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The Fighting Power team will always be one of my first babies in terms of original creations. I used to draw full blown comics in grade school of their early adventures, but between loaning and/or gifting them to classmates, colleagues, and even family members, I have never seen those examples of my work again to this day. Fortunately, I still have something to worth sharing that I will continue preserving here.
I put these two images side-by-side to see my progress and evolution of my art after 3-4 years when I first created these characters.
Top row (from left to right): Pro, Cyberfist, Azure, Alisa.
Bottom row (from left to right): Sunburn, Toma, Mariah, Ashley.
The first group drawing that I did of the team's roster in any capacity.
Sunburn and Toma were essentially mirror images of each other since they were my Ryu and Ken or the multi-colored ninjas of Mortal Kombat that were a dime a dozen to fit into the fighting game motif that this story was originally built off of.
Top row: Cyberfist, Heartbreak (Mariah), Azure.
Middle row: Voltage (Toma), Sunburn, Hardstrike (Pro).
Bottom row: Catstrike, Intensity (Ashley), Pierce (Alisa).
By this point, I had gone completely into giving each member proper superhero codenames instead of everyone having common names like fighting game characters. That premise/phase on this story was dead and buried at this point.
Catstrike is one character who never got any limelight for anyone who merely read my digital outings of this story as she was introduced in one of the last story arcs that I handwrote. She would be the younger sister of Ashley who latent powers manifest after being experimented on.
These were the four primary antagonists for the story: Mayhem, Devilinya, Madame Witch, and Norto.
When the story originated along the lines gathering all of the characters together for deadly martial arts tournament in the vein of Street Fighter and/or Mortal Kombat, Norto was created as the final boss of sorts.
Devilinya's gauntlet was inspired by both Marvel Comics' Infinity Gauntlet (commonly wielded by Thanos) and Mozenrath's gauntlet from Aladdin: The Animated Series. You can even look closely at it and see the "Ultra Gems" housed inside of it. It was a device made to enhance her fallen deity powers to new heights.
Madame Witch would be the team's former friend, Peace (who was a demi-goddess), succumbing to evil as she sought out more power. Dark magic corrupted her until she took this form. If I ever scan the comic that I completely drew out for a final project in AP Art class for senior year of high school, you will see firsthand that she was the primary antagonist for that comic and the majority of the non-digital chapters of this story.
Originally a mad scientist aiding the Cybers (mutants who had their powers further enhanced by alien cybernetic organisms similar to Star Trek's Borg species), Dr. Power gave his mind and body to the Cybers to become their powerful leader known as Mayhem. Mayhem fell into the realm of Apocalypse where I felt there were times where I made him too powerful for his own good while others he was merely a scapegoat that easily defeated.
This was one of the very last drawings I did of the FP team in their circa 2003-2004 iteration. That fact was clued in to me for the fact that this drawing includes a complete design for one of the "Eclipse Twins" (alien across from Sunburn and Azure at the bottom right corner).
Some other misc. details here include Voltage facing off a cyberized Pierce who reverted to being a villain while Heartbreak and Intensity square off against Mayhem. Azure was powering up to take on the Eclipse Twins after Sunburn found himself in a little over his head. In terms of Azure's design, I had the red and black hairstyle as a lock for her look at this point.
If the drawing to the left was the one of the last drawings I did of the FP team, then this was definitely the last given pencil strokes at this point. After taking art classes in college, my work grew to be heavy handed in detail, so I'm sure this was the last time I drew these characters from this era/iteration.
Outside of the proportions being off here and a few other minor gripes with this visually, I still get annoyed at my younger self constantly flip-flopping Pierce from heroine/villain over the course of that story.
This was costume #2 for Azure as I wasn't really sure on a look for her. Back then, I liked pairing off my characters into couples for simplicity. Azure and Cyberfist had a thing going as you see pictured above. Speaking of Cyberfist, this was one of the few unmasked drawings that I did of him. He was supposed to be of Japanese descendent, something that didn't change in the B3 reboot.
Much like the previous image that paired up Azure and Cyberfist, I did two more of those pairings - one with Sunburn and Ashley then the one pictured here with Toma and Mariah. At this point of writing the story, I felt that Toma and Mariah were a better couple than Toma and Jesta as I originally started the story with.
Another couples drawing, but with the pair in costume.
I remember doing this sketch on a whim in class one day. Don't ask why I had Bulma (sporting her afro from the Androids Saga) in the middle there. I honestly don't remember why either. Maybe I was really that bored in class that day?
One of my classmates in high school art classes was into drawing those models that you see in the cloth designer sketchbooks and what not. I got inspired by her work to do one of those roundabout sketches of Mariah/Heartbreak in different poses.
At this point, I think this was Azure's 3rd or 4th costume revision. I had already made it an insider joke to myself that her hair color would change every few appearances as a nod to Power Rangers' Astronema, who I was inspired by with her backstory in a sense as a tragic villainess.
Unfinished design for one of the "Eclipse Twins" that would have been one of the major antagonists if I had ever illustrated and typed up the later chapters of the story. Fortunately, I have a place for them in the B3 Reboot...
The first three images below were stills that were going to be combined together into a diorama of sorts that I was building in high school art class at the time, using a combination of 2D and 3D mediums to bring it to life. I think it would be a fun side project to come back to these images, combine them all in PhotoShop and digitally color it to the desired results. The final, colored image was used as a base for the 2D/3D hybrid medium that I entered into the local state fair's annual art show.
These handmade character bios were for the circa 2003-2004 version of the Fighting Power story. I can only look back at these fondly and laugh in hindsight at some of these designs. I went in hard with stylish bangs on both men and women back then.
