Do you thinking creating major characters for story arcs is a probem?

[Flash Gordon]

No, of course not. New characters should always be created, and new stories told.

[docmidnite]

No, of course not. New characters should always be created, and new stories told.

Agreed. Every character was a new character at one point

[9th.]

Sorta, if they find a place for that character after the initial arc is over then it isn't a problem for me.

[Aahz]

Duke and Damian, maybe. Don't know his other later ones. I would say that Dick, Barbara, and Jason were definitely not designed for stories, but the other way around. I think the same is true for Tim.

Jason actually falls under this imo, not as Robin but as Red Hood, if you look at what they did with him post UTRH, it is pretty clear that they didn't really knew what to do with him.

Duke and Harper have more the problem that they were created to take over specific roles in the Batfranchise, but than the original holders of this roles came back, and they were kind of redundant.

[Jim Kelly]

In 1975, in the tabloid-sized LIMITED COLLECTORS' EDITION C-40, National Periodicals reprinted the entire continuity for Dick Tracy's battle with Flattop (from 1943-44). I was astounded that the story ended with Flattop's definite demise. That made quite the impression on me. It showed that Chester Gould was so confident in his abilities as a writer and artist that he knew he could always come up with another adversary for Tracy, and he could kill off one of the greatest villains in comics.

It's so satisfying to have a close-ended story. I wish DC would bite the bullet more often and let villains go out on their high note.

[Aahz]

To answer an initial question I don't really think that it is a problem to create villains for just one arc.

The problem is to reuse them with diminishing returns.

Creating new major support characters/sidekicks or team members with no real idea what to do with them, can be a problem.

[cranger]

I think something important is for the creator to provide a life for that character outside the story. Too many characters have no fallback. They have basically been written as if all there is to them is whatever the story is, and that usually focuses on the superpower aspect. How do most of them even afford a place to live and food to eat? If characters are given more depth then they can return to that life and more story ideas will come about easily when the time comes. And it does not have to be a lot, but if the character is not in the current story, the reader should have some idea of what they are off doing, and it does not have to be fighting crime.

[skyvolt2000]

I think something important is for the creator to provide a life for that character outside the story. Too many characters have no fallback. They have basically been written as if all there is to them is whatever the story is, and that usually focuses on the superpower aspect. How do most of them even afford a place to live and food to eat? If characters are given more depth then they can return to that life and more story ideas will come about easily when the time comes. And it does not have to be a lot, but if the character is not in the current story, the reader should have some idea of what they are off doing, and it does not have to be fighting crime.

The issue is that stuff has to be done BEFORE you write the first story.

What is the plan after that first story.

For what you want done can that be done in a mini or backups in the main book.


Look at Duke Thomas

He started as a little kid
He appears in Endgame
He appears in We Are Robin (a version that doesn't fit the previous two and really implied he was some Wallace West New 52 starter kit)
He as BARELY in Rebirth-which brings up was he in Tom King's originally pitch or added afterwards. Looking at how bad Duke was done in that run-even NOT appearing in Batman for a year or having one page cameos. I think he was tossed in as an after thought.
Then we get a too short mini that was well accepted.
Then we saw some crap in Dark Metal (cameo) and Immortal Men.
Then we seemingly get yet another writer not interested in Duke and saw him trashed in Detective Comics and under used in Outsiders.

That looks real bad all around. No editor took a stand and tried to make it work.


Too many folks seem to be shoehorned into books and get writers who don't care. Here it's not as HORRIBLE as what is going on with Black Panther's book but it's annoying. Then when these guys don't catch on, DC wants to blame fans.

If Duke had gotten the support and direction like Silencer and Sideways-I could agree but when it's a train wreck daily-no. Fans can't be blamed for a directionless character.

[DrNewGod]

In 1975, in the tabloid-sized LIMITED COLLECTORS' EDITION C-40, National Periodicals reprinted the entire continuity for Dick Tracy's battle with Flattop (from 1943-44). I was astounded that the story ended with Flattop's definite demise. That made quite the impression on me. It showed that Chester Gould was so confident in his abilities as a writer and artist that he knew he could always come up with another adversary for Tracy, and he could kill off one of the greatest villains in comics.

It's so satisfying to have a close-ended story. I wish DC would bite the bullet more often and let villains go out on their high note.

Yeah, to quote the late, lamented Don Markstein, when Tracy kills 'em, he kills 'em dead. Of course, Gould had complete control over the strip, rather than answering to publishers that owned the properties. The Joker, I'll point out, also met a grisly fate at the end of his first appearance back in 1940.

[Aahz]

Look at Duke Thomas

He started as a little kid
He appears in Endgame
He appears in We Are Robin (a version that doesn't fit the previous two and really implied he was some Wallace West New 52 starter kit)
He as BARELY in Rebirth-which brings up was he in Tom King's originally pitch or added afterwards. Looking at how bad Duke was done in that run-even NOT appearing in Batman for a year or having one page cameos. I think he was tossed in as an after thought.
Then we get a too short mini that was well accepted.
Then we saw some crap in Dark Metal (cameo) and Immortal Men.
Then we seemingly get yet another writer not interested in Duke and saw him trashed in Detective Comics and under used in Outsiders.

That looks real bad all around. No editor took a stand and tried to make it work.

In Rebirth he was mainly in All Star Batman and had also an back up in that book.

I think the main problem was that he was introduced to be the next Robin, but with Damian back to live that spot was not available and when Snyder stept down from being the main Batman writer, he got shifted to more obscure books.