I've always been a fan of the old school pulp heroes like Green Hornet, Shadow, Phantom, Zorro, etc. And I find it rather sad that these classic characters aren't under DC's umbrella (they come from a similar era, one grew directly from the other, etc). Every time DC announces a book like Doc Savage or The Spirit, I get excited....only to have those books see questionable sales, get cancelled, and the licensing rights revert to another company like IDW or BOOM! or whoever. Even original characters inspired by the pulps (like The Others from Johns' Aquaman run) rarely (if ever) find traction.
And those companies usually do just fine with the established pulp heroes. But come on, who wouldn't like to see these old school characters interacting with the DCU on a regular basis? It's great when we get the occasional mini, like Shadow-Batman, but those are pretty few and far between.
So since DC won't license the characters long-term and can't buy the rights........who should/could fill those roles?
Who could be the Green Hornet of DC? The Shadow? Etc etc.
The recent Plastic Man mini has me thinking that setting Plas up as the "hero permanently undercover as a villain" might have some traction, and though Plas isn't a fedora wearing vigilante with a "ethnic" sidekick, I think he's actually a interesting fit for the model.
I don't think this topic will generate enough interest to last as a discussion.....but what the hell?
How do you guys want to see the pulps used in DC? Should DC even bother, or is interest in this particular kind of story too dead to bother with? Is there a particular creator who you think could make it work? Or a particular character you think would fit the sensibility well? If you could pull one of the classic pulp heroes into DC, who would it be and why?