Fresh Comic Question #2: What do You Want to See Fixed?

[James Harvey]

Welcome to a new installment of the bi-weekly Fresh Comic Question. If you missed the first installment of the question series, check it out Here. Now...onto the question.

#2. 2003 promises to be a year of change in the comic industry once again, in more than one way. Alot of fans are clamoring for creators to fix certain situations, like the Peter/MJ marriage in 'Spider-Man' and the controversal Stewart/Rayner situation in 'Green Lantern'. Now, out of all the 'mistakes' currently being made in 2002, which would you like to see fixed and why? (this can include comic characters, creators, stories, character development, events, etc...)

[Cyber E.]

Off the top of my head, I would like to see something really happen in the Amazing Peter/MJ relationship. This kind of thing has been happening for so long it isn't funny anymore. Maybe them breaking up perm' would help end the terror that is happening to their relationship, either way it has to end now.

If I think of something more important, I'll edit this post.

[kid_flash]

This is what I wanna see happen...

FIX SUPERMAN. How?

Cancel MAN OF STEEL - Done already.

Put good creative team on SUPERMAN - Seagle has great views on the Superman character, but I worry about McDaniel, who is consistantly screwed over by the crappy paper and Andy Owens.

Put good creative team on ADVENTURES - Joe Casey can GO AWAY NOW. Rumors are circulating about Morrison and Hitch. Frickin' do it. If Hitch will only do ULTIMATES, then find out what happened to Howard Porter.

Reflect on ACTION COMICS - Change ACTION from a Superman book back to what it was when it was weekly: A Showcase of sorts for different, unconnected super-heroes. A book like this is sorely missed.

That way, you only have two Superman books that would be UNCONNECTED EXCEPT FOR SPECIAL EVENTS. And when you do a special event, make it special. These are getting to be like once every other month.

[The Detective]

I want the Green Lantern Coprs back! Sure, it didn't happen in 2002, but I still want them back. I don't like Kyle being the only Gl.

[Condiment King]

GREEN LANTERN.


Get rid of Judd Winick which is happening.

Get Kyle Rayner off his space journey and reinstated as Green Lantern of Sector 2814. Make John Stewart recruiter of the new Green Lanterns. John Stewart could recruit many of the old Green Lanterns: Boodika, Larvox, and others along with some newbies.

Have the Guardians age and give them the wisdom of Ganthet.

Have the aged Guardians no longer letting Kyle do whatever he feels he wants, thus creating an edgy relationship between the Guardians and Kyle. Establish some ground rules which Kyle doesn't handle well.

Involve Guy Gardner more in the book as a supporting character.

Later, maybe another GREEN LANTERN CORPS QUARTERLY book.

[LadyM]

What the King of Condiments said. ^_^

~LM~

[The Detective]

Originally posted by Condiment King
GREEN LANTERN.


Get rid of Judd Winick which is happening.

Get Kyle Rayner off his space journey and reinstated as Green Lantern of Sector 2814. Make John Stewart recruiter of the new Green Lanterns. John Stewart could recruit many of the old Green Lanterns: Boodika, Larvox, and others along with some newbies.

Have the Guardians age and give them the wisdom of Ganthet.

Have the aged Guardians no longer letting Kyle do whatever he feels he wants, thus creating an edgy relationship between the Guardians and Kyle. Establish some ground rules which Kyle doesn't handle well.

Involve Guy Gardner more in the book as a supporting character.

Later, maybe another GREEN LANTERN CORPS QUARTERLY book.

Exactly! Perfect, just perfect. Especially on getting rid of Judd Winick. Man I want the GL Corps back!

[Jor-El]

Kid Flash said it all.

Morrison and Hitch would be a creative team to die for, assuming we can't just get Loeb and Sale.

[Cogliostro]

I would like to see Marvel fix Deadpool. He is a great character and is very under-rated. If done right the title could be amazing this has already been proved with the amazing team of Gail Simone and UDON.

That would be the best fix for me if Marvel does it but of course they won't I believe Joe has already given up on Deadpool after trying to revamp it with Agent X which is also good but only cause Gail and UDON are working on it right now. I say end Agent X restart Deadpool and get a wonderful team on it for a full year and give it some attention (Ad's, Previews ect.) and if it doesnt work I guess it wasn't meant to be.

[Green-Ghost]

I would like to see Jim Lee and Jeph Loeb fixed on Batman for a second year.

[Marc]

What I’d like to see fixed:
-One of DC’s top priorities should be fixing Green Lantern. Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins have done wonders with The Flash, and I’d love to see what they could do with GL. Wonder Woman is another title that needs major work, although I’m sad to say I haven’t a clue how to fix it. I fell in love with WW back when she was simply a female “Superman”. She had a secret identity, a job, a romantic personal life, the works. I’m not saying they should abandon WW’s mythological background, that’s a huge part of who she is, but just tone it down a little. I’m sure there must be some writer/artist team that could turn the WW series around. Basically I feel that Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, & Green Lantern should be five “must-have” DC titles, alongside JLA of course. They should be quality books that no DC fan can live without.

