Trading Card Tuesday: The Defender
Featuring the thrilling conclusion of Into the Omniverse: Series One!
Hello y’all–
Welcome to a very special Trading Card Tuesday here at The New Futurists!
Today we’re wrapping up the first series of our Into the Omniverse digital trading cards!
When Luis and I started this project in October 2022, I envisioned it as a low-stakes way to build out a superhero universe while experimenting with the narrative potential of the comics trading cards that I remembered so fondly from the 1990’s.
I never imagined how invested some of you would become in our characters— and trust that I speak for Luis when I say that we’re flattered, gooped, and humbled by your support for this project.
Don’t worry— this first series of cards was just the beginning! As I write this post, we’re brewing up all sorts of new stories set in the Omniverse featuring some familiar characters you met via the trading cards while introducing all sorts of new people, locations, and things…
Now let me take just a second to sing the praises of my brilliant co-creator, dazzling artist, and all-around great guy, Luis Valero-Suarez (who I highly recommend you follow on Instagram and X if either of those platforms are your jam). Getting to know and work with Luis has been an absolute joy. Let me tell you: this intergenerational collaboration has been a rich learning opportunity. Luis taught me about the cultural significance of Shego and I taught him about the cultural insignificance of Pauly Shore. Not all exchanges of knowledge are equal, gentle readers. You’re a mensch, Luis, as I hope to continue working with you for a long time!
I want to thank every single one of our loyal readers– especially our subscribers, and MOST ESPECIALLY our paid and Visionary subscribers– for supporting Trading Card Tuesday! Remember, all paid and Visionary subscribers who sign up in 2024 will receive a print copy of the collected Omniverse Series One Guidebook and a limited-edition 11”x17” print featuring all of Luis’s character designs! We’ll be sending those rewards out in mid-Q4, so there’s still time to subscribe and receive these wicked cool benefits.
If you have questions, comments, fan theories, or anything else you’d like to send our way, reply to this message or send us a DM on Substack or IG. Please remember to include “okay to print” in your message if you’re cool with us sharing and responding to your letter publicly. We look forward to doing another installation of our reader correspondence column “Omni-Mail: Reality Check” later this fall!
For today’s feature presentation, we’re signing off this season with a return to one of the central characters of the Omniverse: the Defender! We hope you enjoy!
As I’ve noted in previous posts when accounting for the experience of telling stories in real time on Substack, some of my favorite creative choices have been inventions of necessity.
When I first began writing the text that accompanies each trading card, I took an editorial, omniscient third-person perspective. Check out that first Winganda card to see what I’m talking about.
But I always imagined the Defender as a point-of-view character whose superhuman lifespan allows him to observe the extraordinary events of the Omniverse over a long period of time. It was only after seeing Luis’s character designs that evolved the Defender through the years that I thought of writing our character profiles from this hero’s perspective. The idea for the Trollleaks documents came almost a year into the project— when I began thinking about the trope of how a superhero keeping secret files often goes awry (from Professor Xavier to Batman).
The narrative evolution of the project was 100% inspired by Luis’s dynamic illustration work. The more we talked about ideas, characters, and concepts, the more I wanted to match Luis’s thoughtful designs with compelling snapshots that hint at larger stories lurking just behind the thumbnail sketches of the Defender’s files.
So, Into the Omniverse: Series One is yet another testament to artistic collaboration producing something much more interesting than a single creator working alone!
I first shared my illustration of Luis’s design for the 1938 “Kid Defender” way back in 2022. I’ve included my mood board, final design, and a paper doll of this look below to celebrate the conclusion of this first series. Onward!
— Ben Bolling
I hope you guys are celebrating today! Such a cool concept and fun characters! ❣️ Can't wait to see where they head next! 🙌
congratulations ben and luis, hope to see some comics with these characters