Writing Recreating my superheroes origin backstory

MadmanRB

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So here is the scoop, I am totally redoing my characters backstories and well I want to solve a problem I have.
You see, I originally had my characters as police officers, a simple approach but one that would account for why they would become superheroes later on.
I was originally inspired by my love for Robocop and wanted to do my own take on the concept.
Unfortunately, the George Floyd incident occurred, raising newfound awareness of police misconduct and corruption.
Let's face facts, It's now practically impossible to depict police officers in a positive light now.
And I am making something with a younger audience in mind here, as I want my characters to be something for young people to inspire to.
Thing is this does uproot my characters a lot and other professions may not fit the bill as much as here are my other options:

Firefighters: Yes, I can make them firefighters, but I want to have my characters to have combat prowess and show them fighting against the villains before they become superheroes in some form of fashion.

Martial artists: A good option, but I don't want this to be another martial arts based series, as we have a bazillion of those. Yes, my characters do have some martial arts training, but no power rangers stuff please.

Secret agents: Another good option, but I already have plans for a secret agent type of character in the series, and them being secret agents may make them have foreknowledge of her too easily.

Anti-terrorist group: a great option, but my first villain is less Osama bin Laden and more John Brown, and I have a redemption arc planned for him.

Some kind of military organization: Again, another good option, but I don't want my heroes to get their powers by some "secret government project". Once more we have like a billion things like this, plus I want the guy who gave my heroes their powers to have a mistrust of the military as they can use his device to make an unstoppable army.

Security guards: eh may work, but one of my characters became a member of law enforcement because of the legacy of his father. So if his father was Paul Blart Mall cop, that is not a good legacy to live up to.

I am pretty much tearing my hair out on this, any change would have its severe drawbacks on my narrative of family legacies and such.
I want my hero to be proud of his father and follow in his footsteps.
Yes I can make him a doctor or rescue worker, but again they don't fight super villains.
I really want to make my characters as believable as possible yet still have some motivation why they become superheroes, you really can't do the narrative I have planned with an office worker or a fast food worker and while I could make them into a medieval knight or something that also makes severe changes to my series...

Yes I can make them into everyday heroes, but I am kind of going for an in general superhero vibe here.

But if you guys have some ideas for me, I am open to them.
 

Cipiteca396

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You could make them police officers.

If you want to stick to the modern prejudices, then they can resign to protest the system and become superheroes instead. Then you can keep your backstory and give them a motivation at the same time.

Or you could make them Military. Not high up military, and not part of some 'secret project'. Just regular people with some grunt training behind them.

There's also 'Private Security' which is military with some criminal elements... Mercenary work.

Or you could make them private investigators, which is what most people use when they want copslite. A little cliched but if you really care about rolling with the times, this is your best bet.

Edit: You could also make them terrorists or activists instead of 'good guy' types. Bad people with their heart in the right place. They did something bad to some bad people, and instead of going to jail they have to become superheroes to make amends. This is sort of an Antihero route though.
 

Underload

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make them superheroes who deal with problems caused by their past activities. The local police are after them because they robbed a bank when they first got the powers. The government is looking for them to get their juices. Laden wants to fund their campaign. The people have banded together to find out their real identity.
 

LoliGent

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You could make them police officers.

If you want to stick to the modern prejudices, then they can resign to protest the system and become superheroes instead. Then you can keep your backstory and give them a motivation at the same time.

This is my suggestion too. Make them police officers and whatever problems you believe people will have, use that to your stories advantage by writing around it.

But I also agree with everyone else that nobody is really going to pay that much attention. If anything, I think people are sick of social justice as it's being shoved down our throats in the mainstream media. I sure am.
 

SailusGebel

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This is fiction. You can do whatever and whenever. Let's be honest, those who don't like police(and vocal about it) usually spend their pastime checking Twitter and perhaps Facebook? Not reading novels. There is as well a chance your story won't do great in terms of viewership. And lastly, USA police =/= world's police.
 

Lloyd

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The police arent even bad wtf. George floyd was committing a crime and died from cardiac arrest caused by an overdose(this is what the autopsy showed).
 

Plus1

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So here is the scoop, I am totally redoing my characters backstories and well I want to solve a problem I have.
You see, I originally had my characters as police officers, a simple approach but one that would account for why they would become superheroes later on.
I was originally inspired by my love for Robocop and wanted to do my own take on the concept.
Unfortunately, the George Floyd incident occurred, raising newfound awareness of police misconduct and corruption.
Let's face facts, It's now practically impossible to depict police officers in a positive light now.
And I am making something with a younger audience in mind here, as I want my characters to be something for young people to inspire to.
Thing is this does uproot my characters a lot and other professions may not fit the bill as much as here are my other options:

Firefighters: Yes, I can make them firefighters, but I want to have my characters to have combat prowess and show them fighting against the villains before they become superheroes in some form of fashion.

