actually you know what no
here's why i dont like the prolificness of the superpowered oc
the issue is that superpowered ocs are usually rendered in such a way that their superpower is just some nonsense that seems like it was given to them because the artist thinks that the superpower is cool and, by direct virtue of having the superpower, would make their oc cooler
this is not the case
the reason why superpowers are cool is because their platform is completely 100% designed to make the power logical and more interesting because of the added depth the character lends to the superpower
like, ok. let's say i wanted to make a new character. what i'd first start with is their abilities or personality quirks or place in society, and then draw the character from there
let's say i want them to be a serious no-nonsense 'this guy is interesting because he's super not interesting, and is too stuck up his own ass to realize' batman-style hardass fighter who has wings that, on top of allowing to fly, can shoot his feathers like projectiles'
the first obstacle in drawing this character would be to figure out how to make bullet feathers cool and how to render them in a way that makes them cool. just drawing feathers flying out of his wing on every side isnt going to cut it, the actual rendering of the superpower has to be visually interesting unto itself, even if objectively it's not actually all that useful a power
second is designing his character to directly facilitate him shooting feathers. he's a bird, and his wings probably need a lot of space to flap, so if he wears armor it'd probably be exclusively over his chest and torso. he'd wear no decorations, or only the decorations he has earned as a fighter, as a point of pride (because it makes sense that a no-nonsense warrior type would have won some accolades at some point in his career), and he'd have an imposing and intimidating silhouette (also what you'd expect of a no-nonsense fighter)
third is making him unique, by taking the character traits that we've already written out to describe him and interconnecting them and nuancing them with ties that are also unto themselves interesting. this is easy, because all you have to do is make logical jumps and begin to interweave the character into the universe they reside in (which you can honestly make up on-the-fly while you're writing the character); 'this person has wings and is big, like a falcon, so let's style him after a falcon. this person is a warrior, but in the world around him warriors have been long since obsolete, so let's make him a member of a tribal society. since he's a tribal figure his armor is mostly just raw leather-and-metal and his decorations are of simple but meaningful make. he's a bird, so it would be cool to see things stringing behind him as he flies, so let's have all of his decorations be things like sashes that trail behind him in the wind,' ad infinitum
like the issue i have is that ocs are often thoughtless renderings of just a bunch of cool things piled on top of each other because all of these things individually are cool so logically these cool things would also be cool as the anatomy to a larger cool thing, which is sort of like saying 'houses are useful so logically if we build a big house out of a bunch of smaller houses then we'd have an exponentially more useful house' instead of coming up with a blueprint and shuttling in a bunch of constituent parts that individually arent cool but come together to make a tall and sturdy structure
which i admit is ironic because my avatar is a completely characterless rhinocerous, but simultaneously i think that fits me too much to actually ditch so forget that
