One day you wake up and suddenly it's like Ang Lee is the director of your life. You are jumping off of walls, bounding through the air, dodging bullets like they are lazy moths. What to do with all this skill? Fight crime of course. That and ace every history test.
The Thousand Year Monk was a departure from the standard comicbook hero tropes that we've seen thus far in Heroes Rising. Though the idea of Eastern Mysticism is not alien to the comicbook universe, "coughDr.Strangecough" it hasn't been approached much in this game. This gives me some ideas for future story as well as powers. What I like about the tropes involving this kind of story is that it is a little more cerebral, it brings in more unique cultures, and it allows for a new angle on the images.
For this art, I wanted it to not feel like one of the standard power cards. The idea of the art was the thoughts in the persons head more than the energy protruding from his/her hands, eyes, or other appendages. So I looked for an eastern monk for art reference, something typical yet not specific. To draw the idea back to this being more cerebral, I gave the eyes the glow, pulling the attention to the head. Going further with the spiritual side of the cards idea, I made him translucent with a space background. I superimposed a star filled nebula with him so that his glowing eyes could also blend into the stars around him.
For the card itself; why movement and not attack? It seems logical that if you have 1000 years of martial arts masters in your head you could fight with incredible skill. Yes, I first thought of that. However, Nick asked for a movement card and I rethought this cards final design. One of the primary aspects of martial arts is defense, especially being able to avoid a hit. A Sensei of mine once told me, "The easiest way to win a fight is to not get into it." So, thinking about it that way, it made the choice easy to make this a movement card.
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