Writing about superpowers is tough. I came to that conclusion last night as I lay in bed, thinking about TOPAZ when I was supposed to be sleeping. I'm at the point in the novel now when Faith's origins have finally been revealed and she's developed some additional abilities.

I shared one of these abilities early on, but an astute reader on the forums pointed out that by her count, Faith should have four powers now. And so she does! Coming up with that fourth one was tricky, though.

Why? It's spelled M-A-R-V-E-L.

Seriously. If you can think of a superpower, Marvel's probably been writing about a character with it for 30 years. So what's a girl to do?

Let's be honest: the only superpowers Marvel hasn't delved into (much) are the silly ones, like Mystery Men, with The Shoveler ("You shovel better than any man I know"), Mr. Furious (who is just really mad all the time) and the Blue Raja (who throws any silverware accurately but refuses to toss knives about).

(Yes, I loved that movie, but my superheroes are a little more serious.)

I came up with an awesome power for Faith's fourth ability. But, wait—I'd seen something like it before. Not exactly what I was entertaining, but close enough that I had to stop and think more about it.

And that, in turn, got me thinking about ideas again and how the same elements come up over and over. Superman had super-strength...but so did Buffy. Angel (the mutant, not the vampire) and Hawkman/Hawkgirl all have feathered wings. The abilities might be the same, but the interpretation and the character and the stories are not.

In the end, a comment from one of my readers pointed me toward the unique spin I was looking for. Thanks, tmso!


TOPAZ status: Jason and Faith smack-down fight! That's all I'm going to say.

As anyone who's read my novel-in-progress on the WD Forums knows, I'm enamoured with superheroes. I've always found them fascinating. I've collected a few comic book series in my time—two that come to mind are Power Pack (yes, I was a child of the 80s) and Darkhawk.

Last night I watched Watchmen. I haven't read the graphic novel, but my husband assures me the movie is pretty much based frame-for-frame on it. It was dark, very gory, and long, but man...it was a good story. I loved how they blended together the histories of all of these very flawed heroes. For most of the "heroes", there was little to no difference between them and the bad guys.

The character I found the most intriguing, though, was Dr. Manhattan. He is what Superman would really be like. As he says, "The world's smartest man is no more a threat to me than the world's smartest termite." He is a being of such infinite power that he no longer understands humanity. He's an alien, without being an alien. He's just...weird. Scary weird.

And, without giving too much away, I'll be thinking of him as I continue to write Faith's story in TOPAZ.


TOPAZ/SENTINEL status: Same as yesterday. I took a break last night and raided Naxx-10 with my guild in World of Warcraft. Sigh...no drops for me, though.