Over the last three years I've essentially been building up my own superhero universe through short fiction released in different collections and through digital literary magazines. This began thanks to "Generation Dead #37: Why I Won't Eat At The Food Court," which From Beyond Press published in their mall horror anthology Escalators To Hell. Though retroactively, this will include the heroes who appeared in "To Do Good," my first published story released in What's Left? by Arledge Comics.
DNA Comics (formerly known as "Dan & Ann's Comics" in the 1940s) combines the concepts of 90s superheroes with 90s horror. Set primarily on Earth-1990, with some stories featuring Earth-1989 and Earth-2003. Below is a list of the established heroes and hero teams who've already appeared, have been mentioned, or are going to appear at some point.
AMERICA'S ADJUDICATORS: When the U.S. government demanded representation in the 90s superhero community, they decided to revive heroes who fought and died during WWII and the Cold War. The heroes they brought back were disgusted by the government's corruption and would've been brainwashed had they not been liberated by the magical MOTHER HUBBARD. Now YANKEE JONES, JOHNNY REBEL, KITTY KELLY, and the SPIDER HAG OF THE OZARKS are living in Hubbard's haunted mansion in the small town of Chesler Corners waiting for a chance to save the rest of their resurrected brethren. (NOTE: These heroes were created by Chesler Comics in the Golden Age and are now public domain)
FREEDOM FRATERNITY: Once the premiere superteam of the 1940s. Most of its members disappeared, having been captured inside a film reel by the Vaudevillain. They've since been liberated in the 90s and have semi-reformed, while some of its members are also helping Guts & Glory. The full roster includes PARAGON, SUNFALL, HONOR, JACK RABBIT, THE BLANK PAGE, AGENT PUCK, JOLLY ROGER, BANKSHOT, ACROBAT, MEDIEVAL, SUPER-AMERICAN, WASP WITCH, EARTHBOY, TONIC-MAN and BIG DADDY MOJO. They were sometimes assisted by sidekicks CLOUDY, now DAWN, and STRIPE, now SCRATCH.
GENERATION DEAD: The sole survivors of grotesque experiments conducted at the now destroyed Area 52, these five college students were killed and resurrected with incredible powers. While attending class at Roswell Falls University, POSE, RAINBOW, WINTER, AIRGUN, and SEATTLE are trying to protect the world from human and inhuman threats to existence. Or they might just kill each other. It wouldn't be the first time!
GENERATION UNDEAD: Lucretia Pine, a.k.a. the Stump Woman, swore revenge on Generation Dead when they escaped her Garden of Sin. She created her own team of monsters by killing and burying seven college students in her garden. An unexpected eighth resurrection thanks to the Goddess of Silence ended up saving Gen Dead and their attackers. Now free from Lucretia's control, ACE, DJINNKO, GISELLE, MEDJED, COTTON, MANXIE, and CRUNCH are led by SILENZIA.
GUTS & GLORY: If you don't have the guts, you don't get the glory. The premiere superteam for the 90s, an organization of gun toting badass heroes. No one's quite sure who's on the Guts team and who's on the Glory team. Led by WARDEN and SUPER-AMERICAN, G&G's most well known members are BUCKSHOT, RHYTHM, and JETSTONE.
THE HALLOWEEN GIRLS: The town of Shephard's Falls is more well known as Slaughter Falls, due to the alarming amount of serial killers the town's birthed every October. However, in recent years, a group of six have emerged to counteract the inevitable autumn deaths. GRETA, ALICE, SERENA, ROXANNE, PRISCILLA, and DANIELLE don blonde wigs and terrible masks to try and save the youth of Slaughter Falls. But is that really such a good idea?
HERO WATCH: No one told them life was gonna be this way. This eclectic team of 30-somethings are all trying to navigate adult life and the perils of being a superhero. Consists of SWEETHEART, THE JERSEY DEVIL, MAGIC LAMP, QUEEN RIMA OF THE GOLDEN CITY, BRAXTON, and OSPREY.
THE JUSTICE NUNS: Exactly what their name implies. These super sisters have taken it upon themselves to fight against those who would corrupt the sanctity of belief and those who exploit the word of God for their own xenophobic, fascist desires. They include THE GOTHIC ROSE, MOTHER SUPERIOR, MAGDALENE, MESSENGER, CANDLEMAS, LOURDES, SOL SISTER, and THE RUBY RULER (no relation to the Ruby Scimitar).
THE LI'L GUTS: A training program for Guts & Glory, and also a sort of halfway program. These children and teenagers survived horrific encounters with ghosts, aliens, monsters, and otherwordly creatures, and it left them transformed for better or worse. When they graduate, they have a choice to join the Guts team or the Glory team. Some of its members include BACON, BUZZ, CHAMPION, HARROW, and the robotic twins SHOCK & AWE. Former teammate TADPOLE left them recently.
MISS MERRIWEATHER'S SCHOOL: A special school built for those designated a "spellchild," someone born with a miraculous power. Miss Merriweather's is so big it's hard to keep track of all the students and student squads, such as THE ODDBALLS, consisting of CALIFORNIUM, CANDY DOT, JETLAG, OKRA, and SOCKS.
THE POWER PALADINS OF THE 33RD CENTURY: What started as a book club for teens who love horror became the most prominent super team of the far future. Roland Wheaton, Cissy Wahlgren, and Gray Milder were inspired to use their powers to do good after they accidentally saved the life of the greatest hero the world will ever known. Taking inspiration from their favorite Stephen King books, they became GUN KING, PROM QUEEN, and FUSE DUDE. Over the years their ranks have grown to include the likes of LAWN BOY, ROSE WITCH, AUTO LAD, PETSHOP BOY, PONY BOY, FROG PRINCESS, and HOME GIRL (a.k.a. PERENNIAL).
