SH1010 Superhero Theory--Assignment 1

[Erika]

Backstories are an important part of any hero’s identity. What is your backstory? Is it tragic? Would you be a better hero if you were an orphan? Why or why not?

This is a short answer assignment

[Adamant Ace]

My back story is hardly tragic, though a bit painful for me. I was twenty-three y.o. graduate student working with carbon nanotubes/nanofibers when an idea struck me: what if I could incorporate these into the human body? They would allow us to become stronger, faster and more durable while simply taking the place of some of our structural proteins. Needless to say, I may have made a couple of bad decisions involving experimentation with the fibers using nanites to implant them and here I am. The process, was to say the least, not comfortable and it took six months before my body fully converted and I was able to function normally. Besides reinforcing my bones, muscles and other connective tissues, for some reason my nervous system was extremely heavily modified by the nanites. I'm not sure how even now, but my brain and nerves have been altered in such a way as to make them essentially invulnerable and able to send signals at near light speed (due to carbon nanotubes ability to conduct electricty at essentially light speed). Well, that's the story of how I got my powers. I would argue that having some sort of parental figures actually makes for a better hero. Batman is kind of limited in that regard as his stories' only parental figure (that can still interact with him) is Alfred. Superman may be technically an orphan, but by being raised and interacting with his adoptive family made him who he is. My parents, though incredibly pissed at the risk I took with experimenting on myself and the anxiety they had to deal with while I was recovering, have been major moral influences on my life and extremely supportive. I would argue that while being an orphan can add gravitas to your story, it isn't necessary and in my opinion limits your future development as a hero.

Grade: 827 and 2/3 points. Great Job!

[thanatos1320]

I would not say my backstory is tragic, but then I also wouldn't say it was prefect. You see, as far as I was concerned I was perfectly normal up until the age 18. Everything just started to go my way sometime after I hit puberty. If I thought I would ace a test I did, if I thought I would be picked last in gym I was. When my grandma was supposed to have died of cancer, but was miraculously cured when I was sure she would be fine. And when my dad died in that car crash when I was positive there was no way he could be fine. Whether it was good or bad everything went the way I thought it would go. I had thought I was just really good a guessing outcomes, but after my uncanny guessing ability came up in a conversation with my best friend, my thoughts changed. He had mentioned that because of simple laws of probability I could not possibly always be right. At least not unless something else was at work. After much discussion and trial and error, we discovered I was able to alter the likelihood of outcomes. I could make the least likely things happen (though nothing truly imposable) and I could stop the most likely outcome. Though I'm still learning the extent of my powers and I don't really have full control of them I hope to one day be able to us them to help the people of Metocity.
As for whether being an orphan makes you a better hero, I don't believe it does. But being an orphan doesn't make you a bad hero either. I would suggest that it is whoever fills the role of the parental figure that molds the future hero combined with the hero's natural personality. So an orphan could be just as good or bad a hero as someone with both or neither parents.

Grade: Check Plus!

[steamtech]

I lived a fairly normal life for most of my childhood and early adulthood, but going to college opens your eyes to a lot of things. If there's one lesson every student learns, it's hardship. Whether your own or someone close to you, someone is paying for your education, and boy do you get educated.

Social injustice, political decisions powered by money, rights taken away from human beings just for being different, these are the harsh realities the world holds. These are the evils that people shield you from all of your childhood. I was lucky enough to have parents who wouldn't lie to me. Most people don't have that edge.

So, what is to be done? Righting wrongs sounds like work for a hero, no? Well, that's where it all falls apart. See, so much of what happens is because of a lack of education. Sure, these colleges will teach you the "right" way of doing things, but they've been teaching the "right" way for a long time, and have things really gotten better?

Then you flick on the news, and see the people protesting these wrongs getting clubbed down, pepper sprayed, sometimes even arrested by the very heroes that are supposed to protect them, all because of two things.

First, they have powers. Unregistered, uneducated supers, just trying to do the right thing, and forced to register as villains because of the second reason: They do things the wrong way, the politically inconvenient way. And the Agency hits them hard for it.

