If James Bowman had to pick one superpower, he’d choose the power of radioactive urine. No, seriously. He would.

Ignoring uninspired choices like flight, heat vision or invisibility, Bowman, a sophomore television, radio and film major, knows there’s nothing more terrifying than toxic urine being pumped out of a man’s crotch. He would know. After all, he created the unconventional superpower.

The green-spandexed rouge, sporting a conspicuously phallic hose attached to his crotch, cannot be found in a Superman comic. Or in Spider-Man. Or Batman, either.

Appropriately dubbed ‘Gammawiz,’ this super-powered creation can only be found in Bowman’s original comic book, ‘Villainy,’ a graphic novel that the Syracuse University student created himself and hopes to soon publish.

‘His power is he has corrosive acid urine,’ Bowman said. ‘So he’s got tanks on his back that store this up and a big hose attachment around his crotch that he uses as a weapon.’

‘Villainy’ goes against traditional super-storytelling and showcases villains as protagonists instead of superheroes. Having quirky main characters, like Gammawiz, also upsets the status quo.

‘It’s actually a story about the villains. Superheroes are a very minor part in the story actually, so it breaks the mold in that sense,’ Bowman said.

Conceived among jelly doughnuts and hazelnut coffee while Bowman was working at Dunkin’ Donuts in December 2007, ‘Villainy’ was originally planned as a TV show while working with a friend at Dunkin’ Donuts in 2007. Bowman struggled with differing levels of ridiculousness in the script, but he knew he had something original – something that had never been done before.

‘I think there’s a lot of creativity in the characters themselves,’ Bowman said. ‘The villains certainly aren’t the typical, generic villain.’

Conceiving villains liberates Bowman far more than writing square-jawed superheroes. As the morally corrupt, villains can make far more interesting decisions than ethically bound heroes.

The key is creativity. Other aspiring writers want to be the next great ‘Iron Man’ scribe, but the only way to stand out is to create something unique.

‘Oftentimes you have more freedom with villains,’ said SU alumnus and seasoned Marvel Comics writer Fred Van Lente. ‘Also, as protagonists they’re immediately multidimensional because they have this darker, criminal side to them.’

But Van Lente said the creativity should not stop there. Aspiring writers, like Bowman, shouldn’t just reinvent the wheel. They should atomize it and build hover cars.

‘Writers should turn off the SciFi channel, toss their X-Box out the window and burn their comics collection,’ Van Lente said in an e-mail. ‘They should go out there and experience the real world and/or read something that has absolutely nothing to do with genre – non-fiction or classic literature – because it’s the only way they’re going to infuse their work with any fresh ideas.’

While Dunkin’ Donuts may not have the Hall of Justice, it certainly was the incubator for many of Bowman’s ideas. His initial script was an alternative to NBC’s show ‘Heroes.’ Since then, the script has evolved into a more refined universe – more ‘refined,’ meaning that the story no longer ends with superheroes being trapped in a Porta-Potty, Bowman said.

Now adapted as a comic book script, Bowman’s product has had to slightly adapt. ‘When we decided to make it into a graphic novel instead of a TV show, a friend and I who worked on it said we would try to approach it in a slightly more realistic sense,’ Bowman said.

Comics are a special medium within the entertainment industry because they are such a visual enterprise, said Douglas Brode, a cinema studies and film history professor. Adapting their stories takes half the amount of work as a normal novel

‘The graphic novel is a TV show or a movie in print form. It’s the closest relationship to a movie, and it tells a story with a minimum of dialogue and a maximum of visual impact,’ Brode said. After both Disney and Nickelodeon studios denied Bowman’s initial script, Brode – who read the script when Bowman was his student in a creative writing class – suggested that Bowman turn it into a graphic novel.

As a self-professed Marvel Comics geek, writing a comic book script has been no problem for Bowman. In fact, one of ‘Villainy’s’ greatest influences is from Bowman’s favorite graphic novel.

‘My favorite series of comics would be Marvel’s ‘The Ultimates.’ It was drawn by Brian Hitch and written by Mark Millar. That was a huge inspiration for me,’ Bowman said. ‘I like the way the story was told. I tried to use that.’

Being a geek is not a requirement when writing graphic novels, as the industry is heading further mainstream with films like ‘Iron Man’ and ‘The Dark Knight.’ Comic books are becoming less of a niche industry.

‘It’s become a respectable venue, and a venue that is particularly of interest to young people,’ Brode said. ‘It makes very much sense to me that a talented young person like Bowman would pursue that in the same way in that they would pursue trying to write a TV series or trying to write a movie or trying to write a novel.’

Then again, being a comic book nerd has does have its advantages. Nerds know the comic book industry. Bowman knows the industry. And Bowman said this knowledge helped shape his style when drafting ‘Villainy.’

‘I think you have to be a geek and know about superheroes to begin with, so you know what to adapt – not steal – and use,’ Bowman said. ‘You’re inspired and influenced by it and it just comes through in the writing. Being a geek has made this a better thing overall.’

Ironically, Bowman is in need of a hero himself. Still lacking a suitable artist, ‘Villainy’ is just text on paper. To fit the comedic style of his script, Bowman said he needs a ‘cartoon and realism’ art style to inject life into his comic.

Bowman plans to present his finished product to Brode again after its completion. Because he has connections to a publishing company, Bowman said Brode can hopefully help ‘Villainy’ reach publication.

‘It’s the luck of the draw,’ Brode said. ‘But I think it has the potential to go anywhere.’

Andrew Steinbeiser is a sophomore communication and rhetorical studies and writing major and the feature editor. For the record, he wishes he had corrosive urine as a superpower. Just saying. He can be reached at ansteinb@syr.edu.

Published on March 1, 2010 at 12:00 pm