How would YOU do Earth One?

[Dispenser Of Truth]

Unexpected news! Waking up this morning, it seems you've found yourself in an alternative universe where you--yes, YOU!--are an executive editor at DC, who's just now been assigned to put together creative teams and premises for the "Earth One" original graphic novels. Assuming you don't do something silly, like start screaming "NO! John Hancock isn't supposed to be on the dollar! The sky isn't colored that way! This isn't my life! This isn't my world! Save me! Take me HOME!" and winding up gibbering in a lunatic asylum, and instead decide to take the golden opportunity to undo what JMS hath wrought, what would you do? It's still OGNs, still with DC's big characters, that's it. The rest is up to you.

As for me, I'll stick to what Earth One seemingly promised to be at first--a hard sci-fi, politically relevant, literate take on the DCU aimed at the bookstore market. And here's, aside from renaming it because Earth One is a stupid name for a line aimed at a general audience, how I'd do it:

Superman: Garth Ennis and Jerome Opeña
The first volume, divided equally between Lois and Clark's perspectives, has no villains, just the story of Superman revealing himself and what that means to the world.

Batman: Tom King and Greg Smallwood
An urban crime drama of how far Batman's willing to go to accomplish his mission--not in terms of "will he kill or not", but in surveillance, accomplices (including equivalents to the Robins, Batgirls etc.), tactics, etc. Essentially, a story of where Batman's willing to draw the line when it comes to putting himself above the law and the rules of society, and the ramifications for Gotham.

Wonder Woman: Greg Rucka and Ivan Reis
Whatever Rucka wants, from what I understand he's about the only great WW writer. Gotta read that run someday. Reis is here because he's a big name and a good artist, and he'd boost sales.

Flash: Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones
Wunderkind young scientist Wally West, a fan of his childhood comic book hero Barry Allen, aka "The Flash", finds himself in a particle accelerator accident that finds him more closely resembling his hero more closely than he'd ever imagined. As his velocity increases exponentially, and he devises a bright-red uniform in order to handle the friction heat, he must come to terms with a world slowed down, find a way to get his power under control, and answer the question: what happens when he hits lightspeed and time runs out?

A slight modification of Morrison's previously noted Flash pitch to star Wally, as this would be the story to deal to a certain extent with "Earth One"'s place in the Multiverse, and as the successor to the original pre-Crisis Earth-One it makes sense to continue that particular Flash legacy. Also, following the New 52, Wally would be black; for that matter, Wonder Woman, of Greek descent, isn't lily-white either, and the alien Superman doesn't exactly look like any one race either (one of the few things Superman Earth One did right), even if he can pass as a white guy as Clark. If this is aiming for the mass-market and is divorced from continuity, no reason not to be a touch more inclusive.

Green Lantern: Jonathan Hickman and Stjepan Šejić
Pretty much the traditional "Hal Jordan joining the Corps" story, but much scarier, much more mysterious, and much more awesome in the traditional sense of the word, rather than adhering to a pulp-fantasy idea of alien civilizations.

Justice League: Warren Ellis and John Cassaday
(I didn't even mean to go with the Planetary team initially, these were just the two guys I thought of) The aforementioned 5 heroes, as well a newly introduced Aquawoman, join forces to confront an alien probe, which turns out to be J'onn J'onzz, sent ahead as the last ambassador of a conquered race to warn of the approaching warworld Apokolips, and the monstrous, seemingly godlike forces within that this new "Justice League" must rise to confront.

Teen Titans: Al Ewing and Lee Garbett
I actually liked the premise of Teen Titans Earth One, unifying the origins for the team since none of them have iconic ones to adhere to like the others, and working off a very YA novel structure to tell the story. A similar sort of thing here, just with a team that's more likely to do something that might actually appeal to teenagers (this would be the one definitely T book, rather than allowing for M or A or whatever DC rates its Mature Readers stuff these days) rather than the bland crap that was the actual book.

