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The Top 5 Requests For Marvel and DC In 2010

By | December 26th, 2009
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With Christmas now no longer upon us, I feel that it is a good time to reveal to you some of the Multiversity Christmas lists. Brandon, Matt, and Gil have all decided to make their own lists to the Santas of the DC Universe and the Marvel Universe with their top 5 requests for the future of the universes. Gil took it a bit further and just made it based on what he’d like to see from comics in general, so I don’t even know how many Santas need to read his list.

Either way, they’re fun little lists with snarky commentary amidst some legitimate commentary. In the meantime, David is painting his face green and watching a certain Jim Carrey holiday movie on repeat (why he picked that version I have no clue).

Click behind the cut for our thoughts!

BRANDON

Top 5 Requests From Marvel In 2010

1. Clear Team Divisions in the X-Titles

I’d really like the X-Men to get back to having clear-cut teams for each title. With the large cast now present in Uncanny we don’t get the character development that we used to. The only people who get development anymore are Cyclops and Emma. While I enjoy those characters I would like to see others get some spotlight time.

I’m not saying it has to go back to there being Blue and Gold teams mind you, just distinct teams. The X-Men are so varied and vast in number it’s a huge disservice to not have separate characters on separate teams. So many favorites to choose from and yet so few are actually getting the time to shine.

2. Lower Prices

This one speaks for itself. I would like to see Marvel drop the prices on their books. With the financial backing of Disney to support them this isn’t an unreasonable demand. Lowering the books back to $2.25 or $2.99 would increase others and mine abilities to try new books as well as more books in general. With the current increase in most books by Marvel I personally have had to make hard decisions and drop books I wish I hadn’t had to. With a price decrease I could pick those books back up.

3. Wolverine Renumbered

This one is simple. I’d like to see Wolverine renumbered. Many titles over the last decade were reset to #1 and now to end the decade have seemed to go back to the original numbering. I think it’s about time that Wolverine gets the same treatment. This is a simple thing that could be fixed and would please many a fan, myself included.

4. Make the Mutants Weekly

To make X-Men weekly with the right set of writers and artists seems like a no brainer to me. If the cast remains as large as it
is now then the only way this can truly work is with a weekly series. A weekly series allows many stories to be told.

Each arc could feature a different set of characters and a different set of creators. Every creator could focus on the stories they’d like to tell while still serving the plot points that the overall title is working toward. Marvel already ahs the blueprint for how to make this work in their fantastic Amazing Spider-Man weekly. It’s just a matter of tweaking it to fit the needs of the Uncanny X-Men.

5. New X-Men Characters by Yost and Kyle

I would really like to see Yost and Kyle take Fraction’s place on Uncanny X-Men. What I’d REALLY like to see is them handle their old charges the New X-Men again. I think that if they relaunched the title under a different name and repackaged their purpose it would be a great book. Maybe throw in Jubilee, Husk and Chamber as mentors even. Having a combo like this would please a ridiculous amount of fans.

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Fans of the 80’s have their New Mutants back so why shouldn’t the fans of the 90’s and 00’s get their young mutant heroes in a title. Placing them together makes it easier to pull off for Marvel. Putting these great characters together in the hands of Yost and Kyle guarantees a great book that will please both old fans and new.

Top 5 Requests From DC In 2010

1. New Hawkman series

I love me some Hawkman. I know he just died but isn’t that what him and Hawkwoman/girl do? They die and return better and stronger. So I’m hoping we can get in on some of that in 2010. I would like to see a top tier writer and artist on this title. Not since Geoff Johns run has Hawkman treated with the respect he’s due.

I don’t really have much else to say here besides…please DC…please, please, please, please, please!

2. Lower Prices

While they may find it more difficult to lower their prices it would still be great. Though having said that Time Warner owns them and there is plenty of money there. So, like Marvel and their situation with Disney they could lower prices.

