Recurring minis for DC

[Trey Strain]

Originally Posted by buffalorock

For what its worth, I enjoy finding those old DC 80s miniseries in the dollar bins. Most of these were probably exactly what is being suggested, a way to test the waters or try someone new. Hell, there is Red Tornado, Aquaman, Deadman, Dr Fate, etc...

Even they did more prestige format books that are three-parters or standalones. That Hawkworld miniseries by Truman was awesome, I'd love more stuff like that.

I agree about Aquaman. He's always the guy who is on the bubble about whether he can carry an ongoing or not. I'd stop trying him out that way and put him in a team title with the Martian Manhunter, Supergirl and Warrior called either The Relics or The Emissaries, about the survivors of lost civilizations being sent by some interstellar authority (maybe the Guardians) to aid worlds that are suffering an existential crisis.

Yes, that would involve flushing Atlantis, but I'm OK with that.

[Trey Strain]

Originally Posted by Trey Strain

I agree about Aquaman. He's always the guy who is on the bubble about whether he can carry an ongoing or not. I'd stop trying him out that way and put him in a team title with the Martian Manhunter, Supergirl and Warrior called either The Relics or The Emissaries, about the survivors of lost civilizations being sent by some interstellar authority (maybe the Guardians) to aid worlds that are suffering an existential crisis.

Yes, that would involve flushing Atlantis, but I'm OK with that.

And that would be a recurring mini.

[Trey Strain]

They could also do a recurring mini that isn't oriented around super-heroes but is an anthology of unrelated sci-fi tales.

[Big Daddy Dave Skywalker]

What about weird war tales? GI Robot, the Unknown Soldier and the Creature Commandos?

[Trey Strain]

Originally Posted by Big Daddy Dave Targaryen I

What about weird war tales? GI Robot, the Unknown Soldier and the Creature Commandos?

Sure, you could do a any of that. Sgt. Rock too.

You could try anything that won't stand up as an ongoing or is unlikely to.

[Space Cop]

Vibe and Snapper Carr.

[Trey Strain]

Originally Posted by Space Cop

Vibe and Snapper Carr.

I'm all over Snapper. He was in the Hal story I wrote. I forgot to mention that he'd be in Stretchers, working for Ralph and Patrick at the weekly.

[Trey Strain]

A recurring mini might be the best place for Legion too.

[Big Daddy Dave Skywalker]

Etrigan the Demon. Not goofy like, but more scary like the Matt Wagner mini series.

[Trey Strain]

The Golden Age JSA is being brought to the present world from 1951 as fish out of water. That was my idea, which DC hasn't acknowledged me for. But anyway, we should also get a recurring mini of JSA stories set in the Forties and Fifties.

[Big Daddy Dave Skywalker]

Originally Posted by Trey Strain

A recurring mini might be the best place for Legion too.

I feel bad for Legion fans. It always seemed like GL and Legion were kind of fandom-cousins. IMO there should always be a Legion title, like there should Teen Titans or JSA

[Trey Strain]

Originally Posted by Big Daddy Dave Targaryen I

I feel bad for Legion fans. It always seemed like GL and Legion were kind of fandom-cousins. IMO there should always be a Legion title, like there should Teen Titans or JSA

I think it doesn't sell well because it's set in the future and thus isn't part of the shared universe. I think it would do fine as a recurring mini though.

[Big Daddy Dave Skywalker]

Peacemaker! I always had a soft spot for that guy.

[Trey Strain]

Booster Gold and Firestorm could star in a recurring mini.

(Blue Beetle is going to be busy in the Charlton team title I proposed at CBR and that I think DC is going to launch.)

[Trey Strain]

I suppose Peacemaker will be in the Charlton ongoing too.

[Ωmega Man]

IDK about a lot of these ideas TS. Tossing a couple stretchy characters into Gotham when it's already got a family of vigilantes and detectives doesn't sound right. I'd much rather just have a serious Plastic Man mini [possibly with art by EVS!].

With Legion I've always felt the biggest detractor is that "All the good supervillains are in the 21st century...". It also doesn't help that NONE of the heroic legacies remained in their century, and by that I mean there's nobody calling themselves the Flash or Green Arrow or anything like that. I'm not saying all of today's heroes should be represented, but one or two would be more believable than none at all. A little more info about the United Planets would be nice, and some original supervillains. With their HQ in Metropolis there should ALWAYS be a Luthor around the corner somewhere.

Legion is also the one where they kinda stick to their guns and don't stray too far from what's come before. Sure there's two dozen members to come and go, but the majority of them have been around for decades, and that includes those crappy Legion Academy characters like Comet Queen. I think a reboot with new heroes based on existing cannon and aliens would be best. There hasn't been much excitement as far as new members go, which is why an entire new team would help the franchise the best. A female Brainiac perhaps, Ultra Girl, maybe a boy from Cargg called Trinity.... just for giggles I'd make a reincarnated Hawkman a member as Hawkboy or as a villain nobody realizes is an elderly Hawkman trying to do some good. And if I couldn't do that, just make it a male character from Dawnstar's space colony.

~//V\\~

[Big Daddy Dave Skywalker]

If they were going to do that (and maybe I'm not the best person to offer an opinion because I'm not a Legion fan), maybe doing a Legion "TNG" might be a solution to people who want new ground, but not at the expense of pissing all over old continui...ties. Set a title in the year 3100, a hundred years or so after the events of whichever version of the timeline they want to use, and go with a new cast, maybe including a few old ones. Be what Picard and crew was to Kirk's crew of the Enterprise.

[Ωmega Man]

I'd definitely set it up after whatever events had the Legion splitting up in the last series. I wouldn't go a hundred more years forwards, but one or two wouldn't be so bad. Maybe in that bit of in between time a few legacy heroes could show up before a new Legion gets off the ground. And maybe an older scarred member of the Legion's past could be their mentor.

