Friday, November 10, 2017

Cool Superhero Idea

Quoting this from TV Tropes.
NOT MY IDEA.
I am merely quoting and pasting it here for posterity because this is a NEAT idea!
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13689194550A51500100&page=3#75

My superhero 'franchise' take one. The main villains would be a Mega Corp, and Criminal Syndicate, with The Government ranging between incompetent but well meaning to corrupt but not actively malicious, from individual to individual, the exceptions being those directly controlled, corrupted or intimidated by the syndicate or the mega corp.
The mega corp and the syndicate would be largely independent of one another. If the mega corp is doing electronics, the syndicate is doing water. If the corporation is doing energy, the career criminals are doing housing. The syndicate drugs, the corp paper. Even if it is the same market, in theory, the "legitimate" business would be, say, movies, while "petty" criminals would be prostitution/trafficking. Not to say they'd never work with or against each other, but one would be the initial Big Bad, the other would be the Villain of Another Story, then in reverse. The mega corp is more powerful than most countries, and certainly more so than the one that serves as the main setting. It's barely held in check in its own country and from that base causes humanitarian and ecological disasters abroad, caring only for the production of product. The syndicate is better armed than most military and certainly more than the police forces of the story. Some have been evicted, deported from their initial nation of operations, but this has had the unintended side effect of causing their brand to spread across national borders. The corporation would have super powered operatives, possibly because one of their subdivisions is a Shrouded in Myth mercenary company, because they are just one arm of a giant NGO super power, or perhaps the result of their own secret studies that they are in fact marketing to foreign buyers based on their "success" in the countries they are ruining. These are sent into the field when native police, local business man, populist politicians, whoever is threatening to get in the way of their profits, can't bribed away. The syndicate's super powered agents would be of a different nature, naturally. Rewards bestowed on those higher up the ranks, as well as to certain designated assassins sent in when conventional violence is getting too messy and compromise fails. Their exact nature would in fact be closely guarded, with just general knowledge being exaggerated in myth as a recruitment tool. Enduring much early life trauma brought on by both groups, the protagonist was able to overcome her situation and rise to the elite ranks of her society. Or as elite as one can get without becoming the enemy, and she can't forget those who weren't so lucky, the lives which continue to be ruined. She becomes a loud voice for the oppressed but her government can't or won't do much. She means to organize as a result. Reform is long overdue. New politicians need to rise. The people need to take land back from their would be overlords. She also joins an existing organization steering the youth away from the gang. While rallying for one problem she is killed by the other in an incidental manner, not being their intended target. Or maybe she's not dead... Buried under rubble, rolled into a river, washed to the sea, Never Found the Body. Even she considers her old life pretty much over, but she lives, or maybe she Came Back Wrong? She feels okay, she remembers most things, but goes among her people unrecognized. That which should have killed her is now trivial, but once again most weren't so lucky. She's "discovered" saying a memento to the fallen out loud. This she becomes known as, perhaps because most people don't understand what she really means. Perhaps a date of tragedy, a place where one occurred, a certain number of victims, the number of years her homeland has been occupied, a slur, indictment, condemnation against the objects of her wrath? They may not know the context of the word but the people see soon that she dedicated to the ousting of the mega corp, the dismantling of the syndicate, discrediting all that they stand for and improving the lives of her people. Now she's taking the fight to them directly, with superpowers unlike any before witnessed. She becomes well known for working with the government(especially the government, who are convinced she is one of those who actually did die), with the media, the activists, the entrepreneurs, she finds much adoration. But she also finds enemies. Bounty hunters and assassins just waiting to catch her unaware. She appeals to the state for protection, but it is unwilling or unable to provide. The private sector is inadequate, most of the quality guards are sold out. Eventually overwhelmed physically and mentally, she finds herself just needing a break, some seaside relaxation. Before she knows it she has dozed off and finds herself being frantically awoken by one of her old friends, who presumed her dead during an incident that felt so long ago. Someone recognizes her? Her superpowers have gone dormant? People now see her the way she was before? Hmm, a lot less people are interested in the ineffectual activist than the death defying super powered hero... Wonder Woman. Or specifically Wonder Woman after I've made so many changes that DC/Warner refuses to let me make the movie but by now I have enough script that's known by enough people in the film industry to go forth with a Divorced Installment. It was Wonder Woman, before changing her nationality to Portuguese/Guyanese/Congolese/etc, ethnicity to Taino/M'Bo/Ilocano, having her wear sleeves/pants/goggles, removed the Classical Mythology, drastically reducing Like Reality Unless Noted and refusing to lead into a Justice League. Not that I'd never do Justice League, I'd just make it Justice League from the beginning. That introduction to Wonder Woman would be directly related to the introduction of the team. The first of these movies would establish her and the first major blow she dealt to one of the power players in the region. If successful, the second would be life with people being used to her, and her efforts to deal a blow to another major power in the region. If still successful, the third movie would then reveal more about the nature of her powers with the uncovering of a nebulous cabal that's been able to move in thanks to her efforts and proves her powers aren't as unique as initially believed. (Gangsters-Public Enterprise-Secret Society, Contrasting Sequel Antagonist in affect) Franchise take two coming soon, maybe.

No comments:

Post a Comment