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Comic Book Pitch: Titans Together
Last summer, suffering from an influx of spare time, I wrote the first draft of a Teen Titans miniseries. Three issues into said draft, DC Comics rebooted their entire universe, rolling all their big properties back to issue 1 and starting from scratch on pretty much everything.
So even if I had decided to take it to anyone, it’s probably invalid. This morning, I found the proposal for the miniseries on my hard drive and thought I’d share. It needs ironing out, certainly, but I really like the concept: at the very least, Titans Together would at least be different from most of the other superhero titles.
It is, however, just messy with sixty-plus years’ worth of continuity – part of the reason I’m sharing this is because I don’t want to waste all that research – so if you don’t know what a Green Lantern is, this is probably going to be lost on you. But I’ll provide links.
Here’s the awkward one-liner, and if that piques your interest you can click the “read more” tag:
The members of the ‘Titans Together’ project, a support group for superpowered teenagers, take on the case of a young Gotham girl who has become Earth’s new Red Lantern on a mission to kill the Penguin.
Here at the end of a superfuckingbusy week, I finally got the chance to sit down with a cup of tea and the first issue of Saga from Fiona Staples, artist on Mystery 40, and Brian K. Vaughan, who wrote former Best Things Ever Y: the Last Man and Ex Machina.
It’s so good.
I realise that isn’t much of a review, but now and then something takes away your powers of critique – not that mine are stellar, you understand – because there’s nothing more to say than “it’s so good” and maybe adding an “oh my god” or a “you guys.” Staples’s art is gorgeous, but I’ve been missing Vaughan’s crackling dialogue since Ex Machina reached its finale almost two years ago.
Lately I’ve been trying to ignore plot details where I can. I knew nothing about Drive before I pressed play, for example, and so far it’s been working out for me. And although it was painful, I put my blinkers on for Saga because with creator-owned comic book properties it’s easier than if you try to ignore the hype around a big-release film like The Muppets.
(Admittedly, the plot of The Muppets was tissue-thin, a string of jokes and songs stuck together with the sort of non-toxic glue handed out to primary school children.)
The concept of Saga is not a high one: the war between a planet and its moon has been outsourced across the galaxy, and there in wartime a hybrid baby is born to a man with horns and his winged enemy combatant-turned-lover. It’s great to see a first issue take its time to set the tone and momentum at the cost of a little confusion, rather than stuffing the page with exposition like many of its genre. Unlike Y or Ex Machina, Vaughan has no ending planned for Saga — given the reception to those two series, it’s likely this one will become A real Thing.
The Silver Surfer, by Francesco Francavilla. No other character screams “spirit of the 1960s” quite as loud as a interstellar surfboarding hippy warning of the apocalypse on the hands of mankind.
On 15th February 2012 ᔥ nocontxt ↬ nocontxt
Some of you called for redheads, some of us (me) called for MORE HOT CANADIANS. I present to you, a hot Canadian redhead: Kim Pine! Kim Pine of the Scott Pilgrim series, played by Alison Pill in the film! What do you mean, it doesn’t count if they’re fictional?
Of course it counts. Kim Pine is basically the perfect woman.
I took about thirteen photographs in 2011. I should really sort that out. It’s one of the few things I’m actually good at, along with ice skating and yelling at the television.
At first I was skeptical about Barbara Gordon’s role in the “New 52,” or “the DCnU” or whatever we’re calling it now, but Gail Simone, you’ve won me over.
