Super-Human Advanced...something something

Agents of S.H.A.D.E.

Of all the titles introduced in DC Comic's New 52, Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. is the one which really caught my attention.  Not only did it star the break-out character from Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers of Victory, but it boosted his profile by putting him in charge of a reborn Creature Commandos.  

The concept originated during the pre-New 52 Flashpoint event,

but stuck around in the new continuity.

From there, S.H.A.D.E. only grew cooler as it became the home for a number of other re-imagined war-time characters.  My52 will take a lot of inspiration from this series, but lean a little bit to the side and make it an anthology series akin to my Action Comics and Detective Comics.  In this case, though, the anthology will rotate through all the factions which operate under Father Time and S.H.A.D.E.

While Wonder Woman's Department of Metahuman Affairs acts as the domestic front of superhuman police work, S.H.A.D.E. is more of the CIA of super-crime, working to root out global threats to the United States and keep them from ever seeing the light of day.  We're talking truly gonzo events here, things that would freak out even residents of the normal DCU.

Frankenstein is S.H.A.D.E.'s go-to agent to investigate events beyond human ken, but when things are beyond what he can do with just his gun and sword, he assembles his Creature Commandos, a bizarre assemblage of scientific experiments, freaks of nature, and mysterious entities which coincidentally match Universal's monster library.  My art direction won't go *quite* so far into the gruesome territory as DC's title was, with my vampire looking a bit more Bela Lagosi and the wolf man at least being able to change to human form.

Alberto Ponticelli drew some freakish Creatures, didn't he?

I really like the addition of the Lagoon woman (the original Creature Commandos had a medusa woman), but I'm unsure about the mummy fellow.  Still, I wonder if there are any good concepts for a hunchback commando.

The Bride will also act as a solo agent for S.H.A.D.E., engaging in the occasional assassination mission or mysteriously appearing to help Frankenstein before vanishing again. Undercover work is the job of the Unknown Soldier, a hideously scarred master of disguise, while general grunt work for the organization is performed by an army of unthinking, disposable G.I. Robots.  The presence of a Haunted Tank or Viking Commando are unconfirmed.  

Since Infinite Crisis and One Year Later, S.H.A.D.E. has been closely tied with Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters, but that highly-visible superpowered group has no place in the Men-in-Black Ops of S.H.A.D.E.  On occasions where the two groups do meet, I imagine they'll be butting heads a lot.

Legion Found

Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes

As much of a joke as Superboy-Prime became, I was in 100% agreement with his disappointment in how the actual Superboy had turned into a mopey angst-teen.  I'd really enjoyed the solo series he'd had following Reign of the Supermen, but somewhere along the way he lost his fun.

But just as the Legion of Super-Heroes came from the future to teach Clark Kent how to be Superman, they're on hand again to get Superboy back on track.  Their interest comes not just from their legacy relationship to Superman, but also a level of responsibility to him after being involved in Superboy's reincarnation during Legion of 3 Worlds.  So following Superboy's involvement in Blackest Night, the Legion arrives to whisk him into the future for some inspiration training.

Along for the ride goes Superboy's best friend Kid Flash.  Not only was he also resurrected by the Legion, but he's a native of the 31st century and provides a welcome guide to his friend's new home.

A bajillion Legionnaires is a close estimate.

Now, I'm actually more familiar with the post-Zero Hour reboot Legion, but the return of the pre-Crisis Legion just prior to Final Crisis really has me intrigued.  A lot of work will need to be done to keep it from relying too much on nostalgia and accessible to new readers.  Part of the fun in this series will come from keeping a balance of continuing the stories of the classic characters with the introduction of totally new elements to be enjoyed by all.  The presence of the completely 30th Century-ignorant Superboy will provide a convenient reason for Legionnaires to explain elements of the setting for the benefit of new readers, and Kid Flash's perhaps slightly inaccurate "memories" of the 30th century should be amusing as well.

To mark Superboy's new life, he'll be getting a costume again.  I've never liked his t-shirt and jeans look.  Maybe some day I'll sketch up an idea or two, but the direction I'm leaning toward is along the lines of what he wore toward the end of Young Justice. I liked how it stepped away a bit from the totally 90s leather jacket and straps outfit he started with, but kept him in a jacket and with his signature shoulder blazon.  

I'd downplay the French-cut effect on his high-rise pants.

With a team as large as the Legion, it's easier to talk about who I'd take out of the team than it is to talk about who's still in.  Founding members Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad will retire from the team in wedded bliss (although Garth will likely have a hard time NOT involving himself in Legion business), mostly to make room for similarly-powered Tellus and Lightning Lass to stand out.  I'll also be side-lining Mon-El for some likely clever reason because I don't need a second, Kryptonian-powered refuge from the 21st century.

