So here we have an ACTUAL post about Toxic Waste Girl; you've seen her early concept, now you'll see her as she is at present. After a bit of tedious background information on her source series.
Crankyman is a meandering project initially conceptualised by my friend Alesca and myself one evening about two years ago. We had been discussing the taxing lifestyles of superheroes: managing a normal job and life during the day and fighting crime by night; we decided they'd have to be pretty damn exhausted with so little sleeping time between. From there we designed a character whose personality would show how little sleep he gets, someone who doesn't have a fabulous day job with money to spare, someone who was probably near the range of "getting too old" to do hero work. He was jokingly nicknamed "Crankyman" by the two of us until we could think of something better for him.
The codename, unfortunately, stuck, but I'd later come up with his normal name, Nicodemus Rupert. At this point, another friend of mine, Rav, jumped on board and other characters trickled their way in; Rosaline Epp was the first supporting character to emerge though she'd grow to steal the spotlight and claim the role of main character. I can recall the progression of this idea in great detail, but I'm not quite willing to type that much, so I'll move on to the actual gist of the story.
The story is set in a fictional city of Davenburg, a city like most in comics. At the start, we meet a metahuman with the powers of light manipulation named Rosaline Epp; she's seventeen, strung out on caffeine, loud, and far too enthusiastic about everything... she's also looking for a replacement sidekick. Ros, like so many young metas in the city, participates in an activity that the current generation has dubbed "the Game" under the moniker of Prisma. The Game is a highly regulated registry of metahumans (and skilled non-metas) who take on roles of superheroes and supervillains and are assigned arch nemeses among each other according to their skill levels. Damage caused during this Game is taken into account and damage costs are charged to the perpetrators. Ros finds a replacement in the form of a 44-year-old non-meta named Nicodemus, whom she encounters defending himself from a mugger while taking out garbage in the ally behind Grocer Mart.
Through a series of events practically willed by Ros, Nicodemus reluctantly agrees to go along with her proposition. From there they fight their assigned villain(s) and a few strays and wait for something exciting to happen. Well, Ros waits, Nicodemus dreads. The bulk of Nicodemus's story will be kept under wraps here until I can write out enough of the story to reach the False arc... that's where things heat up.
Of course, there's an assload of smaller stories running through this series, but we've got so many built up that it'd defeat the point of moving forward with the comic/writing if I summarised it all here; not to mention there are a few linear arcs that compose a larger story that I'd hate to ruin for everyone. The series as a whole focuses on humour, but it has dramatic points (some very serious events, as well); the underlying theme is stagnation followed by bursts of evolution and the overall story reflects mess the old generation of heroes left in the wake of the silver age. We've pretty much got the big details of the next ten years of these characters' lives plotted out.
NOW THEN. The central characters include more than just Ros and Nicodemus (hereafter referred to as Nic), but rather than introduce ALL of them in a single post, we'll share a bit of Toxic Waste Girl as this post's focus:
Kylee Dyyvers/ Toxic Waste Girl is the only child of renowned former superhero Admiral Earth (normal alias, Brian Dyyvers). As the daughter of a famous environmentalist and all-around activist, Kylee has never had a very normal life; her youth was spent at rallies and conventions and her father forbade any television sets in the house. In addition to a lack of television and extensive travel, Kylee was also raised on a strict vegan diet, though she resents it greatly and consumes meat whenever away from her father’s watch. She doesn’t know her mother well; the woman showed up unexpectedly at Brian’s door eighteen years ago and left Kylee with him. She only visits Kylee on birthdays.
In a rebellious move against her father at fourteen years of age, Kylee took advantage of her damaging radioactive superpowers that she had kept secret from her father and joined the city’s Game as a villain. As the villain Toxic Waste Girl, Kylee provided semi-professional menace for Prisma and Sidebitch and now arches Crankyman and Prisma.
At school, Kylee is considered untouchably cool; with her bold hair and quiet and severe personality her classmates believe she emits an aura of superior confidence and thus rarely approach her. Ros apparently missed this memo and now serves as Kylee’s only close friend. In her junior year Ros learned that Toxic Waste Girl was in fact Kylee, but she kept the knowledge to herself and continued her rivalry with Toxic as if nothing else connected them.
For her own part, Kylee is a fierce and passionate young woman who has simply learned to contain her fire. Most people don't peg her as the kind of girl who'd have a jock-like sense of humour, but get to know her and you'll see that she's got something of a vulgar streak. She tires of Ros from time-to-time, but truly appreciates having the loud young woman in her life. Though she remains unaware of her nemeses’ identities in-Game. Maybe she'll catch on sometime.
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