Aspiring writers & professional daydreamers: if DC accepted fan submissions, what would your submission(s) be?

[Lightning Rider]

I have an idea for a GL story where a ring, after it's wearer dies and starts searching for a new bearer gains it's own consciousness

Woah, that is really cool. Any further ideas on it?

[Big Al]

Woah, that is really cool. Any further ideas on it?

well the ring would gain some type of self awareness, it would use it's own energy to manifest a physical body but I suppose since the body would be pure green energy he could (or she could, I suppose) use his physical form like the T-1000 did in Terminator 2, the form might be constantly changing, depending on what is needed for that particular situation. The guardians would probably freak out and that could cause some cool conflicts. Maybe they try to shut it down and it has to fight to stay alive......or to prove that it actually is alive (kind of like the robot in I-Robot)...

I never really worked out the specifics.


I also had a story where the original Power Ring from the old DC universe somehow survived COIE-not the character Power Ring but the actual ring itself, it hitched a ride with Pariah as he was phasing out and it was still functional in today DCU....

[Agent Z]

HereNThere's idea sort of inspired another one for me. How about a story centering around a support group for children with super villain parents?

[Lightning Rider]

well the ring would gain some type of self awareness, it would use it's own energy to manifest a physical body but I suppose since the body would be pure green energy he could (or she could, I suppose) use his physical form like the T-1000 did in Terminator 2, the form might be constantly changing, depending on what is needed for that particular situation. The guardians would probably freak out and that could cause some cool conflicts. Maybe they try to shut it down and it has to fight to stay alive......or to prove that it actually is alive (kind of like the robot in I-Robot)...

I never really worked out the specifics.


I also had a story where the original Power Ring from the old DC universe somehow survived COIE-not the character Power Ring but the actual ring itself, it hitched a ride with Pariah as he was phasing out and it was still functional in today DCU....

It sounds cooler the more you elaborate. The guardians would FLIP OUT, as they usually do. I think it would be interesting if you left it ambiguous whether the ring were ambiguous or not. The I Robot layer is cool, but because the ring is powered on pure willpower, I think the character it embodies would also have more of an edge to it.

HereNThere's idea sort of inspired another one for me. How about a story centering around a support group for children with super villain parents?

I like that idea a lot. I imagine it would involve a lot of gut-wrenching flashbacks too. All different styles of trauma involved. Neglect, abuse, coercion to follow the same path, and sometimes normal love that's simply interrupted by the villainous career.

[HereNThere]

I'd be down for both of these, especially the Kaldur story. Love me some Aqualad!

I'm curious though, how would you approach his relationship with Manta? Would there even be one, beyond Kaldur feeling like he needs to atone for his father's sins? One of the highlights of Young Justice's second season was Kaldur's relationship with Manta (as well as Kaldur in that badass armor) and I'd like to hear what you have to say about that dynamic.

As a side note, DC Universe Online is introducing Water powers this year, based on Mera and Kaldur, and they already have gear styled after both Aquaman and Black Manta. If you're a big fan of the character, you might want to keep an eye out for the powerset when it debuts and make an Aqualad inspired toon. Likely wont be until this summer (totally guessing here); the annual Summer Event is based around a Atlantean civil war so there'd be some synergy.

They would definitely have a few confrontations. While he feels he needs to atone for his father's sins, he wouldn't be able to bring himself to hate him, which, again, weighs heavy on his mind. On the flip side, Manta isn't overly concerned with Kaldur. You could say he's neutral to him for the most part. He wouldn't go out of his way to harm him, but if his life was in danger, he wouldn't come to his aid. He figures that, as his child, he'd be capable of fending for himself. He also has a twisted sense of pride that his offspring has taken his enemy's name. Manta basically treats him as a man whose already made his life's decisions. Kaldur isn't a child anymore, so there would be no real point in trying to bring him over to his side. He will point things that Kaldur gets from him though.

I wanted to keep it a bit distanced from their relationship in Young Justice. While I liked it, I don't want Manta to be too supportive of his son. But I also don't want him to be a complete sociopath towards him like he is currently being portrayed.

[Lightning Rider]

They would definitely have a few confrontations. While he feels he needs to atone for his father's sins, he wouldn't be able to bring himself to hate him, which, again, weighs heavy on his mind. On the flip side, Manta isn't overly concerned with Kaldur. You could say he's neutral to him for the most part. He wouldn't go out of his way to harm him, but if his life was in danger, he wouldn't come to his aid. He figures that, as his child, he'd be capable of fending for himself. He also has a twisted sense of pride that his offspring has taken his enemy's name. Manta basically treats him as a man whose already made his life's decisions. Kaldur isn't a child anymore, so there would be no real point in trying to bring him over to his side. He will point things that Kaldur gets from him though.

I wanted to keep it a bit distanced from their relationship in Young Justice. While I liked it, I don't want Manta to be too supportive of his son. But I also don't want him to be a complete sociopath towards him like he is currently being portrayed.

I like it a lot. It's almost like if Luke and Vader co-existed for a longer time, while removing the redemption angle. Should make for great storytelling.

[sunofdarkchild]

I'd pitch a story where Linda Danvers is reintroduced as a young hero learning under the guidance of Superman. Superman needs more actual relationships in the Nu52, and in the past 75 years he has never actually acted as a mentor to any of the various Supergirls or Superboys, so it would be a new dynamic for him. With his current level of maturity I could easily see it going the Anakin-Ahsoka route, which would be fun. Plus it brings back my favorite of the 'super' characters without rehashing the 90s.

[Agent Z]

Tales of the Amazons - A 7 issue mini series of the origin of the Amazons, their quest for equality, their battle against Theseus and the Argonauts.