STARRY RIVER: A small American town where almost everyone is either a superhero or a supervillain. One of its most well known residents is WOMBAT WOMAN, a semi-happily married woman raising two sons and trying to look after her elderly mother in the early stages of Alzheimer's. Others include AMERICAN SULTAN, BLACKJACK & CHIP, BOUFFANT & DOTTIE, THE BUTLER, CARROT CAKE and POOL BOY, CRUDERELLA, JITTERBUGS I-II and JITTER, OVERCAST, THE PLATINUM PLUNGER, SHROOMSTICK, SNOWPEA, and TULIP.
STEEL-SUITED MAGNOLIA SQUADRON: An armored squadron of five young woman whose base of operations is located under a kitschy hair salon in the Southern United States. They defend the world with their giant robots against the alien menace of BADDIES UNITED TO TERRORIZE SPACE, all the while unsuspecting their supposed dead sixth member was reborn as the amnesiac metal warrior PERDITA.
THE TERRIFI-TEAM: Formerly the Terrifi-Teens, these former teen sidekicks have now finally reached their 30s after four decades and have taken on adult identities as fully realized heroes. But after all these years, you'd think SCRAPPER, GILL MAN, TIM TORNADO, ATALANTA, and THE RUBY SCIMITAR could get through the week without breaking up and reuniting. The Ruby Scimitar's got enough on his hands trying to raise his daughter JEWEL.
THE VAGABOND CLUB: A mismatched misfit assortment of superpowered kids and teens from different eras and different universes, travelling across time and space on a magic train that takes them where they need to be. Those currently riding the rails are ABEDNEGA, CORONIS, SWAT BOY, PHANTASMIA, and GEORGIA PEACH (a.k.a. BINDWEED)
X-TREME GENES: Five college students attended an archaeological dig with their history professor and found hyperintelligent aliens sleeping deep within the Egyptian pyramids. The aliens unlocked hidden abilities within their x-treme genes, and now VANITY, CHINDI, UMBRIEL, WIPEOUT, and HOURGLASS are gonna kick some x-treme butt!
Assorted Solo Heroes: COOL GUY, MARDUK, MOLLY PITCHER, PURPLE TIGRESS, RICH THE WITCH, STAIN, TARANTULO
Since it's officially Spooky Month, here's a list of zombie books I've read and enjoyed!
Age ranges based off my experiences reading them:
Adult Book. No kids allowed. - Zombie Inc, Mountain Man.
Adult Book. Kids might be ok. - Death Warmed Over, Feed.
Young Adult Book. - The Enemy, Rot and Ruin, Generation Dead, The Forest of Hands and Teeth, Alice in Zombieland, Deck Z, Sweet.
Kids Book, but teens may still like it. - My Rotten Life.
If any of these look interesting to you, go check them out! If I had to pick favorites from this list they would probably be all four of the adult books, Sweet, and My Rotten Life.
Feel free to reblog with your own recommendations!
I can finally announce this publicly, but I'm currently working on GENERATION DEAD: THE DEAD RECKONING COLLECTION, eight stories about my team of college student superheroes set in the 1990s.
After From Beyond Press published the first Gen Dead story in their Escalators to Hell collection, I wrote three more stories which were published by different companies. FBP reached out to me and asked about putting together a collection. I'm still working on the stories due to all the personal issues I've been dealing with since the year started.
This collection will include stories about Secretary's Day and White Day, featuring appearances by Generation Undead and X-Treme Genes. There will be an eight page comic story as the framing device for the collection.
Once again I wish to thank Comfort Love and Adam Withers for supplying the character designs for Pose, Rainbow, Winter, Airgun, and Seattle
At long last, they're all together thanks to Comfort Love and Adam Withers.
Here we've got the full line-up of Generation Dead.
POSE: Alice Vane, the leader. Indestructible. Super-strength. Our reliable leader. Smart, lovely, under no circumstances do you ever, EVER, want to make her mad. It's entirely likely nothing can stop her. Sexual orientation - nobody knows. If Gen Dead had a cartoon in the 90s, she'd be voiced by Venus Terzo. Her design was based off Odette from The Swan Princess.
RAINBOW: Gina Vivaldi, the original Lisa Frank punk. Bubbly and perky with a love of things cute and creepy, but watch out for her razor sharp wit and her razor sharp beams of light. Sexual orientation - bisexual. Will eventual start a long distance relationship with Lawn Boy of the Power Paladins in the 33nd Century. Would've been voiced by Katie Griffin in the 90s. Her design was based off Rebecca Gayheart circa Urban Legend.
WINTER: Salli-Ann Maza, queen of the cold shoulder even before she could create ice and snow. An opinionated thinker never afraid to speak her mind, but willing to admit when she could be wrong and laugh at herself. Sexual orientation - lesbian. Will eventually start dating Phyllis "Umbriel" DeFarge of Gen Dead's rival team X-Treme Genes. Would've been deliberately voiced by Terri Hawkes in the 90s opposite Katie Griffin as Rainbow.
AIRGUN: Maximillion Thibodeaux, and no his name's spelled correctly. The eldest son of a disgustingly rich family of Texas oil barons, as the team's sniper he can turn wind, air and oxygen into an endless supply of ammo at his fingertips. Sexual orientation - gay. Loves deeply and can't stand being dumped, until he settled in with Cormorant of Guts & Glory. Would've been voiced by Rino Romano in the 90s.
SEATTLE: Bridger Warren, a skateboarding slacker who enjoys stuffing himself with junk food and trashy horror comics as much as he enjoys controlling and creating water. Sexual orientation - asexual. Is sex repulsed, but starts dating Manxie of Generation Undead after realizing they were good friends through an anime message board. Would've been voiced by Tony Sampson in the 90s.
