What would you change about how comics are handled?

I was reading some posts here about character limits and thought about how a hero's limits change from issue to issue, one day he can only lift a mere 100 tons the next day he picks up an aircraft carrier.

He's just a "normal" man who trains alot but he knows all combat styles and all science and all, well everything about anything. That sounds superhuman to me.

The rules here are basicallly just suggestions because there is no consistancy in the comics, but it's all fantasy anyway. Still, I would like to see SOME consistancy.

What would you change about how characters are handled?

I'd like to see:
1. Stick to limits.
2. More variety in body types, not everybody are bodybuilders.
3. "Normal" heroes with no powers haulin @$$ when things get to tough.
4. Characters aging.

What about you?



If you knew I would screw it up, why did you ask me to do it!?!?!?

the only thing i WOULD change is behind the scenes, making the Comics more about story than marketing, as the Clone Saga in the Spidey Comics showed us how marketing can 'taint' a character.

as for contuniuty in comics, maintaining normal 'standards' for chars n what not. only because of the Marvel RPG do we know the 'Stats' for a char in the comic universe the powers are just told to us and then the writers try to show how they are developed.

its the potential verses capability thing.

The Hulk has the potential to crush the earth but we've only seen him been capable of picking up a mountain.

its kinda hard to maintain a norm in a comic, especially when the boundaries are not really to defined.

of course i stand corrected.

Dave and the Doc would know better than I



when i was going up the stairs i met a man who wasn't there, he wasn't there again today. i wish, i wish he'd go away. - Identity

Novice wrote:

> I was reading some posts here about character limits and
> thought about how a hero's limits change from issue to issue,
> one day he can only lift a mere 100 tons the next day he picks
> up an aircraft carrier.
>
> He's just a "normal" man who trains alot but he knows all
> combat styles and all science and all, well everything about
> anything. That sounds superhuman to me.
>
> The rules here are basicallly just suggestions because there is
> no consistancy in the comics, but it's all fantasy anyway.
> Still, I would like to see SOME consistancy.
>
> What would you change about how characters are handled?
>
> I'd like to see:
> 1. Stick to limits.
> 2. More variety in body types, not everybody are bodybuilders.
> 3. "Normal" heroes with no powers haulin @$$ when things get to
> tough.
> 4. Characters aging.
>
> What about you?
>

Wow. I got a fist full 'o nails and you hit them all on the head, especially the "trains a lot" guy. Grrr. Anyway, I'd add:
"Don't give us quasi-scientific answers that are a little right and a little wrong. Give us comic book, sci-fi, crazy-@#$%& science or give us nothing at all." Most power oriented discrepancies I see people debate about comic books usually stems from a person in a place of canonical authority spouting "real" science in an illfated attempt at giving us a "real" answer. All this does is confuse the issue and we are worse of than if said authority figure simply said "because it's cool".

I can rant on this all day so I'm shutting it down here. It's just that, I can suspend my disbelief so that I can enjoy a story where two heroes are flying at the speed of light through space. But when they start talking to each other during the trip I lose it! And when some assitant editor tries to explain how this is possible I usually wind up reading another book.



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Build a man a fire and he will be warm for a night. Set a man on fire, and he will be warm the rest of his life

Body type. You get guys like the Human Torch or someone who is completley average when it comes to strength, but he looks like an Olympic bodybulider. Also, no matter who the girl is, she looks like a model. Lets get some ugly, weak looking heroes, people!



I HAVE COME TO REAP THE SOULS OF THE LIVING!!!!!
And perhaps, order a burger.

I'd change the following:

*No fear of killing off any of the main character's in the comic series.
*More development of storylines instead of leaving them hanging. (Marvel is notorious for this, especially with their X-titles.)
*No conveniently dispatching or sidelining a villain or hero just because the writers lack the imagination to develop said characters. (Marvel does this so many times it's not funny.)
*Stick to the continuity of a series. (I stopped collecting comics on a regular basis when Marvel started their Ultimate titles and screwed up the continuity of the main title)
*Have both good art and good storyline.
*Have fanfic contests based on existing comic titles. The top winners get their storylines worked on by the editors and artists of that title and then get it published.
*More E-comics.

Saint Xanatos wrote:

> Body type. You get guys like the Human Torch or someone who is
> completley average when it comes to strength, but he looks like
> an Olympic bodybulider. Also, no matter who the girl is, she
> looks like a model. Lets get some ugly, weak looking heroes,
> people!

That rocks. I'd totally read a comic with a bald fat guy who moves like Spiderman!



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Build a man a fire and he will be warm for a night. Set a man on fire, and he will be warm the rest of his life

I totally agree with the science thing: don't bother explaining it. George Lucas made that mistake with the whole medicloridwhatsits. If you're going to show lasers flying through space with actual sound then throw science out the window. I don't mind at all, just don't half-a** it. I also really agree on the continuity crap! Either make something stick or don't and don't drop something and make someone do a crappy clean up job. But my biggest pet peeve, as I've said many times, is all the "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if we did THIS?!!! And then Magneto ends up turning the world upside down or Firelord gets beat by Spiderman or Jubilee picks up Thor's hammer?!!! Stupid crap like that. That's what I'd change!



Some days you're the windshield, some days you're the fly.

A true evil genius will do everything for a specific thought out reason and make it look like there was no reason for it at all.

Alabar

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That rocks. I'd totally read a comic with a bald fat guy who moves like Spiderman!

Finally! Some one with some GOOD ideas around here!



I HAVE COME TO REAP THE SOULS OF THE LIVING!!!!!
And perhaps, order a burger.

Cheaper. Cheaper would be good. Don't get me wrong, glossy pages and digital coloring is great, but I'd rather pay $1.75 for a really good story on newsprint than $3.50 for a crappy story that looks shiny.
Especially if the $1.75 story had fat, bald Spiderman in it.



