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 Post subject: Revamp the DC Universe
PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 1:56 am 
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You're put in charge as the EIC of DC comics. Anything goes, yo have carte blanche over the comic side of the biz. What would you do? What storyline, event etc. would you do?

This is my list of what I would do:

Bring back the multiverse full on. Forget all this nonsense about 52 earths and just make the DC universe the place where anything can truly happen, a universe of wonder.

Acknowledge that the current versions of the heroes are just THIS earth's heroes, not a merging of the old ones. So the real Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) is still on Earth 1, the JSA is still on Earth 2 (Kal-l too) etc. Same for the Marvel Family on Earth S.

(Controversy) A big crossover (shocker from me) where we kill this earth off once and for all and do what Crisis should have and started over with a new Earth. Timeless, non-continuity obsessed versions of the heroes.

Keep the number of books limited.

Make a vow not to cancel ANY book before two years. If we (DC) can't commit to a book, why should the fans

Announce the creative teams and stick with them. ANY fill-in artist must resemble the style of the artist they are filling in for (Brubaker's Cap dos this very well)

Limit crossovers. Make them special. In fact RARELY alude to any other books in the universe. 99% of the time, it appears that Batman is set in his own world. Especially Batman.

The only hero(es) to have more than one book would be Batman and Superman due to their history. Superman would have Action and Superman (haven't thought how to differentiate them yet) and Batman would have Detective (just him, more serious stories, and Batman and Robin (self-explanatory).

After those other single books would be such as:

Flash
Green Lantern
Teen Titans

Launch the Shojen manga sized books, starting with the JLA. Only top creators on these books and covers. Main story would be a JLA story, then characters who fail to hold their own titles, like Hawkman, the Atom etc. would get their own arcs. Those arcs would be reprinted in online digital web comics and trades. The most successful trades and arcs would then to DVD movies. This system would enable slow artists like Hitch to do an arc, then when they are finished, the next character gets their chance. So when Adam Hughes is finished with his 5 issue Wonder Woman, THEN and ONLY THEN is it inserted into one of the books. Price this at 5.99 with mass audience appealing covers (Alex Ross or covers doen by the current cartoon artists). And a reprint story related to the main one.

As I write, I think Action Comics should be one of these type books, with backup stories of Supergirl, him as Superboy etc.
Batman and Robin could be that way with backup stories of Robin alone, Batgirl etc. And a reprint story related to the main one.

Other "big" books are:

Earth 2 (maybe a different title like Golden Age), main story is the JSA, maybe an Infinity Inc. backup etc. One story arc would be a twelve issue chronology explaining the timeline of this earth and from then on, stick to real-time. Which means just like manga, stories end, new heroes are born etc.

Shazam - Fawcett heroes on Earth S. Also add a reprint story.

Quality - The Charlton/Quality heroes.

Any thoughts or ideas? Any creative teams in mind?

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 Post subject: Revamp the DC Universe
PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 2:15 am 
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No event. Just stop with the endless continuity fixing and start telling stories. Not unlike how DC was around 1980. I wouldn't worry about Earth-2 or any of that stuff.


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 Post subject: Revamp the DC Universe
PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 2:19 am 
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Jeff wrote:
No event. Just stop with the endless continuity fixing and start telling stories. Not unlike how DC was around 1980.


I could live with that.

Quote:
I wouldn't worry about Earth-2 or any of that stuff.


No worry, just a fun alternative book where people can read about a whole universe and watch the changes in real time.

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 Post subject: Revamp the DC Universe
PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 2:36 am 
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Well, by "wouldn't worry" I meant "won't have". :) It could be fun to have an elseworlds line for alternate versions of characters though. Just don't even think about how "it all fits together"; that way lies madness. AKA current DC. :lol:


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 Post subject: Revamp the DC Universe
PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 2:55 am 
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I'd throw everything out the window and begin a new, continuity-free approach. Hire whoever might sell to do whatever they want with a series. When they run out of ideas, run out of enthusiasm or don't sell within the company's expectations, hire the next creator(s) and let them do whatever they want. The criteria for assignments would be the editors' best judgments as to which proposed stories and creative teams will attract the most readers. No "fixing", no "rebooting", no "rewinding", no "retconning", just hit the ground running with whatever status quo is necessary for that particular storyline.

Each superhero or team of superheros (JLA, Legion) gets one book, self-titled, except for Batman and Superman who get two (this keeps Detective and Action alive), plus a few traditional all-purpose titles like Adventure and Brave And The Bold. The all-purpose titles can feature arcs starring various characters by various creative teams that might not warrant ongoing series but could sustain decent sales for a storyline or two.

Any title can have any continuity at the creators' whims, whatever they require to tell the story they want to tell. The Flash can die at the end of one arc then never have died at the beginning of the next one. He can be Barry Allen, Wally West, Jay Garrick or someone else depending on each writer's wishes.

Any "crossover" or "event" would be a self-contained series that can feature any characters from any series, but the event doesn't appear in those characters' own series or interfere with their separate storylines in any way.

