Mark Bertolini

...and they tell you you can revamp 1 property from Marvel and 1 from DC. You can handpick your artistic team.

What do you pick? And what would you do with it?

DC: Gotham Central with Alex Maleev. This would be the Bat-family tie-in book that didn't actually star Batman, but we'd see semi-regular appearances from the Bat-family, like Nightwing, Robin, etc., assisting and occasionally clashing with the Gotham Police dept.

Marvel: Gotta go with Alias. Art by Michael Gaydos. Take Jessica Jones out of the back seat she's been put in over in New Avengers, have her start up Alias Investigations again, and get back into the seedy underbelly of the Marvel U. Confrontations with her hubby Luke Cage's crew are bound to happen.

Your turn.

Obnoxiad

MARVEL: MARVEL TWO IN ONE
I'd get away from the Thing as the focus, and instead have two villians (Paste Pot Pete/Trapster & Grizzly) be the focus. They received amnesty during the whole Civil War thing or for some other reason, and are now bailbonds/repomen. They also handle insurance fraud and other sorts of things. When it comes time to repo a Quin Jet you get these two guys. The team up/cross over part often comes from them having to deal with other characters in their new line of work.

Arcade has a burning mad on for these two because they repo'd an entire Murder World before the series began, and we constantly have them ducking Arcade. A bit of a dramedy mixed with some action. Grizzly has an ex wife and needs to keep up with his child support and the Trapster is always getting grief about his Paste Pot Pete days.

Art: Julian Lopez (Batman & the Outsiders) or possibly Paris Cullins from several DC series in the late 80's.

DC: ZATANNA
While never a full fledged series she's had some minis.

Take a look at her from her non super hero persona. This series focuses on Zatanna as celebrity who happens to be a super hero. Why is this amazing performer, this superb super hero, this incredibly beautiful woman NEVER able to keep a relationship? We give her a group of background characters that include her agent, her propbuidler, her make up artist, and we tell some stories about the smaller things. While all that is going on we incorporate a mystery from her fathers past, and work that angle into the story in a way that the subplot eventually turns into the main plot.

Aaron Lopresti would be my go to go on art for this in a perfect world.

Newt

Marvel:

Namor the Submariner. I think the character has potential, certainly more than ol' wishy-washy Aquaman. I'd like to follow his youth, before he became King; maybe even push his origins back further so we can see him in different eras. Develop the undersea civilizations and creatures more. Make it a bit grim (not gritty), something along the lines of Conan beneath the seas. Show that while he may seem like a big jerk now, he's really softened up compared to the way he was.

DC:

Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane. Change the title to Lois Lane: Reporter or something like that. Include some of the old elements of romantic comedy and silly fantasy, but also include more of Lois actually doing her job (without Superman having to rescue her every time). Start the series when she's just a cub reporter, before Supes has showed up on the radar.

Art on both: me (hey, it's my dream, right?)

__________________

Crestmere

I wish I knew the characters of Marvel and DC better before I made a decision like that. Whenever I talk to friends who are comic fans, they have all been reading comics for like ten years and they know stuff inside and out.

So these are just the two best series ideas I've with Marvel and DC stuff from the last year or so.


Marvel:
Soviet Super Soldiers

Proposal:
I was in elementary school when the Soviet Union fell apart and the Cold War ended. I didn't grow up with the constant fear that the evil Russian hordes were going to invade. Even so, I still never got a taste of the rich and unique Russian culture until I was in college because Cold War era paranoia took most of the great Russian writers out of the American canon. My idea with this series is to tell the other side of the story. This is not only going to be the first truly post-Cold War comic, it is going to be the first anti-Cold War comic. The American comics could only tell half of the story (if they even got that right), this comic is going to tell the other side of the story from a uniquely Russian point of view (and if anyone has read classic Russian literature, they know there is something unique to it).

The first issue begins the day the Soviet Union ends. What do they do now?

Artist:
David Aja (Invincible Iron First)
His artwork has a great cinematic feel. It would mesh really well with my storytelling style.






DC:
Crime Syndicate of Amerika

Proposal:
Think of a superhero book in reverse. By reversing the traditional superhero tropes, not only can the cliches be parodied, they can truly be deconstructed and reinterpreted. Instead of being emotionally attached to the good guys, we are removed from them and therefore able to critically interpret their actions. The CSA book may not be a book that people read because of the likable characters, but it will be one that people read because it challenges them and encourages them to think.

Artist:
Davide Gianfelice
Not only is he a terrific storyteller, his style will come across as the reversed version of the regular superhero book.

Swampy19

The Hood

jeremyjfogg

Marvel:
Apocalypse- I would 12 issues to show his emergence as the force to be reckoned with he is supposed to be. Show him developing a new 4 Horsemen that makes sense, a few closer underlings( like Ozymandias) and just make him one mean mother. Even have him take out a few heroes and villians to show his survival of the fittest mentality.

Art: Landross

DC:
Vixen:
Seems as if she would be fun to write. Take a bit more from the JLU series than the comics in regards to her character and bringing a new powerful woman to the forefront. I would bring back the totem powers and utilize different African Mythologies and give her a nice rogues.

Art: Andy Kubert

Just quick thoughts...

Crestmere

I would buy both of those in a second.

