
Patriette (Non-Adventures of Wonderella)

Also Minuteman from Freedom Force. I have also seen many "patriot" heroes. I've also seen a few on Justice who wore equivalent costumes from other countries - I'm almost certain I've seen a Commander Canada, a Captain Sydney (Australia) and one that I'm fairly sure was wearing the colors of the current German flag. (I can't remember his name, but his backstory was that he was a government sponsored super and had asked to be transferred to America to help clean out the 5th Column.)

Just to pipe up with my "Me too!" but an issue of the City Scoop over the summer highlighted patriotic characters and had a gallery of their screen shots. A whole lot of red, white & blue and stars & bars in there.

Blanket prohibitions on the usual "patriotic" theme would be like prohibiting all black "Darky McDarkster the Dark/Dark/Dark Defender" costumes

Patriotic themes are allowed, but as others have said dont make a direct link.

Heck way back when the Hero's Choice awards were around, the Favorite Triumph SG went to a whole SG of Patriotic themed Heros.

All Mr/Miss <countryname>

As others have said, staying away from specific costume themes like Captain Americas round starred shield and winged head and you'll be fine.

While I don't have any patriotic characters, I do have a couple who are loosely based on other characters.

For example, I have a Martian(not green, except in the tribute costume which still only shares a color scheme) who shares several mannerisms with the Martian Man-Hunter summoned to earth by Merlin to assist the knights in their search for the grail. During the incantation to send him home, Merlin mispronounces a key word and he was thrust into the future landing in a modern Europe. Hearing of the trouble the world is having with super powered beings, he decides to stay on earth and come to Paragon City to offer his assistance.

I also have another who is based around the lore of the Red Lantern. Though he isn't part of the corp, he possesses a red ring that has immense power and plans to use it to get revenge on his home planet for banishing him. Earth is just one stop on his road home, recruiting an army to assist in his revenge. I've been considering ret-conning his story to give him a black ring instead, making it easier for him to raise an army.

I've had both of these characters for years, and they're more than different enough, in name and appearance, to avoid being hit with the stick, but similar enough that people see the inspiration.

... Torch of Liberty, in Hellboy...

Simply dressing in red, white, and blue will not get you generic'd. It's not only possible to come up with original patriotic ideas, but I've done a while team based on it. In fact, I'll take the opportunity to show them off because I thought we looked really good together

http://koatriumph.org/pages/team_usa

(I played Amendment on that one)

I wouldn't exactly call him "Patriotic", but the Comedian from the Watchmen wore what could be called a patriotic costume, after he dropped the horrible yellow jumpsuit.

National colors are not forbidden (I have several red white and blues).
Patriotic themes are not forbidden. Mister Free, for example, rw&b theme (electric blaster), has a pulp/early silver age flavor, with strong patriotic elements in the bio.
The iconic Captain America elements seem to be:
- military rank reference
- the shield, of course
- the winged cowl
- the particular pattern of the rw&b on the costume (though flag draped heroes were all over the place in the golden age, especially during WW II).
- the A on the forehead

I see a lot of flag-colored heroes (US, Canadian, one Japanese) in CoH.

I don't think you have much to worry about - a US patriotic theme with the flag-like costume is not going to get genericed for those reasons. If you try to skate too close to Cap, sure, you are in more jeopardy, as he is the iconic patriot hero image. But the costume maker gives you a zillion and three ways to design s flag-draped look without coming close to that one.

Hero Paradigm wears Red, White and Blue.
He fights injustice on Liberty server.

A Patriotically colored hero doesn't have to have a name even remotely similar to those mentioned above.

I wouldn't recommend using Auntie Jane though.

I have American Princess, Red, White and Blue in the Freedom costume set, except for rocket boots. She's an AR/Dev blaster.

Just as a side note, here's a list of countries/colonies that use the colors red, white, and blue in their national flags...

1. Australia
2. Cambodia
3. Chile
4. Costa Rica
5. Cuba
6. Czech Republic
7. France
8. Iceland
9. North Korea
10. Laos
11. Liberia
12. Luxembourg
13. Myanmar (Burma)
14. Nepal
15. Netherlands
16. New Zealand
17. Norway
18. Panama
19. Russia
20. Samoa
21. Slovakia
22. Slovenia
23. Taiwan
24. Thailand
25. United Kingdom
26. United States
27. Faroe Islands
28. Reunion

Just bringing those up as a way for you to go even further with the "patriot" concept, as in you could be the Spirit of Patriotism...or something, I dunno, I think I'm rambling now.

Yeah, it'll only get gen'd if it violates a copyright or is offensive.

If you decide to go with guns, try to get some variation of "2nd Amendment." I have no idea if that name is available anywhere or not, as I don't have access to CoH at this time.