Super Mercenary

That is, not a heroine or a villainess, just a superwoman in it to get paid.  I mean, maybe she has some standards in regards to what jobs she will or won’t take, but at the end of the day she isn’t necessarily on either side of the law.  I don’t think I’ve seen many characters like that around here.

Run with it thefirstone, awesome concept

Like the idea, surely.

I like the idea, everyone has to put food on the table, even a super-powered girl. Perhaps her powers prevent her from holding down a 9 to 5 job and she has to look elsewhere for viable income?

I kinda flipped this one around where Yankee Girl completely failed to market herself as a Superheroine and went into cheesecake modelling to pay the bills

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I really like the idea and look forward to whatever you create.  Per previous comments, another story that dealt with this idea was Happiest in Shadows' magnum opus "Modifications."  In it a geneticist modifies herself in order to fight a debilitating virus.  She ends up transforming herself into a being with essentially immeasurable physical ability and hires herself out to organizations that her services - with certain stipulations.  You could also pay her not to work against you.  Was a great one.   

Thefirstone wrote: That is, not a heroine or a villainess, just a superwoman in it to get paid.  I mean, maybe she has some standards in regards to what jobs she will or won’t take, but at the end of the day she isn’t necessarily on either side of the law.  I don’t think I’ve seen many characters like that around here.

I'll be the bad guy and say the concept is "paper thin" that'll lead nowhere. 

Something I learned when I first LARP is that a character should always have a motivation and in making characters is to ask "why". Do it 3 times and maybe you'll arrive at a character or concept that has more "meat" in it.

AuGoose wrote:
Having motivations and working towards them through mercenary behavior aren't incompatible. I agree it's VERY worth the time as an author (or RPG player) to establish two or three layers of motivation before the story starts... but it also works to let those layers unfold as the narrative progresses rather than bullet pointing them on the first page.

I agree. The reason to ask "why" is establish a stable foundation and have consistency of a character. This isn't to make someone so rigid that can't be swayed or change. But to make so that change isn't done so on a whim.

Idylls wrote:

Thefirstone wrote: That is, not a heroine or a villainess, just a superwoman in it to get paid.  I mean, maybe she has some standards in regards to what jobs she will or won’t take, but at the end of the day she isn’t necessarily on either side of the law.  I don’t think I’ve seen many characters like that around here.

I'll be the bad guy and say the concept is "paper thin" that'll lead nowhere. 

Something I learned when I first LARP is that a character should always have a motivation and in making characters is to ask "why". Do it 3 times and maybe you'll arrive at a character or concept that has more "meat" in it.

I could see this sort of idea being good for a 'problem ofthe week' type story where the character goes on separate missions each time
with an overarching story. Maybe a character requires some expensive or difficult
to obtain material to make her powers work (or stay alive) and had to balance finding
enough paid jobs to keep going against other commitments. Or being
tempted/forced to take increasingly unpleasant or immoral jobs with larger paycheques
despite her personal misgivings.

^^ You're doing what I said. 
I'm in on the opinion that a character that is "fence sitting" doesn't make for a good protagonist. A good character for me has to make a choice. The "either side of the law" irks me. It speaks of a lack of consequence. 

AuGoose wrote: Having motivations and working towards them through mercenary behavior aren't incompatible. I agree it's VERY worth the time as an author (or RPG player) to establish two or three layers of motivation before the story starts... but it also works to let those layers unfold as the narrative progresses rather than bullet pointing them on the first page.

I think a character needs motivations, and then their actions have to be the most reasonable means to achieve their goals. If a super-powered woman only cares about money, there are lots of ways to get it that don't generate the same fallout as being a mercenary. If she can fly and is super strong (the classic set of powers) she could lift girders to the tops of skyscrapers or tow an off-shore oil platform to a new location. Those jobs require lots of equipment and trained personnel, and are very expensive. She could do them single-handed, make a huge profit, and not worry about making enemies.

A super-powered mercenary might work with the right powers. Maybe she can turn invisible and pass through walls. There's not much market for that, except to assassinate a rival drug lord or conduct corporate espionage. 

I really like this.  That’s always been my favorite type of character — not pure good, not pure evil, but somewhere in the middle, relatable, corruptible.

What you’ve described so far is a stage in the woman’s evoultion.  You just need to decide what the rest of her personal journey looks like.

Maybe she started off poor and has always felt that she would be happier if she had just one more expensive car, just one more diamond necklace.  Just one more.  She goes into a mercenary phase as you descrbibed.  And then at some point she realizes that it isn’t making her happy anymore, creating the impetus for a conclusion.

Or maybe she tries to be the arbitrer of truth and justice in the world, but finds herself demonized and develops a cynicism that lays the foundation a phase of mercenary behavior.  But as some point she begins to yearn for somethig else.

