Lorne Jackson meets brothers who have given Birmingham its very own super hero.

Joel Wade was returning from America with a suitcase packed with goodies.

Addictive goodies.

He didn’t go looking for the merchandise when he visited the US, however, he soon became hooked when he saw them for sale on almost every street corner.

Now he wants to sell those goodies in the UK, and get a lot more people addicted.

In case you hadn’t guessed, Joel is passionate about comic books.

With his older brother, Jeshua, he’s on the point of making the move from serious fan to serious business plan.

The brothers have devised their own super hero, Dreadfire, a bad-guy bashing Brummie.

“We’re both lifelong geeks, I guess you could say,” Joel, 22, admits. “When I was younger, a friend of mine lent me an X-men comic, and I got into it really quickly. After that, it was always an on-off hobby, until I went to America with friends. When I landed in the States, I found comic book shops on every corner. So I was jumping from one to another, grabbing as many books as I could.

“Then I returned to the UK with this huge suitcase packed with comics.”

Older brother Jeshua, 26, shares his passion. For the past few months they have been working full time on Dreadfire, which they intend to market and sell themselves. They have already set up a website and believe they have an original concept that sets them apart from the rest of the comic book crowd.

Jeshua and Joel write and draw the adventures of their super hero, but they also want the local community to be involved in his creation and evolution.

“There have been British heroes before, like Captain Britain,” says Jeshua. “But he was created by an American company, so he wasn’t really part of our culture. But in our first few Dreadfire pages, we’ve already got him fighting in the Bullring. And in the second issue there’s going to be a scrap in Selfridges. The discs on the outside of the building will be flying everywhere.

“They’ll be turned into deadly missiles.”

He adds: “Everyone in the comic will be speaking with a Brummie accent, and you’ll hear all the local slang, of course.”

But what really excites Jeshua and Joel is giving fans the opportunity to work on Dreadfire. The website encourages readers to vote to decide what martial art Dreadfire should master.

“At the moment it’s Ninjutsu,” says Joel. “So we could soon have a deadly ninja running round Brum.”

Jeshua adds: “We’re also asking readers to help us devise a costume for Dreadfire. Right now he wears normal clothes, but that will change with the help of our fans.

“We’re also doing podcasts on the internet, where we hold discussions about our super hero, bouncing around new ideas.”

The Chelmsley Wood brothers hope the interactive nature of their super hero will set him apart from the power-packed crowd.