[GrandKaiser]

Green Arrow

A complete retelling of Oliver Queen's origin. An idea I had was that Oliver is on a yacht with his uncle and father (mother is dead) celebrating Oliver taking over Queen Industries. Pirates from Africa attack the ship and kill both Oliver's father and his uncle and Oliver escapes by jumping off the boat before it explodes. He washes up on a mysterious island in Southeast Asia and is kept prisoner by the natives there. A young Japanese woman, Shado, another captive who managed to gain the trust of the natives frees him and he starts to live there as he tries to figure out a way to contact his people to get him off the island. Keep in mind this is not a white guy comes to the foreign country and takes advantage of the native girl story, Shado reveals she had a child with one of the pirates that destroyed Ollie's boat and the boy is living somewhere on the island, named Taka, AKA Hawk (get it?) , half black half Asian, and Shado is keeping him hidden from the people. Both Shado and Taka teach Ollie archery. When the pirates come back to the island almost five years later, Oliver is captured and he finds out the real reason the pirates destroyed the boats. They reveal that Queen Industries has almost taken complete control of their country with the several factories and chemical plants in the area, basically an entire nation controlled by a corporation. They also reveal that his father and uncle were killers and that they were only seeking vengeance for their people. Oliver begins to discover a whole conspiracy within his own company and when the mysterious new CEO of the company sends a black ops team lead by Eddie Fyers to retrieve Oliver with the order to kill anyone else in sight because they might be hostiles, Oliver, Taka, Shado, and the pirates team up to fight them. The story can end with Oliver planning to go back to America to discover more things about his company, and Taka decides to go with him, stating that instead of how people see them, two people, black and white, they are actually two arrows, the green and the red. Oliver decides to take Taka with him so the boy can teach him more about archery and so he can assist him in his quest to take down the corporation.

A bit random I guess, I just always had this idea on my mind.

[Outside_85]

Wouldn't change a thing.

[Rod G]

Unexpected news! Waking up this morning, it seems you've found yourself in an alternative universe where you--yes, YOU!--are an executive editor at DC, who's just now been assigned to put together creative teams and premises for the "Earth One" original graphic novels. Assuming you don't do something silly, like start screaming "NO! John Hancock isn't supposed to be on the dollar! The sky isn't colored that way! This isn't my life! This isn't my world! Save me! Take me HOME!" and winding up gibbering in a lunatic asylum, and instead decide to take the golden opportunity to undo what JMS hath wrought, what would you do? It's still OGNs, still with DC's big characters, that's it. The rest is up to you.

As for me, I'll stick to what Earth One seemingly promised to be at first--a hard sci-fi, politically relevant, literate take on the DCU aimed at the bookstore market. And here's, aside from renaming it because Earth One is a stupid name for a line aimed at a general audience, how I'd do it:

Superman: Garth Ennis and Jerome Opeña
The first volume, divided equally between Lois and Clark's perspectives, has no villains, just the story of Superman revealing himself and what that means to the world.

Batman: Tom King and Shane Davis
An urban crime drama of how far Batman's willing to go to accomplish his mission--not in terms of "will he kill or not", but in surveillance, accomplices (including equivalents to the Robins, Batgirls etc.), tactics, etc. Essentially, a story of where Batman's willing to draw the line when it comes to putting himself above the law and the rules of society, and the ramifications for Gotham.

Wonder Woman: Greg Rucka and Ivan Reis
Whatever Rucka wants, from what I understand he's about the only great WW writer. Gotta read that run someday. Reis is here because he's a big name and a good artist, and he'd boost sales.

Flash: Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones
Wunderkind young scientist Wally West, a fan of his childhood comic book hero Barry Allen, aka "The Flash", finds himself in a particle accelerator accident that finds him more closely resembling his hero more closely than he'd ever imagined. As his velocity increases exponentially, and he devises a bright-red uniform in order to handle the friction heat, he must come to terms with a world slowed down, find a way to get his power under control, and answer the question: what happens when he hits lightspeed and time runs out?

A slight modification of Morrison's previously noted Flash pitch to star Wally, as this would be the story to deal to a certain extent with "Earth One"'s place in the Multiverse, and as the successor to the original pre-Crisis Earth-One it makes sense to continue that particular Flash legacy. Also, following the New 52, Wally would be black; for that matter, Wonder Woman, of Greek descent, isn't lily-white either, and the alien Superman doesn't exactly look like any one race either (one of the few things Superman Earth One did right), even if he can pass as a white guy as Clark. If this is aiming for the mass-market and is divorced from continuity, no reason not to be a touch more inclusive.

Green Lantern: Jonathan Hickman and Stjepan Šejić
Pretty much the traditional "Hal Jordan joining the Corps" story, but much scarier, much more mysterious, and much more awesome in the traditional sense of the word, rather than adhering to a pulp-fantasy idea of alien civilizations.

