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Dusting off 'Legend of the Gauntlet' |
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Posted Mar 24, 2014 - 8:19:19
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Every few years I like to revisit the ideas I don't have time to work on. I end up with quite a few, since I only have so much time on my plate between working on
UnCONventional and
The Chronicles of Crosarth. One of those ideas (which I've been kicking around for the last twelve years actually) is a superhero project called "Legend of the Gauntlet." The last time I worked on it was 2011 (
and you can see the redesign I did of the lead character here), so I figured I'd sat on it long enough... again.
So this weekend I came up with a bunch of new artwork for it, and I thought I'd share the concept with you all.
The concept of the comic is pretty simple - Miranda Slater is the fifth in a line of superheroes who have protected a fictional city under the guise of "The Guardian" (a superhero name which is intentionally as generic as possible). It is a mantle that had been passed down from father to son...
...but the fourth Guardian only had a daughter.
The origin of the character is a bit of a mashup of The Phantom, Batman -- with a little bit of the Green Lantern thrown in. The source of the Guardian's superpowers are a pair of alien gauntlets which allow the wearer to manipulate gravitational forces (as well as generate a protective forcefield).
Miranda's predecessors all wore the same set complicated armor (partially to obscure the source of their power), but as she's only 5'2", it doesn't exactly fit her. Her costume is instead designed to be as practical as possible while still evoking the "classic" image.
You know, it's "classic" because I just made it up.
The concept is pretty straight forward - Legend of the Gauntlet would both be a deconstruction of how women superheroes are dealt with in comics, while still providing a story whose protagonist is forced to deal with issues including the death of her father and the pressures of living up to your parents' expectations.
Batman was a billionaire with a batcave, The Guardian works part time at a coffee shop and still lives with her mom.
Of course any good superhero needs a super villain to fight, which is where "Gravity" comes in. Gravity, of course, is a working name -- while I created her with that name a good decade ago, Marvel comics has sadly created a character with similar powers with the same name in the meantime... so I need to come up with something else.
For now "Gravity" will do though.
Gravity is an assassin whose powers, you guessed it, involve manipulating gravitational forces. While the Guardian relies on technology to do something similar, Gravity's powers are innate.
...and she's much better at using them.
So everything The Guardian can do, Gravity can do better. Which, of course, makes the dynamic interesting.
So yeah - those are the basics behind "Legend of the Gauntlet." It's a project I probably won't have time to work on until I finish The Chronicles of Crosarth (as it does have an intended ending... eventually), but I thought I'd share anyway.
Later this week I'll dig out some old concept art for the project I've done over the last decade but never shared too. That should be fun.
- Traegorn