~//V\\~

[Ωmega Man]

Or you could set it up in a new universe rather than one of the three [or four now?] Legion continuities. Maybe sometime after the last clone JL 3001 group gets taken down..? That legacy element would already be there and you could mix the best of both worlds with new interpretations of classic Legionnaires as well as originals and gender swapped characters. IDK if the United Planets was a thing in JL 3000/3001 though...

~//V\\~

[Big Daddy Dave Skywalker]

Blackhawk! What's Howard Chaykin doing?

[Trey Strain]

Originally Posted by -//V\\-

IDK about a lot of these ideas TS. Tossing a couple stretchy characters into Gotham when it's already got a family of vigilantes and detectives doesn't sound right. I'd much rather just have a serious Plastic Man mini [possibly with art by EVS!].



~//V\\~

I don't care how Legion is done as long as its longtime fans like it, since I'm not a fan, and I'd be against monkeying with it much. It doesn't have a huge fanbase but it has a loyal one.

Trying to attach an artist to an ongoing or a recurring mini is dicey. Artists are here today and gone tomorrow. IF EvS leaves or doesn't even want to do it, then what do you do?

Plas alone would be a hard sell even for a recurring mini. He needs some co-stars and a Thin Man vibe. It should be something that Keith Giffen could write. Hence the presence of Snapper. It needs to be funny, but putting it in noirish Gotham and giving it some dangerous villains in high-stakes stories would keep it from getting too silly. The Gotham locale also helps to sell a comic. Stretchers should be like the old Night Stalker television series -- scary but with some funny overtones. Unlike Bruce, Ralph and Patrick would have an adversarial relationship with Jim Gordon. But they'd get their man. And Sue would be along for the ride.

Everything that I've suggested in any detail, I've thought of several ways to boost the sales. You have to be market oriented, nor product oriented. The fact that you or I like or want something won't sell it. Lobo has his fans, but he's flopped as a solo so many times that I'd insist on putting him on a team. You need to use the magic of bundling and team dynamics to help sell characters like that. Ditto Warrior.

One of the many beauties of recurring minis is that if something doesn't work, then you just don't publish it again. If you give Sgt. Rock your best shot twice and it doesn't sell either time, so what? This is all about trying out ideas.

[Trey Strain]

Warrior wouldn't be Guy Gardner, by the way. He'd be an alien whose DNA was patterned after Guy's so he could live on a "Class M" planet and survive the extinction of his species. Guy was the only such being who had visited their world, so he was the pattern they used.

Come to think of it, Lobo would a good addition to the comic starring Booster Gold and Firestorm. And since four is a better number than three for a team, and because of the nature of those three characters, you could add a powerful female presence to act as a stabilizing influence and to lead the team. Vixen would work fine there. That would be quite a team -- Vixen, Booster Gold, Firestorm and Lobo.

Something else you could do with these minis is to use the heroes who just don't fit anywhere else as villains, because the DCU badly needs some new blood among its villains. I've plotted out the first story of Stretchers, in which Metamorpho is the antagonist. That's the sort of thing you'd need to do.

[Trey Strain]

Re the Spectre: He should be Jim Corrigan, police detective, not some fucking "host" for a spook. He should be the spook himself. And to restore the human touch to this concept and to clear away the thick crust of "cosmic" bullshit that's accumulated on it, he should be shown quite a lot in his form as Corrrigan, and should have a strong and stable supporting cast of PEOPLE. That would include Percival Popp and a love interest. And nothing ever about God telling him what to do.

[Ωmega Man]

Originally Posted by Trey Strain

I've plotted out the first story of Stretchers, in which Metamorpho is the antagonist. That's the sort of thing you'd need to do.

... you ALMOST had me till you made ol' Rex a villain. A stretchy element man vs a couple stretchy detectives... really?

A new team title would need a new niche, not a bunch of characters with similar powers and themes.

Challengers from Beyond would be a nice addition and a bit of the same flavor as the Justice Incarnate/Multiverse stuff, just with leads from the prime Earth and it's past and present. Kyle Rayner, Batman Beyond, and an adult Bart/Impulse would be on the squad along with maybe somebody like Power Girl. I think a Supermen of the Multiverse title would also be good for a mini or two at least.

~//V\\~

[Trey Strain]

Originally Posted by -//V\\-

... you ALMOST had me till you made ol' Rex a villain. A stretchy element man vs a couple stretchy detectives... really?

A new team title would need a new niche, not a bunch of characters with similar powers and themes.

Challengers from Beyond would be a nice addition and a bit of the same flavor as the Justice Incarnate/Multiverse stuff, just with leads from the prime Earth and it's past and present. Kyle Rayner, Batman Beyond, and an adult Bart/Impulse would be on the squad along with maybe somebody like Power Girl. I think a Supermen of the Multiverse title would also be good for a mini or two at least.

~//V\\~

Is Metamorpho getting used somewhere? Would I be taking him away from something he's doing? You'd rather see the Penguin maybe? You're not a little tired of him and the Riddler? And it's just one story. They'd have another villain soon, and Metamorpho could go do something else.

You're OK with a GLC with thousands of members but not with two guys in one comic who can stretch? As Steve Englehart said to the people who complained about all the GLs, it's ain't about the powers. It's about the personalities. And it's not as if I've created another character who can stretch. Both are there already, and neither is being used at all. Just like Metamorpho. Why not use them?

Writing a comic like that would be a piece of cake.

And as I said earlier, if any of these ideas don't sell, then they don't. So what? Trying them out is better than not trying them, which isn't making any money at all.

BTW, I thought Kyle was going to be in Titans. You're scratching that idea?