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of villains who are little more than psychopaths, murderers, or petty thieves. But there are plenty more that just want to set some wrongs right, and just go about it the wrong way.

That's where I come in. I don't have the physique to pull off the public image hero, and I'm not about to sign my death warrant by registering as a villain. What I do have is knowledge. I know how to fight, how to tinker, how to plan. I've got an overabundance of education, some help from the very spirits of the world around us, and I'm not afraid to use either.

So, If you're just a maniac looking for a body count, you can count me out. Heck, I may even leave a welcome mat for when the heroes come for you. But if you're looking to change the world, let's talk.

My name is Nietzsche. Making the world a better place, one scheme, explosion, or robbery at a time.

That's my backstory. Not really tragic in the generally accepted use of the word. Also, I think that being an orphan would have actively hurt my career in the long run, as I owe a lot of my free thinking and acceptance of the big picture to my parents.

Grade: Q

[sync1ine]

<Psychiatric report excerpt>
"... Robert (Bob) Benjirou presents with a mild persistent psychosis, which appears to be schizoaffective disorder. In open conversation he easily passes as a healthy young man of high school age and education, and has learned to guard his speech carefully. But if one gains his trust he will occasionally let slip that "Doug" has told him something or done something, typically actions that would have required him to be outside the authorized patient areas. He demonstrates mania and mixed episodes (which he attempts with some success to self medicate via caffeine and nicotine). At the age of 5, Bob engaged in the common form of schizotyphy known as the 'invisible friend': his "brother" Doug, a large black dog that only he could see.
However this personality construct has persisted well beyond early childhood, and this otherwise mild psychosis has generated attenuated forms of hallucination and delusional experiences, vivid enough to influence those around him into various forms of mass hallucination or delusional support. To wit, his family and several members of the nursing staffs involved in his care interact with Bob as if Doug were real and act on information Bob supplies that he simply cannot have, lending unhealthy support to his psychosis. In his parents' belief, Bob is not ill, but rather an 'Inugami-mochi', a summoner of a type of dog-god spirit common in old Japanese legends and historically linked to their family genealogy. For this reason the state removed him from his parents; Bob has not dealt with this well and acts as if the state is incarcerating him without cause.
On this subject, let me add that Bob is an escape artist of the highest caliber and has walked out of 6 facilities to date. Robert has spent most of his childhood on the streets and being pursued by the authorities. Bob typically manages to disappear or to slip away on his way to admission or assessment. Robert has perfect muscle memory: if he sees an action or task performed, such as a long series of keystrokes or a punch, he can repeat it at will. Trained from an early age in Aiki-jujitsu, an old form of Aikido, Bob is extremely difficult to manipulate physically or coerce, and seems to enjoy humiliating authority figures in physical confrontations to an unhealthy degree, often resulting in pointless escalations and his escape. In custody, he has been known to escape belt, vest and jacket restraints more quickly than they can be put on. When asked about some of these escapes, he accepts blame and has demonstrated extreme flexibility and skill. In other cases he avoids blame by stating that 'Doug undid it', and refuses to discuss it farther.
Robert has recently been spotted in Metro City, on the MCCC campus. The campus hospital has stated that he was given a physical but refuses to present him or identify where he is, and the MC attorneys' office has said they will refuse to support any extradition paperwork... "
_________________________

