Moses – Moses was the adopted brother of Ramses, the hero who would be known as the Sphinx, Egypt’s greatest hero. After the death of Ramses’ father, he is manipulated by the Gods of Egypt and the temple priests to destroy Moses. Ramses believes that Moses is in fact the Destroyer of Egypt, the one will destroy his great kingdom. Moses went on to free his people and become a great prophet; Ramses went on to become The Sphinx, a superhero of the Middle East and a member of the Lost Legion.

Samson – Samson, unlike the other heroes and Gods of the past, was in fact born with his great might, perhaps some new form of evolution or miraculous mutation. The people of Israel were living in terror of their oppressors, the Philistines. Samson’s mother was a strict disciplinarian and stern Nazirite. She believed Samson was chosen by the angels to free the Israelites from their oppressors. Samson was a great strategist and had a gift with animals. After tearing a lion apart with his bare hands, he swore a pledge to never kill an animal needlessly again. This is how he was able to gather three hundred foxes and, tying torches to their tails, send them out across the fields of the Philistines. After they retaliate by burning his wife and her father, Samson begins to strike them down at every turn, at one point wading through the bodies of the dead waist high.

Eventually Samson is betrayed by Delilah who shaves off his hair while he slept. So strong were his convictions and upbringing that he truly believed the loss of his hair weakened him physically, as this was against the code of the Nazirite. He was quickly captured and his eyes burned out with a hot poker. They locked him in the basement of a temple, tied to a grain wheel. As his hair and beard grew, Samson prays to the God of Israel. For ten years he toiled in the dark basement of the temple. On the tenth year of his capture, his enemies gathered on the roof of the temple to celebrate. Perhaps his eyesight was not lost completely or perhaps God looked down and pitied Samson, but a light appeared in the darkness and illuminated the pillars that supported the temple. With his strength returned and his God’s blessing in his heart, Samson destroyed the temple, pushing over the pillars so that his enemies came crashing down around him. Only when every enemy was crushed did Samson finally collapse beneath the great weight of the temple. The Norse and Greek Gods came together over the ruins and removed Samson from the rubble. Even though he was not of their blood and was a true believer in the God of the Israelites, the Greek and Norse Gods accepted him as one of them and he sleeps beside them to this day.

At this point in history, things became muddled. Our galaxy moved through a low energy field, causing unknown changes on the Earth. The Earth would pass through a high energy field many centuries later at the dawn of the 20th century. The Ancient Gods prepared for a long slumber and a star appeared over Bethlehem. Magic, an ancient energy force that ebbed and flowed like water, was at a high point during these periods, giving man and beast new challenges and forming the basis for new myths and legends. The Sphinx began travelling the world rather than watch Egypt crumble.

Ganesa – As the Greek and Norse Gods grew tired, the Gods of India flourished. Unlike some of the other Gods, the Gods of the Vedas and the children of Brahma created and occupied an alternate dimension that was not tied to Earth in the same way Olympus and Asgard were. Their realm was vast and unreachable to man, their wars did not spill over to the world of their followers. They understood that their power came from the belief people held in them, they did not see the benefit in tormenting humanity the way other pantheons did. Ganesa stands out among these Gods for one reason only; Ganesa was very popular. When disputes erupted between other Gods it was Ganesa who would serve as their go-between. Everyone knows of Ganesa and all respect his judgement. To this day Ganesa still resides in India somewhere.

More History from the world of the Legion

Perseus – Another of Zeus’s offspring, Perseus was different in that his father conceived him while in the form of a shower of gold. Perseus was born with skin as hard as metal, golden brown like a bronze cast. Often an outcast and treated poorly as a child, Perseus eventually faced Medusa. He did not behead her as it was believed, he in fact restored her to her former beauty. During the transformation back to her old self, the snake head was simply shed like old skin. He used this old skin as a weapon to turn his opponents to stone; almost everyone believed it was Medusa’s actual head. Medusa and Perseus had children who also carried aspects of their parents’ curses (snake like skin that was gold and impervious for example). Their children spread far and wide across the globe. Perseus is the only warrior to marry two powerful women of myth, for his marriage to Andromeda was real and loving and eventually founded the Persian Empire through their son Perses. Medusa remained his second, secret wife because she loved him and owed her life to him.

Orpheus – One of the few God-Sons not to rest during the Great Slumber, Orpheus was the son of Apollo and Calliope. Apollo had great power among the Gods. The Roman’s, unlike the Greeks, were afraid of the Gods and used their powerful Magi to bind each of the gods to a planet; Zeus to Jupiter, Ares to Mars, etc. Apollo remained free, for he alone did not frighten the Roman people. His journey to rescue his wife from Hades was one of histories greatest love stories. He was a skilful musician and had a great charm and intelligence. His great honor and moral character grated on the nerves of Dionysus. The two feuded for decades, perhaps centuries, until Dionysus eventually slept alongside the other Gods. Orpheus laid his harp and helmet at the feet of his father Apollo and disappeared into the East. The harp is believed to have fallen into the hands of a strange individual known as The Songsmith, who can transform the emotions into music.

