Sandman Mystery Theatre, The Question, and Blue Beetle! Hands down!
Blue Beetle
Robin
Booster Gold
Captain Atom
Green Lantern Corp
World's Finest
Brave and the Bold
JSA
Sandman Mystery Theater
The Question
New Gods
Power Company
Warlord
Power Girl
Swamp Thing
Sandman Mystery Theatre, The Question, and Blue Beetle! Hands down!
"You know the deal, Metropolis. Treat people right or expect a visit from me."
- The Question (Vic Sage): he started as an editorializing, ranting tv news commentator who spoke truth to power way before it became commonplace. He'd be perfect for today's media. Not that he should be the objectivist anymore, but writers have tried to find a balance between the zen Vic that O'Neil wrote and the conspiracy nut from JLU. There's a good blend of those three somewhere. Have him bust heads, fight crime and corruption, while still learning and questioning the human condition. Bring back Rodor and have at it!
- JSA: Something akin to the Johns/Goyer team with a healthy mix of old-school and legacies.
- New Gods: I want to see crazy, mind-blowing concepts and operatic family drama. Don't copy Kirby,be Kirby - the man innovated and brought new ideas/visuals to comic books with an epic mythical scale.
Close 4th was GLC, but I really only need a Hal solo. Assuming he has one, these others take precedence for me over a GLC that features other Corps members.
Last edited by j9ac9k; 10-26-2020 at 11:08 PM.
I guess to go into a little more detail on my Sandman Mystery Theatre, the Question, and Blue Beetle choices:
Sandman Mystery Theatre is one of the best things DC ever put out. Just do more exactly in the exact vein of the original imo. Pretty self-explanatory, haha! And if Francesco Francavilla was actually willing to helm it (as he was the artist for the image I posted above), then I'd bring him on in a heartbeat! Francavilla's comic Black Beetle (no relation) made me stop and say aloud, "Jeez, what do we even need Batman for?" so obviously he's a perfect fit for SMT.
As for the other two, I'm something of a Ditko junkie, and I think both Blue Beetle and Question have drifted away from their original concept a fair bit.
I would specifically characterize Ted Kord as more of a successful professional adult version of Peter Parker, and less of a sad sack or joke than he's often been used at. Obviously Ted's sense of humor is 100% crucial to him, but he should be a wisecracking hero, not the butt of a joke himself, the way I'd write it. He'd still be capable of the kind of antics with Booster that made him so popular in the '80s, in the vein of those old Golden Age covers of Superman and Batman playing basketball or whatever, but I'd try, basically, to excise the Dan Dreiberg from out of him as much as I could, in favor of making him more like a Spider-Man who has his act together to a sustainable degree, and play up the super-scientist inventor side of his day job as an entrepreneur.
Question is a little weirder, because the contemporary Question, the one who exists in the realm of ideas rather than strictly in any given publication or continuity that is, is a wild mixture of Ditko's Mr. A, O'Neil's Charlie Szasz, Moore's Rorschach, fan misreadings of Rorschach as somebody cool, the recursion of Rorschach back into Q via JLU, DC's later attempts to recuperate Rorschach into being quasi-sustainable as a "super-hero", as well as drugs, mysticism, and even actual magic.
It's hard to just say "go back to Ditko's Question," even with a few holdouts from later takes as caveats, the way I would like to see Ted Kord. The original Question/Mr. A is a unique and interesting character, and honestly I love him despite the Rand-inspired politics, but it's not hard to see why he was overshadowed by Rorschach, a highly coherent rejection of Question by someone who seems to love and respect Steve Ditko as much if not more than I do.
Of the various artistic responses to Ditko's Question, probably the most fond and kindly toward Ditko's which I am aware of, was from Darwyn Cooke's Solo # 5, wherein Question's moral absolutism is shown as a comforting but unrealistic fantasy in the wake of a newly complicated post-9/11 world, as Slam Bradley imagines Question calmly investigating and then defeating al-Qaida, with Vic's clear, crisp, rational panels surrounded by a shock of unsightly pixelated digital "noise" - the inescapable contemporary antithesis of Question's modernistic worldview. Slam can only chuckle and dismiss the fantasy as "stupid," not without fondness.
