Not shown: Otto’s fist indented in his jaw.
So Troll’s… a joke. Not even really a joke, just the punchline. But he’s part of the Menagerie history and that means he should probably show up in some of the artwork. He does fulfill one of my favorite roles… the punching bag C-tier villain. Marvel’s The Wrecking Crew, Stiltman, and Shocker; DC’s Nightshade, Copperhead… Solomon Grundy depending on the occasion.
And while those villains have their charms… Troll’s entire reason is to have absolutely no charm and just be a very punchable face, which is a big loss for a warm-up villain. A good C-tier villain should be someone you like to see pop up because it means this is a chance for the heroes to show off. Troll… just sort of attracts fists. His official character design does a lot to help that image and I’ve less prettied that up and more replaced parts I didn’t like with my more preferable design elements. A bowling ball on toothpick legs is always grade A design work in my book. 
Anyway, here’s some previews of some images I have in mind featuring the Blue Meanie here (mostly because I don’t think I post enough pre-prod work here and I’m sure someone would be interested in that stuff).
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With that last picture, now I’m picturing Radiance vs. Troll ending with her using holograms to dress him up in a frilly dress for tea together, and Alycia bemusedly snapping pictures to go on social media.
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“Father always used to say that a powerful image is more effective than a thousand words, or ten thousand guns. Come to think of it, I think that’s sort of Troll’s message, too. Ironic, that.”
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I’m afraid I didn’t incorporate that into the thread I did, but let’s stick a pin in that one. Who knows what tales may come?
I have… plans.
Trying to clean up some of the previous design.
I’m thinking a lot of Charade’s design is going to get lost in the dark colors I’m using for her. While this fits her character, but I wonder if lightening some of the colors might help a bit in readability. Thoughts?
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From a comics / illustration standpoint, the lighter tones are probably better. They make the character and all her bits of kit easier to see. In reality, Alycia would probably go for darker tones, but, hey, “reality.”
(I do like the drawings above, btw. 
)
Fun story for the red. That was in my swatches as “Rusty Red” which means I color picked it from this image. This has the added benefit of keeping the Chin/Quill contingent’s color schemes same range.
But on that same line, the “greys” came from Batman’s costume in Justice League: War (I think that’s the right animated movie). And if it’s good enough for Batman, it’s good enough for Charade.
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Jason: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Alycia: “It’s strictly a coincidence! I’m not coordinating with you!”
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“Sure, the Greatest Detective. Fine, awesome fighter. Swell, hypergenius. But, really, do you know how much money he spends on bespoke suits and silk ties? Capitalist pig …”
Mercury, Ghost Girl, and Jason Quill drop into Paragon City.
(Electricity/Regen Scrapper, Dark/Dark Controller, Robots/Forcefields Mastermind, respectively.)
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Some days you just feel like doing a quick sketch of everyone’s favorite anarchist (and I’m sure she would take exception to that descriptor).
Always liked her in a ballcap (from her time in the Quill warehouses). I can’t remember what was on her cap from that picture that was used for that reference image, so I figured I’d go with something that would fit her style.
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Nice.That particular episode will get dragged into my Jalycia NaNo novel probably next year.
And now I have to ask about the ideographs, since I assume they are meaningful.
I did hit my 50K words (last Thursday), and am wrapping up a couple of scenes tonight before calling it for the month. I want to do at least one pass through to make it slightly less incoherent, then I will open it up for a very rough read to anyone in the group who is interested.
The overall story is much simplified, in some ways, and the supporting cast has been significantly reduced and revised, and the chronology is waaaay jumbled in order to bring events together more coherently while still giving screen time to both of them, etc. It’s been fun – recycling of some backstory bits, but a lot of new writing as well for both of them. And, at 50K, it’s about 1/2 to 2/3 through the first book.
As to Alycia’s political tendencies, for purposes of the game they probably remain unsettled, defined by more what she is against than what she is for. She’d likely identify with some anarchist strain, in terms of overthrowing the oligarchy and plutocratic elements that have tyrannized the etc. etc., and holds onto, by force, a youthful faith in the ability of the people to work together cooperatively once those shackles are loosed from them (that’s probably the main magical thinking in her ideological stance). She’s very leery of any “tear it all down” movement that (a) incorporates a lot of bloodshed and (b) assumes that right-thinking folk will “guide” humanity to a better goal after the revolution, seeing how that particular rabbit hole worked for her father. To a degree, she’s reeled in her sights to “act local” more than global destruction of the world order, as that puts the focus on individuals, which her father had progressively disregarded as being a concern over the years.
In some ways, her worldview is better formed than the Alycia in my novel, who’s been forced into survival mode for the last several years and hasn’t fully faced yet the evil of her father’s philosophy.
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So if my Google Translate-fu is correct, those are the characters for Mòshì, which translates into “disregard, overlook, or pay no attention to.” Which is a slightly more subtle way of Alycia walking around saying…
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My more reliable translator agrees. Which is very accurate for Alycia.
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Alycia approves.
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So since the jig is up with my secret Menagerie of the Multiverse project, I figured I’d share some of the artwork.
Personally, my favorite card I made was this one from Sablestar’s deck (V5-4): Distracting Flunky.
Yes, that is totally the Farlander. But why isn’t the card called the Farlander? Two reasons: 1) there are three copies in the deck, which means that there could be multiple out at the same time, which I don’t like for uniquely named cards and 2) it amuses me deeply that the Farlander gets so little respect that his card doesn’t even refer to him by name (excluding quote text).
But you may be saying to yourself “But Mike, you’ve drawn the Farlander so cool. Why would you do that if the joke is that he doesn’t get any respect?” And that’s because, taking from the source material of Sentinels of the Multiverse, several cards in different decks have artwork that builds upon other cards. You see that the quote text is from Issue 10? Do you know what other card has quote text from Issue 10? A card from Concord’s deck: Cosmic Flare Up.
Yes, most of the fun I had with this project was laughing at my own jokes.
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Concord: “that guy bugs me”
These look amazing
Thanks Bill. Another fun part of the “no respect” angle: there is a mechanic in the game called nemesis. Whenever two cards share a nemesis icon, they do increased damage to one another. For example:
(Iconoclast is Mercury’s nemesis because I figured with her whole deal being “bringing down the super hero status quo” the legacy made the most sense. Also her deck, being the defacto “Rook villain grab bag” included nemeses for all the rest of the Menagerie except Mercury [and Ghost Girl, but she got her own villain].)
So why do I bring up nemesis symbols? Because he doesn’t have Concord’s. Yep, he is not even worth being Concord’s nemesis (which would have been particularly mean anyway, given that a lot of Sablestar’s deck is “mess with Concord in particular”).
And going back to Ghost Girl’s own villain? Was there ever any doubt?
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