Changing Common Literary Character Stereotypes
The vigilante: Generally, vigilantes like Batman and Spiderman are broody, even depressed, and have some type of dark past that forced them onto the path of vigilantism. They are almost always despised by law enforcement and loved by the people, and have at least one arch nemesis, as well as being almost completely isolated from other people who know what they do.
Not Damien Rhodes, however. Damien hasn’t had any kind of traumatic event that spurred him on the path to becoming a vigilante. He’s an upbeat, optimistic twenty-five year old programmer with a ball python called Snowflake. He decided to become a vigilante shortly after dropping out of the police academy and starting his career as a programmer, when he realised he missed the streets and the danger that went with being an agent of the law. And instead of being hunted by the law and loved by the people, very few of either even know he exists. Most of the police are aware of a shadowy, perhaps nonexistent figure cleaning up their back alleys, slums, and ghettos, and few average, law abiding civilians ever even see him. Only a few of his former academy classmates, now detectives and officers, know who he is and what he does. With their good standing in the department, they cover up any remaining evidence of his crimes and allow him to do his work unharried by their compatriots. The only one who truly knows everything about him and his work……….. is Snowflake.