Highlighted membership includes Tellus (I love how his bestial appearances contrasts with his mental-based powers), the variably-powered Ultraboy, the exasperated genius of Brainiac 5, the "ascended fanboy" Polar Boy, the recently up-powered Duplicate Damsel, the visually striking Sensor Girl, the equally-striking but for different reasons Dawnstar, and the even-more visually striking Wildfire.  Chameleon Girl really caught my eye in her recent appearances, so she'll likely replace Chameleon Boy if he's still around, and she and Invisible Kid will need a Phantom Girl and Shrinking Violet to round out the Legion Espionage Squad.  My guilty treat will be the re-inclusion of Comet Queen.  I didn't see her in the recent revival, but she's been a favorite just from the two or three times I saw her as a kid.

Pictured: 1/8 of the Legion of Super-Heroes

One of the things this Legion WON'T do is try to tie into 21st century DCU elements.  No futuristic Green Lanterns, for instance, or visits to the future Thanagar.  The 31st century will contain its own concepts and mythology.

...I wanna be a gamer!

Let's talk D&D

In a previous post, I talked a bit about how my lack of a current roleplaying gaming group hasn't slowed down my plans for gaming.  In the years since my last regular group, I've continued to accumulate a large library of gaming material, and, volume-wise, nothing matches my collection of Dungeons & Dragons books.

While I have more complete collections of Shadowrun, Champions and Deadlands (all to be addressed in some future posts), none ever equaled the output of D&D over 30 years, four editions, and two publishing companies.  It's a sad truth that a period of poverty saw me selling a lot of my classic RPG books, but I've since been able to reacquire most of those at least in pdf form.

Despite learning to game with Basic D&D and 2nd Edition, it's 3rd Ed that I have the most experience with and am the most comfortable running.  While I never bought too much into the rules expansions, I was a sucker for adventures and campaign settings, especially through Paizo Publishing's Dungeon Magazine, Necromancer Games' module series, and Sword & Sorcery Studio's Scarred Lands setting.  

But a hobby that stretches across three decades can't be limited to just one edition, and my D&D shelf holds stuff from all versions of the game.  It's hard to say which is my first pick would be, because that feeling changes from time-to-time. So in no particular order, I'll call out some of my favorites.

Age of Worms

Published by Paizo as their second Adventure Path, Age of Worms sees the PCs coming in on the opening chapters of a prophecy which would doom the world and ultimately sees them battling a would-be god.  Although it tried to keep the illusion of setting-neutrality, it's no secret it was written with Greyhawk in mind.  A number of classic Greyhawk locations are highlighted, such as the City of Greyhawk and Great Rift, as well as Greyhawk personalities, like Tenser and Dragotha.  Despite the richness of the setting, though, I fear most of those Easter eggs would be lost on my hypothetical gaming group, because none of the groups I've gamed with have ever been that into the setting.  But what really stands out with this Adventure Path is how well it translates to the Eberron setting.

If you're at all familiar with that world, you'll know that ancient prophecies and globe-trotting adventures are assumed.  While Dungeon Magazine did release some adaptation notes to place the AP in Eberron, I don't necessarily agree with all of them.  For example, they had Kyuss translated as a fiend, whereas I feel he should be a Daelkyr, and they placed their giant fortress up north rather than on Xen'drik (home of the giants).

The only negative to Age of Worms is that it's really only the second best AP published in Dungeon.  The next AP, Savage Tide, is better in every way.  The only reason I'd rather run AoW is that it plays better before ST than after and my fantasy gaming dreams have me running both one right after the other.

The Wizard's Amulet

Necromancer Games came onto the scene in the first few days of 3rd Edition with a freely downloadable 1st-level adventure. It was a very successful gamble on their part as I totally fell for the old-school mentality of their adventure design, as well as the way it placed the PCs as leaders of their own destiny.

See, even in 2nd Edition, published adventures usually placed the PCs as heroes, rescuing villagers and defeating villains.  Here, the party is assembled by one of their own who has a key which will presumably let them into a vacated wizard's tower.  It's just the kind of money-grubbing dungeon delving I love, and Necromancer Games produced those kinds of adventures in spades.

The free download lead directly into the Crucible of Freya, and from there branched into such dungeon delves as Tomb of Abysthor, sandbox adventures like Vault of Larin Karr, and the deadly dungeoncrawl Rappun Athuk.  For as much as I love a campaign metaplot, I also appreciate a product that lets me indulge my players in an open world. I love the idea of placing clues, selling maps and otherwise giving the PCs all the leeway they need to choose which death they'll face.

