Scarletspeed7 Ranks the 30 Greatest Comic Stories NEVER Told

People love to argue over what the greatest comic book stories are. Crisis on Infinite Earths? The Dark Phoenix Saga? Watchmen? The list seems to be endless, and everyone has their own unique opinion on what should be the quintessential comic tales. But there’s an aspect to comic books that we don’t ever give our focus – the stories that end up in the waste bin. And there are a lot. Oh, there are quite a lot.

Since Siegel and Schuster first brought Superman to the four-color funny books of 1938, writers and artists have had their pitches shot down, their stories changed in mid-arc and even their completed comics stashed away in the vault, never to see the light of day. The comic writing process is a team exercise – writers, artists, inkers, editors, an editor-in-chief… all of these individuals have to work together to not only write quality issues but also to keep those issues consistent with the continuity of the shared universes of Marvel and DC Comics. Superman’s actions in one title affect all others around him, so sometimes a great story can’t be written because it’s too infeasible. Other times, an idea that seems like a risqué or bad idea at the time is replaced by something tamer or better, only for the latter concept to be branded as awful by the comic community.

This list is going to examine fifty of the oft-forgotten great tales that were never told. Some are famous, some are forgotten, but they all have a place in the legacy of comic books. Join me as I take a look at some of the roads less traveled.

50. Meet the OTHER brother of Scott Summers

The concept: ''Cable writer Kurt Weinberg was going to reveal that Apocalypse was the third brother of Cyclops and Havok.''

The origin: The concept of a third Summers’ brother was not a particularly unusual concept – several times throughout X-Men history, writers have tried to introduce a third sibling to the boys of Summers, but each and every time it was shot down. That is, until Vulcan was introduced in X-Men: Deadly Genesis.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e1/X-Men_-_Kingbreaker_1.jpg

One of the first attempts at Summers #3 was actually a really terrible mid-90s characters called Adam X the X-Treme (God, I hated 90s X-Men so much). The character was universally reviled though, so that plan never came to fruition. Chris Claremont, universally recognized as the most important X-Men writer ever, had planned to reveal Gambit was the third Summers brother in his run, but it was cut short and that concept also never developed. However, if you ever check out X-Men: The End, you can see an alternate universe where Claremont made that happen.

Anyways, while the idea of identifying the third Summers had been looming around Marvel for years, so too had been the idea of identifying who Apocalypse REALLY was. Original X-Factor writer Louise Simonson had actually planned for Apocalypse to be revealed as the Owl, a longtime Daredevil foe in New York City, but when she prepared to leave the book, the next writer coming in decided to turn the character into a wholly original villain.

The story: Both these ideas never really left the Marvel bullpen, and so Weinberg, coming into the Cable ongoing series, decided on revealing that Summers brothers’ third member was going to be none other than Apocalypse. The plan was that Corsair, the father of the brood, sired Apocalypse when he was much younger – however the mother never revealed to Corsair that she had given birth to his son. Instead, the child would be kidnapped and taken to the past. In Cable, the secret origin of Apocalypse would have been revealed when Apocalypse took over Scott Summers’ body in X-Men #97:

http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/5/54562/3442890-detail.jpg

The theory would be that Apocalypse could only assume the body of someone whose genetic makeup was extremely similar to his own, so he would leave Scott’s body and take over X-Man’s body (Scott’s son in an alternate timeline).

What we actually got: A story called Apocalypse: The Twelve, which ended up just being a fairly generic story about Apocalypse. No secret origin was revealed and Weinberg was off of Cable about 18 months after he started.

Why it matters: Consider what could have been done with Apocalypse living in the body of Scott Summers’ son – as his brother! There would have been such a fantastic familial dynamic, twisted and dark, that would have pervaded all of the stories about Apocalypse after that point. Frankly, Apocalypse’s stories slowly went into a decline of quality after the Age of Apocalypse, and this could have been the right twist to give the guy relevancy again.

49. The resurrection of Marvel’s horror comics

The concept: ''Chuck Dixon was going to write a series all about Marvel’s horror characters called The Midnight Sons.''

The origin: In the early 90s, Chuck Dixon was quickly becoming an in-demand writer in the comics industry. Comic fans may know him for his phenomenal work as the head Bat-writer for a number of years, spearheading Batman stories such as No Man’s Land, War Games and more. Dixon actually got his start on Conan the Barbarian, and he and his artist partner on that tie – Gary Kwapisz – decided to pitch several concepts to Marvel. Their first pitch, a series based on longtime X-Men ally Ka-Zar (the leading denizen of the notable fictional Savage Land), was dismissed, but Marvel asked for more ideas from the team, so Dixon came up with the Midnight Sons concept.

The story: The Midnight Sons were going to be a gang of Marvel’s horror characters led by the mysterious character called the Shroud. Most interestingly, the team was initially brought together by Doctor Doom in this pitch; Doom’s belief was that there needed to be a vigilant watchman at the door to Hell, watching for any incursions from otherworldly dimensions. Team members included Zombie, Werewolf by Night, and Tatterdemalion – several characters who had languished as D-Listers for years who would get a boost in star power from Doctor Doom. And hey, the concept went far enough into production for actual art samples:

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/shroud2.JPG

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/shroud12.JPG

What we actually got: Marvel, as it often does, didn’t like the idea at the time and quashed it. However, a year later, it was resurrected by editorial and given an entire LINE of comics… without Dixon involved. This line was intended to be EXTREME horror (welcome to the 90s), focusing on Ghost Rider, Morbius and lots of skulls and guns. It ended up being successful for a short period of time, but ultimately all of the Midnight Sons titles were so diluted in the market that they couldn’t drive up sales and were cancelled except for Ghost Rider. Sadly, Doom was not involved and the Midnight Sons that were produced never really gelled as a group.

Why it matters: This is a great example of how someone in charge thinks they can make an idea “work” when it already does work. Dixon is a strong character writer, and it has been obvious in years since that he can take a minor or forgotten character and make them memorable or beloved. Look at some of the Bat-villains that he brought to prominence. A lot of those guys had been languishing for a long time without being used, and yet when Dixon left the Batman universe, they were all rejuvenated again. Marvel decided to go with what was selling for them – lots of overly muscular characters with menacing weapons and fire – and that was completely against what these characters were all about originally. The upshot? A failed line of comics and dreams on what could have been.

48. The missing chapter of the greatest run on Thor

The concept: ''Walter Simonson planned to end his Thor run with a war between the Norse Gods and the giants of Jotunheim.''

The origin: Walt Simonson spent years as the writer of Thor, and he’s generally considered to be the best writer of the character ever. Thanks to him, a huge amount of the Thor mythos was established and so many of his most classic stories were written. The Surtur Saga, considered by many critics as the best Thor story, was at the height of Simonson’s run, and helped to establish Simonson as the quintessential writer of the character. This story was going to follow Thor’s journey into Hel to rescue the unjustly imprisoned mortal souls there and pick up a long-running plotline on who would rule Asgard; it also was going to resolve another major long-running storyline about the impending death of an Asgardian that had been foreshadowed/

The story: Here’s an actual quote from Simonson that I borrowed (you can find the quote here - http://marvel1980s.blogspot.com/2009/08/1986-whatever-happened-to-thor-godfrost.html):

''I had planned on doing a god/giant war involving many of the characters I was playing with at the time but got off the title before that storyline ever came to fruition. It's possible--but I don't remember now--that parts of the storyline of my final THOR plot were 'borrowed' from that original idea, although clearly, I didn't use Hildy (shown in the annual drawing) and I'd obviously had additional ideas about using mortal weapons in that storyline. (For more on the Norse gods and mortal weaponry, check out a copy of Lester Del Rey's book, DAY OF THE GIANTS. I read it when I was late junior high school or thereabouts and loved it. Haven't read it more recently so I don't know how it holds up but the basic idea's there. It was probably the first novel I read that involved a version of the Norse gods.)''

The story was going to feature the Warriors Three heavily, but promotional and concept art depicted Fandral and Hogun finding alongside not Volstagg, but his daughter Hildy. As you can imagine in that scenario, it was planned for Volstagg to be the Asgardian prophesied to die earlier in the series.

What we actually got: As Simonson stated in his quote, it’s quite possible that this story influenced the final arc of the series; in place of what was going to be in this story was a very, very pivotal one-shot issue that is my personal favorite issue of Thor – Skurge’s Last Stand. In place of Volstagg, longtime Thor foe the Executioner was given a true warrior’s death in one of the single most moving issues to ever come out of Marvel Comics. Still, it’s interesting to consider what might have been.

Why it matters: Volstagg has been a beloved piece of the Thor franchise in the decades since Simonson left Thor, even being pretty popular in the Thor films as the jovial, rotund warrior friend of the god of thunder. Would Hildy have been able to fill those shoes? More importantly, would Sif, the fan-favorite female Norse goddess, have gained her star stature within another major heroine in competition with her? It definitely would’ve changed the landscape of Thor as we know it.

47. Who actually IS Ronin?

The concept: ''Daredevil was originally supposed to be the enigmatic New Avengers member Ronin.''

The origin: This untold story is a pretty obvious and notorious one amongst modern comics fans. Early on in Brian Bendis’ hugely successful relaunch of the Avengers, we were introduced to Ronin, a mysterious masked martial artist that everyone thought they knew:

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/new-avengers_image_big.jpg

Notice the bottom right corner; not a character you recognize immediately, right? Well, the thing is, the weapons were a huge clue to fans at the time. They look strangely identical to Daredevil’s clubs, don’t they? That’s because they in fact WERE Daredevil’s billy clubs; Bendis originally planned on having the mysterious Ronin be none other than the Man without Fear, Matt Murdock.

The story: At the time, Murdock had been going through a lot of crazy changes in his own title. First, Daredevil’s secret identity (which everyone pretty much knew but always in a sort-of wink wink nudge nudge sort of way) was completely exposed to the public:

http://ifanboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Daredevil-e1360078730542.jpg

Then Matt went on to take out the Kingpin and assume control of the criminal underworld of NYC, and almost immediately after that he wound up in jail for a while:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZH30hrC8L._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

So DD had been through quite a lot of changes – but Bendis, who had put ol’ horny through the wringer, had planned to establish him as a major cornerstone in the MU by bringing him into the Avengers just in time to be a major player in Civil War and Secret Invasion.

What we actually got: Well, as soon as that promo image hit the internet, virtually everyone sussed out who the mysterious black masked vigilante was – it didn’t help that DD was quickly introduced into New Avengers, hemming and hawing and essentially saying he couldn’t join NOW (insinuating that later might work). Bendis quickly decided to change the identity of Ronin to minor character Echo:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/82/Echo_as_Ronin.png

Everyone was kind of pissed off by this.

Repeatedly asked for a long time about it afterwards, Bendis stated it was always planned for Echo to be Ronin, despite evidence seeming to be the contrary. However, in the most recent re-release of the New Avengers hardcover collection, Bendis finally broke down and admitted that the original plan was for Daredevil to be the man behind the mask.

Why it matters: These audible playcalls in comics based on leaked spoilers don’t happen all that often – but when they do, it tends to be the sole cause for a storyline to really suck. And suck hard. This won’t be the only example of this on the list (there’s a very specific DC moment from the 90s that is INFAMOUS for this), but it’s definitely Marvel’s most notorious example in recent years. Let’s face it: Daredevil belonged on that team of Avengers. It was an all-star A-list team that actually could compete with the Justice League of that era in terms of starpower. Too bad about this, as in my opinion this change started the slow decline in quality of the Avengers franchise under Bendis’ reign.

46. Chris Claremont’s Plans for the X-Men

The concept: Professor X was going to end up dead at the hands of the Shadow King in a long-running story involving anti-mutant senator Robert Kelly elected US President, Wolverine would be clinically dead for about a year, brought back as a brainwashed killing machine for the evil ninja collective The Hand, and have his claws torn out by Colossus. Also Jean Grey and Wolverine would end up getting together after all of his adamantium was purged from his body. So yeah.

The origin: Chris Claremont wrote the X-books for over a decade, from the late 70s into the 90s, and is generally credited as the single most influential writer of the X-Men. Period. So it came as no surprise that when Marvel decided to relaunch the X-Men book with a new #1 drawn by Jim Lee, they would go to the master of mutants, Chris Claremont, to write it. The first issue was a huge success, selling over one million copies in a time that Marvel was dominating the market but never to this level. Marvel generally credited this popularity to Jim Lee’s artwork, so when a rift between Lee and Claremont formed, Marvel picked the side of Jim Lee and dumped Claremont from the book. After all, they had just seen Spider-Man #1 sell over a million issues as well thanks to Todd McFarlane’s artwork despite his nonexistent writing experience at the time. Lee wanted more creative control, and he got it.

The story: Hoo boy, where to begin… What WOULD have happened had Claremont not left the title?

People who had been reading Claremont’s X-Men for some time knew that he was a fan of drawn out subplots, and his two major plots of the first two years of the new series (which is about as far as he planned out, although he had some rough ideas beyond that) were both plots that had been percolating for some time already. One of the plots was hinted at following the Siege Perilous storyline with the X-Men, and it involved the Shadow King. The Shadow King was slowly taking possession of people, which was a major part of this story involving Storm and Gambit. Claremont’s plans were for the Shadow King to slowly begin to possess more and more people (he already had taken hold of major parts of the United State Government). It was going to end with Shadow King seemingly defeated, but really he was just going to retreat and take over more and more pieces, like the aforementioned Hellfire Club, plus the Reavers. Magneto would’ve shown up and aided the team, and Professor X would have the ability to walk (which he had regained and lost in the 90s).

