A lot of the Project Phoenix heroes are based off friends and Samson is based on one of my closest friends.  Originally, he was an obscenely powerful combination of Goku from Dragonball Z and Superman.  Then I realized how bad an idea that was and stuck with a Superman type.  To make him ‘different’ from the Man of Steel, I made all of his powers wind-based and then made a mess of it by giving him energy powers too. If you haven’t picked up the pattern here then I’ll wait for you to read it again.

That’s right.  Samson kept becoming too powerful right from the beginning.  Part of this was to keep Eryx in check if he went nuts.  Still, I kept overdoing to the point where I had no idea why any of the other characters were needed to save the day.  I guess if a mission was too small for Samson to care or using him would be overkill then you would need a smaller powered hero.  For example, sending the unstoppable powerhouse to catch a jewel thief might be seen as over-reacting.

The current incarnation of Samson has been altered in terms of power, but he’s still up there.  He’s all about energy manipulation and nigh-indestructibility with a weakness to demons or something.  He takes on a form with energy wings in order to awaken his powers, which makes him more angelic than before.  I’m leaning toward making him a receptacle for the spirits and energy of the long dead race of angels.  This puts him at odds with the half-demon Eryx and having them be close friends makes it an interesting storyline.

Still, Samson is another character that I have to be careful with.  In fact, he’s the main cause of the overshadowing in the previous versions.  If I make each book handle individual heroes and make the final book with everyone then I don’t think Samson will be much of an issue.  This way all characters get their stories to shine in and Samson can still be a big hero.