Creating your own superhero universe
Imagine being an editor in a new comics publishing company, and when hiring writers and artists, you gave them a list to follow when they started to add their own ideas to the universe.
My own lists:
No social issues and metaphors. Perhaps a single issue or so, but don't dedicate a whole title to it.
Bring in the fun of giving each character their own origin story like in the old days, instead of a single reason for all the powers like we often see in shows like Smallville (meteor shower), The Flash (dark matter energy) or the Wildcards books.
No realism as in "what if superhumans were real".
No realm of death. Instead of killing a character and then find a way to bring it back to life, simply don't kill it in the first place. If people can simply come back like they have visited another realm, the whole concept of death become useless. That itself could actually work as a story idea in a movie or novel, but not in my comic universe.
No incarnations of natural phenomena such as chaos, order, death, dream, love and hate and so on.
Cosmic entities are okay, but not a hiearchy. And no god or highest being or cosmic judge. No origin story of the universe.
No time travels or alternative futures. Once you open that door, you will soon get lost in what is the real future or present timeline, can anyone be erased from history, does death mean anything if you can just see them in another timeline? In Days of Future Past, John Byrne intented the dark future to be permanently erased, which would have made Rachel's sacrifice even bigger. That didn't happen, and the rest is history.
No "next step in evolution" or incorrect descriptions of evolution. I can accept that people are turned into monsters by radiation, but no evolutionary concepts unless they make sense and are vital to the plot.
No pseudo-scientific explanations when it is not required. How can someone suddenly increase in mass? We don't know, they just can. In Marvel attempts have been given by suggesting that Hulk's mass is hidden away in some pocket dimension or some nonsense.
And no superpowers like good or bad luck. No ridiculous superpowers either, which can be the result when trying to come up with some new powers for each new characters.
Villains should have better reasons for their actions than being evil or wanting to rule the world.
No background superhumans. In X-Men we had the Morlocks, which were too numerous to give each and one of them a design, name and powers. Later mutants started to count millions for a while. If you can't give them a name, look, background and powers, then don't bother.
No breaking of the fifth wall when included in the actual story. I think it was in Jim Starlin's original Adam Warlock stories that Captain Marvel was used in an intro where he told us who Thanos was. Which is OK as long as it takes place outside the story. And no guest appearences of the comic book creators. I remember that the Watcher once visited John Byrne and took him for a ride. It kind of takes you out of the story.
No retconning or personal spins on established characters.
Being a bit greedy, there could also be a second superhero universe that's a bit more realistic:
Just like the one above, but a couple of differences;
Superpowers are created through science and technology, not accidents.
No morphing, and no increase or decrease in mass, and no change in size.
Cool costumes allowed, but not as insane as those of some characters in DC and Marvel. And they should make sense (Wolverine is supposed to blend in while on missions, but black and yellow makes him stand out).