3. A Weekly Series of 52’s Caliber

We’ve had weekly’s from DC since 52 but I think everyone would agree they all pale in comparison. It stands as one of my favorite reads not only from DC but comics in general. The buzz around it was amazing. It was a weekly comic with some of the best writers around handling the stories. It was one of the few things in comics that I feel came through with what was promised and even provided more. Throw in the fact that it never missed a ship date despite everyone writing for it to happen like a NASCAR wreck. If we could get something like this from DC in 2010 I’d be ecstatic.

Forget all these backup stories. Just give us a weekly starring the second and third tier characters much like 52 did. Something like 52 does amazing things for the DC brand. It helps to spread the spotlight and allow some of the other characters get some time in the sun. Many characters who I hadn’t cared about before 52 have since become some of my favorite DC characters. I’d like to gain more appreciation for DC characters. They just gotta give me a 52 style project.

4. Greg Rucka back on Wonder Woman

I love me some Wonder Woman. I also love me some Gail Simone. What I don’t love is the two of them together unfortunately. While I love Simone’s Secret Six I feel her Wonder Woman has no direction and just feels flat in general.

Greg Rucka developed a fuller Wonder Woman and provided her with a much better cast in my opinion. I liked where he took her and loved the lead into Infinite Crisis. I would have like to have seen where he wanted to take the whole Max Lord scenario post Infinite Crisis but sadly it seems all we’ll get is his Blackest Night Wonder Woman tie-in. Well that is unless DC makes things right and gets his ass back on the title! One can hope right?!

5. Teen Titans Back to Prominence

I think everyone will agree with me when I say that the Teen Titans just haven’t been as prolific as they were when Geoff Johns was penning their adventures. Since then we’ve seen constant creative team changes, lineup changes, and numerous needless deaths. I think it’s high time we get this great title back on track.

The first step in doing this would be to set a writer up and let them stay on the title for a while. With a set writer we’d finally get a steady direction for the Titans and we’d more than likely because of this get a roster that would stay fairly consistent. Who wouldn’t want to see these things?

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The next step would be to attain a top-notch artist to work with the top notch talent. May I suggest Francis Manapaul? I think his art style would work amazingly with a relaunched Teen Titans. He would bring a fresh and young look to a title that could use just that combo.

Anyway, those are my wants for the upcoming year. Like Veruca Salt from Willy Wonka, I want it now!

MATTHEW

Top 5 Requests From Marvel In 2010

1. A Young Avengers On-Going Title

The Avengers are my favorite team of all time, and obviously we have way too many Avengers books right now (Dark, Mighty, New, Initiative). What we don’t have enough of, though, is an earnest little team that has only been given 23 issues over 3 “volumes” to try and prove itself, despite having plenty of room to elaborate on. We’ve had Young Avengers, in which we met the team (and I immediately fell for them and their style); Young Avengers Presents, which elaborated on all of the characters in their personal lives more; and the Young Avengers mini that has come out during Dark Reign, in which the Young Avengers fought the Dark Young Avengers and righteous ass was kicked. Now, normally when we get books and teams like this, they fade away after time, but these characters have continuously popped up, having their own minis with Runaways during Civil War and Secret Invasion and featuring prominently in other titles as guest appearances (such as recently in Mighty Avengers). With Siege around the corner and the Marvel U supposedly coming back to a form of equilibrium, isn’t time we gave the Young Avengers a full chance to shine? This humble writer fully believes so.

2. Finish the Twelve

Does anyone else remember this AWESOME book? J. Michael Straczynski and Chris Weston, revamping classic characters in the modern Marvel U, with returns akin to the famous return of Captain America? Yeah? You remember it? Good. The Twelve had the potential to be Marvel’s Watchmen, in so much that it actually mirrored Watchmen in several aspects. We had displaced characters, all of whom are adapting to a new and unusual lifestyle, and at the center of it all we know there is a murder. Our main storyteller, the Phantom Reporter, even had a touch of Rorschach in him (not in the angry grump factor, but just in the way Rorschach’s inner monologue was written). And after issue 7, with just 5 issues left … it disappeared. Why? Well, Straczynski wrote a movie called Changeling, starring Angelina Jolie. All of a sudden, this nerdy guy who is mostly known to us for creating Babylon 5 is a hot shot writer in a Hollywood as well as in comics, and if you look at his future palette for DC, it’s intense. He just wrapped up on Thor at Marvel, and he will soon be penning the Earth-1 Superman book. And Weston? You better believe he got picked up by the film industry for storyboards as well, although I’m not sure what as Quesada never confirmed it.

