Tween Super-Hero Looses Powers

I've been using Twitter and Plurk to do 10 word plots for a comic or pulp sci-fi story... I think Wired magazine did something similar... the magazine asked several famous writers to come up with a 10 word story.  I'm not up to the point of doing 10 word stories, but I thought I could come up with some plot lines in about 10 words (give or take a few)... I've been using Twitter and Plurk because a micro-blog is a good place for a micro-plot...

Anyway, my latest idea is about a Tween super-hero that looses his powers... 

10 Word Comic Plot: Tween super-hero looses powers, how will life be afterwards? Think early Peter Parker becomes Lindsy Lohan.

I'm thinking an early Peter Parker with all the growing up crap that he dealt and balancing it with being a super-hero finds himself no longer in the spot light, no longer able to scale buildings or lift things 10 times his weight.  Lets say in one of his internal battles about being a normal teenager, he decides to go to a rave with some friends.  Our super-hero decides to do some harmless drugs like all the other normal teenagers, but it has a very negative effect on his super-powers -- lets say the drug was made by a super-villain and using the dancing teenagers as test subjects -- and we don't know if he'll ever get his super-powers back.   Our hero wakes up the next day, tired, hung-over, feeling drained, but happy knowing he did something 'normal'... but not knowing he's lost his super-powers, until he goes out later that night trying to prevent a robbery.

Now, our super hero has made some enemies... and annoyed the hell out of a few other super-heroes.  His ego was stroked by the media, he lived the rock-star life-style for some time, up until this point -- being invited to charity events, fawned over by the public, companies talking to his agent about signing endorsement deals, paid under the table by the mayor to help pay bills, attended super-hero gatherings at the UN, etc.  But slowly, the reality of it all going away is slowly sinking in.  It was tough balancing both worlds -- his super-hero life with his normal high school life -- but knowing that high school would end made the pressures bearable.

Slowly, our super-hero's life goes to hell.  Does he try to get his super-powers back by trying to reproduce the accident that gave him his powers in the first place?  Does he try to keep up his 'brand', not knowing if his powers will return or not?  What will he do if one of the super-villains he's put away in jail, get out on parole... you know, the ones that actually know his secret identity?  Will there be any sympathy/help from the super-hero community?  How will the blog-o-sphere deal with his lack of visibility out fighting crime?  Will he call for help from neighboring super-heroes to help him when one of his arch-villains show up or will he try to fight on his own?  And what happens to the "King Pin"-type of criminal that slipped him the mickey to begin with be dealt with?

This 10 word plot actually has some good story material...

Orlando Comic-Con

So I read about the Orlando Comic-Con on the Orlando Metro Blog. Since Erika was working Sunday, I thought I would go and check it out. Didn't recognize any of the names except maybe one... I might have recognize some of the artists from stuff I've read over the years, but no real big names come to mind.

Got talked into buying some stuff (people were very friendly; it was hard to say 'no thank you', especially when you consider how hard these people work to make a living). One guy ended up talking to me about his hilarious take on a werewolf comic -- I just didn't have the heart to say that it wasn't my cup of tea.

Anyway, passed up buying The Song of the South boot-leg copy... again. I might break down and buy it at the next Con... I think next January or February in Orlando.

I had a good time, but the Con was small, compared to the Mid-Ohio Con I attended a few years ago -- there the dealer space was just as large as the artist space. This one had maybe 60 booths, but the vendor space was small. I was looking for some back issues of Powers or that missing issue of Promethea I need for my collection, but vendors seemed to have really limited their stock for this event... And is seemed to me about 90% Marvel (zombie) stuff... Not much DC, Vertigo, or Wildstorm...

And I'm not a big fan of digging through crap to find what I'm looking for. Lots of $0.50 to $1.00 bins; not much golden/silver age comics... It was diversified, but almost to the point of blandness. I did find a few House of Mysteries, House of Secrets, and a Phantom Strangers that I didn't have, but hadn't plan on spending $10+ for a reading copy. One dealer had tons of The Witching Hour, but again at dealer's prices; when all I really want is a reading copy, not a collection copy... Hmm... maybe I should write DC about releasing a collection of some of those great old horror titles...