Justice League: Warren Ellis and John Cassaday
(I didn't even mean to go with the Planetary team initially, these were just the two guys I thought of) The aforementioned 5 heroes, as well a newly introduced Aquawoman, join forces to confront an alien probe, which turns out to be J'onn J'onzz, sent ahead as the last ambassador of a conquered race to warn of the approaching warworld Apokolips, and the monstrous, seemingly godlike forces within that this new "Justice League" must rise to confront.

Teen Titans: Al Ewing and Lee Garbett
I actually liked the premise of Teen Titans Earth One, unifying the origins for the team since none of them have iconic ones to adhere to like the others, and working off a very YA novel structure to tell the story. A similar sort of thing here, just with a team that's more likely to do something that might actually appeal to teenagers (this would be the one definitely T book, rather than allowing for M or A or whatever DC rates its Mature Readers stuff these days) rather than the bland crap that was the actual book.

GARTH ENNIS ? ! ?

Oh, Hell NO!

[vartox]

GARTH ENNIS ? ! ?

Oh, Hell NO!

He wrote a fantastic Superman in Hitman #34.

[kivatt]

You on my heart with Wally West.

But other than that, I actually like Earth One so far

[GrandKaiser]

Yeah I have to ask what's so bad about Earth One? Superman E1 and Batman E1 are two of my favorite comics ever. And Teen Titans was really solid IMO.

[Deniz Camp]

Sort of mystified by a number of your artistic choices, there. To put JG Jones, one of the most static and pastoral artists in the business, on a book as inherently frantic and kinetic as the Flash, for instance, seems ill fitting. Or Shane Davis' Image inspired line on Batman, who tends to work better either heavily noir or extremely minimalist.

Anyway, were it me....

Superman: China Mieville, Chris Sprouse and Dave McCraig. Class struggle Superman at the start of his career, figuring it out, facing all manner of weirdness but most of all confronting the inequality inherent in, let's be honest, a broken economic system, one that preys upon the poor. But, again, weirdness everywhere.

Batman: Tom King and JP Leon. They recently did a dynamite story together in Vertigo: Black, and I'd love to see them take a gritty look at a hyper-real world of being a domestic terrorist vigilante in a post 9/11 age.

Wonder Woman: Genevieve Valentine, Nicola Scott and Jordie Bellaire. I'd want this to intentionally be made completely by women, but that wouldn't stop them from being the best people in the field, and some of the most promising voices in that field. Valentine, in particular, has absolutely floored me with her intelligent, textured take on Selina Kyle. She makes it look effortless.

Green Lantern: Neil Gaiman, Jerome Opena and Dean White. Neil has talked about wanting to do a Hal Jordan story for a while (and already did quite a nice one in Action Comics Weekly), and I see this as a deeply psychological look into the nature, and movements, of fear.

Flash: Warren Ellis, Sean Gordon Murphy and Matt Hollingsworth. Warren Ellis' work has such an undeniable rhythm to it, a velocity matched by almost no one else in the industry (his father was a percussionist, and I think he's inherited a bit of that).

Legion of Super-Heroes: John Hickman, Jim Cheung and Dave Stewart. It's Hickman's favorite thing with an artist who draws everyone as children and draws scale exceptionally well.

Aquaman: George RR Martin, Frank Quitely, and Nathan Fairbairn. I'd love to see what Quitely did with the challenge of under-water.

Green Arrow: Garth Ennis, Tradd Moore and Matt White. Maybe a Vietnam period piece.

Teen Titans: Gerard Way, Matt Fraction, Becky Cloonan and Matt White.

Doom Patrol: China Mieville, Declan Shalvey and Jordie Bellaire.

Shazam: Grant Morrison, Cameron Stewart and Nathan Fairbairn. You know why.

New Gods: Grant Morrison, Doug Mahnke.

Justice League of America: Grant Morrison, Alan Davis, Dave Stewart. The best there is, really.

[godisawesome]

Yeah I have to ask what's so bad about Earth One? Superman E1 and Batman E1 are two of my favorite comics ever. And Teen Titans was really solid IMO.

Short answer? Online fandom civil wars.