Did you mean Ladronn? I can't find a comic artist named Landross

Eugene Selassie

DC: Doom Patrol
Artist: Tomas Moron or Pete Woods

I'd like to redefine this group for the 21st century, much like Grant Morrison did with New X-men. (Modern uniforms, new mission statement)
I have that line stuck in my head that Maxwell Lord stated to Ted Kord before he killed him ...about the 1.3 million metahumans on the planet. 99.5% of them are the lady that keeps winning at powerball or the kid who can bend spoons with his mind. DC only deals with the other .5%, or as Max Lord stated...the gods that walk the earth. I'd like the Doom Patrol to not only handle the weird and occult stuff, but to develop a support line for metas, for ones not wanting to slap on a cape and costume, but just getting by the day to day and now have transparent skin or exhales poisonous gas when they breath out.

Marvel: New Warriors
Artist: Jeremy Cardona or Carlos Pacheco

I basically want to do what was intended for this group. To be the anti-establishment post-Civil War. By making the team a bunch of de-powered mutants, you not only lose out on the importance of the Civil War, you bring up other X-plots that take away from the depth of the concept of New Warriors. They need to ask about what happened with Robbie Baldwin's transformation. They need to question Vance and Elvin supposedly selling out to the Initiative. They need to find out What happened to Angelica Jones since she quit being Firestar. Acknowledge that Rich has matured beyond the point of ever being a New Warrior again. AND MAYBE A MEMORIAL FOR NITA, DWAYNE AND MICROBE???
Now I AM NOT saying I just want the old gang back together...that'd be a step backwards. I'd like 3 old faces and 5 or 6 new recruits. People who always wanted to be Avengers, but don't agree with Stark's Initiative. They now will gladly fight the good fight whether Stark likes it or not.

Crestmere

I'd like to hear more on the Doom Patrol one. Do you want to go weird like Morrison or just take the name and do a series for the "average" metahumans?

I think someone would buy New Warriors but I probably wouldn't. Way too much baggage/backstory for me to have to find and learn.

Nick Kerklaan

Marvel:

X-Men. The Brotherhood kills off every member of the X-Men and any team derivative therof, except Wolverine, who clones himself a bunch of times to form a new X-Men composed entirely of Wolverine. They wage a successful revenge-fueled assault on the Brotherhood, killing all of them except Magneto, who clones himself a bunch of times to form the Brotherhood of Magnetos. Then the two teams fight each other until the series gets cancelled.

Art: Jim Lee.

DC:

The Joker.

Reviving the short-lived series starring the Clown Prince of Crime himself. The idea would be to get away from the violent, unpredictable sociopath persona that's more popular than it's ever been right now, and opt instead for a more Cesar Romero-ish, malicious prankster/thief portrayal. Have him pulling actual capers again. No need to tone down completely - he can still perform sadistic acts of violence, but they would be more frivolous and along the lines of the inexplicably elaborate death traps of the 60s series. Despite being the protagonist of the book, he doesn't have to create sympathy or even be particularly likeable (read: Secret Six), he just has to be fun. We can even get him laid once in awhile (in a non-psuedo-rape/foreplay-to-necksnapping sort of way).

Art: Brian Bolland, because what the hell.

Crestmere

Do you think this would work given the reponse to how the character was portrayed in The Dark Knight?

Hanyouyomi

I see I'm not the only one who has an idea for Apocalypse and his horsemen... However thankfully our ideas are different... and if it were possible I'd choose, Frank Cho, Joe Mad, Ed Mcguiness , and Alvin Lee of UDON studios on this project, because I've especially enjoyed Ed McGuiness' work on HULK, and Alvin Lee's on DeadPool, TaskMaster, and Agent-X. I'd also see if I could get Joe Mad because he's worked on the Age Of Apocalypse in 1996, and his concept of The Apocalyptic Horseman War was an influence on My own Concept of War. (Though on a side note since my imagination is influenced by music, when I listened to Killswitch Engage's cover of Dio's Holy Diver my concept looked somewhat similar to Mad's but in listening to Indestructible by Disturbed I developed the current concept.)

But anyway on with the concept for this pitch: After Alexander Krieg( From my series Son Of War) goes to Iraq and settles a misunderstanding with a demon hunter named Garlon, he encounters a dimensional demon named Cole who traveled to the Earth-616 dimension to find Apocalypse, and have him reassemble the final incarnations of His Horsemen for the purpose of bringing about the Apocalypse in Luciami(The protagonist of my story Princess Of The Damned) and Krieg's dimension seeing as how Luciami is unwilling to fulfill her destiny as The Bringer Of The Apocalypse. Luciami then seeks the aid of The actual Apocalyptic Horsemen in her dimension(Those being my concepts) in order to restore Order to it since Armageddon isn't to occur there yet.

But there's also a problem with this pitch because during this confrontation The Earth-616 Magneto and his X-men, aid in Cole and Apocalypse's defeat driving them back to Earth-616, but right before Cole throws Luciami through a separate portal that takes her to the nexus where she meets Doctor Strange, and after having the portal to her dimension crystalized, shattered, and scattered through multiple dimensions,( Which are in certain specific realms of the comic-book universe) Luciami must gather them all if she wishes to return to her dimension.


OKay now that that's done I can now focus on The artists I'd select for DC... And those choices would be Jim Lee, Marc Silvestri, and Pat Lee, and I'd work a batman miniseries that I spoke of earlier, but I know that would have to follow after a certain Batman story arc that had been established...

jeremyjfogg

Indeed I meant Landronn...sorry for that...

Nick Kerklaan

Probably. For all the people running around going "WHY SO SERIOUS HAHAHA" and dressing up like the Joker on Halloween, there are just as many who are completely dated by the "gritty" Joker of the movie.

Actually, the more I think about it, the more your question confuses me. Are you saying there's only room for one interpretation of a popular character at any given time? That seems kind of needlessly limiting.