What IF?

[helwen]

What if DE built a brand new original super team. Personally I <3 DE comics and support by buying several titles monthly. Marvel and DC having a few teams currently. I'm currently loving Prophecy, Vampirella, Vampirella vs Dracula, Ninjettes, and Pantha ect..

[Ralok]

I think hell would freeze ove XD

They have a lot of comic series they are handling right now. . . and this would take a supreme amount of effort

when you create a new universe, you are not just creating characters . . . you need to create rules, limits. . .

it is easier to write in an existing property than it is to create a new one

[helwen]

I think hell would freeze ove XD

They have a lot of comic series they are handling right now. . . and this would take a supreme amount of effort

when you create a new universe, you are not just creating characters . . . you need to create rules, limits. . .

it is easier to write in an existing property than it is to create a new one

I guess you're right. But what if Marvel's X-Men were never created? No Justice League or Teen Titans? What if New Warriors were set aside or the Strangers. What if Valiant turned down the idea to create Secret Weapons? I guess its pointless DE is mostly into existing properties as you say but What IF? Plus I think reader input within these forums could inspire new ideas for new characters maybe some sort of contests could be offered. I would love to offer a new character for an upcoming DE hero group.

[Ralok]

it would be hard to get off the ground I think . . .

[positronic]

If I wanted another boring superteam, I'd go back to reading Marvel or DC. Used to love them once upon a time. Now they're as cheap and plentiful (and unoriginal) as what they refer to as "reality TV". Yawn.

[ChastMastr]

I think there's some really good stuff coming out of Marvel right now (Wolverine and the X-Men, for instance). DC has some good stuff, but I don't like a lot of the rebooted DCU. (A lot of it seems grim and cynical to me.) Mainly I follow writers back and forth because I know I'll enjoy their work.

[Ghornet2]

Project:Superpowers could have been their new superhero universe. They had already added some new heroes and could have eaisly added more. The GA heroes could have been the fondation with familiar characters. They went with the "big story" rather than expanding on a solid base. and it didn't work.

[positronic]

Lesson learned: If you're going to go head-to-head in competition with the big dogs in the superhero genre, you have to offer something *different* from the standard mainstream superhero comic. But it's a tightrope act, since anything TOO different won't be embraced by the marketplace either. It has to have its own unique spin while not being TOO "standard mainstream", since Marvel and DC will always have the ability to crowd everyone else's superhero titles off the stands.

[Ralok]

Lesson learned: If you're going to go head-to-head in competition with the big dogs in the superhero genre, you have to offer something *different* from the standard mainstream superhero comic. But it's a tightrope act, since anything TOO different won't be embraced by the marketplace either. It has to have its own unique spin while not being TOO "standard mainstream", since Marvel and DC will always have the ability to crowd everyone else's superhero titles off the stands.

everybody who tries to do something different though, does something different than what they were doing twenty years ago, and the exact same thing that everyone is doing now!

everyones definition of "do something different" right now is "make superheroes emo"

[positronic]

That's why it's a tricky pathway to thread. If your definition of different (from TODAY's mainstream superheroes) is "the way they USED to be done X number of years ago", your title can easily wind up ignored by the marketplace as "out-of-touch" and "a dinosaur". Sometimes the best you can hope for is to cultivate a devoted cult audience for your off-th'e-beaten-path superhero book (sometimes labeled as "quirky")... I'm thinking of things like Mike Allred's MADMAN, Jay Stephens' ATOMIC CITY TALES, or Los Bros Hernandez' occasional forays into superhero territory. More often than not, the cult audience is devoted more to the specific creator(s) than to the title or character.