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Post by dans on Sept 11, 2021 20:16:07 GMT
I want to write the origin story for the Red Lynx. I'd like it to be a 'Golden Age' origin, similar in tone to the others we are familiar with, and maybe humorous - for someone reading comics to escape, rather than the dark 90s style.
In her first recorded appearance, she is patrolling San Francisco in April, 1943. She has been a heroine for some time, long enough so that the police know her. So that sets the location and the time frame. She was semi-retired by 1948, but she has made some appearances after that time.
In 1948, in her secret identity Kylynn McKenna, she is nationally known - she was the first woman to appear as a nationwide anchor on one of the major networks, and she has won national awards for her reporting. Don't know much about her background; she may have been an actress or a comedian.
Her powers include cat-like leaping ability, enhanced strength, speed and agility, probably enhanced night sight, and any other powers are current unrevealed. She also has sharp retractable claws; don't know if they are part of her or a gadget of some type.
She apparently rubs a token to activate her powers, and when she does, she can hear the roar of a big cat. Probably she is the only one who can normally hear the roar. She can share a small portion of her powers by touching someone as she activates her token, and that person can faintly hear the cat roaring. I don't know who gives her powers, it is probably a mystical being but it might be science-related.
She rides a motorcycle - probably a big, heavy, electric bike powered by lead-acid batteries. It is silent, has incredible acceleration, and a fairly limited range (maybe 100 miles?) between recharges.
She patrols by herself, doesn't have a sidekick, but she may have a support staff.
Since I don't know anything about her, we can write in as many supporting characters as we want - if I use anything you suggested, you or a surrogate, or a character you suggest, can be included.
Kylynn's name is Irish, I think, and she has red hair, but I don't know anything about her background, her parents, her ethnicity, her education...
Any suggestions? Thanks!
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Post by johnreiter902 on Sept 12, 2021 12:30:21 GMT
Perhaps she received the token as a gift from a dying witch-doctor while covering a story in the jungles. They could have been attacked by smugglers, and with the token she becomes an avatar of the Cat Goddess.
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Post by dans on Sept 12, 2021 13:51:17 GMT
Maybe a Native American Medicine Man while covering a story in the Rockies - same idea. Thanks!
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Post by dans on Sept 12, 2021 13:56:11 GMT
I wonder - suppose she got the powers of a skunk but didn't want to call herself Skunk Girl or Skunkette or Doe or Stink Lass, so she chose a cat name instead. Though that would probably piss off the skunk diety because big cats are the skunk's worst enemies. Oh, well...
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Post by dans on Sept 12, 2021 22:39:08 GMT
Skunks aren't good climbers anyway, and they have poor eyesight.
I wonder if she might be a lycanthrope and she has some kind of token that allows her to change at will? Maybe she was on a camping trip with her doctor boyfriend; she saved the life of a red lynx kitten and then later on there was some kind of hiking accident and she needed an emergency transfusion and the momma lynx let the doctor draw her blood? Or maybe one of her parents escaped from Moreau Island?
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Post by redsycorax on Sept 13, 2021 0:17:57 GMT
There was a Cat Girl womewhere in the public domain realm who started off as a supervillain who could control all felines within her telepathic range, although she later reformed. I'll find out more about her and report back. Incidentally, there is the possibility of therioanthropy, like lycanthropy but with different were-animals permissible than wolves. For example, the movie Cat People centred on such therioanthropes.
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Post by dans on Sept 13, 2021 1:04:15 GMT
I hadn't thought of her starting as a villain. She hasn't exhibited cat-control powers in any of the stories about her, but she's only appeared twice and there were no cats around for her to control in those stories..
I've also thought, maybe somehow the spirit of a cat merged with her after the cat passed away... maybe on a camping trip she found a lynx in a trap; the cat had chewed its leg off to get free, and it was dying and she freed it and tried to save it, but it passed away anyway. And rewarded her with its spirit and abilities...
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Post by redsycorax on Sept 13, 2021 1:42:27 GMT
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Post by dans on Sept 13, 2021 14:58:33 GMT
So... suppose she goes to the zoo, and they have a really old red lynx and she finds out that the zoo is going to euthanize the old cat, so she convinces the zoo to let her adopt the old cat and let her live our her life in peace and comfort... And the cat, through years of captivity, has learned to understand English... and tells her that thanks to her generosity, the Goddess of North American Mountain Cats has decided to give her powers.
I think that sounds very Golden Agish?
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Post by reichsmark on Sept 13, 2021 23:20:27 GMT
If she is Irish maybe just have one of the Celtic gods be responsible for granting her power.
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Post by dans on Sept 14, 2021 0:04:28 GMT
No lynxes in the British Isles. If she got her powers from a deity, it was a North American god or goddess, or natural spirit native to North America.
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Post by redsycorax on Sept 15, 2021 0:12:42 GMT
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Post by DocQuantum on Sept 15, 2021 18:31:01 GMT
Black Condor's origin is a bit of a problem, because he was raised by a flock of condors in Mongolia (and Roy Thomas added a radioactive meteor to explain why Black Condor can fly and why the condors are more intelligent than normal).
But there are no condors native to Mongolia. They should have been vultures. Yet they are specifically condors, so they must've gone there from North America at some point in the past.
Anyway, even with some of the best super-hero origins such things that don't make sense tend to be glossed over.
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Post by dans on Sept 15, 2021 21:22:37 GMT
this story would be set on Other Earth, my own universe. I am trying to make it a Golden Age/Silver Age style world. But I want to be more consistent than Condors.
It was my understanding that the origin of the Black Condor was originally in the Rocky Mountains... but I haven't done any research recently.
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Post by DocQuantum on Sept 15, 2021 21:43:15 GMT
No, Black Condor's parents were killed by Gali Kan and Yakki raiders, leaving him an orphan. When he grew up, Black Condor avenged his parents without knowing it by defeating Gali Kan. This all took place in Mongolia.
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