One of the things I really wanted to do with the Heroic League Project is take some of the tropes with super heroes and throw them out the window. Some will still be there, because they might fit, and some will because they work really, really well. Of course, all of the characters themselves are based off of characters we’ve seen before.
Britannia is a combination of Superman and Captain America. She’s impervious to bullets, can fly at great speeds, has heat vision, and super strength. All of which was granted to her by way of an experiment. Britannia is sort of the boy scout character; she has all this power, but uses it to help and refuses to use her powers to kill.
Mannekin is based off of a few characters. Batman, the Shadow, Darkman (from the film directed by Sam Raimi), and a little bit of the Punisher. But instead of having a tragic past with a loved one killed, Mannekin does what she does because she can. She has wealth and that has given her power of sorts. She’s happily married and is a recent mother. She also has a keen understanding of the way the business world works.
Free Spirit is based on many of the street wise characters you’d see; Daredevil, Iron First, Power Man, Black Lightning, and to an extent Zatanna due to the fact she has magical powers. But my thought was to put her in a costume that represented the Stars and Stripes. After all, why can’t a black woman be a patriotic super hero.
Yellow Jacket is pulled direct from pulp fiction novels and crime noir. Phillip Marlowe, Mikey Spilane, Mike Hammer, and of course the Spirit, Dick Tracy, and a little bit of the Shadow. In Yellow Jacket’s case, he is a private investigator in his day job, and he works the clock at night as a masked vigilante.
Canadien is a mixed bag. He’s a bit of Captain Canuck, a bit of Shazam (in attidue), but he’s a whole lot like Spider-Man without the strength and speed of a spider. He’s the kid of the group, though he’ll be a tad shy when he encounters the other four.
And the five of them will meet up, as I’ve a plotline written out for when they do encounter each other. To put things into perspective, Britannia and Mannekin will become a duo at some point, as will Free Spirit and Yellow Jacket.
Let’s just say I’m excited about this November and feel really pumped to start this journey. These characters have been kicking around in my head the longest (though, Rocket Fox still beats them all) and hasn’t really been given treatment on paper as of yet.