Eventually, the Shadow King would have gone after Gateway, with the hope of controlling the entire “Dreamtime.”  Part of Shadow King’s plan is to get the anti-mutant Robert Kelly elected President of the United States. However, Val Cooper, who was under the Shadow King’s control, would turn out to be Mystique in disguise and take out Shadow King’s main US agent, Jacob Reitz. Meanwhile, Tessa of the Hellfire Club will turn out not to be possessed at all, but secretly was a spy working for Professor Xavier. Xavier’s son Legion would be the main focal point of Shadow King’s plans, and ultimately, in a big battle at Muir Isle, Xavier and Magneto would take on Shadow King and in the end, Xavier would defeat the Shadow King once and for all, but in the process would be killed along with the Shadow King. The X-Men would then more or less lead themselves, but Magneto and Gateway would stick around as sort of mentor figures.

At the same time, the Hand put Psylocke into an asian ninja’s body. This would lead to a battle in the early issues of the new X-Men series where Wolverine would be fighting Lady Deathstrike, and since he was so exhausted, she would actually kill him. Wolverine would be dead, and that would be the case for the next. Finally, in Uncanny X-Men #294 (the 200th issue of the All-New, All-Different X-Men), Wolverine would return, only he was now brainwashed by the Hand! As it turned out, it was Wolverine who was the sleeper, not Psylocke! So for a little while, Wolverine would be kicking ass all over the Marvel Universe. Jean Grey would go in undercover to get close to him.

Along the way, Wolverine would begin purging his adamantium as his healing powers push it all out of his body. Colossus and Wolverine would have a big fight and in it, Colossus would tear Wolverine’s claws out of his body. The Hand would give him new artificial claws, but over time, it would turn out that Wolverine’s body makes its own claws, and the claws are replaced. Eventually, Wolverine would fight off the brainwashing and return to the X-Men, now sans the adamantium and with natural. He and Jean Grey will have gotten very close during this whole deal, to the point where Cyclops’ psychic rapport with Jean Grey would be getting quite unpleasant for Mr. Summers.

What we got: Um… not that.

Why it matters: Claremont leaving X-Men essentially resulted in nearly a decade of pretty crappy X-Men books (aside from X-Factor) until Grant Morrison came along to relaunch the team again. Claremont eventually DID return to the X-Men and published the generally disliked X-Men Forever, a comic that picked up where he left off before he was kicked out, but followed entirely new plotlines. It sucked hard.

45. Everyone was a Skrull before everyone was a Skrull?

The concept: ''Erik Larsen was going to reveal that Elektra was actually a Skrull in 1990.''

The origin: Marvel fans probably remember with some chagrin the late 00s event Secret Invasion, where it turned out that about half the Marvel Universe was a shape-shifting sleeper agent called a Skrull – the event kicked off with the revelation that Elektra had been dead for years, her role being taken after her original death by one such alien jerkwad. Strangely enough, though, this was not the first time this story was going to be used.

Erik Larsen, notably the creator of the Savage Dragon, had a decent run on Marvel titles in the late 90s, and he was given his pick of the litter at one point, choosing to write his own Nova series. Now, around this time Elektra had been resurrected for an ill-fated series, was kicking around the MU against the wishes of Frank Miller. Marvel used to have some integrity for its creators and actually stood by requests from creators not to allow other writers to use their creations. Stan Lee was the only person allowed to write the Silver Surfer, Steve Gerber was the only guy on Howard the Duck, and Elektra was Frank Miller’s and Frank Miller’s only. When new editors took over, however, that rule was blithely tossed aside and Elektra was given a terrible, uncharacteristic and unpopular title that was ended quickly. Larsen decided to absolve Elektra by making her a Skrull.

The story: It actually was going to be quite simple – Larsen was going to have Nova haul Elektra in to prison, but part of the story would be that she was depicted in her costume but as a Skrull. This is classic Doombot comicbookery: if you don’t like how a character is being handled, just make the offending story about some sort of doppelganger. However, the editors caught on to this and had it handily removed.

What we actually got: Larsen was caught in a quick bind on who to replace Elektra with in the story, but with typical Larsen wit, substituted this guy instead:

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/ul2-4_edited.jpg

Pretty clever, eh? He got some cheap, free publicity for his own series, and Marvel was able to publish the series as scheduled.

Why it matters: Elektra being a Skrull served as the initial inspiration for Secret Invasion when Brian Bendis resurrected the idea in 2008 – the story was wildly expanded into a several months long event with about a billion tie-ins (or 10% of the Civil War tie-ins count), and the Skrull infiltration took precedence over the idea of remaining faithful to a promise to a great comic creator. Essentially, Larsen is to be blamed for the entirety of Secret Invasion, as without his sly attempt to rectify a misdeed we wouldn’t have a huge chunk of Marvel lore.

44. Who’s banging who now?

The concept: ''DC Comics planned for Wonder Woman to have a longterm romance with Green Lantern Hal Jordan.''

The origin:  We’ve seen Wonder Woman date half the Justice League by now – Superman, Batman, Aquaman… but perhaps the most intriguing relationship was the one that never happened, with braggart and arrogant egotistical jerk Hal Jordan. In the late 70s, both Green Lantern and Wonder Woman were being edited by Jack Harris, and the highers-up at DC wanted to have an additional relationship between Justice Leaguers after the success they were seeing with Canary and Arrow. Harris brought his two titles to the editor-in-chief, who endorsed the idea.

The story: Not a whole lot is known about this relationship, but it was planned to be extremely longterm. It was to be a Scarlet Witch-Vision level of longevity, topping that relationship by being a focal point in THREE separate titles (Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Justice League of America). There were early considerations about having Wonder Woman spend missions with GL in space, and there being some dating-related stories. Even a Black Canary/Arrow – Wondy/GL double date story was considered for JLA!

What we actually got: Nothing. Unfortunately, a fan wrote into Wonder Woman suggesting the exact same idea, and because DC didn’t want to worry about a fan demanding royalties for an idea they already came up with, they canned the plotline. Instead, we got… well, we ended up with Hal banging an underage alien, so best not to dwell, eh?

Why it matters: Quite frankly, this could’ve been a huuuuuuuge part of the DC mythos. After all, it was planned to be a foundational piece of the three major franchises. If it had survived Crisis on Infinite Earths (which was about 8 years off), it would’ve likely been one of the single most important relationships in comics. We probably would never have seen Superman and Wonder Woman in the New52 or the host of other relationships Hal and Diana have gone through. And can you imagine the Amazon champion of women’s lib being domesticated? It would’ve been something to see.

43. Just what ARE we going to do with Aquaman?

The concept: ''There were two pitches in the late 90s for Aquaman – Peter David’s plan to kill him off and replace him with Tempest, and a reboot for the character made by none other than superstar writer Mark Waid!''

The origin: Peter David provided a dramatic new take on Aquaman starting in 1994, cutting off his hand and giving him a beard, amongst other things. This new version of Aquaman became a commercial success, getting featured in titles like the massive blockbuster hit JLA, where it became the new standard quite quickly. David, however, was planning to kill Arthur off in the 50th issue of his book.

In the storyline, Aquaman would take on Triton, God of the Seas and die defending Poseidonis (capitol of Atlantis). Garth would then take over the ruling of Atlantis, but, after some time being “dead,” Aquaman would return as the new DC water elemental, as a being made out of water. Ultimately, David’s plan was to have him returned back to human via the intervention of Mera, complete with his hand back. Garth would stay in charge of Atlantis, though, and Aquaman would travel the world as a sort of ambassador to Atlantis. DC turned down the story, telling David that, after the Death of Superman, no one would fall for such a stunt again. So David left the book, with his last two issues a greatly condensed and lighter version of his planned storyline (Aquaman fights Triton, is killed, but comes back from the dead to stop him).

'''The story: '''DC was in a bind now with the departure of Peter David, so they put out a call for A-List writers to pitch their own proposals for Aquaman. In came Mark Waid and Mark Wieringo, the rock star team from the Fantastic Four, with a pitch you can find here:

http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2009/01/when-i-talk-to-aspiring-comics-writers.html

The long and the short of this pitch is that Aquaman was going to be all about how he ISN’T a joke as most people think of him (thanks to shows like the Superfriends). The goal was going to be turning him into a hardass/ badass who doesn’t talk much, but still has a charismatic energy about him and a regal presence. There also was talk about giving him a trident.

The main crux of the story, however, would be a long-running plotline about Aquaman’s relationship with a marine biologist that blooms over the course of the series. As the POV character, she would help to bring a sense of awe to the actions of Aquaman, giving us the sense that his abilities and adventures were much grander than they are normally made out to be.

'''What we got: '''Well… there’s a certain amount of irony here. Peter David certainly had to smile at the fact that Aquaman was killed soon after in Our Worlds at War:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-khSD_eH9oAg/UXzHhxStP_I/AAAAAAAALNs/__xpEV9-86s/s800/Aquaman%2527s%2520missing.jpg

Then Garth was made the leader of Atlantis…

http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080803195203/marvel_dc/images/f/f8/JLA_68.jpg

And Aquaman was brought back as a watery being!

http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080803195254/marvel_dc/images/e/ee/JLA_72.jpg

Then, of course, Geoff Johns took on Aquaman a few years later and based his entire series around the fact that Aquaman is not a joke:

http://ifanboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Aquaman_Doesnt-Talk-To-Fish.jpg

So as you can see, quite the, erm, coincidence!

'''Why it matters: '''If you thought Marvel was the master of recycling ideas, turn your eyes to DC – the took not only one throwaway concept but two and made both of them critical and commercial successes. You gotta wonder, though, if Peter David shouldn’t have had the opportunity to tell his story. After all, David’s two longest runs (Hulk and X-Factor) were all about taking big risks that resulted in great payoffs, and this Aquaman idea certainly sounded excellent on paper. And of course, Mark Waid is a fantastic writer who probably could’ve done an equally good job as Johns did.

42. Let’s Kill the X-Women

The concept: ''Within a short span of time, Marvel seriously considered killing off both Psylocke and Storm in totally different stories, only to yank the greenlight at the last minute.''

The origin: Joe Kelly had a short but entertaining run on the two main X-Titles in the 90s, but there were two stories they really didn’t get a chance to write. The first was the original plot for The Psi-War – as you can see from this cover, Psylocke was slated to die:

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/psiwar2.jpg

Let me give you a quote from Joe Kelly about what was originally going to happen:

''We were going to kill Psylocke in X-Men and she was going to be lost in the psionic plane. As a result, telepaths all over the planet were going to go ballistic – their powers were going to freak out affecting everybody on earth. Then there would be a quest to find Psylocke and repair the psychic plane. And this would have dovetailed with the Phoenix story in Uncanny – Jean would have been more powerful than Xavier at that point, so they’d need her, but they’d also fear that turning the Phoenix loose on the psionic plane might do more harm than good.''

Marvel passed, but Kelly decided to pitch another death story right afterwards.

The story: The X-Men were to wake up in a mutant concentration camp, only to discover that it is a demonstration by Magneto of what the world will be like soon if they do not intervene. Eventually, some members of the X-Men would be swayed by Magneto’s rhetoric, even after he uses his powers to tilt the world on its axis (and threatens to do even more damage to the planet), so the team would be split over Magneto’s war. Ultimately, Storm would use all her powers to fix the Earth, but would die in the process. As you might imagine, this story was considered a bit too much for the X-Office to handle, particularly the death of Storm.

 

 

What we got: Instead, once Kelly and Steven Seagle left the book, a toned down version of this story was written by Alan Davis and Fabian Nicieza (with Magneto clone, Joseph, being the sacrifice instead of Storm – although I believe Joseph might have been a possible casualty in Kelly and Seagle’s story, as well).

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/9957_4_001.jpg

Why it matters: We were so close, soooooo close, to finally dropping that stale affirmative action hire X-chick from the line-up, and while I’m glad the Psylocke story didn’t go through (although the plot is intriguing), Storm has been nothing but a hamper on the Marvel Universe for a long time now. She even has dragged down Black Panther after his phenomenal series by Christopher Priest into a pretty boring marriage. Apparently, we can’t kill of Storm, but an actually popular character like Wolverine is fair game…

'''41. Martian Manhunter in the 31st Century!'''

The concept: ''Martian Manhunter was going to be the financier of the Legion of Super-Heroes. And he actually was! Or he wasn’t. Maybe? Who knows…''

The origin: For thirty years, the Legion of Super-Heroes was a major piece of the DCU. Here’s a tidbit you may not know: in the late 70s all the way until the early 80s when the New Teen Titans debuted, DC’s highest selling titles featured the Legion of Super-Heroes. They were kind of a big deal. The Legion went through some major changes under Keith Giffen when he took the title over post-Crisis on Infinite Earths, and despite the audience being fervently passionate about how good it was in his hands (it was pretty damn great), DC decided to reboot the Legion of Super-Heroes during the Zero Hour event in 1994.

After the reboot had been going for about Legion editor KC Carlson decided to bring a new twist to the character of RJ Brande. Brande was one of the first Legion characters to debut and also one of the most important; when Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl and Cosmic Boy first teamed up, Brande become their singular source of funding. For years afterwards, he’d be crucial to the franchise, up until his death and the revelation that he was a Durlan (the DC version of a Skrull, only good guys – see Chameleon Boy). RJ Brande’s secret shapechanging double life played a major role in the series long after his death until the reboot.

The story: For about five years of the reboot, no one had gone into any detail about where RJ Brande had come from. Carlson’s plan was to reveal that Brande was actually none other than the long-lived Manhunter from Mars, J’onn J’onnz. This version of the Legion had very little in common with the present-DCU of the time; unlike the pre-Zero Hour Legion that featured Superboy or Supergirl frequently, there were no Man of Steel-related characters this time around, so the idea was to bring some continuity between the two time periods. Martian Manhunter was also a shapechanger which fit well into the original concept of RJ Brande. Essentially, J’onn would keep his identity hidden for a long period of time, but slowly hints would be doled out and Brainiac 5 would figure out the truth. At this point, there was going to be a major storyline taking place on Mars and possibly J’onn would die at the end of it.

