Writer's Commentary: Hide Away
On Post: Hide Away
Date: January 18
It was bound to happen eventually.
As evidenced by writing for Marvel.com, I like super powered folk. But since I do write about them roughly once a week, I actively tried to avoid them at the start of the Project to force myself to not just do a month of different flavor of comic book-esque stories. I treaded close to it with Daisychain with the feel and the Shroud reference, but it was still not really a super power story.
As evidenced by writing for Marvel.com, I like super powered folk. But since I do write about them roughly once a week, I actively tried to avoid them at the start of the Project to force myself to not just do a month of different flavor of comic book-esque stories. I treaded close to it with Daisychain with the feel and the Shroud reference, but it was still not really a super power story.
However, as I was more than halfway at this point, I felt I could take off the restriction here without it becoming the only thing I wrote the rest of the time. In our world, we have no super heroes. But we do have rock stars like Mick Jagger, larger than life entertainers who seem, at times, to be a different, advanced species. So if, in our world, a rock star might sing a song like this, wouldn’t a super hero feel the same sentiments in a fictional world.
Comic book fans are probably familiar with the book Inconceivable which tells the story of a Superman-esque hero who finally cracks and lashes out at the public in the most violent way possible. Initially, it appeared he just folded under the constant criticism he was receiving, even as he saved oodles and oodles of people. I took that same idea here and thought about how else you can respond to criticism. You can ignore it, you can hurt the person physically, you can forever try to live up to people’s expectations…or you can take your ball and go home after mocking everybody.
I liked the idea of a “hero” doing the most childish thing possible, so the latter is the track I took.
Just because the Project has ended doesn't mean I still don't value your feedback. Feel free to let me know on Twitter (@UnGajje) or drop me a note at tim[dot]g[dot]stevens[at]gmail[dot]com or on Facebook. If you see anything you like, I am all over the net too, so please check out my other works at Marvel, Complaint of the Week at the Living Room Times, and New Paris Press (which is now up and running) or my various 140 character missives on that Twitter account.