Yeah. Not gonna lie? I don’t care. If creators are going to make a book as amazing as The Twelve, they need do finish it. I believe that, in general, you shouldn’t commit to something if you can’t do it. And I know Straczynski is doing a butt ton of work for DC right now, so what’s the excuse, Weston? I’m sorry, but I don’t buy it, at all. The Twelve NEEDS to end. I have to see how it all plays out, and I know I’m not the only one who is annoyed by this. It’s the same thing as Kick-Ass (which also apparently won’t end until March) — what’s the hold up? You know how the story ends, right? Ok, so end it. Come on. It’s not fair to the fans who get stuck waiting and waiting, like myself. And you know what I DEFINITELY don’t want? A mini-series to try and tie me over written by someone else and drawn by someone else. In Marvel’s recent solicits, it was revealed that in March, a Twelve mini would come out taking place while the characters are still in the 1940’s, and they hang out with Captain America. That’s cool and all, but it doesn’t satisfy my appetite. In fact, it makes it worse.

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So come on, Marvel. Let’s figure this one out. Pull in a new artist who is good at emulating Weston’s artwork if you have to, but this story has just got to end already.

3. The REAL return of classic X-villains

Where is Mr. Sinister? Oh yeah. We “don’t know.” There’s a Miss Sinister somewhere out there, but it’s “not confirmed” as to her
connection with Sinister (wink wink, nudge nudge). Last we heard, he had implanted his mind in other people, and from there we don’t know. How about someone like Apocalypse? He’s “trapped” in the future or something of that kinda, post Messiah War. These are two villains I call classic because they were more prominent in the late 80’s and 90’s, when I was reading comic books as a kid. I want to see them come back and actually be a legitimate presence in the books again. I like the general direction most of the books are taking, and Warren Ellis has done a good job on Astonishing in bringing back enemies like the Brood (in a sense), but it’s not the same thing. Even Apocalypse’s return in Messiah War was pretty lame. I firmly believe that once Second Coming is over, the X books should take a cue from the general Marvel universe and bring things “back to basics” with old school villains and storylines. At least for a bit. I want the series to continue moving forward, and I’m very happy with everything since Brubaker came along and destroyed the Shi’ar, but I wish Sinister would at least be a presence in the X-universe again.

Long story short? Mr. Sinister is awesome.

4. When Siege is over, you better put things back to basics

I remember Multiversity got a comment one day, and it said that the user who left it liked our site because we were truly genuine about our love for comics. We didn’t spend all of our time whining about how good comics used to be and focused on what is still good now. This is still true, but I can’t deny that a part of me would like a few things to change. I’d like to see one Avengers team, with none of this Initiative nonsense (that I’ve never ever liked), and I’d like SHIELD to come back with Nick Fury standing on the deck. I believe these are pretty simple requests. I’m very excited to where the universe will continue to grow, and all of the new challenges that await our heroes, but I’m tired of a million Avengers books. I like all of them, but even so — we don’t need them. I’d like the Superhero Registration Act retconned somehow, and I want Earth’s Mightiest Heroes to simply be the Avengers. No more HAMMER, no more mediocre Thunderbolts, and no more government breathing down our heroes necks. I’m really hoping that the point of Siege is to basically hit a reset button and bring things back to the way they were before the Avengers disassembled.

I still want that Young Avengers title though. That doesn’t change.

5. Squirrel Girl the Conqueror

Squirrel Girl has SINGLE-HANDEDLY defeated Doctor Doom, Mandarin, Giganto, MODOK, Thanos, Terrax, Bug-Eyed Voice, Bi-Beast, Deadpool, and Pluto. It’s time Marvel recognize the sheer might and furious force that is Squirrel Girl.

