Hero High Design Journal #1

The beam of darkness struck the red convertible, melting the hard polymers right off the parked car’s frame. People screamed and ran for whatever cover was furthest from the jackal-headed villain floating above the city street.

Dauntless was suddenly grateful he’d leapt free of the blast; he wasn’t sure his alloy body could withstand the corrosive dark matter. “Dude!” Dauntless shouted, watching the car melt into a puddle. “You’ve got serious anger management issues!”

“Whelp!” the villain growled, his voice reverberating with the hundred-fold echoes of the dead. “I am Black Anubis. I am the darkness that has devoured a thousand suns.”

Relentless appeared out of nowhere, right next to her brother, Dauntless. She shimmered, her outline blurred from her accelerated speed. “Yawn!” She said, helping her brother up. “You are seriously high-maintenance for a villain.”

A fang-lined scowl tore open across Black Anubis’ face. His arm snapped up, fingertips laced in webs of darkness. Before he could fire his lethal bolt, however, a flash of light exploded in his face, followed by an ear-splitting pop. Black Anubis cried out in pain and clutched his eyes, but he did not fall.

Elite flipped down from the building ledge and landed on a nearby car with practiced ease. “Whoop-Ant, where are you?!?”

The insect-sized hero responded on the comm-line. “Under him. I can see up this dude’s skirt. Wait… okay, yeah… I’m definitely scarred now.”

“Don’t let Black Anubis recover!” Elite called out. “Take him down!”

With singular, practiced intent, the AlterniTeens moved into action….

So you want to play teen heroes! Great! But… why? For starters, all the adult supers are trying to tell you what to do and how to do it. They’re older than your parents, and they’re wearing tights! How gross is that? And speaking of your parents, they always ground you right before the big alien invasion. You also get blamed when your extra-dimensional pet wreaks havoc at the mall (nobody said feeding it French Fries covered in nacho cheese was a bad thing—or maybe they did… you weren’t really listening at the time). Oh, and they still give you homework. Shouldn’t having powers give you a pass on certain things, like maybe high school?

No?

That’s where this book comes in. Don’t think of it as a resource guide for super campaigns so much as a survival guide for teen heroes. Essentially, it’s the world’s longest FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions for you old timers reading the book).

Between the powers, the hormones, the homework, the rivals and all the drama, it’s bad enough out there without throwing villains into the mix. Unless of course beating on the villains is your version of therapy, in which case they’re the one thing in your life that isn’t complicated.

And beating them down sure does put you in a better frame of mind....

Using this Book

Question 1: How do I use this book?

First things first… tell your pet alien monkey to put the book down slowly. This book has no nutritional value whatsoever, except maybe for the fiber content. Okay, good.

So you’re interested in the world of teen heroes, and not for the obviously creepy reasons. You’re either a teen hero yourself and ready to embark on a life of fighting crime and looking fabulous, or you’re trying to help out a group of young heroes (by getting them in trouble, most likely) by guiding them through the process. This book is here to help by pointing out the pitfalls and troubles facing the super-powered youth of today. Oh, and the fun too. You're young and you’ve got powers... how sweet is that?

This book tries to answers all the questions you might have to either kick-start you into high-gear or to help you speed a new team on its way with minimal prep.

The Voice of the Book

Question 2: So, um, what’s with the ‘tude?

Being a teen is all about attitude, hence the tone of this survival guide. How many times have you heard parents or teachers say: “You need to change your attitude,” or “you’ve got a bad attitude?” Anyone can be a hero or a villain, right? Stick a gerbil in a microwave, nuke it and let it bite you… voila… you’re now Gerbil Man!

Wait, I’m not actually suggesting you put a gerbil in a microwave. Put the family pet down. I’m only illustrating a point. This isn’t a book on getting powers, this is a book on being a teen hero.

Like I said, anyone can have powers. It’s the way the superhero world seems to work. Powers are easy to come by. What’s hard is doing the teen hero thing in style. And style is, like, 50% attitude, 50% fashion sense, and about 10% common sense (and since you can’t have 110%, it means that either 1) Common Sense is, like, nonexistent or 2) You suck at math).

Think about it. By growing up, you’ve gone from being the center of your family’s universe to another cog in high school. Society, starting with school, is all about conform and comply. Fit in. Don’t rock the boat. Be more like your sibling(s). Listen. Be quiet. Give Grandma a kiss.

The universe is suddenly bigger and you got much smaller as a result. It’s teh suck, as they say. With powers, though, you’ve got a voice. You can be snarky and up to your armpits in attitude because you can afford to be. You’ve still got to follow the rules, that’s a given. You’ve always had the gift of self-expression, but now, you can push that expression any which way you want. You’re no longer a cog, you’re one of the elite—the less than .0000001% that every other kid wishes to be.

Now on some worlds, that’s a bad thing if powered people are hunted or distrusted. In hero-positive worlds, though, the paparazzi are putting your face on the cover of Ultrateen and Teen Power, and major Hollywood hotties are asking for your autograph. You can be nice and sweet, or you can be angry and hostile, but anyway you cut it, the attitude comes with the territory. Not many people can push you around and you’re near the top of the food chain for once in your life.

Essentially, attitude is confidence, and you got confidence to spare. So, this survival guide is all about the ‘tude. Live it, breathe it.

Speaking of the Voice of the Book...

Hero High has a new, never-before-seen feature in a Mutants & Masterminds sourcebook: in addition to taking a look at the teen hero genre, it talks with the creators of that genre, the creative minds behind the comics! Hero High features interviews with comics industry names like Tom Brevoort, Tom DeFalco, Allan Heinberg, Robert Kirkman, Jeph Loeb, Brian K. Vaughan, and Chris Yost, to name a few. Oh, and did we mention... Stan Lee?

Stay tuned for more information and previews of Hero High!