The Heroic League

One thing I use this blog for, aside from witty or sarcastic editorials, is a log for my own writing ideas.  I’ve tossed this one around before, but slowly I’ve been crafting the back story.  It’s complex, covers 40 years, and to date has about 25 characters to go through.

This one is just the beginning.

Please note, one character’s name has changed.

The concept:  Heroic League

A group of Canadian, British and American super heroes loosely affiliated within a story that spans over 40 years.

Generation 1:  The Year Is 1970

 Mannequin: A.K.A. Donelda Stewart

Physical Attributes

Height: 5’6″ tall

Weight: 135 lbs

Place of birth: Edmonton, Alberta

Date of Birth: November 16, 1950

Hair: Blonde

Eyes: Blue

Racial Background: White

Marital Status: Married (to Gerald Stewart) (nee Akre, of Finnish decent)

Education: Bachelor of Science, bio-genetic research

Base of Operations: Vancouver, British Columbia

Monetary status: High, she along with her husband are the owners and operators of Stewart Industries, a company that explores growing conditions for crops and how to make crop growth work for a specific environment. SI began as a plow manufacturing company at the turn of the 20th Century.

History: Donelda had no tragedy that drove her to don a black costume with a long black cloak and hood. There was no awful thing that happened to her family members that she decided to take up this one woman war against injustice. She began her crusade because she could. She was wealthy enough, and had enough know how that she began to covertly direct funds toward such a mission. It began innocently enough, as Donelda helped build women’s shelters in Edmonton and Vancouver, but she soon realized that she needed to make a more direct affect in protecting women that often found themselves on the streets. At first, she believed the stats that it all was street level crime forcing some of these women into certain situations. But she soon found out that many of the masterminds that even helped propagate street level crime socialized in the very circles that Donelda and Gerald traveled in.

Physical training: Donelda is trained in Aikido, and Jujitsu forms of martial arts, but she prefers more defensive techniques as she often relies heavily on observation. It’s said her greatest strength is her intelligence.

 Britannia: A.K.A. Melanie Coopers

Physical Attributes

Height: 6’3″ tall

Weight: 215 lbs (solid muscle)

Place of Birth: Ipswich, County Suffolk, England

Date of Birth: May 6, 1949

Hair: Blonde

Eyes: Hazel

Racial Background: White

Marital Status: Single

Education: Military, diplomatic relations, political science

Base of Operations: London, England; Victoria, British Columbia

Monetary Status: Middle.

History: Melanie Coopers is the result of years of genetic testing by MI-6. Coopers, a corporal in the British Royal Armed Forces, began taking treatments not long after her 19th birthday. She volunteered for these experiments, believing it would be used to help many who might have genetic defects lead as normal a life as they can. At least, that’s what she was told. The true purpose was to make a weapon. Coopers eventually was given a uniform and a complete marketing department to promote this aspect of a “symbol of Great Britain and the British Empire”. This didn’t sit too well with her when she was ordered to eradicate any IRA cells that she could find during the height of conflict in Northern Ireland. Coopers refused to use her abilities, and was summarily given a dishonourable discharge from the military and deported to Canada. She took the uniform with her, however, as she still believed the basic ideals of Britannia was something she could emulate.

Physical Training: Melanie is trained in military combat, but it’s her more recent abilities that are more impressive. Heat vision, telescopic vision, super strength and speed and the ability to take flight. She has been measured to be able to lift over 250 times her own body mass with ease. Melanie has often said she needs to “pull her punches” when in uniform, as she constantly reminds herself that her own superior strength could be deadly to others.

 

Yellow Jacket: A.K.A. Richard Hargrove

Physical Attributes

Height: 5’11″

Weight: 195 lbs

Place of Birth: Toronto, Ontario

Date of Birth: August 27, 1949

Hair: Brown (with small signs of grey)

Eyes: Brown

Racial Background: White

Marital status: twice times divorced

Education: security and investigations, community college

Monetary status: Lower Class

Base of Operations: Windsor-Detroit

History: Richard Hargrove emulates the best qualities of a hard boiled private investigator, as though he walked out of a Mickey Spilane or Phillip Marlowe novel. With one exception. That being if a hard boiled detective was also someone like The Shadow or The Spirit. Dressed in what some may call outlandish, a canary yellow fedora, trench coat and tie, black dress shoes, black slacks, black shirt and a black mask, Hargrove called himself Yellow Jacket. He even has a ’57 Chevy convertible that happens to be canary yellow. On top of that, Richard has managed to cobble together several gadgets from stun guns to smoke pellets and even a radio that can act as a two way device. Even use as a listening device when he’s working cases. Hargrove took on this persona for purely selfish reasons, having been a fan of the old pulps when he was a kid. Yellow Jacket became a hero in Windsor, Ontario, where Hargrove had his private detective shingle. There were even those in Detroit who have heard of him.

Physical training: As far as fighting goes, Yellow Jacket is a pugilist. A boxer. But he relies more on his ability to observe more than his ability to fight.

 

The Mystic: A.K.A. Regina Morgan-Simms

Physical Attributes

Height: 5’10″

Weight: 145 lbs

Place of Birth: Shreveport, Louisiana

Date of Birth: March 5, 1948

Hair: Black

Eyes: Brown

Racial Background: Black

Marital Status: Married (to William Simms)

Education: herbalist, horticulture

Monetary status: Lower Middle Class

Base of Operations: Windsor-Detroit

History: Regina comes from a large family. She is the oldest of 4 girls and 5 boys. Regina’s mother was very gifted and very talented and disciplined Mambo. She believed voodoo very much got a bad rap and she would try to use the form to help people understand it has very helpful aspects to it. This was something she taught to her children. Everything can be used to harm, just as it can be used to help. Regina herself became very disciplined as she studied what her mother taught her. As it turned out, all the Morgan women were extremely talented. But it was Regina who used her abilities under the guise of a superhero after she moved to Detroit, Michigan. She would often partner herself with Yellow Jacket (and sometimes, privately, she’d mention how much of a kick it was to drive around in Yellow Jacket’s car).

Physical training: While Mystic relies heavily on her magical abilities, she can throw a pretty mean left hook, something which may be attributed to growing up with five brothers.

 

Canadien: A.K.A. Jean Pierre Turgeon

Physical Attributes

Height: 6’0″

Weight: 185 lbs

Place of Birth: Quebec City, Quebec

Date of Birth: July 15, 1951

Hair: Black

Eyes: Brown

Racial Background: Metis (half white, half Mohawk)

Marital status: engaged (to Monique Desjarlais)

Education: attending McGill University, Bachelor of Arts, political science

Monetary status: Lower Middle Class

Base of Operations: Montreal, Quebec

History: The words “Just watch me” rang quite heavily with Jean Pierre. When Pierre Elliot Trudeau made his famous comment on the steps of Parliament during the October Crisis which saw terrorist attacks by a group called the Front de liberation du Quebec, it sparked something within him. He was a proud Quebecer, but he was also a proud Canadian. To that end, he began going out at night to assist in stopping street crime that was not necessarily connected to FLQ activity, but possibly sparked by it. He had a contact in Montreal Metro Police Detective Marceau Lefevere with whom, as Canadien, he confided in.

Up next, the 1990s.

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