If you could take over one existing title....

[SilverHammerMan]

Which would it be? Remember, it has to be a series that is currently being published, it has to be an actual comic, it can be from any company and feel free to specify any artists or co-writers that you'd want to work with. Other than that, go wild. And for the purpose of this thought experiment let's just pretend we were all actually competent writers.

Personally I'd like to take over Green Arrow. I'm not reading the current series but frankly I think the idea that Ollie is no longer a swashbuckling activist hero is terrible, so I'd move to rectify that shit immediately. And of course, since I'm a massive nerd I have a typed plan for a fifty issue series, complete with special issues, all ready to go on my laptop. That's normally right? I mean around here at least.
Basically I'd go for a mix of Brian K. Vaughn's Ex Machina and Mark Waid/Paolo Rivera/Marcos Martin Daredevil, setting Oliver Queen up as a newly minted city council member with a liberal agenda and a strong Occupy Wall Street vibe, telling the story of his climb to political power and superheroic adventurer. I'd also take the time to streamline his backstory, placing Ollie in his mid to late thirties at the start of the series, with a little under a decade of superheroics under his belt, a 24 year old former sidekick (Roy Harper, obviously) and a 14 year old biological son (Connor Hawke). I've also got a bunch of ideas to flesh out Ollie's world; he went broke briefly in 2008, also the year he underwent his liberal epiphany, and still lives in a mansion that he can no longer afford because his Arrowcave is under it and he can't risk the next owner discovering it. Also, Star City is now a mix of Portland and Seattle, with hipsters as far as the eye can see, because really the only way I see Ollie's ludicrous facial hair (which is a must and the absence of which is another reason I refuse to read the new series) not giving away his disguise is if everyone in the town has a hilarious and bizarre piece of facial hair.
And for an artist I'd like.....Chris Samnee, of Thor the Mighty Avenger, because I think he could capture the mix of sweet and swashbuckling awesome that I'm going for.
I've put a lot of though into this. *Gently weeps*

[zebrazygotes]

Hawkman.

I think I could fix Hawkman. I've been thinking about it for at least a year, but I haven't typed it or anything. It's just a long, complex plan for Hawkman that exists only in my head.

[Koltreg]

Put my thoughts into a Shazam/Hawkman series before.

I wouldn't mind taking over Grifter and making it about him joining a 4 part accapella group.

[Name]

I've had the idea for this Deadpool series for a while now. It involves him switching lives with the Deadpool of another universe, who is respected as a member of the X-men, trying to stay on the good guy path, but sometimes lapsing when on non-official business. Eventually he quits after finding out what the Weapon X equivalent in this universe was (a research program devoted to finding the cause of mutation and replicating it for medical/military/scientific use, run by Xavier's Mutant Research Center, a program which led to the creation of the Deadpool of that universe), because he just can't hang with a guy who would do that type of experimentation(This arc would be triggered by the discovery of the Wolverine-analogue of this universe). Then he starts his own team, the Magnum Force(Because Deadpool's Dead Pool wasn't that popular an idea with the rest of the group), and tries to hero on his own.
This would lead into the Galactus arc, where Galactus is a sort of viral idea or communicable mental illness that causes intensely self-destructive activity in the inhabitants of the planet to hasten the downfall of its societies, making it easier for the planet to be consumed by the giant engine that fuels Galactus. Either at the end of this, in which case it would be ended when Deadpool would kill himself to trap Galactus inside his mind, or later, when Deadpool would be killed by these extradimensional beings represented as holes in the artwork - like, you can see what's on the other side of the page through them - because he's a factor outside of that universe's continuumline, there's the death/return arc.
Basically when Deadpool dies, he finds himself in the same situation Captain Marvel did in Death Of Captain Marvel, with Thanos giving him armies to fight through to make up for the fact he didn't die in battle, whereas here, he's doing it to keep him from Death. The armies beat him, and the door to whatever the Marvel U's afterlife is is closed to him. The next issue is him recreating himself into narrative existence, kind of like in the end of Evangelion, or the end of that one Zot story with Dekko, where it's an empty void, with only his concept narrating while it re-creates his character design.
Then there's a series of themed issues, like the first is sort of a Golden Age origin story, the next a Forties crime mag, the next Fifties SF, the next his introduction into the Marvel Silver Age, then a Seventies Kirby homage, then a sort of Gritty Eighties version of Deadpool, then the next would be his debut issue, New Mutants 98, but with the characterization he's built up over the years(or maybe like that one issue where he time traveled to an old issue of Spider-man, and he would confront his one-note self from back then, I haven't decided), then a Geoff Johns-style Crisis tie-in, leading up to the modern day Deadpool having to bust out of his own grave(this is just a rough concept), and return to the 616, where the Deadpool he switched with has taken over the crime syndicates of the city.
As for art, I'd like it if Chris Sprouse would do the theme issues like he did the flashbacks in Supreme. Also, Quitely or maybe Dan McDaid on covers would be boss.
Also, instead of playing baseball in their downtime, the X-men have a kareoke stage set up.

