The Adventures of Red Kite

In case you don’t follow me on Instagram, I thought I’d share some of my latest digital drawings and sketches.

Meet Red Kite, my DC universe superhero, my batsona if you will.

I’ve been watching a lot of the Batman: The Complete Animated Series with my husband after my daughter goes to bed. I loved the show as a kid, and I love it just as much as an adult. Watching Batman, however, has sparked my desire to write creatively again – and I kind of want to make my own superhero fiction now.

I feel weird about the idea of writing a fanfiction. Fanfiction is kind of frowned upon in some places, and I don’t want my story to hitch a ride on someone else’s hard work.

So I’ve been tossing around the idea that I should make my own superhero story – with similarities to Batman and a lot of nods to the DC universe. But I want to make it different enough that it could be it’s own thing and stand on its own.

It might not actually go anywhere, but the idea of it has been bouncing around in my brain for the last few weeks and it makes me happy to think about.

The hardest part about developing a unique superhero in a unique realm is finding a name that hasn’t been taken already. Seriously, you have no idea how many times I’d think of a cool name for a villain or a friendly super to team up with, only to have Marvel and DC universe already sitting on several comics with the character already in existence.

But as far as I can tell, Red Kite hasn’t been taken – so she’s mine now. I claim her.

I’m sure her story is going to change as I go along. Her appearance and costume are probably going to evolve as I go along, too.

But I’m sticking to the name Red Kite because it’s awesome.

I actually did some research on different birds of prey before I settled on the name. A red kite is “an elegant bird” and though it is an efficient hunter, it is also a scavenger. There are a few stories of red kites swooping into parks and stealing people’s sandwiches, and that little detail just delights me for some reason.

I totally picture Red Kite stealing sandwiches whenever she’s hungry. She’ll pay them back, of course, but if she sees a sandwich – she’s going to scarf it down like it’s her last meal.

I also did more research about red kites, and apparently in Europe, they were considered a protected bird as they did an excellent job at keeping the streets free of vermin. Yet another perfect detail to add to a superhero because that’s what she wants to do – keep the streets clear of human vermin, so to speak.

And because red kites are scavengers from time to time, they are particularly susceptible to poisons. And if that’s not a great tie into a potential villain in my story, then I don’t know what is.

Now the next few details are susceptible to change because I’m still developing the setting, the characters, and the plot in my head.

But in case you were curious about Red Kite, herself, I’m currently tossing around the idea that she was a linguistics major (and a polyglot) with a minor in psychology. She studied languages so she could learn how to talk to people, only to realize that she simply knows how not to talk to people in multiple languages.

She took ballet throughout her life, which gave her the grace, speed, flexibility, and mobility that she relies on constantly as a crime fighter. And whenever she’s bored, she’ll dance on the rooftops. She can really leap, thanks to her dance experience, and when she jumps from rooftop to rooftop, it’s almost like she’s flying.

And she wouldn’t be a crime fighter without actually being able to fight, so I’m loosely thinking that she fights with a Katar, an Indian scissor knife – that loosely looks like bird claws to tie back into the Red Kite bird theme. It’s a really cool and unique weapon that I haven’t seen a lot of superheroes use, and I want her to be unique.

But to justify her use of that, she’d have to studied Indian martial arts and boxing to use one effectively. So I think when she was younger she studied under an Indian martial artist. She learned to fight and picked up some Hindi in exchange for teaching him English. So that could also tie back into her linguistics specialty.

Anyways, that’s all about Red Kite for now. I’m sure she’s going to pop up fairly regularly from now on. I’m really attached to her character and want to see where things go from here.