Phase Two Concept Art

I think you really nailed it. They also have a holographic projection mode for concealment, but we haven’t seen that in action (on screen).

Works. Simple, evocative, but different enough to be unique.

Which in turn (from the turret perspective) makes me think of a larger (and cruder) version, the Lexcorp/Waynetech bots from “Worlds Finest”.

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Created with Blender. I used Metaballs to make the station, the Inkwood shader to texture it, a nebula HDRI off Shutterstock for the background, and some basic geometry and Realtime Materials plugins to make the Vanguard.

Update: V2

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I took the hexagonal shape from Mike’s drawing and thought, what would Jordan’s shadow shield look like when it actually got hit? Here’s a way to visualize what happens, as the shield represents how much capacity it has, and how fast it recharges.

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Since there’s been a bit of activity with the Phase Two Jason Quill stories and, having re-read them to find context for Dave’s comments, I was reminded just how much I liked them. With that, I figured I would take a little time and do some experimentation in that wheelhouse.

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Well, that’s certainly intriguing!

With the Concordance Coordinators turning up a few times throughout Phase Two, I figured it was worthwhile to see if I could put together a look for them.

A couple details I tried to get across:

  • I see them as very old, having long bonded fully with their shards. While most likely some alien species, I wanted them to appear more distant than just giving them an alien shape would and instead made sure they didn’t have any facial features to betray their thoughts. Additionally, they’ve gone all energy being.
  • Their astrolabe/halos were described as being used a tools, like control panels for the Schema, so I decided to make them look a bit more complex than the ones I did for Concord or the Trio. In fact, if I were to include them in any actual artwork, I’d probably have them made up of several overlapping rings and probably much larger than shown here, like 50% of the Coordinator’s height.
  • Rather than a uniform, I went for more of a robe-like cloak to seem more high-and-mighty than Agents like Adam and the Trio.

Most likely not the final look, but definitely a good first pass on the design.

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Well now we’ve got Rossum-type robots, which implies that they are visually distinct. Wonder what those might look like? :thinking:

So I’m thinking something simplistic, easily mass-manufactured (hence why Rook when to him). But simple doesn’t mean it isn’t brilliant (in fact, from my experience, simplicity tends to be one of the most difficult things to achieve).

What I think most denotes a robot as a Rossum-type is the face. I took some cues from both the robot Peacekeeper from the 2009 Astro Boy movie, as well as Ivo’s Android (Amazo, not that he’s ever called that in the show) from Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. Very inhuman and feature-less, which fits with how Rossum sees his creations.

As for Rossum himself, this is a clean-up of an earlier design for him, mostly based Rossom’s inspiration: Dr. Tenma. The one thing I added for my own amusement is the sneakers with the suit. While watching the Librarians TV show, I noticed that the character of Flynn Carson always wears a pair of Converse sneakers despite almost always wearing a three-piece suit, and it just stuck with me as fun detail. Perhaps Rossum knows the next “run for your life” situation is never too far away and wears appropriate footwear. Who could say?

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This all looks fantastic!

Which also makes them very brandable, since his main gig was selling creations to other villains for their schemes.

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Once, apparently.

While Bill’s graphic is more in keeping viz suit-wearing …
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Since it looks like I’m going to have to deal with at least one Atlantean on a regular basis going forward, I figure it’s worth while to take a second pass at my concept for Atlantean Blood.


I’m uncertain which I like more, the tentacle placement of my first concept or this one. What I do like the coloration on this one.

Open to commentary on this more than normal because I know it’s something I don’t feel 100% confident on. A lot of that is due to every time I push the design to more “alien” I take a half step back toward human and I feel like it’s making the design less than it could be, but that could also be perfect for these half-human, generically engineered people.

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So here’s the deep dive into the Atlantean Blood as characters. Some or all of this might either be obvious, or a repeat of stuff I’ve said before, but too bad.

  • They’re definitely inspired by HP Lovecraft’s Deep Ones. They look like half-human hybrids that under many circumstances would awaken feelings of fear and disgust in ordinary surface people.
  • They’ve been engineered for utility, and won’t blend in. Atlanteans have other options if they need infiltrators that can pass on the surface world. The ninja corps’ strategy for infiltration is “never be seen”.
  • At the same time, they’re an oppressed underclass among their own people, serving their immortal masters’ long-term goals.
  • First and foremost, they must be amphibious, able to function in both air and water. The fins and webbing and etc. serve that goal well.
  • Second, they must be humanoid enough to use human tools and weapons. The surface dwellers have created a lot of neat things. Again, nailed it.
  • Third, if you asked a human biologist about this kind of hybrid, they’d probably laugh you out of the room. Their creation is a delicate balancing act of genetic-engineering genius, so they will be a compromise in many ways.
  • Through the magic of genetics, some of their practical engineering might have unintended or weird side effects, like strange markings, tentacle placement, or whatever, so feel free to go wild there. Individual Blood can be extremely individual-looking, with the slider bar for “human” vs. “cephalopod” anywhere on the scale.

Overall we want the Blood to evoke both horror and sympathy, depending on whether they’re friends or enemies. We should clearly see the familiar, framed by the alien.

Some random images that might be relevant?


Probably a decent middle ground.


Probably as far as the Blood are pushed toward squidhood, biologically.


If your design gets this far toward human, you’ve gone too far.


Pretty good!


Also pretty good! It’s neat how they have an essentially human face but then a ton of little details that say “hey, nope, look again”.

So what I’m hearing is “you can totally push the design further.” :laughing:

I will admit, I didn’t make as many notes as I usually do so I definitely missed a lot of details you put through all of the Invisible Invasion stories, so I appreciate the recap. My research tonight mostly consisted of just skimming Ninjess’ first appearance in Phase 2 to double check myself on “did Bill say she looked like a squid girl or just imply it?”

With these notes, I’m going to reread more of the stories to grab some more details and then see if I can go with something a bit more out there.

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The story that sets the stage is actually much older


Did another pass and I definitely like this take a bit more. Much more a refinement than a redesign of what came before, but I feel much more confident in being able to get characters out of this design and not just creatures.

On the left we have a take on an ideal Atlantean blood male, and then them fitted up in some battle armor. Next is a take on a military official (not Commander Saito, but not far from him in demeanor and attitude). And then an attempt at “cute monster girl” Fuko.

I at least feel we’re getting into the ballpark with these, though we’re still probably a couple iterations away from anything that could be considered a final design.

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A suggestion for Fuko specifically (and maybe others generally?): longer tentacles, including on the top of her head (partial baldness is kind of an odd look for her). And lean into the fact that octopi have complex nervous systems that effectively make their limbs “smart”:

The result:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ExpressiveHair

They can function as a more versatile version of this:


In short, let the tentacles function as a tool for emoting on sympathetic characters, but lean into them as inhuman body parts for bad guys - and in that case, put them on more than just the head?

To expand on this for bad guys, they might reach hungrily for people the Blood is threatening, or curl in anticipation of something, or otherwise show an alarming amount of animation.