Captain Kiwi and friends

Some more Heroclix repaints last night as I wander through the misty halls of nostalgia and recreate the heroes of my youth. Not that I'm that old - certainly not in the sense that I'm mature in any way!

First up, Captain Kiwi himself. Designed to be a crime-fighter in the image of Batman, Daredevil or Spiderman  -that is a street level superhero - there was only one certainty about Captain Kiwi - he would not have the power to fly! But what power would he have? The ability to grow his nose and root out tasty grubs? It was basically decided that like Captain America or Batman, Captain Kiwi would have no real super-powers; he would be a man in peak physical perfection, with a steel trap mind and an unshakable sense of duty.

Captain Kiwi is Captain America without his shield.

Early concept art

Later developments, but I've decided against the shoulder pads - they are so 90s! The power sword didn't survive either.

Rounding out the superhero team Delta Wave, we have the following heroes:

Spectra used to be Triplicate Girl

A quick google search revealed that there is a superheroine called Spectra in published comics now. But not when I invented this lass there wasn't! Spectra does shiny light things, the exact nature of which is still a bit obscure, but basically my conception of her is that she is like Dazzler in her powers. I have an original concept sketch of her, but I'm pretty sure I was trying to create the world's skimpiest costume at the time and I find it a bit embarrassing now I'm older and wiser (but still not mature). She's much more covered up in this version, while still being attired completely impractically for fighting supervillains, in a minidress and high heels!

Aura was Marvel Nightshade

You caught a glimpse of Aura in the last post. She is Aphid's girlfriend. She also has a force-field. And she's brainy. I was really drawn to this figure because of the headband. Check out the last post to see what I'm talking about. I love the 'fro too. I had to paint some more clothes on her though. How many wardrobe malfunctions would happen fighting evil wearing a bikini? Still got high heels for maximum impracticality!

Speed was Northstar

And the final member of Delta Wave is Speed. Speed is super-fast (well, duh), like the Flash. Whose colours are on his costume. That is truly, honestly, cross my heart and hope to die, a co-incidence. We were thinking of a hero with powers more like Northstar from Alpha Flight (whose figure I've used for him), and all the sketches of Speed have him flying. I guess there is something about red and yellow that just yells speedster. As 12 year olds, we were totally unaware that we were naming a superhero after a class B drug. The fact that Speed got his powers from a speed serum just makes that even worse now. In the last post it is Speed that Aphid is timing when he says from 0- 100 in 4 seconds. That was meant to be .4, which makes things much more impressive...

Reimagining the whole team of Delta Wave, I've had a few thoughts. The first is that you can't have two people on the team named Ore and Aura. That is just inviting miscommunication. So Ore will once more become - Dustmaster! Set vacuums to stun! I've also been thinking about the team name. Delta Wave was supposed to refer to the mysterious delta waves that irradiated our heroes and gave them their powers. This was a good cover story for what was a rip-off of Alpha Flight (take another Greek letter and add second random word - they could have been Delta Broccoli). But over the years there have been other names: Photon Force (not to be confused with the riders of the magic couch - Futon Force); The Liberators (unspecific what they were liberating); and the Protectorate (they protect the Earth, so pretty obvious, right - all connections to the Christian Fundamentalist government of Oliver Cromwell to be ignored). So I will ask you, faithful readers, to help me out. Please leave a comment below answering this question:

'Delta - WAVE!' OK, not the most impressive battlecry ever.

Which team name should these Superheroes have?
a. Delta Wave
b. Photon Force
c. The Liberators
d. The Protectorate

Whichever is chosen will stick, and then I will use the other names for other teams...