Prometheus – Although thought of as a “Titan”, Prometheus was the first super-human to stand against the Gods. A mere mortal, Prometheus used his uncanny athletic abilities to steal power from Zeus himself, making himself super strong, fast and nearly invincible. Zeus in anger created a race of Amazon’s known as ‘The Pandora’ and sent them to capture Prometheus. Their leader carried a jar containing the worst magical spells Zeus could conjure, had Prometheus not surrendered the jar would have released evil so great it would have ravaged the Earth. After his surrender Prometheus was chained to a rock, his liver eaten daily by a large vulture. He remained there for many years until Hercules freed him from his chains. Prometheus spent his last days in the city of Argos, protecting men from the wrath of the Gods.

Beowulf – Known as War Wolf, he was one of the greatest fighters to have ever lived. His raw strength and power continued to increase throughout his life so that when he died he was as strong as any God. Like Prometheus, Beowulf despised the Gods and their meddling ways. Grendel’s Mother was in fact a descendant of Perseus and Medusa. Grendel’s father was a Titan, possibly Atlas himself. After her sons death Grendel’s mother attacked and killed most of the men in the camp Beowulf was protecting. Beowulf followed her back to her underwater lair and tried to slay her but she was either too powerful for him, or seduced him. Their battle lasted all morning until past noon. Just as Beowulf was about to fall, he spotted a sword in the waters of the cavern; illuminated by the noonday sun coming in through the cave roof. Beowulf removed the head of Grendel’s mother with the sword and then returned it to the waters. The sword was known as Excalibur.

How A Character is Created

So now we had the origin of the character, an idea in my mind of what he should look like and a concept sketch from Ethan Wright that was a first step in the right direction. Although the design had a lot of great ideas in it, I didn't think it was suitable for a slick futuristic space dictator. The single shoulder pad and gauntlet gave the character a Mad Max look. I could see Der Verge's soldiers wearing something like this, patchwork armor left over from the alien invasion or taken from a hundred different worlds. I also didn't want any skin to be showing so that people would never be quite sure how human he still was or how he had changed. Lastly, there was the Darkness Cloak he wore had to be bigger, more extravagant, something that could wrap him in shadows. So even though I could use this design for some of Der Verge's soldiers, I knew this wasn't the man himself and I had to ask Ethan to go back to the drawing board. . .

Captain Future was a pulp hero created back in 1939.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Future

As a "Man of Tomorrow" and space hero, Captain Future gave me the link between the superhero universe and the pulp era space stories I was trying to mimic with this villain. Of course the original Captain Future didn't carry a Gravity Gunsword, that was completely made up for the character. The Gravity Gunsword has an edge cut by a futuristic laser, the blade is so sharp it actually cuts through the electromagnetic forces of gravity. Not only will it cut you in half but it could send those two halves flying in opposite directions or straight into the air. At this point I was reading about numerous other pulp heroes and I found one more who seemed a natural fit in the story.

Der Verge was able to locate the last surviving rebels, some of whom were well past the point of defeat and united them together. Some of the weaker superhumans were still active, including a former District Attorney named Tony Quinn. Quinn had been blinded and scarred by an alien acid attack and left for dead. Carol Baldwin, the daughter of a man known as The Black Bat, was able to transplant her dead father’s corneas unto Quinn, gifting him with her father’s ability to see in total darkness. Tony then took on the mantle of the Black Bat, using the darkness as a weapon against the diurnal alien invaders. Der Verge had changed drastically, the insect-like abilities of the aliens were solar based, but he was also able to absorb Quinn’s power making them an unstoppable team night or day. It seemed as if the aliens were simply evolved intelligent moths, a race of almost humanoid looking creatures with a society structure beyond human understanding. The Gravity Gunsword make it difficult for the aliens to send in flying aircraft and so they send in hundreds of thousands of ground troops. With each victory more and more humans joined in the fight. Der Verge had no sympathy for the humans who worked with the aliens; he killed them as quickly as their alien overlords. Perhaps it was something in the aliens that drove them to conquer other races, something that Der Verge absorbed from them that turned him into a dominant warlord. The moth-men inevitably fell and Der Verge used their space technology to take the fight back to their homeworld. The aliens civilians had no idea what their government had done but this made no difference to Der Verge. He took the young from the planet and shipped them back to Earth where they were slaughtered and fed to the starving people of Earth. The rest of the population was then wiped out, not a single life remained on their world when Der Verge and Quinn left it. At this point Quinn and Der Verge parted ways. Quinn took over the Earth, building a peaceful utopia. Der Verge and the remaining soldiers left for space to proactively protect their home. As the people of Earth built a peaceful utopia, Der Verge was conquering every alien planet he encountered. His armies soon grew to massive sizes, containing soldiers from hundreds of different worlds. Der Verge realized that a whole multiverse of threats existed. .

