Topic: Incredibly cool comic concepts that should be far more successful...
Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
It seems like we may have discussed this before, but I've always thought Doctor Mid-Nite was one of the coolest comic concepts ever. Besides having one of the best outfits of Golden Age characters, he was comics first handicapped super-hero, and actually has one of the most interesting secret identities in all comics. The cynical, skeptical Charles McNider, who professes to not even believe in the mysterious Doctor Mid-Nite, could really be the comic equivalent of House. And he has an awesome pet sidekick in Hooty!
Seriously, the more I think about it, the more it seems like the good Doc should be a superstar, rather than being relegated to being a relatively obscure JSA stalwart.
What other concepts do you think should be far more popular than they are?
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Set
There's not a word yet, for old friends who've just met.
posted
Right there with you on Dr. Midnight. I have a weakness for those two-fisted 'gimmick' steet level heroes of the 50s and 60s who were mostly brawlers with one 'trick' of some sort to even the odds (like blackout bombs, or a sleep gas gun).
Dr. Midnight, IMO, is a more interesting character than Daredevil, and yet Daredevil has generally had far more critical success.
I'm occasionally puzzled by how difficult it seems to be to make a character like Aquaman (or Namor, or Wonder Woman, or the Inhumans) that has their own unique land / realm / setting work in a shared universe. We can read Conan stories, or Warlord stories, set in character-specific settings, but something about a shared-universe character seems to always result in an unsatisfying attempt to tell stories that try to straddle those two 'worlds' and ends up failing to be a good Atlantis story, *and* fails to be a good Aquaman/Namor/whatever story.
In theory, Aquaman should be as able as Conan to deliver strong stories set in a vibrant and character-specific setting, but that so rarely seems to be the case.
Registered: Aug 2006
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Challengers of the Unknown *should* be a success... I still think it would make a great film.
"Real" people, no powers... having fantastic adventures and fighting weird menaces...
NO WEIRD, DIFFERENT CAST.
All we need is Red, Rocky, Ace, Prof, June and Corrina Stark.
I copy/pasted this from Wikipedia... loved the Loeb/Sale miniseries...
The Challengers returned in a limited series, Challengers of the Unknown vol. 2 (1991), by writer Jeph Loeb and artist Tim Sale. It ran eight issues and was reprinted in trade paperback as Challengers of the Unknown Must Die! (2004). Loeb hoped for a monthly title, and planned at least a second limited series, to reset the Challs to youth and heroism,[citation needed] but neither volume materialized.
posted
Sleepwalker by Marvel. That thing should have been great. Not with what they did with it...but think about the possibilities of a comic that can be anything from page to page, since it would mostly be in a dream world.
From: Turn around... | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
quote:Originally posted by Set: In theory, Aquaman should be as able as Conan to deliver strong stories set in a vibrant and character-specific setting, but that so rarely seems to be the case.
Yeah, Aquaman was one of the characters I thought of when I started the thread and was curious if anyone would mention.
quote:Originally posted by MLLASH:
Challengers of the Unknown *should* be a success... I still think it would make a great film.
"Real" people, no powers... having fantastic adventures and fighting weird menaces...
Interestingly, I've been fooling around lately with the idea of a group kind of inspired by the Challengers, at least in the sense of being in the same basic extraordinary ordinary people having fantastic adventures genre. It's something I might work on if I ever have the time to try my hand at writing a novel or something.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I agree about Dr. Mid-Nite. I sometimes wonder if fans and editors being so focused on the JSA as a franchise is a hinderance in getting solo adventures of many of the members off the ground again.
Dr. Mid-Nite and Wildcat (with heavy boxing element as in the 40's) are two examples of that. They are certainly unique.
Another one I think should be highly successful, even today, is Tomahawk. There is no other comic book franchise like it--it's Davey Crockett taken to the next level. The mythos of Dan Hunter, Miss Liberty, King Gorilla (that's not the right name, I'm forgetting it) also just makes it so much more than a period piece.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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quote:Originally posted by lancesrealm: Naked Amazons riding kangaroos.
I'd buy it.
I'd DRAW it.
-------------------- "Anytime a good book like this is cancelled, I hope another Teen Titan is murdered." --Cobalt
"Anytime an awesome book like S6 is cancelled, I hope EVERY Titan is murdered." --Me
From: Up a Gumtree | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
We could probably name a lot of "team characters who could be successful solo characters if they weren't always thought of as team characters". I always think of Cyborg as being in this category.
I've never read any Tomahawk, but it certainly sounds intriguing!
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Captain Marvel/Shazam and Plastic Man come to mind as former A-list characters!
-------------------- I tried to rip their soul out.I tried to make them forget Superman. But they won't.
From: Kentucky | Registered: Oct 2005
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posted
In addition to Cyborg, Starfire has huge potential to be a big star. Both are unique characters in their own way that could find a niche audience.
Certainly Shazam and Plastic Man. The problem is DC keeps screwing them up, especially the former by making it more 'adult' and being embarrassed by the rich mythology because it's so young reader oriented.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
With regards to SHAZAM/Capt Marvel. I really loved teh tone of Jeff Smith's take on the characters. Using the whimsy of the concepts in a different way.
From: Turn around... | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
Yeah, DC's screwed things up with Captain Marvel and Plas so bad it's not even funny. I wonder what Dynamite could do if it had rights to those guys?
Firestorm seemed like such a major character when I was a kid. DC really messed things up with him somewhere along the line.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
It's interesting--we've just been talking about how the really high quality of Dynamite's Green Hornet: Year One and Zorro has been helped by Dynamite focusing on the facets of what made the characters so great in the first place (and they do the same with Jon Carter of Mars and the Lone Ranger). Meanwhile, DC has spent decades being embarrassed by or ignoring the histories of Captain Marvel, Plastic Man and numerous other properties and forcing those characters to change to fit the 'modern DCU' (both in continuity and tone in all of the last 3 decades).
I'd love if another comic book company got control of those franchises (even permanently) and had a shot to do them right.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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