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X-LOVE: TEENAGE CONFIDENTIAL (working title) This idea basically stems from two things: (1) A desire to craft an ongoing romance/soap opera in the tradition of shoujo manga series like Peach Girl (2) The question that, if you’re at a school of outcasts, who are the outcasts in the social order of that school? The basic premise: Catherine Stephens comes to the Xavier Academy at age 15. Her mutant powers have reached a point where she is having a bit trouble controlling them, and due to her unnaturally white skin, she isn’t really “fitting in” amongst regular high school teens. Unfortunately, years of being withdrawn have left her with little social skills, and she doesn’t fit in at her new school either. Enter Gwyn Halston, who has been at Xavier’s for over a year now. Gwyn is a bit of the bad girl, and has proceeded to alienate just about everyone at the school (her reaction to that? “Screw ‘em!”). Gwyn befriends Catherine for two very opposite reasons—the one she can’t admit (Gwyn really needs a friend to fill the void) and the one that she probably would tell people behind Catherine’s back (she likes to be the cat playing with a mouse). Things are fine until Eli Tang enters the picture. He makes the hearts of both girls throb, and the story begins to revolve around their efforts to make him notice themselves more than the other girl. Intermixed with the regular trials and tribulations of teenage hormones and changing (mutating) bodies, as well as the regular social dynamic of a high school, and you have unlimited soap opera possibilities. NOTE: Though the characters have nicknames or aliases, these are not personas we play up. In fact, Catherine’s is a derogatory name other students have come up with; Gwyn’s is a bullshit badass name she uses to maintain her contrived reputation. This is a regular dress comic book, not something where they put on spandex and go save the world. Not every student at the school wants to be in the X-Men. Lady Ice/Spooky: Our heroine. Catherine has been different since she was born. Her skin has a frosty hue—snow-white, with things like her lips being blue. Not unlike the image of someone who has been frozen. Her body temperature is naturally colder than regular people, and she can transfer this temperature by touching things, causing them to freeze. This includes the air around her—she can cause the heat in a room to drop dramatically. This effect kicked in hardcore at puberty, as her hormone shifts also caused temperature shifts. When stressed or distracted, she can also absent-mindedly turn things cold. Having always been “different,” Catherine has learned to stay in the shadows of normal society. Her parents also seemed to distance themselves from her, leading her to feel even more isolated. When she was recruited for the Xavier Academy, it was a blessing for all of them. This private life has caused her to have difficulty socializing, and also, has made her very imaginative and romantic. She has an active fantasy life, usually revolving around the objects of her desire discovering her for who she really is. And though she finds there are some at the Academy who are a bit more sensitive and open to other types of people, she will also discover that folks are the same everywhere and cliques still form. The throughline of the series will be a lot about Catherine discovering herself, about her barriers “melting.” She will be the character that most readers can identify with. At the same time, we will want to show that no one is perfect, and she will have her moments of bad decisions, her times of darkness. This will serve to keep the romantic entanglements afloat. Additionally, we will deal with her attempts to equalize her self-perception and her public image, which can easily be summed up by her two alter-egos: Lady Ice, the name she fantasizes herself having, and Spooky, the cruel nickname given to her by her peers. Black Angel: Gwyndolyn Halston is sort of our “bad girl.” Gwyn (or “Gwynnie”) is a bit of a rich girl rebel—so she dresses the part: school girl outfit with a black leather jacket, blonde pony tail. Very pretty, she has had it all handed to her, so her fighting back is a little bit like a kit-you-can-buy-at-a-mall type of fighting back. She is a bit hated at the school because she is a bit of a snot, so she befriends Catherine. They have that very adolescent relationship, where one day they are best friends and getting along, and the next day they are competing over boys, etc. Gwyn isn’t really a bad person, but she is used to having certain things expected of her—from behavior to accomplishments to possessions—and so she just now accepts it and plays the rich bitch more often than not. We’ll want to see the nice side of her, too, and see that she is just as hurt when someone attacks her or Catherine retaliates. Here name comes from her powers—the ability to wield a powerful black electricity that emanates from her body. She can shape it and bend it at her will, and she often has it manifest as big black wings. (It also creates a sort of magnetic field she can use to lift herself off the ground for limited “flying” capability.) I am thinking visually something like in an anime when a big robot is breaking down or whatever, for the way the energy crackles. (See maybe the Eva in Neon Genesis Evangelion or when Tetsuo is having one of his mutation attacks in Akira.) Like Catherine, Gwyn was sent to the Academy by embarrassed parents. Being wealthy, their image is important, and Gwyn knows exactly why she was exiled. To her, she has been totally rejected. The contrast between her and Catherine is that Catherine is much more middle-class suburban. In fact, Catherine sees Gwyn as somewhat enviable, someone she could even aspire to be like were she able to, if she were more sophisticated. Eli Tang: Eli Tang is a handsome Asian boy, but we don’t want to play him to any stereotypes. No mystical crap, no math wizard,no kung fu. He is from a middle-American family, and he is actually pretty much your all-American boy. Is on the swimming team, digs motorcross, excels at science, etc. And even worse, he’s actually a pretty nice, down-to-earth guy. He may be popular as all hell, but he doesn’t actually take that stuff very seriously. Eli’s mutant powers are pretty strange. You ever pull a magnet through a sandbox and have it come up covered with metal filings? Eli’s powers are a little like that. By moving his fingers in the air, sort of like he’s trying to get a spider-web off, he actually conjures up similar metal filings. They begin to appear around his fingers like fuzz, and he can manipulate them into any object he likes—including animated ones. Like, if he wanted to make a little dog, he could make it run around and do dog-like things (though not make sound). One catch: the filings can be extremely hot and extremely sharp, thus making a romantic gesture like giving Catherine a rose potentially very, very dangerous. The drawback of the power is, though he can manipulate it pretty fast, it does take time to do something more complex…so it’s not always convenient. Both Catherine and Gwyn have crushes on Eli. Though Gwyn’s motivations seem purely to spite Catherine at first, in her heart of hearts, she really does long for Eli’s affections. For his part, Eli really likes Catherine, but her “cold” and solitary nature has put him off more than once and made him think she has no time for him. In some cases, then, Catherine’s more overt advances will win out. Paul Craddock: Pretty much the sidekick to Eli, his buddy. This is one of those typical relationships where, if it didn’t exist, Paul would likely be just as much of an outcast as, say, Catherine. Paul has very visible fins on both his arms and legs, as well as gills in his neck that are only partially visible when he is on land (he is amphibious, basically). He is extremely skilled in the water, and he and Eli actually met on the swim team. His parents used to call him Paulie, but that has since morphed into Poolie (like a swimming pool--get it?). Paul is also from a very average background. He actually used to live in Southern California, where the oceans made for an excellent place for a water mutant to be. Paul secretly loves Gwyn and wishes she would notice him. He is extremely kind, and there will be some complications because of that. His kindness towards Catherine actually causes her to crush on him after a perceived broken heart over Eli…adding to the confusion of the heart all our characters will experience.
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