Detective Stuart week, day 7

“I manage heroes for a living, but it feels more like babysitting.”

Name: Matthew Stuart

Alias: none

Birthday/Age: August 15, 36

Height/Weight: 5’11”, 157 lbs.

Relatives: none known

Occupation: detective

Interests: the paranormal, forensics, classic literature

Powers/Equipment: none

Weaknesses: comic books, women, his boss

Bio: Matthew Stuart has always been into superheroes. When he was little, he was introduced to comics, and it all went down from there. He had a dream of perhaps being a sidekick someday, or that he actually had dormant superpowers, or that he would generally become a hero later in life. It was all he wanted to do, but alas, his parents made him go to school like any other normal kid. His fantasies would have to wait.

Into his teen years, Matthew looked on his past more cynically, realizing his fantasies were unrealistic, and that he’d always be a normal human. Around this time his family moved to the city of Fort North, where superpowers were apparently more common. Matthew didn’t pay this fact much attention, though, until he caught a news story about some supervillains. Back then, Fort North had no superhero counterparts, and the villains were often victorious.

Being “normal,” Matthew did what he could do. He gathered information on the criminals, and then looked up articles on famous people in the area. He eventually managed to deduce the villains’ identities, and reported it to the police. His theories were correct, the villains imprisoned, and he was lauded for such prowess at such a young age. It was then he got the idea to be a detective.

Matthew became just that, and he loved his job, but it wasn’t until Nephilim came along that he really began to enjoy it. She simply showed up one day and offered to be a superhero, and Matthew jumped at the chance to give her missions. It was the closest he could come to his childhood dream, after all. The Matt/Neph team lasted for a solid seven years, until Nephilim was mysteriously assassinated in ’94. Matthew was crushed, thinking there would be no more heroes to take her place.

That is, until Hurricane came along. Hearing reports of a being with weather powers got Matthew’s attention, and he fervently chased after the subject of the news, eventually stumbling upon Alterus. Sure, he sort of forced Alt to be a hero, but both of them (and Gabe) are growing into a team.

Character History: Matthew’s a pretty interesting character. He was made in ’05 and came from a dream I had shortly after we moved into our new house. It’s weird to say that my parents’ shower makes me think of him, but it does. The day after the dream, I had to shower in the morning, and I wanted to use theirs because it looked cool…and so I thought of everything having to do with his character in there. Ha!

Anyway, in the dream, he was some flash-based cartoon named Agent X and he basically looked like a shadow being and those “NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH” signs. Which I suppose isn’t far from shadow people themselves! So he became a detective with shadow powers with a simple, yet detective-y name. He’s been in a few stories, and his II appearance is a cartoony version of his first design, even down to the gloves.

However, his powers would change constantly over the years, but the fact remained that he would always have powers, whether he would keep them secret or not. He actually started in Don the Fly (a VERY OLD incarnation of it), and is one of the only characters (alongside Don and Alec) still in the story today that actually started there. Yeah, DtF’s cast changed really easily. Alec cramped his shadow style, though, and so with the most recent incarnation of DtF, he has shapeshifter-like powers instead, but they function a lot like his shadow ones did.

For II, I tried thinking of powers he could have (since Nephilim and Noir now took over the shadow shtick), but nothing came to mind, and I eventually just said “screw it, I’ll make him a normal human.” So far, it’s working very well. I actually really like him as a character now. Before he was too uptight and holier-than-thou in ways, but now that he’s more down to earth and has a sense of humor, I can really enjoy him.

Next week: Japanese!