Starbolts #205: Brothers and Sisters

 Hail!

As you can see, Jaime has been redeemed a bit. He isn't THAT big of a jerk. He understood what he was doing was wrong. Off panel, he had a discussion with Aquita. That would have been boring to read. So, I decided to focus on Richie's fight with Backdraft. I liked making the reference to Nova and Green Lantern at the end. I'm a big fan of Nova and to be honest the Centurion Corps are more like the Nova Corps than the GLs in the DC Universe. They don't have  power rings. Just flight and the ability to control gravity. However, Richie hasn't mastered gravametric pulses yet. He will. Just not right now.

 I also took the opportunity to introduce the parents of the Arlandero kids. Their names are Gregorio and Maria and they too were involved with the other Agents of S.T.A.R. back in the day. I was trying to think up possible roles they could've had. I'm thinking that Greg was the heavy arms kind of guy and Maria was special ops. I may delve more into the other parents at some point. You may be surprised at Bluestreak's dad. I have some ideas about how he'd act.

September is nearing its end so next week marks a new video from me. Keep an eye out as I talk about where the New Warriors are now. I may take a different approach as I have a couple ideas on how I want to go about it. Should be fun! We'll also be back here the week after with another comic as usual.  I have a couple more possible new Starbolts to introduce. Sufficed to say, Ricardo and Carra won't be alone. The new kids are coming to town and I'm pretty sure Backdraft will want his revenge on one of them.

See ya next time!

Starbolts #204: The Next Centurion

Go on. Say it. Jaime "Jim" Arlandero is a bit of a jerk. I know he is and I will probably do something about that in the very near future. He's about due for an attitude adjustment. When it comes to Richie, this guy needs work. Then again, he was like that to Mateo and Angela. Let's hope they can find him before Backdraft strikes. Or...will the kid handle Backdraft all by himself? We'll find out next time! I'm pretty sure Avian'll give him a stern talking to once she finally arrives in Santa Fe. She wants to open up a school for young heroes, remember? And so does he...But, he doesn't want Richie to be a super. Yeah, that makes sense. He's the oldest, by the way. Mateo and Angela are just a bit younger than him.

I hope everyone is liking this character developing arc before the next major one. It's been a lot of fun. Wait until you see what's next! =)

In other news, my good friend, Rabbi has restarted his Haunted Drive-In blog. Rabbi used to be a blogger and now he has time to work on a site devoted to horror and all things creepy and weird. It's good fun and I invite you all to check it out. Especially since Halloween is coming!:  http://thehaunteddrive-in.blogspot.com/

See ya next time and we'll see if Jaime does change his attitude! 

Starbolts #203: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

 

This comic ironically comes hot off the heels of DC Comics's latest mistake. For details, see here: http://popwatch.ew.com/2013/09/05/batwoman-jh-williams/ and of course DC also made a competition to draw Harley Quinn attempting suicide. Both incidents disgusted me and several of my friends in the comic reading world. I'm calling it ironic because, well, DC seems to be against character development and change when the comic above illustrates a change and character development. It was quick. Painless. And most importantly, it was true to the characters. So, why does DC continue to deride their characters so much? It just doesn't make sense to me. Characters should grow. Brian Heinz, the Last Angry Geek put it best. If you can't work with a non super supporting cast that's married to a superhero, then maybe you should relearn how to write the character.

This week's comic shows Crystal, a character who used to be VERY promiscious confront her past. Specifically, the guy known as Henry. Here she has grown from Southern temptress to an adult who now accepts the consquences of her actions. At the end, she goes to her friend, Jenna for support and she helps her out. The character has thus grown and changed for the better. This is how you develop a character. Set things up, have a conflict and finally a resolution.

Perhaps the comic industry would do well to understand that shock and other such things do not always work. I'm not just speaking of DC here. Marvel is guilty of it, too of late. It's a good thing there's a pool of talented people out there who write their own stuff and draw it when the companies they've looked up to in the past are shadows of their former selves.

That's it from me, true believers. See you next time!