I wanted a character that healed and was a bit less cocky and more good-natured than those we had seen before or who were later to come. The Athena character fitted the bill, but the trouble you often have with healing superheroes is that they are useless at combat. The inference being that they are really a pacifist and see no sense in violence but go along to clear up any mess. However it is difficult to make a character in our show who doesn’t fight. I think perhaps for episode 4 she was written a little too weak, she does have some fight but struggles throughout against Jade (who is meant to be badass) until Miss Freedom is seen for the first time. We can talk more about Miss Freedom in the future, it is really a cameo here. The Peacemaker was an interesting character too and one it would be nice to explore more heavily.

The script was very ambitious with hindsight so it was pretty important that nothing went wrong on shoot day…

In Episode 3 then we see Gemini being used by Red Mist to film Golden Hornet without her mask, a pretty simple task to fulfill. This is why the Man in Black took to bag snatching and leading the Hornet into that particular room. She finds the camera equipment but does not realise this is a set up of any kind so leaves it. Throughout the fight the two Gemini twins are looking to unmask her, but since they are goodies they come to the conclusion that it’s not the right course of action. The Woman in White is terminally ill and Red Mist have made promises to use their technology to save her. The Woman in White’s illness causes her to have a much more violent reaction to Golden Hornet’s stinger when tragedy strikes. The death of his sister throws the Man in Black into a rage that provides Red Mist with a clear shot of an unmasked Golden Hornet, but much better than that, they have also caught her committing murder on camera!

Of course Red Mist already knew who she was, but proof was required for public consumption. They now had an excellent tool for blackmail…

The winner is… SHADOWSTAR

Thank you to everyone who entered a character into the competition this time. I hope we will be able to do it again soon. As of tomorrow I will be preparing to cast an actress in the role of Shadowstar and arranging the costume. We plan to shoot her film in March or April, and will keep you fully updated of our progress right here.

SHADOWSTAR

REAL NAME: Monica Cadenza

AGE: 26

HEIGHT: 5’6″ – 5’10″

WEIGHT: 125 lbs

NATIONALITY: USA

COSTUME

Gold ‘Supernova’ emblem, black and navy blue split top, high-cut leotard but raised to throat, bare shoulders, long black gloves, long black boots.

SPECIAL POWERS

Shadowstar is a Mistress of Dark Energy, and at times of need she can use it to draw strength directly from her foes, strengthening her and weakening them.

WEAKNESSES

Prone to complacency, she can be proud and assume victory when it has not yet been achieved. She underestimates the cruelty and resourcefulness of her enemies, as despite her experience she is still quite naive and innocent about the world.

BACKSTORY

Shadowstar has been fighting for liberty since her 18th birthday, when she decided to use her power over dark energy to help the forces of good. She is beautiful and virtuous and extremely popular with the public that she protects, turning into a big television celebrity beyond a superheroine. In recent times she has begun to struggle against wrongdoers, as they have all begun to join together in a pact of evil to finally destroy her. Will she be able to survive?

RED FALCON

REAL NAME: Lìxúe Zhèng

AGE: 21 – 24

DOB: August 21st

HEIGHT: average

BODY TYPE: athletic

FEATURES: long black or brown hair

COSTUME

Metallic red one-piece catsuit, red knee-high boots.

SPECIAL POWERS

Premonition, advanced awareness and stamina.

FIGHTING STYLE

Standard martial arts with Dim Mak striking added in (Dim Mak is the infamous multiple palm/forefinger death strike from the old kung fu films; hers is non-lethal, however).

WEAKNESSES

Despite her powers and martial arts skills, she is relatively weak and has suffered multiple broken ribs, causing her body to be the target when someone fights against her.

BACKSTORY

Lìxúe Zhèng was born a normal, healthy baby in Shanghai in the late 80s. Growing up a normal, somewhat privileged life in communist China, Lìxúe was seemingly like any other girl – until the government noticed her growing abilities.

Things all changed as she hit 18. One night the communist-led country attempted to kidnap her for a special super-soldier program, but she wasn’t home. Rather, she was on her way home and as she came to her house, she heard nothing but gunshots and screaming as her parents were murdered.

Living on the streets, she quickly had to adapt to her constantly growing powers; living in a corrupt area of Shanghai, she found herself fighting to change the area.

Red Falcon was born.

One day she caught a random radio message. It was a duress signal, and all she could make out was “Elite Force.” It was then that she had a premonition, seeing herself walking around London, fighting those deemed evil. The premonition kept happening, and it stayed in the back of Lìxúe’s mind.

She knew that she could do something to help, but it meant leaving her home, China, for somewhere else. One half of her wanted to stay, the other wanted to stop running from the Chinese Government…

And so her NGC adventure begins.

NIGHTCAT

REAL NAME: Sarah Jennings

HEIGHT: 5’7″

WEIGHT: 120 lbs

BODY TYPE: slim, petite, toned

FEATURES: black or brown hair

COSTUME

Skin-tight bodysuit, coloured black, violet or charcoal. Same material as Suki/Angel but with the zipper on the back, or a shiny leather bodysuit. It is equipped with a loose-fitting belt, tight long black gloves and boots. NightCat also wears a small black mask around her eyes or sometimes goggles (like Catwoman) which have a night-vision feature, and a small Bluetooth headset on her ear to stay in touch with her base. She wears her hair in a pony tail, but it often comes loose when combat gets rough.

SKILLS & WEAPONS

Peak-trained athlete and gymnast, skilled in hand-to-hand combat, with stealth capabilities. Each one of her gloves contain brass metal over the knuckles and razor-sharp retractable claws on her fingertips. Her nimble frame allows her to silently sneak up on enemies and disable them without being detected.

NightCat’s abilities make her a valuable asset to her organization. She is nimble, stealthy, and can squeeze through small areas (vents, windows, etc.). She rarely gets spotted. When she does, she has almost no trouble taking on many henchmen at once. When NightCat becomes overwhelmed she uses her claws. She also has a small Taser in her belt, but only uses that as a last resort. Her belt contains pockets of smoke pellets for making an escape, and caltrops to leave as traps when needed. Her missions occasionally get ugly, but more often than not she comes out successful with minor injuries.

WEAKNESSES

Although she is a highly skilled fighter, NightCat has a hard time taking punches. She is all offense and no defense. Her body is well-toned and petite which allows her to be agile and sneaky, but this also means she is somewhat fragile to blows – especially from super-strong foes or henchmen carrying blunt objects. Her costume is thin and offers no physical protection. Her body has suffered a hard beating before by a superpowered nemesis, which left her with broken ribs, a severely bruised abdomen, torn thigh muscles and a fractured pelvis. Although she hates to admit it, NightCat has been more vulnerable in these areas ever since. Most foes don’t know that, but her nemesis does, whom NightCat will inevitably meet again. She can handle your day-to-day thug, but a superpowered villain/villainess is a different story and she could end up in a huge struggle for life.

BACKSTORY

Sarah works for a secret organization run by women, named the Femme Fatales. Their intent is to stop another evil organization with plans of world domination (and whatnot) publicly known as the X-Heroines (much like Elite Force and Red Mist). Sarah’s job is to work under her alias of NightCat, sneak into an enemy base at night and acquire or retrieve valuable or stolen information (files, flash drives, etc.). She is also used to rescue fellow heroines when they are captured. There is always another heroine who remains at base in front of a computer monitoring NightCat, and communicates with her via Bluetooth. She informs NightCat of nearby enemies, hidden doors, quick exits, hiding spots, and counts her enemies for her when she’s in battle. This heroine also tracks Cat’s vital signs and alerts her when she has taken too much damage in a certain area and should abort the mission. If Cat is in grave danger, this Heroine leaves base and comes to her rescue. Luckily this has only happened once, when NightCat unexpectedly ran into her nemesis – one of the elites in the X-Heroines named Holley Lara - who left her severely battered and bruised.

MINDWAVE

REAL NAME: Josie McCallum

AGE: 18 – 20

HEIGHT: 5’6″ – 5’8″

WEIGHT: 120 – 135 lbs

BODY TYPE: athletic

FEATURES: shoulder-length red hair

NATIONALITY: Irish

COSTUME

Green one-piece, scooped neckline, cut high on the hips; black sash at the waist; white boots and fingerless gloves; green eye-mask.

SPECIAL POWERS

Telekinesis, giving her the ability to move objects with her mind. This includes herself, in the form of levitation. She’s working on trying to develop that into flight, but it’s a slow process. Also, in addition to being able to deflect incoming objects and projectiles with her mind, she can direct her energies at opponents in bursts of force. Mindwave is also a low-grade telepath. She doesn’t have the ability to read minds, per se, but she can sense motives and intentions. It’s a useful skill in combat situations, as it augments her otherwise normal strength and speed.

WEAKNESSES

Her biggest weakness, aside from inexperience, is the receptiveness of her mind to others’ thoughts (due to her own telepathic nature) which leaves her more vulnerable than the average human to psionic attack and attempts at mind-control.

PERSONALITY

Josie is highly intelligent, but also possesses the impulsiveness of youth. Compassionate, but also snarky. She usually doesn’t go into battle without a plan, but events can lead her to go off-script should circumstances suggest better ways of achieving her goals. She has a deep contempt for those who would do evil or stand in the way of justice.

BACKSTORY

Josie McCallum has, from a young age, been motivated by a desire for justice. As far back as she can remember, Josie planned on either becoming a police officer or a lawyer when she grew up. A smart and very sensitive child, McCallum was noted for both her sense of fairness and also empathy for those around her. She excelled in school, and also in martial arts classes.

But around her 13th birthday, Josie became aware that she was not like normal girls.

One evening, having gotten into trouble with her parents – unjustly, in Josie’s view – the young girl’s rage led to something quite extraordinary happening in the privacy of her bedroom. To her astonishment, Josie suddenly saw books flying off the shelves, CDs and DVDs swirling in the air. She might have been inclined to think it was some sort of ghost, until a glass of water shot toward her face…

… and she stopped it, just by thinking it should stop.

Having discovered this talent, Josie soon wondered whether there was also something more to her ability empathise with other people. Then, during one judo class, she realised that she wasn’t just anticipating what her opponent was about to do, she was (ever so faintly) feeling him think it. Realising that her gifts might allow her to achieve her aims of bringing justice to the world, Josie began to develop those abilities in secret. She also began looking into ways to find others with special abilities, who might be able to help Josie hone her own.

LUMINA

REAL NAME: Lori Incandezi

AGE: 22 – 25 approx.

HEIGHT: 5’9″

BODY TYPE: quite strong and voluptuous

FEATURES: long black hair

NATIONALITY: Jamaican

COSTUME

Bright yellow catsuit, grey Batman-style cape, long grey gloves, black belt and thigh boots.

SPECIAL POWERS

Lumina uses her control over light to dazzle and blind her foes so that she can defeat them. She also has above-average strength and good fighting skills, making her a powerful superheroine.

WEAKNESSES

Her powers are far less effective in daylight or well-lit rooms than in darkness; for that reason she is a mostly nocturnal superheroine. Any foe who found out her weakness would have a better chance of defeating her, although she is still quite strong.

BACKSTORY

Born in Kingston, Jamaica and spending the last 5 years of adult life in the USA, Lumina has grown into a mighty superheroine, stronger than most and with a long string of victories to her name. She used to be challenged when she first started at the age of 16, as her power over light was only low-level. However, her strength has more than doubled since then. Her beginnings were as a vigilante, but once she proved herself a champion of justice and fair play she was welcomed into the law enforcement community of New York City where she now resides.

LAYLA FURY

REAL NAME: unknown

AGE: 22 approx.

HEIGHT: small, she doesn’t seem dangerous at all

BODY TYPE: average girl next door, good ass, normal breasts

FEATURES: pretty face, black or brown hair

SPECIAL POWERS

She has superhuman abilities like super strength and super velocity. The problem is that she can only use them in stressful situations or if someone makes her angry (like the Hulk). She is an average fighter when her powers are off.

BACKSTORY

Layla has great power but she doesn’t want to be a superheroine. She doesn’t like to fight at all.

She feels very guilty because of her inability to control her powers, causing unintentional injuries to her friends and family (like Rogue) when she was younger. For that reason she is a lonely person, traveling the world seeking internal peace, escaping from enemies who would try to recruit her into their own team (knowing her emotional instability).

What makes her different is that she doesn’t show her vulnerability. She hides her feelings and has no relationships with people because she doesn’t want to hurt anybody. She doesn’t want to have anyone near. Layla is a rock and roll pacifist and would regularly take a massive beating from her enemies in order to avoid fighting back – but her bad attitude always appears at the right moment to wake her up and kick everyone’s butt. What it most scary is that nobody knows how far her power can go if she doesn’t restrain herself.

ALI ICESTORM

REAL NAME: unknown

AGE: 21

HEIGHT: 5’6″

WEIGHT: 120 lbs

BODY TYPE: athletic, slim, 36B bust

FEATURES: pale skin, silver eyes, short baby blue hair

COSTUME

Skin-tight white catsuit (no belt), light blue tribal pattern all over, dark blue shoulder pads, light blue knee pads, light blue shin guards, dark blue ribbon from her left shoulder (used for distraction).

SPECIAL POWERS

Can manipulate hydrogen and oxygen to create water from air; turns it to ice, freezing whatever she touches.

FIGHTING STYLE

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, non-perfected Jeet Kune Do concepts.

WEAKNESSES

Since she isn’t very strong, large opponents are her weakness. And heat, of course.

PERSONALITY

Lone ranger, looking for fights to block her mind from pain.

BACKSTORY

Most of her backstory is unknown. This is just what she read in a genetics scientist’s notes:

“When Ali was born, her mother died from the birth. When her father heard, he committed suicide. Left alone, she was adopted by me. She was only 6 months when the tests began. Before you know it, she began to learn to control herself more. The chemicals turned her hair blue, and her eyes blue and silver. She can control temperature and some molecules to create ice from water she created herself… magnificent, my creation…”

She knew she was different… knew she had no friends, no home, no one to love her. She read the scientist’s notes, and at 12 years old she killed him.

She was alone. She had to make money to live. She tried performing, but was looked at as a freak. So she killed people, then she got arrested and put in jail. Then she learned to fight. She showed the prisoners her ice abilities. They all wanted a piece of her, so she fought back. After various fights she was moved to a cell with a Jeet Kune Do master named Rudy, who had killed an opponent. Rudy was the best – she beat all the guys. But she had finally gone too far and killed someone. Now, she had to teach Ali to become a fighting machine.

Ali incorporated her ice into her fighting. She can freeze her hands and punch with ice fists. She can cool down her opponent’s body to make injuries hurt twice as much. And she can freeze small sections of her opponents (such as a foot) to the ground, or even herself to her opponents.

When she escaped prison at the age of 18, she became an underground phenomenon and won lots of money. That’s where the name Ali Icestorm started. With the money, she got a suit that holds in cold and can help her create ice better, or even protect her from various amounts of heat. Though not a super-strong material, it can withstand most falls without ripping.

Present day, you can find her meditating… trying to find inner peace… trying to stop the pain of killing the only man to have taken care of her. Wondering what her parents were like… wondering if this torture will ever end… and still evading the police at all costs.

“I don’t believe that love exists – if it does, why does nobody love me?”