Titan, the Giant Robot Killer

One thing that I feel is not used enough in superhero comics anymore is the use of the giant monster, robot, or villain for the hero to face. It seemed to be something that many golden aged heroes had to face off against, and I want Titan to face one as well, at least once. In Titan: City Under Siege he will face off against a giant robot menace piloted by main villain Dr. Melodian. This robot will be the trump card in Dr. Melodian's hand of havoc. he will unleash untold terror on Delta City, but in the end it is his giant robot that poses the biggest(heh) threat to the city. All I can say right now is that it will be an epic battle with the city's civilian populace in the middle.

Titan 3 Villain No. 2

There will be two main villains in Titan: Shadow Games. The second main villain will the evil Titan doppelganger, shadow aka Dr. Philip Marsh. Dr. Marsh is a military scientist not too unlike Dr. Melodian, the villain form Titan 2. Dr. Marsh is charged with coming to Delta City and capturing Titan and acquiring his power. the military wants to get and use the power that Titan has. So, they have T.R.I. tasked with apprehending Titan and then Dr. Marsh to extract the source of his power for military use.

Titan's power is not to be handled and manipulated or duplicated by mortal means, however, and when Marsh attempts to recreate the jewel in Titan's staff it transforms him into a negative copy Titan who becomes known as Shadow. To do this Marsh is able to remove the jewel and manages to pull Azure into the mortal world. So, in Vol. 3 we will see the spirit guide for the first time. Shadow is not blue and yellow but black and red and has the same powers as Titan. However the new jewel makes the user, Marsh in this case, turn evil. It will give a whole new meaning to clash of the Titans...

Titan 2 Final Stages

I am now just about finished the complete third draft of Titan: City Under Siege. As of now I see only one more draft and then it should be ready for release. I am really pleased with the book so far. There is tone of character development as well as some very serious threats to Titan and Delta City. Titan is battling much more than some average thugs in this one, and Delta City suffers some serious damage in the process.

The biggest issues I have now are writing up and acknowledgements page, a synopsis for the back cover and I will also be having a page in the front of the book for review of the previous Titan adventures. I am hoping that it will only take up to two months for tis last draft to be completed.

Titan 3 Villain

The first big villain Titan will be facing in vol. 3, Shadow Games will be Vincent Morozo aka Mezmorozo. Vincent was born with different and very unique abilities. He has very strong telekinetic powers that are largely manifested from a third eye that opens in the middle of his forehead just above his eye line. This eye gives him the ability to control the minds of others around him. he is a very powerful telepath and can read minds as well as control them, and he can control many minds at once and even by using some of the puppets he is controlling. He can take control of very large groups very quickly and make them do his bidding.

Obviously this power makes him very potentially dangerous and causes many people to fear him. Due to his power Vincent was institutionalised from a very young age out of the fear of what his power can do. A special helmet was created to go over his third eye and block his power from use. This makes him quite a victim of circumstance. He did not ask to be different, he just is, but he is being persecuted for it. So when Vincent escapes the institution and becomes Mezmorozo it goes without saying that he will be looking for some payback to those who wronged him.

Titan 2 Delayed

Unfortunately I do not think that I will be able to keep to my deadline of a May 2013 release for Titan: City Under Siege. I was really hoping that I could, but now I just don't think it possible. I refuse to simply rush it by a month or so and release something that was not ready. I do not write Titan full time, and have just not had the time I needed to do many of the edits and re-reads on this latest draft. It is going fairly fast when I do get the time, however, so I don't think the delay will be very significant. Right now I would say that Titan 2 will be released by the end of June 2013.

Third Draft

I have always loved the second and third draft stage of the writing process. After the first draft I am usually left with a very rough outline of the story and the character development. with the stage am at is the story starts to really take shape and become solid with texture and depth. It's now I can look over what I wrote through the first draft and see how good it was at capturing what I saw in my mind's eye back when I wrote it. Now is also when I can take that and tighten it up and give it the proper detail and emphasis I think it may need. Right now I am very happy with how the story comes together and more importantly how the characters work, and interact, and go another step into their overall character development. It has been said that writing is 10% writing and 90% re-writing. I definitely felt that sentiment the firs time around with Titan: The Midnight Hour, but right now I have found a very good groove and feel that it is 70% writing and 30% re-writing. I may be pushed back until June for the release of Titan: City Under Siege, but in the end I think it will be better and more exciting than its predecessor. we will soon find out.

Duality

I am finding something that is very satisfying yet also challenging about writing the Titan series is that it almost does feel like two different stories that are happening along parallel roads. I have the story of Michael Novak on one hand and the story of Titan on the other. that to me is a great part of the superhero dynamic. The alter egos play out separately yet together. With Titan you have him against all of these villains, the mayor, the police, and media. with Michael I have his relationships with his friends, his girlfriend, his grandfather and brother, and so many more. Yet, so much of the story of Michael is obviously impacted by Titan, but so many in his life have no idea about his secret identity. It does help while writing to think of them for the most part as two separate characters and then through editing bridge them nicely together. By the end of the series this will be a main focal point, this duality and maintaining it.

Spoiler Alert!

FYI, the following will contain some spoiler alerts for future volumes of the Titan book series!

As any superheroes alter ego, Michael Novak has two best friends that help to keep him grounded in the real world as his super alter ego continually pulls him into from the normal life and into the stratosphere. Those friends are Perminder and Dave.

Perminder is a tall and skinny kid of East Indian heritage. He comes from a rather large family and is usually light hearted and up beat, which is something that Michael needs in his life more and more. In 'The Midnight Hour' We didn't get to see a whole lot of him. Mostly I wanted to show who he was and something of his overall personality. In Vol. 2 we will see a whole lot more of him and in a very different light. Perminder will become the next person to discover Michael's superhero identity as Titan. It is something that happens purely by accident which makes it something that was not in Michael's control, but has to work with none the less. Michale now has to learn not only to handle it but trust his friend with this big secret, something he is not known well for. Carly also has her apprehensions about him knowing. She doesn't think that he will be able to stay quiet about it, and she is also a little jealous as up until now she has been the only person to know about Titan. In the end it is the beginning of an inner circle of support for Michael in all that he has to cope with as Titan and in his own life.

Dave is of a very similar build to Michael and of Chinese heritage. he comes from a rather strict but much smaller family than Perminder. Dave is generally a little more intense and sarcastic then Perminder is. We saw about as much of Dave as we did of Perminder in 'The midnight Hour'. In vol. 2 Dave's story takes a very different turn. We see Dave fraternise with Micheal's bully and suspected criminal older brother, Vince. This obviously does not sit well with Micheal. It also makes him much more protective of Dave finding out about his secret. This story line of Dave's will be further played out in vol. 3 'Shadow games'. In vol. 3 we will find that Dave is seduced, like so many others from his neighbourhood, by easy money for criminal activity. Michael will find out and it will send Titan on a race to prevent his friend from getting into anything over his head. In the end Titan will be too late. Dave will be shot and paralysed from the waist down, but that will not be the end of his story either...