In my new superhero book, I will be featuring a character with a mutated arm. This arm will be a grotesque mixture of bare muscle, sharp bone claws, and dozens of tentacles that are tipped with sharp barbs. This arm is going to be a deadly weapon when used in hand to hand combat and the damage it inflicts will be frightening.
I enjoyed the film known as Juan of the Dead. It depicts a forty year old man in Cuba who has dedicated his life to doing absolutely nothing and he has a band of sidekicks and misfits who were just as lazy as he was. When the zombie apocalypse comes to Cuba, Juan and his merry men set a zombie killing business with the slogan, “Juan of the Dead. We kill your loved ones. How can we help you?” The film was super funny with good humor as a former slacker finds his purpose in life.
It looks like we will finally see Jeremiah Valeska complete his transformation into the Joker in the Gotham Series Finale. I have noticed a few things about this version of the Joker. After he fell in the vat of chemicals, he supposedly became brain dead. However, ten years later, he wakes up when Bruce Wayne returns to Gotham City. We know that Jeremiah developed a twisted obsession with Bruce Wayne and only woke up when Bruce returned. It could be that the vat of chemicals were only part of the reason Jeremiah was catatonic until now. It could be he lost all sense of fun and purpose when Bruce left Gotham, but when Bruce came back he saw a golden opportunity to have another play date with his favorite victim. However, he clearly runs into someone who is far more fun than Bruce Wayne ever was: BATMAN!!! Thus the feud between superhero and supervillain begins!
This reminds of me of what happened to the Joker in The Dark Knight Returns. After Batman was forced into retirement for ten years, the Joker became catatonic and lost all sense of fun and purpose. But when Batman returned, the Joker was back to his old homicidal self. I think this is the approach the showrunners are going with Jeremiah’s character arc as the Joker. I can’t wait to find out if I am right.
I had an interesting theory about the Night King in Season 8 of Game of Thrones. In the last episode, the main characters planned to set a trap for the Night King using Bran Stark as bait to lure him into the open. As the all-seeing, all-knowing three-eyed raven, Bran Stark was the incarnation of the world’s memories. Due to this, killing Bran Stark is essential in the Night King’s master plan to bring a never-ending darkness to the world.
However, I have a feeling that the Night King won’t be in the battle at all. Instead, I think the Night King will use his dead dragon to fly south towards King’s Landing. Due to the War of the Five Kings, over one million civilians are homeless and live in King’s Landing as refugees. If the Night King attacks and destroys King’s Landing with his dead dragon, he can raise another undead army that will attack southern Westeros.
This makes sense because Jon Snow and Daenerys’s dragons and armies are the greatest threat to the Night King’s plans. Plus with a dragon the Night King would have far more mobility than his army and has the freedom to attack multiple targets in southern Westeros. His original army that breached the Wall will serve as a decoy to distract and weaken them while the Night King replenishes his numbers in the south. With the north weakened or dead and the south under siege, the new Long Night will truly begin in earnest and the surviving characters’ situation would be more desperate than ever.
If Cersei had more scorpions made, it won’t make a difference. Those scorpions may wound or kill a live dragon, but they will be useless against a dead one. Cersei’s only hope would be to blow up King’s Landing with the rest of the Mad King’s wildfire. It looks like the one who will destroy all of Cersei’s hard won plots and schemes won’t be Jon Snow or Daenerys. It will be the Night King.
Ever since we first met him, the Night King has always been a step ahead of everyone. He has the wisdom and experience of centuries with a hatred and bloodlust that is equally vast. If this theory is true, then the Night King will certainly be the grand master player of the game. The reason for this would be because he would have the power, cunning, and numbers to outsmart and defeat both warring factions. I look forward to finding out if this theory is right. The trailers showed us what would happen in Winterfell and all the scenes that featured Cersei have been shown in the first episode. That must mean that they hope to keep the Night King’s surprise attack on King’s Landing a big surprise when the time comes.
Permit me to tell you a medieval love story. In the middle of the War of the Roses, King Edward IV snatched the crown from Henry VI. His right hand man, Richard Neville the Earl of Warwick AKA the Kingmaker, initially planned for Edward to marry a French princess because this would not only provide a powerful ally against the return of the Lancastrians, but it would also end England’s century long feud with France. Ultimately, Edward chose to marry one of his own subjects, Elizabeth Woodville. This made Edward IV the first English king to marry one of his own subjects since the Norman Conquest of 1066. Unlike the prestigious French princess Edward was arranged to marry, Elizabeth was a widow who came from a large family of very minor nobles.
The Woodvilles were not barons, earls, or dukes. Instead, they were landed gentry, who were the middle-class of medieval society. Due to this, Elizabeth and her family did not possess the power and influence that would have allowed Edward to firmly consolidate his hold on the English throne. Therefore, for political reasons, she was far beneath Edward’s status. Even so, Edward did not care because he was in love with Elizabeth and Edward had a well deserved reputation of being led by his loins.
Edward’s decision to marry Elizabeth had dire consequences. This union stirred the wrath of Edward’s right hand man, Warwick, as well as the rest of the senior nobility. To them, the Woodvilles were a bunch of low-ranking opportunists muscling in on the well established order. Their worst fears were realized when Edward IV established political marriages between the Woodvilles and the senior aristocracy.
Eventually, Warwick and his allies could take no more and rebelled against Edward IV multiple times before being put down for good in the Battle of Barnet. However, even though Warwick was defeated, Warwick and his allies managed to exterminate a number of the Woodvilles including Elizabeth’s father and one of her brothers.
I am thinking of creating a similar love story in the third volume of the Magnus Dynasty Saga. Instead of landed gentry, the main character’s love interest will come from an ancient family of middle-class landed knights. Landed knights are the lowest rank in the Gradaian nobility. They possess less power, wealth, and influence than a baron and can only muster small armies that number in the hundreds.
Allow me to give you a little preview of the new superheroes in my latest superhero story. I will not mention their names (which will remain classified until publication), but I will give you an idea of their respective personalities.
The male lead will be an artful individual who loves being theatrical. His interests include acting, reading manga and superhero comics, practicing martial arts, and music. Before becoming a superhero, he dreamed of being an actor. At the start of the story, he is aware of the flaws of the world around him, but does not give them much thought. When his powers manifest, he is initially unaware that he even has powers. When he becomes aware of his powers, he can barely control them and one of his main challenges throughout the series is learning to control his growing powers and achieve even greater heights to do good.
The female lead has two distinct personalities. One personality is shy, kind, and gentle while the other is sadistic, cruel, and bloodthirsty. Her gentle personality is a deeply religious girl while the cruel personality is a cynical atheist. The development of these two personalities is due to psychological trauma as well as the manifestation of her powers. When her gentle personality is in control, her powers are hardly significant, but when her dark personality is in control, she is virtually unstoppable. Her main struggle is learning to reconcile the two halves of her personality.
The third main character is the brains of the group. He is an eccentric, quirky, and borderline insane genius who is more connected with technology than people. He views everything in the world to be a test subject for his experiments including himself. He becomes a superhero not out of some moral obligation, but because he wanted every opportunity he could get to test his inventions. His main struggle will be learning how to connect with other people and develop a form of empathy.
Overall, these characters are among the most complex and morally ambiguous I have ever created. I look forward to deepening their respective character arcs.
A couple days ago, I discovered something fascinating. We often think that Megalodon was the most terrifying sea monster in the Miocene oceans. However, it turns out that Megalodon had an arch nemesis that was as big and ferocious as it was. That creature was a close cousin of the sperm whale known as Livyatan Melvillei. It was named after the biblical sea monster Leviathan and Herman Melville the author of Moby Dick. This beast had teeth bigger than Megalodon’s and was an apex predator that attacked and ate everything in the ocean including the occasional Megalodon. I have seen videos of whales outsmarting and killing sharks. Due to this, this creature would have Megalodon’s size and power, but would be much smarter. If you heard whales sing, then imagine how this thing would sound in the water. I can imagine it being louder and deeper than any modern whale call, which would be far more ominous and haunting. I am thinking of writing a book about this whale in the future once my schedule opens up. I am aiming to make this creature the modern Moby Dick!
In the Curiosity Stream documentaries, I discovered several segments that talked about the concept of megacities. We often think we can build cities horizontally forever, but the truth is that the Earth’s surface is finite. As our population grows, it would make sense to build cities vertically to accommodate our increasing numbers. Megacities are essentially super sized skyscrapers and can house tens of thousands of residents. Some megacities could be built on land, on artificial islands in the middle of the ocean, be 3D printed, or have plants and jungles growing from their walls. I am thinking of featuring a megacity in my new superhero series that could house a quarter million residents. It will be the last of its kind.
In another Curiosity Stream documentary, I became aware of attempts to create synthetic meat as a food source. To achieve this, scientists in the Netherlands have discovered that lupine seeds have more protein than meat by a third. In addition, when properly ground, the lupine seeds have the taste and texture of meat. In a world where traditional livestock are not an option, this would make sense as an alternative food source in a futuristic world. I will keep this in mind while writing my superhero story.
While watching futuristic documentaries on Curiosity Stream, I discovered ways in which people can be made superhuman through artificial means. Experiments were done to increase the muscle mass of cows and mice through genetic engineering. These animals were injected with the IGF1 Gene, which stimulates muscle growth on a cellular level. Unlike steroids, the IGF1 Gene is a natural protein that does not break the body down. The muscles of these cows and mice were increased in size by 400 percent. Imagine if the Running of the Bulls involved unleashing bulls that were as large and powerful as these super cows. Also, the super sized mouse in the picture above would be a real life Mighty Mouse and it reminds me of something from a Tom and Jerry cartoon. Both of these animals could be test subjects for a real life super soldier program like Captain America! Based on these test results, I wonder what these muscle enhancers will do to humans. We can have a real life Hulk on our hands! I will toy with this concept of genetic engineering in my new superhero story and it will serve as a potential countermeasure for humans against real Superhumans.
Grady P Brown - Author 