What we got: DC balked at the idea; more specifically, Dan Raspler (editor of the massively successful JLA at the time) didn’t want to “screw up” J’onn who was a featured player in DC’s biggest title. You can read more about it here: http://geniusboyfiremelon.blogspot.com/2008/10/final-crisis-legion-of-three-worlds-2.html

The general consensus was that character who were involved in the present DCU couldn’t crossover into the future DCU of the Legion because it might confuse readers or screw up possible storylines for other writers. The irony of that, of course, is that a couple years later, Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning were allowed to break that rule with a character that was actually the MAIN villain in a concurrent JLA storyline!

Here’s JLA:

http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090107191855/marvel_dc/images/1/14/JLA_Vol_1_43.jpg

And here’s Legion:

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090122044157/marvel_dc/images/1/1e/Legion_6.jpg

The stories ended up overlapping by a month on both ends, despite the editorial edict from before.

Why it matters: Because editors suck. There was absolutely no reason to change the story here; if people were worried about J’onn’s hands being tied by putting him in the 31st century, they really shouldn’t have published this:

http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090218195813/marvel_dc/images/a/a4/Martian_Manhunter_Vol_2_1000000.jpg

should they?

'''40. Mystique, Sabretooth, Magneto, Apocalypse… but the greatest of these is – GAMBIT?!?!'''

The concept: ''Gambit was part of a long-brewing subplot that would eventually expose him as a traitor in the ranks of the X-Men and become one of their greatest foes.''

The origin: This is actually pretty straightforward. Gambit was originally created to be a traitor within the ranks of the X-Men by Chris Claremont.

The story: The plan was for Gambit to be connected with Mister Sinister, who planted Gambit on the time as a traitor. The story of his villainous turn was going to be chronicled post-X-Men #3 (which was Claremont’s final issue before getting kicked off the book), but Jim Lee essentially made that a moot point. Gambit was set up to actually take over Sinister’s role as a major villain and Claremont had plans as far as a few years out on the title that would see Magneto as the X-Men leader and Gambit as the leader of a new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Kind of wild, eh?

What we got: While Marvel was always aware of the plans to make Gambit a traitor, the combination of firing Claremont and the growing popularity of Gambit put a kibosh on these plans. Since then, we’ve seen about a hundred traitors on the X-Men, most notably Xorn in Grant Morrison’s run – but a real long-term twist like Gambit’s setup would have been a real departure from the normal double agent character in comics.

Why it matters: Apart from the obvious effect this would have on the X-Men as a whole (Gambit obviously has been a crucial part of the franchise of years now), the most important aspect of this story is the fact that the traitor storyline has since been done to death in X-Men. Isn’t it interesting that up until this point there were really never traitors on the team? Sure, you had the Dark Phoenix saga, but that’s about as close as you could get to someone turning on the team.

39. Barry Allen and the Crisis Conundrum

The concept: ''Barry Allen was originally not slated to die in Crisis on Infinite Earths, and Wally West wasn’t originally slated to become his successor once Marv Wolfman decided to kill Barry off.''

The origin: In the early 80s, Barry Allen wasn’t selling all that well in the Flash. Writer Cary Bates came in and breathed a little bit of new life into the series, eventually leading up to a major story arc that featured the death of Iris Allen, the murder of the Reverse-Flash and the trial of Barry Allen. This story ended up running for about a year right up until the Crisis on Infinite Earths, where SPOILERS for nobody, Barry died. The thing is, at the time he began the story, he had planned to carry on the story of Barry’s trial much further. The plan was for Barry to be vindicated by the public, but found guilty in the court, leading to Barry becoming a hero “on the run”. Pretty great concept, eh? You can read more about it here:

http://speedforce.org/2011/05/interview-cary-bates2/

However, with the Crisis looming, Bates decided not to try and pack the entire story into a few issues and just extended the Trial story until Crisis began. At that point, DC killed off Barry and the question as to his successor began to be discussed.

The story: Marv Wolfman was given a lot of latitude with Crisis on Infinite Earths – much more than any writer had honestly had prior to that point. Wolfman essentially was going to reboot the entire DCU by himself, so while DC was very bold in allowing this to happen, they wanted to have a few specific pieces in place so they could build out of Crisis successfully.

Wolfman had some really cool ideas that were very forward-thinking at the time – one was his concept for the Justice League which was to be comprised of international heroes from all over the world (mostly members of the Global Guardians were included). This was a huge step forward in comic book diversity, but DC couldn’t afford letting Wolfman leave New Teen Titans, so this idea was squashed.

Wolfman also planned on using a brand new character as the Flash once Barry died. The concept centered around a female heroine who would have powers based around light rather than super-speed. The use of light powers also afforded her the ability to transmute INTO light and travel at lightspeeds as well, so the legacy of super-speed wasn’t going away from the Flash legacy. However, DC felt this character was too far from the concept of the Flash and not as marketable, so they killed this idea as well.

What we got: This part is pretty interesting – Wolfman ended up using the Light character he created anyways. In fact, she was introduced in Crisis on Infinite Earths! Perhaps your remember Kimiyo Hoshi, the female Doctor Light that debuted early on in the mini-series. Dr. Light ended up being a pretty major player for several years in the DCU, serving with the Justice League and appearing in various titles.

Wolfman ended up handing the mantle of the Flash to Wally West, who has since become one of the most popular characters in comics. At the time of Crisis, he was in semi-retirement from his role as the Kid Flash with the New Teen Titans, but the return of Wally to the Flash resuscitated the character and propelled him to superstardom in DC Comics.

And in the light-based female Flash concept STILL got used eventually! Dan Jurgens dug the idea out for the Tangent Comics line/event where he reinvented pretty much every major DC character in some new unique way, and suddenly Wolfman’s idea was in demand again:

http://www.fascinationplace.org/wp-content/images/Comics/Comic_Books/T/Tangent_Comics/Tangent_Superman__s_Reign_1.jpg

Why it matters: Barry Allen’s death was a huge deal at the time – it still is, really. Without things lining up the way they did, we might not have seen one of the greatest comics characters of all time find his footing, and who knows what could’ve happened. I don’t say this often about editorial interference, but we’re really lucky DC wanted to go in a different direction. We ended up getting two great superheroes out of the deal.

'''38. The unholy union of the Clone Saga and One More Day'''

The concept: ''Mephisto was planned to be the original mastermind behind Spider-Man’s notorious Clone Saga.''

The origin: One More Day is probably the most universally hated Spider-Man storyline of all time, a tale where Mephisto – Marvel’s version of Satan – erases Peter’s marriage to MJ from existence. The runner up to that dubious distinction is, however, is the 90s years-long story arc the Clone Saga, a story that revealed at various points that Peter was a clone, was not a clone, was cloned, was not cloned, and at the end of the day left readers just scratching their heads. Back when the story was first being hammered out by the Spidey writers and editors, however, Mephisto was going to once again be the big bad guy. The team didn’t have any plans aside from Mephisto and the plot was actually really far into production with him before it was changed.

The story: Time Loop.

In a nutshell, the idea was that neither Peter Parker nor Ben Reilly was the clone – both were the original. How, you ask, could this be possible? Glad you asked. Brace yourselves, because here we go.

The idea was that Peter Parker would somehow be sent back in time five years, where he would co-exist with the Peter Parker of that time, and somehow be led to believe that he was the clone. Peter would then spend the next five years living as Ben Reilly. When Peter/Ben reaches the point in 1996 (the year this story would have taken place) where he is sent back in time to become Ben, the “time loop” is closed, and there is only one Peter Parker left in the present – the one who’s lived the past five years as Ben Reilly. The Ben Reilly of 1996 then regains all the memories of Peter’s adventures from AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #149 on, thus validating over 20 years of Spider-Man stories and (hopefully) pleasing longtime fans.

Spidey editor Glenn Greenberg explains the rest here (http://lifeofreillyarchives.blogspot.com/):

The rest of the scenario involved Traveller and Scrier, now clearly in direct conflict with each other, having concocted a contest – one in which winner would take all. “The contest, like so many of Traveller’s recent experiments, would revolve around Spider-Man… (it) would settle Traveller and Scrier’s dispute about the inherent nature of mankind. Spider-Man will represent all of humanity, and his actions during the contest will determine the outcome… and the winner.” If Spider-Man’s actions proved Traveller’s theory that mankind is inherently good, then Traveller would win the contest and be allowed to remove all evil from Earth. If Spider-Man failed, then Scrier would win and Traveller would have to end his studies and would owe Scrier a very special payment.

Peter and Ben refuse to participate, but they’re not given any choice in the matter. In a great show of power, as Ben Reilly and Mary Jane watch, Scrier blasts Peter Parker into oblivion! Peter is apparently disintegrated, gone forever! A horrified and anguished Ben, with vengeance in his heart, closes in to tear Scrier apart. But then Scrier asks what Ben would give to have Peter back. Would he offer his soul and risk eternal damnation, just to restore Peter to life? “Having come to love Peter as a friend and a ‘brother,’ and unable to bear the sorrow of Mary Jane, one of his closest and dearest friends, Ben says that he would be willing to give anything to bring Peter back… even his own soul.”

And here came the kicker: “Scrier laughs, and finally reveals himself to Ben (and the readers) in his true form: MEPHISTO! He says, ‘Okay, Peter’s alive. In fact, he never died! Because you’re Peter! You always have been Peter!”

'''What we got: '''Ultimately, the idea was nixed, but it lasted all the way until 1996 before a new idea replaced it, ultimately because it was considered a bit too cosmic of a story for Spider-Man. Granted, the idea they ended up going with, “Norman Osborn did all of it” ended up being pretty well hated on its publication, and the Clone Saga has gone down in history as one of Marvel’s bigger blunders.

Why it matters: Joe Quesada, never one to throw away an idea at Marvel, ended up pushing the Mephisto concept in order to end the marriage of Spider-Man and MJ ten years later. Quesada is infamous for hating that marriage, and he leapt at the chance to nix it as soon as he had a chance. So Mephisto, as was his plan all along most likely, still got the last laugh and screwed up the Spider-Man franchise – and the fans paid the price.

37. Grant Morrison pitches Arkham Asylum to Marvel

The concept: ''After the success of Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on a Serious Earth, Grant Morrison was going to write a spiritual sequel to it for Spider-Man.''

The origin: So Arkham Asylum. Did you know that the year it came was also the year Tim Burton’s Batman was released in theatres? Due to the sudden resuscitation of Bat-mania, Arkham Asylum ended up selling an insane amount of copies. Something like 600,000 units – just crazy for a graphic novel at the time. So with something so wildly successful, you’d expect a sequel right? There was one in the works actually… just not at DC.

The story: Morrison was actually in the early stages of following up Arkham Asylum with a graphic novel starring Spider-Man. Morrison described the story as a tale revolving around an attack by Mysterio that would end up with Spider-Man ending up in a parallel world. Here, Spider-Man never got married and Aunt May died. Here’s some of Morrison’s own description which I grabbed from this page (https://sites.google.com/site/deepspacetransmissions/universe-b/marvel):

''The Spider-Man of that world is a creepy, skinny Ditko guy, who lives on his own and is shunned by the neighbors. He only comes alive when he’s out on the rooftops leaping about and squirting jets of white stuff over everything. Freud would have loved the story as the creepy but ultimately decent Spider-Man meets his counterpart from a place where Peter married a supermodel and made lots of money. The story was based around that tension and the ultimate redemption of the creepy Ditko character. I’d do something different now.''

Here’s some concept art from the story from Simon Bisley:

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/spider_manvsvenom1995.jpg

What we got: Morrison never actually DID do a Spider-Man project. In fact, he’s never done one during his career, which is odd, as he’s done work for pretty much every other major character out there. Marvel was lukewarm on the project and at the time, DC made an offer for Morrison to resurrect a couple of forgotten characters and pretty much have carte blanche to do what he wanted with them. Morrison tabled his discussions with Marvel and went off to write two of the greatest comic book runs of all time – Doom Patrol and Animal Man.

Why it matters: Two reasons. First, it’s the comic book god that is Grant Morrison. Second, I just find this story so un-Spider-Man-like that it just might’ve worked. Given that we get alternate Spider-Men teaming up all the time these days, you gotta wonder if any of that was inspired by this pitch.

36. Nightcrawler, DC Comics superstar

The concept: Nightcrawler was originally pitched as a member of a Legion of Super-Heroes spin-off team called The Outsiders.

The origin: Dave Cockrum, who was a crucial part of the resurrection of the X-Men in the early 70s, was for a time working on the Legion of Super-Heroes at DC. Before we were graced with his creations such as Colossus, Storm and Thunderbird, however, Cockrum was pitching a brand new team that would spin out of the Legion of Super-Heroes called the Outsiders.

That’s right, the Outsiders. As in, the team that Batman created in 1980 featuring several of DC’s major second-string stars. The name actually came from none other than Cockrum’s 31st century hero team. And guess who one of the main stars was? None other than Kurt Wagner, the incredible Nightcrawler!

The story: First, let’s kick it off with some concept art:

http://www.cosmicteams.com/legion/img/fanfare/cockrum-outsiders.jpg

As you can see, several of these characters have existed in some form or another since this art was produced – most notably is of course, Nightcrawler. The plan was for this team to be a mix between the Legion of Super-Heroes and the crew of the Enterprise on Star Trek. They would be humanoid aliens from various worlds exploring uncharted regions of space and making contact with new races (that would include the mysterious woman in the back woman in the background named Quetzal). Nightcrawler was sort of the comedy relief and the “best friend” character for the star which would be Power Boy. Of course, a team is nothing without adversaries, and this came about the Devastators:

http://lsh.0catch.com/lsh/art/devastators.gif

Now, there might be something oddly familiar about the wolf-like figure in the middle left of this picture. Well, here’s the thing – meet Wolverine.