Top 5 Requests From DC In 2010

1. Batman needs to get put in his $#*(ing place!

Ok, seriously? Let’s get real for a second — Batman is the single most over rated character in the DCU. I enjoy reading various Bat-books, sure, but come on. He is the most popular DC go-to character and the most undeserving of that title. Ever since 2005, I’ve noticed this horrible trend of trying to make Batman this ridiculously dark character, and while sure he’s got his set of brooding and darkness, it is SO over done at this point that it’s too annoying for me to sit idly by and not say anything. His dying was the best thing to happen to the Batman books in a while. I would love for him to remain stuck in the past for another couple years, but of course DC is rushing him back into the world. So what I ask is this — OK, Batman comes back, but can we all give the “oo I’m so dark” attitude a rest and focus on writing stories that are GOOD instead of tortured? Outside of Grant Morrison and Paul Dini, I haven’t enjoyed a single Batman writer in a long time, and considering how many there have been I believe that says something.

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(And no, Greg Rucka on Detective Comics does NOT count, and neither does he with Ed Brubaker on Gotham Central count either)

2. More solo Green Arrow stories

OH WAIT.

2. More Shazam stories

I don’t really like Freddy Freemore as Shazam, to be honest. I’m a fan of Billy Batson, and I’d like to pretend all of that Black Adam going crazy and the Wizard taking back the power stuff… well, didn’t happen. Shazam is just one of those characters that I’ve found have a small but devoted fanbase, and doesn’t get much play. But if you read Alex Ross’ Justice like I did, you’ve seen how bad ass and awesome Shazam can be, given the right writer. It’s on that note that I think there could easily be a market for good Shazam stories. I mean, Black Adam is a great villain, and granted he’s depowered too, but we could easily bring them back. I’m sure something odd is going to come out of Justice League: Cry For Justice, considering Shazam just ripped off Arsenal’s arm, so I’m going to hope that it is within the lines of Billy Batson somehow getting his magic back. The rest of the Marvel family? Eh. I can do without it. But Billy? Let’s give him back the only thing that has ever made the poor orphan boy’s life relevant.

3. More All-Star Books

I get that the whole “Earth-1” initiative being taken up by Straczynski and Johns is in this vein, but the All-Star imprint was a great idea. Grant Morrison’s Superman has ended up COUNTLESS “best of the decade” lists. Ok, you guys kind of missed the mark on All-Star Batman, but you had good intentions. People love Millar’s old Batman stories! It’s just a shame that now his vision has been distorted and he can’t write a good story anymore. That’s not your fault though, DC! Given the opportunity, you could have a really strong line in the All-Star imprint. Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Flash — and those are just the big names! I’m sure a myriad of creators would love to take a shot at reimagining the stories, and the All-Star series will definitely play with fans better than the Earth-1 thing will. I’ve noticed that a lot of people are annoyed at the Earth-1 idea because they don’t want to just buy graphic novels that take forever to come out… they want monthly issues. So why not bring All-Star back to life and try again? They’re basically the same thing, aren’t they?

4. Give Hawkman some love

I’m going to have to go with Brandon on this one. He really hit the nail on the head. Hawkman is a founding member of the JSA and one of the coolest bad asses in all of the DCU. He’s stoic, heroic, and he’s got a really great and interesting backstory. He’s a wonderful character, and a fan favorite.

If you need someone to come in and write a Hawkman book, I’ll do it. Just let me know. I’ve got some ideas we can discuss. Besides, I know he’s not really going to be dead after Blackest Night. I mean… you wouldn’t do that to us… right…?

5. Multiversity needs to come out

I suppose this is more of a request to Grant Morrison vs. towards DC, but come on. This website was named after a potential series that may or may not come out. Think we can have it in 2010? I mean, I’d appreciate it. I’ll say it again: I picked the title for the website because of this book. The least you can do is give me an advance of the script or something due to my dedication. That sound good? If you need an artist to start drawing things up, I’ve gotten pretty good at stick figures recently, and I’m branching out into starting to draw actual bodies. A month or two and I’ll be good to go.