Circe's Rise - What if there was more to Circe than the Odyssey told us?

I'd also do a story revolving around the Superfriends homages from JLU and Young Justice. They'd be teenagers who'd been kidnapped by the Reach and escaped captivity. The Reach frame them as terrorists in training meaning they have to worry about clearing their name as well. Static wouldn't have gotten his powers from the Reach but would throw in with them to help them. I'd also include a telekinetic Native American girl named Aubrey Cross.

[Myskin]

Some years ago, an article here on CBR made me discover that DCU didn't include only the Amazons of Themyscira and Bana-Mighdall. Especially in the first years of DCU, continuity was a bit more fluid, and there were mentions of other all-female tribes here and there in other series (I vaguely remember even mentions of robot amazons, too). Unfortunately, I can't find the article anymore. Anyway, the article made me think about a possible WW epic story where she would have travelled throughout the DC world to reunite all of the old amazon tribes, from Iceberg Land to Skartaris: in my imagination, all of these amazon tribes were in fact part of one tribe several centuries ago, and WW would have acted as a messiah-like figure to reconstitute the old nation of warrior women, which was now scattered all around the world. Of course, there would have been several challenges to earn trust from all of these lost amazons.

I had another idea about Gateway city. Since the city was first introduced in a 1960s story featuring the Spectre, I imagined that the presence of such powerful supernatural entity had made the reality all around Gateway a bit more fragile. Basically, Gateway had become a crossroads among several different realities. A battle between WW and Circe (who was making some human sacrifices in order to revive her dead daughter Hippolyta) would have ripped the reality over Gateway open. From this moment on, Gateway would have become the center of mystical energies in DCU, and WW would have made it her home to protect it from the incursions of cyclops, dragons, and supernatural entities. From Gateway it would have been way easier to reach places such as Skartaris and the world of Claw the Unconquered.

A revival of Ralph and Sue Dibny: Ralph is the sleuth, Sue is the Elongated woman.

[batnbreakfast]

Myskin: Your take on WW sounds great (I'd buy it). She needs her own corner of the universe and only suffers from being too much of a traditional superhero in my taste. I would have gone with her being a lot like DCs Hellboy. Meaning she's globetrotting and fighting myths and monsters (Hellboy is great... both funny AND sad moments). ARGUS is a lot like B.P.R.D. Choosing between the two versions I'd go with your take on WW.

I recommend Gail Simone's pre New52 Secret Six. That's where Skartaris popped up for the last time I think.

[nitha_17]

I would write story about H'el, him being the protagonist. I feel like the character has a lot of potential and DC terribly mishandle the character.

[HereNThere]

She needs her own corner of the universe and only suffers from being too much of a traditional superhero in my taste. I would have gone with her being a lot like DCs Hellboy. Meaning she's globetrotting and fighting myths and monsters (Hellboy is great... both funny AND sad moments).

That sounds really good. You could pull from classical epic poems and go off of that. I'd even go as far as to make them standalone arcs that show Diana during different time periods. One arc could have an older wiser Diana going on one last adventure, then the next arc could show a younger inexperienced Diana going on one of her first adventures.

[Myskin]

Myskin: Your take on WW sounds great (I'd buy it). She needs her own corner of the universe and only suffers from being too much of a traditional superhero in my taste. I would have gone with her being a lot like DCs Hellboy. Meaning she's globetrotting and fighting myths and monsters (Hellboy is great... both funny AND sad moments). ARGUS is a lot like B.P.R.D. Choosing between the two versions I'd go with your take on WW.

Yeah, thanks. Anyway, there is a little bit I had forgotten about. While Circe would have been the main enemy as far as the stories focused on Gateway-as-the-nexus-to-all-fantasy-realities (including Hell, Gemworld and Skartaris) are concerned, there would have been several pulp-ish, Indiana Jones-like adventures all around the world: Diana would have looked for ancient artifacts capable of opening our realities to ancient Godlike creatures, and the Cheetah would have acted as a Belloq-like archaeologist turned evil.

Of course, Gateway would have gathered a lot of mystical characters of the DCU, including Etrigan and Zatanna, and Diana's main cast would have included experts of mystical things (including I-Ching and an old character whose name I don't remember... A Voodoo Lady, sort of).

[Lightning Rider]

Totally love the tribe uniting idea. As was said it would kind of give her her own exclusive domain, which aside from Themyscira (which is kind of stagnant) doesn't exist.

[Myskin]

Ahah. The more I think about it, the more details I remember.
In my mind, the whole opening of the rips among realities would have happened even because of the Angle Man. Basically, I thought that the villain, tired of being considered a C-List guy, would have conceived a way to break the thin wall among dimensions in Gateway to become omnipotent - he was planning to use his own personal knowledge of angles and dimensions in order to achieve his plan. Diana would have stopped him, but the Angle Man would have become a creature fragmented among dimensions (with new, reality-warping powers) and Gateway would have transformed in the aforementioned nexus among worlds. I had even thought about a renewed Villainy Inc with several WW villains, including Poison and Clea: they would have become V inc, and they would have thought about different ways to exploit Gateway's "qualities".

Another idea I had concerned Green Lantern. Nobody ever really thought of a way to explore the psychic connections of the ring. I thought that the Lanterns' inner subconscious would have created independent nightmarish creatures, and Hal and the others would have been obliged to live a whole adventures in a world - which was simply a projections of their own minds - in order to stop them. Something similar to DeMatteis forgotten, but very good, OGN Willworld.

EDIT PS: By the way, I suppose that writing these ideas in this thread is the best way not to see them become a reality. I mean, should a writer read these pitches, he/she will be very careful in not copying them, in order to avoid any accusation of plagiarism.