Realistically, I think Jayd would have conjured a shield for protection, but in doing the art, I thought a large glowing shape of that size would pull the eye a bit too much, and I wanted the focus to be on the throwing knives. So I decided not to do a shield so that it wouldn’t be competing for attention visually.
runnersuniverse.com
For all things related to Runners, the sci-fi comic by Sean Wang
What’s would you consider the most complex thing that Jayd can summon? Could she do, for instance a bicycle? We also see from this shot that her constructs can stay in existence quite far away from her.
I suppose the question I’m getting at here is: when you are coming up with superhuman abilities for the comic like Jayd and Sky have (and Bocce’s arm) do you define their internal rules beforehand or is it more like “magic” that can do what the plot requires?
I hope you don’t mind answering these noodly process questions. If so I’ll shut my nerd mouth.
I actually love noodly, process questions, which is what I hope my page commentaries are good for. I may not necessarily always have a fully satisfying answer, but I certainly don’t mind getting questions. So fire away, people!
For Jayd’s powers, it’s less of a distance restriction and more of a time issue. I imagine it as being “energy” she can shape into objects, and as long as they remain in physical contact with her, they can maintain integrity. Away from her, they start to lose shape. In the initial forming of the object, she has some ability to make it a longer-lasting object or shorter. But in either case, once it leaves her body, it will dissipate.
Complexity-wise, I’m honestly not quite sure. In most cases, she has no real need for things with moving parts, and the time it takes to conjure is proportional to the complexity of the object, so she will always opt for something simple and efficient.
As far as defining powers, I give myself a little leeway but generally like to have rules and limitations roughly specified for myself. It’s why I always gravitated more to Spider-Man fights (with clearly specified abilities in Rhino, Doc Ock, Electro, Vulture, etc) over Fantastic Four/Dr. Strange fights, where everything was mystical or cosmic and I had no idea what the constraints and rules were. So I mostly know what the specific abilities are for Jayd, Sky, and Bocce. That said, if at some point I decided a new ability of Bocce’s arm would be cool to introduce and add to canon, I leave myself a little room to do that. But I do have the backstories (and explanation for powers) for Sky and Bocce fully figured out, so I don’t know how much I’ll deviate from that as I’m really excited about those origins (and rules).
Thanks for the in-depth answer.
Since Marvel characters were mentioned: Jayd’s attack here made me think of Longshot.