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Either way, some news on it would be nice too. I know you announced a whole bunch of Grant Morrison stuff, what with the return of Batman and his upcoming Vertigo books… but can we get the Multiversity stuff out too? Somewhere in there? Thanks.

GIL

1. Batman established as an official religion

Personally, I don’t think there’s enough blind faith in the Dark Knight. There’s a lot of potential for this too. Just think, Christopher Nolan could title his third movie “The Passion of the Caped Crusader,” and services can be held every Wednesday. Our Father, who art in Gotham, Hallowed by thy Utility Belt, thy Kingdom Come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Gotham.

2. More Deadpool and Wolverine titles.

Because 17 aren’t enough; we must have more. Maybe even a Wolverine & Deadpool buddy title.

3. Speaking of not enough, how about nonstop events? I’m down.

I’m fairly sure that Joe Quesada lost all that weight because he spent all his money on Marvel’s events rather than spending money on food. Have you seen the checklist for the various events in the past decade? It costs more than the GDP of most small nations.

4. Scott Pilgrim to become a household name

In all seriousness, if there’s one book that deserves to be read by everyone, it’s Scott Pilgrim. The franchise is a breath of fresh air from the normal superhero fare that usually gets covered on comic websites. It’s funny, action packed, and filled with a lot of heart. And with the movie, directed by Edgar Wright (of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and Spaced fame), you know it has just the wright (*snicker*) voice to tell Bryan Lee O’Malley’s story on the silver screen.

5. Superman’s litigation to finally be resolved.

I don’t know if everyone’s just THAT aware, but Superman has been tied up in litigation for about as long as Marvelman has. The creators’ families claim to own key parts of the Superman mythos (Siegel and Schuster own Krypton, the city of Metropolis, Lois Lane, and pretty much anything in Action Comics #1) while DC owns other key parts (anything created after Action Comics #1, such as his expanded origin, the ability to fly, the “S” shield, and his vision powers, etc. etc.), As a fan of the big blue boy scout, I’d love to see this finally resolved so we can stop focusing on it, and get back to making movies, TV shows, and most importantly , good comics.

6. Sentry. Dead.

I saw it happen in What If? Secret Invasion and I was eager to see it happen in canon. Please Marvel, make it happen.

7. JLA/Avengers 2

I really love this crossover. It’s one of the most fun books, and being written by Kurt Busiek and drawn by George Perez, it deserves a revisit somewhere down the line. Maybe Krona can bust out of that prison he’s now in, and we can see the greatest heroes thrown down with the worst villains again. I’m down, are you?

8. An expanded Icon lineup

While Vertigo is already one of the best publishers out there, I think having some legit competition from Marvel’s Icon Imprint (read: ongoings and limited series’) will elevate both companies to give us more than “just” superhero comics. Who knows, maybe this could make Yorick Brown a household name.

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9. Iron Man 2 to outperform The Dark Knight.

It in all likelihood won’t happen, but I really want to see Iron Man on top of the heap for a while. Iron Man 2 has a lot of promise, and I already enjoy the Iron Man franchise more than the new Batman series. And some arrogant Batmaniacs could stand to be taken down a notch or two.

10. An ItsJustSomeRandomGuy writing gig in comics

This guy really gets the characters, especially when they interact with one another. His series has been a lot of fun from the get-go. One can only hope he can follow up his great run on youtube with my hopes of that JLA/Avengers 2? Or perhaps his own title with characters he created? The sky’s the limit for this relatively new voice in comic works, and I want to see him get there.


Matthew Meylikhov

Once upon a time, Matthew Meylikhov became the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Multiversity Comics, where he was known for his beard and fondness for cats. Then he became only one of those things. Now, if you listen really carefully at night, you may still hear from whispers on the wind a faint voice saying, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine is not as bad as everyone says it issss."

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