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Originally posted by DrakeB3004:
It only puts pressure on the main feature to deliver more bang for my bucks

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Right. I'm not enjoying the Jaime Beetle back-ups in Booster Gold... is BG worth the extra (60 cents with my discount) dollar? So far, yes. 'TEC is another one. LOVE the Batwoman main, am starting to loathe Question... They should merge the two and have them lez it out. I'd buy THAT for $4-5...
 

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Posted by LardLad on :
 
A natural second feature would be a Suicide Squad one backing up Secret Six! It would only be worth the bother, however, if John Ostrander was writing it.
 

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Posted by Cobalt Kid on :
 
Pofo is absoultely right about whats going to ultimately happen, but I do enjoy having back-up features, and am glad for their temporary return. I'm enjoying several right now, like Ravager in Teen Titans, while some I'm not enjoying so much.

The problem is that righting a back-up story is a lost artform to so many comic book creators. They need to make use of the format--they have 6-8 pages to tell a complete chapter of a story. That means you can't divide up a single issue into four back-ups; you have to write to the format. So many writers can't seem to do that. In other words, they have to cut the bullshit, and find a way to keep the story moving, the tension high, a little action every other back-up and have a few characters--but not too many--for us to care about. Comics did it pretty well from 1939-1979, so it shouldn't be too hard. Some of them do get it right though; Mark Waid is sometimes hit or miss but he seems to be able to understand how to use the format well.

As for a Second Feature wish list, I love the idea of a Suicide Squad back-up in Secret Six--good one, Lardy.

I'd personally love it if Tommy Tomorrow could have a back-up in Supergirl, which would ultimately lead to a Tommy/Supergirl team-up story in her main story after it finished. It could serve as a way to reintroduce Tommy in a good way for modern readers.

Outsiders, which desperately needs something to make it more appealing could rotate some great back-ups: Deadman, Creeper, even some of Morrison's Seven Soldiers of Victory characters like Frankenstein. The key would be to rotate those characters and storylines into the main title eventually to make it all come together organically. So if a reader didn't bother reading the back-ups, they find out later they make the story-reading process more fullfilling and thereafter decide they should read them.

I'm loving Mike Allred's Metamorpho in Wednesday Comics, so he'd be a creator I'd love to see doing back-ups. He could do just about anything but I'd like to see him do "weird protagonists with pretty girls".
 

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Posted by Pov on :
 

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Originally posted by Cobalt Kid:
"weird protagonists with pretty girls".

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Omigosh! the perfect DES-cription for my life right now!!
 

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Posted by Set on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Cobalt Kid:
The key would be to rotate those characters and storylines into the main title eventually to make it all come together organically. So if a reader didn't bother reading the back-ups, they find out later they make the story-reading process more fullfilling and thereafter decide they should read them.

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And that's a good point to consider. The backup character should be working on something that isn't just going on in their own little corner of the world, but is foreshadowing an upcoming event in the main feature of the title, and all of the 'setup' that the secondary feature is doing is building up to a larger event in which both the secondary and primary feature characters are going to be involved.

If it's *brilliantly* designed, it won't even be obvious until the climactic final scene, when character B bashes down a door to the big secret they've been hunting down in the B-plot, to reveal the A-plot character who has just fallen into a death-trap and needs to be rescued or whatever. Quips follow.

"I've been working this case for months!"

"Well I just got here and here I am all caught up with you!"
 

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Posted by LardLad on :
 
I think that this has the potential to happen in many of the existing books, especially with the choices of co-feature pairings. Jaime Reyes has played a role in a story arc in Booster Gold prior to his becoming a co-feature in the book. Plus, Booster is still dealing with Black Beetle as his main threat, so I think a crossover will be forthcoming. I suspect the same with Batwoman/Question and Detective/Manhunter and definitely Superboy/Legion.

At the same time, though, a goal for these backups is to try to ignite some interest in these characters again in order to give them another shot at a series. So if everything's tied down too tightly to the main feature, the co-features could be that much more doomed to failure if they get that opportunity. So I say let them do their own thing, but when they do crossover, definitely plant the seeds in both features as Cobalt suggests.

Frankly, I find it difficult-too-impossible to believe that anyone who shells out the $3.99 for these co-featured titles would actually not take the time to read the backup and get all the bang for their buck, though.
 

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Posted by Fat Cramer on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by LardLad:
Frankly, I find it difficult-too-impossible to believe that anyone who shells out the $3.99 for these co-featured titles would actually not take the time to read the backup and get all the bang for their buck, though.

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Yeah, I even read the Magog preview (and wish they'd used those pages for extra Metal Men story).
 

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Posted by Cobalt Kid on :
 
Good point. At $3.99 I'm even reading the copyright stuff at the bottom of the first page now.
 

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Posted by Pov on :
 
I would love a $3.99 Johns Legion title with the E-247 "Wanderers" as the co-feature... :wish:
 

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Posted by Mystery Lad on :
 
I find it curious that we- I did it too when I made my little list posted below- are putting teams as back-ups to team titles and individuals as back-ups to solo titles.

Makes me want to see a solo act appear as back-up in a team title, with the star eventually joining the headlining team. TEEN TITANS is sort of doing that, though Ravager has already been a member.

Or a smaller team, like CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN or SEA DEVILS or YOUNG HEROES IN LOVE getting a back-up to a solo-starring title.

I loved the idea of FREEDOM FIGHTERS backing up JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA. If I were choosing, I'd feature one SOCIETY member teamed up with one FREEDOM FIGHTER each issue until all the FFers were highlighted. Then, I'd want to read FF adventures sans the JSA.

Mainly because so many JSAers need even more fleshing out than the FFers.

Other properties I'd like to see as back-ups:

BLACK ORCHID (following THE QUESTION in DETECTIVE? A back-up to WONDER WOMAN? SECRET SIX? ZATANNA? Isn't Zee getting an ongoing soon?)

SEA DEVILS (to AQUAMAN, assuming he gets a new book, much less a new life, after BLACKEST NIGHT) or maybe in one of the SUPERMAN books. I loved Windward House, invented in Busiek's run on AQUAMAN and would like to see it used as a setting.

ATOM and HAWKMAN could share a title, either rotating lead/back-up or rotate appearing at all, with characters like Shayera, Ryan Choi and Golden Eagle getting back-up exposure.

Earth-whatever-the-main-one-is's version of Duela Dent, making her heroic/gray-shaded/nuisance villain debut... maybe in SIRENS OF GOTHAM?

HARLEQUIN (Molly Mayne) returning to action as a costumed heroine in an Alan Scott GL title, exploiting her old FBI ties.

What I'd really like to see is something like Wednesday Comics move from the newsprint to regular comics paper featuring four 8-page stories. One or two of them could be ongoing perpetually, with whatever hits making it into a rotation, with one spot always a 'new' character/team. I know, anthologies traditionally fail, at least recently, but one with a clear vision might not...
 

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