Meet the Cast of High Support Needs!
High Support Needs is a comic about autistic super heroes (NOT about how autism is a super power). As an autistic writer and artist I am often disappointed by the shallow and often damaging portrayals of autistic people in popular media. I wanted to harness my skill set to give my fellow autistics the representation they deserved. Autistic stories told from an autistic voice. This comic is many things, but primarily it is an indictment of a society that uplifts disabled people for inspiration porn while refusing to accommodate our actual support needs (we’re less inspiring when we have our needs met and don’t need to struggle through with a positive attitude and outlook on life.) The first issue is out now and you can download it for FREE by clicking the “free comic” link at the top of this page, but I thought it would be appropriate to write a blog post introducing you to the super hero team!
Overshare: Overshare (AKA: Kerry Osborne) is an autistic woman with telepathic abilities. She likes order and routine, she is high masking and confident in her knowledge and abilities and as such she is a natural leader and people are drawn to her. You would think that telepathic abilities would help an autistic person interact with neurotypical and allistic people, as much of the social deficit for autistics is the inability to read social cues. Overshare has found this to not be the case, however. She is constantly confused why people never say what they mean, and yet she is expected to understand the subtext of what they are saying, but when she reads their minds to figure out exactly what it is they want they get offended and call her mind reading intrusive and rude. Overshare’s powers are analogous to the autistic trait of high pattern recognition.
Shift: Shift (AKA Benjiro Watanabe) is a shapeshifter. He has the power to alter his physical appearance and modulate his voice to impersonate people. Shift’s resting form is a reflection of his self image and how he feels in the world. Since his autism makes him feel isolated and alien from the people around him he tends to appear with green skin and large bulging black eyes, like an alien. If he ever finds a group that he feels completely comfortable with his resting form may appear human again. Shift’s powers are analogous to the autistic trait of masking.
Echo: Echo (AKA: Fernando Fernandez) is a non binary non speaking autistic person who’s power is super hearing. Echo hears everything all of the time for miles around, as a result they are in a constant state of overwhelm which effects their ability to communicate orally. As a result Echo uses sign language to communicate generally, and uses telepathy to communicate with Overshare specifically (she has established a psychic link with Echo in order to be able to speak with them.) Echo’s power is analogous to the autistic trait of sound sensitivity and sensory overwhelm.
Flight Risk: Flight Risk (AKA: Parker Blanc) is a self diagnosed autistic woman. While she has never received a formal diagnosis she has felt a kinship with many autistic people and many descriptions she has heard of the autistic experience resonate with her own life and experience. While she never receives a formal medical diagnosis her autism is confirmed without a shadow of a doubt in the fourth issue of the comic. Her super power is super speed, paired with her social anxiety she has the ability to be anywhere people aren’t. She is, however, fiercely loyal and protective of the ones she loves. She is best friends with her fellow team mate, Burnout. Flight Risk’s power is analogous to the autistic trait of elopement.
Burnout: Burnout (AKA: Jack Abernathy) is an undiagnosed autistic man. Unlike Flight Risk, who is self diagnosed, Burnout hasn’t ever thought about whether he might be autistic, and to a degree lacks the self reflection needed to take that kind of psychological inventory of himself. He has just always assumed he was weird and different from everyone else. His power is the ability to expel enormous amounts of energy from his body, even to the point of giving him the ability of flight. However these bursts of energy can be short lived and leave him depleted afterwards. Burnout’s power is analogous to the autistic trait that shares his name: Burnout.
Authentic and accurate representation is extremely important for marginalised groups. It helps us combat stigma and make genuine human connections by both seeing ourselves in compelling narratives and also letting people see us for who we really are. I’m honoured to be able to tell an autistic story from my perspective as an autistic person, parent of autistic kids, and as someone who works professionally in autism care. I hope you like it.