That’s right. Wolverine. Before Marvel created the classic character we all know and love, DC was pitched a feral wolf-man creature named Wolverine, which they passed on. Anyways, that was the gang.

What we got: DC passed on these Outsiders but eventually put together a Batman-led version of the team in the present-day featuring Metamorpho, Katana, Black Lightning, Geo-Force and Halo. Meanwhile, Dave Cockrum brought Nightcrawler to Marvel with several of his other characters, and soon he found himself on the X-Men. The rest fell quickly into place. In fact, more of these characters than you realize are part of the X-Men – just in a different form.

For example, Quetzal’s design was well-liked around the office, so Cockrum combined it with Typhoon and Black Cat (an African American heroine he had designed) to create Storm. The white hair was a last-minute inspiration to which writer Len Wein famously warned, “Just don’t make her look like somebody’s grandmother.”

And in regards to that Wolverine character? He ended up at Marvel as well, as a member of the Imperial Guard known as Fang. Cockrum was part of the team that created a Legion of Super-Hero pastiche called the Imperial Guard with each member serving as a sly copy of a different Legionnaire. Fang was meant to represent the feral Timberwolf, but later on in the series, Fang and the REAL Wolverine end up tangling, but at the end of the day Wolverine ends up slicing and dicing as normal but losing his costume in the process. In a bizarre combination of all sorts of coincidences, erm, coinciding, Wolverine TAKES Fang’s costume and actually uses it for a long time, eventually adapting it into the orange and brown costume that he wore for almost a decade.

Yup.

Why it matters: The X-Men were resurrected on a gamble by Marvel in the 70s – could you imagine that team without NIghtcrawler? The fact that one of the most crucial characters in the series that kept Marvel alive for decades – a character featured in movies, games and TV shows – was almost a DC property, really would’ve changed the outcome of the game. Could Storm and Wolverine and the gang be enough to keep the X-Men afloat? Just how valuable would NIghtcrawler have been?

'''35. We would never bring Bucky back, except when we bring Bucky back'''

The concept: ''Marvel passed on a storyline that would’ve resulted with Bucky’s return to the Marvel Universe merely TWO YEARS before they published the Winter Soldier story arc.''

The origin: Robert Morales’ run on Captain America was troubled nearly from the start. Morales was given the ongoing Captain America title on the strength of his Truth: Red, White and Black mini-series that he had written, depicting the story of an African-American precursor to Steve Rogers named Isiah Bradley. Morales’ stories were quite political in nature, including Captain America visiting Guantanamo Bay. He was going to have Captain America run for, and actually be ELECTED, President, with the plan that he would be president for four years (perhaps four years real time).

Well, the problem was – while this was approved and Morales was already well on his way towards this story – it quickly hit a snag when the rest of Marvel editorial found out about it. Ultimately, it was determined that no, Captain America would NOT be elected president. Now, though, Morales needed a new storyline for his book, so it was determined that he would bring Bucky back!

'''The story: '''Although I bring this story up, it only made it to the preliminary planning stages. Bucky was going to be brought back in a block of ice similar to Captain America, but he would be a foil to Captain America – he would see his old friend as tainted by the modern social and cultural ideals and attempt to lead a social movement for change, including shining a negative light on Captain America and the Avengers’ actions.

What we got: Again, Marvel editorial argued over this turn of events as well, and I knows Tom Brevoort specifically was against the idea, so once again, Morales’ story was changed (this time, though, I do not believe Morales had taken any steps towards actually writing this story – please someone correct me if I am mistaken). Morales’ run on the title ended with issue #28.

Soon afterwards, Tom Brevoort took over editing Captain America himself, and new writer Ed Brubaker told him his idea – he wanted to bring back Bucky. Again, Brevoort protested, but this time, his laundry list of concerns were addressed by Brubaker to Brevoort’s satisfaction, so Brevoort was willing to go along with Brubaker’s idea.

'''Why it matters: '''Quite simply, favoritism. While I love Brubaker and his work on Cap, I don’t like Marvel’s business ethics and how someone can ashcan a story and turn around and allow for a bigger writer. For all we know, Morales’ story could’ve been great. Frankly I would’ve really loved to see a Bucky-Captain America rivalry that revolved around the American ideal. Brubaker’s run is pretty shallow although very entertaining – Captain America at his best though is all about examining major American themes and values through a lens of Marvel mythology.

34. Rob Liefeld and the teen team that wasn’t.

The concept: ''Rob Liefeld pitched a teen team to both Marvel and DC that was rejected… and eventually became a major success for Image as Youngblood.''

The origin: In the early 90s, Liefeld was just about everywhere – much to our chagrin. His tenure was very short at DC, but much more pronounced at Marvel, even being a spearhead in the much-loathed Marvel Reborn debacle. What you may not know is that he pitched Youngblood twice – once to DC as Team Titans, and once to Marvel as the Young Avengers.

The story: Liefeld first took the concept to Marvel in the late 80s when Marvel put out the call for a team that could be competitive with the Teen Titans – a comic that eventually became the New Warriors. While the series featured mostly a line-up of established Marvel heroes (as you can see, it’s virtually identical to the New Warriors’ main line-up), the plan was to bring in several new heroes, many of whom ended up in the Youngblood team. Here’s the actual cover sheet to the series proposal:

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/youngavengers1.jpg

After Marvel passed, a few years passed before DC asked Liefeld to make a pitch for a spin-off team of the Teen Titans. Most of the characters were recycled between the two pitches, but there were some interesting tweaks to the future Youngblood team. To DC, Rob Liefeld pitched this (from an interview at Newsarama):

''I proposed a new Titans book in 1991, Team Titans was the proposal. Shaft was intended to be Speedy. Vogue was a new Harlequin design, Combat was a Kh’undian warrior circa the Legion of Super Heroes, ditto for Photon and Die Hard was a Star Labs android. I forgot who Chapel was supposed to be. So there you have it, the secret origin of Youngblood. Jon Peterson who edited the book approved it, Marv Wolfman signed on to co-write it and then I couldn’t make the deal with Dick Giordano. God bless him, we just couldn’t make the numbers work. So I took my proposal and merged it with an existing indie project I had called Youngblood. Next thing you know, POOF…Image comics was born.''

What we got: Marvel ended up creating the New Warriors, which as you can see, shared almost the same line-up as Liefeld’s original pitch:

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/New_Warriors.jpg

The New Warriors ended up being a successful title for several years, but unfortunately Marvel decided to go EXTREME with it in an effort to drive up sales (ie: do the kind of comic Liefeld does), and it backfired, killing sales. Later on, the New Warriors came back as a reality show superteam – this version met its untimely end in the notorious opening of Civil War. Since then, we’ve had yet another iteration of the team that ended up being a commercial dud. End result? Marvel can’t just duplicate the Teen Titans.

At DC, we actually DID get the Team Titans – a completely different comic than originally anticipated. It actually sold pretty well, but creative tinkering started to kill the sales. One notable member of the team is the fondly remembered Redwing, but otherwise they’ve become nearly forgotten, only remembered for being revealed as sleeper agents for the main villains of Zero Hour and getting slaughtered:

http://popcultureaffidavit.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/zero-hour-2-cover.jpg

The only surviving members of that team ended up being Mirage and Terra (and the story behind Terra is so convoluted that she probably wishes she was killed off).

Youngblood ended up getting published at Image in the 90s, and was one of the main titles that got the company off of the ground – would you believe that it spent a significant amount of time as the second-highest selling title for them behind Spawn? So the one comic from Liefeld that DC and Marvel actually WOULDN’T publish became his biggest success!

Why it matters: Just for sheer irony’s sake. I hate Liefeld, but ha! Suck it Big Two.

'''33.  Goddamn it! Jeph Loeb’s All-Star Batman'''

The concept: ''Jeph Loeb was the original writer lined up to work with Jim Lee on All-Star Batman.''

The origin: All-Star Batman was the most hyped comics launch since Jim Lee’s X-Men #1 – it ended up selling nearly 400,000 copies through its various printings. Teamed up with Frank Miller, Lee was going to provide a continuity-free Batman experience set in its own universe with its own rules. Unlike the Ultimate comics line of Marvel, the plan for the All-Star line of comics were to allow the creators free latitude to tell whatever stories they wanted; it didn’t have to be tied to other All-Star Comics, it didn’t have to meet any specific content standards. It was the opportunity to have THE quintessential story for a DC character. But before Miller joined the title, the book was conceptualized as a reunion between Hush’s creative team – Lee and Jeph Loeb.

The story: I pulled this quote from an issue of Wizard magazine where Loeb spoke about the concept:

''I was supposed to do All Star Batman and Robin with Jim Lee, but I left for Marvel, and DC wasn’t to keen on me continuing even though Marvel was okay with it. But, hey, they got Frank Miller in the end! I know that Jim and I will go back to Batman one day; “Hush 2″ is still in the cards! What nobody knows is that Art Adams was going to do the second ASBR arc, and I started that as well. Full script-issue #11(crazy, huh?) and Arthur drew half of the book-outrageously beautiful stuff featuring Man-Bat. It’ll never see the light of day!''

Essentially, the plan was for Lee and Adams to switch back and forth on arcs – Lee is notorious for having a very slow workrate, so only having to churn out 6 comics each year was about the right pace for him. Loeb often works extremely far ahead of time on his titles, so Adams actually had a lot of interior artwork finished (without inks of course), and luckily you can check those pages out here:

https://www.facebook.com/arthur.adams/media_set?set=a.4808544374514.191946.1323357151&type=1

I highly recommend taking a look – this is some very phenomenal stuff.

What we got: Loeb was off of the book due to his work at Marvel – and there was serious precedence for this. At the time, Joe Quesada had begun to make some very pointed and insulting remarks towards DC, also unilaterally deciding without provocation that the two companies would never release another crossover comic while he worked there. It’s a pretty long story, but suffice it to say, it was the Marvel editor’s attitude that caused the fallout, and Loeb was no longer on Batman. However, DC was willing to have him work on smaller titles – but there big marquee project was out of the picture thanks to Quesada.

In his place stepped Frank Miller, creator of Batman: Year One and The Dark Knight Returns. Such a seminally classic writer surely would be perfect for a title like this, right? At first, people were thrilled with the title, but it quickly devolved into a mess. This Batman was set in a universe featuring Year One, Dark Knight Returns and Dark Knight Strikes Again, and the tone of the title was met with distaste from fans. Most notoriously, there was this panel which seemed to become the poster for what was wrong with the title:

http://www.toplessrobot.com/tgdbm.jpg

To cap it all off, Miller didn’t keep Adams on the book and therefore Jim Lee’s pace got slower… and slower… and eventually there were bigger deals between issues than between Ambush Bug: Year None #5 and 6.

The All-Star line ended up fading away slowly, as many plans for it became the concepts for New52 launch titles or Earth One graphic novels. Luckily, All-Star Superman came out as planned… for the most part. But that’s a story for another entry.

Why it matters: People like to compare the All-Star line to the Ultimate Comics line, but I think that’s an unfair combination. Ultimate Comics was essentially an attempt at Marvel 2 – updating all the stories and characters for a younger audience with quality work that would draw older readers in as well. There was talk for a while about completely phasing out Old Marvel, but ironically it was Jeph Loeb that would put a nail in this coffin by creating Ultimatum – an event that cut almost all Ultimate title sales in half and has led slowly to the cancellation of the line (coming early next year). Moral of the story? Doesn’t matter what you do, it’s gonna suck eventually.

32. Luke X Leia and the Star Wars comic that never was

The concept: ''Beloved comics writer Peter David was going to write a Star Wars: Infinities story that featured Luke and Leia in THAT KIND of relationship.''

The origin: Dark Horse comics published a handful of popular mini-series under the banner of Star Wars: Infinities. These were kind of like “What If…?” comics, but set specifically in the Star Wars universe. A lot of people have fond memories of the first Infinities mini-series, but what’s interesting about that title is that it was originally going to be written by Peter David.

The story: The big twist to the story was going to be an incestuous relationship between Luke and Leia – how did the story set that up? Here’s what Peter David had to say (from peterdavid.net):

''The concept was that you take one point in the film, and deviate from it, and see what happens. I actually ended up keying off my ‘Skippy the Jedi Droid’ story. I didn’t use Skippy in it per se, but I went to that moment when the droid that Uncle Owen was originally going to go with blows, and I had it not blow up. That simple. The robot mangaged to hold itself together long enough for the Jawas to make tracks, and then it blows up. But that sent everything off in a different direction. Because if that droid doesn’t blow up at that particular moment, they don’t acquire R2-D2. Without R2-D2, the story doesn’t go the way it’s supposed to go… the story ended with Leia, now the ruler of the Empire, a Sith Lord and her apprentice and lover, Luke Skywalker. They didn’t know! The cover image to issue #2, with a close shot of Princess Leia in the Darth Maul face make-up glaring out at the reader, would’ve been killer.''

Here’s a mock-up for said cover:

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/darthleia.png

What we got: Lucasfilm had told David explicitly that he had free reign to do whatever he wanted, so when they balked at publishing the story, David’s reaction was like this:

''I gotta say, I was furious when Lucasfilm kicked it back. The whole reason I’d taken on the assignment was because I’d been told that Lucasfilm had effectively given us carte blanche. But then, after I drafted the outline, they turned around and said that the story had to end with Luke, Leia and Han triumphing over evil. In other words, it had to have the same exact ending as Star Wars. It’s a crying shame.''

The actual mini-series that was published was fairly successful, but certainly not has intriguing or risky as what David had planned.

Why it matters: I guess it doesn’t matter all that much in the scheme of things. It was an alternate reality story told with a licensed franchise at the 4th biggest comic company. I mean, it’s not like we’re talking “Batman is gay” here. Still, I really would’ve loved to have seen this story – it’s delightfully twisted.