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 Post subject: Revamp the DC Universe
PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 2:59 am 
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You've pretty much described the Image Universe, Linda. Every "universe" book like Savage Dragon and Invincible is set in the same universe, but has its own independent continuity. Blow up the Earth in Dragon and it's not necessarily blown in Invincible.

It's a nice approach.


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 Post subject: Revamp the DC Universe
PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 11:45 am 
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Steve wrote:
You've pretty much described the Image Universe, Linda. Every "universe" book like Savage Dragon and Invincible is set in the same universe, but has its own independent continuity. Blow up the Earth in Dragon and it's not necessarily blown in Invincible.

It's a nice approach.

They all used to be like that.


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 Post subject: Revamp the DC Universe
PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 12:04 pm 
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Linda wrote:
I'd throw everything out the window and begin a new, continuity-free approach. Hire whoever might sell to do whatever they want with a series. When they run out of ideas, run out of enthusiasm or don't sell within the company's expectations, hire the next creator(s) and let them do whatever they want. The criteria for assignments would be the editors' best judgments as to which proposed stories and creative teams will attract the most readers. No "fixing", no "rebooting", no "rewinding", no "retconning", just hit the ground running with whatever status quo is necessary for that particular storyline.

Each superhero or team of superheros (JLA, Legion) gets one book, self-titled, except for Batman and Superman who get two (this keeps Detective and Action alive), plus a few traditional all-purpose titles like Adventure and Brave And The Bold. The all-purpose titles can feature arcs starring various characters by various creative teams that might not warrant ongoing series but could sustain decent sales for a storyline or two.

Any title can have any continuity at the creators' whims, whatever they require to tell the story they want to tell. The Flash can die at the end of one arc then never have died at the beginning of the next one. He can be Barry Allen, Wally West, Jay Garrick or someone else depending on each writer's wishes.

Any "crossover" or "event" would be a self-contained series that can feature any characters from any series, but the event doesn't appear in those characters' own series or interfere with their separate storylines in any way.


Very interesting. I wonder how the fading DM would respond to that.

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 Post subject: Revamp the DC Universe
PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 12:56 pm 
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Steve wrote:
You've pretty much described the Image Universe, Linda. Every "universe" book like Savage Dragon and Invincible is set in the same universe, but has its own independent continuity. Blow up the Earth in Dragon and it's not necessarily blown in Invincible.

It's a nice approach.


That might work but unfortunately, while we shouldn't obsess with continuity, consistency might be necessary to hook people

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 Post subject: Revamp the DC Universe
PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 1:17 pm 
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Allen Berrebbi wrote:
Linda wrote:
I'd throw everything out the window and begin a new, continuity-free approach. Hire whoever might sell to do whatever they want with a series. When they run out of ideas, run out of enthusiasm or don't sell within the company's expectations, hire the next creator(s) and let them do whatever they want. The criteria for assignments would be the editors' best judgments as to which proposed stories and creative teams will attract the most readers. No "fixing", no "rebooting", no "rewinding", no "retconning", just hit the ground running with whatever status quo is necessary for that particular storyline.

Each superhero or team of superheros (JLA, Legion) gets one book, self-titled, except for Batman and Superman who get two (this keeps Detective and Action alive), plus a few traditional all-purpose titles like Adventure and Brave And The Bold. The all-purpose titles can feature arcs starring various characters by various creative teams that might not warrant ongoing series but could sustain decent sales for a storyline or two.

Any title can have any continuity at the creators' whims, whatever they require to tell the story they want to tell. The Flash can die at the end of one arc then never have died at the beginning of the next one. He can be Barry Allen, Wally West, Jay Garrick or someone else depending on each writer's wishes.

Any "crossover" or "event" would be a self-contained series that can feature any characters from any series, but the event doesn't appear in those characters' own series or interfere with their separate storylines in any way.

Very interesting. I wonder how the fading DM would respond to that.

Well, there's no DM in my concept. :)

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 Post subject: Revamp the DC Universe
PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 2:12 pm 
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Jeff wrote:
No event. Just stop with the endless continuity fixing and start telling stories. Not unlike how DC was around 1980. I wouldn't worry about Earth-2 or any of that stuff.


Yeah, I'd just stop referring to all this stuff. If all of the events have proven anything, it's that these "fixes" don't fix anything because there's someone right behind you to undo the fix and fuck things up even worse.

Just have Batman start his next case, Superman begin his next adventure, etc. Just don't refer to old shit and the majority of people won't care.


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 Post subject: Revamp the DC Universe
PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 2:13 pm 
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Linda wrote:
Allen Berrebbi wrote:
Linda wrote:
I'd throw everything out the window and begin a new, continuity-free approach. Hire whoever might sell to do whatever they want with a series. When they run out of ideas, run out of enthusiasm or don't sell within the company's expectations, hire the next creator(s) and let them do whatever they want. The criteria for assignments would be the editors' best judgments as to which proposed stories and creative teams will attract the most readers. No "fixing", no "rebooting", no "rewinding", no "retconning", just hit the ground running with whatever status quo is necessary for that particular storyline.

