Oliver Kushmore was 10 years in the making. When I first smoked weed in 2018, my old roommates and I would pass the bong around the room and that's where Oliver came from. Silly smoke session stories. Each of us would add a different characteristic or name to Oliver when we passed the bong. Marie Janae as well. Jason Li was my own personal invention and the recurring gag for his being mistaken for Jason Lee, the actor was too funny not to put into the story.
Originally, Oliver was just a stupid stoner hero with no real background or personality beyond weed. Daniel Lawrence was originally meant to be "The Man", a business mogul (inspired by Trum originally) who was Oliver's anti-weed arch-nemesis. Over the years, I turned both into more political characters to match with my expanding political views. Oliver then shifted into a Seth Rogen archetype who made stoner parody flicks and wasn't really hero material but tried to be.
Roger Redrum was definitely a parody of Daredevil I created after watching season 2 of DD. He wasn't a trauma surgeon at first. Just a deaf angry man with a chip on his shoulder. And because he was deaf, he was going to yell a lot as a humorous foil to his serious demeanor. Spare-Pin was going to be a man until I became enamored with Elektra Nachios. Then Spare-Pin became a lethal woman and the best assassin to exist in the Spectacle Universe.
Marnie Ragno actually was the one I struggled with the most. She took I think 8 years to figure out her background, name, and powers. She was originally going to be in the middle of a heated love triangle between Oliver and Roger. Then I realized the two would have their own separate love interests. I also realized that I didn't want Marnie to be a damsel in distress either. She's the only character that doesn't really have a love interest due to her lack of liking people.
Ted D. Hawthorne is based on my favorite author Ted Dekker. He is also named for Decker Hawthorne in the Christ Clone Trilogy series who was also a journalist.
