Voodoo Superheroes

There were a couple books that I checked out multiple times from my local library as a kid. One of those books was Milo Rigaud's Secrets of Voodoo. I was absolutely obsessed with that book, despite the fact that it was more of a dry, factual account of the Voodoo religion than anything more lurid.

(Another book I was fascinated by at the time was a particularly well-illustrated tome about Norse myth. We'll talk about that one some other time.)

One thing that Secrets of Voodoo inspired was an idea for a superhero comic. One facet of Voodoo belief is that the Loa (the spirits or gods of Voodoo practice) can be invited to "possess" or "ride" the worshiper, thus granting them magical power. I thought that was a really cool explanation for why a team of heroes had their powers: each was "ridden" by a particular Loa and had gained abilities related to that spirit's spiritual purview. Sometimes the Loa would "take over" and use the hero's body for their own ends; losing control sometimes is the price you pay for superpowers when you gain them from the gods.

I did end up writing and drawing a single issue of that comic, called The Loa Legion, by the way. I even Xeroxed a copy of it and gave it to the nice man who ran the local comic shop. 

If I ever run a superhero game, this might be the set-up I go with.