<excerpt MCCC student physical>
"... Nurse Allen has confirmed that not only does Doug exist, but he has a low powered, but broad suite of psionic abilities: telepathy, mild telekinesis, id domination, clairvoyance, projection and eidetic memory.
With Robert's grudging assistance, we have been able to confirm Doug's location: Doug is a fetus in fetu, a teratoma cyst. Doug was enveloped by Bob while they were still embryos, and exists as a mass buried in Bob's chest and abdomen. According to Bob, this is a family trait that shows up every few generations ('Inugami-mochi'), and he dared not mention it when previously incarcerated "..or they would kill Doug for sure". The MC attorneys office has agreed to defend the twins and keep them at liberty to attend college after a brief demonstration and assessment of the x-rays.
Bob and Doug are in reasonable shape for young men who have spent nearly half their lives on the street. Bob is extremely large for his age and has tremendous courage, strength, flexibility, limited gadgetter ability and an impressive suite of martial arts he has somehow managed to pick up on the run. Some of this is attributable to his muscle memory, much of the rest to a childhood fighting adults many times his size and weight simply to survive and protect his brother. Bob does have some scoliosis, but adjusting it would require surgery and risks damaging the interconnected nervous system the brothers share; Bob says it isn't worth the risk to have something he never missed.
Doug appears to be able to 'borrow' any sense Bob is not actively using, and can even 'borrow' a limb for purposes such as reading braille, although it tires him quickly. He typically projects himself and wanders around invisibly; reading, watching TV, possessing bored people and frequently getting into places around Bob that he probably shouldn't.

This natural curiosity will no doubt serve the twins no matter which card they choose. Doug is an optomist and has tremendous faith in humanity. Perhaps from exposure to so many people's thoughts and dreams, he seems determined to choose a hero card. Bob's experiences have been more negative, and have shaped his opinions accordingly. At this point Bob seems determined to choose villain, which explains how the twins paid two million dollars in tuition...."

Grade: Frowny Face for submitting medical records instead of writing it yourself. Also, you are trampled by an angry HIPPA-potomus.

[Kashiro]

Sometimes, you just want to end it all. For everything to just stop, so you can finally just take a breath and relax. I was the golden child. The one who got the grades, was healthy, happy. Well, healthy anyway. The problem is, I had to be perfect. And the problem with humanity is, we're not perfect. So it was inevitable that somewhere down the line, something went wrong. And I didn't want to do what they wanted me to do. So I wanted to escape. I tried to escape. But some things even death can't stop. It's an odd feeling, dying. You get a moment of euphoria as your brain realises what's going on and tries to pump as much dopamine into you so you go out happy. Apparently souls are a thing. It's really creepy seeing your body hang by its neck. I didn't see a bright light, either. All that happened is a skeleton in a rather dapper suit came up to be. Said his name was Baron Samedi or something. For some reason, he didn't want me dead. So he gave me a boon and told me to go right back to living. Who was I to complain? You know how I said it was creepy seeing your body hang by it's neck? It's feels worse to re-inhabit it after being dead for five minutes. Yes, that means brain-death. The boons are practical at least. And thus, I donned the mantle of the Baron, in homage to the figure who raised me from the dead.

Onto the orphan issue. The problem with tragedy is that rarely does it make someone a better hero. "The flower that blooms in adversity is the rarest one of all", after all. Usually, it makes the hero angsty; doubt themselves, their morals and their resolve. Or, it corrupts and twists them. See Harvey Dent, aka Two-Face. This also applies to the death of one's parents. Take Batman. The death of his parents was the cause of his eventual career as a superhero. But Batman had enough money to do whatever he wanted with it, and Alfred raised him well. However, he is still incredibly angsty, portrayed in the modern era as an anti-hero ("not the hero Gotham needs, but the hero Gotham deserves"). Again, with Clark Kent, almost his entire species was wiped out, but he was still raised by loving earth parents. Usually, a child without parents is going to an orphanage, or relatives. If they go to an orphanage, there's a chance they will go to a bad orphanage, increasing disdain and/or hatred for the system. This only makes for more villains, not heroes. On the other hand, being an orphan isn't necessarily a bad thing. If we look to Raven, we can see how it would be a good thing, for everyone involved, if her father Trigon died for good. It's a mixed bag, is what I'm trying to say. So, in short, no I would not be a better hero if I was an orphan., but not being one wouldn't make me a better one either.

Grade: 10 points for referencing Batman and Mulan in the same paragraph.

[sync1ine]

I have to remember not to get too cute; it isn't worth the effort on campus. Sometimes just the facts DON'T speak for themselves.
And writing for two may be a pain, but the class requirements are... the class requirements
Second- HIPAA doesn't apply to releasing your OWN records, that's your business to decide who to share with.
Still getting used to college (well, school) it's... new. And I see I forgot to answer two questions anyway. Will work from an outline on these from here on.

