Power Twins Comics

I don’t smoke, as a habit.  I have had the occasional cigar, but, unlike many writers, I don’t feel the need to sweat nicotine into my work.  That being said, I’ve had nearly as many pro-smoking references in comics as I have lies about Neil Armstrong. My favorite was in The Tick Golden Age #3 in which The Tick stops a petty criminal lighting up under a “No Smoking” sign, wrapping him up with the iron post, and admonishing him thusly, “You criminals are so cruel! Let’s see how you like being rolled up and set on fire!”

One of the great things City of Heroes has (had) better than all of the MMOs which came before it was the ability to completely craft your character’s appearance (within some fairly wide limits).  It was all about costume pieces and options.  We did a strip about Power Kid selecting his superhero costume, and another about Spike with the same theme.  Like jumping off a building, a fundamental part of being a superhero is designing a costume.

City of Heroes had three basic body types; male, female, and huge.  Each had its own set of particular costume pieces which could only be used on that body type.  The ability to smoke was restricted to male and huge.  Paragon City had a city wide, absolutely enforced “no smoking ordinance” for women… only.

Some time later, an add on costume pack was made available for purchase, which included a cigarette which could be put in a female’s mouth… “you’ve come a long way, baby.”

This concludes Les Professionnels.  With the closing of City of Heroes, the sequels I wanted to do will likely never happen. On the up side, “One for the Monet” was one of the top ten finalists in the “Create a Comic Contest”.  We did not win prizes, and NC Soft never exhibited the finalists.