Silver Age Designer's Journal #1: "Secret Origins"

By Christopher McGlothlin, M.Ed.

Greetings, my friend. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future. You are interested in the unknown . . . the mysterious. The unexplainable. That is why you are here. And now, for the first time, we are bringing to you the full story of what happened on that fateful day. We are bringing you all the evidence, based only on the secret testimony of the miserable souls who survived this terrifying ordeal. The incidents, the places. My friend, we cannot keep this a secret any longer. Let us punish the guilty. Let us reward the innocent. My friend, can your heart stand the shocking facts of . . . the Silver Age sourcebook for Mutants & Masterminds?

I'm Christopher McGlothlin. You may remember me from such Mutants & Masterminds publications as Golden Age, Time of Vengeance, and Hunks & Heartbreakers* (the M&M guide to romance comics). Way back in the more innocent era of yesteryear that was the summer of 2008, Steve Kenson asked me if I'd be interested in writing a Silver Age book for M&M. While my head didn't quite spin all the way around like Steve Martin in The Jerk, my reply was still a loud "Boy howdy!" of the sort I usually save for responding to "Would you like some pie?"

And that's how most game books get started, I've found: a bunch of game designers hanging out and swapping ideas until someone says, "Dude, you should totally do that!" As a fan, I always envisioned the roleplaying industry like 1930s Hollywood, with doughy, balding middle-aged guys behind desks, swilling scotch by the bottle and chomping on cigars while yelling "Get me Wallace Beery!" into giant rotary phones. Only RPG's would be nerdier--so it'd be 2-liters of Mountain Dew and "Get me Tom Moldvay!" Turns out it's way more casual, and not in black & white.

I have to admit I was a little surprised at the idea of finally doing a Silver Age book. Don't get me wrong--all of us at Green Ronin enjoy the era plenty. It's just that, if you're a student of comics history, you know the modern idea of what a superhero comic is comes largely from the Silver Age. The concern was always about what could we say about that time period that wouldn't essentially be a repeat from the main book.

Call me self-centered, but I'd like to think my constant pathetic begging helped resolve this particular qualm. You see, I've been whining incessantly to the plenipotentiaries at Green Ronin about how great a Bronze Age book could be, and they responded with gentle, savage mockery that such a book was destined for "M&M Year Ten: Scraping the Bottom of the Barrel."

Leave it to the genius of Steve Kenson to make both the Silver and Bronze Age eras sourcebook-worthy by combining them under one cover. And with that, we were off and running on Silver Age. I insisted Steve write the Freedom City chapter (because it just wouldn't be right otherwise), and agreed to do everything else.

As it turned out, it'd be a year before I actually started work on the book (the reasons why are a tale for another time, but both pirates and the Bilderberg Group were heavily involved). It was just enough time for me to get really, really overconfident.

I blame Steve Kenson and his awesomeness. When you wrote a book for Steve, he always started you off with a perfect outline of what needed to be in it, and Silver Age was no exception. Steve absolutely nailed what elements were necessary to make Silver Age both a worthy guide to the era and a useful addition for M&M players. No sweat, I thought. All I gotta do is start typing and this book will rule.

Flash forward to July 2009 and it's the blank white computer screen that's mocking me. The book's opening chapter is about the history of comic books from 1956-86, and the monitor is just daring me to do justice to thirty of the most beloved years in comic books lore. Overconfidence long gone, it's little old me entrusted with relating the legacy of everyone from Jack Kirby to Neil Armstrong. The realization kicks in how really, really unworthy I am. After that, I hit the party liquors. Fights begin, fingerprints are took, days is lost, bail is made, court dates are ignored, cycle is repeated.

What got me back on task (other than a really good lawyer--thanks, Steve Long!) was focusing on the thing that made me want to do the book in the first place: my simple, abiding love for the comic books of my childhood. I took everything that makes the 1956-86 era so great and wonderful and funny to me, and tried to share it with everyone who missed it. The result is something I'm very proud of, even if it's far from the last word on the subject. Even if it's not definitive, my sincere love of those old funny books is there on the page. My fondest wish is people who don't already adore the Silver and Bronze Ages will read that chapter and come away sharing my affection for them. Sure, that's mushy and all, but what do expect from the author of Hunks & Heartbreakers?

That's all for now. Join us next time as we get into Silver Age chapter two, which is all about using actual history in your retro M&M games. Same Silver Age time, same Silver Age channel.

Check out the Silver Age page in the Green Ronin Online Store for more information.

*Hunks & Heartbreakers is not a real product and never will be. Sorry, romance comics fans.