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Post by dans on Apr 1, 2023 21:17:18 GMT
On another Earth - the Earth of the Equity Concord of America - there is yet another Margo the Magician. This Margo is similar in some ways and different in others than the Margo of Earth X, though she is based on the Public Domain Margo Webster who was introduced in Uncle Sam Quarterly #2. We've discussed Margo before, and I definitely take that discussion into consideration as I develop Margo's character. On Equity Earth, she is married to the Rush, a super speedster, and she is a charter member of the Equity Concord of America - and in the story I'm working on, she is giving the two newest members of the Concord a detailed tour of their headquarters.
And during the tour, Margo is alerted to a 'situation', and she and the rookies head out to deal with it.
I want the villain to be a long term enemy of Margo, and she should be a powerful sorceress with a lot of history. I will create some of that, but I'm wondering if anyone knows of a female sorceress from outside the DC and Marvel universes who might be good as the basis for Margo's enemy? I found a couple but one of them was killed and the other had all her evil tendencies erased by Tabu, the Jungle Wizard. I don't really care what her backstory was in her earlier appearances, but I find I work best when 'editing' an existing character and mining her history for ideas rather than creating a new one from scratch.
Is anyone looking for a story to write? I wouldn't mind handing this one off if we have an author who is looking for a story. (That is not usually the case, I know - most authors have WAY more ideas than they can every write...)
Give me the name of the villainess and her foe or the title she appeared in, and I'll check her out...
Thanks!
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Post by johnreiter902 on Apr 2, 2023 0:38:55 GMT
the Sorceress of Zoom, from Weird Comics?
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Post by dans on Apr 2, 2023 1:08:43 GMT
Yeah, I thought about her. I will have to go read some of her stories. But it is a good place to start. Thanks!
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Post by redsycorax on Apr 2, 2023 2:41:57 GMT
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Post by dans on Apr 2, 2023 3:27:30 GMT
I looked at some of them already and thought... maybe Green Sorceress or Akina or Zenobia. Then I passed on Akina because Tabu just zapped all the evil right out of her. I read the first appearance of Green Sorceress and faltered when moving on to the next book - the story was awful. The hero got struck by lightning two different times and exposed to radium as well... a bit of overkill. But I do plan to read a few more in which she appears. Zenobia died... I missed some of those others, I will have to go back and check them out. But I'm thinking maybe Countess Zenobia Dalton, the Merciless Green Sorceress of Zoom...
How does that sound? And here she is, I used "Countess Zenobia Dalton, the Merciless Green Sorceress of Zoom" as the prompt at one of my favorite AI text-to-image sites:  |
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Post by redsycorax on Apr 2, 2023 3:51:24 GMT
Ah, but what about alternate universes where those characters didn't die?
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Post by dans on Apr 2, 2023 13:28:24 GMT
Well, you might like this:
Margo is showing Sirocco and Gulfstream through the Headquarters of the Equity Concord of America, and they have come to the exhibit the Concord colloquially calls 'the Village of Villains'...
"This is my most deadly nemesis, the evil Countess Zenobia Dalton, the Merciless Green Sorceress of Zoom," Margo indicated a portrait on the wall, a scary female face with green eyes and hair and an evil expression.
"Um, Margo, isn't it a little difficult taking someone with a name like that seriously?" Sirocco asked in amusement.
"I think it's scary!" Gulfstream spoke softly and shuddered. "Evil, and merciless, and a sorceress! What a horrid villain!"
"A long time ago, she was just Zenobia," Margo offered an explanation. "She adds something new to her 'title' every hundred years on her birthday. She married Hans Dalton on her hundredth birthday. She slayed him on her 200th birthday, as he begged for her non-existent mercy. She made her home in the hidden underground magical kingdom of Zoom at 300, was granted a patent of nobility at 400, and assassinated the former Sorceress - the absolute monarch of Zoom - and assumed her powers at 500."
"Has she been your enemy THAT long?" Gulfstream asked innocently. "You don't LOOK hundreds of years old!" For once, Sirocco didn't have a smart-ass remark at hand - but she was now studying Margo closely, looking for betraying signs of age.
"By the Muse of Mages, I should HOPE not!" Margo laughed. "The Merciless Countess may be immortal but I'm only human, and age just like everyone else... although I admit, I do use my powers of illusion to look just a _little_ younger than I really am."
"Tell us more about the Merciless Countess," Sirocco suggested with interest. "Is she not fully human? How did she get to be immortal?"
***
"Zenobia was once just a normal woman, though incredibly beautiful and a powerful sorceress," Margo began her story for her two eager listeners. "As she grew older, and her beauty began to recede, she became obsessed with staying young and remaining beautiful, and used her magic to extend her life. But even magic cannot accomplish some things, and she grew old, and withered, and weak... and then she met Hans Dalten, an alchemist who claimed he had discovered the secret of immortality. She promised him everything, including vowing to be become his slave and servant and instantly satisfy his every whim if he would only restore her youthful vigor and beauty. In turn, he let her know that her restored youth was linked to his own extended life forces, and if she did NOT submit to his every twisted whim and fancy, he would break the connection and she would die. It took her a full hundred years of catering to his diseased desires before she found a way to break that connection without reverting to her true age. Dalten died a horrible death - although one he well deserved - and she has been unleashed on the world since that day!"
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Post by dans on Mar 30, 2024 14:22:50 GMT
Renaming and repurposing this thread somewhat...
I have rewritten origin stories for a fair number of Public Domain heroes, trying to remain true to their original stories, although in one case I changed the hero from male to female... I need another female hero for my current project. I need a hero who will be known to the public in 1943. I had planned to use Will O'Wisp in this story, but she is definitely not someone who would become well known to the public, based on her origin. She doesn't have a distinct heroic appearance, no costume, and she operates behind the scenes and mostly by causing events that appear to be natural (such as appearing in front of a villain in a guise that terrifies that villain and causes a deadly heart attack). Only her father and those she appears to know of her existence...
So I need another female hero, with more substantial powers. I'd like to pick out a good Golden Age-style female hero name first, and then build the powers around that name.
I think I've got a good part of the origin under control - she is going to be an archaeologist studying 'The North American Stonehenge' ruins outside of Salem, and she is going to risk her life to save another life, and a mystical spirit called 'The Wise Woman of the Woods' (or something similar, drawn from the name of Lash Lightning's mentor, 'The Old Man of the Pyramids'...) appears to her and rewards her with some kind of token that gives her an appropriate power set. It would probably be best if she could use a natural phenomenon in her fight and her powers are an amplification of that natural phenomenon - I'll have to figure that out when I know what powers she has.
Don't want the standard 'the Powers of Shazam' (ie, strength, speed, invulnerability, flight, wisdom) as several other characters already have those powers. Also, not to include fire, cold, invisibility, phasing, light and dark projection, as the main powers, but any of these could be peripheral side effects of the main powers.
So, what are some good Golden Age style names for a super heroine? Thanks!
Trying to riff on the oft-used 'archeologist gets powers from something discovered in the ancient ruins' theme, but get away from Egypt or Tibet...
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