Dream Editor Round One: BAT FAMILY!

Zombipanda

My Boom-Boom's mostly gay
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Okay. So there's this comic book company, and they're looking for a dramatic new overhaul of one of their existing lines. It's floundering, see, and they're looking for a Bold! New! Direction! In other words, they're looking to replace the editor of the line with someone who isn't a hack. So where do they go? Headhunting at other comic companies? Legitimate publishing? The world of film? Their own ranks? Nah. **** that noise. They're trolling through comic book forums looking for greasy little fan boys to pitch a new direction for the line of books. That's you, bucko. And the kicker is, the winner will be determined by their peers. So get the cyber KY jelly ready and warm up your cyber upper arm strength for the cyber hand jobs you're going to have to dole out to win the game.

We give you a line of books, as it's presently being published, a run-down of writers and story directions, and what's lurking over the horizon. You, in turn, have to pitch your direction. You determine which books will be canceled, which will be added, which will remain, and which will get an overhaul. You determine incoming creative teams and overarching plot. And then we vote. Two weeks to post up entries, three days to vote (private messaged to the present moderator). The winner determines the next round and the fun begins all over again. The current moderator can add an entry to the current contest but can't win, thus preventing me from winning every round. This week, it's Batman. On to the rundown!

The Rundown
Batman's a rich old dude who dresses like a bat and punches low income criminals. He also punches criminals with psychosis that translate into colorful and merchandisable gimmicks. He growls a lot and dresses kids up in bright, skimpy costumes to distract afforementioned unstable lunatics. Also, he's been doing this **** for SEVENTY ****ING YEARS!

The Line-Up
The books currently being published are...

Batman and Robin
Written by Grant Morrison, Art by Various Artists
With Bruce Wayne "dead" (Spoiler Alert: BRUCE WAYNE IS NOT REALLY DEAD), former sidekick Dick Grayson has taken over the mantle, with Bruce's lunatic kung-fu son Damian as his partner. Brisk, three-part stories adopt a bubble gum pop David Lynch style.

Batman
Written and Art by Tony Daniel
The solo adventures of Dick Grayson as Batman involve a more traditional approach to the character, with a once-thought-dead villain (Black Mask) ruling a portion of Gotham called Devil's Square which is all totally Thunderdome and ****. He also employs a once-thought-dead villain (The Reaper) and a totally-should-be-dead bunch of long forgotten villains called the Ministry of Something or Other. Also, the last story was written by Judd Winnick and had Two-Face teleporting into the Batcave because he knew that Batman wasn't Batman, until Batman convinced him that he was Batman by having Alfred dress up as Batman. Seriously. But Tony Daniel's stuff has been surprisingly good.

Streets of Gotham
Written by Paul Dini, Art by Dustin Nguyen. Backup by Marc Andreyko and Jeremy Haun
A book detailing supporting characters in Gotham, sort of a new version of Gotham Knights more tightly tied to an over-arching story that occasionally loops in with the storylines of other books. Tommy Elliot, who took off his face and replaced it with Bruce Wayne's face is now running around as Bruce Wayne and spending all his money. Also, Zsasz is keeping kids in cages and forcing them to fight each other to the death. In other news, DC seems hell-bent on making sure Batman/Robin gay jokes are never out of style. (Illustration below)

dcs-march-2010-plans-20091221005730806.jpg


In the backup story, Kate Spencer (Manhunter) is the new DA of Gotham and dealing with both Two-Face an escaped Arkham inmates. (It really is quite good)

Detective Comics
Written by Greg Rucka, Art by JH Williams III, and sometimes Jock. Backup by Greg Rucka and Cully Hammer
The adventures of Kate "Batwoman" Kane (Did you know she's a lesbian?). It turns out her sister thinks she's Alice from Wonderland and is also the leader of Intergang. There are also were-monsters. The art is rull purty.

In the backup story, Rene Montoya does what the Question does.

Azrael
Written by Fabian Nicieza, Art by Ramon Bachs
This ain't your Daddy's Azrael! is probably the tag-line. I'm not sure. I haven't read a lot of it. The new Azrael is the former Batman replacement Michael Lane. He wears armor that will eventually make him go mad as he dispenses Old Testament justice for a group of religious nuts that represent an apocryphal branch of the League of Assassins.