As for campaign setting, NG's adventures don't exactly puzzle-piece together, but they can be shoved together enough to describe a general region.  On a global scale, their adventures fit almost (but not quite) perfectly in Sword & Sorcery's Scarred Lands setting.  Some adjustments have to be made to one or the other (such as NG's focus on demonic threats, which SL mostly glosses over in favor of titans), but it's worth the time.

Given the chance to run this campaign, I'd definitely place it in the Scarred Lands, somewhere south of Mithril with Larrin Karr's Quail Valley existing in northern Vesh.  From there my players could follow whatever lead they wanted, and NG's library of adventures makes me pretty confident that I'll have something to meet their needs.

Nentir Vale

I waffle a lot on how I feel about 4th Edition D&D.  At times it ranges from my all-time favorite and most playable version down to "too gamey"  But regardless of how I feel about the rules at the moment, the assumed setting of the Nentir Vale, it's implied cosmology and gods, and the adventures set there especially toward the end of the edition's publishing life make it a place I really want to adventure in.

Truth be told, though, any run with 4th Edition would feature a fair number of houserules to take it farther away from gamist homogeneity and give it some old school grit.  I'm going to imagine my pretend gaming group loves those changes.


The Essentials rules releases went a long way toward making 4th Edition something I'd want to play, and the adventures released after that, Reavers of Harkenwold and Madness at Gardmore Abbey, fer instance, are examples of excellent game design in any edition.  Along with some side-quests, these adventures are enough to take the players through the heroic tier of play and establish them as movers and shakers in Nentir Vale's politics.  

The downside is that's sort of where it peters out.  I'd be unhappy if my imaginary players didn't claim Gardmore to rule as the Vale's newest city-state, but 4e has no rules for kingdom management.  And any campaign after that would have to be drawn from other, older published adventures.  The second 2/3 of the Scales of War Adventure Path in Dungeon Magazine could be re-purposed for my newly political PCs, as they unite the Vale to fend off a Githyanki invasion and later battle god-like dragons.  That campaign plan suffers a bit from the lack of a world to place the Vale in (as the scope expands beyond what a single valley can contain), with only the ill-fitting map from a board game to give guidance to what the world looks like.

There's also the possibility of using the 4e Tomb of Horrors campaign to add some spice to the upper level adventuring, but as interesting as those adventures are, I'm not sure how they'll be received by players who have no experience with the actual Tomb.

Return to the Tomb of Horrors

See what I did there?  I just used that title to be cheeky, but the old Tomb of Horrors 2nd Edition boxed set is the end to my ideal old-school campaign which would start with Night Below and pass through Rod of Seven Parts before reaching Asherak's skull hill.

Like most gamers my age, I've been feeling the Old School Urge lately, and pulling out the ol' 2e books again would really scratch that itch.  I have a lot of fond memories of gaming in a time before it was really important that all classes be balanced against each other, and players understood that the thief was most useful out of combat and the magic-user was likely to die. These 2nd Ed. fantasies always include revisits to the boxed sets I mentioned above. The idea is always to start the PCs in the backwoods of Furyondy in the World of Greyhawk setting to delve into the Night Below and then use the Greyhawk Wars timeline as a backdrop for the global quest for the Rod of Seven Parts.  If possible, I'd like to find a way to get the PCs in charge of a barony or something, 'cause I also have the Birthright domain rules standing by for just such an occurrence.

I wonder if there's a way to include Spelljammer or Planescape into this.  Both of those are high points of 2e, but all the published adventures for those settings are comparatively low level, especially since the PCs will be around level 10 by the time they finish Night Below.  

Dark Sun War of the Lance

While we're talking 2nd Edition, let me tell you of an absolute fantasy campaign of mine.

If I asked you to name a setting where the gods abandoned mankind and dragons are just creature's of ancient legend, what would you say?  Most might say "Dragonlance," but a few of you might point to "Dark Sun."

And that's the magic.  Imagine a Dark Sun campaign where the PCs encounter evidence of the gods in the form of metal disks (an unimaginable treasure to start with), and their quest to reclaim clerical magic reveals the return of dragons as draconian armies form to wage war on the region.  I think the War of the Lance would play amazingly with the evocative Dark Sun setting.  I'm not super-familiar enough with either setting or adventures to make an easy conversion, but I think it's something worth doing.

The MEGA-Campaign

As long as we're talking hypothetical campaigns, let me pitch an idea of an uber-campaign. Basically, the idea is to use an "all of the above" option to trace a multi-generational campaign and watch how a campaign setting (in this case, Greyhawk) changes over time.