Long answer? Batman and Superman E1 have to compete and stand out against a field of similarly premised books, movies, and other media, all while coming out on a yearly schedule. Geoff John's is a good writer, but the question is: can he craft a better Batman Begins style tale than Miller, Nolan, and Snyder? JMS is acknowledged master of his craft, but : can he beat Waid, Byrne, Morrison, Donner, and the other Snyder? Both are fighting to get out of the shadows of not just comic industry benchmarks and current flagships, but also against legendary film adaptations. And since they have the same basic starting point, the selling points becomes the details and execution. Some people hate Johns on Batman, some people hate JMS on Superman, some people just find their stories and interpretations inferior or what came before, and some people love 'em. Superman gets hit the worst right now, since sections of the online fandom loathe a "less human" Clark while other love it, some are utterly bored by a more traditional Daily Planet cast depiction while other see it as an unchanging cornerstone of the franchise, and online groups seem to have coalesced around the adaptations they prefer against the others, so you have Birthright fans against Donner fans against Byrne fans against Morrison fans against Snyder fans.

The biggest "weakness" I see for them is their release schedule, and the "Ultimate" stylings they have. A yearly release works great for movies and such, but comic fans expect something unique and cool about graphic novels being released, and thus aren't immediately enamored of Ultimate style stories that aren't released in monthly format.

My change would be to have them released quarterly, and change their initial premises to a prologue, than an Act 1, and so on.

Batman would start with an entire graphic novel set in his training years, with the costume only appearing in the last ten pages or so. I'd have him train with Ducard while tracking Red Claw, experience life on the streets of Gotham before leaving, find Cain and get his skills while surviving his master's sociopathy, free Zatara from Peña Duro, all while a framing story features him struggling with the impulse to abandon Gotham while in a war torn part of the world and in a relationship with a combination of Andrea Beaumont and Talia. Then the last pages would feature him engaging the Red Hood Gang in his debut.

The next book would be from different perspectives as Gotham falls to the freaks, with Joker and Batman being important characters but more like forces of nature while Catwoman is formed, Penguin becomes the main boss, and Harvey Dent struggles against his dark side. Eventually, we'd get volumes featuring the family's arrival on the scenes, Hugo Strange as a villain, Ra's appearing with Talia who now has a pre-existing relationship with Batman to give her loyalty problems a bit more depth, Bane and Joker getting major rampages, and eventually would end with a planned out end to Bruce's career as Batman decades down the line.

Superman would have a similar beginning, though I'd have him constantly paralleled by his childhood friend Lex, with his alien legacy bringing Brainiac to Earth, and Superan making his debut defending Metropolis from Brainiac's shrink the city plan, but not before Lex successfully downloads the Brainiac program to be slaved to him, and not before Clark discovers that he only encountered a drone of the main Brainiac mainframe, which will eventually arrive with significantly more resources. We see Superman's altruism grow out of his compassion and desire to make something more of himself while seeing how Clark Kent the unemployed blogger tries to have an impact as well, and see Lex bury his compassion and empathy deep down inside because he thinks he has to. Their enmity will come largely from Lex believing he has to be top dog and hating how Superman keeps reminding him that he could be a good man since he's rejected morality wholesale, while Clark just hates what's become of his friend.

The next books would continue to feature Lex constantly trying to destroy Superman not just physically but mentally and spiritually, since Lex again sees Superman's altruism as a constant insult, but would be portrayed from the viewpoints of Metorpolis bound Jimmy Olsen as he experiences the beginnings of the feud, while Lois Lane investigates Superman and after numerous red herrings false leads, and etcetera, ends up ironically picking up the trail in her ex's (Lex's) hometown of Smallville. Lex would use the Brainac programming to create numerous enemies for Superman, ultimately getting his own daughter stuck with the program in her body while increasing his own knowledge. The family would be created as well, and eventually, the seris should end with a Morrison style conversion of Lex back to morality.

[Radix]

I like having wally inspired by Barry as comic character like classic earth 1 Barry. Keeping with the modernization, I would instead do Gl:

Green Lantern. Simons Baz comes across the most powerful weapons in the universe, a green ring and lantern. The ring is a relic of a derelict cosmic empire (the Oans). Instead of a spacecop, GL is more of a cosmic explorer dealing with alien threats and unraveling the mystery of the Oan Legacy. Other colours may show up such as a yellow ring, a purple crystal, etc.