Plenty of interesting angles on this.  Go for it!

As I see it, the term "mercenary" can mean a couple of things in this context: 

Mercenary, as in private soldier or bodyguard. Military applications, up to an including paid assassin. 

Or mercenary in the more generic sense, meaning she's working for pay. That could involve helping miners, construction, emergency services, space launches, etc. etc., all of which could be up-front, lawful activities that she expects to be well paid to provide. 

I think it would be most interesting if she had a strong moral foundation that said she didn't work for criminals or warlords or dictators, etc, but that she'd be offered jobs in a gray area where she might struggle with the morality. There could be some interesting stories if she has to decide if killing some warlord or a drug cartel leader and his cronies was a good thing or a bad thing. She has to decide if the deaths of some really bad people could save many innocent lives. And what the implications of that kind of extra-judicial vigilantism presented. 

That struggle, along with avoiding the extremely slippery slope of situational morality, could be interesting. Basically, how she avoids (or fails to avoid) the "absolute power corrupts absolutely" conundrum. 

Shadar 

^^ I won't appreciate that. ^^ 

I would need more than just that to interest me. 

Let me just say the hardest character I've ever played was those truly altruistic one's.

I remember very well "Modifications" by Happiest in Shadows, in my opinion is one of the best multi-chapter story all time, very very close to my dream-story, I wrote also to the author time time ago to encourage him to develop more about that story...

Sounds like Jessica Jones

lfan wrote: There was an upcoming series that I promo'ed a LOOOONNNGGGGG time ago here that features a Super Mercenary along the lines that I think we all would appreciate.  I was SOOOOOOOOOO looking forward to it, as it was being drawn by Frank Cho who is one of THE best female artists in the biz,  The fact is was being written by Joe Keatinge didn't hurt either.  Well, the project fell into developmental hell and then was rumored to have been sold to a French comic publisher (Delcourt) and then back to Image comics, yada, yada.

The motivations of the lead character, Stone, were kept as a mystery as to WHY she was in that line of work, but she would take out ANY hero or villain for $500 million.  While details were extremely scarce on the book, it looked like she was some kind of ubergirl "who has an exceedingly increasing amount of power"

It was also a hyperviolent book, not for the squeamish based on its title, BRUTAL!  The only known piece of promo art for it, seems to reinforce that concept:

I was looking forward to it, too.  Frank Cho’s work is amazing.

A long time ago I tossed around the idea of an invulnerable merc.  Her only power was that she couldn’t be hurt by anything.  Lacking other powers, strength, speed, flight, etc., she’d rely on weapons to be offensive.  

One downside is that she was still beholden to physics.  Explosions were concussive, bullets pushed her around, and of course she was more indestructible than her clothing.  

I didn’t explore it further because 1) I’m not a very good writer for anything of any real substance, and 2) I knew eventually I’d want her to be more and didn’t trust myself not to go overboard.

I love the idea, though.

Woodclaw wrote:

jnw550 wrote:

lfan wrote: There was an upcoming series that I promo'ed a LOOOONNNGGGGG time ago here that features a Super Mercenary along the lines that I think we all would appreciate.  I was SOOOOOOOOOO looking forward to it, as it was being drawn by Frank Cho who is one of THE best female artists in the biz,  The fact is was being written by Joe Keatinge didn't hurt either.  Well, the project fell into developmental hell and then was rumored to have been sold to a French comic publisher (Delcourt) and then back to Image comics, yada, yada.

The motivations of the lead character, Stone, were kept as a mystery as to WHY she was in that line of work, but she would take out ANY hero or villain for $500 million.  While details were extremely scarce on the book, it looked like she was some kind of ubergirl "who has an exceedingly increasing amount of power"

It was also a hyperviolent book, not for the squeamish based on its title, BRUTAL!  The only known piece of promo art for it, seems to reinforce that concept:

I was looking forward to it, too.  Frank Cho’s work is amazing.

A long time ago I tossed around the idea of an invulnerable merc.  Her only power was that she couldn’t be hurt by anything.  Lacking other powers, strength, speed, flight, etc., she’d rely on weapons to be offensive.  

One downside is that she was still beholden to physics.  Explosions were concussive, bullets pushed her around, and of course she was more indestructible than her clothing.  

I didn’t explore it further because 1) I’m not a very good writer for anything of any real substance, and 2) I knew eventually I’d want her to be more and didn’t trust myself not to go overboard.

I love the idea, though.

Years ago, Image comics published a character based on that exact premise called "The Brit", later on the introduced his kid sister Britanny, who was also "just" indestructible, without any other ancillary power.

Yeah!  I actually think I have those in ComiXology now that I think about it.  Good catch.

Though, it’s a loose interpretation since they punch robots apart with “regular strength”.