Here, we'd start with the 2nd Edition campaign described above which will give the players some experience with the Rod of Seven Parts as well as the Tomb of Horrors.  Fifty years later, a new generation of heroes will find themselves in a world more aligned with 3rd Edition rules. Dwarves have learned arcane magic, fer instance, and magic research has uncovered new ways for mortals to craft magic items.  These characters adventure through the Age of Worms path.  After this, another 50 years go by and the world has changed even more.  Empires have fallen, and a war in the heavens has restructured the divine hierarchy of gods.  In the end, the world looks a lot like how presented in 4th Edition D&D.  Running through this campaign will give the players a chance to revisit the Tomb of Horrors among other locations.

We're talking years of gaming life here, but it sounds pretty awesome to me...

Green and Black

Green Arrow & Black Canary

I was pretty stoked when these characters got married a few years back because, after decades of flirting the issue, the two finally seemed to move to the next step and get a happy ending.  While Wally West remains my family-man superhero, Ollie and Dinah get to be the crimefighting couple.

Haha!  Her wedding "gown" has fishnet stockings. Heheh.

For Ollie's story, his happiness came to a screeching halt with the conclusion of Cry for Justice after he (SPOILERS!) murdered the villain and went on the run from the rest of the Justice League.  Or something like that. Frankly I didn't follow too closely after the story started dismembering heroes and murdering babies.  But rather than leading down the path of outcast murderous vigilante divorcee (like in the post-BN DCU), I'd much prefer a story of redemption.

Fortunately, while the (SPOILER!) murder of Prometheus happened before the My52 launch date and is thus part of my canon, the story of his downfall came after, so I'm able to branch off and have Black Canary talk him away from the path back into the vigilante murderer he had been once before. Because the murder was brought about from extreme grief, there's room for extenuating circumstances to keep him out of jail.  They may not let him back into the League, but they can't keep Dinah from staying by his side.

Dinah's story isn't so rollercoaster-y, which is kind of a shame.  Sure she doesn't have any great hole to dig her out of, but she also hasn't had any major highs to play off of either.  She recently gave up her adopted daughter, Sin, but that works to my advantage because I just want the two of them (Mia's off to the Teen Titans and, if he's still alive, Conner will go roam the Earth or something).

Bye.

Ollie recently lost his mayoral position in Star City, so the two of them set up shop in Dinah's florist shop.  It's not very exiting, but they become strong members of the community they're fighting for.  The new mayor, of course, is as corrupt as they come and GA & BC are declared outlaws and hunted by the police even as they're rescuing citizens.  To fill his days, Ollie manages to politic himself into a City Council position to at least keep his eye on the dirty dealings. 

Something I want to address just for my own satisfaction, though, is to unkink Dinah's timeline. More details when I get to talking about the Justice Society, but I've been trying to come up with ideas to justify the growing time gap between WWII and my sliding timeline, a gap that currently requires Dinah's mother to have given birth at age 60.  I know it doesn't bother everyone, but it's something I'd like to nail down.

For Dinah, I think the solution lies in her pre-CoIE's origin.  Before they were a straight-up mother/daughter legacy, the JSA Dinah had a daughter cursed with a destructive "canary cry" and had to be placed in Limbo for her protection.  Somewhere along the way, Society Dinah transformed her mind into the body of her daughter and joined the League with a new sonic scream.  It was an odd solution to an odd problem, but it was the situation until CoIE came along and made a more linear timeline.  

All this was so she could be young enough to date Green Arrow.  Seriously.

So my ticket to bridging the timeline is to use Infinite Crisis to reclaim a bit of that Limbo story. Now, WWII Black Canary can have given birth in the 1950s (at the decent age of 30 or so), only to discover the Wizard's curse and be forced to place her daughter in Limbo.  Then, during a later adventure, Black Canary II can be rescued from Limbo in time to become a founding member of the Justice League.  Perhaps she's rescued as a baby and allowed to grow up, but I don't exactly have a timeline for all of that worked out yet.

Titans Together!

Teen Titans

With my Justice League in the pocket, it's time to delineate another classic superteam, the Teen Titans.

Originally assembled with the then-current line-up of teen-aged sidekicks (e.g. Batman's Robin and Green Arrow's Speedy), the Teen Titans eventually expanded to include other pre-existing teenagers (like Beast Boy of the Doom Patrol) as well as original characters designed specifically to be teen characters for the Titans (like Raven or the entire line-up from the 1996 series).

Truth is, it's rare that I like characters designed just to join a team.  Whether it's the Red Tornado for the Justice League or Bombshell for the Teen Titans, it more often than not comes across as a one-note character designed to fill a specific and obvious niche without much dimension otherwise.  Meanwhile, recent years have seen the introduction of enough teenaged superheroes that I get frustrated when they ignore them in favor of de-aging characters like Raven and Beast Boy.

