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Description
"There once was a boy who fell to Despair. And so Despair, he became..."

The city of Nexus is rife with superheroes and villains. From The Exemplary in the echelons to scummy street level figures that skirt the law like the universally disliked Trick or misunderstood "Devil's Daughter" Destiny Darque, to those technically outside the boundaries of Legality, Time and Space. Any and all aspects of Crimefighting is covered by a plethora of colorful characters. But there is one name whispered among all levels that stands out as someone truly making an impact on the everyday citizen. In the Social Heroes Services, he is registered as a Vigilante, a classification for those without any powers. But on day one of active duty, he began a long and accredited stint of solving mystery and delivering justice, with a current tally of over FIVE THOUSAND jobs handled over one year later.

People say he's a madman, a fiend, a liar, a charlatan. They say he must have powers, given no psychic is able to read him. They say he must be a criminal mastermind in hiding, given how thoroughly he is able to take out so many criminals in one go per mission. But the truth is far simpler: Allen Edgar Poe is a man so wracked with guilt and neuroses that he is constantly on the edge of exhaustion and a complete mental breakdown. But Despair is also a man so dedicated to the mission that he is willing to sacrifice everything about himself to protect the innocent, making him one of the most thorough and efficient heroes in the entirety of the SHS, if not on par with Rook, the preeminent Vigilante on The Exemplary.

But Despair knows that if he's to be at his best, he needs a team behind him to compliment everything he stands for. With STALKER serving as their leader, BARBIE as their powerhouse, CAMPBELL for support and providing valued scientific insight, and case worker STARR serving as an emotional (and hopefully romantic) buoy, he knows he can get a handle on any case, any fight, and given time, his mental issues like illeism, his OCD, his insomnia and more.

If it means doing the right thing for Nexus and its citizens, then Despair is willing to bear the despair of his city and be a beacon of hope in the darkness.

"Then came a man who called himself Despair. And so, Evil came to despair..."

------

I make it no big secret that I'm not a fan of Batman. I know people are hardcore into him and the power fantasies he entails, but I'm more into the idea BEHIND Batman. The eternal pressure to do good. The wrangling of mental illness and sharpening it into a blade so others don't suffer the same fate he did. The idea that Batman is just THAT. DAMN. GOOD at whatever he sets his mind to. But when creating my own personification of that type of analog for Axiom, I realized that people are wrapped up in the idea of a character.

And that's when I had a lightbulb moment: what if people were so wrapped up in the IDEA of a superhero like Batman, but not the ACTUAL hero? So I figured out how to approach that concept correctly by correlating it to another concept where the IDEA is more pertinent to people than the actual role.

Then it hit me. There's another type of figure treated in the same way. One that was considered more horror based, but still carried that mysterious air around them.

Two words: PLAGUE DOCTOR.

Thus, DESPAIR was born. A Batman type figure, more bound by neuroses and mental illness than his DC stalwart, with a somewhat similar construction but with some very important elements flipped around (like how Despair isn't obscenely wealthy). No powers, a lot of training and dedication, and constantly in his costume because he's still coping with loss (but he does clean up and clean his costume, because he's also a neat freak). An overwhelmed overachiever who is somehow able to get by, slowly learning to let go and rediscover the man beneath the mask as his team helps him come to understand his own mental illness in his own way.
-----

A MASSIVE thank you to Nathanael Batchelor (twitter.com/C0nstantM0tion and www.artstation.com/constantscr… ) for drawing my neurotic vigilante for me. His work is amazing, and definitely deserves more support. So give him a follow, commission him when you can and tell him I sent you with praise, alright?

Description
"There once was a boy who fell to Despair. And so Despair, he became..."

The city of Nexus is rife with superheroes and villains. From The Exemplary in the echelons to scummy street level figures that skirt the law like the universally disliked Trick or misunderstood "Devil's Daughter" Destiny Darque, to those technically outside the boundaries of Legality, Time and Space. Any and all aspects of Crimefighting is covered by a plethora of colorful characters. But there is one name whispered among all levels that stands out as someone truly making an impact on the everyday citizen. In the Social Heroes Services, he is registered as a Vigilante, a classification for those without any powers. But on day one of active duty, he began a long and accredited stint of solving mystery and delivering justice, with a current tally of over FIVE THOUSAND jobs handled over one year later.

People say he's a madman, a fiend, a liar, a charlatan. They say he must have powers, given no psychic is able to read him. They say he must be a criminal mastermind in hiding, given how thoroughly he is able to take out so many criminals in one go per mission. But the truth is far simpler: Allen Edgar Poe is a man so wracked with guilt and neuroses that he is constantly on the edge of exhaustion and a complete mental breakdown. But Despair is also a man so dedicated to the mission that he is willing to sacrifice everything about himself to protect the innocent, making him one of the most thorough and efficient heroes in the entirety of the SHS, if not on par with Rook, the preeminent Vigilante on The Exemplary.

But Despair knows that if he's to be at his best, he needs a team behind him to compliment everything he stands for. With STALKER serving as their leader, BARBIE as their powerhouse, CAMPBELL for support and providing valued scientific insight, and case worker STARR serving as an emotional (and hopefully romantic) buoy, he knows he can get a handle on any case, any fight, and given time, his mental issues like illeism, his OCD, his insomnia and more.

If it means doing the right thing for Nexus and its citizens, then Despair is willing to bear the despair of his city and be a beacon of hope in the darkness.

"Then came a man who called himself Despair. And so, Evil came to despair..."

------

I make it no big secret that I'm not a fan of Batman. I know people are hardcore into him and the power fantasies he entails, but I'm more into the idea BEHIND Batman. The eternal pressure to do good. The wrangling of mental illness and sharpening it into a blade so others don't suffer the same fate he did. The idea that Batman is just THAT. DAMN. GOOD at whatever he sets his mind to. But when creating my own personification of that type of analog for Axiom, I realized that people are wrapped up in the idea of a character.

And that's when I had a lightbulb moment: what if people were so wrapped up in the IDEA of a superhero like Batman, but not the ACTUAL hero? So I figured out how to approach that concept correctly by correlating it to another concept where the IDEA is more pertinent to people than the actual role.

Then it hit me. There's another type of figure treated in the same way. One that was considered more horror based, but still carried that mysterious air around them.

Two words: PLAGUE DOCTOR.

Thus, DESPAIR was born. A Batman type figure, more bound by neuroses and mental illness than his DC stalwart, with a somewhat similar construction but with some very important elements flipped around (like how Despair isn't obscenely wealthy). No powers, a lot of training and dedication, and constantly in his costume because he's still coping with loss (but he does clean up and clean his costume, because he's also a neat freak). An overwhelmed overachiever who is somehow able to get by, slowly learning to let go and rediscover the man beneath the mask as his team helps him come to understand his own mental illness in his own way.
-----

A MASSIVE thank you to Nathanael Batchelor (twitter.com/C0nstantM0tion and www.artstation.com/constantscr… ) for drawing my neurotic vigilante for me. His work is amazing, and definitely deserves more support. So give him a follow, commission him when you can and tell him I sent you with praise, alright?