[Dispenser Of Truth]

Sort of mystified by a number of your artistic choices, there. To put JG Jones, one of the most static and pastoral artists in the business, on a book as inherently frantic and kinetic as the Flash, for instance, seems ill fitting. Or Shane Davis' Image inspired line on Batman, who tends to work better either heavily noir or extremely minimalist.

With Shane Davis, I was just thinking in terms of a 'realistic' artist, but in retrospect Greg Smallwood or Declan Shalvey would be a better choice. Jones was actually my immediate thought for the artist on the Flash book as soon as Morrison described it, for exactly the reasons you described. He'd be a terrible artist for the Flash in any kind of traditional take, but with a 'realistic' bent, either Flash would just be a wind passing through to the people around him, or it'd be from Flash's perspective, where he lives in a world of statues. To Flash, the would would be static. Anyway, love your choices.

[Godlike13]

Doggy style...

[Rod G]

He wrote a fantastic Superman in Hitman #34.

Have you read The Boys? The Pro?

[Dispenser Of Truth]

Have you read The Boys? The Pro?

No (most of The Pro, but not all of it), but I've read several other series of his that make it clear how much he utterly despises superheroes. But he uniquely loves Superman, and even with the miniscule amount of material he's put out involving him is one of his all-time greatest writers.

[Jon Clark]

Superman

Open with the Kents, a couple in their 50's, in an RV returning from a trip to the Grand Canyon. They see what they at first assume is plane crash in the desert. Investigating they find only an infant amongst wreckage. Somehow they reach the conclusion that the child is safer with them. It might be that they realize there is no one around (alive or dead) making them wonder if the child was alone to begin with and thus unwilling to return him to whoever left the child. It might that they become alarmed by government actions about the crash site (they manage to get away before the government knows they were there) which makes them leery of turning the child in to the authorities.
We then follow the life of this infant as the Kents raise him in a backwater town. They and a few close friends (the Langs, Police Chief Parker) deal with raising a unique child and the questions it raises. We know he becomes a Superman- so the point of the early story is like Smallville to explore just how his experiences shape him tot that role.

Batman
Like Superman I'd want to focus on the journey to become Batman. Just how do you get from a kid seeing his parents killed in an alley to a guy who can single-handedly take down a gang of thugs? Not just the training but the decisions about what direction to take. Why one man dressed as a bat rather than a becoming a policeman or funding a Guardian Angels type organization?

Wonder Woman
Diana rescues Steve Trevor when he crashes near the hidden home of the Amazons. He is the first man the Amazons have encountered in centuries. Despite all of her elder's tales of how evil men are, Diana is intrigued and hides the injured pilot nursing him back to health. As she gets to know him she finds him different from what she has been raised to expect. When the other Amazons discover Steve they want to kill him, but a schism develops with Diana leading a faction of youger Amazons who oppose the idea of executing someone whose only crime was accidentally stumbling on their existence. It is decided to return Trevor to the outside world, but only after erasing his memory.
For different reasons Diana and her mother propose sending one of the Amazons along. Diana is pushing to rejoin the world and believes that someone needs to see if all the old stories still hold true. Hippolyta wants to be sure that Trevor's mind wipe works, that no one comes looking for his crash site, and some recon n the threats the outside world might pose. We get the contest for who will go. Hippolyta forbids Diana to compete. Diana makes a deal with one of the other Amazons and they trade places. Hippolyta isn't fooled but decides that maybe it is best to let Diana see how horrible men are firsthand.
The book then focuses on Diana's attempts to "teach" us Amazon ways while learning about how narrow-minded some of those Amazon beliefs are.

Green Lantern Kyle Rayner, a graphic artist, is hired to do some promotional art for an exhibit of ancient artifacts. One of them is an old green lantern. While working on sketches, Kyle is present when a group breaks in to steal the artifacts. The criminls kill the guard and several others, but when they come after Kyle he and the lantern vanish in a burst of green light. It seems the lantern is an ancient mystic item which was the target of the thieves. To protect itself it need to act through a human agent and it has chosen Kyle as that agent. The book fluctuates between Kyle's attempts to use the Lantern's power for his own benefit and the Lantern's attempt to protect itself from falling into the hands of people with truly evil intentions.

Flash
Jane Garrick is a physics major who is involved in an accident with an experimental particle accelerator that endows her with super-speed. Now she and her best friend criminal science major Barry Allen attempt to explore her powers and find a way to use them to better the world.