'''31. Robins… Robins Everywhere The concepts: 'After Infinite Crisis, Jason Todd was going to become Nightwing. Originally, Grant Morrison was going to kill off Damian Wayne after one story arc.  Popular antihero Anarky was originally created to become Robin after Jason Todd.''

The origins: Woo boy, here we go.

Back in the early 90s, Alan Grant’s run on Batman had turned the title from being nearly cancelled into one of DC’s most popular titles. One major component of the series was the brilliant anarchist vox populi character Anarky. Grant wanted to bring the Robin name back into the Batman fold with a new character of his own design, and therefore Anarky was set up to take over the Robin role.

Fast-forward 20 years and suddenly it’s Infinite Crisis. Dan Didio was planning at the time to kill of beloved star Dick Grayson in issue #6, and plans began to be put in place for who would take the role of Nightwing (which was a decently-selling series they didn’t want to cancel). After some discussion, it was decided that recently-resurrected Robin would do the dirty deed and take over the book.

At the same time, Grant Morrison was gearing up for his run on Batman with a story following up on the classic graphic novel Son of the Demon, which would bring back the long-forgotten child of Talia al Ghul and Batman. Morrison was going to write a self-contained story where this child ended up dying at the hands of Talia at the end of a four-part tale.

The story: Originally, Grant had planned for Anarky to become Robin after several run-ins with Batman; Batman would actually change Anarky’s mind on how to effect change in society and this would lead to Anarky requesting the opportunity to apprentice with Batman. The plan was for Anarky to serve as perhaps the most faithful Robin yet, almost as an acolyte to Batman. It would be a very different, bizarre interpretation of the Robin-Batman relationship.

20 years later, the goal for the new Nightwing title was to turn it into a character halfway between Deathstroke and Nightwing, a brutal killing anti-hero running a reign of terror in Bludhaven. As you can see from the first cover from the One Year Later arc, this definitely went very far into the production stage before being canned:

http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/0/6063/2161889-nightwing118.jpg

And Morrison’s story of Damian Wayne was going to result in an additional story where Talia and Batman tangled in a mortal struggle, Talia choosing to kill herself at the end of a second four-part tale. Damian would never have been a key player in the Batman run, and Talia would’ve been knocked off for good. Ra’s al Ghul was going to be set up as the main antagonist for Batman, Inc.

What we got: As Grant set up Anarky to be Robin, Teen Titans author Marv Wolfman was pitching a new Robin to DC Comics, which ended up being approved and produced – Tim Drake was introduced in A Lonely Place of Dying:

http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_large/5/56044/1763357-batman__1940__442.jpeg

Grant begrudgingly backed off of his plans for Anarky, who remained a minor fixture in the rest of his Batman run. Tim Drake, of course, has become a major DC star and a fan-favorite character.

Dan Didio was forced by most of his writers – including Geoff Johns – to change his plans for Nightwing after they discovered the truth about the death of Dick Grayson. Johns changed the ending to Infinite Crisis # 6, replacing Dick Grayson with another beloved young hero:

http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100228090706/marvel_dc/images/4/4a/Superboy_Death.jpg

Bruce Jones, who was deep into production on his Todd-Nightwing run, was forced to change the title significantly. We ended up with a storyline about Todd attempting to take over the role of Nightwing and a lot of weird Grayson vs. Todd crap that led to the series being cancelled. Grant Morrison had planned to make Grayson Batman after Bruce Wayne’s death, so it all worked out.

And good ol’ Damian Wayne endeared himself so much to Morrison that he gave him a stay of execution after he started working on his Batman run. Six years later, however, he decided to provide the ending he had always wanted, killing Damian and having Talia and Batman lock up in mortal combat. Damian remained dead for a while, but plans were made at the time of his death to bring him back after about a year – something that’s about to happen.

Why it matters: If you ever go to DC Comics, don’t go near the Robin mantle. It’s like putting a loaded gun to your head and playing Robin Roulette.

30. Mark Millar’s Wanted – DC Comics style

The concept: Wanted was originally pitched to DC Comics as a Secret Society of Super-Villains mini-series.

The origin: Mark Millar and JG Jones’ Wanted was about a young man who finds out that his father is part of a secret society of supervillains. Ever since the hit comic book came out in 2003, it has been rumored that the story was originally written for DC as a pitch by Millar for a mini-series about the ACTUAL Secret Society of Supervillains. Turns out, it’s true!

The story: Here’s the pitch as told by Mark Millar to Newsarama (as found here - http://www.newsarama.com/264-mark-millar-wanted-from-comic-to-film-1.html):

''Although it started life as a pitch for that, barely one bit of that remains from my original pitch. When you’re a DC fan in particular, you tend to write stories around DC continuity, and we’ve seen that quite a bit over the last ten years or so. People feel really obliged to have everything tie together, and I can understand it, because I did the same thing when I was there. So my thing really tied in with the Monocle and the Floronic Man, and the son of Deadshot, which is one of the few things – the protagonist as the son of a supervillain – that carried over from the original idea.''

''So that thing was about something else entirely, and the plot bore almost no resemblance to what finally saw print, aside from one tiny detail which was also changed a lot – the idea of a supervillain having a son who was unaware of how cool he really was, and how cool his dad was.''

''So the idea of doing a book where the supervillains were the stars was really what I took from Secret Society of Super-Villains, and turned that into Wanted. That was cool to me, because I like playing around with reversals – I like the idea of having Superman land in Russia, so it’s more interesting to me to make the villains the stars, rather than the heroes, and let them win and have the day, like the heroes do all the time.''

''So yeah – it came from there in a sense, but that original pitch could still be done because the story is so different from what turned into Wanted. ''

A lot of other characters transitioned into the Wanted title – the Fox (Catwoman), ****head (Clayface), and the Toyman (the Professor). Kind of cool!

What we got: DC passed on the SSoSV comic as Brad Meltzer was resurrecting the concept in Identity Crisis. That version of the group – known as the Society – became a hit concept, propelling C-Listers like the Calculator to stardom and leading to the critical and commercial darling that was the Secret Six.

Wanted ended up doing pretty well at Top Cow, but it was drastically altered in its transition to film in 2008, so you can hardly see any similarity between Millar’s DC pitch and the film we got. Pretty wild.

Why it matters: I think the original pitch is actually much cooler than the Wanted comic, but at the same time DC had their eyes on a very different prize – a viable resurrection of the super-villain team. At the time, neither Marvel nor DC was able to push a comic that featured a villain successfully, but since the introduction of the Society and the Secret Six, both companies have found new life in the villain starring vehicle. Hell, Harley Quinn is selling consistently in the Top Five comics each month!

29. One More Day – 1990 edition

The concept: ''Howard Mackie planned to erase Spider-Man and Mary Jane’s marriage with a reality-altering reboot to Spider-Man… 15 years before Marvel actually did it!''

The origin: Not for nothing, but ever since the early 1990s, writers at Marvel had been trying to do what One More Day eventually DID do, which is make Spider-Man single again. First they tried the Clone Saga. When that didn’t take, however, they turned to Howard Mackie and John Byrne to come up with a solution.

The story: Most of this information is picked up from John Byrne’s website, http://www.byrnerobotics.com/

The idea they first considered was the Shaper of Worlds. The practically omnipotent being would come upon Spider-Man during a particularly rough patch in Spidey’s life (think Miller’s Born Again) where Spidey is bemoaning his present and thinking back nostalgic to his past. The Shaper would then, well, shape reality and return Spider-Man to his classic status quo, a clear reboot, essentially (including the supporting cast, as well).

For some time, Spider-Man would not realize anything was different, but ultimately he would and he would challenge the Shaper, say this is not what he wanted – the Shaper would tell him he could not help him, once shaped, he can’t unshape it. So that would be the end of it – it wouldn’t be mentioned again (during their run, of course).

'''What we got: '''Ultimately, they decided against it, and instead went with a “Mary Jane may have died in a plane explosion” storyline instead to get a more or less single Spider-Man. Because, y’know, apparently all Marvel writers have a hard-on for keeping Spidey single. It’s pretty bizarre. The plane crash story was pretty unpopular, so MJ turned up alive, apparently much to the chagrin of Joe Quesada. After he took editor-in-chief duties, Quesada pushed for MJ’s marriage to Peter to be eradicated once again, and we got One More Day.

Why it matters: So while Byrne and Mackie’s story is certainly better than One More Day (specifically the whole “not involving Peter voluntarily surrendering his marriage” thing), it is still a surprisingly metaphysical story for a Spider-Man comic, much like One More Day.

28. Blue Beetle and the Old 52

The concept: Blue Beetle was going to star in a weekly series in 1987.

The origin: A lot of people look at 52 as the origin of the sustained weekly series – it kicked off a string of successful weekly anthology titles: Countdown, Trinity, Wednesday Comics, Batman: Eternal, Future’s End, and even Amazing Spider-Man (for a while). But the real origin of the weekly comic was brought about in 1988 by turning Action Comics into a weekly title!

Featuring Green Lantern, Blackhawk and Superman, Action Comics’ experiment proved of middling success, but the effort put into it was not worth the final product so after a year, it was scrapped. However, note that, well before they actually decided to do one in 1988 by turning Action Comics into a weekly book, DC was interested in the idea of doing a weekly comic book. In fact, they went as far as to even choose a lead for the comic!

The lead?

None other than the recently acquired (via Charlton) Blue Beetle!

'''The story: '''Steven Englehart, a hugely prolific author for both DC and Marvel, and creator of classic works such as Strange Apparitions, most of Dr. Strange’s classic stories, and more, was going to bring the Blue Beetle to a 52-week anthology title. From his own words (http://www.steveenglehart.com/Comics/Blue%20Beetle.html):

''I wrote seven 4-pages chapters in BB’s serial. In the competition to be the artist, the first one was illustrated by several people, including Deryl Skelton and my old COYOTE pal, Chas Truog – and I believe there were others as well. In any event, Deryl got the job, and went on to draw at least six of the seven chapters. But that’s as far as we got.''

According to interviews given by DC staff about the time period, the project first underwent development in 1983, with the intention of the book using all of the newly-acquired Charlton heroes in the anthology, with Superman being the middle anchor (just as he was in Action Comics Weekly).

I highly recommend visiting the above link to check out some of the actual artwork from the title. It’s really, really good – especially for the early 80s.

What we got: Ultimately, for whatever reason (Bob Greenberger is quoted as saying that the higher-ups just did not think that the material could sustain a weekly series), DC decided not to go with a weekly series at this time, but almost all of the individual heroes got their own title ANYways, including, in 1986, Blue Beetle himself – written by Len Wein, though, not Englehart.

In 1988, Action Comics tried the weekly model which failed. However, 20 year later, 52 and other titles have proved that a weekly comic can be hugely successful!

Why it matters: Two things. First, it’s the freaking Blue Beetle, Ted Kord himself. Who doesn’t want more Blue Beetle? Answer: no one. Second, it’s interesting to see that Blue Beetle was almost crowned the prince of a weekly title. Given Steve Englehart’s track record of successful comics, it’s a shame that this never came about, because I could easily see this title propelling BB to A-list fame.

27. Death of Sabretooth

The concept: ''Wolverine was going to kill Sabretooth twenty years ago!''

The origin: John Byrne worked on X-Men for a significant amount of time in the late 70s and early 80s, but he left the title before he planned – a few years later, a comic book fan discovered some of his handwritten notes for future storylines he planned for about fifteen issues past when he left the title. There were a lot of intriguing ideas, including a multi-part story about a Robot Cyclops, but one idea in particular was given a great deal of attention – the Death of Sabretooth.

The story: Byrne relates a story that involves Sabretooth (who, at the time, had only appeared in Iron Fist) attacking Mariko and brutalizing her (just violence, no sexual assault or anything like that) to the point where she’s pretty much dead.

The X-Men find her, though, and get her hospitalization, but she’s in a coma – brain dead. And Xavier cannot do anything to help her, and when Wolverine doesn’t believe him, he connects Wolverine to her mind, so he can experience the emptiness.

Wolverine, naturally, cuts her life support, then goes off and, in a bloody battle, kills Sabretooth – with the reveal then coming that Sabretooth was Wolverine’s father.

Byrne described it here:

''Father and son. That’s why Sabretooth (*my* incarnation, that is, not this “Creed” poseur) always considered Logan “sloppy seconds” to his “original” / “real deal.” The other critical element in my presentation of their relationship was that, in their whole life, Logan has never defeated Sabretooth in a knock-down, drag-out, kill-or-be-killed berserker fight. By the same token, on every one of his birthdays, Sabretooth has always managed to find him, no matter where Logan was or what he was doing, and come wihin an inch of killing him. For no other reason than to remind him that he could.''

Therefore, this is the one time that Wolverine finally beats Sabreooth – spurred on by the death of Mariko.

And all of this was to occur in 1981.

'''What we got: '''Chris Claremont ended up working with a different artist after Byrne left, and while his run was a standard by which most X-Men plots are judged, it never really held a candle again to the run that produced Days of Future Past and The Dark Phoenix Saga. Byrne ended up spending some time on Fantastic Four before heading over to DC and spearheading the post-Crisis reboot of Superman in Man of Steel – an iconic mini-series generally regarded as one of the most influential Superman stories ever.

'''Why it matters: '''Sabretooth and Wolverine have had their origins mucked up about a million times since this story was passed on, but the concept of Sabretooth and Wolverine as son and father still rings true somehow for these two characters. I think there is a familial bond there that transcends what the writers and artists can provide, it seems etched in the DNA of these characters – they really do belong together. I quite like this story and wish we had gotten to see it come to fruition.

26. A Heroes Reborn that doesn’t suck

'''The concept: 'Chuck Dixon was the original writer for the Heroes Reborn version of Captain America.''

