I have visions of his helmet getting blown off in epic combat too! In my mind, that was how Phoenix realized he needed to be a superhero - Edgeworth was involved in the whole mess with Redd White, and Phoenix manages to knock his helmet off by accident and that's when he realizes.

I do feel really weird about tucking the lawyer thing into the background and bringing out the omgsuperheroes, but I'm trying to make the characterization line up as closely as possible. Edgeworth still wanted to be a lawyer, and Phoenix was still influenced by him to also become one.

Truthfully, I'm bothered if I give the lawyer thing too much weight, because if it's too close to canon then why am I writing an AU? Why am I not just writing canon-fic? Part of the challenge for me is making the same essential character development work in a different context: superheroes instead of lawyers. They're lawyers too, but if the focus is on the courtroom and them being lawyers and the reasons they're lawyers, then there's really no point in even writing about superheroes. At least, that's what I think.