Penelope Yin

Penelope Yin is a civilian contact that you meet early on in CITY of HEROES, but her story's progressed quite a bit recently.

In recent lore, the city's greatest super-team was rocked by the deaths of its two most powerful members and the departure of a third. With the team decimated, Positron recruited Ms. Yin (an incredibly powerful psychic) to the cause.

To me, this seemed like a really big deal and a lot of firsts all at once: a young, asian, female character would suddenly come to the fore and stand toe-to-toe with the established heavyweights. So in designing her official super-hero outfit, I wanted to her justice and kept a few key design concepts in mind as I painted this:

--PATRIOT. For starters, she wears the American red, white, and blue, just as former leader Statesman did before her, and mirroring the team's logo as well.
--HERITAGE. Asian super-heroes are pretty damn rare, so I didn't want to obscure Penelope's face in any significant way. The red makeup's there as a nod to asian theater, and hopefully she looks a little like Ziyi Zhang as well.
--HIP. The punky, dyed hair and midriff remind us of her young age and edgy sense of fashion.
--RESTRAINT. We definitely wanted Penelope to look sleek, womanly, and attractive but in an age-appropriate way. Hence the almost complete coverage of her bodysuit. Plenty of curves, but she definitely looks well equipped and ready for combat.
--UNEXPECTED. Rarely do you see a psychic character with any kind of tech in their outfit, and that's what I love about all her ability-enhancing gear--it's unusual.


More character concepts from COH FREEDOM: