Superhero Concept A Vs Superhero Concept B
 

So there's a superhero I've been trying to write, kicking around for quite a while now. I've got some really good ideas for him, and I've got a pretty good outline for him, his villains, and what he's going to do. The problem is I keep leaning two directions, respectively the Batman version and the Superman version.

He's a telekinetic and a telepath, and he's a complete and utter amnesiac. The book instantly starts where he awakens, completely clueless of how he got there or who he is or anything. The reader knows exactly as much as he does, and I'm going to stick with that as much as possible.

I also am going to specifically reference, at one point, that amnesia doesn't work like 'the movies', which stems back to the whole mystery behind his abilities (Since, logically, it makes no sense). There's also a bit of a Bourne sort of thing going on, where he has no memory but he's in outstanding shape, incredibly strong, perfect combat reflexes and skills, and incredibly smart tactically.

Now the reason I keep leaning is because I'm not sure who I want him to be.

His telekinetics can be completely and ridiculously powerful, to the point of giving him flight, practical invulnerability to bullets, telepathic blasts, mind control (though he won't do this out of a sense of honor) and kinetic destruction and impact hits. I might even increase his strength and toughness to amplify the whole comic-book violence thing. This would be very brief about having him fight normal criminals before moving on to the bigger boys, people like him with unique powerful talents and jumping right into his backstory. Hence, Superman.

Or I could take this on the lesser approach; his kinetics are able to stop bullets, but he has to know they're there to be able to protect himself. He can't fly, and his ability to throw around metaphysical might is reduced greatly. Telepathy is reduced to surface thoughts. Overuse of them causes migraines and drains him. Instead he needs to rely on his physical and mental talents and use his others sparingly to aide himself. He is also completely and utterly broke, meaning he has no supertechnology or fame or anything else to aide him. He has to make do with the tools he has. This would be more about small-time crime fighting versus normal people crimelords (then eventually moving to supervillains), hence the Batman version.

Both would be equally difficult and enjoyable for me to write but every time I sit down I keep debating back and forth. I know this honestly is just something I need to decide on but at the very least I figured I could make a thread and see what people think while I hum it over in my head.

I would say write them both. Really. Who says you can only interpret the character a single way as an author?

I actually prefer the "Batman Approach". It sounds more interesting. Making a hero superpowerfully telekinetic with few weaknesses and the ability to do pretty much anything is pretty boring and reduces the danger factor of the story telling as a whole.

But by reducing what he can do and giving him weaknesses (the migraines from telepathy for instance), creates more conflict and makes for better development. You can introduce a lot more problems for the character to work through if you go the Batman route, plus it makes for more interesting fights when you get to the Supervillains, especially if you're using TK. High level TK, while seemingly awesome, is actually pretty boring and makes things to easy for a person to solve problems, and you don't want to make things easy for the protagonist.

And you can always up his powers and go with the Superman idea later on anyway.

Yeah, that's a fair point. Telekinesis is pretty overpowered in higher application. Take Phoenix from the X-Men as an example. According to the movie interpretation, she can literally rip an island and the people on it to subatomic pieces... Not so interesting after the first time.

Not to mention, even at lower levels, with judicious application, telekinesis can be incredibly powerful. I mean, imagine just keeping a sharp little projectile handy and using that when you want to kill someone. Or just preventing the blood from reaching the brain of your victim. Neither would require all that much force.

Well that's the thing about telekinesis. You could always just unplug a synapse in someone's brain or disconnect their retinas or something. It always requires a bit of further suspension of disbelief for internal logic, or like, line-of-sight TK.


That said, I prefer the Batman version for reasons previously stated.

Well much like any DC hero introducing a powerful character means you have to introduce someone even more powerful or at least enough to match. If you have Superman you have Darkseid; reason I'm at odds is because I'm not sure which I would like more, having him jump right into beating the fuck out of other supervillains or tracking down and imprisoning mob bosses and criminals.

Regardless I'm leaning more towards low-power myself, but I really don't want to power-creep him too much, so I'm thinking he doesn't have enough mental strength to be able to affect anything over the size of a normal person, therefore no flight and no 'augmented jumps' either.

I vote option A. It's hard to screw up Superman (and pretty much requires you to know only how to write in Mary Sue-isms) while there's a ridiculously fine line between a good Batman story and, say, "I'm gonna kill you all kinds of dead".

The length of the story also matters. If it's a self-contained novel Option A makes more sense, as you'll never get the chance to overstep the power boundaries while still retaining the choice to have a grand showdown at the finale. If it's a continuing long-runner, Option B probably makes more sense as you seem to just be describing an embittered pulp hero out to solve the crime the police force can't (or DUNDUN won't handle), so it would be more on a case by case basis.

But honestly, I guess it just comes down to the fact that I'd rather read a fun story about tearing shit up and protecting the common good than a(nother) gritty take on superheroics where the main character can't even be super for too long without complaining of these damn headaches. I mean, it's fun when your character could be seen to be having fun.

This here is why I dislike that idea. He basically becomes a walking Deus Ex Machina, and who wants that really?

There's also the fact that this --
-- I have to disagree with.

You should base your superhero on neither of these, and instead write him like Freakazoid.

However, if you have to choose between the two I vote Batman as he always interested me more than Superman.