So while my roster isn't completely without such made-for-team characters, I'm mostly putting it together with many of the pre-existing teen characters, all who come with their own lives, families, and enemies and add to the team's mythology rather than just filling a niche.


Speedy
Hands down I think Mia Dearden is the one to lead the Teen Titans. The experience and training she's received from both Green Arrow and Black Canary makes her one of the most skilled members of the team.  That she's a character living with HIV is a strong character trait and care must be taken to neither downplay it more than it deserves or to get too preachy about it.  My only real complaint is with the name.  I get that she's the second of Green Arrow's sidekick, but it was Roy's nickname and it seems odd for her to swipe it.  When she joins the Teen Titans, I'll be ripping off Young Justice and changing her name to Artemis to signal that she's not under Green Arrow's tutelage any more.

Static

I'm mostly familiar with the character from his cartoon in 2000, but I think his unique powers and personality make him a welcome member of the team.  Uniquely in my Titans, he still has a loving family and home, which would add an interesting dynamic to the team.

Miss Martian
The one exception to my dislike of made-for-teaming characters, Miss Martian was created for the One Year Later Teen Titans and totally caught my fancy.  The reveal of her secretly being a White Martian trying to atone for her race's sins took me by surprise and gave the character even more depth.  I love the contrast between her outwardly sweet appearance and her status as the team's powerhouse.

Lagoon Boy

I almost chickened out on including Lagoon Boy here for the simple (and dumb) fact that it would give me two green characters.  Silly.  LB hasn't been in much over the years, but his appearances in early Young Justice comics and the Sins of Youth event sold me on the character.  He's a fun-loving character with a dumb power (amphibious AND able to swell up like a puffer fish), but that just makes him more appealing.  I'm a fan of marine biology and can see him taking on a few other sea-life related powers as he develops.


Vulcan
From the Son of Vulcan mini-series, Vulcan inherited the title when the previous Vulcan died and imbued him with the powers and weapons to fight a secret White Martian invasion.  That there's actually a White Martian on his team should lead to no end of interesting interactions.  Of all the kids listed here, Vulcan is the least experienced and, despite his vast powers and weaponry, often feels out of his depth.

Titans Tower will remain on its island in San Francisco and the kids' status as (mostly) orphans will make it easier for them to relocate there if needed.  I'm not actually a fan of the current design, but figure I could hold off a while to redesign it after the Fearsome Five destroy it or something.

An element to be added to the team's private lives will be to enroll all these under-age super-heroes into a posh local college preparatory academy.  Miss Martian is easily able to change her skin color to maintain a secret identity, but Lagoon Boy has a little more trouble.  One of the sea-based powers I'd like him to develop is a cuttlefish's ability to change its skin coloration. This'll help a little, but since he can't actually change his features, he's going to look like a burn victim.  Meanwhile, Static will have received a scholarship to the academy which a very proud father will very reluctantly agree to send him off to.  Maintaining their secret identities in this new environment will be aided by a new staff member, Rachel Roth, the former Teen Titan known as Raven.

Getting these Titans together will be a bit more of a challenge than with my Justice League. Unlike the JLA, the Teen Titans didn't have a convenient breaking point around my BN#8 launch point where I could smoothly restructure the team.  Recent adventures *did* include Static and Miss Martian, so I guess I'm part way there.  I also have other plans for Superboy and Kid Flash, so moving them off the team is another step in the right direction.  

A League of My Own

The Justice League of America

Since 1960, armchair comic editors like myself have had strong opinions on who should be in the Justice League and why.  It's the holy grail of fantasy comic-ing.  And while I wanted to lead off My52 with the key players like Superman and Green Lantern, I knew it wasn't going to be long before I had to lay out my own League.

From the start I decided to go for a fairly large line up.  The League is for proven characters; this isn't where you send wannabe characters and hope they become popular through association with Batman (that's what the anthology books are for).  These should be established characters with lives and careers outside the League, and it's assumed that not every member will be present for every adventure.

Free reign can lead to a little decision paralysis, though, so I gave myself a premise I needed to adhere to.  I call this the "family rep" requirement.  Each character assembled in my JLoA will be a representative of a particular family of characters in the DC Universe.  In other words, I don't necessarily need Batman as long as I have someone who can represent the Batman family.  I'm sure it'll make more sense as I reveal my roster.

Superman (Superman family)

Of course the League needs some big guns, and no guns are bigger than Superman.  While some say Superman's presence would overshadow the rest of the League, I think his strong moral core is his most valuable asset here.  Although my "man of action" is quick to leap into the fray, his real impact on the team is the way he encourages everyone around him to be a little bit better.  