Bob: 'Tragedy' is a statement. Our lives are a process, a journey. You can't put a label like that on something unfinished. I wouldn't change any of it so far. As for being an orphan, no, the difference would be minimal to us. We 'lost' our parents to the states' actions years ago as effectively as if they had died, and they would have killed Doug if they had known a way to do it; returning to our family would just endanger our parents pointlessly. Do I sympathize with orphans and feel a rage similar to say, Robin's the Boy Wonder? Oh yes. Justice, Vengeance, those things have never been far from our thoughts, even if Doug is far more understanding than I am.

Doug: Labels like 'Tragedy' are a description for something in the past; but Bob and I are creatures of the present- we are too busy writing the script of our lives in the present to bother with reflection. And unlike everyone else I have ever met, we have never been lonely a single day in our lives. I believe that 'losing' our parents has sharpened my focus, give both of us an understanding of suffering we might not have had; but for Bob it has done more lasting harm than it did me, because he only knows that most people are good because I have told him so. It's second-hand knowledge, not experience. I worry for him. I think we would have been a happier superhero team having grown up with a family; I think there will always be a shadow over Doug because we didn't, but at least I will always be there for him. I will make sure Bob doesn't slack off on future assignments. Sorry about that, I was taking a nap.

Grade: R for Redo

[Twitch]

My power makes my back-story a bit long. It is best split into two sections, before diagnose and after diagnose. I was probably born with my senses 'over-clocked,' but the condition wasn't formally recognized until my last year in high-school (I can't say which due to legal reasons.)
As I grew up, I had an uncanny 'knack' for knowing what people weren't saying. This ability was refined through life experience and by the time I was in junior-high I was almost impossible to lie to. Needless to say, this put a sever damper on relationships. When an alpha male says, 'Hey, want to meet up later?' and the Queen Bee at the other table is all but screaming with jealously that he is merrily drinking in like a cheap beer, it is hard to believe this is the beginning of a Disney Channel love story. 
I retreated to sports. On the field, politics and excess drama melt away. The locker-room is a different story, however, my skill made me all but untouchable. I was damn good. This isn't boasting, it's fact.
Softball was my favorite. No one could get under a pop-fly than me.  My batting score was the best in the league. Curve balls, slow balls, I mastered them all. A fancy prep-school offered me free tuition. My family was so proud. My big sister would introduce me as 'my sister, the next Jennie Finch.'
It was in that fancy prep-school, things started to go wrong. I did something stupid, I ignored my lie detector. I wanted to play ball, have a near perfect G.P.A, then get scouted by the U.S. National Softball Team. What my teammates and coaches did was their own business.
If I'd not ignored things, I could have protected myself. In my last year the league commission launched an investigation and found all kinds of dirt - drugs, gambling, bribes, grade manipulation. The fact I was a good player put me under a special microscope. My own teammates insisted I was taking something. The coach even joked to the investigator, "Wish I'd used her doctor." Test after test found me clean, but that didn't stop my reputation from getting shredded with the rest of the team.
That's when I started wondering 'why'. Why was I so good, why could I 'see' lies? In a moment of 'aha' my dad sent me to a neurologist who ran a real-time MRI. My brain was special. I have more sensory neuron activation per second. I could process more 'pictures' per second with my eyes.
Sadly, this plan backfired. The diagnoses did just the opposite of clearing my name. I was the girl with an 'unfair advantage.' The school want to dropped me, but this time I was not going to be the passive victim. I found some lies and... renegotiated... my scholarship.
I've learned that my eyes have power, I shouldn't let that power go to waste.  Metro City Community College gives me the perfect changes to maximize my potential.

My backstory has tragedy, but isn't tragic. I have lost a very dear dream. It's still painfully and even knowing that I can become a greater force for change doesn't ease it. However, nobody died or got maimed - well, not physically. 
I wouldn't be a better hero if I was an orphan. I'd probably not have had the sports training and socialization that has honed my ability. Plus, I'd be a completely different person emotionally. My family had my back when my 'team' threw me under the bus. 

