Originally Posted by
MRP
I'd start by having a creator serve as the curator of the line, overseeing it, someone who is familiar with action-oriented series and had great success with them: Mike Grell. Between With Warlord, Jon Sable, and his Green Arrow run on the resume, Grell knows what it takes to make an action series work.
I'd start with a 6 issue limited series as an entry point to the imprint and use the Adventure Comics title-introduce the main characters, establish the milieu in which they operate, create some ties between them and then spin off other stories.
To anchor the line and give it some fan/brand recognition, I'd start with a pair of characters who have wider recognition within the DCU and among fans and potential customers:
Green Arrow
Black Canary
add in a mix of different characters and action oriented genres-
Travis Morgan, the Warlord
Richard Dragon
Bronze Tiger
Lady Shiva
Nathaniel Dusk
Christopher Chance (the Human Target)
The Unknown Soldier
Lady Black Hawk and the Blackhawks
Vixen (she's comparable to Spidey in power levels for the most part)
Jack Ryder (The Creeper)
The Question
Peacemaker
Sarge Steel
I also wouldn't look to do ongoings per se. I'd look at developing a series of stories, building on each other, but standalone (much like the series of adventure (or pulp) novels featuring characters like Remo Williams or Mac Bolan, Doc Savage or the Avenger successfully did for decades). Each would use some (or all the cast, the milieu, etc. established in the Adventure Comics mini. Serialize each story (have it run as long as it needs, 4, 6, 8, or 12 issues as needed for the story) for the direct market as a loss leader to pay for production costs, but look to ultimately put it out as a book/collected edition geared towards the book trade where it can be marketed as an adventure story to that particular market.
You can address a lot of different themes/subject matter and choose the cast appropriately, such as...
-infiltrating a terrorist organization and stopping a terrorist plot...use Chance, the Unknown Soldier, and mix in perhaps Bronze Tiger, Lady Shiva, Peacemaker and Sarge Steel.
-dealing with some kind of gang/organized crime plot-Arrow, Canary, Dusk, etc.
-you can introduce Skartaris for lot world element for a storyline etc. etc.
telling a series of interrelated adventure stories that also serve as standalone stories so each can be the entry point into the line for customers, and you can have a variety of creators contributing with Grell's hand guiding and overseeing the line to give it some consistency in voice/approach. You can read any of the storylines and get a complete satisfying story, but if you read each story, it builds a larger tapestry as well, paying off for regular readers but not short changing casual readers who pick and choose the stories that appeal to them.
-M