With great power comes great responsibility in a world that fears and hates you, because criminals are a cowardly and superstitious lot.

i'm likely the minority, but the idea of a dumpy, balding superhero just doesn't do it for me. i like my heros with the bodies by Soloflex!

of course that's not how it'd be in real life, but in real life there's also no Galactus, no mutant teleporting/telepathic/power absorbing/weather manipulating/healing factored school teachers, no Vibranium or its accompanying Wakanda, or any of the mythic, powerful icons generated in comics. it's so ingrained in the mythical canon of comics that i for one find it easy to suspend belief.

that said, i think that a common failing of artists is that they draw a single body type for all people--sure, i want the heros to be larger-than-life, but the musculature and physique of say, Spider-Man, should look a LOT different than Captain America or Thor. The ladies in comics get it worse--outside of cosmetic differences, Storm and Sue Richards look the same, and that's just sad. i like that super-types are drawn with great bodies, but would like for artists to actually portray nuances better. beauty is a fluid thing, and that super-chick X might have smaller breasts and rounder hips might be just as sexy as chesty and small-@#$%& super-chick Y.

my biggest beef with comics tend to occur whenever a series changes writers--dangling plot threads, plot revisions (and re-revisions, and re-re-revisions) and the like are NOT cute, and only show the weaknesses of the writing.

cheers!

sean...

let's see: retro-cons = castration of writer.

"taking an established character in a whole new direction for gen-xers (ala the origin of US agent)" = severe beating of writer

"Secret Wars"= Immediate removal of hand so as to prevent it from ever happening

Saga style storylines with set start and finish points = a nice yummy cookie for the writer

Willingness to kill or allow characters to die for the sake of the story = a hefty bonus

Allowing characters to age and grow rather than stagnate = head writer of your book

willingness to recreate a character or story because the character's past has become so bloated that new readers cannot even pick up a book because they can't understand the background = head writer of your book with a hefty bonus and a whole bunch of cookies besides

Also, I would take a good look at how to put my comics online AND make a profit. It can be done, especially with the rates Marvel can charge advertisers. There are a lot of amateurs making money now doing that sort of thing, why can't the big guys?

You could create a large storyline, release a page every couple of days and have buko advertising, then make a killing selling each saga as a graphic novel. It would certainly support their movies a lot better than comics you can only find at a specialty comic shop.



Jesus Saves! The rest of you take damage.

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taking an established character in a whole new direction for gen-xers

This is why I hate Marvel's MAX and Ultimate lines of comics.



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Be Ex/20 to one another!

Eh, they should have kept the Bombastic Bag-Man in the Spider-Man series. Or at least have it as a emergency costume. They could have had tons of plots around that. "The Homeless Peoples' Champion!"

"Stick to limits" - for character with Class 100 strength, this probably isn't too fair for them. In Marvel Comics terms (not game terms), people with Class 100 strength can lift either 100 tons, 'over' 100 tons, 'well over' 100 tons, and immeasureable strength' (as shown in the handbooks, and recently new handbooks for each 'series' of Marvel Comics). Good descriptions, huh? :)

Funnily enough, Juggernaut used to be in the immeasureable category, but after his vast depowerment (no forcefield, no summon armour, no surviving without oxygen/food/water, weaker strength), his strength level probably still remains at Class 100. :)

Gonna agree with the Doc on this one (Partially, anyway). As guilty as I am for picking up the odd Ultimate title, it really is a line that panders to the dispossesed gen-x'rs. I'm not so sure about the Max titles. The Hood and Master of Kung Fu were both pretty good, and it was pretty satisfying to see Powerman let out random f-bombs in the Cage series. If Ennis is still writing Punisher as a Max title...well...that thought is just creepy.



With great power comes great responsibility in a world that fears and hates you, because criminals are a cowardly and superstitious lot.

Ooh, thought of anather one. I would change the way characters are handled by not letting Joe Quesada or Grant Morrison within 500 yards of books with established characters and continuity.



With great power comes great responsibility in a world that fears and hates you, because criminals are a cowardly and superstitious lot.

heres one:

Keep characters who died, to save lives, slipped in the shower, whatever DEAD! do not bring them back EVER. if the writers didn't want them dead, they shouldn't of written them out in the first place.

man i feel better. :bounce:



when i was going up the stairs i met a man who wasn't there, he wasn't there again today. i wish, i wish he'd go away. - Identity

i agree. keep colussus dead in 2004!

Main problem with that, Rysct, is that plans often change, especially when new writers are brought in. The death of "Jean Grey" on the Blue Area of the Moon was originally intended to be Jean Grey's true & lasting death. Latter writers (or the Execs, or someone in power) decided they didn't like that idea, so they retconned it so that the "Jean" up on the BAotM wasn't the real Jean, but was the Phoenix Force-in-a-Jean Suit, and that the real Jean had been sleeping in a coccoon.



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Be Ex/20 to one another!

your right Doc, it's the whole continuity problem. which brings up a question:

how much pre-planning goes into a comics plot?

do they say; right for the next year we're doing this, heres the basic plot.

or

do they wake up have a donut and go, oh s###t that's right, i've got a comic to write, mmmm...who should i mess with today?

not anti anyone, love my comics n all, just wondering how they do it, i write myself and before i even put a word to paper i first work out all the background and history. they've already got that, so bringing it forward should be easy. and why not pass the story from one writer to the next, instead of killing it just so the new guy can do his own. what happened to team work?



when i was going up the stairs i met a man who wasn't there, he wasn't there again today. i wish, i wish he'd go away. - Identity

I'm fairly certain there's some advanced planning that happens, but I'm sure there's also been quite a few "11th hour" scripts.



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Be Ex/20 to one another!