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[wiglaf]

Marvel Comics has had so many alternate universes that I got to thinking, what if existing characters were born in a steam punk universe.  The Batmobile is steam powered (yes, Batman's not Marvel but it could be run similarily for either comic universe) or Doc Oc has to carry a small engine with all sorts of cogs and gears for his arms to work.  Iron Man's suit would be- really complex.

Of course, then the problem came up with how would you steam punk up mutant powers or alien abilities? The best I could think of would be to have them caused by some sort of serum (a la The Invisible Man for instance) where they would have built in flaws or restraints so that the story leans more towards the old sci-fi than the super hero genre.

Any thoughts? Advice? Interest?

[argyle2001]

Steampunk is a form of gothic fiction (perhaps slightly removed, but not by much), and therefore is perfectly compatible with potions and serums a la Jekyll/Hyde or the Invisible Man.  Surgical horrors a la Frankenstein or Dr. Moreau are fine, too.

Actual gothic monsters like vampires and were-critters seem to be a point of contention in my experience.  I remember when I was about to join a PBeM game, a half-dozen years ago (or more), when the game fell apart because one GM allowed a player to submit a vampire character, and the other GM had a major hissy fit.  Absurdly, they opened the debate up to the other players, who had a brawl over it.  I'd seen brawls over geek-points before, but that was totally unexpected.  (I digress?  So I digress.)  I'd recommend that anyone looking to play a steampunk Blade the Vampire Hunter be quietly turned away, and leave it at that.

Mutant powers aren't too much of a problem.  The X-Men were originally called "children of the atom" as though they were caused by trace radiation exposure from atomic weapons' testing.  So maybe there are mutants — not a race, but individual freaks — caused by exposure to one thing or another from some other goth lab.  The mutations would need to be more in keeping with something they could plausibly be exposed to, of course..  Or they could be unwilling test subjects from something.  I could imagine Angel being the result of a twisted surgical experiment (athough where you get wings like that in the first place... hm).

Entirely workable.

[wiglaf]

Vampires v steam punk is the same as fantasy v sci-fi, in my opinion.  Two completely different genres which really only cross over in the realm of super heroes.  Dr. Jeckyll and Dr. Moreau I would classify as sci-fi/horror rather than fantasy, so I see no contradiction in them.

Which sort of gets back to the original question.  H.G. Welles spent a few pages in The Invisible Man telling how invisibility worked.  His explanation would never work in the real world but, to me, the effort spent on telling classifies it as science fiction.  "We were exposed to something in the atmosphere," is just a little to nebulous for my tastes unless the writers want to tell why a specific exposure would lead to a specific effect.

The Fantastic Four are out testing a steam punk rocket ship.  Great start.  They fly into a mysterious cloud which gives them all different powers with no explanation.  Not as satisfying.

They needn't all be mutations.  Cyclops could have some sort of implant with a similar effect.  Wolverine could lack the regenerative ability and just have the metal skeleton and claws.  Others like Rogue or Jean Grey would be a lot harder to be convincing with.

Ths will probably take a few more month's of mulling over before making any real decision about it.

[argyle2001]

Ah, but I don't mean "something in the atmosphere."  I mean very specific somethings.  Origins would be in some way connected to a legitimate source within the genre.

In the story of Jekyll and Hyde, Jekyll discovers that a key ingredient in his original formula was tainted, and that the pure ingredient renders the potion ineffective.  He runs out of the potion even though he has made more, because he doesn't know what the mystery contaminant was.  Permanently Hyde, he eventually commits suicide rather than face punishment for his crimes.  End book.

But maybe not end story.

The body goes to the morgue, is autopsied, and so on.  Eventually, he is to be embalmed and buried.  Embalming involves draining the body of any remaining blood while pumping it full of embalming fluid... which contains a high concentration of our mystery ingredient (please pardon the pun): formaldehyde.  A simple accident overturns the cart that holds both the embalming fluid and the drained blood — which is loaded with the 'untainted' potion that didn't work — smashing the glass vessels and soaking the poor schmuck doing the job.  He doesn't ingest the potion, but is rather soaked in it.   That, and the variant  concentration of the impurity (a LOT of formaldehyde), produces a reduced, but permanent effect... producing a vaguely bestial berserker calling himself Logan.

Or perhaps it wasn't an accident.  Perhaps Logan was fighting with a co-worker, Creed.

One could even say Logan drinks so much because there's a built-in craving for ethanol inherent in the random version of the potion that affected him.


This just means that everyone would have to have an origin, and not one truly of their own doing.  The goth science-guys screwed themselves, typically.  (So really, how is Hyde that different from the early days of The Hulk?)   Steampunk X-Men would be their bastard step-children, screwed by random chance.  I guess that means they wouldn't be any different from a Spider-Man... but how much would that matter?

Anyway, that's how it all works in my head.  My only point is that there's always SOMETHING that can work.