'''The origin: '''Heroes Reborn seems to sum up most of what was wrong with Marvel in the 90s. Like it or dislike it, Rob Liefeld had a singular vision in mind when he took over Captain America during Heroes Reborn. Ultimately, it was writer Jeph Loeb who brought that vision to life alongside Liefeld’s artwork. However, Loeb was not the first (or even the SECOND) writer to work on the project. Originally, writer Chuck Dixon was attached to the series. Dixon was scripting Prophet for Liefeld’s company at the time, so the idea of him taking over the series was not much of a stretch, but it was not something Dixon was originally up for.

The story: Ultimately, though, as quoted in one of Scott Braden’s classic old Overstreet columns:

''Rob had promised that S.H.I.E.L.D. would be mine to play with, and for me, that was real attractive. I grew up on Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D., and one of the reasons I told Rob that I wanted Fury in it was because he and Captain America both represent two different brands of Americanism. Cap is the heroic boy scout, while Fury is Humphrey Bogart–the “slob” hero. To me, they’re two sides of the same coin of American heroism, so I thought they’ve got to be together in the same book because they contrast so well.''

The series would focus on a mixture of noir espionage and superheroics (the tone of this was used in Dixon’s Birds of Prey books).

What we got: Sadly, though, there was differences between the plot Dixon worked out and what Liefeld decided to go with, so Dixon left the project. Jim Valentino, likewise, came and departed, leaving writer Jeph Loeb to take over. And then, we ended up with this:

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/5542_4_001.jpg

Why it matters: The Heroes Reborn Captain America book is a title that nearly every Marvel fan has tried to forget, but I’m here to remind all of you that IT HAPPENED. IT WASN’T A DREAM. IT WASN’T AN IMAGINARY STORY. Really puts the New52 in a new light, don’t it?

25. Keith Giffen’s JL – A!

'''The concept: 'Keith Giffen’s Justice League reboot originally was to feature the Big 7 – Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter.''

The origin: Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis’ Justice League series (which began as Justice League before becoming Justice League International before splitting off into two titles, Justice League America and Justice League Europe) was one of DC’s biggest hits of the late 1980s. In fact, for some time it was DC’s highest-selling monthly title. So with the great success the pair had on the title, you would think that this was their plan all along.

However, this was actually one of the greatest examples of making lemonade out of lemons that I can think of offhand.

When editor Andy Helfer was tasked by DC Editor-in-Chief Dick Giordano to come up with a new Justice League series to follow up the then-ending Justice League of America series, the idea was to do a complete 180 from what the Justice League had become at that point. A few years earlier, writer Gerry Conway attempted a bit of an “All-New, All-Different” Justice League, consisting of mostly young new characters with a few older (less famous) Justice League members. The group was headquartered in Detroit, and has since become a bit derisively referred to as “Justice League Detroit.” The stories were fine, but the book did not go over too well, commercially. So now Helfer was to come up with a brand-new Justice League book to launch out of the Legends cross-over (at the same time, a few other new series were launching, such as George Perez’ Wonder Woman and Mike Baron’s Flash, with John Byrne’s Superman having just recently debuted).

'''The story: '''Helfer asked Keith Giffen to put together a Justice League title featuring all of the fresh new Justice League faces post-Crisis – the new Big 7 of DC Comics. Giffen, fresh off of major successes like Legion of Super-Heroes and Ambush Bug, brought in J.M. DeMatteis as his co-writer (DeMatteis wrote titles like Kraven’s Last Hunt and The Death of Jeanne DeWolff). Together, the two planned out a title where the Justice League faced monumental, gargantuan threats – the type of threat that only the most powerful, most brilliant minds could take on and beat. This was going to be a bit of a “return to greatness.” The biggest and best superheroes in the DC Universe all on one team together!

'''What we got: '''Only problem was, the aforementioned reboots? The writers and editors of those books didn’t want their characters involved in the Justice League at that particular point in time. John Byrne demanded Superman be kept out of the title while he was rebooting him on Man of Steel. Down to the Big 6.

Wonder Woman writer George Perez was planning a major relaunch of the series and requested that Wonder Woman also be kept separate so he could provide a new origin and all new first interactions with Wonder Woman and other characters. Big 5.

Wally West was about to take over a starring role for the first time in his own series by Mike Baron – and Wally was still transitioning out of the Titans, so Big 4.

Aquaman was in a creative limbo with an upcoming mini-series to provide him a whole new change in direction. Big 3.

So now the “Big Seven” was the “Big Three,” and Helfer was lucky enough to have Denny O’Neil agree to let Batman be a part of the team. Martian Manhunter was a lock. That just left Hal Jordan, and since Helfer was editing Green Lantern, he could make that happen, but with the way things were shaking down, he figured that instead they would use the newer Green Lantern, Guy Gardner.

So then they just filled the rest of the book with as many middle-rung characters as they could, including characters with their own series (Booster Gold, Blue Beetle), new additions to the DC Universe (Captain Marvel, Dr. Light), old members of the League (Black Canary) and just fairly popular middle-of-the-road characters (Dr. Fate, Mister Miracle).

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/3364_4_01.jpg

It was then that Helfer and Keith Giffen decided that with this cast, they were much better off trying a different approach than a standard superhero comic, because this cast was not likely to cut it as a standard superhero comic (especially when Captain Marvel, Dr. Fate, Dr. Light and Black Canary all soon became unavailable, too – even Batman eventually became unavailable). So began the series that soon became DC’s best-selling title (before the Batman movie, of course).

A decade later however, rock star comic writer Grant Morrison came aboard and we got this version of the Justice League:

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/5747_4_0001.jpg

'''Why it matters: '''Good things come to this wait. Grant Morrison’s phenomenal run wouldn’t have been as successful if Giffen hadn’t written his OWN phenomenal run that didn’t feature any of the big guns at DC. The track record of League quality was established in Giffen and the star power was established with Morrison. It all worked out for the best, but it’s amazing how many hoops poor Helfer had to jump through at the outset of Giffen’s League.

24. The Crisis of the Soul

'''The concept: 'Jerry Ordway was originally commissioned to write a sequel to Crisis on Infinite Earths featuring Darkseid against the entire DC Universe entitled “Crisis of the Soul.”''

'''The origin: '''After Crisis on Infinite Earths ended, DC knew that they had a massive sensation on their hands. As you might expect, their next idea was – “How do we do that AGAIN?”  Jenette Kahn posed this question to Marv Wolfman, the writer of the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Marv immediately decided to take a five-week vacation (that was much deserved in my opinion), and that left DC editorial in a lurch. Enter Paul Levitz, who brought the idea of a sequel to Crisis on Infinite Earths to Jerry Ordway.

Ordway decided to get away from the grandiose nature of the Crisis and be more introspective, looking at what drives these individuals to be heroic, and thus the Crisis of the Soul was born.

The story: The title was going to focus on Darkseid’s attempts at corrupting the minds and hearts of Earth’s greatest heroes. This was going to be Darkseid’s first real foray into the entirety of the DCU – prior to this, he’d really only interacted with the Justice League and the New Gods. While he definitely was a major threat, he hadn’t really reached the Anti-Monitor/Thanos level of universal arch-nemesis that he would later on. Over the course of the story, a variety of pretty dark things were going to happen spinning out of Darkseid’s attempts to destroy the “souls” of superheroes, essentially crushing the hope of humanity.

For example, Elongated Man was going to kill a villain in order to save his wife Sue. And not a clean kill – a choke-the-life-out-of-you kill. Guy Gardner was going to become a more militant version of a Green Lantern called the Iron Lantern. The Creeper was going to taste the blood of Eclipso and become evil. Star City was going to go boom. Things were going to get a helluva lot darker in the DCU, until a newly-formed Justice League comprised of the Big 7 came rolling into town and handed Darkseid his ass on a platter. Also a brand new team of Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters was going to spin out of it.

What we got: Editors really balked at this concept; Ordway’s idea actually went pretty far into production, but as more and more writers and editors found out what their characters were going to be doing, the started lobbying for changes. It should be noted that this was really early into the process; these discussions started before Crisis on Infinite Earths in the Ordway project that had a female Flash involved (as you’ll recall from an earlier entry on this list, that was a canned idea).
 * 1) 12 was finished!  There were even notes

In the end, John Byrne and John Ostrander ended up getting saddled with DC’s next major crossover, called Legends. It… it was serviceable. It did end up featuring Darkseid as the primary antagonist, but almost no status quo was altered on established characters. Instead, it spun out about five major comics that we all know and love today.

Legends introduced Ostrander’s new Suicide Squad, the first glimpse of the government-sponsored villain mercenary team that is now slated for a feature film debut in 2016. It also gave us the first real glimpses of Wally West as the Flash and the new Wonder Woman, both of whom started their own lauded runs after Legends wrapped. We also got a brand new Justice League (which you probably recall from the last entry on this list).

A lot of the ideas from Crisis of the Soul ended up getting used in one form or another. In the DC-Marvel crossover event known as Amalgam Comics, Iron Man and Green Lantern get fused into one superhero called the Iron Lantern:

http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_small/6/67663/2169758-iron_lantern.jpg

We also got Star City exploding like bad diarrhea in Justice League: Cry for Justice. And heck, Creeper and Eclipso even had a run-in with each other in the big Eclipso crossover in 1992.

Why it matters: This was going to be a sequel to the first, biggest, and still greatest crossover comic of all time. It’s important to know what sort of ramifications that COIE had on DC as a whole. Look at the monster it created – comic companies that based their entire operation on a non-stop cycle of events to drum up sales. While Crisis on Infinite Earths is a masterpiece, it also led us to the situation we’re in today, where the unending Crises and events have left us weary and begging for an end.

'''23. Venom’s Vag- well, you know.'''

The concept: ''Venom was originally intended to be a female villain.''

The origin: Spinning out of Marvel’s first major crossover, Secret Wars, Spider-Man was bedecked in a very peculiar new black suit. David Michelinie was the head honcho of the Spider books of the time, and from the get-go, both he and black suit creator Jim Shooter were planning on the black suit to be a temporary outfit. The hope was that the suit would be fairly popular in design so that they could use it to create a new character in the Spider-Man franchise. As soon as Secret Wars ended, Michelinie was handed the reins for the new suit and told to have at it.

The story: I’ll let Michelinie tell the story himself (I actually cribbed this info from a book I own):

''Interestingly enough, he was a character I started to introduce in Web of Spider-Man, and he was actually supposed to be a she. I began with the alien costume that had come back with Spider-Man from Secret Wars, and had been used throughout your [DeFalco's] run. It was basically in limbo at the time, having already been rejected by Spider-Man. I was intrigued with the idea that there was this thing that did not trigger Spidey’s spider-sense. Most people forget that the spider-sense is a very unique power, and that Spider-Man really depends upon it. I actually started Venom’s story in two issues of Web.''

''In Web #18, Peter Parker is waiting for a subway train. A hand comes from the crowed and pushed him in front of the train. He leaps to safety, but he’s spooked because someone was able to sneak up on him and his spider-sense didn’t react. I set up another scene in Web #24 where he’s stuck to the side of a building. Someone suddenly reaches out of a window, yanks him by the ankle and sends him falling. Peter starts to really freak out because someone is getting past his defenses.''

''I originally wanted the character to be a woman. She was pregnant and about to give birth. Her husband is rushing to get to a hospital. He runs into road to flag down a cab, but the cabbie is looking up at Spider-Man who is fighting someone – I think it might even have been the Living Monolith from my graphic novel. The cabbie doesn’t see the husband and accidentally hits and kills the guy. The woman sees her husband splattered in front of her just as she goes into labor. She loses the child and her mind at the same time, and is institutionalized. Though she eventually gets her mind back, she blames Spider-Man for the death of her husband and her child. The alien costume, which has also been hurt by Peter Parker, is drawn to the woman because of her intense hatred of Spider-Man. The costume then bonds with her to try to kill Peter.''

What we got: At this time, Michelinie was so popular on Web of Spider-Man that he was promoted to writing the flagship Amazing Spider-Man title. Editor Jim Salicrup told Michelinie to do something special and suggested Michelinie introduce a new character. Michelinie hit Salicrup with my idea of using the alien costume. Though he liked it, Salicrup wasn’t sure the readers would see a woman as a physical threat to Spider-Man, even a woman enhanced by the alien costume. At that point Michelinie came up with the Eddie Brock angle, and the rest is history.

Why it matters: Venom is certainly one of the most popular Spider-Man villains (if not THE most popular), but personally I love the idea of a female Venom as Spidey’s first run-in with the symbiote. I think the dichotomy between a female villain and a male hero, with the female consumed with a symbiote that makes her fluid, malleable and agile… that honestly resonates with me much more than the Venom we got. And quite frankly, Eddie Brock is a fairly weak and boring character. The symbiote has since been utilized in much more interesting fashion by guys like Scorpion and Flash Thompson, so it honestly doesn’t seem to matter too much WHO you put behind the suit so much as that you just have someone behind it.

'''22. The day Hal Jordan didn’t go mad'''

The concept: Emerald Twilight was originally not going to result in Kyle Rayner debuting.

The origin: In 1993, DC was seeing first hand the benefits of “event-driven” stories. They were having their best sales in YEARS with their Knightfall event in the Batman titles and their Death of Superman/Reign of the Supermen/Return of Superman event in the Superman titles.

Therefore, in late 1993, DC decided to turn their attention to Green Lantern. At the time, the Green Lantern titles were selling moderately well, enough to support a regular title and TWO spin-offs (Guy Gardner and Green Lantern Corps Quarterly). However, sales had begun to go down the last couple of years (from the high point of early 1992), and DC thought it time to shake things up. Their plan? Turn Hal Jordan into an antagonist, get rid of the Green Lantern Corps and the yellow impurity and introduce a brand new Green Lantern!