-No character should have more than one book dedicated to their stories. That means cancel all Super-titles except for Superman and all Bat-titles except for Batman. Do not cancel Action Comics and Detective Comics, but make them each a collection of short stories featuring “lesser known” heroes in the DCU. Action Comics could feature characters like Firestorm, Red Tornado, Captain Atom, Blue Beetle, etc. And likewise make Detective Comics darker, more psychological stories with characters like Jason Blood, Dr. Fate, Zatanna, Dr. Mid-Nite, etc. Speaking of multiple titles, cancel all Spider-related books except for Amazing and set up Paul Jenkins and Mark Buckingham as the creative team.

-Make Mark Schultz the head writer on Superman. He’s the best Superman writer since John Byrne and I think he’s the only person who really understands that Superman is supposed to be science fiction. Most writers seem to forget that. To let Schultz slip away would be a grave mistake on DC’s part.

Other ideas:
Get Kevin Smith, Judd Winick and J. Michael Straczynski as far away from mainstream superhero comics as possible.
-JMS shines when he has free reign over his own universe, just look at Rising Stars or Midnight Nation for proof of how good a writer he can be. But his Spider-Man is just a garbled mess.
-Winick needs to stick with Barry Ween and stories along a similar nature. He has talent, but superhero comics are not where he can best utilize it. If he must play with superheroes however, then I’d like to see Winick develop his own universe as JMS has done.
-Smith just needs to stay away from comic books, period

Those are just a few ideas.

- Cap

[kid_flash]

Good call, Cap'n.

Lesse...

GREEN LANTERN will be written by Ben Raab. Prepare for even worse.

WONDER WOMAN has Greg coming up on writing duties, followed by Walt Simonson. Should be cool.

Superman and Batman....yeah. I couldn't figure out what to do with DETECTIVE, but that's the best damn idea I've heard when it comes to trimming the Bat-books. Especially if they cancelled GOTHAM KNIGHTS and LOTDK (does anyone actually read that anymore?).

Spider-Man...I loved JMS's first story, but everything after that just never quite clicked.

As for Kevin Smith, I'm not gonna argue the point, but at least tell me you've read his DAREDEVIL work (and I don't mean THE TARGET). If you're judging purely from GREEN ARROW.....man, I'd hate Smith too. At least we've got the movies.

[Reed Richards]

Originally posted by kid_flash
Good call, Cap'n.

Lesse...

GREEN LANTERN will be written by Ben Raab. Prepare for even worse.

impossible! I cannot FATHOM how this character/group of characters can be ruined beyond what Winnick has done to them. The worst that can happen is more of the same, which isn't any lower than its at now.....

[Cyber E.]

Originally posted by CaptainInfinity
What I’d like to see fixed:
-One of DC’s top priorities should be fixing Green Lantern. Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins have done wonders with The Flash, and I’d love to see what they could do with GL. Wonder Woman is another title that needs major work, although I’m sad to say I haven’t a clue how to fix it. I fell in love with WW back when she was simply a female “Superman”. She had a secret identity, a job, a romantic personal life, the works. I’m not saying they should abandon WW’s mythological background, that’s a huge part of who she is, but just tone it down a little. I’m sure there must be some writer/artist team that could turn the WW series around. Basically I feel that Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, & Green Lantern should be five “must-have” DC titles, alongside JLA of course. They should be quality books that no DC fan can live without.

-No character should have more than one book dedicated to their stories. That means cancel all Super-titles except for Superman and all Bat-titles except for Batman. Do not cancel Action Comics and Detective Comics, but make them each a collection of short stories featuring “lesser known” heroes in the DCU. Action Comics could feature characters like Firestorm, Red Tornado, Captain Atom, Blue Beetle, etc. And likewise make Detective Comics darker, more psychological stories with characters like Jason Blood, Dr. Fate, Zatanna, Dr. Mid-Nite, etc. Speaking of multiple titles, cancel all Spider-related books except for Amazing and set up Paul Jenkins and Mark Buckingham as the creative team.

-Make Mark Schultz the head writer on Superman. He’s the best Superman writer since John Byrne and I think he’s the only person who really understands that Superman is supposed to be science fiction. Most writers seem to forget that. To let Schultz slip away would be a grave mistake on DC’s part.

Other ideas:
Get Kevin Smith, Judd Winick and J. Michael Straczynski as far away from mainstream superhero comics as possible.
-JMS shines when he has free reign over his own universe, just look at Rising Stars or Midnight Nation for proof of how good a writer he can be. But his Spider-Man is just a garbled mess.
-Winick needs to stick with Barry Ween and stories along a similar nature. He has talent, but superhero comics are not where he can best utilize it. If he must play with superheroes however, then I’d like to see Winick develop his own universe as JMS has done.
-Smith just needs to stay away from comic books, period

Those are just a few ideas.

- Cap

Alright that's it, I am changing my answer to that.

[kid_flash]

Originally posted by Reed Richards
impossible! I cannot FATHOM how this character/group of characters can be ruined beyond what Winnick has done to them. The worst that can happen is more of the same, which isn't any lower than its at now.....

But, see, at least Winnick made changes in the title and the characters' lives. Everything I've read by Raab is just so drab and boring, but it may be because he hasn't had an ongoing to work with. Either way, I'm not gonna stick around to find out.