Each superhero or team of superheros (JLA, Legion) gets one book, self-titled, except for Batman and Superman who get two (this keeps Detective and Action alive), plus a few traditional all-purpose titles like Adventure and Brave And The Bold. The all-purpose titles can feature arcs starring various characters by various creative teams that might not warrant ongoing series but could sustain decent sales for a storyline or two.

Any title can have any continuity at the creators' whims, whatever they require to tell the story they want to tell. The Flash can die at the end of one arc then never have died at the beginning of the next one. He can be Barry Allen, Wally West, Jay Garrick or someone else depending on each writer's wishes.

Any "crossover" or "event" would be a self-contained series that can feature any characters from any series, but the event doesn't appear in those characters' own series or interfere with their separate storylines in any way.

Very interesting. I wonder how Hanzo the Razor would respond to that.

Well, there's no Hanzo in my concept. :)


You wound.


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 Post subject: Revamp the DC Universe
PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 2:14 pm 
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I'd go back to the start and publish only three or four large anthology books a month. From there I'd build out the other titles based on what's working in the anthologies.


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 Post subject: Revamp the DC Universe
PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 2:17 pm 
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I'd pare it down to just five titles: Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Plastic Man.

Frank Miller would write all five series. Jim Lee on art.


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 Post subject: Revamp the DC Universe
PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 2:17 pm 
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A lot of your "fixes" would cost DC a lot of money and put a lot of people out of work. Less Superman and Batman titles = death for DC.


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 Post subject: Revamp the DC Universe
PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 2:18 pm 
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Dendritic Oscillating Ontological Tesseract

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Hanzo the Razor wrote:
A lot of your "fixes" would cost DC a lot of money and put a lot of people out of work. Less Superman and Batman titles = death for DC.


Okay, in that case John Byrne on art.


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 Post subject: Revamp the DC Universe
PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 2:26 pm 
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Ocean Doot wrote:
Hanzo the Razor wrote:
A lot of your "fixes" would cost DC a lot of money and put a lot of people out of work. Less Superman and Batman titles = death for DC.


Okay, in that case John Byrne on art.


Why not just print the money themselves, directly?


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 Post subject: Revamp the DC Universe
PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 2:31 pm 
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Dendritic Oscillating Ontological Tesseract

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Hanzo the Razor wrote:
Ocean Doot wrote:
Hanzo the Razor wrote:
A lot of your "fixes" would cost DC a lot of money and put a lot of people out of work. Less Superman and Batman titles = death for DC.


Okay, in that case John Byrne on art.


Why not just print the money themselves, directly?


Because it's never about the money.


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 Post subject: Revamp the DC Universe
PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 2:40 pm 
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Linda wrote:
I'd throw everything out the window and begin a new, continuity-free approach. Hire whoever might sell to do whatever they want with a series. When they run out of ideas, run out of enthusiasm or don't sell within the company's expectations, hire the next creator(s) and let them do whatever they want. The criteria for assignments would be the editors' best judgments as to which proposed stories and creative teams will attract the most readers. No "fixing", no "rebooting", no "rewinding", no "retconning", just hit the ground running with whatever status quo is necessary for that particular storyline.

Each superhero or team of superheros (JLA, Legion) gets one book, self-titled, except for Batman and Superman who get two (this keeps Detective and Action alive), plus a few traditional all-purpose titles like Adventure and Brave And The Bold. The all-purpose titles can feature arcs starring various characters by various creative teams that might not warrant ongoing series but could sustain decent sales for a storyline or two.

Any title can have any continuity at the creators' whims, whatever they require to tell the story they want to tell. The Flash can die at the end of one arc then never have died at the beginning of the next one. He can be Barry Allen, Wally West, Jay Garrick or someone else depending on each writer's wishes.

Any "crossover" or "event" would be a self-contained series that can feature any characters from any series, but the event doesn't appear in those characters' own series or interfere with their separate storylines in any way.


Sounds good, although like Allen I don't know that it would be good to throw out consistency quite that radically. It might be better to have a fairly loose status quo and still have something like Elseworlds for really radical storylines about the Flash dying and such.

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 Post subject: Revamp the DC Universe
PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 4:52 pm 
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I wish there was a monthly book called Elseworlds that had whatever bizarre story they want each month. I would love that in the same way I did What If?


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 Post subject: Revamp the DC Universe
PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 4:57 pm 
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Noto wrote:
I wish there was a monthly book called Elseworlds that had whatever bizarre story they want each month. I would love that in the same way I did What If?


I want a similar title called "What the F*@%?"

Each month will have a chapter from a non-existent series that takes place in an elseworlds universe that we have never seen. You just jump into the insanity and get left hanging every month.


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 Post subject: Revamp the DC Universe
PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 5:26 pm 
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I think I'd re-establish the idea of 2-3 year runs for creative teams on titles... instead of these little 2-3 issue runs we seem to be getting. Now, if sales are low, you lose your job to a new creative team... but a successful title with a solid creative team stays on for 2-3 years. I also would not have an event every year. I would have an event every 2-3 years... said event would also not consist of crossovers but a stand alone miniseries that does not interrupt the other titles until it's conclusion... where the status quo that it creates is established.

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