Kilowatt - DC Adventures

Building a super hero has always been a bit tough for me. Granted I have only done it in City of Heroes prior to this, but it is still a struggle. My issues lie with my lack of comic book background. I grew up on a very slim diet of Spider-Man and X-Men in middle school. In high school I graduated to a handful of Image comics (Spawn, Darkness, Witchblade, etc) and by college I had stopped reading them all together. It may be a blessing or a curse to have so little knowledge of capped and masked men, but here is what I came up with.


James L. Franklin is not of this earth. By all accounts he was a native of what we now know as Earth-40. On June 15th, 1752 during an electrical experiment conducted by Benjamin Franklin a rift was opened in the bleed. The being that passed through had the ability to control electricity at levels that would kill normal humans.


Seeing the potential power this being might offer the fledgling colonies Franklin secreted him away. Eventually providing him with the a new identity, James L. Franklin, and a place in colonial society. Kilowatt’s true origin was only know by a smaller circle of founding fathers.


In 1775 tensions with the British finally boiled over. Kilowatt spent the majority of the American Revolutionary War on covert operations against the British. Playing a pivotal role in many of the Continental Army’s victories. On October 18, 1781 it appears another being from Earth-40 crossed over the bleed, at the battle of Yorktown. Clad in hessian regimentals, the being known as Omniwrit, was at the battlefield to collect Kilowatt. He apparently had been deemed an anomaly in the bleed, to be returned to his Earth of origin.


Their fight was brief, but it ended with Omniwrit incapacitating Kilowatt. Before he could collect his bounty though the battlefield at Yorktown got in the way. The Continental Army recaptured Kilowatt’s body and sent Omniwrit back through the bleed to Earth-40. For nearly 200 years Kilowatt lay in various government facilities in a coma like state. He did not age, nor require food and appeared to be healing himself from the fight with Omniwrit.


In 1952 he awoke without warning and went right back into the role of covert operative for the U.S. government. He spent the majority of his time fighting Russia and her allies up through the late 1980’s. At the end of the cold war he began to bounce from government agency to various super team, never truly finding his place. His most recent assignment is with Epsilon.

My method of character development is moving more toward story first then mechanics. Before our first game night/character building session I already had my origin, but had not cracked the book. It works so far, I'm way more invested this way and I can always work back to it through the numbers.

P.S. I just learned today who Black Bolt is, but the picture above captures what I envisioned Kilowatt looking like to a T.

P.P.S. Fun fact, I based Kilowatt originally as the lightning version of the Human Torch. The "L" in his name stands for Lowell, which is also the Human Torch's middle name.