Based on nothing but my own ideas, I decided to come up with my own idea of how I might re-launch the DC Universe. Just my thoughts of what I'd like to see, not what would necessarily "sell". I left off Action Comics and Detective Comics, becsuse I think those two books should never be re-numbered. I'll include explanations where I think they're needed.
1)Adventure Comics: rotating stories of DC non-super-hero characters, past, present and future - i.e., Anthro, the Challengers of the Unknown, Tommy Tomorrow, and so on
2)All-American Comics: featuring the Green Lantern (Alan Scott)
3)All-Flash Comics: featuring the Flash (Jay Garrick) and other members of the "Flash Family"
4)Aquaman
5)The Authority: I'd be curious to see they and they're "We can tell everybody in the world what to do" attitude would survive once they come up against folks like the League and the Society who certainly will not put up with that
6)Batman
7)The Batman Family: rotating stories of the various Bat-inspired heroes floating in and around Gotham
8)Batman, Inc.: Gosh, I'm enjoying this book!
9)The Brave and the Bold: a Batman team-up book, like it was when I was a kid
10)DC Comics Presents: a Superman team-up book, like it was when I was a kid
11)Catwoman
12)Cyborg
13)The Dibny Mysteries: Ralph and Sue, back to like, all the crap that was done to them in Identity Crisis and 52 forgotten. A light-hearted book, with the pair of them as a husband-and-wife mystery-solving team.
14)The Doom Patrol: I'd like to see this book with a combination of characters from all the different iterations of the Patrol.
15)The Elite
16)Enemy Ace
17)The Flash: featuring the Flash (Barry Allen)
18)The Freedom Fighters
19)Gen 13
20)The Global Guardians
21)The Great Ten
22)The Green Arrow
23)The Green Lantern: featuring the Green Lantern (Hal Jordan)
24)The Green Lantern Corps
25)The House of Mystery: Horror tales hosted by Cain and the various members of his exended "family"
26)The Human Corps: sort of the "UNIT" of the DC Universe
27)Jonah Hex
28)The Justice League of America
29)The Justice Society of America
30)The LAW: This would be a team of the current iterations of the Charlton heroes. I'd love to find a better team name, though
31)The Legion of Super-Heroes
32)Miss Martian: idea stolen from LJ - only steal from the best!
33)Mister Terrific
34)The New Gods
35)Nightwing and Starfire: I'd start this book off with the pair of them getting married - or marrying very early in the book's run, so as to feature Dick and Kory's travails as a young couple (literally from two different worlds) building a life together, with the added pressure of both having crimefighting careers!
36)Our Fighting Forces: rotating stories of DC's existing WWII-era characters, plus new ones set in all of the country's wars, past and present
37)The Outsiders
38)Plastic Man
39)Power Girl
40)The Secret Six: the current version
41)The Secret Society of Super-Villains: This wouldn't be so much about a group called the "secret Society" as it would be about the "society" of Super-Villains, about how villains deal with one another when there are no heroes around. I always figured that villains would fight amongst themselves as much as they did with heroes, so there'd be plenty of dram and conflict. But I'd also like to see some of the day-to-day stuff - how does aa villain who can't exactly go to Our Lady of the Exit Wound Memorial Hospital get his injuries treated, where do they live when they're not in prison, that sort of thing
42)The Seven Soldiers of Victory: Sir Justin, the Shining Knight, a man twice out of time, discerns a new threat to humanity, and gathers a new group of heroes to help combat it.
43)The Shazam Family: The one thing I'd change, is Freddy's magic word. Damn it, a hero should be able to say his own name!
44)Showcase: a book for new characters and concepts to get a try-out
45)Superman
46)The Superman Family: rotating stories of Superman's supporting characters and the various Superman-inspired heroes.
47)The Super Young Team
48)The Teen Titans
49)TheWildCATs
50)Wonder Woman
51)World's Finest Comics: stories that team up Superman and Batman, and explore their relationship with one another
52)Zatanna the Magician
Replies
The Dibny Mysteries: Ralph and Sue, back to like, all the crap that was done to them in Identity Crisis and 52 forgotten. A light-hearted book, with the pair of them as a husband-and-wife mystery-solving team.
This one should be done by Mike W Barr and Adam Hughes.
I'd love The Dibny Mysteries if it were done in Thin Man fashion. They've already got the money!
I wouldn't hold out much hope for The Great Ten. They had their own miniseries, as you no doubt know, that was originally scheduled for 10 issues, but shortened to 8. I don't have to look up the sales to know they were awful.
As for The LAW, that really is a sucky name. How about Agents of C.H.A.R.L.T.O.N.? We can make up what it stands for later. Then they can fight Agents of Atlas. And it should all be drawn by Steve Ditko.
Lee Houston, Junior said:
I would pay good, cash money for either (or both!) of those!
Actually, Cap, The Great Ten went 9 issues and it was basically an origin per issue of the characters with some story thrown in for good measure. I LOVE the characters but mini's and series of overseas and 2nd tier characters usually don't sell well anyway.
I'm also a big fan of Marvel's "Euro" heroes but the last Cap Britain mini didn't sell that well either, if you recall, and that had a killer story by Christos Gage!
Captain Comics said:
Oh please, no more Outsiders comics for at least 5 years. It feels like they've had more relaunches in the time I've been open than there are Green lanterns in the entire universe. Certainly more than there are GLs from Earth.
If I can paraphrase Al Bundy, "How can we miss you if you don't go away?"
Being gone for a while did wonders for Thor's sales.
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I wouldn't hold out much hope for The Great Ten.
To be honest, I wouldn't hold out much hope for it, either, but then if DC marketed according to what I like, it might not make for a successful business plan, selling only to people who think like me.
Intriguing choices, Bob! I might like to see new Lois Lane and Jimmmy Olsen solo comics.
As to a name for the Charlton heroes, how about "Sentinels of Justice"?