GAH! I never know whether to be happy or annoyd when inspiration hits while I'm trying to get much-needed sleep...see if you can follow the train of thought, because I sure as Hell can't...

Ever since high school, I've been trying to make a patriotic superhero, since I love Captain America so much. I mean, even during the periods of disillusionment with my country (most recent? Hmm...around lunchtime, yesterday), the idea of a hero standing for the ideals of his homeland even in the face of...oh, fuck it, Cap is just fucking cool. Who else could actually get Thanos to stop killing off the universe with the Infinity Gauntlet long enough to hear a speech about how he's going to be defeated? "A voice that could command the gods...and does." Like Mark Waid and Kurt Busiek (remember them?) once said, Cap is the "spirit of victory personified," and I've wanted to capture that for years...of course, my first effort was deemed "pornographic material" by whoever determines what gets sent to the troops overseas during the First Gulf War, and it's kinda gone downhill since, especially since EVERYBODY wants to make a Cap wanna-be.

When I was in high school as well, back when MTV still showed music videos, I'd always watch "Liquid Television" after school, and they'd always, during the first commercial break, show this little cartoon thing called "Stevie Washington: The Angry Youth," about a skateboarding, sunglasses-wearing hero and his sidekick, the yoyo-wielding Zoya. Well, while trying to get to sleep, I started thinking about the "Next Avengers" movie about the kids of the Avengers and I was trying to remember if they ever gave a name to Captain America's kid...and, just as I thought that, the character from the movie sorta overlapped in my mind with an image of Stevie Washington and the "alternate" idea I had for Pariah Knight, and two words clicked in my head: "Captain Kid."

Andrew Washington is the son of a scientist who was part of "Project Old Glory," an attempt to recreate America's greatest superhero, Captain Eagle. Gifted back in the 30's by the entity "Uncle Sam" with an energy known as "the Patriot Force," Captain Eagle was the living embodiment of all that made America great, and, as the years passed, he would pass the Patriot Force onto a new hero. So it went, until the first years of the new millennium, when America was struck with its greatest tragedy in years...and Captain Eagle was no where to be found. No one knew why America's Champion vanished just at the time the country needed him most, but a national think-tank was assembled to find out, and, while they weren't able to locate him, they made a startling discovery: they could tap into the Patriot Force artificially, and grant a portion of its power to anyone they so wished.

Not everyone on the Project was happy about this discovery, however, and when the scientists who made it realized the potential for misuse they'd created, they promptly disbanded the think tank and fled to all corners of the nation, changing their identities and vanishing into the populace. One scientist, Dr. Thomas Washington, couldn't get the discovery out of his head, and, as such, ended up building his own flawed copy of the energy transfer device, thus breaking the pact made between the think tank members and bringing the wrath of the general in charge of the Project. Before it could be destroyed, however, Dr. Washington turned it on...and nothing happened. Regardless, he was taken into custody.

His son, Andrew, was a technical genius in his own right, with, in his own words, "a science fair trophy or ribbon for every wedgie, rub-burn, and purple nurple I ever got." While he never knew about Project Old Glory, his parents having divorced while he was in preschool before his dad had gone into hiding in the first place, he still kept in contact with him despite the elder Washington's instructions to sever all ties. Needless to say, he was pretty surprised when he received a battered package along with a warning to keep it hidden and unopened and to tell no one about it.

Naturally, the first thing Andrew did was open it.

Inside were detailed, if badly scrawled, notes about the think tank, the Project, and the energy transfer device, as well as other assorted notes and schematics. Suddenly seized with a fervor akin to his dad's, Andrew built his own ramshackle version of the ETD in the shed out back and, heady with excitement, turned it on.

Days later, when he was released from the hospital and firmly grounded by his mom for blowing up the backyard, Andrew discovered that the experiment hadn't been a total failure. A fraction of the Patriot Force HAD entered him, making him faster and stronger than any other kid, at least the equal to an adult with Olympic potential, and, in addition, he now had a sort of combination radar and danger sense which would warn him of danger, how to avoid it, and of where and how hard to hit it to disable it. Realizing his dad was in danger, and now him and his mom were as well, he designed himself a costume and some gear (including a remote-controlled robot-brained bulletproof skateboard, motorized Heeley-wheels in his boots, impact yoyos, and so on) and called himself "Captain Kid, the World's Youngest Super-Soldier!"

OK, it's still pretty rough, I was making it up as I typed it, but what do you guys think so far?