Voltage (Epsilon character)

Voltage is a superhero character appearing in comic books published by American company Epsilon Publishing. He is the joint creation of writer Isaac Peterson and artist Tom Benning, firt appearing in the first issue of his self-titled comic book series Voltage in March of 1987, during the Bronze Age of comic books. He has since went on to become Epsilon's biggest character, being featured in a number of comics, shows, films, video games, among other things.

His secret identity is that of Los Angeles-based college student Ash Grey, a former juvenile who lived with his step-mother Naomi Hathaway while playing bass in his band Telltale Heart, which consisted of his friends Mike Brady, Rebecca Barker, and Triss Kuyani. Following an explosion dubbed the Los Angeles Incident in-universe, Ash gained electrokinetic abilities and used them to battle against other empowered individuals that had risen after the blast, as well as criminals of all kinds, some of his more notable villains being The Skull, Siphon, Crustacean, Hornet, and Deathless Donny. Voltage was unique by 1980s standards in that his supporting cast featured a number of non-white people in positions of power, gay characters, and neurodivergent representation with his primary love interest, the aforementioned Rebecca, being one of the first comic characters to be stated to be on the spectrum. Alternate interpretations of Voltage have also been presented in Epsilon's fictional multiverse, most notably those of Voltage from the Epsilon Legendary line of comics and the villainous dark future version, High Voltage.

Publication History
The comic book culture of the late 1980s was one that was embracing more rebellious attitudes and the character who would become Voltage was born from Epsilon deciding to try to appeal to this market. A then 23-year-old Isaac Peterson, who had just graduated college and lied about his work experience, was tasked with creating a character like this for the company. Peterson and his partner at the time, an also freshly graduated Tom Benning, did not expect to get the job and were mortified once they realized the hole their lie had dug. Because of this, Peterson decided to draw from his own life, writing a character based on his then recent experiences at college while also drawing from the comics, specifically the years that featured the character as a college student. Peterson also decided to give the new character electrical abilities, which he saw as rare among characters at the time and, after Benning drew up a mock sketch of what the character's costume, they pitched the idea to Epsilon publisher Kirsten Swore. Infamously, they pitched the character as "Electro, The Human Battery" to Swore, who immediately demanded they change the name as to avoid lawsuits, with neither Peterson or Benning being aware that had also created a character called. Peterson then renamed the character to "Zap", which was also rejected for sounding "too dumb", according to Peterson. After this, either the character was repitched as Voltage and accepted or they pitched him under the name Electrocutioner and were rejected again before coming up with Voltage. Sources differ.

According to Benning, he designed Voltage to look fun but with a bit of an edge, with his initial notes for the character specifying to always draw him smiling while in his costume, which he viewed as both a way to make him seem approachable to the reader and as a reason why his enemies got so mad around him, upset that he had the nerve to smile while fighting them. Benning was also the one to come up with Voltage's famous ability to swap his hair color from brown to silver, which were explained in-universe as "controlling the electronic waves in (his) body". According to Peterson, Benning was fully aware this made no sense but went with it anyway, as he thought that it was a good way of hiding his identity, as Voltage did not wear a mask (instead wearing a pair of goggles) and Benning thought superhero designs that lacked masked didn't make sense. Benning was also self-admittedly a fan of drawing capes on heroes, but thought giving Voltage one would ruin his edge. So, instead, Voltage was drawn wearing a cloak, which would billow behind him reminiscent of a cape and the hood of which would further hide his face. The main uniform of Voltage's outfit was designed to resemble a boiler suit, specifically ones worn by electricians, a nod to his abilities, though black areas were added to break up the greens and yellows of the costume. Later, these black areas would be claimed to be made of rubber, though it is unclear if this was part of the initial design.

Voltage debut in his own self-titled comic book, the first issue of which went on to become the best selling Epsilon published comic of all time. Since then, Voltage has gone on to become Epsilon's most popular character and was even the face of the company for nearly a decade. Fans quite enjoyed Voltage's quippy, cocky, and sometimes even standoffish nature which, while often presented as flaws, have since become ingrained into the character. Voltage's popularity was so undeniable that during the comic book crash of 1996, various companies offered to buy the character from Epsilon (most notably ), though none of these deals were accepted, as they were viewed as being too low.

Note

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