HL Character Profile: Speedster

A brave young man who is a well renowned hero, Speedster and his best friend A.J. live on an island on Earth and protect their city from evil, mostly from the deadly Dr. Technus and his various evil schemes to turn everyone into his slave cyborgs. Abandoned as a baby, Speedster has no memory of his parents, or how he obtained his powers. A Hero's Legacy takes place a year after Dr. Technus fled the city for good, and Nothbay City was at peace at last. One day, Speedster encounters an alien ship near his home, only to discover Psishocker, a young boy with amazing powers from another world. This is where the grand adventure of Speedster and his friends begins; to stop a race more powerful than they could imagine: Sartorians, who wish to eliminate all other dominant forms of life.

Speedster is a very confident person, and always does whatever he thinks is right. He hates seeing people hurt, and will not stand aside if he knows someone needs help. He is hardly ever seen angry, but knows when it's time to be serious, especially when it means he has to fight. He loves to enjoy the outdoors and likes swimming.

Abilities:
- Inhuman foot speed; capable of running many times faster than the average human, and well as many times as long.
- Expert martial artist; has knowledge and mastery of several forms of martial arts.
-Extreme athleticism; can exercise, jump higher, swim, climb and train much longer than average.
- Powerful muscle strength; capable of some great feats of great strength that may not be possible for normal humans.
- Energy Projection; Can concentrate his spiritual energy in his fists and release them as powerful blasts. Can also release a star shaped energy disk from his chest and use it similar to a boomerang.

Personal Thoughts and Insights:
"I remember when I first figured out what anime was, and immediately, and I wanted to try making my own anime character. Speedster was my first attempt at drawing one, and in his first drawing, he had spiky hair, big boxing gloves, and his catchphrase: 'Gotta run!'. Of course, I was only around 8 or so when Speedster was invented, and he had a lot of similarities with Sonic the Hedgehog. Both of them ran fast and had a kid sidekick (A. J.). And although I never colored him, I always imagined speedster with blue hair, because of this Strongbad Email I saw once; in it, Strong Bad imagines himself with round red gloves and blue hair, which is where my first ideas for Speedsters designs were influenced from."

"The Speedster Series had around 20 issues, and after it ended, I didn't have much to work on. I was planning a huge comic series starring him and a lot of other characters I designed, so I was busy with that. What was always fun about Speedster was how many changes he went through. I came up with many designs for him, but they were still him; they all still had spiky hair, boxing gloves and the star shirt. Speedster was supposed to be a ninja-like character, but I decided that ninjas didn't seem too heroic. Also, his outfit was hard to draw for me. At one point when Hero's Legacy was in it's 2nd chapter, I even designed Speedster with jeans and a v-neck, similar to what shirt he has on now. But the idea was scrapped because I thought it would be silly for a martial artist to fight in jeans."

"His design before his current one depicted him with his V-neck, a black belt, and shoulder pads. And in his final design, I added his knee pads and sparring shoes because of his love for sparring. His earlier art had him wearing pads that looked a bit to much like armor, so I liked this change a lot."

"I always wanted Speedster to be the well renowned hero type. In his comics, he protected an unnamed city from bad guys, aliens, crooks, and Dr. Technus, a scientist who was half robot. Almost every issue depicted him with some sort of flashy, finishing move. As with all my comics, the fight scenes were the most fun to draw, especially with Speedster."

"He's the kind of character you always know will do good. Speedster has been with me since I was a kid, and I'm glad to know he's still there, even without his cheesy catchphrase."