There is a common mistake among new comic book creators when it comes to drafting up new characters for comic book stories. For some reason there has been an ongoing misconception that in order to have a likeable character he or she needs to be god-like invincible and have the sex appeal of a porn star. This is a stereotype carried from popular comics of the 90's during a time where everything had to be bigger, badder, and push boundaries. But times have changed and as comic fans demand more drama and diversity in their comics the rules have changed. Comic book characters have evolved to much more than a fancy costume with special powers.
In today's comic reading society your characters need to have depth. You do this by giving them personality traits and human faults. Alan Moore was one of a few epic writers to change the stereotype of super heroes by humanizing them with social and personal issues. Orson Scott Card wrote in Character & Viewpoints that characters "...readers want your characters to seem like real people. Whole and alive, believable and worth caring about." To achieve this level of attraction between your characters and your readers you will have to build them up.
There are many traits that transform your character and bring life to your stories. Linda N. Edelstein, PH.D. wrote a book called Writer's Guide to Character Traits. There's a chapter dedicated to 23 personality traits with patterns of inner experience and behavior. Such personality traits included on the list are the adventurer whose themes are excitement and boldness and the resilient, a personality type which is productive and able to face problems and take personal control. Stan Lee writes in his book How to Draw Superheroes that there's two superhero archetypes: The S-type and the B-type. The S-type stands for Superman while the B-type represents Batman. The S-type is a character which is bold and has superpowers. This character is loud in the sense of being represented with bright colors and the face is visible to show expressions and to give the impression of accountability. The B-type is a lot more grittier, typically a person without powers that is highly driven by a life altering event to perform incredible feats.
Start your character profile with all the basics: real or alter ego name, date of birth or age, sex, race, religion, culture or ethnicity, family situation such as single, married, divorced, children, parents, etc. Next add a life changing moment or character defining event in the past, a reputation, good and/or bad habits, give them a flaw or weakness. Give them view points and biases. Give them a bit of personality. Do they joke around? Are they a shy introvert or social butterfly? Do they hate dogs and love cats? How do they interact with different people? Remember, you don't need to fill this out completely before you can start your comic story, but at least have some of these answered to have a foundation to build on as your write your story.
Here comes the typical fun part, choosing powers! The list is almost endless and feel free to be as creative as you want to be, but keep this in mind: the more powerful your character is the harder it will be to create a believable obstacle or conflict to solve. I'll entertain the idea of listing several superpowers here to get you inspired:
- heat or laser vision
- elemental control
- invisibility
- special sight like x-ray vision
- ability to fly
- incredible speed
- shape shifting
- magic
- super sense like hearing or sight
- animal or insect like powers
- technology based powers like a bionic arm or camera eye
- super strength
- mythological power like Thor or Wonder Woman
- alien like Venom or Martian Manhunter
Always try to keep your characters interesting by making them dynamic with personality traits, motivations, and life changing events. Don't be afraid to make them flawed. It makes them that much more believable.