User blog:Dorkpool/Superheroes And Creepypasta

I recently submitted a story to the Writer's Workshop called "Powerless". It basically revolves around a superhero who lost his powers, and that's all I'll say about it. This isn't about my story, this is about something else.

I've noticed that many Creepypasta stories seem to revolve around ghosts, insanity, murders, that kind of thing. And there's nothing wrong with that. But why don't we have more absurd things, like, say, superheroes.

Now, I'm aware that there are some stories involving superheroes...sort of. Most of them go for a "lost episode" kind of thing, except with comics. That's fine and dandy; hell, one of the stories that does that, "The Forgotten Spider-Man", actually isn't half bad. However, they treat the superheroes like fictional characters, not like real people. They don't write stories from inside the superhero's world (ok, I should note that there is one story that kind of does that called "Metahumans" (I think)). I personally think that's a waste of potential.

Let's think about the lives of superheroes for a second: they dress up in outlandish costumes to fight villains who have goals involving robbery, world domination, or mass murder (among other things). Imagine you're a superhero fighting someone like, say, Carnage. That's a horrifying thought! You'd be fighting a serial killer who has quite a bit of Spider-Man's powers, and is stronger than him. Hell, Spider-Man and Venom have teamed up to stop him! So fighting someone like him isn't exactly something that's light and happy. This is just scratching the surface of what one can do with a concept like this.

Some of you might be thinking, "But aren't superheroes for kids?" First, no, and shut up about that before I punch you. Second, even if they are, this can make it scarier. It can do what lost episodes should do: have a theme revolving around a corruption of innocence. Most lost episodes try, and fail, to do this. A dark story about superheroes possibly can do this!

Some of the comic-savvy among you might remember the so-called "Dark Age of Comics", where most every title tried being "dark" and "gritty" and "EXTREME!" Yeah, those are examples of what not to do. If you're planning on writing a dark superhero story, look at "Watchmen" or "The Dark Knight Returns". See what they did there, and why it works. It's not because it's dark; it's because the characters were well-developed, the plots were great, and most everything worked.

Am I saying everyone should write dark/creepy superhero stories? No. I'm saying that some of you should consider it. Maybe there can be some great stories written based on that.