Here's a question. What if my fursona was a superhero? It's one that's been gnawing at me way too long. I have a huge character roster, and my fursona was initially Zack, a blue fox and, in his modern form, a fennec. He was and had always been designed as a DJ or music producer of sorts who had a green sweater and jeans or shorts.
The thought of giving my characters superpowers dates back to the very beginning, when I jokingly made Zack "Super Z" when I was 15. That's how old the character is. xD His powers, if any, didn't matter. It was more about giving the appearance and parody of, well, everything. The late Sinclair Lewis would love teenage me. However, a far more serious incarnation would appear when my boyfriend suggested something for him to challenge, since he is a fan of superheroes.
The Realism Trap
At the time, the MCU was just getting on its feet with Phase 1, and so that gave me more motivation to dip my toes into something I've been very familiar with since Justice League and Teen Titans on Cartoon Network, as well as Static Shock on Kid's WB. Before Sam Ramsey's Spider-Man and rise of the MCU, I was a lot more biased toward DC because of CN and my mom having worked at Warner Bros. at the time. I still am, not gonna lie, but my patience with the company is about as thin as Marvel under Disney.
Naturally, I had a lot of background to work with until Hollywood and the game industry threw a huge wrench into any creative inspirations going forward with this sudden shift toward hardcore and realistic It all didn't help and younger was a bit of a conflicted in a post-recession era before Netflix went all-in on streaming and the pandemic that made it mainstream.
Of course, in retrospective, it was quite silly to go this realistic route, but I didn't know any better. I mean, it makes sense for live action, and it works for some characters, such as Spider-Man, but not all of them. There's a reason superheroes do better in comics and animation than live action. Which brings me to the Flash...
The Overpowered Flash
Since learning about many tropes and storytelling, I realized being grounded and realistic does not mean nitty-gritty. It means having a world that is familiar enough to us while still having characters work within the limits. Again, younger me didn't know that. xD It's hard to get that when your only references are live-action OP (overpowered) Hollywood superheroes in cinema and TV while you're struggling to make ends meet.
The live-action Flash (and most speedsters in this medium) are problematic in terms of their portrayal. Once these live-action Hollywood characters overcome their character arc, the only thing to balance their powers is their flawed personalities, which isn't enough.
For example, CW's Flash is awful about this: he masters Speed Force by episode 2 of season 1. When that season should have been spent with him making genuine mistakes in learning said force. But, nope, instead the rest of the show is spent on monologues. While the DCEU Flash largely avoids the monologuing, he is well aware of how overpowered he is, and so the limitations are, again, his own internal conflict, and often without any consequences. Once this is overcome, he is OP as hell in his solo film that explores the Flashpoint Paradox in the most disgraceful way possible. Except it doesn't work because the setup that made the original animated and comic masterpieces is gone.
Look, there is nothing wrong with internal conflict. It is needed. However, is that the only thing holding back your superhero, of all characters, than what is the hell point!?
Attempts
Aqua Fox
What was my first attempt? Aqua Fox! Zack manipulated water. There was just one problem: I actually had no idea that limitations > powers. These rules apply to magic as well. It is the one thing my boyfriend begged for, but I had no idea what that meant at that time. This was a constant problem when he asked for stories that challenged Aqua Fox.
So, yeah, Aqua Fox had always been OP, thanks to Hollywood, mainly the MCU and later DCEU as my only reference. Sure, there were the post-Flashpoint animated movies, but that was as nitty-gritty as the live-action counterparts, and it was a big criticism of that era. Yes, that is partially on me, and I accept full responsibility for my mistakes, but I don't know where to look. I'm just one person that's flying by the seat of my pants here! I'll retool Zack eventually.
Quick Fox
Fast-forward to today, and I moved on to a new successor to Zack with a character that better represents who I am today: Max. While Max's personality was a gradual process, his design was pretty much all figured out: a blue-furred fennec wearing a letterman jacket and pleated skirt with goggles always perched on his head. Eventually, he would be a coffee lover that enjoys listening to music and playing the guitar, handheld video as well as tabletop games. In modern timelines, he could be carrying an MP3 player with a fictionalized Steam Deck, while in the past ones would be a cassette player with a fictional Game Boy.
Unlike Zack, you could easily go nuts with these combinations and rationalizations alone. Even if you remove video games, he still fits well in any era. You can just fall back to tabletop or board games for times, and the same goes for his guitar. Electronic or acoustics? Doesn't matter. I designed him to be as versatile as possible while still keeping his core personality intact.
But what would be Max's superpower? Since he is pretty much a fresh and doesn't have that same baggage that Zack does, he is much more energetic and optimistic, just like the early incarnations of his predecessor. I felt like I'd do TV and cinema speedsters justice by making him one as well, named Quick Fox (unless I come up with a better name). It complements his energetic personality perfectly.
And is he OP? Nope! He is momentum-dependent, struggles with maneuverability, and sensitive to changes in gravity. He also has peak metabolism, meaning he has a bottomless stomach that's played more for laughs, like Shaggy and Scooby. A far cry from the live-action versions of Flash.
The World Needs Real Superheroes
So, I began with this title that says "The World Always Needs a Superhero," and it is true. Superheroes are our modern mythology that, in some cases, could be your friendly next-door neighbors, and that is all okay. Strip away the speedster powers from Max, and he would still be this energetic ball of fluff because that's just who he is, but the world needs a superhero like Quick Fox to punch Nazis. He can still protest alongside their friends as Max.
And Hollywood isn't going to do that. As great as Captain America: Winter Solider was, what was the message? The government is innocent because it was Hydra's fault. All that tension and moral ambiguity is lost. You look at it in retrospective, and It's, like, come on... Really?!
So what's the plan? Well, stories, of course. But also, my characters are always in the public domain, under the CC0 1.0 Universal Deed. Honestly, it's completely unrealistic for me, a single person, to enforce my work my whole life and... put that burden on my family for 70 years when I'm gone. With the deed comes a bonus: no one, not even Hollywood, can own Max or Zack.
