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The Secrets of Origins

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On August 26, 2025

In 05 Secret Origins, 11 Writing

Note from JayJay: Here’s a look into our creation process. We used to compile these lists to help us come up with characters and story ideas. We did a few of them over the years, but these are a couple of later ones that were commited to computer, unlike earlier ones which were hand-written and may be lost to time.

Types of Origins and Powers

Origins

Magic

  • Magical object (Aladdin’s lamp, the Philosopher’s Stone, Ruby Slippers, the Witchblade, etc.) 
  • Magical being (wizard, genie, Tinkerbelle, etc.)
  • Magical creature (horses like Shadowfax or Pegasus, dragons, monsters) 
  • Changelings (Selkies, mermaids, fairies)
  • Mythological
  • Supernatural (Vampires, werewolves, ghosts, mermaids, etc.)

Science or pseudoscience

  • Invention (Iron Man’s armor, Batman’s utility belt, the Batmobile)
  • Mutations (including my idea, retroviral disease)
  • Aliens
  • Time travelers (with technology or creatures: Dr. Who, Terminator and dinosaurs)
  • Robots
  • Machines
  • Monsters (Venomm, Frankenstein’s monster, Godzilla) 
  • Mental powers (Nightmask, Professor X, Saturn Girl) 

Hidden Civilizations: (the Inhumans, Shang-ri-la, Pellucidar)

No powers: “self-made” (martial artists, detectives, marksmen) 

Religious/Angels/Devils/Demons: (Spawn, Hellboy, the Spectre, Mephisto—keyword: non-denominational)

Genius

Powers

  • Adaptation
  • Agility
  • Aim (Bullseye)
  • Animal powers
  • Animation of unliving objects
  • Annoyance
  • Astral projection
  • Biotech
  • Bouncing
  • Causing disease
  • Chaos power
  • Charisma/leadership
  • Cold
  • Communicating with natural world (Geomancer)
  • Computer skills
  • Consume energy
  • Consume matter
  • Control over energy
  • Control over matter
  • Control time
  • Copying traits, powers (Absorbing Man)
  • Courage
  • Creature control
  • Cyclical power (Night Girl, Hour Man)
  • Danger sense
  • Death touch
  • Demon-housing (Negative Man, THIA)
  • Density control
  • Disintegration
  • Elemental properties (Metal Men)
  • Emotional control
  • Energy transmutation (Dazzler)
  • Fire
  • Firing energy (electricity, light, sound, gravity, magnetism, radiation, force) 
  • Flying
  • Force field, manipulating force fields
  • Forensic skills
  • Gravity control
  • Group consciousness
  • Growth
  • Healing factor (self)
  • Healing others
  • Hunter
  • Hypnosis
  • Illusions
  • Immortality
  • Influence (Voice, Purple Man)
  • Inhabiting (Deadman)
  • Intangibility
  • Intelligence
  • Interdimensional travel
  • Invisibility/stealth
  • Invulnerability (full or specific)
  • Jekyll/Hyde (Hulk, Ghost Rider)
  • Luck/probabilities
  • Manipulating elements, chemicals, transforming into substances (Metamorpho)
  • Memory
  • Mental Powers (empathy, telepathy, telekinesis, etc.)
  • Metabolic control
  • Mimickry
  • Navigation
  • Physical alteration, i.e., stretching
  • Physical perfection
  • Plant control
  • Power by food or pills (Popeye, Roger Ramjet)
  • Power negation
  • Prediction
  • Radar/sonar sense
  • Seduction (the Sirens, Charma)
  • Self-duplicating (Triplicate Girl)
  • Shadow casting
  • Shapeshifting
  • Shrinking
  • Skills of any kind
  • Soldiers
  • Speed
  • Stealing powers, energy (the Parasite)
  • Stink/stench (Skunk)
  • Strength
  • Super-senses
  • Technological intuition/command (Ax)
  • Technology
  • Teleportation
  • Thief
  • Time travel
  • Total body control
  • Transforming into energy, matter (Sandman, Metamorpho, Hydro)
  • Translation
  • Tulpa (thoughtform) creation
  • Wallcrawling
  • Watcher/recorder/archivist
  • Weather control
  • Wishes

Motives

Positive motives (usually)

  • Altruism
  • Chosen by higher beings (Shazam, Spectre)
  • Debt to society/guilt (Spider-Man)
  • Destiny (Superman, Harry Potter) 
  • Duty (Sgt. Rock, Policemen)
  • Earning a living (Power Man, Booster Gold) 
  • Environmentalism (Captain Planet)
  • Fix the past (Back to the Future, Terminator)
  • Fun
  • Hereditary heroes (it’s all in the family—Rai, the Phantom)
  • Justice (including Robin Hood/resistance fighter situations)
  • Loyalty 
  • Love
  • Responsibility
  • Self-preservation
  • World-preservation

