NoScans: Some Pitches

[tcampbell1000]

Some entertainment for a slow-update day.

When I first dreamed of doing comics for a living, it was still the conventional wisdom that if you wanted to write established characters, you should write an editor with a bunch of story proposals and see what they said. Sometime around the time I actually started, that advice shifted to "Do an indie comic first," and these days it seems to be "You gotta know somebody and/or be a celebrity in another field entirely." (Not to dis anyone who's made it in in the last ten years or so. I'm just saying there doesn't seem to be an obvious path to take.) 

But I still doodle every so often, and I thought the group might be interested in discussing these. And can you guess what they have in common?

CAPTAIN AMERICA: “Segment Expanse.” The underdog’s hero vs. a supercorporation ready to monetize even his own resistance to its power, one that threatens to define both him and his country in ways that serve only its own growth.

JUSTICE LEAGUE: “Secular Writer.” The League must move mountains to protect their fiercest critic--an atheist to “the religion of superheroes”--from their own self-declared “biggest fans.”

AQUAMAN: “Subsist!” Trapped on an oasis, cut off from his kingdom, allies, and family, our hero faces a life-or-death ordeal where his only opponent is the endless, merciless desert.

GREEN LANTERN: “Hell’s Muscles.” In a dimension of chaos, wildfire, and evil that flexes and shakes like the triceps of some unknown entity, Hal struggles to even make sense of the local physics, let alone escape before his ring’s charge runs out. The ring can create anything imaginable, but can even that defeat the unimaginable?

THE INCREDIBLE HULK: “His Overstock’s Inky.” Longtime Hulk enemy the Leader has had plans within schemes within backup plans, far more than most ever knew about. A race of squid monsters he never even decided to use escapes containment, filled with hatred for any and all gamma-irradiated creatures.

THE UNCANNY X-MEN: “Map Logbook Typo.” The exact location of the mutant island nation of Krakoa is constantly changing, increasingly hidden even to spy satellites. When one merchant ship discovers its current trajectory, the X-Men must decide how to handle it. This exposes long-simmering tensions in a group that now includes almost all mutants, including many former X-villains.

FANTASTIC FOUR: “Believing Bach.” Mr. Fantastic’s latest discovery takes the Four to a “sound-world” where exploration and survival both depend, more than anything else, on musical sense. To aid the cause of justice and return to their vessel, the Four will have to either use long-neglected musical skills--Sue’s a passable singer and Johnny a decent guitarist--or, in Reed and Ben’s case, learn from scratch.

WONDER WOMAN: “Silent Sybil.” As part of a larger quest to level the inequalities of Man’s World, Wonder Woman encounters a modern Cassandra, blessed with the power of foresight but cursed with an inability to use language (including ASL or writing, not merely speaking). Can she establish a line of communication before the god of wealth separates them forever?

MY HERO ACADEMIA: “In Star Elective.” The most important thing about hero work is the work: the saving of lives, the devotion to protecting and improving society. But a handful of heroes do have a gift for media outreach, and that takes on some importance of its own in an era where All Might can no longer serve as “the symbol of peace.” In this elective course, a handful of old and new faces try to learn how to be a star, and what kind of star to be.

TEEN TITANS: “Cool Cackle.” They’re the youngest heroes around, but someone younger and edgier is always just around the corner. And to answer the Titans’ heroism, generally inspired by Batman via Robin, a new group of viewcount-inspired vigilante nihilists are rising, taking a cue or two from the Joker. You’ll hear their edgelord jokes and their mocking laughter, but you won't see them until they're ready to strike. But the scariest thing about them isn't their speed or undetectability. It's the idea that they, not the Titans, might represent the future.

Comments

[cyberghostface]

I like the Titans pitch best.

[donnblake]

I like the Aquaman one, though you'd really need the right artist to make it work. The Fantastic Four one is interesting, but I'd have to see more- right now I can't get past The F-Sharp Bell.

[mazway_75]

JUSTICE LEAGUE: War of the Immortals: After centuries of clashes, Vandal Savage and Ra's al Ghul finally decide only one can properly rule the Earth and the JLA has to stop their battle from instigating World War III.

JSA/Legion of Superheroes: "The Golden Ages": The JSA's old foe Mordu is contacted by his own far future 30th century self with a bold plan to warp time itself to let them rule past and present. The JSA and the Legion have to work across different eras to stop them.

THOR: "The Thunderverse: A conflict causes Thor to have to recruit various alternate versions of himself: One where he's a woman; still a frog; a more twisted savage; a more peaceful monk; and even one where Loki is the God of Thunder to save Asgard.

[alicemacher]

I like the Aquaman and Wonder Woman pitches best. Perhaps the truest test for superheroes is to cut them off from their source or base of power, forcing them to rely on their ingenuity and creativity alone. And reaching out successfully, to someone cut off in a fundamental way from common human experience, is one of the most heroic deeds one can do.

[leahandillyana]

Agreed.

[deh_tommy]

Ooh, I have some!

