lunes, 3 de febrero de 2014

How can Earth 2 become DC's answer to Marvel's Ultimate imprint?

Once again thanks to my countless hours navigating around the web, I encountered an interesting rumour thanks to Bleeding Cool which says: 

"Next week’s Bleeding Cool Magazine has a lot to say about weekly comics, with DC launching both a Batman Eternal weekly comic as well as the Five Years Later-set Future’s End weekly comic.
But they are not alone.

We knew that we were getting a new Earth 2 title to accompany the current monthly. Well, we’re now hearing that the new Earth 2 book is to be a weekly comic book.

We don’t know about any creative teams, though we expect Tom Taylor to have a role and  Tyler Kirkham seems possible after he finishes his run on Teen Titans"

I can't express enough how much this rumour excites me because for one, this could make Earth 2 into a franchise strong enough to compete with Marvel's Ultimate imprint.

For those who don't know, Marvel's Ultimate line of books started in the year 2000 with a pretty promising premise: Create a new universe where they can start telling stories from scratch about their classic characters with a modern perspective for a new audience.

This concept caught a lot of interest from a great part of the industry and public and it certainly delivered initially thanks to new and bold titles like Brian Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man and Mark Millar's Ultimate Fantastic Four, Ultimate X-Men and even more important, Ultimates. Titles that pushed boundaries that couldn't be pushed on the regular Marvel universe and managed to put this format into the eyes of creators who wanted to experiment with the properties without any restriction.

Ultimately (hey!) though, the line started to fade into obscurity due to bad decisions and reboots thanks to authors like Jeph Loeb and editorial who didn't know how to handle the direction of the line. However, recently the Marvel Now campaign has allowed them to begin once again with series like All-New Ultimates, Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate FF which hopefully will allow to revitalize the imprint.

I bring this subject because I truly believe that Earth 2 is a property that has the potential to do what the Ultimate line did on its prime.


Think about it, in Earth 2 we see different incarnations of classic characters like Superman, Batman, Green Lantern and The Flash, some of them even with different civilian identities in a world that has its own share of rules, a world that has suffered from a terrible war and it's currently in one even worse.

This permits creators to experiment with different concepts and themes on this universe that they can't simply be executed on Prime Earth (The main New 52 DCU). Plus, there are hundred of classic characters in Earth 2 that could be exploited in different ways and it frankly would be a disservice to not use them or contain them on a single book.

That's why I'm going to start thinking of ways about how this future imprint could be handled:

First of all, cancel the current Earth 2 title and relaunch it as the rumoured weekly, that way it can focus in the universe of Earth 2 by exploring every aspect of that reality. You would get your street-level hero, classic superhero, cosmic superhero and any other you could imagine being introduced in this universe and they could also concentrate into bigger threats that affect all of them. This way you would bring a lot of new readers and made this book the one that is directing the whole format.

Now, about the authors, I would choose the following: 
  • Tom Taylor: This a safe bet, especially due that BC also mentions him. Taylor is already handling the main title pretty well despite that its direction is not exactly my favorite and he would be able to bring a lot of cohesiveness to the franchise.   
  • Keith Gifffen: He has a really creative and energetic style and would certainly help with the worldbuilding and personality. His main weakness is his lack of focus but that could be compensated with the other authors. 
  • Brian Azzarello: He's pretty good at displaying complex themes and dialogue (although the latter can become a bit tiring for some) and would also help at creating a much deeper world, not to mention that he would also contribute to the long-term planning. It doesn't hurt that he's also handling Wonder Woman, the New Gods and wrote a story featuring Thomas Wayne as Batman, these are characters that have a connection to the current series.
  • Jeff Parker: Another creative mind who also brings great character work. Not so good at worldbuilding and the long game but that's why we have the others.
Second, launch a proper Justice Society book with a heavy emphasis on character work and team dynamics, focusing on smaller but more personal threats that affect the whole world. It would feature staples like Green Lantern, The Flash, Wildcat, Doctor Fate, Hawkgirl, etc. Just put Tom Taylor again here since he seems to have a good handle on the characters already and all would be fine.

Third, launch an All-Star Squadron series featuring heroes from the World Army (The most advanced organization of Earth 2) so they can deal with threats that the Justice Society can't and use characters like The Atom, Sandman, Red Arrow, Hawkman, etc. I would personally put Brian Azzarello again due to his great character work and taste in gritty stories.

Fourth, create an Infinity Inc. title as the Earth 2 analogue of Legion of Super-Heroes like James Robinson initially intended concentrating on a desperate future that is in need of heroes after The Legion disbanded (Thanks to Paul Levitz) featuring the descendant of the current heroes of this universe Hire Matt Kindt for this and watch him go crazy.

Finally, and this is really important, please just cancel Worlds' Finest. Both Power Girl and Huntress are doing absolutely nothing and nobody pays attention to them, the title's sales are already slipping anyway. At first, I thought that it would be okay to just give them a new author but at this point is better to forget that anything on this book happened which is pretty easy since it's already pretty forgettable, not to mention that it would dilute the line. Just shuffle PG and Huntress on Justice Society and it would be fine or even better, give PG her own series again (Written by Michael Alan Nelson please).

And this is only the beginning, you could eventually get an Alan Scott series as Green Lantern, a Jay Garrick series as The Flash (although I have a feeling that they would give it first to Thomas Wayne), this could be the beginning of something wonderful.

Anyway, those are my current suggestions and even though I'm sure some of them won't ever be utilized, at least I hope that someone at DC is able to realize the potential this franchise has.

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