Negative motives (usually)

  • Addiction 
  • Art’s sake/creative expression (the Joker, Master Darque)
  • Attention
  • “Fun” (twisted)
  • Megalomania (world conquerors, dictators)
  • Nationalism
  • Prejudice/hate/racism
  • Quest for immortality 
  • Revenge
  • The Seven Deadly Sins
    • Anger
    • Envy
    • Gluttony
    • Greed 
    • Lust
    • Pride
    • Sloth
  • Vampirism
  • “Because I can” (using super-gifts for good or bad)
  • Opportunity (chance to do something good or evil)
  • Religion (Warriors of Plasm)

The Secret Origin of The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe – Part 3

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On October 12, 2011

In 03 Marvel Comics, 05 Secret Origins

Issue # 15 of a 12-Issue Limited Series and Other Tales to AstonishJust as I stayed out of Larry Hama’s way on G.I. JOE, and stayed out of Archie Goodwin’s way on EPIC Illustrated and EPIC Comics, I pretty much left Mark Gruenwald alone and let him do his thing on The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. The series wasn’t what I had envisioned or what I would have done, but that was okay with me.

If an editor or a creator knew the fundamentals, had an approach that seemed reasonable and had the chops to pull it off, well, all righty then. It was never my goal to Shooter-ize everything. I just wanted to make good comics, and I realized there were many ways to go to get to that goal.

(ASIDE: For instance, Editors in Chief before me had always taken personal charge of designing the covers and writing the cover copy. It seemed to me inevitable that a sameness to the covers would creep in after a while. I’m not talking about a consistent “Marvel feel” or even a house style—I mean staleness—“oh, that again” syndrome. Didn’t matter who the EIC was, or how talented. The covers Len Wein created under his own administration as well as those he created as freelance cover editor for Marv, in my opinion, fell into a rut, to a certain extent. Too many covers featuring two big figures duking it out. To much similar copy: “Can you guess the shocking secret of…?” “This one has it all” “Not even your (enchanted hammer or whatever) can stop Name of Villain!” Archie Goodwin’s covers, too, fell into a certain pattern.

As soon as I became reasonably confident that an editor had a clue about cover design, I butted out and left the covers up to him or her. Even if some weren’t as good as I would have liked, or as good as I would have done, better to have more variety, I thought.)

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The Secret Origin of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe – Part 2

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On October 11, 2011

In 03 Marvel Comics, 05 Secret Origins

First This

 

My sincere apologies. This post was supposed to be yesterday’s. Yesterday’s was supposed to be Saturday’s. Prepping for the New York Comic-Con and some of the business I hope to accomplish there ate up a lot of time. Sorry.

 

Jane’s Fighting Ships, the Marvel Encyclopedia and Where It Went From There
 
Wikipedia, of course, has the origin of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe wrong. Wikipedia is great if you’re looking up fusion reactors or the Fort Ancient Culture but generally full of errors if you look up comic book things, especially any related to me.
In early 1982, I was in the Barnes & Noble on Fifth Avenue and I came across this very cool book, Jane’s Fighting Ships. Every page or so had a clear picture of a warship plus its specifications and key information.
Wow. Nifty-keen!
There were other, similar books, too, notably Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft.
Extra groovy!

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New 52 General Conclusions and the Secret Origin of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe

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On October 7, 2011

In 05 Secret Origins

New 52 General ConclusionsAbout timeline logic in the New 52 “universe,” Greygor said this:

Greygor commented on “DC Comics the New 52 – Part 2“:

The thing that’s confusing me in the Bat line is that Bruce Wayne has been Batman, he’s disappeared and Dick Grayson has taken the role. He’s now back to being Batman again.

In addition there have been 3 Robins, Grayson, Todd and now Damien (IIRC based on what I read in Batman #1, Detective #1 & Batman & Robin #1).

The #1’s are set 5 years after the appearance of Superman, Earth’s first superhero. So all the above happened in a 5 year period.
It’s not tracking for me.

(…)

Posted by Greygor to Jim Shooter at October 6, 2011 4:46 AM

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The Secret Origin and Gooey Death of the Marvel/DC Crossovers – Part Five, the Last

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On July 23, 2011

In 05 Secret Origins

And Then Things Got Ugly

Dick Giordano asked me to meet him for lunch on May 26th, I believe. He picked an Italian place on Madison Avenue near 42nd Street, about halfway between DC and Marvel’s offices.