Grade: 10,000 points for just the right mix of drama and realism

[sincitysonly]

Of the four basic card holders, the henchman is the least needing of a backstory to support them.  Heroes are supposed to be tragic, with great losses and horrible youths that instilled into them a great sense of justice and/or equality.  That's great...for a hero.  Sidekicks are traditionally a strange blend of tragedy and optimism.  Broken homes and near-death experiences harken to a good sidekick backstory, even if most of them know deep down that they could be heroes.  That's the point though.  Blues are heroes because they have faced adversity forever and a day.  They have known what bad is since they were young enough to have that glow of optimism, of a brighter future.  When they, the heroic few, are finally faced with the horrible face of everyday life, they spring into action, righting the wrongs.

Villains, though, both supers and henchs, didn't face any such horrors...at least until they were old enough to know what a complete hole the world is, and decide to beat the world at it's own game.  Famous villains didn't decide to do evil until well into their late teens, for the most part, and even more commonplace red cards only venture into their careers late in life.  Then there are henchmen.  Those vastly more important minions to a supervillain, with powers and skills that put them far ahead of your standard goon and thug, they do what they do because they...have to.  The term 'Punch Clock Villain' was most probably invented to reference the standard henchman.  They show up, provide the support they are required to, and then they go home.  Why?  Because they have the least backstory, the least reason to be what they are.  Sure, many of them have powers or a technology that gives them something greater than a normal human, but a lot of them don't feel the need to use them.  So why do these otherwise boring people go red card?  For the greatest and most pervasive evil:  the money.  How drawl, right?  


The henchman is a strange case, indeed.  They would be at home equally fighting sidekicks while a bomb ticks, ready to blow off a vault door, as they would be wearing a suit and standing behind the counter of the bank as the villain comes waltzing in.  What is the key that separates those that become henchs and those that don't?  Other than the money, it's often a risk taking behavior.  These are the folks at work that invite you to a weekend paintball tournament three states over, that bungee jump off of cliffs, whose hobbies include riding roller coasters and chasing storms and training for a mixed martial arts fight they've got scheduled three months from now.  Everyone knows these people, everyone has a friend like that.  Henchmen are those people, with a secret.  The secret is they don't actually do those things.  They commit crimes.  

Grade: M for Mysterious. This is a nice little sum up of backstories in general, but what is YOUR backstory?

[kittiesofevil]

“Hero” who would ever want to be that. It is far more fun and meaningful to be the villain. To be a villain is to be able to let go of the restrictions and rules of conduct that the common people subscribe to. By being a villain you gain the ability to invoke change.
Some would suspect my backstory to be one of some sort of dramatic change or persecution causing my descent into villainy; little could be as spurious. I was born the middle child of five each with their roles all ready planed out. The oldest was the responsible rebel; one who would try to lead. The second oldest the popular one. The youngest the artist; who was born to the craft; acting, music, and cooking his passions. The second youngest falling as a mix of the above; a popular rebellious artist. I found all the roles taken and myself pushed into the role of quiet observer.
This observation followed me through schooling and into a study of the sciences. It was through usage of the scientific method that I found myself observing the nature and features of cats. I found their abilities useful. Through research and experimentation I was able to adapt and develop several of the physical features of various species in the Felidae family. The extra skeletal structures, flexible spine, and enlarged heart, arteries, and lungs to enable great speeds. The vestibular system to be able to correctly orient myself after a fall. Adding the extra rods to my eyes to be able to improve my night vision and the scope of my peripheral vision.
All of this was from my nature to observe. If I begun in the role of an orphan I don't believe this nature would have changed much. It seems this would be the direction that had been planned for me.

Grade: W for Look at that avatar!

[rypperd0c]

It had always been there...

I had always been aware of 'something' just out of the range of what most people consider normal. It had, in the beginning, been just a vague sense of things just out of site. But I wanted to fit in. I wanted to be normal, so I learned not to talk about it. I tried to not even think about it, but it never went away.
When I was old enough to decide my own fate, I joined the Army. It was during those days of stress and frequent loneliness that reconnected with that which I had for so long tried to ignore, to deny. I learned to accept what I was still unwilling to talk about. I learned that I could touch a level of energy that was as ambient and abundant as the vary air around me.