The story: Writer Gerry Jones was willing to do as DC asked, and crafted a story along these lines, although with Hal Jordan as more of an anti-hero than a villain. Here are the original solicitations for the story:

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c340/marvelmagic/GL48solicitation1.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c340/marvelmagic/GL49solicitation1.jpg

However, Jones’ story just did not go far enough for Editor Kevin Dooley (and presumably his higher-ups).

What we got: DC then hired a new writer, Ron Marz, to craft the new story, and took a month off to catch up on the time they lost.

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As you can see, Hal Jordan went all-out villain, and at the end of Emerald Twilight, the last remaining Green Lantern ring ended up on the finger of Kyle Rayner, who has gone on to become a major DC staple, even starring in his own Lantern title to this day!

Why it matters: At the time Jordan went mad, there was a LOT of controversy – and Jones probably thought he was vindicated in writing the story he did. However, Kyle Rayner quickly became a fan-favorite character (thanks to Grant Morrison’s JLA run exposing him to a much larger fanbase). Hal Jordan ended up playing a hugely vital role as a villain – without Parallax we really wouldn’t have a lot of DC’s lore (including a lot of the basis for Geoff Johns’ run). Still it’s really interesting to see how far this story made it into production, and I would’ve liked to see this story as an Elseworlds/What If…? type story.

'''21. Meet the Parents, Nightcrawler-style'''

The concept: ''At various points in time, Nightcrawler’s mother was to be revealed as Destiny, and Nightcrawler’s father was to be revealed as Nightmare. To top it off, Mystique was to be revealed as… Nightcrawler’s FATHER???''

The origin: In X-Men Unlimited #4, in 1994, it was revealed that Nightcrawler’s mother was the former member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Mystique. Currently, his father is the demon-looking mutant Azazel. However, this was not always supposed to be the case. Mystique WAS supposed to be one of his parents, but NOT his mother.

The story: It turns out that the origins of Nightcrawler went through a few stages of change. According to John Byrne, artist and co-writer of X-Men with Chris Claremont:

''As originally created, Kurt was the son of gypsies who worked for a circus in Germany. That’s it. That’s all. Then Chris decided Kurt’s mother was Destiny — and his father was Mystique. That also went the way of ALL FLASH.''

''Now? Who the **** knows?''

Instead, Mystique was eventually revealed to be Nightcrawler’s MOTHER. But as it turns out, before that, Claremont had another established Marvel villain in mind for Nightcrawler’s dad – the Doctor Strange villain, Nightmare!

Roger Stern, at the time, was the writer on Doctor Strange’s ongoing series and that was back at a time when the writer of a book had stronger control over how the characters in the book were handled throughout the Marvel Universe. According to Stern (in Back Issue #29):

''Chris had come up with the latest of several crazy ideas and declared that Nightcrawler’s father was Nightmare. And I replied with something like, “No, he’s not. I’m not going to let you appropriate one of my character’s major villains.” As I recall, Len Wein crossed the room and shook my hand. And not too long after that, I did become the X-Men editor and was able to make sure that didn’t happen for long enough that Chris eventually changed his mind.''

John Byrne adds:

''Back when I was on the book, Chris wanted to reveal that Nightcrawler’s father was Nightmare, the Dr. Strange villain. Roger Stern, as editor, said no, pointing out that that would make Kurt a hybrid, not a mutant.''

What we got: For a long time, Mystique was supposed to have conceived Nightcrawler with a gypsy. That is, she was until one of the most notorious X-Men stories ever published came along. With the introduction of fan-loathed character Azazel (and it’s amazing he somehow snuck into an X-Men movie), suddenly the parentage of Nightcrawler was completely revealed. It took twenty years for Marvel to finally agree upon the father, and that’s after about five years of deciding his mother!

Why it matters: Nightcrawler is easily one of the most confused characters in comics. Only Power Girl has gone through more muddled origin stories, and it took a four-issue story focused solely on that mess to clear it up. Meanwhile, a great character like Nightcrawler would’ve been stronger if they had stuck to their guns with any of the original concepts for his parentage. The worst option ended up being the one they went with – Azazel.

'''20. Tim Drake… Blue Beetle'''

The concept: ''After Infinite Crisis, Tim Drake was to take over the mantle of the Blue Beetle.''

The origin: By late 2001, Chuck Dixon had already made Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle, a recurring character in the pages of Birds of Prey. Ted had pretty much retired as Blue Beetle by this point. Ted particularly seemed to have strong interactions with Robin (Tim Drake). As it turns out, that was all quite intentional as Dixon originally planned for a storyline where Tim Drake would actually take OVER as Blue Beetle!!!

The story: I cribbed most of this info from here:http://www.examiner.com/article/chatting-with-chuck-dixon – if you want to read a really curmudgeonly grumpy old writer hate on DC because they wouldn’t use his idea, go check it out.

The idea was that, for whatever reason, Tim would quit as Robin (this would all be in the issues leading up to 2002′s Robin #100) and become the new Blue Beetle under Ted Kord’s guidance. Batman would choose Stephanie Brown, Spoiler, to become the new Robin. This would involve a six-issue Blue Beetle mini-series starring Tim and Ted, and after it was all over, some crisis or another would drag Tim back to being Robin. Having someone become the new Blue Beetle, though, would inspire Ted to basically franchise out the name to other heroes, who he would then coordinate. This would be in a new ongoing title (presumably also by Dixon).

What we got: DC turned Dixon down repeatedly, and eventually Dixon left to go write for Crossgen. In 2004, DC ended up doing a variation of Dixon’s idea, with Stephanie taking over as Robin for a short period in time before a crisis (which involves Stephanie’s death!) drags Tim back to being Robin.

And then in 2005, well, Blue Beetle did not fare so well, either…

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We ended up with Jaime Reyes as the Blue Beetle, a character who has become fairly well-loved despite the monumental shoes he had to fill, and Tim Drake still remains a popular character as the Red Robin, so it all worked out for the best.

Why it matters: While it’s hard for me to think of a DCU without Jaime Reyes as the Blue Beetle, I have to admit Dixon's intentions to have had Tim Drake become Blue Beetle and Spoiler take over the Robin role would have been very cool too see too. I don't know how well the Blue Beetle thing would've worked out in the long run, but it was a neat idea.

'''19. Avengers: World in Chains'''

The concept: ''Avengers Forever was intended to be a story about a reality where Captain America was never unfrozen.''

The origin: Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco wanted to work on a project together. Ultimately, they came up with an idea that became Avengers: World in Chains. It was announced in the various news places as a new 12-issue series the pair were going to do for Marvel, so when a DIFFERENT 12-issue series by the duo came out titled Avengers Forever, most folks just presumed it was the original story with a different title.

That was not the case. Avengers: World in Chains is, in fact, a still untold story. The progression is quite interesting.

The story: It started off with a simple idea – what if Captain America had never been unfrozen? Using that as the basic starting point, the story would involve this alternate reality, and I don’t know what else beyond that (and I doubt either Busiek or Pacheco would like to explain further, because, well, why talk about it if they could possibly do the story themselves in the future?).

What we DO know is that the line-up was going to feature – at the outset – a very ragtag un-Avengers-like line-up: in place of Cap, Bucky Barnes was going to be the Captain America of the modern-day, he himself recently unfrozen from ice (instead of Cap). His costume was very similar to the Patriot costume worn by Isaiah Bradley. Other members were American Spirit (John Proudstar from X-Men fame), Dazzler, Luke Cage, Namor and Spitfire. Early in the story, the Captain America from the main Marvel timeline was to be brought to this alternate universe, which was ruled by an unknown emperor (supposedly a major Avengers villain), and he would use his legend to rally together the individuals who are SUPPOSED to be the traditional Avengers line-up to take the tyrant down.

What we got: So the story was planned for 1999, however, there was a snag in their plans. Another Marvel series started around that time that used a fairly similar premise. The series in question was called Mutant X, a 1998 title which told the story of Alex Summers (aka Havok) being stuck in an alternate timeline, with various alternate X-Men (like a vampire Storm, etc.).

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/6036_4_01.jpg

World in Chains was considered to be a bit too similar to Mutant X to be released at the same time. So with their original storyline off-limits, Busiek and Pacheco came up with a similar, but different, project called Avengers Forever, which told the story of a group of time-displaced Avengers (picked from various points in Avengers history) forced to get involved in a war between Kang and Immortus.

Avengers Forever is widely considered to be one of the best – if not THE best – Avengers story ever told. It’s certainly become a classic, and it’s also my personal favorite Avengers story. In the final issue, which featured practically every Avenger there was, including all sorts of alternate Avengers, Busiek and Pacheco had some fun. In the issue, they snuck in some characters they had designed for use in Avengers: World in Chains. I thought that was a cute idea.

After the series was done, presumably the pair considered doing World In Chains as a possible follow-up to Avengers Forever, but you know what happens to the best laid plans of mice and men…

'''Why it matters: '''So now over a decade later, is there any chance to get this story? It’s highly unlikely. Busiek and Pacheco did in fact work together again – but at DC, where they put together a really solid Superman run in 2008-2009. After that, Busiek wrote the Trinity weekly series, and now he’s exclusive at DC while he writes Astro City at Vertigo. DC is very much into keeping Astro City as long as possible, so it’s doubtful we’ll see this story in the foreseeable future, but who knows?

18. The Master of the Golden Age enters the Silver Age

'''The concept: 'Starman and The Golden Age scribe James Robinson was going to write a sequel to The Golden Age entitled the Silver Age, featuring all of DC’s characters in the 50s and 60s.''

'''The origin: '''The Golden Age was a prestige format Elseworlds mini-series that Robinson wrote with excellent artwork from the great Paul Smith. The series basically launched Robinson’s career in mainstream comics. In the mid-90s, Robinson was prepping for a follow-up to the series in The Silver Age, the details of which can be found below.

The story: Here are the details as pulled from a Wizard article in the 90s. It was to be a four-issue mini-series with Howard Chaykin. The story started with police officer Jim Harper, who was the Golden Age hero Guardian, investigating a string of apparently unconnected murders. He confers with King Faraday and begins to realize that there is more to the murders than he originally thought. The ramifications go right through the American Cold War government, right through to the top.

Harper gets taken off the case, and the new detective who picks up Harper’s workload is John Johns aka J’onn J’onnz aka The Martian Manhunter. The story then starts to involve Barry Allen, Hal Jordan, Green Arrow, Captain Comet, the Doom Patrol, the Challengers of the Unknown and a variety of cameos. There were also to be a few of the stars of The Golden Age as well, including Hawkman, Hourman and Starman.

As with The Golden Age, The Silver Age was to be told from a variety of viewpoints. The narrators included Jim Harper, King Faraday, John Jones and Iris West.

'''What we got: '''In the early 2000s, as Robinson was wrapping his much-lauded instant classic run on Starman, he was interviewed by Ain’t It Cool News, where he was asked about the status of The Silver Age. Here’s his response:

''I was developing the SILVER AGE with a big name artist and for one reason and another it didn’t happen when it should have. Since then between Mark Waid’s JLA YEAR ONE and especially Darwyn’s Cooke’s NEW FRONTIER, the story I wanted to tell has been told and by better and more talented guys then me.''

So out of the sacrifice of The Silver Age, we got Starman, JLA: Year One and DC: The New Frontier.

Why it matters: I’m not gonna complain about the trade-off, but man! I wish we could still see the Silver Age. The Golden Age is the second-best Elseworlds story ever (behind Kingdom Come of course), and a sequel to it would by phenomenal. As The Golden Age was able to successfully alter the mainstream histories of DC characters of the 40s, I would’ve loved to see what sort of influence Robinson could have had on the characters of the 50s and 60s.

'''17. G.I. Joe – Agents of SHIELD?'''

The concept: The G.I. Joe team was originally slated to be a special unit working under Nick Fury.

The origin: In the early 80s, Hasbro came to Marvel looking to both have a comic book to tie into their new launch of smaller, more detailed GI Joes and also have a back story for the characters. Luckily, Marvel editor Larry Hama already had developed a series for Marvel that had not been picked up called Fury Force, which was about, oddly enough, a group of specialized soldiers who worked for SHIELD. The concepts very easily translated to Hasbro’s pitch, and Hama was given the job of not just writing the comic, but designing the backstory for each toy character.

The story: Hama reworked his Fury Force concept into G.I. Joe – the G.I. Joes were to report Nick Fury at the beginning of each story, be given a mission, and carry it out. Each issue would slowly expand the world of the G.I. Joe franchise with new characters, all of whom operated out of SHIELD or HYDRA. According to Larry Hama at QKTHeatre.com:

''There were a lot of holdovers from the ‘Fury Force’ concept that I had been developing for Marvel at the time. The whole idea of a secret base under a motor pool, for instance. I even had a “Snake-Eyes” type character, who didn’t speak, had his face covered with a cowl and was a mysterious assassin type. He carried a pump shotgun and a commando knife in his boot and was actually inspired by the Pahoo-Ka-Ta-Wah (Wolf Who Stands in Water) character in the old ‘Yancy Derringer’ TV show.''

Check out these awesome pieces of concept art for the original G.I. Joes at Marvel:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y104/CSBG/Origins.jpg~original

http://s4.photobucket.com/user/CSBG/media/FuryHawk.jpg.html

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What we got: Hasbro liked the concept of the Fury Force, and the concept moved forward. However, Marvel didn’t want to deal with the legal ramifications of splitting the SHIELD/Fury profits with Hasbro. Hama reworked the proposition, turning the SHIELD members into the G.I. Joe team. And the HYDRA members involved the story? They became COBRA, led by former Baron von Strucker – Cobra Commander!

Why it matters: Marvel, Marvel, Marvel… you should’ve gone for it. G.I. Joe is a billion-dollar franchise now, with successful movies, animated shows, and toy lines. Had Marvel known that the G.I. Joe concept would be this successful, they could’ve grabbed a partnership that would’ve reaped in major benefits. Who knows how the comic world would’ve developed?

