Lovecraftian Superhero artwork

I am planning on doing a Lovecraftian Superhero campaign set in near future or alternate timeline where the Mythos creatures is common and superheroes with powers of the elder gods battle them. This is gonna be a modern era with some super or quasi-tech. Am looking for artwork of generic superheroes with common Lovecraftian type powers that would fit in a Lovecraft style setting.

tecnowraith said:

I am planning on doing a Lovecraftian Superhero campaign set in near future or alternate timeline where the Mythos creatures is common and superheroes with powers of the elder gods battle them. This is gonna be a modern era with some super or quasi-tech. Am looking for artwork of generic superheroes with common Lovecraftian type powers that would fit in a Lovecraft style setting.

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Hmm, can't think of generic superheroes, but I do recall a animated Justice League episode where the DCU faced a cosmic horror army. The Terror Beyond.

Forgive the ignorance, I'm not really up on my Lovecraft, but other than tentacles and telepathy (for shattering psyches and inducing insanity, of course ) what would "common Lovecraftian type powers" be?

I have superhero designs as the day is long, but they all, ya know, have powers and names and stuff.

If you could give an idea of what "generic" heroes you were thinking of...You mean like...a superman-type, a batman-type, an energy-controller, an arcane-based guy/gal (imagine there'd have to be at least ONE of those), a teenage computer-geek or mechy guy/gal, extradimensional or alien-guy/gal, etc...Is that the kind of thing you mean?

But sounds like a really cool concept for a game!

I should have said typical superhero type and the a DC/Marvel type universe and use the Cthulhu Mythos as the background. I am not sure if the the typical spandex costume would fit this setting but maybe and updated or neo-noir or neo-pulp costumes might be cool and interesting. An updated style fashion of the 30'2 to 40's costumes might work. There will be sorcerers, quasi-tech items (weapons and suits), alien tech, psionics and most of of the powers will come either exposure or heritage from the elders gods and creatures

The only thing I have ever seen related to Lovecraft and Supers is Adventures Into Darkness by Ken Hite from Atomic Overmind Press. It basically asks the question, "What if H.P. Lovecraft wrote comics in the Golden Age?" It comes in M&M, Truth & Justice, and Hero System flavors.

Personally, I hope they do an Icons version someday too!

I will see if I can't come up with a sketch or 2 for this. I was already thinking of odd stuff what with Gamma world coming out. Still I can already think of a few comics that involve this kind of mashup. Most notably Hellboy or Atomic Robo. I am not sure how "generic" one can get with making superheroes. I mean there are a few staple archetypes but I think the uniqueness of each sort of super is what makes it such an interesting genre. Before you go requesting more stuff though maybe go look through Storn's Gallery he has a nice mix of supers from all kinds of eras!

steeldragons said:

Forgive the ignorance, I'm not really up on my Lovecraft, but other than tentacles and telepathy (for shattering psyches and inducing insanity, of course ) what would "common Lovecraftian type powers" be?

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Other common powers I have read Cal Cthulhu is warping reality for some, elemental and weather control, teleport

You might check out the artwork in Cthulhutech. It doesn't have superheroes per se, but it does have humans accessing unnatural powers to fight off the Mi-Go and other Lovecraftian horrors. The artwork in their books is very, very good, and should prove inspirational.

Cthulhu Heroes

Between finding my Ultimate Alliance pic and this thread, I got "supers" on the brain. So here are a couple of images I just threw together.

Left to right:
Electrical/lightning creator/controller. Powers: Flight, electricity generation and manipulation (could throw in some limited weather control, I guess if you wanted). She's actually a character I created a while ago for a different Avengers-style team. Heroriginal concept was to be an alien, but could easily be worked up as mutant or genetic altered/accident.

"Stacy": Another character I created a looooong time ago and never used for anything. A little girl (maybe 7 y.o.?) uber-powerful telepath/psionic. Handy (and necessary) to protect the group from the Mythos mental attacks. Powers: telepathy, psionic blasts and shields, mental domination, mentally induced illusions...pretty much anything telepathically originated, she can, or would eventually be able to do.

Rough n' tough gun totin' guy: combat specialist. Guns, explosives, knives, hand-to-hand. Total "bring 'em on, I'll blow 'em to pieces" kinda guy. Very strong, maybe enahnced via drugs or cybernetics?

Extradimensional guy: Powers: flight (via his mentally controlled floaty ball thingy), telepathy, degree of invulnerability (very resistant to physical harm), energy and radiation manipulation (especially arcane), energy blasts. Basically, the story I came up with as I sketched is he's an extradimensional being who's race has a degree of success battling the Mythos (i.e. They're not entirely extinct and their plane of existence was not completely shredded). They basically subsists on arcane energies. Maybe he came here to warn earth about the Mythos, maybe he was summoned by Wizard Guy to help defend from them and now is stuck here, maybe he's on a quest of his own, for a lost family/lover and came of his own accord just to fight them for revenge. Whatever works...think he looks pretty cool.

Wizard Guy: Powers: duh. Magic. Arcane spell slingin' fury and magics that duplicate/boost mental powers (astral projection, telepathy, etc.) Kinda creepy, but is fightin' for the good guys.

Thinkin' one of their big bad's could be a rival mage-type tapping into the mythos' energies/powers to make himself a god...just a thought.

Anyway, have a great time. Look forward to hearing what your group comes up with and how the game goes.

--Steel Dragons

I have this idea now for an Aquaman-type character that starts off as a hero but later learns his mother was born in Innsmouth and his "super powers" originated because he is slowly turning into a Deep One...