Fun fact:
When I was still in my initial draft stages for my DC S/I, I played with quite a few ideas for what they’d be like before settling on the pestilence-controlling rat man.
Fairly different from my Marvel S/I, since I’ve basically only changed a couple of things over time, lol.
Some highlights include:
’TechMaster’
My first idea, a man who somehow got his consciousness and ‘soul’ implanted into the digital world. Basically becoming some kind of tech ghost that could possess any technology linked to the internet. Not much was thought of here other than him being a nuisance, especially to cyborg. (Was never named) An alien that basically resembled a fox made of smoke that could animorph into any species, so long as he could assimilate the DNA of said species. (Similar to the creature in ‘The Thing’.) Nothing else really was in mind, other than a bait-and-switch in his plot, where it’d be framed as him being a peaceful shapeshifter at first, only for J’onn to realize his race assimilates other species. (They were similar to mythical ‘changelings’, taking over races on different planets by being ‘raised’ by the apex race, then living amongst and overthrowing them.) ’Huntsman’ A man who, through making a deal with ‘the god of the hunt’, gained the ability to know exactly how to detain and/or kill any living being he saw in person. Though this came with the price of gaining a near-uncontrollable bloodlust and/or obsession towards any being he used the ability towards. He basically started his storyline by kidnapping some members of the justice league to add to his collection. I didn’t keep the idea long enough to do much else with it, though.
(Was never named) For a small time between the Huntsman and Managero, I toyed with the idea of my S/I being dance-themed. (Because, you see, his sister is a singer, so I thought it’d be funny.) So I played with the idea of him being able to hypnotize people and control them via making music/dancing. (Using his abilities, if he danced, he could make his targets mirror his movements, or he could basically make people break out into spontaneous song and dance, like a Disney movie.) I never actually came up with a character for this ability or anything, I just think it’s notable because of how funny I think it is: Just Scarecrow, the embodiment of fear and terror wrapped in straw and stitches, and then you look over at his boyfriend and he’s the human embodiment of the ‘conga line’ scene from ‘The Mask’. ‘Managero’ No doubt the most developed. This was the last idea before I settled on Plague rat. A man who, during a freak accident, ended up being combined with multiple lab animals. This resulted in him basically being turned into a monster. He couldn’t speak very much, as the animals were ‘too loud’ in his own head for him to even understand what he was saying, and had animal-like instincts that he couldn’t control. The ‘abilities’ that he gained from the accident made him forcibly ‘evolve’ and adapt to any deadly situation in order to survive. He couldn’t control it, nor what would happen to his body, but whatever he evolved would always be half-formed and unfinished, and basically go away as soon as he didn’t need them to survive anymore. (For example: Wings sprouting out of his back whilst falling from a deadly height, but the wings, despite being able to fly with them, would be misshapen and painful to move. then, they’d fall off as soon as he landed.) He basically wanted nothing more than to be left alone, was kidnapped by the Joker at one point, and then ended up with Scarecrow somehow. But that’s all I ended up getting to before abandoning this idea as well.
I dunno, I just think it’s interesting to imagine how differently my S/I could’ve turned out if I decided to go with any of these ideas, haha.