Batgirl
Written by Bryan Q. Miller, Art by Lee Garbett
Stephanie Brown is Batgirl. She accidentally killed someone. Babs Gordon (Oracle) is around somewhere too.

Gotham City Sirens
Written by Paul Dini, Art by Guillem March
Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn pose in cheesecake style. Not much happens. Grrrrrrl Power!

Red Robin
Written by Chris Yost, Art by Marcus To
Former Robin Tim Drake is convinced that Batman is alive because he saw a bat on a cave wall somewhere, so he takes on a new identity as RED Robin and rides a motorcycle, thus letting the reader know how angst ridden he is. In the process, he gets tangled up with the League of Assassins and ends up helping them as he discovers another group of assassins with a spider theme is trying to destroy them.

The Outsiders
Written by Pete Tomasi, Art by Philip Tan
A bunch of guys who are total Outsiders deal with issues the JLA is too ***** to do. It's only nominally tied into Batman, really. Alfred was coordinating them for a while but I think that's been forgotten. Dan Didio will be writing it soon. Yay?

Batman Confidential
Written/Art by Various
A bunch of new stories from Batman's past.

On The Horizon
Dan Didio is scheduled to come on to Outsiders in a few months. In March, Grant Morrison is scheduled to write a six issue series, The Return of Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne, who was sent into the ether after getting hit by beams that shot out of an evil god's eyes is now leaping from life to life, totally Batmanning up the lucky suckers he's possessing, putting things right that once went wrong, and hoping each time that his next leap will be his leap home. It will end, presumably, with his "return". Oh! And I also forgot. Apparently Batwoman is going to be replaced in Detective Comics as she spins off into her own eponymous series. And that's about all we know for the horizon. As editor, you can feel free to shuttle the upcoming announced storyline for one of your own, manufacture the storyline in question, or pick up after the return of Bruce and use the mini as the impetus for your restructuring. Your options are wide open. Have fun.








So, there we go. Me and McCheese had talked about this game idea in the Dreamteaming thread. I think it will be a fun idea. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I'll probably post a (non-votable) entry of my own sometime soon to give you guys all a feel for the format. But in short, you outline your dream line-up of books, your creative teams, and any overarching direction. Hope you guys find the thought appealing.

This round ends at midnight EST on January 15th. Voting lasts until midnight of the 18th. Good luck

The Entries

SSJMole

Bluebeast

Houde

Friday

Iceshadow

McCheese

Me! (Vanity Entry! No voting! Even though you want to! Oh God, you want to so... bad....)
 
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Nice. I'm excited about the possibilities for this game and I can't wait to trim the fat off the Batman line.

I have something in mind myself. I don't know if I want to wait so that I don't intimidate people off of the game, or if I should post soon to encourage people to place entries.
 
I have something in mind myself. I don't know if I want to wait so that I don't intimidate people off of the game, or if I should post soon to encourage people to place entries.
It'll take me at least a week to put mine up, so go ahead and show the folks what we're doing here.
 
Can we use writers/artists exclusive to companies that are not the company that owns the title? I have a few ideas already, this is a fun way to do this game and I think it is a nice step up from dreamteaming.
 
Can we use writers/artists exclusive to companies that are not the company that owns the title? I have a few ideas already, this is a fun way to do this game and I think it is a nice step up from dreamteaming.

Yes. Consider it to be a fantasy draft. Any artists or writers who are currently active in comics (or for that matter, are alive) are open game.
 
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I've been going over some of this in my head. There are entirely too many people tangentially connected to Batman. Gotham is freaking overrun by weirdos in tights.

Might have to kill a few of 'em...
 
I've been going over some of this in my head. There are entirely too many people tangentially connected to Batman. Gotham is freaking overrun by weirdos in tights.

Might have to kill a few of 'em...

I totally know what I'm going to do, and it's going to make everyone else's penises shink in anxiety.
 
I'm a little puzzled. Do we just pick an editor or come up a new title or both plus writers ect..
 

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