One of the fun thing about writing superhero stories is creating all sorts of heroes and villains.
Veronica/Hellcat was the most difficult for me to write because she has such a split personality. Here's some background never hinted at in the story. Veronica was adopted as an infant straight from an African orphanage when Mrs. DeVries was on a mission trip. Veronica is the last survivor of her village and heir to a supernatural trait called the mantle of the cheetah. She was raised in wealth but suffered a lot of bullying from the other rich kids because she was different. This taught her from an early age to hide her emotions, a trait she uses to this day.
The cheetah mantle descended upon her after her first sexual activity which is also around the time her parents were killed. The following year was difficult, learning about--and hiding--her powers and dealing with the loss of her family. She spent the remainder of her teenage years in boarding schools while a trustee ran the company. When she turned 21 and should have inherited the company she found herself locked out and the company under the control of organized crime. That's when she decided on an alter ego, Hellcat, to root out the criminals from her company. Now she has her company back and is more wealthy than ever, but still alternates between the carefree Hellcat and the reserved Veronica.
Obviously none of that came out on the pages of Reflector, but that's where she's coming from. As I said before, that split personality was difficult to write and I don't feel like I came close to nailing it. I think if I ever revisit this trio, resolving the divide in personalities between Veronica and Hellcat would be a necessary theme.
By contrast, Kate/Sleuth was far more straightforward but I wonder if in part that's because I didn't delve deeply enough into her character. Being a super genius would be incredibly isolating because she's operating on a whole other level than everyone around her. That's one reason why she focuses on hacking. It's a solitary pursuit. However, she's so much more than a hacker and we didn't get to see her potential in this story either. The Sleuth isn't a toe-to-toe hero like Hellcat or Reflector. I feel like she spends more time collecting info, predicting criminal activity, and tipping off the more physical heroes to do the actual apprehensions. That being said, sometimes nothing beats first hand knowledge, so she's learned to protect herself with a variety of gadgets.
Finally, in many ways Jake was the easiest to write. What you see is what you get. He's a former accountant who found himself with powers and registered with the government because he wants to do the right thing. One thing that changed from the outline to the final draft was a whole scene I cut after the initial fight. In this scene we learn he owns a nightclub with a private entrance to his office, which he can use to mask his nightly hero activity. The nightclub used to be owned by a lieutenant of criminal boss Bishop (more on him later) but Sleuth helped the government take it away due to tax evasion. Veronica bought it at government auction through a shell corporation and sold it to Jake for a dollar. Even though it was good worldbuilding, I decided it read too much like an info dump that slowed the pacing so I axed the whole scene.
I namedropped Bishop several times as a criminal boss. In my mind he's modeled after Marvel's Kingpin, but with the added hitch of being immortal. So maybe more like Ras al Ghul, now that I think about it.
If you couldn't tell from the description, Buzzkill's power is to dampen all electrical signals within a certain radius. Gooon (say the three "o"s are intentional) can turn into a big blob of goo, making him a useful burglar and difficult to hit and keep imprisoned. I wont' lie. I may have giggled manically when I thought up the Rodent.
In an earlier draft I'd really wanted that fight in front of the police station to be with a bunch of octopi. The idea of fighting human-sized octopi villains just seemed so gonzo and perfect for this setting. Ultimately it didn't make as much sense as Rodent staging a jail break so I had to drop the idea other than as passing reference to Octobrain (who I really wanted to name Doc Oc, but for the trademark). If I ever write a follow-up, I WILL have a fight with at least one octopus.