The Story of Halogen Part 6: The Orchid

I created Halogen’s arch-nemesis, the Orchid, in 1986, as a villain for the role-playing game “Villains & Vigilantes.” The character became known as “Orchid” because he was fond of describing himself aloud as “beautiful but fragile.” (And you may notice the plant-like roots growing over his cyborg face.) Why “fragile”? This was due to a quirk in the rules of the game “Champions,” a different super hero role-playing game that became much more popular than “V&V” by the mid-1980s. The “Champions” rules provided that super hero characters could get more powers if they were also burdened by “disadvantages.” The more “disadvantaged” a character was, therefore, the more powerful they’d be as well. So it was never the good looking, well-built villains that you had to worry about in “Champions.” It was the blind quadriplegics with ADD and a speech impediment whose power you really had to fear.

Months later I noticed a contest in a magazine I was reading (did you like “Space Gamer” magazine, too?), asking readers to send in drawings of their favorite villains. The best one would be published in a subsequent issue. I entered the drawing of “Orchid” above in that contest and won. The first time I saw that illustration published in a real magazine, I decided right then and there to put together a package describing “Halogen” and his world (as well as a couple of my other, unrelated drawings and characters) and to mail it around to as many comic book publishers as I could. And I did. I was sure that this would lead to Halogen getting his own comic book and, one day, to me achieving my dream of drawing “The Incredible Hulk” for Marvel Comics.

Those mailings did achieve results all right. Just not the ones I expected. Treachery and Greed is next.

The Story of Halogen Part 5: Villains & Vigilantes

In the summer of 1984, I bought a copy of the Villains & Vigilantes, Revised Edition [BOX SET], which was basically "Dungeons and Dragons" with super heroes, mostly because I liked the cover art on the box. As with D&D, the game required each player to first create a character to play, a process that involved specifying each character's powers and abilities (and then numerically quantifying them according to a detailed rule book) on a one-page "character sheet." (That's Halogen's from 1985, at left.)

As in a video game or MMORG, these super hero characters then battle super villains and seek out adventure. Though unlike video games, V&V required that a lot of odd-looking dice (4-,6-,8-,12- and 20-sided) be rolled, and then that lengthy numerical tables be consulted to determine the results.

I'm not exactly sure what a "chick magnet" is. But I am certain that this process was its exact opposite. I say so based on an extensive scientific case study that I personally conducted from 1983-1986. Let me assure you: the results were statistically significant, and were subject to extensive peer review.

This process did, however, give me a much better understanding of which super-powers worked best (and which worked best together) "in reality," causing me to make repeated changes to Halogen's abilities. (Can't you just hear Motley Crue screaming, "Girls! Girls! Girls!") And because every super hero needs super villains to fight, I created Halogen's arch nemesis, the criminal mastermind "Orchid," specifically for this game.

And he ended up seeing publication first, in 1987. That story next time.

The Story of Halogen Part 4: Bizarre Love Triangle

Influenced by the "Super Friends" saturday morning cartoon, by 1985 I came to believe that all the really good super heroes (like Superman and Batman) had to be part of a super team, too. So before Halogen (pictured above, from 1985) had even had his first adventure, I had him join the "Guardians of America," whose headquarters was located, imaginatively if impractically, inside the Statue of Liberty. I still have a two paragraph summary of the organization, which reflects a school-age boy's priorities. "There are certain guidelines which they must all abide by. The first is that they get no real vacation." (With great power comes great responsibility, I suppose.)

But as it turned out those rules were the least of Halogen's concerns. He quickly became embroiled in a love triangle with the two other members pictured above: Saberclaw and Grizzly. Saberclaw, as some may recognize, was basically a female Wolverine (right down to his early 1980s blue and yellow costume), though her back story (a former Soviet agent who fell in love with Halogen) was more or less pulled directly from the character Black Widow in Frank Miller's "Daredevil" of the time. (When I did that drawing in 1985, I thought that Saberclaw looked sexy and voluptuous. Now she looks, maybe, peeved at the results of a gay marriage initiative.)

The "bizarre" part of the love triangle, though, was the Grizzly. In human form, Lee Weather was in love with Saberclaw. But when he turned into a bear, he became female. (I had read that female grizzlys were bigger and more ferocious than males.) And in that incarnation, Grizzly was hopelessly infatuated with Halogen.

I'm sure this was all totally unrelated to the fact that, at the time, I had a crush on a girl with exactly Saberclaw's haircut, who herself had eyes for a guy who I was pretty sure didn't like her (type)....

Next time: From the "Villains & Vigilantes" Game, Comes the Villain

Bastard!

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford says he "crossed lines" with a handful of women other than his mistress — but never had sex with them, according to the Associated Press today. He apparently went on to say that his Argentinian mistress is his "soul mate" but that "he's trying to fall back in love with his wife."

Ah, the healing power of words. To quote Yoda, "Do or do not. There is no 'try.' "

I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough

The Minnesota Supreme Court has ordered today that Al Franken be certified the winner in that state's long-contested Senate race. The former Saturday Night Live star now becomes one of a number of former television actors turned (short term, low impact) members of the US Congress, including two term (4 years) Representative from Georgia Ben Jones, who played "Cooter" on The Dukes of Hazard, four term (8 years) Representative from Iowa Fred Grandy, who played "Gopher" on the Love Boat, and one and a third term (8 years) Senator from Tennessee Fred Thompson ("Law & Order").

The Story of Halogen Part 3: The Name

Where did the name "Halogen" come from? When I first "created" the character in 1983, he was more or less just a copy of Iron Man colored in blue and white, rather than red and yellow. My first attempt at naming him, as you can see in the picture above, was just as unimaginative and derivative: "Ice-Man," because he was blue.

But I did like another, more original idea on that notebook page above: that his armor would be cold to the touch. Because I had seen a demonstration on TV of how cold liquid nitrogen was and how the bottle it was in gave off whips of "cold smoke" (like the photo above), I decided that my super hero could turn himself into colorless nitrogen gas, but that in his more condensed physical state (looking like Iron Man) his armor would be like a container of liquid nitrogen: cold to the touch.

Now, back to the name. Simple really. When I had to change a burned-out lightbulb in the desk lamp in my bedroom I saw the word "halogen" on the replacement bulb. Halogen: a combination of "Halo" and "Nitrogen." That was it.

Next time, Halogen is embroiled in a "Bizarre Love Triangle"

The story of Halogen Part 2: "Fate"

Yesterday I posted a crudely drawn picture of a super hero I invented when I was 12, who I called "Halogen." It may not have looked like it to you, but that drawing was painstakingly modelled from an "Iron Man" comic book.

I wasn't really interested in comic books as a child. But when I went to junior high school, Fate stepped in and changed that. The woman in the photo above looks a lot like Fate as I met her back in 1983. At least once a week, my 7th grade bus driver would pull over into this convenience store along the route called "Highs." She always said it was to get gas. But very quickly we noticed that each time she also bought a pack of menthol cigarettes, and invariably lit up even before we hit the road again. To keep an eye on us while she stopped, she would have us all come into the store with her, and it was during those stops that I started getting intruiged by comic books, albeit slowly and tentatively at first.

Soon I was getting comic books every time we stopped. And that's how I first came to love comic books. I must have spent tens of thouands of hours consumed by comic books in my subsequent, awkward teenage years. All because of an affable, heavy-set woman reeking of smoke whose name I never even knew.

That adolescent anecdote may not sound like much to you. If not, just replace the words "comic books" with "sex" in two paragraphs above. That may make you smile. (Maybe with wistful recognition?)

Next time: the naming of "Halogen"....