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  1. #31
    Ultimate Member Ascended's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by lemonpeace View Post
    how would you guys Rebirth the Amazing Man lineage for the current continuity (I don't know how much if any of the Amazing-Men have been brought up)?
    Do we even know what current continuity looks like, to work the Everett clan into it?

    I dunno what I'd do. I'm torn. We know the powers are passed down through the family and there's at least two branches of the family tree, and they're primarily located in the South. We know the OG Amazing Man was a civil rights activist with only MLK and Malcom X considered more influential, and his ID was revealed to the public by Hoover. We know Marcus did a lot of work to help New Orleans recover after hurricane Katrina. I think we could keep all that, and the broadstroke elements of Amazing Man history, intact. Maybe the 90's version didn't die in the same circumstances with the same characters in the same story, but the broadstrokes we could keep.

    So obviously there's tons of room to build a big, close-knit clan, in classic Southern style, around all this legacy of activism. That covers a huge chunk of the supporting cast and plays into the IP's scant established themes. And I like the idea of throwing these people together and letting them bicker. But a black superhero making commentary on black people? It's the go-to troupe for every black superhero out there. Even the space cops make this kind of commentary and they don't even live on earth!

    And I don't know what it is, but there should be some kind of narrative-heavy "important thing" thread running through this family, at the source of their powers. I don't know what, some kind of quasi-science-y thing, another unifying force like gravity, nuclears, or speed force or...I dunno what, but something important that the family is intrinsically tied to, something bigger than us. But that's just me and my love for high-concept science fantasy. Not magic/voodoo or a African mythology, but something.
    "We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another, as if we were one single tribe."

    ~ Black Panther.

  2. #32
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ascended View Post
    And I don't know what it is, but there should be some kind of narrative-heavy "important thing" thread running through this family, at the source of their powers. I don't know what, some kind of quasi-science-y thing, another unifying force like gravity, nuclears, or speed force or...I dunno what, but something important that the family is intrinsically tied to, something bigger than us. But that's just me and my love for high-concept science fantasy. Not magic/voodoo or a African mythology, but something.
    I'd also prefer something science-y to something magical. (And bonus points if the scientist involved is a black man, if not the actual hero himself. Always better to be the doer, than the one that gets done to. Agency is power.)

    Perhaps some sort of experimentation (for which he volunteered!) or accident (for which he obviously did not...) happened in WW2 that caused the first Amazing Man to gain his powers, and it has spread to his descendants over the next three or four generations, but not always predictably?

    Perhaps there's an alien entity or force that was discovered that poured itself into that first 'Amazing Man,' and when he passes, it flows out into a blood relative? (Not a sapient alien, more of a transferable power-source, perhaps used as such by an alien species in the first place, and never meant to fall into the hands of humanity, but the first Amazing Man absorbed it into himself rather than let it fall into the hands of Axis peeps?)

    Perhaps something cleverer than I'm gonna think of in 5 minutes off the top of my head at this time of night.

    I'd want to avoid 'some white dude(s) tied me down and gave me powers' (Luke Cage) or 'magical negro' (Brother Voodoo) origins, for, among other reasons, they've already been done (also, ugh), but other than that, there's plenty of wiggle room.
    Last edited by Sutekh; 10-23-2020 at 10:31 PM.

  3. #33
    Ultimate Member Ascended's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sutekh View Post
    Perhaps some sort of experimentation (for which he volunteered!) or accident (for which he obviously did not...) happened in WW2 that caused the first Amazing Man to gain his powers, and it has spread to his descendants over the next three or four generations, but not always predictably?
    The original apparently got his powers from an experiment (gone wrong) the Ultra-Humanite (Golden Age Superman villain) was performing.

    I'd tweak that, myself. I'd say the powers were already in the family long generations before that, but the first Amazing Man was just one of the family members where the powers didn't naturally manifest (not every family member has the powers it seems), and it took Ultra's experiment to activate them. That means we have a deeper family connection to explore and build on, and we're minimizing the "tied down by a white dude" troupe like you mentioned.

    Perhaps there's an alien entity or force that was discovered that poured itself into that first 'Amazing Man,' and when he passes, it flows out into a blood relative? (Not a sapient alien, more of a transferable power-source, perhaps used as such by an alien species in the first place, and never meant to fall into the hands of humanity, but the first Amazing Man absorbed it into himself rather than let it fall into the hands of Axis peeps?)

    Perhaps something cleverer than I'm gonna think of in 5 minutes off the top of my head at this time of night.
    Only thing I can think of is tying the powers to the strong or weak nuclear force. I haven't studied the unifying forces since high school and would have to do a little research to see if either could conceivably fit, but if one of those forces can in any way be tied to bonding/shaping molecular structures then there we go.

    And if we say that this quasi-scientific-but-sorta-mythical field of awesome all-encompassing universal power is able to copy psyches into itself in the same way the Everetts can copy the molecular structure of the objects they touch, then you can do the whole "past kings of Wakanda" spirit talks with your dead ancestors, which is not only a cool thing regardless of franchise but plays strongly with the family themes already established with the character.
    "We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another, as if we were one single tribe."

    ~ Black Panther.

  4. #34
    Ultimate Member Ascended's Avatar
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    Sometimes I'm dense as hell. If Amazing Man were going to be tied to some quasi-scientific field of universal constants, then building something off the periodic table is obviously the place to start.
    "We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another, as if we were one single tribe."

    ~ Black Panther.

  5. #35
    Uncanny Member MajorHoy's Avatar
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    Entry from Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe Vol. I (March 1985):

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