Secret Identities Superhero Contest Winner: Hush

Because it is not immediately known what powers are developing within each subject (and how), Jane’s telepathy allows her to learn more about Rush’s intentions than subjects were supposed to know. Using her abilities, Jane informs the others that Rush plans to destroy them once he has the data he needs. She and the others secretly develop their powers and plan an escape. Their plans are interrupted, however, when Rush, suspicious of Jane, separates her from the others.

While being held by Rush, Jane learns that he has called for armed reinforcements. She pleads with the others to get out and leave her behind, but they refuse. Instead, they risk everything to rescue her, and when the battle is over, Jane feels claimed and protected for the first time. From that moment on, her commitment to the others and ensuring their safety is solidified.

Rush manages to escape the fighting, but not without sustaining severe burns in the process, and slips into a coma. When he awakes, he has been disenfranchised by his company and insane from a virus in his skin grafts which ate away the logic and reason portions of his brain. Engraged, he begins to assemble a crew of bio-engineered villains to seek revenge and destroy all who inhibit his rise to power.

. . . . .

And there you go. Congratulations to Juli and the rest of the winners. And a big thanks to Bernard and the other Secret Identities artists who contributed such great work to this contest and made it happen.

By the way, I just heard some very cool news about the next Secret Identities book. Here’s the skinny on Volume 2, straight from co-editor Jeff Yang:

Sales on vol 1 have been excellent–in fact, our publisher, The New Press, said we were the one of the best-selling books they released last year, and we’re now headed for our third printing. Given that, they outreached to us and told us they definitely want to do volume 2. We’ve told them that if we were doing it, we’d want to do it bigger and better–more pages, more color–and to both continue some of the storylines/characters from the first book, as well as introduce new ones. As for the hook for the new book: As we’ve hinted at in the past, the natural extension of a book about Asian American superheroes is a book that looks at the dark side of the mask.

So volume two will contain stories that explore Asian American super-baddies, seeking to add authenticity and richness to the portrayal of villainy (though not necessarily sympathy). In the process, we hope to disrupt some of the tired stereotypes of evildoers that we’ve seen through the years–the one-dimensional gangsters and Fu Manchu clones with no motivation and no internal life. After all, superheroes are nothing without great supervillains. (Where would Batman be without the Joker? Spider-Man without The Green Goblin? Superman without Luthor, or X-Men without Magneto?)

Great to hear that the first book has done so well, with brisk sales and multiple printings. But even better, that they’re in the planning stages for another volume. The editors are currently working on the outline for the book, so they’re not yet ready to accept submissions. But I’m sure that will come soon enough. Optimistically, they’re aiming for a Spring 2011 release. To learn more about the anthology, visit the Secret Identities website here.

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