Martial artists: A good option, but I don't want this to be another martial arts based series, as we have a bazillion of those. Yes, my characters do have some martial arts training, but no power rangers stuff please.

Secret agents: Another good option, but I already have plans for a secret agent type of character in the series, and them being secret agents may make them have foreknowledge of her too easily.

Anti-terrorist group: a great option, but my first villain is less Osama bin Laden and more John Brown, and I have a redemption arc planned for him.

Some kind of military organization: Again, another good option, but I don't want my heroes to get their powers by some "secret government project". Once more we have like a billion things like this, plus I want the guy who gave my heroes their powers to have a mistrust of the military as they can use his device to make an unstoppable army.

Security guards: eh may work, but one of my characters became a member of law enforcement because of the legacy of his father. So if his father was Paul Blart Mall cop, that is not a good legacy to live up to.

I am pretty much tearing my hair out on this, any change would have its severe drawbacks on my narrative of family legacies and such.
I want my hero to be proud of his father and follow in his footsteps.
Yes I can make him a doctor or rescue worker, but again they don't fight super villains.
I really want to make my characters as believable as possible yet still have some motivation why they become superheroes, you really can't do the narrative I have planned with an office worker or a fast food worker and while I could make them into a medieval knight or something that also makes severe changes to my series...

Yes I can make them into everyday heroes, but I am kind of going for an in general superhero vibe here.

But if you guys have some ideas for me, I am open to them.
Um... I got it! They were known high school troublemakers (bullying, getting in fights with kids from other schools, etc), so they know how to fight, but after they met their significant others and formed a family they settled down. Now life brings them (back?) together, this time to fight evildoers. How's that?
 

MadmanRB

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The police arent even bad wtf. George floyd was committing a crime and died from cardiac arrest caused by an overdose(this is what the autopsy showed).

No, he was murdered, plain and simple.
The only crime he committed was having a counterfeit bill, could have happened to anyone (heck I once had a counterfeit bill once, didn't make me a criminal or counterfeiter or a drug smuggler).
Even if he had drugs in his system, he still had outside forces like having the knee of another man on his neck.
I saw the video dude, it was clear to my eyes he was murdered, no ifs and's or buts about it.
I am no "social justice warrior" here nor are my only news sources Twitter, Facebook and what conservatives "fake news" that is not OAN or some other far right leaning sources.
My opinion is based on what I saw on camera, and what I saw was murder.
A power mad police officer who went too far, Floyd put up no resistance and cooperated, and his reward was death.
Even if Floyd was hopped up on drugs, having another man come down on you when you are doing no harm to anyone else is a clear case of brutalization.
You could tell me Floyd had 800 milligrams of PCP, cocaine and heroin in his system at the time, but he was still choked to death under the knee of another man.
If Chauvin backed off after Floyd said he can't breathe the 800th time, we would not be having this discussion.

This is my suggestion too. Make them police officers and whatever problems you believe people will have, use that to your stories advantage by writing around it.

But I also agree with everyone else that nobody is really going to pay that much attention. If anything, I think people are sick of social justice as it's being shoved down our throats in the mainstream media. I sure am.

Yes, but good stories should reflect the times they are in, though.
Be a reflection of them and challenge those issues head on.
I mean yes I can still make my heroes cops and have them break off from them because of the corruption but having another route is a good option as I can explore the issue from another angle.
Again I am not a "social justice warrior" here though I do have a lot of left leaning opinions here such as supporting gay rights, racial equality. Gender equality and the like.
I mean for Pete’s sake, if we had this whole anti "social justice warrior" mindset ages ago we would still have segregation or slavery and women could not vote. (shrugs)

My objective is not to "shove it down peoples throats" though I do think awareness of social issues is important.
 

SailusGebel

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Awareness of social issues isn't important as web and light novels are a form of escapism. :blob_popcorn:
 

MadmanRB

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Awareness of social issues isn't important as web and light novels are a form of escapism. :blob_popcorn:
Yes, but a lot of good stories are mostly social commentary, even if they are not as blatant as others.
You would not think of the movie Aliens for example being a social commentary about the Vietnam War but scratch under its carapace, and it's right there.

Why would others influence what you believe in?

Most of my beliefs are my own, this is more of a creative choice and seeing other options and weighing their pros and cons for my narrative.
 

SailusGebel

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Yes, but a lot of good stories are mostly social commentary, even if they are not as blatant as others.
You would not think of the movie Aliens for example being a social commentary about the Vietnam War but scratch under its carapace, and it's right there.



Most of my beliefs are my own, this is more of a creative choice and seeing other options and weighing their pros and cons for my narrative.
Erm, if you think so, I won't argue with this as I don't have any info. BUT, you didn't mention my other statement. USA cops =/= world cops. I would as well add that USA problems aren't the world's problems either. Yet people from all over the world are reading novels. So if you try to hide the current social issues well enough, no one will even understand what you talk about. If you do it more blatantly, no one will read it as people don't like it. That's it. When I try to escape from problems of my own country via gaming, reading novels, etc, and people shove down my throat social issues of a faraway country, I get disappointed. And I'm not alone who thinks like that.
 