I learned to touch it. I learned to use it, in small, undetected ways. As a medic, I learned to touch the energy around me, and use it to air the sick and injured in my care. Over the years, I learned to do other things as well. I learned that my mind could reach out and change things around me, often in ways that should have been impossible.  I wanted to do more.  I had a power that could make me rich and famous, but I was afraid of it.

I was afraid of becoming known as a freak because I could do the impossible.  I was afraid of what would be asked of me, and of the price of refusing some of those that would demand I use my power to make them rich.  I could use my mind to touch the energy of existence, and use that energy to manipulate existence at the smallest, most basic levels.  My range was limited to barely two meters, but withing my sphere, my power over mater was absolute.  I could unlock a door with a touch.  I could heal any injury by focusing my will to the task.  I could even reshape things to match my imagination.  The potential frightened me too deeply to use my power, except in small ways, and then only when I felt I had no other choice.

I was afraid of what would happen to my life if the wrong people learned what I could do.  I was afraid of what I might do to myself if I let my power corrupt me.  I was living a lonely life, afraid of getting too close anybody, because of what might happen.

Eventually, after seeing enough news reports about innocents being harmed, and evil going unpunished, I realized I had a duty to the greater good.  It was a wake-up call.  I saw a new report where someone was dying slowly because of a villain's wake of destruction following a crime.  The man was beyond any help that paramedics could provide.  There was no way to free the man from the wreckage in time to get him to a hospital.  If I had been there I could have save him.

I realized I needed to give up being selfish. I needed to let go of trying to be 'normal. It was time to accept my duty to be a Hero.

Grade: 399.5827 Points

[davidj]

I can't say I have an impressive origin. I got my powers by inheritance. My father was a superhero, a pretty famous one named Legend. He was a classic flying brick type who was around long before the Agencies. In fact he was one of the first heroes to enlist with the Hero Agency...even though it's why he doesn't fight crime any more. He had some kind of beef with the Agency and tore up his license, but won't say why. He still does disaster prevention and relief but he spends most of his time in his orbital base, which is where I grew up. I call it the Fortress of Dorkitude. You should see his collection of souvenirs from his crime fighting days.

Me, I've got the same package pretty much. Strength, durability, enhanced eyesight and vision, limited shapeshifting (No, we don't just do it with glasses), flight...ish. It's more like assisted jumping than proper flight. I still have trouble steering and sustaining it. I'm working on it, and thanks to Dad's reputation I got into one of the best hero schools. He has some idea that I'll be the next Legend, but it looks like I've been renamed by everyone else as "Legacy" because of my circumstances. I can live with it, I guess. I mean my thing really is that I've inherited my old man's juice, so it's fair enough.

Thing is I grew up on the Fortress. Just me and one of the greatest heroes in history all alone together. My dad. Taught me everything he knew about how to deal to deal with the outside world. Yay. You know that old saw about the superhero pretending to be a maladroit dork who doesn't know how to talk to people...especially girls, so nobody will suspect his SECRET IDENTITY? That was my dad back in the day. Except he wasn't a big hero pretending to be a dork. He was a dork acting like a big hero. Don't get me wrong, he busted up a lot of robots and death rays and saved a lot of accident prone people. But when he talked to them it was all Superhero Quips phoniness because if he didn't it would be all stammering and long pauses.

So me, I've never actually had a friend, and everyone at school thinks I'm arrogant and full of myself because I can't hold up the other end of a normal conversation and I don't accept invitations to social events because I'm actually afraid of crowds. Man. Once I'm out of here I'm definitely getting a sidekick with some people skills no matter what powers they have. Your sidekick's basically your wingman, right?