Another notable response is Kieron Gillen's Dr. K from Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt, who exists only in a '90s indie comic universe - though I suppose he's really more an inversion of Rorschach and Mr. A, his name being a mixture of Mr. A's brief honorific with Rorschach's last initial, Kovacs. Dr. K, like Rorschach, saw the injustices of the world and felt like all morality went black-and-white at once - only for him, it was the moral clarity of radical compassion, of cooperation, of care, rather than trying to be a Super Rational Big Brain Boy.
It would be difficult, maybe even inappropriate, to craft a version of the Question who is at all similar to Dr. K, I have to say. Yet one cannot quite shake the sense that Dr. K just bloody gets it, where Mr. A just bloody doesn't. But like Moore, I'd kind of see writing Question either too far afield of Ditko's worldview or too critical of it (the ways O'Neil and Morrison respectively wrote Question, I suppose), might be disrespectful to a creator and character I love - even if I think the worldview is very worthy of criticism.
Ultimately I think everyone basically gets that Vic Sage works best in sort of gritty crime dramas about political corruption - Ditko and O'Neil both wrote that kind of story, and in the end that's the kind of thing I'd like to see in a Question ongoing. But as for how he should be characterized, well - I guess I'd want him to be both vaguely libertarian and yet still mostly likable. How well would that work? Not totally sure. Maybe the corrupt official he pursues could be the kind of person Vic would have voted for. That'd put him on the spot, I suppose. Force him at gunpoint not to succumb to the kind of hypocrisy that the American right has fallen to - or to succumb to it, I don't know. Maybe a more conservative writer should write the book. Don't know who.
I guess it'd be a viable counterpoint for my idealized leftist Superman hypothetical series anyway, haha. I mean, as long as I'm playing make-believe here.
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Last edited by Adekis; 10-27-2020 at 12:36 AM.
"You know the deal, Metropolis. Treat people right or expect a visit from me."
Green Lantern Corps, JSA and Booster Gold
These titles should always have ongoings imo
So much this. So much. Actually, has anyone seen the 1982 movie TRON - 1986 Ted (who I liked) reminds me a little of Flynn. Brilliant, attractive, charming, and more than a bit immature in some respects.I would specifically characterize Ted Kord as more of a successful professional adult version of Peter Parker, and less of a sad sack or joke than he's often been used at. Obviously Ted's sense of humor is 100% crucial to him, but he should be a wisecracking hero, not the butt of a joke himself, the way I'd write it.
My power company book would be my Powergirl book because I’d revamp the book and concept to include her and a group of b and c list heroes starting a business together with Powergirl as the CEO.
Blue beetle needs a new book, but more importantly he needs more villains and supporting characters.
Captain Atom
Green Lantern Corps (featuring EVERYONE)
Swamp Thing
I'd love to be able to include Sandman Mystery Theatre, but I don't think I have faith in anyone currently at DC to do it right.
I’d vote Warlord three times if I could.
Age of Marvels and DC Next Dawn - Monthly Fan Made Solicitation Competitions on these very forums, make your pulls now! Want back story? Check the Wiki!
a) Green Lantern Corps, because I do think the GL franchise can hold down two books, and adding another would keep the fanbase more appeased (hopefully).
b) Warlord, because it's a different sort of flavor than anything else DC is publishing that I'm aware of. I guess they have that Last God book, but still...
c) New Gods, although there is a very, very high chance DC would not do it well.
Warlord, Swamp Thing, and Green Lantern Corps
Booster Gold
JSA
Brave & the Bold
I think publishing all three opens up just about every avenue there is storywise you would want to take as a writer.
"My name is Wally West. I'm the fastest man alive!"
I'll try being nicer if you try being smarter.
Power Girl, New Gods, The Question.
"They can be a great people Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you. My only son." - Jor-El
Brave and the Bold- Feels like it could be a good variety book to feature characters without books.
Green Lantern Corps- There are so many Green Lanterns that this could be a good way to get more of them to feature.
JSA- A staple of the DCU so I think it is right for them to have a book.
Blue Beetle, Green Lantern Corps and JSA
Blue Beetle because I need more Jaime in my life and I’d like a book where he isn’t the rookie or trainee anymore.
GLC because I need more space adventures. Maybe let Jessica and Simon lead this one?!
JSA for obvious reasons, but I’d focus on legacy done right. The old guard guiding the new guard
Blue Beetle: A truly underrated character who deserves more love.
Green Lantern Corps: A whole book with just a whole team of Lanterns. That's too awesome to not be a good read.
Robin: Damian's first solo was really good and painfully short. I'd love to see more of it.