Denver 5: Character Designs

A while back, a friend and I did some preliminary work for a gag-a-day comic based on a stable of characters we and some other friends came up with. I recently found some of that work and thought I'd share it. This week's offerings are basic character design notes on the central characters.

Tyler "Hellfire" Foss: Late teens/early twenties. Medium length brown hair. White. Male. No facial hair, jewelry, or glasses. No unusual appearance based on his metahuman abilities...yet. Tyler's usual style of dress includes blue jeans, a white t-shirt, and his dead friend's leather jacket (Ken).

Cyberparanoid: Your call. Though I believe the original character description I received included a trench coat. He's a typical twenty-something white nerd who isn't attractive, but isn't quite unattractive. 

Thomas "The Snake" Smith: He looks a well-aged man in his late thirties with an ambiguous ethnicity. Black hair trimmed neatly, brown eyes. Slight mustache if it works, not if it doesn't.  A business suit is his 'costume.' Sunglasses when he's outside. Watch. Class ring from whatever ivy league school he went to. His pagers, phones, pdas, etc make a veritable utility belt when his coat is pulled back or taken off.

Doctor Ibrahim "The Spider" Johnson: A spider-face if that's doable (multiple eyes, mandibles). Mask if that's not doable. Mask has same basic coverage as Batman's, allowing facial and eye expressions. All-black Adaptive Matter (spandex) clothing, though if black-on-black is hard to contrast, or if it's a legitimate identifiablility concern (since Spider-Man comics do exist in this universe), we can talk something different, like urban camouflage or crisscrossing spider legs in a zebra pattern, or something else. The number 1858, the year Denver was founded, is on his chest in silver. Aside from the spider-face, he has no Spider-like insignia or symbols. Additionally, I was thinking of maybe putting "Denver" on one shoulder and "Defender" on the other. The deal is that he really likes his hometown, but he can also remind readers where this thing takes place. Whenever he uses his powers, his time-manipulating effects will often give the impression of additional, phantom arms and legs. 

Without his costume, Dr. Johnson will sometimes act as a young gangster of Hispanic or Middle Eastern descent. Think Ali-G, with puffy neon-colored clothing and sunglasses. He has as buzzcut and dark blue eyes. Whenever he's acting as Dr. Johnson, he'll be an older gentleman of Middle Eastern descent with a white wig and a lab coat.

Doctor Eric "Doctor Bob" Roberts: A quiet white man who seems to be no older than Tyler Foss. He has reddish hair and wears glasses. He usually wears polo shirts with khakis, and U.N.I.T.Y.-branded Adaptive Matter Clothing (Blue and White/Silver, with "U.N.I.T.Y." on the back) underneath for any impromptu field work. He's often carrying some kind of pad-like device for data. And will often review holographic data on his desk while talking to others.

Damien "Pikachu" Grey: Damien is a young man of about sixteen years old. He often wears jeans and t-shirts and seems more interested in games than the real world. White male just above 5' tall with dark hair and eyes. He should look obviously younger than the rest because he is "the kid" of the group.

Giohi: Giohi is a monster. It has shark-grey skin and four arms. The top two are liquid metal and adaptive energy forms that can serve as actual hands. The bottom two are a rotating mace with jagged spikes and a minigun. There is nothing subtle about Giohi as a weapon designed for killing people. It does not speak, but instead communicates entirely with its facial expression. That communications ability is relevant, as ts only real superpower, aside from enhanced strength and an impressive weapons array, is the ability to kill with a glance. Optional: Metallic wings.