About the Hero Complex

The Hero Complex is a political satire wrapped in a superhero spoof with an undercurrent of bad philosophy and a truck load of pop-culture references.

It’s a story about lies and deception and the things we believe, and the things we believe about the things other people believe, and how most of what we believe probably isn’t true, but some of it is more true than we’d like to admit, but not in the way we believe it to be.

**WARNING:** SPOILERS EVERYWHERE

## BACKSTORY

At the height of WW2, the US Army announced that it had succeeded in creating a platoon of Super Soldiers.

Except they hadn't: it was all propaganda.

It wasn't supposed to be propaganda, They really did try to make a Super Soldiers, but it turns out that's much harder to do than the comics of the day suggested. But rather than accept failure, they did what all governments do: they lied.

A film was made, and people loved it, and morale improved and everyone thought that was a pretty good outcome although given the millions of dollars they'd wasted, this was probably a bit of motivated reasoning.

And when the war was over, for reasons that are difficult to understand but will definitely be explained, they kept on lying. But maintaining a lie of this magnitude brings its own set of problems.

* You can learn more about the history of the greatest conspiracy ever here: The Sacred Timeline.

Which brings us to the 1990's...

## PROLOGUE

This is the first book in the series but it's not called Book 1 because that would be too logical.

The Prologue is the more immediate backstory of 2 of the most important characters in the trilogy to follow:

* Felicity Sturdy is a fake superhero with a foul mouth, a worse attitude, and a heart of tarnished gold
* Peter is a young boy who finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time

It's a story about fake superheroes and real conspiracies and what happens when one woman has the courage to stand up and say "fuck this shit!" to powerful people.

It will be published as a web comic in the coming months (timeline TBA), and then as a graphic novel.

* Read the Script
* Read the spoiler filled Synopsis
* Read the Web Comic

## THE TRILOGY

The Trilogy is yet to be written, but that doesn't mean that the story doesn't exist. It exists in fragments and concepts and oodles of ideas in notebooks and documents; and there's a database of characters and scenes and themes and world building details.

And there's a synopsis. Here's a synopsis of the synopsis...

### Book 1: Getting In

Book 1 (being the first book of the trilogy, but not the first book in the series) picks up 20 years later (approximately):

* Peter is all grown up and armed with a mountain of incriminating evidence
* Felicity is older and wiser and even more angry, and is plotting her revenge
* Viktor (who you haven't met yet), is an enigma.

Peter tries to expose the superhero conspiracy which is a really dumb move and it all goes horribly wrong for him.

### Book 2: Getting Out

Book 2 (being the second book of the trilogy and the third book of the series) picks up immediately after Peter is arrested.

* Peter is now an employee of the Bureau of Superhuman Affairs
* Felicity's revolution is gathering steam, and tripping over itself
* Viktor is entangled in everything

### Book 3: Getting Even

Book 3 (you get the picture) is The Climactic Clusterfuck.

Our heroic trio manage to put aside their political, philosophical, and personal differences to pull of the greatest act of sabotage ever achieved, leaving a trail of carnage behind them.

It does not end well for anyone.

* Read the spoiler filled Synopsis

## ABOUT THE NAME

*The name is where it all started.*

*I first sent an email to myself with the text "The Hero Complex" in November 2018. As far as I can tell, that is when it started.*

*I can't remember what the initial idea was, but I know it was some sort of superhero parody. I know it morphed into "Superheroes are fake" fairly quickly. Within a few days I was obsessed with the idea of a political satire about a fake superhero conspiracy. So obsessed that it completely replaced the story I was previously obsessing over (but not actually writing).*

*Over time I realized that the name had layers of meaning, so it stuck. The Hero Complex refers to the building that houses the fake superheroes and all their support staff. It also refers to The Hero Industrial Complex, the network of businesses and government agencies who profit from the fake superhero hoax. And perhaps most importantly, it refers to the psychology of many of the characters in the book, particularly some of the characters who are based on real people.*

See also Hero Complex: Disambiguation

## AUTHORSHIP AND COLLABORATION

*The Hero Complex is a collaborative storytelling experiment.*

*But that does not mean it is a free-for-all.*

I, *Tony Huddy am the creator of the project, and **Storyteller in Chief**. I will have the final say on what goes in, and what is left out, of the story.*

*But the story is too big for me to tell on my own (or I'm lazy, you decide). So I'm facilitating an online collaborative creative brainstorming extravaganza on Reddit, and here on The Hero Complex Wiki, in the hope that this will speed up the creative process, so this thing can be finished before 2034.*

*Everyone is invited to contribute, but it would certainly help if you have read the script, and like it.*

*And it would help is you checked out the Collaborator Handbook.*