Batwoman (Batman family)

Sure I think Dick Grayson would be a good fit into the League, but for my Bat-representative I went with Batwoman who had really impressed me during her introduction in 52. From day 1 she was confident and competent, and held her own against monster men and alongside Nightwing without any of the usual "is this what I'm supposed to be doing?" qualities that usually plague newcomers to the DCU.  This trait is especially welcome when seen alongside such legendary heroes as Superman and Green Lantern. 

The Flash (Flash family)

Unsurpassed superspeed aside, Wally has been heroing since he was 12 years old and brings a lifetime of experience to the team.  His time on the Teen Titans also gives him connections to a large percentage of hero-dom.

 

Green Lantern (Green Lantern family)

Hal is the cool uncle of the team, the one that takes his teammates on wild rides without consideration for what comes after.  He and Superman share the status of being the only founding members on the team, and that shared "elder statesman" status leads them to clash more often than not. He’s also the team’s main connection with extra-terrestrial beings and information.

Giganta (Wonder Woman family)

Maybe the biggest brow-raiser of the bunch?  Giganta has tested the line between hero and villain in titles such as Wonder Woman and the Atom followed by her “teaming” with Batwoman as a mind-controlled Female Fury during Final Crisis.  That could be her -in- to the team, and get her to cross the line.  Plus, I’m a big fan of the villain-turned-good story.  Her skills as a scientist are also welcome on the team.

Blue Beetle (Charlton family)

Beetle takes the role once held by Firestorm, that of over-powered yet young and inexperienced hero.  The League has taken him in more to keep their eye on him and train him than actual belief that he’s ready.  At the end of the day, though, he really is one of the big guns in the League.

Bulleteer (Captain Marvel family)

Good lord, do all female heroes in the DCU have red hair?  In any case, I liked the no-nonsense “outsider’s” look at super heroics which characterized her Seven Soldiers mini-series.  I’d like to see more of her “really?” attitude in the League. You know, someone tries explaining the history of the Shaggy Man and Bulleteer's all "nobody else thinks that's dumb?"  She also needs a slight power upgrade. A recent depiction of her incorrectly showed her flying, but since that's a power a Bulleteer needs to have, I'll be adding a reason for it.  I'm assuming magnetic helmet...

Mera (Aquaman family)

One of the breakout characters from Blackest Night, Mera brings all the traits of Aquaman (including the throne of Atlantis) with a more versatile set of powers.  She’s imperious and commanding, but is driven by a noblesse oblige which drives her to help people.  It's a shame I couldn't find a good picture of her with her high white collar, 'cause that's definitely coming back.

Mister Miracle (New Gods family) 

In many ways, Mister Miracle is the front man of the Justice League. Shiloh Norman's showbiz career steers him straight for the spotlight.  He doesn't necessarily tend to do things the easy way, instead preferring a bit of showmanship to his heroics.

The League’s most recent HQ was the Hall of Justice located in Washington D.C., but that just seems kind of derivative.  I do want to keep them down to Earth and within the borders of the U.S., but not *so* accessible that they become commonplace. I’m leaning toward something like a refurbished Challenger Mountain base in the Colorado Rockies.

Assembling this team in the wake of Blackest Night shouldn't be too challenging.  As of April, 2010, the League was just finishing up their not-well-received Cry for Justice mini-series by James Robinson which was supposed to lead into his ongoing JLA writing gig.  Not sure if it went as planned, though, because the League that formed afterward was only slightly related to the cast of that mini-.  Still, it's easy enough to launch from the collapse of the League right around that time and pull together the group you see above.  In fact, Batwoman, Bulleteer and Green Lantern all appeared in that series, and Mera was just wrapping up her star turn in Blackest Night.  

Recent JLA storylines hint at the villain Doctor Impossible being a Mr. Miracle counterpart from Earth-3, and I would turn those rumors into a storyline featuring the New Gods (thus drawing in Mr. Miracle) and the Crime Syndicate.  Presumably, when "evil won" on Earth-1 during Final Crisis, Earth-3 could have seen a similar "good wins" and they enact a plan to link up with the Apokoliptian gods on our Earth.  The Syndicate members are able to ambush old sparring partners like Superman, Flash and Green Lantern, but they're not prepared for new foes like Giganta, Mera or Batwoman.  Eventually, this new League is able to send the Syndicate packing.

Blue Beetle can be brought in later when the League encounters him and witnesses his untrained power.

Watching the Detective

Detective Comics

Hot on the heels of my Action Comics anthology pitch, I present that book's sister title.  For all the reasons I stated there, Detective Comics cannot be allowed to die, and I think it's best future in My52 is in the form of an anthology series featuring more Batman-themed characters. Just as Action Comics skewed toward Superman, this title will feature characters from Batman's extended family (like Robin or Huntress) or characters who align with Batman's street-level crime-busting (like the Question or Black Lightning).