[Marc]

Originally posted by kid_flash
As for Kevin Smith, I'm not gonna argue the point, but at least tell me you've read his DAREDEVIL work (and I don't mean THE TARGET). If you're judging purely from GREEN ARROW.....man, I'd hate Smith too. At least we've got the movies.

Kid,

I have read Smith's Daredevil issues, and believe it or not, I loved them. I feel so dirty for admitting that now, but it’s true. However, with each new project that he puts out, my appreciation for his DD diminishes.

As for his so-called “films”, you don’t want to get me started on that.

- Cap

[Jade_GL]

Wonder Woman should be fixed. I appear to be one of the only people who reads it continually on the board, or maybe people just don't admit it (hehehe) but I definately have some ideas.

Less mythology and WW history. Now it's way too backed up with prior continuity to do much of anything new and interesting. Again, I don't want anything thrown out, but get away from pure mythology and magic storylines and get into more everyday storylines about Diana's life, her relationships. This is why I loved the one shot issue with her interview with Lois Lane. We got to see her being a diplomat, a volunteer, and a regular woman who just talks with the girls. So far, in the past year or so, it's been a lot of prior WW rehashed history, magic, and mythology. Make her deal with the big epic Greek stuff less, and go back to being on the normal streets of a city more. Not saying she needs the secret identity, because I think at this point it would be nigh impossible to reinstate that, but I would like to see her going about, normal stories dealing with small time issues, and bigger issues equally. Also, different clothes. I'm sick of the one or two outfits. This is why I liked the Lois Lane interview issue as well. You got to see her in the opulent dimplomatic garb, but also a regular t-shirt.

No more mulitple villains in one storyline. It seems like Wonder Woman always has to fight a large group. It's been a team up against WW in every issue lately, from her battles in Skartaris to her against the Cheetah and Silver Swan and Circe before that. I would love to see more one on one stories. Have her just fight Circe or Silver Swan so there can be some developement between the two without jumping to the other villains, which has been what is happening in the past year or so. Circe doesn't need a team, she can be WW's Lex Luthor and be effective against WW all by herself. With all of the characters that clutter WW, I find it hard to keep up with everything that's going on. Make it WW and a villain, focus on that relationship, don't constantly try to make everything an epic Grecian battle. I'm sick of the clutter.

Also, I think it's good to have characters show up once in a while, but Wonder Girl and Donna Troy have been showing up too much for me. I think they can have their own stories without it having to always be the three of them together. The WW comic could go either way. We could have it be mostly about WW with these characters making occasional cameos, or once in a while Wonder Girl could take over the issue or a storyline and have Diana get a break. Or they could do a short back up story involving a WW back up character like Donna or even Artemis. I just don't like the clutter of a bunch of characters all there at the same time. it takes away from the story for me. I want a smaller focus which, I believe, would help characters develop more and stand out more. Right now it's just a bunch of people with equal page with WW. Either focus on WW, make the comic have a larger scope where it can be a Wonder Girl, Donna, and WW comic, if they really feel the need to include them a lot, or even do small back up stories. I just don't want these huge groups splitting the story and making it crazy.

I think I've said everything I need to say about WW. I would love them to try and make it more like a Superman type comic or batman type comic where the focus is on one person, mainly one villain per storyline, and where epic stories can be side by side with normal stories that expand the Diana character, not just constantly put her at odds with Gods, magic, and whatever cosmic evil is out there. I want to see Diana go out and help nomral people too, just like your Batmans and Supermans do. It' much to caught up in myth and the epic, it needs a return to smaller and more human interest stories.

That's what I would like to see changed.

[Storm]

ummm lets see...

New X-men.

New X-men is the only X-title that i don't pick up (I know you guys are shocked). I say ditch the "New" and just give me plain ol' X-men again. I think the writer on New X-men is taking to many liberities and the whole Emma/Jean/Scott love triangle is sad. Give me Cyclops, Storm, Wolvie, Rouge, Jean, Iceman, and Beast again I just think if New X-men messes up the whole X-mythos and if they don't put Xavier back in a wheelvhair I will faint. I just want New X-men not to be tied in with the X-men movie just give me the good ol' X-men again.

[kid_flash]

Originally posted by CaptainInfinity
Kid,

I have read Smith's Daredevil issues, and believe it or not, I loved them. I feel so dirty for admitting that now, but it’s true. However, with each new project that he puts out, my appreciation for his DD diminishes.

As for his so-called “films”, you don’t want to get me started on that.

- Cap

Well, as long as we've all read DD

And don't worry, I wouldn't getcha started. That'd just get the thread moved.

[Silent Bob]

I agree with Storm. I'd like to see NEW X-MEN fixed up. The current "Riot" arc isn't that bad, but the feel of the comic feels wrong. I enjoyed some of Morrison's earlier stuff on the comic, but now it's beginning to feel a big stagnant and just plain boring. I am really looking forward to the fallout of the arc, becuase it presents some changes to the book.

And finally, WOLVERINE is getting a good creative team, but why the reboot? Damn you, Marvel...