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The Settings and Worlds of Adam Czech :
Excelsior

About: The superhero world of Excelsior is an alternate to our own Earth, derived from the great comic-book settings of DC and Marvel. It was created with the intention of using it in National Novel Writing Month 2006, which fell through en route. The name was taken from the catchphrase of Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee, which he explained as meaning "onward and upward to greater glory!"

Premise/Hook: Following the pattern set forth in comics of the 80s - in which the 'superhero' was now anything but, plagued with their own inner demons and struggles with weakness - the world of Excelsior is such that supers are little more than 'special people' and not at all the rarity they once were. In fact, passing decades of supers eventually having children - either with other supers or with mortals - has resulted in a lot of generational degradation and changes in already supernatural genes. Now, while superpowereds are indeed 'gifted' with talents, they also possess a lot of defects, mostly psychological, that further make them outcasts in 'normal' society. In the midst of this, the Excelsior Foundation brings together these individuals and provides them training, lodging, and support to combat the world's ills.

Themes: The NaNoWriMo submission, titled simply "Excelsior", was simply going to be a fleshing out of the setting and a few main characters, and pain the age-old themes of conquering one's weaknesses to embrace their strengths.