A man of Fear

One of my favorite villains is actually all about this concept (Scarecrow). I recently just started brainstorming on a hot topic of mine and I actually wanted to roll with it as ridiculous as it sounds. I want to make a hero named 'Fear Man.' Yes it sounds completely generic but work with me here. Generic leaves the door open for more broader appeal without sacrificing the depth of the character. I mean look at Superman or Spiderman, those names are quite generic to be frank about it, but are easily identifiable to everyone because it breaks down into two things "Insert word here" which is usually an object, subject, or place that a large amount of people can relate to and then insert the word 'Man' which refers to humans. Everyone can relate to being human.

The main synopsis of this idea is that a man can and will have to do things he's afraid to do. And when he's able to get over the fear he realizes that the fear really was the worst part and that they're capable of so much when they get over that hump. Here's a copy and paste from my brainstorm.

Synopsis: Norman Hawkins, a psychology professor, witnesses a mafia hit on a man by mistake and his family is then threatened as a result if he attempts to testify against the assailant which prompts Norman to reluctantly refuse to testify allowing the hitman to get off. Feeling weak that he was intimidated and manipulated Norman becomes the Fear Man, a vigilante who uses his own brand of psychological scare tactics to battle crime.

Sounds weird, but what superhero origin doesn't? See I've been hooked on Breaking Bad for the past 2 weeks being that I missed it on television when it came out (and I do feel ashamed) and I absolutely fell in love with how Walt's character developed throughout the series, how he, a man faced with a death sentence, decided to go all out to provide for his family. And over the course of the series you see him progress into an increasingly more dangerous man and even to a point, psychopathic.

I LOVE this concept which is basically why, actually halfway why, I wanted to do this story. The other half was actually in the works years and years ago by the name of a hero I never quite got around to using, Nightmare, the Dream Ninja. In which case he actually didn't raid your dreams, but he was an assassin so perfect, so deadly, so efficient, that if you heard that you were his next target you'd have nightmares about him. The character just never came to fruition for me, I had too much time making him into something that could actually develop, but eventually a majority of his traits became a hero I work on constantly named Nicholas Blade, a much more sympathetic anti hero in my opinion.

The Fear man is my attempt to try and unravel my own fears and of course the theme is get others to examine theirs. I want to be as unique and clever as I can about it. And I actually want this to stay in a novel form rather than comic like my other works.

Anyway that's all I got, it's actually 4 in the morning and I'm waiting for this damn Aleve to kick in so I can friggin sleep, 12 hours my ass. Took one of those hours for the damn thing to START working. Anyways I just wanted to share my thought process, thanks for reading.

~Grim