Powers:
As Echo, Der Verge was a moderate level fighter who would primarily duplicate the powers of the villains he fought in order to defeat them. The only power he "banked" during the early periods was the power of flight. After encountering his nemesis Skylark, Der Verge was forced to take on multiple powers simply to stay a step ahead and stay alive. At this time Der Verge stopped flying and took more close combat abilities from his fellow heroes. In their final battle against each other, Der Verge and Skylark had accumulated the powers of almost fifty heroes and villains between them, using one at a time but able to shift between abilities. At the time of his capture he had no abilities "banked".

At the time of his escape Der Verge had copied the natural abilities of the moth-men which included superhuman strength, unlimited endurance, resistance to radiation and chemical poisoning, limited need for food and an enhanced healing ability in the sun. After his conquest of the moth-men and the discovery of the Wormhole Nexus at the center of his universe Der Verge encountered a cosmic police force who operated out of the Nexus. They were known as the Cosmic Wave Riders and they almost defeated Der Verge's armies. Der Verge absorbed their abilities, harnessing the Cosmic Wave Energy to make him indestructible. He no longer needs food, drink, sleep or even oxygen to breathe. He still retains the increased senses and abilities of the moth-men and it seems he cannot release these powers the way he can with the others. Defeating a villain of the night who survived the alien invasion Der Verge also gained control over a shadow force, he can use it to create a blanket of darkness which he becomes invisible in. This ability remains active in the cloak he wears. He also possesses a level of mind control and telepathy that has created a labyrinth of locks within his mind and his senses and combat skills are nearly unbeatable. Untouchable at night and almost unstoppable during the day, Der Verge is a powerful force.

The first concept design that Ethan sent me very good. In fact the sword was almost perfect. I'd always wanted a character with a Gun-Sword and he seemed the perfect character to use one. At this point I decided to write up an origin on the character, figuring that would help Ethan understand the kind of guy he was. As a character who can absorb other peoples powers, or an empathic mimic as they call it in Heroes, it was important to know which powers he has at the time he tries to conquer the Earth in the Canadian Legion. Here is the history I sent him (more or less):
Emperor Der Verge

Der Verge was once a normal human being living in an alternate world full of superheroes. Born with the ability to absorb superhuman powers, Verge became a hero and often stood against his world's deadliest villains. While still a teenager Verge was known as the hero Echo, while an adult he changed his alias to Mr. Mimic. During those years Der Verge often faced off against an opponent with matching abilities, the mad scientist Joseph Skylark. Their final battle lasted three hours. In a bizarre twist an alien race invaded their Earth as the two men lay exhausted and wounded from their war. Taken prisoner, tortured and powerless, both men made a pact that one would sacrifice themselves so that the other, their arch-nemesis, could survive. It took seventeen months but finally Skylark managed to detonate an explosive device, killing himself but buying Der Verge time to escape. With no superhuman abilities, Der Verge was forced to absorb what he could from the aliens. Their thoughts and alien physiology was terrible to mimic, it changed him down to his very basic form, but with their insect-like abilities at his disposal Der Verge was able to steal a ship. Returning to Earth, Der Verge found the planet completely under alien rule. The moon had become a graveyard for superbeings, a final resting place for hundreds of heroes and villains. Searching the dead for anything that might help him, Der Verge found a gravity gunsword that once belonged to Captain Future.

Since I haven't really used this blog in a while I thought I would take the opportunity to show everyone how one of my ideas comes together.

I wanted to do a super villain from space, someone along the lines of Ming the Merciless and Darth Vader, someone who conquered whole planets and civilizations. But I wanted him to be very unpredictable, very multidimensional, someone who was feared for his mind and ingenuity as much as his destructive power.

I used photoshop to create an idea, a shadow of what I wanted, something that would feel like the character I wanted until I found an artist to bring him to life.



The name came from the German translation of Space Rapist; Raum-Vergewaltiger, becoming Emperor Raum Der Verge. The sword in the original design was for a double bladed weapon. The character then went into the file with the dozens of others, waiting for his time to come. Some characters have sat for years, others sit no more than a week before being 'finished'.

In this case, Der Verge sat for about two months. During that time Ethan Wright and I got in touch with each other again. We had worked on something before for a Marvel pitch, before I got tired of trying to pitch to a company whose books I couldn't even read anymore. While trying to decide who I could pay Ethan to illustrate for me, Der Verge just seemed to pop up.

Ethan and I talked a bit about costumes we liked. I wanted something between EMPIRE's lead villain and Lars from Tekken 6. Ethan was also a fan of Tekken and so we went with a more down to Earth, fist fighter look. The first draft Ethan sent me was this: