F.O.R.C.E. Files: On Legend

Legend has elements of both halves of this
amalgam, but he's forging his own path.
Image credit: DC/Marvel.

The F.O.R.C.E. Files is a new irregular series of columns discussing the F.O.R.C.E. series.

When I first developed Legend about twenty years ago, he was designed to be the answer to a formula. Comic book universes have their big conquering hero, their A list player that leads the other heroes into the future. With a name like Legend, he pretty much has to be that guy.

Those characters in Marvel and DC are—at least in this writer’s opinion—Captain America and Superman. So when I first started to develop Legend I looked at what made those characters different. Legend’s sense of justice certainly resembles the pair. The skintight bodysuit and cape originates with Superman, while I suppose Legend’s history as a military man links him at some level to Cap.

But from there, I wanted to develop Legend into something new. He’s a hero with a more modern bent, built by a modern businessman under a defense contract. He’s supposed to be a kind of super-soldier, but the experiment’s darker elements caused him to go out on his own and gain the enmity of his creator (a member of a family that also plays a part in the pages of Lightweight, where Legend recently appeared.)

I also wanted to start Legend in a place a bit darker than those heroes usually tread. Legend is a man still recovering from both his greatest success and his greatest tragedy. He stopped a man that was supposed to be America’s top hero, but was also its top criminal. In doing so, he lost his closest friend and confidant. He’s a broken man as his backstory begins and still has that darkness deep inside him. It will continue to haunt him throughout the series.

Legend is a character I hope to develop over the next few years of writing. He’s got an interesting future ahead of him if I can accomplish even half the plans I’ve had in place for him over the years.

And hey, he’s only the first of many great new heroes that will rear their head as F.O.R.C.E.moves towards its conclusion.

Legend takes the spotlight in F.O.R.C.E. 1: Legend, a 99 cent short story at Amazon and Smashwords. Learn more about him in that tale and the entire F.O.R.C.E. series.

Best Character Ever 21: Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo Da Vinci’s impact on history is legendary. The quintessential Renaissance Man, Da Vinci did things hundreds of years ahead of his time. But as great as he was as a historical figure, I often think he offers many more possibilities as a figure in literature and pop culture. He’s certainly one I am always fascinated to see in fictional endeavors.

I think I first came across fictional Da Vinci in the film Hudson Hawk. I would have been about twelve when I first saw the legendary box office bomb starring Bruce Willis. But its backstory focused on Da Vinci and the quest to unlock the three pieces of the Philosopher’s Stone the legendary engineer inadvertently made. While Hudson Hawk certainly isn’t a masterpiece of cinematic history, it did instill me with a love for the fictional Da Vinci that has survived for over two decades.