There is a multiverse of difference between having a good idea and realizing it on the page. So even allowing the possibility that I had a great idea last week, I still have a long road and a lot of hard work ahead of me*.

For those joining us late, I'm putting together a superhero-themed one-shot to show off my mad skillz.

     (As the kids say.)

Last week's "great" idea:

It's like if Superman only became Clark Kent to impress Lois Lane. But in a "AOL Time-Warner Can't Sue Me" sort of way. Hopefully.

When I'm starting a new comic project, I set a number of milestones for myself:

     I just think. A lot.

Early on, you want to focus on ways to keep your idea interesting and unique. For example, as I joked about above, I don't want my idea evolving into some kind of a Superman parody. (There's an argument to be made that ALL superheroes are Superman parodies, but let's table that for the moment.)

Honestly, few things in comics annoy me more than this past decade's shameless knock-off trend. From Astro City to Supreme to The Authority to Supreme Power, we've seen a pattern of terrific creative teams ripping off the ideas of past creators.

The justification is that these new characters are parodies and homages and that the stories take the characters places that the originals could never go. Seems like a weak excuse to steal another man's work to me.
 

Writers will also talk about "archetypes." Nine times out of ten, that's a fancy of way of saying, "A whole bunch of other people knocked-off this character first."

Now, a couple caveats. I actually love all of the comics I mentioned above, despite the Sam Swipery. Kurt Busiek, Alan Moore, Warren Ellis, and J. Michael Stracksdflasdfa are all extraordinary writers, and they always bring something unique to their comics, beyond the simple swipe.

Also, though I lump all of these comics together, it's certainly true that some ("I'm looking at you, Supreme!") are much more egregious swipers than the others.

All that said, I don't want to fall into a trap where my comic is just another "Superman in strange tights" story. That means differentiating the character from the beginning.

It's especially problematic, because I'm planning on using a Superman-Jimmy-Lois dynamic with three of the main characters. (In other words, I plan on featuring a hero, a confidant, and a love interest in this story.) So how do I unique-ify my character?

Well, first off, I'm starting from a different place. My character is a hero without a secret identity to begin with. That means he's probably an alien. ("Um, Drew, you do realize that...") More specifically, he's an alien who came to Earth as an adult. An alien who is already an intergalactic hero.

At the beginning of the story, he's Earth's protector, but he's definitely not one of us. He's distant. Superior. Imperious. (Hmm. That last one would make a cool name...)

His look should be alien, but not ugly. The woman he falls in love will reject him for his attitude. Not his appearance.

     As to the supporting players...

I can keep the confidant from feeling like a Jimmy-clone by making him older. But I don't want him to be a wise sage either. Someone middle aged? How about the balding, pot-bellied cartoonist behind the "Imperious" comic book?

(The cartoonist angle would give us the opportunity to create a lot of ersatz comic book material that I could use to quickly fill in backstory. Fake covers, and a page that quickly recounts Imperious' origin. Again, original material. Not parody!)

The love interest is going to be the biggest challenge. She should be spunky and cool. She should come across as a real person, with strengths and weaknesses. Mostly out of an effort to make sure she's not a Lois-clone, she won't be defined by her job.

I'd like Imperious to meet her through the cartoonist. The cartoonist is probably Imperious' only human friend, and the love interest is... the cartoonist's girlfriend's sister? I'm imagining some sort of misguided blind date situation where the sister is really put off, but Imperious is smitten.

This leads to Imperious using his alien technology to disguise himself as an "ordinary" human. His cartoonist friend is his model, so in some ways he'll be "playing human" by doing a parody of his geeky friend.

In true romantic comedy form, there will be a courtship period, everything will look like it's working out, and then there will be a complication.

I envision one of Imperious' enemies finding out about this woman and deciding that he will beat Imperious at his own game by transforming himself into an even bigger geek, and trying to steal her from Imperious.

Of course, in the end, the truth will come out. The hero will get the girl. The villain will get what's coming to him. And (mostly) everyone will live happily ever after.

     In somewhere between 40 to 80 pages.

Not quite an outline, but we're getting closer. Next week, how to build an outline, moment by moment.

This is one of Drew's classic Think Like Tomorrow columns.