It must be a difficult task to keep a comic book series going when your main character is incredibly powerful.
For example, how would writers be able to write stories on a wizard/sorcerer/magician who is so powerful that the character becomes a "deus ex machina," and can practically overcome all situations?
I am sure this has been done, but what characters come to mind?
Any A-lister. Thor, more so on classic Avengers than current, where there's more top tiers running around. Dr. Strange pre-downgrade. Sentry. The Doctor (Authority). All have to routinely be written down due to plot.
JSA and JLA used to do a good job of this. The threats couldn't conceivably be eliminated easily by 1 or 2 of the team's most powerful.
There's no easy answer for writing them. Either continually find excuses to get them removed from the fight (with the Doctor it was almost a running gag...the team would flat-out ask why he couldn't just end it with a thought, or say that he could if it weren't for {insert excuse}), or provide legit threats that are > the team, but also give the lower-end characters stuff to do.
When dealing with these types of characters I think it tends to be situation.
For instance Thor is often the big gun on the Avengers, and easily the most powerful. Good ways I've seen them handle is have him occupy the big bad while the rest of the team does what they need to do. Or they've had him only show up and fight in the most dire situations.
The JLA have a solid formula of making sure their members are all super powerful peers and their threats are bigger than any single one of them.
Which is kind of what they did with the Annihilators as well.
But then what are Cap, Clint, any low-level guy, etc. doing each time a Thor-buster comes to Avengers mansion? Once or twice is fine. After a while you might as well be writing a solo book. Diversifying challenges without becoming static, and giving everyone something plausible to do, is a HUGE issue for writers. How quickly do we get tired of the "next big, team-busting bad guy" type of stories? We have hundreds already.
This is one solution, yes. However, it's not simple.
Depends on what type of character you want to come up with.Gods from Mythology seems to be the easiest formula when it comes to solo book.Thor is often viewed superpowerful.Yet the threats he fights are often capable of killing him.Surtur,Ymir,Midgard Serpent,Hela are often the ones i'm familiar that is capable of killing Thor.He also fights Gods from other Pantheons.So Thor can have a lot of threats to contend with from other Pantheons as well.It just depends on the writers creativity.If I were a writer, I would have Thor fight a God(or Gods) from a Pantheon not well known to the world.So there would be less bitching fromn fans since they can't complain the God(or Gods) that defeated Thor isn't accurate from Mythology
Surfer. If you dissected his brain, you'd find sections labeled CIS.
I've often said that if I had the chance I'd scale down his versatility. His level is just way beyond what simple planet finding requires. As for the sheer scale of his power...I'd be careful with it. I'm no fan of being able to withstand supernovas or black holes, or busting a planet with a single blow (it takes far, FAR more power to do so than is generally realized). Not that I mind superpowerful characters: they just shouldn't be so powerful that the only threat to them are equally powerful enemies. If there's nothing left in the natural universe that can hurt them, there goes half the fun.
BTW: Was at NYCC today. So. Much. Stuff.
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Last edited by Mindship on Oct 12th, 2012 at 09:07 PM
Tons of great stuff there; got a few long-sought, vintage Fantastic Fours. Wasn't particularly impressed with the guest speakers, but then I was never the star-struck type. Crowded as all hell, but still, more-than-you-would-expect Thorgirls.
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KMC Community Forums
Oct 11th, 2012 05:33 AM
Agreed with this.
