I really like writing about the Phantom Saints. They're such a bunch of oddballs. They're just trying to put their various superpowers to good use as superheroes, but they're constantly blocked from joining superhero teams on very stupid grounds. Sophie Townshend--a girl with the power to cause good and bad luck--is rejected for not being pretty enough for the pinup calendar. Nate Fitzcairn--a superstrong, invulnerable guy--is barred on the grounds of being too pleasant and friendly. Doctor M--your typical mysterious space-drifter--is kicked out because he offers to head up a committee on alternative conflict resolution.

Think about comic books today. Everything is so grim and gritty; everyone manages to fit the Great Standard of Beauty; everyone seems to solve things by beating them into submission. Well, what if there were people who didn't fit into these categories? How would Sophie get by in the Marvel-verse? How would Nate get into the Vertigo imprint? How would Doctor M do anything in DC? They wouldn't.

The Tower Guard--the team that they're rejected from--is made up of today's superheroic archetypes--the dark, the amoral, the sexually-charged. They're like the Watchmen, more concerned with public image than with actually saving people. That's what Sophie, Nate, and Doctor M want to do. They have no concerns about their public image. Hell, Nate looks like he shops in the junkyard. But they manage to save more people than the Tower Guard does. Sophie manages to keep a train on its rails and foils a robbery. Nate saves an old lady and her cats from a raging fire in an apartment house. Doctor M robs from the rich and gives to the poor. But they're never given any positive attention in their home city. All of the credit is given to the Tower Guard, who never bother giving any credit to the Phantom Saints (as Doctor M calls their ragtag little team). The police hate them and often try to catch them just to arrest them. The public thinks that Sophie should become a housewife and mother instead of an ass-kicking mistress of fortune.

They're kind of like the Runaways, but they're more-or-less grown up. (Sophie and Nate often sit together on the couch on Saturday mornings watching cartoons and eating Cocoa Puffs.) And they aren't intended to be all that serious. It's more of a silly foray into "real" superherodom.

I love their reactions to their rejections in the first part of the story. Sophie is dragged away by security robots after she starts chattering about how heroism has nothing to do with a sex-kitten image and how offensive to feminism that was. Doctor M is literally thrown out--of a window--after suggesting that they form a committee dedicated to nonviolent conflict resolution and rehabilitation of criminals. Nate is considered, but thrown out because Captain Mars sees a pair of sexy blond twins snogging in the hallway. Even though they have totally useless powers, they're immediately accepted and Nate is booted out of the Watchtower.

They're just fun to write. X3 Roffles~

And their headquarters is an old boxcar in the railyard outside of town. "Not every hero can be Bruce Wayne," observes Doctor M. They're all completely broke and can't even afford a slummy apartment between them. Superheroism doesn't really pay much.

It's so fun to write the Phantom Saints. XD Their personalities are great and their interactions are, too.

If I had any wish, it would be to get this published into a real comic. It'd be so funny. XD