Most Excellent Superbat
Most Excellent Superbat by Mike Becker
27 years ago - Heino Okata is born outside Utashinai. His parents are killed in a monster attack, and he is placed in a care facility for orphans.
23 years ago - 4-year-old Heino's gift for gymnastics and martial arts attracts the attention of a small circus, who takes him in.
20 years ago - 7-year-old Heino becomes the national junior competitive martial arts champion. He uses the prize money to begin his own small tech company.
19 years ago - 8-year-old Heino creates his encrypted payment algorithm, OkaneKoin, becoming one of the most prolific online payment systems in the world.
14 years ago - 13-year-old Heino's OkaneKoin becomes the preferred currency in Japan as it is used to support the construction of NeoTokyo, making him the third richest person in the world.
12 years ago - 15-year-old Heino trains under O-Sensei, mastering his martial arts training.
11 years ago - 16-year-old Heino becomes part of the Idol group Chō Wakai, quickly becoming one of the most beloved idols in the country.
10 years ago - 17-year-old Heino becomes an independent idol, marketing through his own company as he expands his technology firm, releasing new interface systems that become the new standard in Japan. He buys his offshore island and builds the Most Excellent Sanctuary
6 years ago - 21-year-old Heino first becomes the next-generation hero Most Excellent Superbat
4 years ago - 23-year-old Heino is the only person able to observe the actions of the Helix corporation, as they take over public perception and turn them against Big Science Action. He helps expose them as an alien psychic virus, and becomes BSA’s newest member.
2 years ago - 25-year-old Heino helps Superman & Batman clear their names and stop President Lex Luthor with his global monitoring systems.
Now - 27-year-old Heino secretly buys the island of Japan.
While the characters in Big Science Action were all designed to represent specific easily recognized types of Anime, Most Excellent Superbat was actually built for a very different reason. As the leader of Super Young Team, the heroes who actually appear in the pages of Final Crisis, he was meant to represent Japanese culture in general and its ability, whether in music, fashion, or elsewhere, to creatively disassemble design elements and reform them in really innovative and unexpected ways, building something completely new.
Of course, when we decided to use him in our project, we wanted him to also fit into the design of our Big Science Action, and therefore we wanted him to feel like our foray into one of the most popular types of Anime in America; Shonen Anime, or Anime for boys ages 12-18. This encompasses popular series like Dragonball Z, Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, and so on. I think Mike's art really captured that aesthetic, what do you think?
Of course, when we decided to use him in our project, we wanted him to also fit into the design of our Big Science Action, and therefore we wanted him to feel like our foray into one of the most popular types of Anime in America; Shonen Anime, or Anime for boys ages 12-18. This encompasses popular series like Dragonball Z, Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, and so on. I think Mike's art really captured that aesthetic, what do you think?
|
Most Excellent Superbat's Comic HistoryAll the founding members of Big Science Action were conceived as classic heroes of Japan specifically so the members of Super Young Team, a group of young Japanese heroes, would have a status quo to rebel against in the pages of Final Crisis, and Most Excellent Superbat was their leader, the main character of the team. Because of this he's by far the most prolifically appearing of all these Japanese heroes, appearing in practically every issue of Final Crisis rather than just one flashback panel, and while the rest of Big Science Action only appears sporadically in the spinoff comic Final Crisis Aftermath: The Dance, Superbat is absolutely the star of the miniseries.
Most Excellent Superbat has pretty much only ever appeared in stories around Final Crisis. I've seen references to him making an appearance somewhere in 2018's Justice League Incarnate, but I haven't been able to find it. |
Most Excellent Superbat StoryThe most interesting thing about Most Excellent Superbat is that he actually has a particular style of heroics that we needed to really think carefully if we wanted it to make sense. He needs to be an athletic and technological prodigy, similar to someone like Mr. Teriffic, but there also needs to be an omnipresent sense that he is buoyed by a nearly infinite ego. He needs to sincerely believe that he really is just that unflappably fantastic. It actually felt strangely easy to understand, as we thought about certain real world billionaires or social media celebrities that worship at the alter of their own excellence... we just had to imagine a character who actually was as awesome as they believe themselves to be. Because of the real-world implications, this does sort of make him feel vaguely sinister, but you just have to imagine this sort of character starring in his own Shonen Anime, where he gets to save the day with his particular brand of effortless coolness.
The characters unfolded pretty effortlessly, which let us dip them lightly into the mainstream world of DC, making him train with Richard Dragon & Ben Turner's teacher O-Sensai, or having him be the one to help Batman & Superman prove their innocence when they are being hunted by President Luthor. We even took a page from the very end of Final Crisis Aftermath: The Dance and showed that he has secretly bought the entire island of Japan. Again, it's the sort of thing that does feel slightly disquieting, but that just seems to be exactly the moral area this hero operates in. |
|
Allies & Teams
