The Incredible Hulk, The Thing, The Savage Dragon, Concrete and PITT. All of these titles achieved popular and/or critical acclaim and they all featured a Big Strong Guy. It's a pretty basic concept for a character. A big tough guy. I think it works because, really, super-strength and, to a lesser extent, super-durability are perhaps the most basic of superhuman powers in the world of comics and heroes in general. I think it also allows the rest of a given character's aspects to shine. It's one of my favorite comic book character archetypes.

(Thanks for moving this to the Playroom. I meant to put it here, but it ended up in the Wanderground instead.)

Here you go.

Thread over.

In attempting to create my own solo "strong guy" archetype character, I ran into some really big challenges. It seemed that pretty much every texture and color combination has already been used at first.

And then... ?

The character waits, Hanzo... the character waits.

I've enjoyed Brit


He is more indestructible than strong. But he is definitely the old tough guy. There's 3 trades that I found very enjoyable and throws lots of kirkmanesque curveballs.

My favorite hero archetype is also the "brick".

I like battles where the city's demolished and the whgole world is on the line. That's why I like Superman, Thor, Hulk, Dragon... I like seeing the stakes being incredibly high.

I see the "brick" as a variant of the Big Strong Guy type. But it's all minutia... "Big Strong Guy" is the term I personally use and I don't expect anyone else to use it... matter of fact, I'll drop using it if there's a better term out there that people are using.

What would the difference be between a "brick" and a "big strong guy"? I tend to think of both as the same thing -- the big powerhouse whose main ability is strength and durability.

My assumption (yeah, dissect the word) was that a "brick" is a Big Strong Guy who has a rock or masonry-like texture... like Thing, Concrete, Belabet and Hunk.

Those are bricks, and I'm drowning slowly, off the coast and headed nowhere.

I think that term is drawn from gaming and doesn't necessarily denote rock-like texture. You may be taking it too literally, but I could be wrong.

I think it just means "big strong guy". It was created for RPGs, if my memory is correct. Every superteam seems to have one big strong guy... I think that why X-Force's "Strong Guy" was named that, as a goof on the convention.

Having a Big Strong Guy in a team book is one thing, but I'm specifically talking about solo books here. There's something marvelous about the simplicity of the super-strength power that I find appealing... its simplicity then serves to emphasize the character's other qualities. Nobody confuses Savage Dragon for the Hulk, for example, even though both are green and super-strong... unless you are Peter David and you're being deliberately obtuse about it, of course.

In MMOs, they're called "tanks".

It's my favorite as well.

I don't believe you.

Super strong guy doesn't have to be super tough.
Brick is a super tough guy.

I like the character who can take a lot of punishment, and still, somehow, manages
to get back up. He doesn't have to be the strongest there is, but he can take the
strongest that the strongest have to offer, and perhaps out last 'em.

So, that's pretty much the Thing.

I like them too, nice simple powers. The exact same reason why I don't care for magic based heroes.