The Avenger Watcher of the Shadow Chapter 1 Origins Pages and Inked sketches

Cover Page

page 1

page 2

page 3

Page 4

Cover sketch

Page 1 sketch

Page 2 inked 

page 3 inked

page 4 inked

The origin of this character began a long time ago when I was still in high school, and trying to create my own superhero for any future comics that I wanted to do when I first got into the illustrative world of comics and animation. The Character of the Avenger was a lone warrior who had lost his mentor and clan to a rival clan and seeks out justice for what had been done to him and so by taking on the symbol of his clan The Black shadows he goes out at night avenging the wrongs committed by criminals in his home Night City. This was inspired by my admiration of the Japanese way of the ninja and by the code of honour they follow and strive by. Another inspiration was the DC comic character of Batman who became a crime fighter because of the tragedy that befell his parents, this was what inspired the creation of my hero. 

I named him the Avenger because he avenges those who have been wronged by those who would do harm for money and power and I felt that name suited this character very well given the theme. The second part of the name was originally Warrior of the Shadows as he was a ninja they watch from the shadows, but later on in my life I changed it to watcher of the shadows as the name indicated he was a guardian watching the night like a wolf watching its prey. In College I wanted to pursue this further so that I would have a character to present and use when I decided to write a story about him. To gain further inspiration I watched television series like Arrow to try and build up the story into a more dark, and thrilling scene worthy of DC themselves. I later named his citizen name Jake Darksby, and his character was an auto mechanic who was abandoned by his Parents at age 10 and was forced to living on the streets and becoming a street punk.

Later to be arrested and taken in by an old master of Ninjitsu to train in the  high mountains of Japan at the clan of the black shadows where he was trained to be a warrior who doesn't kill. This I felt fitted into the honour side of this character as the ninja lives by a code of honour and I felt this applied to this code of a warrior. The origin story would be a clan named the Fire Drakes would destroy the black shadows minus Jake and he would continue their legacy by defending his home from the shadows, and as such The Avenger Watcher of the Shadows was born.

Having learned digital techniques I felt it was time that I used that to create my graphic novel story of my hero. I went on to research many things such as the Japanese symbol for Shadow and the robes that a ninja would wear, even taking inspiration from the Mortal Combat games in the design process. I started posting this story on my tumblr blog but now seek to finish it on my own blog here for my portfolio and hopefully make my mark in the world of super heroes.

The Avenger Watcher of the Shadows (c) A. Montgomery