[SilverHammerMan]

(01-26-2012 03:00 PM)Koltreg Wrote:  Put my thoughts into a Shazam/Hawkman series before.

Interesting, I gave it a read and I've got to say that I like it. I do have some thoughts on the characters:
Hawkman - Cool interpretation, but I want to know how Hawkgirl and Katar Hol fit this new backstory. Also is the transformation into Hawkman a physical one and are the wings actually natural or does he still have the harness? The idea of sun powers is cool to, but it might be little out of left field for Hawkman, still the idea of sun powers makes me kind of want to see him interact with Superman, just to see how the magic based solar energy would effect him.
And I love the idea of Tawny Tiger, he strikes me as sort of classic trickster god, like in the old myths with Loki or Coyote, just going around getting into nonsense.
Very cool ideas, I'd be interested to see how it would fit into the broader DCU since at this point it seems almost like its own continuity.

[Koltreg]

My thought is either doing this as a kids story universe seperate from the main continuity or if it were to be in the mainstream DC Universe, you have Hawkgirl and Katar Hol just be bird people from space but make them different.
The transformation would actually give Hawkman real wings - the whole harness idea is ridiculously non-aerodynamic and clunky.
My big thing is sort of tying the universe closer, at least with the gods and deities. If you have Shazam and a bunch of other people loosely related to mythology, why not tie it all together?
Giving Hawkman sun powers ties him more to Ra though it could be worked on.
I've never actually ready Shazam so I don't know about Mr. Tawky Tawny but making him more of a trickster god would work.

I can't think of too much more that would need to be changed to fit into the DCU even though the feeling is different.
Why not return Blue Beetle's scarab to an actual magical artifact Doctor Mid-nite could be tied into the gods. Instead of Wildcat getting cursed by a wizard for not throwing a fight we could get nine-lives from Bast or some other cat deity. Maybe just doing it with Golden Age versions of characters.

[BIGREDROBOT]

I'd want to take over Spider-Man and write it as a weird, psychedelic soap opera with a sharp point of body horror thrown in for good measure. My artist would be the indomitable Pete Toms.

[curtofranklin]

I'd like to write a Legion of Super-Heroes title that takes place today, where teenagers of the present are inspired by tales of the future LOSH. An all-new cast with some surprising holdovers. If kids in the future can be inspired by heroes of the past, I don't see why kids of the present can't be inspired by the future, especially considering the prevalence of time travel, heroes, come the demon Etrigan. in the DC universe.

I never really had any affinity for LOSH until that Geoff Johns / Gary Frank Superman/LOSH story, and since then I've been in love with the idea.

I'm definitely under-read when it comes to classic LOSH. Some of the stuff I've picked up that people say is the best is frankly sort of boring.

[BIGREDROBOT]

(02-01-2012 09:08 AM)curtofranklin Wrote:  I'd like to write a Legion of Super-Heroes title that takes place today, where teenagers of the present are inspired by tales of the future LOSH. An all-new cast with some surprising holdovers. If kids in the future can be inspired by heroes of the past, I don't see why kids of the present can't be inspired by the future, especially considering the prevalence of time travel, heroes, come the demon Etrigan. in the DC universe.

I never really had any affinity for LOSH until that Geoff Johns / Gary Frank Superman/LOSH story, and since then I've been in love with the idea.

I'm definitely under-read when it comes to classic LOSH. Some of the stuff I've picked up that people say is the best is frankly sort of boring.

I've always wanted to do a LOSH knockoff called "Science Fiction Super-Teens" and have it be a bunch of bratty teens with superpowers goofing off in their outer-space station and fighting each other and whatnot. Really horrible high school stuff. And then I read Superf***ers and was like, "Oh maaaaaan."

[curtofranklin]

Have you read Rick Veitch's Brat Pack? It's sort of like that but more Teen Titans-ish and way more 'mature'.