He had this news: Gerry Conway had quit the project. Okay. Apparently Roy Thomas, however, had expressed interest in scripting the book. Fine, I said, but he’s going to have to start from scratch. First, we needed a new plot.

By the way, the Marvel Comics of the 1980’s site has it wrong. It says that Gerry was “…asked to plot the epic story with Roy Thomas providing the script.” No. Gerry was the intended writer, plot and script. When he bailed out, that’s when his friend Roy stepped up and volunteered to take over.

The purpose of the lunch was to convince me that Roy could save it in the dialogue. No, not even Roy could do that. Think of the plot as a thing meant to be an airplane, but one look told you it had no wings, no landing gear, no engine and no cockpit. What difference does it make if you have a great pilot?

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The Secret Origin and Gooey Death of the Marvel/DC Crossovers – Part Four

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On July 21, 2011

In 05 Secret Origins

Batman/Hulk, Titans/Mutants and Are You Kidding?

Superman and Spider-Man succeeded beyond expectations, launching the Marvel/DC crossover series in spectacular fashion.

Next up, published in late 1981, I think, was Batman vs. the Incredible Hulk. Len Wein, DC’s top writer, who, of course, had written both characters, was the natural choice to write the book. Brilliant Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez penciled it and Dick Giordano inked it wonderfully. Great stuff.

Next, published in 1982, came the Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans by Chris Claremont, Walt Simonson and Terry Austin. Great stuff.

It looked like we were getting the hang of it….

Then along came the Justice League of America vs. the Avengers.

The nightmare brouhaha it stirred up killed the series.

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The Secret Origin and Gooey Death of the Marvel/DC Crossovers – Part Three

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On July 20, 2011

In 05 Secret Origins


The Urge to Kill.  Twice.

The penciling on Superman and Spider-Man went pretty fast.  John Buscema was amazing.

I drove out to John’s house in Port Jefferson on Long Island a couple of times for business reasons.  I don’t remember what the business was but I clearly remember spending time with John, meeting his lovely wife and seeing their wonderful home.

He showed me his studio.  John had a very set work routine.  Start work early.  Warm up for a while, doing little sketches just to get loose.  Work a normal length day, eight hours, he said, as I recall, with a lunch break.  And, at the end of each day, he’d have finished five or six beautiful pages.  Some artists struggled to finish one page a day.  Some couldn’t even do that much.

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The Secret Origin and Gooey Death of the Marvel/DC Crossovers – Part Two

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On July 19, 2011

In 05 Secret Origins


Plan “B”

Once the contracts were buttoned up and signed we started work on Superman and Spider-Man.  I picked Marv Wolfman to write the book for a number of reasons:  he was a marquee name and deservedly so, he was in New York, conveniently, he was absolutely reliable, and most of all because he really, really wanted to do it.  Our other two superstars were Roy and Archie.  Both were pretty solidly booked up, Roy was in California and Archie was way too slow.

So, we had Marv, a top tier guy writing, John Buscema, our number one penciler doing breakdowns, and Joe Sinnott, our premiere inker finishing.  A dream team.

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The Secret Origin and Gooey Death of the Marvel/DC Crossovers – Part One

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On July 18, 2011

In 05 Secret Origins


One morning in mid-1980, Jenette Kahn called and asked me to lunch to discuss an idea she had.

In those days, I usually came to work wearing a sport coat with an open-collar shirt.  When I knew I was going to have civilian visitors (“civilian” means non-comics people, in case any of you civilians out there don’t know) or there was a business meeting on the docket I wore a tie.  Sometimes a suit.

This particular warm, sunny day however, I had come to work with no tie, no jacket.  Nice clothes, presentable enough.  Like what we used to call “school clothes” back in the sixties.

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The Secret Parts of the Origin of G.I. JOE

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On July 6, 2011

In 03 Marvel Comics, 05 Secret Origins

(NOTE:  “Righting the Ship” will start tomorrow.  Here, now, by popular demand is some secret and not so secret intelligence on the origin of G.I. JOE.)Marvel’s involvement with G.I. JOE started in a men’s room.Marvel President Jim Galton and Hasbro CEO Stephen Hassenfeld met at a charity fundraiser in the men’s room, or so Galton told me.

They had a conversation that presumably continued beyond their coincidental visit to the comfort station.  Galton talked about Marvel.  Hassenfeld talked about Hasbro.  And, in particular, Hassenfeld mentioned that Hasbro was planning to reactivate the G.I. JOE trademark.  And that they were having difficulty coming up with the underlying conceit.  Who is this guy, what does he do and why does he do it?

Galton pitched Marvel’s creative services.  Raved to Hassenfeld about the creative prowess of my troops and me.  And sold him on the idea of letting Marvel take a crack at developing a concept for G.I. JOE.

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