Pitch a Direction: Nightwing

[king81992]

Have they failed or have they been failed?

It's a combination of both. Since Wolfman(and even he made a lot of sketchy decisions with the franchise)not a single writer has done anything decent with the franchise(unless you think that John's run was decent). Writers for the Titans just rely on rehashing old storylines,killing characters for shock value and character derailment. A hostile editorial does not help either.

[nhienphan2808]

True. Both of them are monumentally bad writers but it’s the editorial that hated the characters.

[dropkickjake]

Neither the fab five nor the NTT are a broken concept. Two writers, Abnet and Grayson, did a less than stellar job. Feels like more because of how long each of them had with the team bc editorial doesn’t really care. It would be easy to bring that team back to prominence. Get a proven writer together with a top tier artist and let them create new stories.


But whatevs

[byrd156]

Neither the fab five nor the NTT are a broken concept. Two writers, Abnet and Grayson, did a less than stellar job. Feels like more because of how long each of them had with the team bc editorial doesn’t really care. It would be easy to bring that team back to prominence. Get a proven writer together with a top tier artist and let them create new stories.


But whatevs

Writers are the reason a book is good or bad. Anything else is just someone's biases.

[oasis1313]

A great comics writer can even carry bad artwork, although good writing + good art is optimum, of course.

[king81992]

Neither the fab five nor the NTT are a broken concept. Two writers, Abnet and Grayson, did a less than stellar job. Feels like more because of how long each of them had with the team bc editorial doesn’t really care. It would be easy to bring that team back to prominence. Get a proven writer together with a top tier artist and let them create new stories.


But whatevs

The concepts of NTT and Fab 5 are fine, but it needs better execution than what we've seen over the past few years. The focus should be on getting the right writer and not a proven one. A proven writer might be good at writing other stories or comics, but might not be suited to write a new Titans book. Most of DC's current writers are 'proven' and they might not be the right writer for some of the books they're writing.

[oasis1313]

The concepts of NTT and Fab 5 are fine, but it needs better execution than what we've seen over the past few years. The focus should be on getting the right writer and not a proven one. A proven writer might be good at writing other stories or comics, but might not be suited to write a new Titans book. Most of DC's current writers are 'proven' and they might not be the right writer for some of the books they're writing.

Being a "name" doesn't necessarily mean you are also a "talent." DC should start taking submissions from the cons and the art schools.

[Ascended]

Being a "name" doesn't necessarily mean you are also a "talent." DC should start taking submissions from the cons and the art schools.

DC and Marvel definitely have to get out of this insular recruitment process they've trapped themselves in. But I dunno if fan submissions are a workable solution. Imagine how many thousands of submissions they'd get each month? That's a lot of man hours spent going through scripts and pitches that won't be worth the price of the paper they're printed on. And who would go through them? You can't trust low-end interns to sift through it all, and editors and managers have far more important work to take up their time.

I think those writers' camps they offer with Snyder (and other writers?) has potential. As I understand it those are basically college writing courses you have to pay for right? Seems like a good way to weed people out and uncover quality talent.

[byrd156]

DC and Marvel definitely have to get out of this insular recruitment process they've trapped themselves in. But I dunno if fan submissions are a workable solution. Imagine how many thousands of submissions they'd get each month? That's a lot of man hours spent going through scripts and pitches that won't be worth the price of the paper they're printed on. And who would go through them? You can't trust low-end interns to sift through it all, and editors and managers have far more important work to take up their time.

I think those writers' camps they offer with Snyder (and other writers?) has potential. As I understand it those are basically college writing courses you have to pay for right? Seems like a good way to weed people out and uncover quality talent.

Movie studios/production houses have their own readers whose job is dedicated to going through scripts and ideas. I don't see why comics couldn't do the same thing. If a pitch gets a good amount of approval from the readers it can move up a level to maybe a committee of writers without a project. From there they could approve, take on the project, or recommend it to another writer. It could also open up a lot more job opportunities for people to break into comics as readers.

[dropkickjake]

Movie studios/production houses have their own readers whose job is dedicated to going through scripts and ideas. I don't see why comics couldn't do the same thing. If a pitch gets a good amount of approval from the readers it can move up a level to maybe a committee of writers without a project. From there they could approve, take on the project, or recommend it to another writer. It could also open up a lot more job opportunities for people to break into comics as readers.

But do those movie studios take submissions from people with virtually no training or networking within the writing industry? Probably not.

[Ascended]

But do those movie studios take submissions from people with virtually no training or networking within the writing industry? Probably not.

Probably not, but the indies like Image and IDW take fan submissions. If they've got the infrastructure to sift through those then the Big 2 can most likely manage it as well.

I figure DC and Marvel probably just don't see it as worth the effort. They can let the indies find the quality talent, then poach them. Maybe that'll eventually bite them in the ass, but it doesnt seem like the Big 2 are overly concerned about it.

[byrd156]

But do those movie studios take submissions from people with virtually no training or networking within the writing industry? Probably not.

I would assume if you're submitting you would have some sort of agent or the like. It's very rare for someone to just accept a script out of nowhere.

[oasis1313]

Probably not, but the indies like Image and IDW take fan submissions. If they've got the infrastructure to sift through those then the Big 2 can most likely manage it as well.

I figure DC and Marvel probably just don't see it as worth the effort. They can let the indies find the quality talent, then poach them. Maybe that'll eventually bite them in the ass, but it doesnt seem like the Big 2 are overly concerned about it.

I think they're just too lazy. They probably think there are enough "names" out there to fill the stable.

[Jackalope89]

I think they're just too lazy. They probably think there are enough "names" out there to fill the stable.

And what's more, some of those "names" are only that. Not having produced much worthwhile in a long time, yet because they had a good run or two a ways back, they are a "name".

[dropkickjake]

Alright, lads. New game: Pitch an Amnesia Story that Doesn't Suck

Editorial has mandated it. Tom King has had Dick Grayson shot in the head as part of his effort to mentally break Batman, and Bruce can't get his son/best friend back until this story wraps us. To keep Dick off of the field and out of the batfamily entirely, they have decided that this head trauma has given our hero amnesia. He no longer remembers his time as Robin or Nightwing. In fact, Dick has lost all of his memories since his parents died. Last he remembers, he was a daring young man on the flying trapeze.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to make this story worth reading.

Rules
-You can use your own pitches as a jumping off point for this. So if you want to say that Dick has been doing Graysonish stuff since Rebirth started (or what have you) that's fair game.

You must use this to somehow bring Dick away from Bruce entirely. The point of this is to get him away from the Batfamily.

-You cannot use a get out of jail free card. Editorial has mandated that this amnesia take him away from the Batfamily, gotham, and Bruce. No Spyral mind fixes, Zatanna spells, or Miss Martian mind invasions.