Lloyd

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No, he was murdered, plain and simple.
The only crime he committed was having a counterfeit bill, could have happened to anyone (heck I once had a counterfeit bill once, didn't make me a criminal or counterfeiter or a drug smuggler).
Even if he had drugs in his system, he still had outside forces like having the knee of another man on his neck.
I saw the video dude, it was clear to my eyes he was murdered, no ifs and's or buts about it.
I am no "social justice warrior" here nor are my only news sources Twitter, Facebook and what conservatives "fake news" that is not OAN or some other far right leaning sources.
My opinion is based on what I saw on camera, and what I saw was murder.
A power mad police officer who went too far, Floyd put up no resistance and cooperated, and his reward was death.
Even if Floyd was hopped up on drugs, having another man come down on you when you are doing no harm to anyone else is a clear case of brutalization.
You could tell me Floyd had 800 milligrams of PCP, cocaine and heroin in his system at the time, but he was still choked to death under the knee of another man.
If Chauvin backed off after Floyd said he can't breathe the 800th time, we would not be having this discussion.



Yes, but good stories should reflect the times they are in, though.
Be a reflection of them and challenge those issues head on.
I mean yes I can still make my heroes cops and have them break off from them because of the corruption but having another route is a good option as I can explore the issue from another angle.
Again I am not a "social justice warrior" here though I do have a lot of left leaning opinions here such as supporting gay rights, racial equality. Gender equality and the like.
I mean for Pete’s sake, if we had this whole anti "social justice warrior" mindset ages ago we would still have segregation or slavery and women could not vote. (shrugs)

My objective is not to "shove it down peoples throats" though I do think awareness of social issues is important.

You have been brainwashed by corporate media, which is owned by billionaires btw, plan and simple. I saw the rest of the video that media suppressed, and it is plan as day he died of a drug overdose, he was well over the lethal limit. He was saying he couldn't breath well before he was on the ground. He also did put up resistance, which is why he was restrained in the first place.
 

MadmanRB

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You have been brainwashed by corporate media, which is owned by billionaires btw, plan and simple. I saw the rest of the video that media suppressed, and it is plan as day he died of a drug overdose, he was well over the lethal limit. He was saying he couldn't breath well before he was on the ground. He also did put up resistance, which is why he was restrained in the first place.

Funny as one can say you are brainwashed by right ring racist media so...

Again even if he did resist we still have someone's knee on someone's neck resulting in someone's death.
I still say that Derek Chauvin should have backed off at some point, just put the man back into the car and use oh I don't know a taser or something?
Yes even if you say George Floyd wasn't innocent that doesn't make what Derek Chauvin did a good thing, he still went too far in my eyes.
 
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Lloyd

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Funny as one can say you are brainwashed by right ring racist media so...

Again even if he did resist we still have someone's knee on someone's neck resulting in someones death.
I still say that Derek Chauvin should have backed off at some point, just put the man back into the car and use oh I don't know a taser or something?
Yes even if you say George Floyd wasn't innocent that doesn't make what Derek Chauvin did a good thing, he still went too far in my eyes.

If your first response is to call me a racist brainwashed by the right wing you have some serious bias my dude. I'm not the one supported by billionaires, the military industrial complex, and basically everything else evil in the world, that's you. 😅 You are again assuming Derek Chauvin had a hand in his death, which according to the autopsy is just not true. He would of died that day no matter what happened because of all the drugs he was on. The autopsy also showed he had plenty of oxygen in his blood btw.
 
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EternalSunset0

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Yes, but a lot of good stories are mostly social commentary, even if they are not as blatant as others.
You would not think of the movie Aliens for example being a social commentary about the Vietnam War but scratch under its carapace, and it's right there.
Yeah, but how many people watch Aliens for the Vietnam War allegory? Fans just get entertained by it and enjoy it for the action, suspense, or whatever else.

The Vietnam War thing is for people who want to write video essays or want to write an academic paper of Aliens, and it's something that everyday people won't even notice. If you're someone who quickly picks up those deeper and hidden themes and such, good for you. But I doubt the average reader would care, much less notice those.

I honestly doubt people would care if you straightup write a story about police. No offense intended, but I feel you're overthinking things.
 

SailusGebel

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Yeah, but how many people watch Aliens for the Vietnam War allegory? Fans just get entertained by it and enjoy it for the action, suspense, or whatever else.

The Vietnam War thing is for people who want to write video essays or want to write an academic paper of Aliens, and it's something that everyday people won't even notice. If you're someone who quickly picks up those deeper and hidden themes and such, good for you. But I doubt the average reader would care, much less notice those.

I honestly doubt people would care if you straightup write a story about police. No offense intended, but I feel you're overthinking things.
This dude came to fight, don't bother talking about this. Chill and wait till this thread get closed. :blob_popcorn:
 
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