With the recent sad end of several of the first batch of DC’s New 52 titles, and the upcoming New 52 Wave Two, I started to wonder about the fates of characters left behind in the universal schisms that Barry Allen’s (rather Freudian) chronal antics caused. What of Elongated Man? Or Peacemaker? The Black Pirate? The Law’s Legionnaires? The Guardian? The Young Heroes? Misfit?
And, for the love of Egg-Fu, what about Ambush Bug???
Today’s MS-QOTD (pronounced “misquoted”) for Faithful Spoilerites everywhere is this: What titles need to be part of a theoretical New 52 Wave Three?
16 Comments
I’d go with Sandman Mystery Theater.
I sure hope there’s another Bat-title.
No, no I don’t.
But I like when villains get their own books from time to time. I’d like to see a bunch of old villains get the spot light in some form or fashion. Like Arkham’s thunderbolts or something.
I’d like to see more of the Cosmic DC characters return like Captain Comet. Barring that maybe a new Question title or maybe bring back Aztek!
Plastic Man. I want to see a stretchy, nonsensical, shape changing hero with a stronger heart than most DC heroes out there.
And Earth-3!!!
I’m dying to see Earth-3 be a reular title!
Let’s see… Plastic Man… Maybe a new series for Martian Manhunter where he’s actually used in an interesting way (unlike Stormwatch, which they can cancel any time….)… Metal Men or Doom Patrol any one?
I’d like to see both DC and Marvel dump all the secondary characters, and focus on their core characters. Put all their efforts into producing a few excellent books each month instead of several dozen crappy ones. What’s the point of printing twelve books a month that nobody buys? A case in point – the Howling Commandoes made since when I was a kid – World War II had only been over for a decade – the soldiers who fought in the war were heroes to us kids. The theaters and TV lineup were choked with World War II shows and movies. So a WWII comic made sense. Likewise the Western comics. Cowboy epics and Roy Rogers type shows were the biggest thing on TV so a cowboy comic made sense. To produce them today for a vastly diminished audience is, at best, a poor financial decision. I’d like to use the Western Movie genre as a case in point. The whole thing was flogged to death and then abandoned, and hardly anybody makes a western movie any more unless the person has something astounding to say and then we get a gem like “Unforgiven”! I’d like the comics industry to be the same way. Don’t dredge up dead and dying genres and characters unless you have something important to say with them!
I’d like to see both DC and Marvel dump all the secondary characters, and focus on their core characters. Put all their efforts into producing a few excellent books each month instead of several dozen crappy ones
Aside from defining “core characters,” what you’re describing is exactly what DC says they’re doing… And with the exception of Men Of War, which wasn’t my bag, the crappiest comics of the new 52 are the ones featuring primary characters like Superman, Batman and the Green Lantern Corps.
Add me to the people calling for a Plastic Man series, hopefully more in the vein of Jack Cole’s Tex-Avery-short-on-paper feel than Kyle Baker’s John-K-meets-entitled-fanboy-ranting run (God, that one annoyed me). I’d also like to see Misfit turn up somewhere, but I’m not sure where she’d fit; even with her backstory, she’s a cheery, fun character, and I agree with my LCS owner that while the New 52 is overall decent, it’s severely lacking in levity. I’m afraid wherever Misfit would end up, she wouldn’t be the character people liked. The same kinda goes for Plas, too.
Finally, Amethyst, ideally with art by Amy Reeder, even if it’s just a mini. Bring some magical girl love to the DCU.
Amethyst might be interesting, but I’m afraid that the core readers (i.e. guys in their forties) would torpedo that one for the creators…
They seem to have a book for every genre except comedy, so I vote Plastic Man and Metal Men ala the Metal Men backups we saw for a while. Those were hilarious.
The frusturated comic fan would like to see in the new wave many of the comics out there stop having the endless crossovers. Guest stars, cool, but I was always annoyed with having to pick up a title I don’t read to finish a story started in a title I do. I realize that it is primarily a money making thing and seems neat in theory but with original issues it leads to a random issue #9 in your long box and for Trades it makes for odd compilations. The new 52 wasn’t even a year old before the Court of Owls cross overs. The endless crossovers make me tired and were one of the reasons I stopped buying comics in college, the New 52 had me hope the business model had changed.
But if they can have some nice self contained stories in wave 3 here were some of the characters/titles I hope get some love. Even if they are just minis.
A good “Police” comic, a la Gotham City PD, except it doesn’t have to be a Bat title. Maybe something like Agent Chase and the agency’s responsible for dealing with the supers. Heck maybe something with the guards at Arkham (I know it would be a bat book) They can’t all be corrupt or incompetent. How do they spin that job for which I am sure is not much pay and in this economy the pay and benefits they do have keep decreasing while Fat Cat’s like Bruce Wayne sit up there in their mansion.
Perhaps a title about the “lost” characters, Wally West, Donna Troy, Garth (Aqualad), Jade heck combine them with Supergirl and Nightwing and you have another Justice Team book if they wanted.
I always enjoyed Kid Eternity in the old Captain Marvel (Shazam) comics.
A Knights Templar Azrael comic may be interesting (I admit I kind of dug the red/black/yellow hooded costume), just leave the whole Batman part out.
Have we seen Doom Patrol yet?
And some other ideas.
The Creeper
Infinity Inc
Adam Strange
The Atom, maybe throw in Jurgen’s Titans under a different name.
I’d like to see a Plas book as well, and it’d be nice to see Congorilla pop up somewhere… maybe not as an ongoing or even a supporting character in another book, but just a brief onscreen appearance just to let us all know he still exists. On a similar thought, a Robinson penned Starman following Mikkal would be pretty rad.
And above all else, I WOULD LOVE to see Ambush Bug reappear in a new miniseries!
How we not have a mention of Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew!
I wanna see a post 52 (the series) Elongated Man, something like “Ralph Dibny, Ghost Detective”. Then Xanadu could get him for the JL Dark and they’d have a competent team player in the mix.
I miss some of the Titans that were around at the end of their run, like Miss Martian (we did get one small shot of her in TT#1) and Kid/Red Devil.
Everybody from Shadowpact except Enchantress has yet to show up, and Ragman is one of those guys I always enjoy reading.
Other than those, I’d just like a bit more info about the experiences of the five years between.
“I wanna see a post 52 (the series) Elongated Man, something like “Ralph Dibny, Ghost Detective”. ”
NO “GHOST”! Bring Ralph & Sue back to life. They’re =much= more useful as an example of a happy LIVING “supercouple”, and we could get rid of that whole twisted, sordid Identity Crisis. While it was a GREAT series, it was so sad and grimdark, and if there are two characters who deserve a “waveThreeboot” I’m voting for Ralph & Sue. ^_^