posted
They can't carry a title currently, but maybe if they're attached as a new "second feature" to a hot book that might change!
The METAL MEN second feature in DOOM PATROL # 1 was a delight for this long-time fan of the Giffen/DeMatteis/Maguire team; RAVAGER has my attention in TEEN TITANS; and I'm sure most of us are watching the LSH closely in ADVENTURE.
Who do you wanna see get a second feature tryout? Almost as important-- which comic could they attach themselves to?
FREEDOM FIGHTERS might make a good second feature for Justice Society.
Giffen doing AMBUSH BUG regularly somewhere would be a treat. A SUPER-title seems a likely place to attach it.
posted
The Black Hawks and Sea Devils as co-features with a lead feature that's espionage and intrigue based lead feature. Maybe something with that AMANDA WALLER woman, but with a more adventure not super hero feel.
From: Canada | Registered: Apr 2005
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Honestly, I don't like second features in a serial format. Disconnected one-shots fine but if the result is buying one unwanted story to get another? No thanks, not at $3 and $4.
I've already dropped two titles because I didn't like one of the features. The painful one to drop was Detective. Loved Batwoman. The Question was a good premise that was wasting paper instead of getting on with the story. If Adventure doesn't improve its second story, that will be my third drop because of the format.
From: East Toledo | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I'd like to see Ambush Bug in Brave & Bold, with his own Brave & Bold-style team-ups with a different obscure character each month (and a short text or several panels explaining who the obscure one is).
posted
The only co-featured book I get is Doom Patrol, but I'm really only interested in them and not the Metal Men. It only puts pressure on the main feature to deliver more bang for my bucks (which becomes more difficult with less story pages) and based on the first issue, I don't imagine sticking it out for more than another issue.
Choosing which two properties to co-feature is tricky. The ones they've chosen so far make sense, but none of them have me excited. (if Vic Sage Question were co-featured with Batman in "Detective", or with Green Arrow I'd be all over that)
From: New York, NY | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
History shows that the co-feature will be dropped before long with the format returned to normal, while the cover price remains at $3.99.
From: Sumner, ME | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by DrakeB3004: It only puts pressure on the main feature to deliver more bang for my bucks
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...
-------------------- "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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posted
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.
-------------------- "Suck it, depressos!"--M. Lash
From: The Underbelly of Society | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
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".
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Cobalt Kid: "weird protagonists with pretty girls".
Omigosh! the perfect DES-cription for my life right now!!
-------------------- "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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Set
There's not a word yet, for old friends who've just met.
posted
quote: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.
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!"
Registered: Aug 2006
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posted
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.
-------------------- "Suck it, depressos!"--M. Lash
From: The Underbelly of Society | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote: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.
Yeah, I even read the Magog preview (and wish they'd used those pages for extra Metal Men story).
posted
Good point. At $3.99 I'm even reading the copyright stuff at the bottom of the first page now.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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