[coriolis]

There were no superheroes before June 13th, 1989. I know that, because I was among the first. But where did powers come from? Where did this phenomenon begin? And why were the first emergences concentrated in southeastern Wisconsin and northern Illinois? Simple answer? One meteor, streaking to Earth, source unknown, material unknown, that (as review of astronomy records showed) broke up entirely over Mukwanago, WI (a place where nothing exciting ever happens, otherwise). But it left a trace of something, detectable only to instruments of the day as a slightly higher-then-background level of radiation. And it caused powers, real comic-book-y powers, to surface. Starting in an eccentric radius around that area (matching models of hypothetical radioactive fallout, given the prevailing winds at the time) and slowly spreading. That's when my (mostly magnetic) powers activated. Why then, am I called "Coriolis", when that force has little to nothing to do with magnetism? Simple. Superhero trope, taking a code name stitched together from one's real ("secret") identity. Which, since I've had to give it up in favor of a new, assumed, identity, I can safely name as "Corwin Allistair." I think a name like that is actually worth points in the hero-school system that has evolved since.

So, my powers manifested. So did those of others. That led to The Panic. The Milwaukee Quarantine. The civil rights protests. The outright battles. The Constitutional Amendment. The tradeoff of Registration for freedom.

Some will say that I was on the wrong side of those early battles, representing the frightened Federal Government instead of my fellow metas...but I didn't precisely have a choice. I was drafted. And in that "with us or against us" mentality, which still exists today, "against us" usually meant "dead". I wasn't entirely unwilling. I believed in the US and what it stands for, and still do, I am a patriot in that respect. I felt the only hope of achieving fairness from the mundanes was policing the bad apples. Yes, "Team Alpha" had to take down a lot of people who only wanted fair civil rights, we were villified for it. All of the SLED teams were. We're not monsters, any more than regular military folk are. And trust me, we policed our own, in ways that never made the headlines. Unlike the occasional (admitted) atrocity.

SLED. Special Law Enforcement Division. Let me tell you, it took some delicate negotiations to pry that acronym free from South Carolina, which is why their state agency is now SC-squared (South Carolina Special Constabulary). Just don't call them "squares", at least not where they can hear you.

But look where we are now. You've got rights now. Constitutional amendment that protects your real identity (as long as you register). And the Teams are now part of Homeland Security, rather than straight-up martial-law enforcers, so that's an improvement. The Agency is a necessary evil, and relatively benign as overseers go. And nobody with any sense will ever say differently.

I'm not on active duty any more, but I still suit up on occasion. And if anything ever really breaks loose, there's that little reactivation clause in my contract with the DOD...

[kincade]

When my father banished me from Asgard, and I ran over that pod from Krypton, I crash-landed on a tiny blue-green planet in the unfashionable western spiral arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. After that, my billionaire parents were murdered in front of me and I was bitten by a radioactive spider while being bombarded by Gamma radiation. I recovered with the help of the supersoldier serum and was reborn with an additional X-Gene. Then I got bored, so I came here!

[Appended Agency report 42-0854625546]

Agent 1138, subject review 42-0854625546, Darren Kincade

Subject was abandoned by Mother as infant and raised by alcoholic, abusive Father. Enhanced strength and impenetrable skin seems to have developed during formative years and defense against physical harm of father. Constant fighting with peers during Middle and early High School got him sent to a Military Academy, where he quickly excelled at hand-to-hand combat, short-range weapons, marksmanship, and wilderness survival. A return home after graduation appears to have resulted in an intense physical altercation with father, where subject was shot 6 times in the head from short range with an old Colt .45. The slugs failed to pierce his skull, thanks to his enhancements, but the trauma severely affected subjects mental faculties. He will, at times, perceive things that don't exist, have conversations with himself, and retain memories of events that never occurred. In short, he comes across as being...off. However, there were a few benefits to this altered state. His approaches and tactics are virtually impossible to predict, he is a master of improvisation and doing the unexpected. He has adopted a form of drunken boxing uniquely suited to his skills, both new and old. All of this works to give the subject a psychological advantage as he is constantly throwing his opponent off balance physically and mentally. Subject seems ideally suited for mercenary and villain work as his approach to objectives would make him most difficult to counter.