Appendix IV
Dawn Magazine Profiles in Heroism
Author’s Notes
- Dawn is the People of the Crimsonstreak universe. The magazine’s tagline is “on the edge of what’s new.” The mag serves up a variety of content, but definitely has a soft spot for superheroes. This appendix focuses on short profiles for several key heroes.
- Note in Colonel Chaos’ bio that one exploit is called Operation Save Christmas (1985). The implication, of course, is that Christmas often has to be saved, and that Chaos was involved in the 1985 mission.
- Chaos’ birthplace is listed as Webster, Indiana. It’s a small town just “up the road” from my hometown of Williamsburg, Indiana, in Wayne County. Again, that’s on the eastern side of Indiana near the Ohio state line.
- The book takes place in 2010, which technically makes Colonel Chaos 64 years old (the book takes place in the spring, thus Chaos hasn’t had his 65th birthday yet). Miss Lightspeed was born a year later, and would’ve been 63 years old if she hadn’t died in 2000 (her birthday is in May, so she wouldn’t have celebrated her 64th birthday yet). They’re older than you’d expect, but their superpowers have slowed down the aging process. They look, I would say, 20 to 25 years younger than they actually are.
- The Trial of Demonspawn is a scenario I created to show that members of the Heroic Legion don’t agree on everything. Like any other organization, the group has disagreements. In this case, the heroes Samson Knight and Great Alexander felt the villain Demonspawn should’ve died for his crimes. Chaos, a reformed villain himself, took a different stance.
- Miss Lightspeed was born Karen Jo Watson in Fountain City, Indiana. This is a town in Wayne County and the location of Northeastern High School, home of the Knights. I’m a proud graduate of the class of 1999. Chris also attended NHS.
- Earlham College is in Richmond, Indiana, located in—you guessed it—Wayne County. Earlham is a liberal arts college sometimes called the “Harvard of the Midwest.” The school’s mascot is the Quakers. Earlham is a respected institution, although it sometimes seems out of place in traditional, Midwestern Richmond.
- In early drafts of this bio, Miss Lightspeed was a more passive hero who didn’t do much with her powers in her early days. This bio changes that to make her a stronger character.
- Chris’ mom was a trailblazer, becoming the first female granted membership into the Heroic Legion, which had been more of a club for the boys.
- Miss Lightspeed is truly concerned about the plight of developing nations and committed to world peace. She doesn’t always follow established U.S. diplomatic protocols, something that rankles top U.S. leaders.
- The Crusading Comet’s profile is, admittedly, fairly bland. There simply isn’t much to write about him; he’s done a tremendous job of covering his tracks.
- Crimsonstreak’s profile breaks little new ground; we already know plenty about this character. The one little nugget gleaned from the piece is that Crimsonstreak and the Indiana State Police had a formal partnership.
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