I never read comic books, but I grew up on superheroes. Spiderman and His Amazing Friends was my favorite cartoon when I was seven years old. I particularly loved Firestar. She could create heat and start fires, and she could fly. I was just sure life would be so much better if I had powers like Firestar.
The Superheroes Union: Dynama came about because I read the words “superhero romance” somewhere and couldn’t get them out of my head. After all, it wasn’t like all of us little girls who grew up wanting to be superheroines had lost interest in them as grown-ups. What would it be like to be a superheroine here and now, today, as a grown woman? What kind of challenges would it present?
And how hard would it be to fall in love when supervillains kept wrecking the world and you had to keep your secret identity a secret?
The first character to speak to me was Annmarie Smith–not the superheroine, but her love interest. She asked the most wonderful, practical questions, like who would look after the kids while you were out fighting mad scientists and where did health insurance come from? Saving the world wouldn’t pay the bills.
TJ Gutierrez, who used to be Dynama, answered her. And that’s how the Superheroes Union was born.
Who is your favorite superheroine or superhero? If you could have one superpower, what would it be? Would it really make life easier?
And what would you do if your evil ex really was evil?
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Ruth Diaz writes genre romances about non-mainstream relationships. She hides a number of publications in a different genre under another name, but The Superheroes Union: Dynama is her first romance publication. For more information, you can subscribe to her blog, like her on Facebook, or follow @RuthDiazWrites on Twitter (where she is most active and, well, opinionated).
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My family just watched the first episode of “Alphas” the other night — it’s a superhero show on SyFy — and we had that discussion. “Which superpower would you want?” My oldest daughter liked Nina’s ability to “suggest” things and make people do what she wanted. My youngest daughter liked Rachel’s ability to enhance her senses — supersight, superhearing, etc. I think my husband would pay a very large amount of money for Gary’s ability — he’s a kind of human antenna who can see TV signals, websites, etc, without needing a technological interface.
As for me, I don’t know what I’d like to have. I think I’m more into “supernatural” than “superhero.” I’d like to have immortality. Or maybe be a ghost or an angel.
I would want to fly and heal. There is no point being able to fly if you cant help when you get there. And im with you, i read superhero romance and instantly went yep, thats what i want to read. Currently reading Strange Academy. It’s fantastic and im looking forward to the genre taking off!! And you know what, I just started writing one of my very own
LOL. Somebody mentioned that show to me just the other day–not as scintillating television, unfortunately, but those are definitely some interesting powers. And I love that your daughters feel like they can plug into that, when superheroes are so often pitched as “just for boys.”
Me, I think I’d like to teleport. I have a hard time traveling, and I have friends in so many different countries. I’d love to be able to see any of them at the drop of a hat.
I saw some behind-the-scenes material about creating the avengers where one of the creators said the thing about telling compelling superhero stories is to first create good, strong characters–characters people would care about and be interested in anyway–and then ad superpowers.
He also mentioned how readers/viewers relate to superheroes by seeing that there’s this amazing person who saves the world and has superpower, but, on some level, that person is just like them.
I think your story captures both of those elements really well–the characters are interesting as PEOPLE, and then the powers on top of that make them more interesting. And they are easy to relate to because their everyday problems are so much like ours–childcare, bills, exes making trouble, meeting new people, feeling like you have to keep too many balls in the air at any one time.
And you know what, I just started writing one of my very own
Awesome! The world needs more superheroes, especially now.
When I was a kid I liked Black Canary. Supergirl and Batgirl always struck me as too copycat to be interesting.
As for a superpower I’d like to have, maybe the ghost-power where you can walk through walls (Shadowcat, Wraith, etc)