I know I'm grossly generalizing here, but there is a notable divide between Superman fans and Batman fans (it's what keeps my marriage lively), and it's my hope that by providing two anthology series each focused on one side of the line or the other, readers will be able to pick which one to follow based on their personal tastes.

There might be room for other anthologies based on other reading trends, but I think these two will do for now.

Time for Action!

Action Comics

Despite my zero need for having multiple titles for the same character, I couldn't let 800+ issues of Action Comics come to an end on my watch.  This venerable title deserves to keep going, but not as a home for Superman (who I've already placed in My52's Adventures of Superman).

I've decided to take advantage of this free title to bring back the concept of the anthology series.  A publishing universe as grand as the DC Universe has a lot of characters that, while they maybe don't warrant a full, ongoing series still deserve to have the occasional story told. At the same time, any comic universe which doesn't want to grow stagnant will want to occasionally introduce new characters.  An anthology series would provide for both of these needs.

"Hi, I'm Superman." "And I'm Batman, and we both debuted 

in anthology comic series."

It seems, though, that anthology series have been very hard to sustain in recent decades.  I don't know when the most recent one was, but I remember muscling through some mediocre stories in Showcase '95 (or so) and an equal number of stories I just wasn't interested in.

My plan here is to provide an anthology with a little more focus than just a grab bag of random characters and stories.  Action Comics, as the birthplace of Superman, will tell stories of characters drawn from Superman's extended family (such as Jimmy Olsen or Supergirl) or characters who align with the bright, heroic action stories Superman embodies (such as Red Tornado or Booster Gold).  Ideally fans will be more comfortable picking up this series if they already know the types of stories it will contain.

Structurally, each issue will feature two stories (both one-shots and story arcs), and in classic Arabian Nights style, will always feature one story ending that issue (a one-shot or concluding arc) and one story continuing (either just starting or in the middle of an arc).  Personal experience with the 2003's Brave and the Bold team-up series showed that even when I didn't care about the characters teamed up, I still read it to see how the ongoing story developed.  

Yes, even this one.

Earth's Mightiest Mortal

Power of Shazam!

It almost seems like DC Comics doesn't know what to do with Captain Marvel, but since there was a spot-on series by Jerry Ordway back in the mid-'90s, it can't be that elusive.  There've been a lot of changes in the Marvel Family since then, though.

Originally, 10-year-old Billy Batson was empowered by the wizard Shazam and became Captain Marvel upon saying his mentor's name.  Among the growing Marvel Family was Freddy Freeman, who would gain a portion of that power as Captain Marvel Jr. whenever he said the name of his mentor, Captain Marvel (making him one of the few super-heroes who can't say his own name without losing his powers).

Since then, Shazam was killed, Billy Batson took his spot using the name 'Marvel', and Freddy fleeted up to take Captain Marvel's role under the name 'Shazam.'

Guess what Freddy "Shazam" Freeman has to say now 

to turn on and off his powers.

Despite being written by Judd Winick, I hadn't heard anything bad about the Trials of Shazam mini-series which gave Freddy his new powers and identity, so I'm inclined to keep him as the main guy despite my preference for the boy-to-man shtick of Billy Batson.

However, since My52 isn't beholden to marketing concerns, I'm going to take advantage of the return of the wizard Shazam to at least fix that name business.  In the pages of JSA, Shazam (the wizard) was rescued from the Rock of Finality and was more than a little grumpy at the failures of his chosen champions.  He took back the powers he'd granted to Billy and was critical of that upstart Freeman who'd stolen his name.

Moving forward into My52, the wizard Shazam catches up with Freddy and hashes things out. Shazam reclaims his name, and Freddy takes on the identity of Captain Marvel.  Because Freddy is empowered directly from the gods, he's not a minion of Shazam as Billy was, but they've developed a partnership of sorts (although there's still room for some antagonism between the two of them for flavor.)

I'm not sure how old Freddy is, but he was at least a teenager when he started, and my +5 years to the sliding timeline puts him at least to college age and adulthood.  Unfortunately, I lose the adolescent wish fulfillment of the original concept, but Freddy's mortal identity does come with lame legs (courtesy of the villain Captain Nazi), so we do get to dabble with the lame-to-hero status formerly held by Don Blake.  Recent art has sadly moved away from tying Freddy to Elvis and instead shown him as some 90s-style hipster.  Because Elvis admitted Capt. Marvel Jr. was his favorite (and an inspiration for his glam years), recent artists returned the favor by giving Freddy a rockabilly appearance.  Under My52 guidance, that art direction will return.

