So I’ve decided I want to do a series of essays all about comics. I do. But I don’t want to get bogged down in discussing the boring minutiae of things. It doesn’t matter that Green Lantern was once an insurance adjustor, and then was a travelling toy salesman (he was also a trucker for a while). Rather, I want to discuss the core concepts of these characters. What they represent, places you can find it to read and the bigger, deeper, building blocks that make these things work even now.
I don’t know how often I’ll get to do it, I’ll try for at least weekly. But I hope you’ll find them interesting and not something you’ve necessarily seen before. At times I will even try to have other folk chime in and give thoughts on things.
Anyway, to start, I had a list of characters in mind. PLEASE in the comments give me other ideas. Some of them I have no interest in doing, but that would be rare. Anyway, here’s the batch I’m currently looking at, not in the order I’ll eventually do them:
Batman (along with both the first Robin and current one and original Batgirl)
Superman
Legion of Super-Heroes
The Flash
Green Lantern
Dazzler
Captain America
Iron Man
Thor
The Fantastic Four vs. The Challengers of the Unknown
Eisner and Harvey award winning editor, writer and tired person. Novelist, comic writer, cat owner, NY'er.
If there is no Tick, I cannot have any part of these shenanigans.
While I do adore the Tick I am not sure I can make him work for what this is going to be ABOUT. But I’ll certainly try, just for you.
ROM.
You must.
HAHAHA OH lord. I don’t know if I CAN. *cackle*
Silver Suuuurrrrfffffeeeerrrr!
Green Arrow and Black Canary (separate or together, get into their relationship)
Hulk
DAAAAARKHAAAAWWWWK!!!!!!
Silver Sufer I should do. Hulk maybe, GA and BlackCanary would be interesting as hell to breakinto bits and look at. DARKHAWK? Why do you hate me, D.J.?
The Punisher? Excalibur series? Daredevil? Spawn?
Also, I have to agree with Mr. Lady. The Tick would be the balls. Or, one of his evil counterparts. As in The Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight. That’s a class A vilan right there.
Daredevil and the Punisher possibly. The thing is to find characters who have such a strong core they shine. Not all characters do, even ones I enjoy.
The beauty of the Tick is that it isn’t SUPPOSED to work. I have faith.
Look forward to reading these, as I tend to read Swamp Thing rather than the super heroes.
I’ll add comments here, since they seem to be collected here.
Wonder Woman, since she’s the benchmark female hero by which almost all other female heroes are compared against.
Green Arrow – my specific hook for this would be to study how he started off as a Batman/Bruce Wayne clone and was turned into a solid character in his own right.
John Constantine, I think, could use the dissection.
Last but not least, Barry Ween. It’s funny how Winnick even said he never planned on putting any depth into the character or stories, but look how much better they were with it. I think Ween is the best example of the Boy Genius archtype, and I would be interested to see your take on the core of his character.
Let me see what I can do, across the board here, guys.