Maria Hill’s done something particularly bad and now she has to somehow find a way to escape from New York while avoiding pretty much every hero and villain there, all of them after her head for one reason or another.

Cloud 9 writes a tell-all autobiography about her experiences in the Avengers Initiative.

What If... Steve Rogers died on Pleasant Hill? In an inverse of the usual What Ifs where something good happens and everything goes to poop, this time something terrible happens and things somehow end up better.

The Joker breaks out of Arkham and goes on to do... nothing. He goes about his day, rents a motel, buys some lottery tickets, orders some cheap takeaway, watches some TV, all the while laughing to himself as everyone scrambles desperately to find out what he’s up to next.

Duela Dent’s grip on reality literally breaks down as she phases through the multiverse trying to hold herself together long enough to figure out just who and what she is.

[beyondthefringe]

My thought for a Joker story:

Every year, the Joker vanishes for a day. No one sees hide nor hair of him. No mayhem, no mischief, no murder.

And that's because for that one day, he becomes sane. Utterly normal. For one day, he's that guy who he was before he became the Joker.

One day to experience life without madness.
One day to attempt to rectify his mistakes, atone for his sins, thwart his own nefarious schemes.
The Joker within won't let him do anything so boring as go to the cops, or reveal his identity or kill himself--that would spoil the joke, after all. The Joker thinks it's hilarious that his sane self would try to do even the slightest hint of good and decency. It's like a game they get to play once a year.

So what sort of story do we tell about that one day a year, when the Joker isn't himself?
And what happens when Batman finally stumbles on the truth and finds the man who is not quite the Joker spending a day trying to be good? Because you just know he won't accept it at face value...

We've seen stories where the Joker's gone straight, gone sane, reformed before, but I don't think we've really gotten one where his former and current selves were at odds with one another. And yet it also ties into the Grant Morrison theory of the Joker who reinvents himself on a constant basis. Maybe he -could- become sane for a day, if it was really another way to manifest the all-encompassing, ever-mutating insanity of the Joker.

[zachbeacon]

"What If... Steve Rogers died on Pleasant Hill? In an inverse of the usual What Ifs where something good happens and everything goes to poop, this time something terrible happens and things somehow end up better."

That just makes me think about how much better off most people'd be in the Amazing Spider-Man movies if the spider killed Peter. No Lizard. The Stacey's live. Max and Harry don't develop fixations on Spider-Man so there's no Goblin (though Max probably still gets powers and he's not well). Probably no Rhino because there's no need for the power escalation...though I guess the mob has plutonium now.

Granted May still has to bury Peter ... and possibly Ben given his willingness to pick fights with gunmen at convenience store robberies.

[thezmage]

And one woman gets ride home on the bus not getting accidentally sexually harrassed

[zachbeacon]

And the rest of the passengers aren't beaten up because ONE GUY thought it would be funny to mess with the sleeping teen.

I hate those movies so much. I like Spider-Man as a flawed hero who makes mistakes but, like, 90% of the terrible stuff that happens in those movies is Peter's fault. It figures JJJ is nowhere to be found when Spider-Man actually is a menace.

[zachbeacon]

This is less an actual story idea than something I don't think gets explored enough but I wish more people wrote the Fantastic Four as that family that vacations all the time.

[icon_uk]

Remembering both the Clock King's "Terror Titans" AND Deathstrokes "Titans East" (which is probably closer to what you describe) a few years back, and who showed up within a couple of months of each other IIRC, your Titans idea is perhaps closer to reality than you think.

[zachbeacon]

On a somewhat related note, I always thought it was a missed opportunity that the Young Avengers never really had a Young Masters of Evil. I guess the Dark Reign YA and Avengers Undercover Masters are close but neither group had any staying power and I'm not sure the second group even meet the real YA.

Plus mine would have had Kristoff Vernard.

[thanekos]

Not including punctuation in the character counts?

[tcampbell1000]

Ignoring punctuation is part of the answer, yes...

[supercapo16]

I like your pitches, particularly your Uncanny X-men pitch. It seems rife with potential moral dilemma's for the merry mutants to marinate over.

My own pitch which I've left in a couple comments in other threads goes like this.

Batman: No Kill Vow

After being called a hack for his predictable behavior, the Joker swears off killing but not crime. Now forced to be creative, an new wave of Joker Crimes baffles Batman and sends the Joker to new heights though temptation to break his one rule lurks at every corner. A temptation that only grows worse when the rest of Gotham's criminal element learns of the 'no kill rule' and comes after him. Batman must decide whether to protect his long time nemesis or let his foes eat each other before the Joker breaks his no kill vow.

[juniper6]

Alphabet substitution codes. Is there more to it?

[tcampbell1000]

Nope, you got it!

[leahandillyana]

This is fun. I have several of these, but won't share on the one-a-million chance I'd actually get to work on comics. The one that is too political to ever be published is People's Republic of Gotham, wherein common people get tired of both constant villain attacks and extreme inequality in the city, starting a rebellion and temporarily suceeding in gaining power. It would force Batman to adress the problem - is he helping his city or is he part of the problem?