Alex Ross knew what he was doing, 

although we might not go that far in My52.

Recent years have seen an effort to differentiate Captain Marvel from Superman. They did this by declaring that, since Captain Marvel's origin was mystical, he would only concern himself with mystical threats.  I may have hinted at this before, but I don't cater to anything that limits the story potential of a character.  It'd be like saying Superman can only fight aliens, or Batman can only face off against orphans.  Some of Marvel's more famous enemies include such science-based enemies as Mr. Mind, Dr. Sivanna, and Mr. Atom.

I do, however, agree with the need to differentiate between Supes and Marvel.  I'll do that here by playing Captain Marvel a bit more seriously (what with the wisdom of Solomon and all) while Superman regains his sense of humor.  On the other hand, Superman's adventures will be a bit more "mainstream," while Marvel will be doing more time travel or alien world or just generally gonzo style adventures.  Bottom line, readers will be getting two different kinds of stories from these nearly identically-powered characters.

Beware my power...

Green Lantern

It was his work on Green Lantern that made Geoff Johns a household name and got him promoted to chief creative director of DC Comics (or whatever).  He made sense of Hal Jordan's timeline enough to bring him back to life in a satisfying way, and turned a character who once had trouble keeping a solo series into the headliner of a number of world-shaping epic storylines.

Having said that, there's one trait Johns brought to his Green Lantern Corps which made it tough for me to read.  He played up the space police aspect and included a lot of inexplicably Earth-like procedures.

For the uninitiated, a Code 1011 is "deicide." 

By "Earth-like" procedures I, of course, mean Utah.

The end result was that, for a superhero with a magic ring, Green Lantern felt a little...mundane. I'd like to keep the epicness of the Green Lantern Corps while returning a sense individuality to the members, and I'll do it by depowering the spectrum corps entirely.

If you'll remember from waaaay back in the My52 Blackest Night rewrite, Hal Jordan revived the dying Entity of life by reabsorbing all the various emotional entities from their respective power batteries back into the White Entity.  They saved all life in the universe, but in the end depowered all the Lantern Corps.

Yellow, Orange, Violet and Blue Lanterns are depowered and taken off the galactic stage. Although I was never a fan of the Red Lanterns, I can totally see Atrocitus (and Dex-Starr just because) killing all his fellow Red Lanterns to claim enough burning energy to remain active.

He's gross-looking, but would provide a nice change 

from Sinestro as the go-to Green Lantern villain.

I'd also like to keep the Indigo Tribe going just to continue to play off their mysterious origins and goals.

Meanwhile, the Green Lanterns are also depowered, but unlike the other Corps, they have a body of high-powered Guardians guiding them.  With their police force rendered powerless and a strong feeling of guilt over their role in hiding the Blackest Night (and other extremes they've gone to recently in the War of Light), the Guardians make the ultimate sacrifice and enter the central battery, using their own power and life forces to relight it.  As powerful as the Guardians were, though, it's not enough to empower 3600 sectors worth of Lanterns, so the remaining Corps has to be selective in where they base themselves.  Each remaining Green Lantern must act in an increasing level of autonomy, with only occasional guidance and support from Oa.  Many of my favorite veteran Lanterns continue on, such as Rot Lop Fan, Iolande, Salaak, and Stel, while others are retired (some by choice, like Soranik Natu).  

Of our Earth-born Lanterns, I waffled a bit on which one to keep as the My52 Green Lantern, or even introducing a new character to take up the ring.  To be honest, Guy and Kyle were never in the running.  Guy was never more to me than a one-note character, and Kyle never hooked me in 20 years of trying.   Hal and John were both strong candidates, though, but despite John's success as a character in the Justice League animated series, I ultimately opted to keep Hal in the suit both because he brings the strongest supporting cast (non-costumed story aspects are just as important to me as their costumed antics), and also because I came up with other plans for John.

While Guy and Kyle quietly retire to obscurity, John retains the distinction of being the only mortal to be named a Guardian (I believe from his 'Mosaic' days, gaining the title "the Architect") and will remain on Oa with a still-ringed Salaak to help run the Corps.  

See?

On Earth, Hal keeps his position as an Air Force fighter pilot, and with it all the supporting cast that came with it, like Cowgirl and General Stone.  It's an interesting inversion that Hal's commanding officer is in on his alternate identity, rather than him having to keep coming up with excuses when he goes off-world for days at a time.  I'm not clear why Stone would keep his secret, but there it is.  Hal also has his brother's family living in Coast City, but they're not particularly danger-prone, so they'll be there to simply provide an air of the mundane in Hal's otherwise gonzo life (fighter pilot by day/space cop by night).