Huh? What now?

Stories can come from anywhere at any time.  The same could be said about superheroes.

My youngest son once asked me to write a blog post about a character he was to create.  I told him I would do it under one condition.  He had to come up with a character with a decent backstory.  Then I would write the rest.

So here it is, How The Heck Did I Become A Superhero Man.

It is an average day in an average city.  Average men and women walk up and down the sidewalks going to and from work and home.  Nothing in particular causes this day to stand out from any other day.  That is, if an observer ignores the open door standing in the middle of the sidewalk.  The flow of people part around it like a stream separates around a bridge support.  A view from above would see the foot traffic around the door appears like a cat's eye with the door being the vertical slit of a pupil.

Everyone seems to do it unconciously.  They don't slow down or stop and change direction.  Conversations and cell phone calls continue on uninterrupted.  Nobody seems to notice the open door standing by itself as they pass it by.

This continues until one of the average, typical office workers walks away from the path of the others.  He crosses the middle of the "eye" and glances up from intently staring at his cell phone as his steps take him through the mysterious doorway.

For a moment, a sensation passes through his body.  From head to toe, his whole body gets a tingle similar to his hand falling asleep.  He stops.  He stands there motionless as the flow of human traffic continues to pass him by.  He moves only to turn around after hearing the door shut behind him.  Without knowing why, he picks up the door and carries it down the sidewalk in the direction of his home.

Weeks have passed.  The man that had passed through the door now spends his days working with the other average employees in the office.  During the nights, he explores his new abilities.  One of which seems to be no longer needing to sleep.  He seems to be able to run long distances without becoming tired.  He can lift extreme weights.  He is even able to hold is breath for extremely long times.  Powers and abilities he uses rarely, only when an incident happens right before him.  He doesn't seek out justice or an end to all crime.  At least, not yet.

All of this from simply walking through the door that now stands alone in the middle of his living room.  A door that hasn't opened since that fateful day so many weeks ago.  The entire time a question lurks in his mind.  A question that is the basis for his "super" identity for the time being.  How-The-Heck-Did-I-Become-A-Superhero-Man.  A clumsy title, he admits.  However, a symbol with a simple question mark had been taken by a comic villain.  He also didn't feel that wearing a suit with a door on his chest carried the right impact.

It always amazes me the things that come from the mind of a child.

Who do you think the archnemesis of this hero would be?  Where would that villain get their powers?

Fourth Degree

This is another story idea that isn't from my brain, yet one I had quite a bit of influence on.  It is a tale from my son's notebook of stories.  At this point, I can easily see his creative and artistic talents leading him many places in the future.  If only he would stop growing up so fast.

My name is Jackson S. Master.  At the age of five I started to practice swordplay.  It took me thirteen years to master a technique called "the four angles of death."  After high school it became more difficult to keep training.

One day I found a rare metal called morphanite.  I decided to create four swords out of it.  When I tried to practice with them, I started to change.  At first my body turned all black, then stripes of red formed around my waist and chest.  After a few seconds I noticed that I had become faster, stronger, and more agile.

It seemed to me the only thing for me to do was protect the weak and innocent.  They call me Fourth Degree due my use of four swords at the same time.  Evil better beware the blade of the hero.

With summer vacation in full swing, I think the two of us will sit down and develop some of the ideas from his notebook into a few full fledged stories.  Before long we may even have two published authors in the house.

Ring Masters

There are a hundred excuses I could come up with for this post being a day later than normal.  The simple honest truth is that I fell asleep.  A long working weekend followed by a busy start to the week left no time to recover any missing slumber.  A quiet Wednesday morning in a comfortable led to a sudden urge to catch up on all the sleep I had been deprived of.

Delays aside, today's post isn't something that didn't come from my mind, yet I still had a significant hand in creating.  It is a story idea from the notebook of my oldest son.  He is a fan of both Marvel and DC comic universes.  Influences from tales like the Green Lantern and Infinity Gauntlet can be seen in his writings, with details that are entirely his own.

The words below are entirely his.  The only changes I made were some basic copy editing for spelling and simple grammar.  Otherwise, the story is directly out of his notebook for future comics.

Okay.  We didn't ask for these powers, but here is the story.  The date was March 19, 2019.  My friends and I chose to walk home through the forest.  That's when I came across six rings.  I thought two for each of us so I shared them with Hank and Tim.  As we put them on weird things happened to us.  I felt like I was on fire in an earthquake.  When it was over I had power over fire and earth.  Hank had power over water and wind.  Tim had power over light and dark.  We chose to call ourselves "The Ring Masters."  We were on our last year of high school and would be going our separate ways.  However, when there is trouble, you can count on The Ring Masters to be there!

Other stories in his notebook hint at the possibility of multiple related titles with chances of crossovers and other interactions.

I am proud that he has decided to express himself in the same way I do and with tales of his own creation.  Sharing our skills with the next generation gives our children a safe outlet for their thoughts while keeping important creative skills alive in a dynamic and changing society.  Now, if only I could get him to clean his room.