We’ve talked a fair bit about our comic, The Uniques. It’s still in development, with scripts being written and decisions made, but this is a very crucial time in a comic’s life. This is the time when you decide what kind of comic you want to make.
L to R: Quake, Singe, Scout and Michael. Sketch by Adam For us, thinking about what we wanted to accomplish in this comic was in part a journey through what we loved and hated about comics, in general. Ultimately, for us, it’s all about characters - believable people who you care about and who can tell you what their story is. The stories we’ve enjoyed most have been about the flow and growth of character. In comics, it was the Giffen/DeMatties Justice League: International, Garth Ennis’ Preacher, Gaiman’s Sandman, James Robinson’s Starman, and we’ve ranted before about Bendis and Kirkman. In TV, we’re inspired by Six Feet Under, The Wire, Battlestar Gallactica and in movies it’s American Beauty, L.A. Confidential, and High Fidelity.
These are only a scant few, but looking at them you can see that we’re not motivated by plot or action primarily. Not that there isn’t great action in BSG, or that Preacher wasn’t a wonderfully original plot, but both of those are enhanced by the characters you watch, both those you love and those who drive you crazy. If we could have a moment that is as powerful as the finale of Six Feet Under, a character as complex and human as Col. Saul Tigh, or a world as alive as Starman’s OpalCity, then we’ll be proud.
These aren’t typical superhero references, and that’s the point: in The Uniques, the superhero action is a backdrop to the heart of our story. If our main characters spend most of an issue bowling rather then punching out bad-guys, so be it. Because our characters are teenagers, they’ll talk and interact like teens do. In reality, teens swear like sailors, battle the urges of raging hormones, some drink, some smoke - they all think they know what’s what on some level. Our characters reflect real people, or at least that’s our hope. That means some of them will be up to stuff we don’t approve of or like all that much - but that’s who they are.
Sketch by Comfort But they’re also good people. And in the end, our story is about kids who want to be heroes. How many of us, old or young, have the ability or the will to chose the right thing, even at great personal cost? How many of us would truly give up our life for that of a stranger? These kids are normal people, true - with all the faults and foibles that entails. But they’re special where it counts; maybe in the most important way a person can be special: they are willing to give everything they have for the sake of another.
That’s what makes a hero. Some companies say it’s an unswerving moral center, perhaps the refusal to kill or the size and scope of the threats you face. Others believe a hero is defined by the struggles and sacrifices they face, as if a life of hardships somehow makes a person more heroic on its face. We hold as truth that a hero is marked by a single choice, and a lifetime of trying to live up to that choice.
A hero gives a damn about the lives of every person on this earth, and protects those who can’t protect themselves. Do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do. You won’t get there every time, but just by trying and trying again you’ll make of yourself more than you were. And, with time, these kids will become much, much more than they are.
They’ll become real heroes.
They’ll change the world.
-Adam & Comfort
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