Friday, April 16, 2010
My World : Firegirl
Fiery reporter Roxanne Prize was not only one of the first people befriended by Paul Mann when he arrived in Major City, but she soon became his girlfriend as well. Outwardly, they seemed the very picture of a happy couple, but both of them were keeping secrets. Roxanne's secret was that she was trying to dig up clues to the mystery of Paul Mann's background.
Although Roxanne had initially become involved with Mann to learn more about him, she grew to genuinely love him. That made it a gut-wrenching decision when her research was finally completed and she had reached her conclusions. Should she release the story, or should she just forget it? In the end, her (somewhat unethical) journalist side won out over her personal side.
When Roxanne's exposé on Paul Mann broke, it drove a wedge between the two of them that was impossible to overcome. To make matters worse, it soon became clear to everyone that Roxanne's reasoned deduction of Mann's "true" identity was, in fact, wrong. Having lost both the man she loved and her already iffy journalistic credibility due to her deception, Roxanne more or less went into hiding. She retreated to the west coast and began writing for celebrity gossip magazines under an assumed name.
When Paul Mann created his Captain Satellite persona a few years later, Roxanne Prize saw an opportunity to make amends for what she had done. Returning to the east coast on "special assignment" for one of her client publications, she turned up on the MTI campus ostensibly to interview Mortimer (Blue Behemoth) Kane and Danny (Drone Man) Graham on their recent exploits. But she had an ulterior motive - she pleaded with the two newly-minted heroes to make her a super heroine.
After considerable convincing and arm-twisting, Kane and Graham relented and pooled their resources to help Prize develop her own super identity. The result of their efforts was the flame-discharging gun christened the "Pyro Pistol". With this weapon in hand, Roxanne fashioned her own flashy heroine costume. Weeks later, Blue Behemoth and Drone Man had a new partner in their crusade when Firegirl, the Princess of Pyro, made her debut.
Firegirl has sought to use her return to the limelight to redeem herself for her past transgressions, and perhaps make the world a better place in the bargain. She is known far and wide as a strong woman who is ingenious, courageous, and more than a little flirtatious. She even has her own super powers now, as an especially bizarre case gave her mastery over fire and rendered the Pyro Pistol superfluous. Firegirl is a founding member of the Invincible Alliance, and has distinguished herself time and again.
Captain Satellite and Firegirl appear to have finally made peace with each other over their failed relationship. However, Roxanne seems oblivious to the crush that the Blue Behemoth harbors for her. Will the blue-haired beast with the mind (and heart) of a man be able to confess his true feelings? Stay tuned!
There's a lot of words I could say about Firegirl, but we'll keep it brief in this profile.
I'd wanted to do a fire-themed heroine for years, but never drew her until I did giftart for my friend Sara in 2007. I needed to list the names of all the characters in the picture, and just couldn't bear to saddle this character with the terrible pun that had been her working name. That was "Miss Fire", if you must know. So I instead gave her the inoffensive moniker "Firegirl".
Well, Firegirl has captured the imagination of a lot of people since then, and that makes me think I made the right call. In writing her backstory, I chose to make her Captain Satellite's reporter ex-girlfriend - originally a non-costumed supporting cast member. It added a certain degree of shading to what could have been just a very simple idea.
Firegirl's design draws heavily from 1940s-era super heroines. Her "fire character" inspirations include such Golden Age worthies as the Flame (the gun), Pyroman (color scheme), and Wildfire (fire-based heroine).
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