At 10:34 AM 9/24/01 -0400, you wrote:
>Heh, see what you mean there. Its something I always do, I tend to write a
>characters history backwards. I should probably think about this before
>going story happy and sending stuff out! Ah well, what can ya do? Someday
>itll all be in order... er, maybe.

I have the same problem with Savant, so don't sweat it. Sometimes, however,
it may be better to start with the character's 'future' instead of his origin.

Savant's origins weren't ironed out until a good two years after he was
created, and even then they were just basic, sketchy details -- nothing
concrete, though after all these years his world and story have been quite
fleshed out. I believe that the best characters' origins aren't fully
thought of by the author when they first write about them -- kinda a
reverse of the tried and true method (Issue #`1: Superman's Origin!), but
it's just a personal feeling.

I guess the ambiguity allows the creator to concentrate on the Here and Now
of the character instead of getting them stuck in the 'as a boy he was...'
kind of progression -- if the character is good enough we want to know how
he came to be, but if we know how he came to be from the beginning we may
not remember his origins too much later, or worse, we may expect his origin
and the feelings it evoked to keep on carrying though, even if the
character evolves later.

For instance, Savant has and always will be portrayed as a usually light,
but 100% human character, messed up, but not too many hang-ups, no
long-term emotional scars or 'baggage' -- that feeling might be different
if everything you read about the character started with "Mad, Finally" --
you would expect everything to be tainted with the initial trauma during
those days, or at least references to that in everything after.

Gee, I hope that made sense to some of you, because I didn't get it.
Comments? Thoughts? POVs? Me like to hear, me do, y'know.

Vishal