Making My Own Universe

As I’ve been writing the Long Invasion series, I’ve gradually come to grips with the somewhat daunting fact that yes, I do want to create my own superhero universe. I’ve been reading superhero comics since I was five years old. It’s been a joy to watch the MCU on the big screen this past decade. It’s like my childhood memories are being displayed before my very eyes. Those movies (and others) have served as inspiration for me to make my own attempt at creating a world populated by super-powered characters.

My vision for Lorenzo Almanzo and his growing cast of associates has changed significantly since the idea for L.A.ser Boy first came to me. What was going to be a tightly focused, noir-ish mystery centered around a jaded, L.A.-dwelling, Warren Zevon-esque character has given way to the epic scope and world(s)-traveling adventures of the type depicted in my favorite comic book events from back in the day.

Lorenzo just didn’t want to be nearly as jaded and bitter as I intended him to be. He was more comfortable being slightly naive and just a touch goofy. At that point he all but begged for a foil, a partner, someone to bounce ideas off and have experiences with. That’s when Zenda the Magnificent shoved her way onto the scene. Zen, as Lorenzo ends up calling her, takes Zo under her protective wing and shows him how to really do the superhero thing. In return, Zo becomes the first person Zen can trust in a long, long time.

The Long Invasion story just kept growing from there. Hyperman and Valloria. Mountain Man and Dagger. Castle Keeper and Psion, the mind ripper. There are more but the point of this blog is not to list all the characters in the series. The point is for me to fully admit that I am creating an entire universe. The point is for me to put that down in black and white and not shy away from it or dance around it anymore.

I will have have the four books of what I now think of as the “core series” completed by September 2019. Then I will fill in/flesh out the stories of minor characters, leaps forward in time (i.e. The Seven Year Peace), the era that comes after the conclusion of the series and all sorts of narrative opportunities that I just don’t have room for in the core series books. I can see myself writing stories in this setting for decades to come. That’s both an encouraging and challenging realization. It’ll take me a while to fully digest that.