Four Color Dreams

[xyzzysqrl]

Vivid dreams last night, not starring me one iota. I was in the framework story, though, cast as an avid comic book fan (gee, shocker) who had just found some old back issues of "Cosmic Crusaders" in the bin at the local comic shop. Cosmic Crusaders was one of those superhero teams that gets a really really minor run, because all the characters kinda suck. Three issue story arcs revolving around hunting down a minor cat burgler, for example.

Classic five-person team. Let's see...

Cosmic Boy - The leader. O'course. Fourteenish. Young and brash and bold, think a Teen Titans Robin sort of fellow. Could manipulate cosmic radiation, which is a catch-all for "Can shoot beams and fly". Power level: Probably not very high. Beams knocked people over, but didn't appear to visibly hurt them much.

Gadget Glove - Pretty obviously based off of Penny from the old Inspector Gadget show in my mind. Smart inquisitve fifteen year old blonde. Except instead of a computer book, she had computer gloves. Could do things like open locks, activate electromagnets, etc. Power level: Pretty low running to high, depending on how technological an area she was in.

Twenty Tons - Eight year old boy with a density control belt. Most useful as a throwing weapon or counterweight. One major plot revelation came when he realized that he was in fact NOT a space alien, just a normal kid with a mad scientist father. (Yeah, I'm not sure why this was big.) Power level: Situational, but really funny to watch.

Bambina Bioweapon - Was the term "Bioweapon" even around in this sort of 1960s book? Er. Anyway. Latina girl with a poison/knockout grenade belt and a sludge cannon with settings from "slippery" to "sticky". I vaguely remember her as the oldest at sixteen, and I remember thinking something about terrible fanfiction which, y'know, seemed REALLY out of place for that dream. Power level: Probably the most effective combat character of the whole group.

Explosive Guy - Cosmic Boy's younger brother. Something like Dazzler from the X-Men, generated bright flashes of light and really loud bangs via small devices in his clothing. Power level: Ow, my head.

Add to this a few walk-on characters, etc. It was really amusingly 1960s fun. You notice how the only person with any kind of above-natural power up there is Cosmic Boy?

Okay, so I'm reading comic books in my dreams, etc... and gradually it starts taking a turn towards the darker. Like, the kids go from fun-loving crime-fighters to realizing "Hey, we're out there getting shot at and we kind of suck. And other superhero teams make fun of us. Maybe this isn't the kind of world we belong in." End with the team breaking up.

So we cut over to a revival series set in 2000. This is where I get fuzzy. I remember the whole "Let's get the band back together!" plotline being something really contrived about how only they can prevent (supervillian-induced catastrophe here), but some folks (Cosmic Boy, who has moved on to become a janitor and whose powers are even WEAKER now) could give less of a crap because they're happy with non-superhero life, and Twenty Tons has kids and a family and is now calling himself just "Mike", and... y'know.

So eventually they're all back in remade costumes, and they go out to Stop Evil. Cosmic Boy is promptly shot and dies.

Oops.

Still! They crusader on! Lots of fight scenes, lots of quiet back-at-base "Are we cut out for this?" scenes, Explosive Guy 'comes out' as a hero to his parents, etc. Cue the big climax, wherein they're fighting on the roof of... gods, like... the Earthquake Machine, or something, and the various gadgets have finally broken down from overuse, and it's down to just the humans versus the bad guys.

At which point Cosmic Boy's arm reaches down through the atmosphere and rips the heart of the machine out. When he shrinks down (and looks, to quote the text, "Like something Jack Kirby threw up"), he energetically declares that hey, his real power was just limited by his body, he's actually star-sized and incredibly powerful.

Last issue ends with the team debating if they should stay together as both a family and a superhero team, with a big splash page of them all posing, half in costume, half in civvies, Cosmic Boy's new form transperantly guarding over them. Cue gradual waking up.


If I weren't going to be getting a Wii halfway through November, I would totally attempt to National Novel Writing Month this plot. Instead? Here it is.

Comments

[klikbewm.livejournal.com]

...Do it in December then! Seriously, this is about the best super hero plot I've ever, ever heard. Especially the prompt shooting of Cosmic Boy. Oh man, I'd laugh, I'd cry, I'd want to wear a cape!

[kiruppert.livejournal.com]

That is actually, really neat. Sadly, my first instinct was to try to make those characters in City of Heroes. Maybe I'll try to doodle them up tonight.

-K