8 Baller - Issue #1 "Alternate"
On the second anniversary of his youngest brother's murder 8 Baller struggles with the guilt of not being able to save him. He wrestles with the thought, "What if he done things differently?"
His contemplation is brought to an abrupt end when Arachnos troops from another dimension suddenly assault Atlas Park and 8 Baller comes face to face...with himself.
8 Baller - Issue #2 "Best Laid Plans"
After jumping through a dimensional portal in pursuit of his younger brother, 8 Baller finds himself fighting his way through an army of Arachnos. Meanwhile, Ipo and Michael Angelo attempt to make sense of 8 Baller's actions while they begin repairs on Eve.
Our heroes soon discover that the battle against Arachnos may not have been a victory after all.
Movie Trailer "Infinite Dark"
Merely a week after saving Paragon City from a massive Arachnos invasion 8 Baller is pushed to his limits as he tries to come to grips with the the consequence's of his actions.
A case of mistaken identity between 8 Baller and his alter ego and arch nemesis 8 Brawler, soon has all of Paragon City hunting down 8 Baller.
But when an evil god is released decimating several cities and threatening to end all life on the planet 8 Baller is told the only way to stop him is to join forces with his mortal enemy 8 Brawler.
Lego 8 Baller
But 8 Baller isn't always serious. Here's a piece of art created showing 8 Baller as Lego figure hanging out in Kings Row.
8 Baller is one of the first characters I ever created for City of Heroes, over 4 years ago. It's also my name on the City of Heroes forums. From the very beginning, he was designed to be a hero raised on the streets of Paragon City without any real "super powers". Instead, he would use his large size and enormous strength to defeat the villains of Paragon.
He was really introduced in a public manner when he was featured as my example "tank" archtype character for the web site I created for the City of Heroes website contest. As luck would have it, that site "Heroes Central", won the prize for "Best Informational Web Site for City of Heroes".
His complete backstory was really fleshed out for the Issue #1 comic "Alternate" that I created for the city of heroes comic contest. "Alternate" was also when we get our first look at the bond 8 Baller has with his best friend Michael Angelo. The story was also written to be the first part of a trilogy. That comic, "Issue #1 - Alternate", was voted "Best Overall Comic" in the contest.
After "Alternate", I outlined the remaining two stories of the trilogy and even began the process of writing them in a story format with "Issue #2 - Best Laid Plans". Then life and other projects forced me to sideline 8 Baller's story for a while.
Then City of Heroes, Game Trailers and Toyota annouced their "Matrix Machinima Contest" with a grand prize of a brand new Toyota Matrix filled with all kinds of goodies. I had always wanted to try out my hand at machinima and that contest gave me more than enough motivation. When it came time for me to brainstorm on a story and concept for the movie it didn't take long for me to look in 8 Baller's direction. The story would pick up immediately after issues 1-3 but it would be a much larger, more epic story than before. 8 Baller needed to save more than Paragon City. This time around he was fighting to save the world.
With a 4 minute time limit, it was clear that I wouldn't be able to tell the entire story. So I opted for a movie trailer approach. I've always been a big fan of movie trailers.
It took aproximately a month and a half of weekends and really late nights (including one night of waking up on the computer room floor), but the 3:40 of movie was done. And as luck would have it, a month later 8 Baller's trailer "Infinite Dark" was annouced the grand prize winner.
The character 8 Baller is ©2004-2011 ToddWorld. City of Heroes and City of Villains is
©2004-2008 Cryptic Studios, Inc and NC Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Contact 8 Baller at 8baller@toddworld.com