'''16. Spoiler Alert – Armageddon: 2001'''

The concept: ''The original villain in Armageddon 2001 was supposed to be Captain Atom.''

The origin: For conspiracy theories regarding moves in the comic book industry to really truly exist, there must be some precedent for said moves. The ending of the Armageddon 2001 mini-series is an example on which all future conspiracy theories rest. In 1991, DC had a summer crossover among all their annuals. A man from a future ruled by a despotic former superhero named Monarch travelled from 2001 to 1991, to discover what former hero became Monarch. This man, Waverider, had the power to see people’s futures upon making physical contact with them. Each of the annuals that year he would check out the future of those characters, so each annual would be a story of the future.

The story: In any event, DC had it planned to be Captain Atom to be revealed as Monarch. This was going to set up Monarch as the primary antagonist in overarcing DC events for a couple years… they even had planned for Captain Atom to be the primary antagonist in Zero Hour. Here’s a cool tidbit – Zero Hour was planned to happen two years before it did! However, it was wildly different from how it eventually came out. In between those three years, Batman broke his back, Superman died, Wonder Woman lost her mantle, Green Lantern had gone crazy, the Flash had disappeared into the future… the end result was a major difference. But just know that Captain Atom was going to become the big bad of DC for a few years.

What we got: However, news of this event had leaked well before it was revealed (or, as one other rumor goes, the folks who licensed Captain Atom to DC were not pleased with DC making him a big villain – but that is unlikely to be the real reason, as people on the “inside” all refer to the incident as “the news was leaked, so we had to change it quickly”).

Hawk, from Hawk & Dove, ended up being the sacrificial lamb.

Here is Barbara Kesel, writer of Hawk & Dove, on the topic (courtesy of the great resource Titans Tower):

''Let’s get one thing clear: that wasn’t a planned ending of Hawk and Dove. That awful story was an Armageddon 2000 special created after somebody at DC spilled the beans about Captain Atom’s being Monarch. Then, a small number of people worked feverishly to find some other character to sacrifice, and since H&D had just been cancelled! ”''

''If you’ve ever pitied anyone, pity Jonathan Peterson, the poor person who had to give me the news. I wasn’t pleased, and wasn’t shy about sharing. If there’s anything I hate with a passion, it’s characters behaving out of character, especially when it involves a smart woman being stupid for no reason. H&D becoming Monarch could have been a clever idea: if they BOTH became the character, their innately opposite natures could explain a schizophrenic villain. As it was… it was a last-minute fix that sucked.''

Why it matters: Oh gosh, where to begin. This was the most blatantly idiotic move DC ever made. Honestly, nothing else comes close. Hawk and Dove got so screwed over coming out of that event, that they never were the same again. Hawk became Monarch, but when Monarch proved unpopular, they changed him AGAIN into Extant. Somehow, Extant worked as a villain for a little while, but he was ultimately forgotten for nearly a decade. Extant ended up as the lead in Zero Hour, but DC felt he was way too weak of an antagonist and wouldn’t bring in sales, so they essentially bumped him down to secondary villain and made Hal Jordan the big bad guy. This rendered Waverider’s years-long story arc pretty useless and negated a great character’s chance at success. Eventually Geoff Johns brought back Extant with James Robinson for a brief encounter with the JSA in an effort to breathe new life into Hawk and Dove. DC tried a female Hawk with a female Dove, but it went nowhere.

When Hawk finally got his act together again, it was 2008.  That’s right... SEVENTEEN YEARS LATER. It took a universe-altering event to set him right – Blackest Night. Essentially they had to kill all sorts of other heroes to bring him back, and when he came back guess what? No one cared. Gail Simone tried to sell him on the Birds of Prey, but the title stank with this stale character being taken back to square one, and at that point, DC rebooted.

Meanwhile, when we DID get Captain Atom as Monarch, it was freakin’ terrible. It was utterly nonsensical. It came out of absolutely nowhere. Suddenly, Captain Atom (who had spent a year in the Wildstorm Universe and returned in Infinite Crisis), was putting on Monarch’s armor for no reason whatsoever and commanding an army of alternate universe bad guys in Countdown to Final Crisis. No one knew why, and that included the writers. They eventually dropped the concept and it rendered Captain Atom completely useless as well. He was dumped in limbo for 3 years until Brightest Day, when he was dug out of the mothballs and without any explanation put on Justice League: Generation Lost. Everyone pretended the whole Monarch thing never happened, and frankly, the less we say about Countdown to Final Crisis, the better.

It’s amazing how so much crap can spin out of one case of spoilers ruining someone’s day. Moral of the story – if your plot is leaked and you think it will ruin the story, that’s a sign that the plot probably stinks in the first place.

'''15. Scarlet Witch’s Greatest Adventure'''

The concept: '' The Scarlet Witch was going to be driven mad… 10 years before Avengers Disassembled.''

The origin: I’m gonna let writer John Byrne give you the full scoop on this one:

''I’m going to break my own Number One Rule and tell a story that did not see print.''

''All this came out of the Immortus/Scarlet Witch debacle, of course. With the “realism” in Marvel at the time — you know, like talking dragons being “telepathic”, because that was more “realistic” — it had become impossible to accept that Wanda’s hex power could be something as prosaic as merely causing people to have “bad luck”. So it had been decided that what she actually did was alter probabilities. Thus, if the probability of a badguy’s gun jamming was 1000 to 1, she could make it 1 to 1, and the gun would jam. Bad luck for him!''

''When I came to do AVENGERS WEST COAST this was the accepted way of portraying Wanda’s power — but the more I thought about it, the more I realized this was really an incredible complication of something that had once been so simple. I mean, think about it! For Wanda to alter probabilities she would have to be reaching back thru the whole temporal chain of events that led to a single moment. She would have to be altering time — retroactively!''

'''The story: '''Byrne continues:

''Well, that sure seemed like something that could catch the eye of Immortus, eventually, and as I wrote the story, it did. Immortus, who had been seen pinching off alternate realities as part of a set up to this story, was engaged in a program of whittling the multiverse down to a single time-line. One which he would control.''

''Discovering Wanda’s power, he was going to kidnap her and use her to further his plans. And the first thing he was going to do was alter probabilities so that when the Avengers battled Kang the first time, Kang won!''

''My story would reveal this in flashback, however, as we would open in the world long after this had happened. Pretty grim place, where most of the familiar heroes had been killed off or never become super powered in the first place. No FF, since they never took that rocket ride. No Hulk, since Rick Jones has never driven his car onto the Gamma Bomb test site. (One of the main characters was going to be Peter Parker, who had not become Spider-Man because of Immortus’ manipulations.)''

''As the story progressed, we would learn slowly what had happened — and also learn that we were not seeing “present day” Marvel, but rather a time a “few months” (Marvel Time) ago. The date would be just prior to when Thor, in order to save a wounded Black Knight, had used his hammer to open a portal in time and space and stuck the Knight into it. We would learn this when the Black Knight basically fell out of the air into the post-Kang’s victory world. In that timeline, Thor had not placed him in the “time stasis”, so when the changed world “caught up” to that moment, out popped the Black Knight. The multiverses intersected at that point, you see. Well, the Black Knight pretty quickly figures out what’s going on, learns there is an underground (of course!) and helps the folk of the twisted version hunt down and stop Immortus, freeing Wanda (herself another link to the multiverse, by virtue of how Immortus has been manipulating her power) and setting everything right.''

''When all is restored, the Black Knight of course is back in that “hole in time”, and Wanda is the only one who remembers how things were. A memory that fades, like a dream, very quickly. . . .''

Here’s some concept art!

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/07/Byrne55.gif

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/07/Byrne59.gif

'''What we got: '''Not this. Instead, when we finally dropped the Scarlet Witch mucking about with reality story, it resulted in most of the mutants being de-powered and the rest of the House of M storyline. While House of M is enjoyable, its results were anything but.

'''Why it matters: '''This story was a cosmic-level story of the highest caliber and I for one would’ve loved to have seen it!

14. The Global Guardians

'''The concept: 'Phil Jimenez, artist on various successful titles including Wonder Woman, Infinite Crisis and JLA, was going to reboot the long-forgotten DC super-team, the Global Guardians.''

'''The origin: '''This probably won’t be too interesting to most people, but for my money, this is one of the most intriguing concepts that was never utilized. Phil Jimenez – who is a walking tome of DC knowledge, was one of the writers of the DC Comics Encyclopedia which was released around the time of Infinite Crisis. How did he get such a gig? Turns out the DC staff was really impressed with a pitch he made a few years beforehand for the Global Guardians.

The Guardians had been a D-List team with a lot of potential for years – they consistently featured in the Justice League International run of Keith Giffen, and they almost took over the Justice League moniker itself under Marv Wolfman (go check out the Crisis on Infinite Earths entry of this list). Jimenez came along and wrote a 200-page long bible for the team and a reboot. It included hundreds of DC’s international characters, everyone from well known characters like Katana to obscure characters who literally had shown up for just one issue.

'''The story: '''Quite simply put, this series was going to be the global series of DC. Hundreds of possible heroes fighting hundreds of possible villains. The line-up would be constantly changing and fluctuating based on the political ramifications of each of their missions and the diplomatic tensions between the various DC nations. Phil also redesigned at least 50 costumes and on top of that, wrote up bios for EVERY. SINGLE. CHARACTER. Here’s an example bio for Centrix, a Canadian superhero who had only shown up in one single panel prior to this:

CENTRIX

''Real Name: Mark Armstrong Occupation: Former advertising executive; adventurer Identity: Secret Legal status: Canadian citizen with no criminal record Place of birth: Selkirk, Manitoba Marital Status: Divorced Known relatives: Laura (ex-wife); Julie (sister) Base of operations: Vancouver Island, British Columbia Group affiliation: The Global Guardians First appearance: JUSTICE LEAGUE QUARTERLY #17 (winter 1994)''

''History: Mark Armstrong was a young, ambitious man raised in Manitoba, Canada. Mark was an excellent student, athlete, and son to his parents, mostly to compensate for his sister, a drug addict. Mark went to university in Ontario, majoring in business, and joining an advertising firm in the city. Mark became a high powered advertising executive, aquiring a vast amount of wealth through excessive work and smart investing. Mark also developed the use of his super human powers, which allowed him to create force waves in equal and opposite directions from his body. Mark perfected the use of his powers, and became one of Canada’s only public super-heroes, taking the codename Centrix.''

''Eventually, Mark grew disillusioned with his high powered job and the spiritual void he felt in the business world. He divorced his wife of three years, moved to British Columbia and, living off his wealth, settled in Ladysmith on Vancouver Island. Mark became a relative “hippie”, hiding his fortune from others to blend in with the simple, bed and breakfast crowd. He began studying star charts and reading tarot while, at the same time, making wise investment moves that kept his bank accounts and investments robust. He was also an avid consumer of computer gadgets. He continued to fight crime as Centrix, mostly on trips to Vancouver and his occasion returns to Ontario.''

''Mark was one of several recruits to the Global Guardians in its last incarnation. After watching and recording Centrix battle low level criminals in Canada for years, J’Onn J’Onzz, the Martian Manhunter, recommended Centrix to Owlwoman for membership. Unfortunately, this collection of Guardians remained together for only a short time, and Centrix returned to his home in Ladysmith.''

''Height: 5’9″ Weight: 160 lbs. Eyes: Green Hair: Bonde''

''Strength level: Centrix possesses the normal strength of a human being of his height and build who engages in moderate regular exercise.''

''Powers: Centrix has the ability to project invisible energy in equal and opposite directions from his body. If Centrix projects a bolt of energy north, for example, one of equal size and power will be projected from his body in a southern direction. He can create a rotating series of shapes using this energy, and is not limited to simple, large bursts of invisible energy. He can use the force as a battering ram, to lift himself aloft, and, if he focuses it, to project weaponry.''

''Weapons: Centrix keeps various small pellets and tips in pockets laced throughout his costume, to place in the force fields he projects from his body as weapons. Centrix also carries all sorts of computerized gadgets, ranging from a cell phone and palm pilot to a small translator, in several of those pockets.''

''Character notes: Centrix possesses a duality to his personality. On one hand, he’s very “spiritual” in a new age, sort of way, constantly experiment with astrology and numerology, chakra aligning, etc. to find inner, spiritual peace. On the other hand, he’s has an incredible mind for business and technology, is particularly savvy with making advancements in each. Centrix speaks English and some Canadian French. His family is Protestant, although he has chosen to embrace new age philosophy over a more traditional set of religious beliefs.''

'''What we got: '''DC opted to not publish the title, and the international heroes of the DCU languished for several years until James Robinson skinned Australia’s gay hero Tasmanian Devil and turned him into a rug in Cry for Justice. Then DC rebooted with a Justice League International featuring a couple of the Guardians’ characters, but the title buckled under a poor initial story arc and a sales slump afterwards, and the international DC community remains as dead as a doornail to this day.

'''Why it matters: '''Neither DC nor Marvel can really get their act together with regards to international superheroes – Captain Britain doesn’t count. Frankly, it’s a shame that this concept didn’t get the greenlight. Phil Jimenez is an amazing creative talent and I think DC could easily bring this concept back and make it rock if they wanted it.

13. Team Supergirl

'''The concept: 'Peter David was going to turn the Supergirl title into a SupergirlS title, featuring a team of Supergirls from different realities.''

'''The origin: '''Let’s kick it off with the story straight from Peter David’s mouth:

''When I first embarked on the storyline, I was told by the powers-that-be that I could use Kara for six issues. That was it. Six issues, no more.''

''I hoped to change their minds. Because I was positive the addition of Kara would bring in readers in droves.''

''What I was hoping was that support and interest for the series would be so major, so undeniable, so impossible to ignore, that I could use it as ammo to convince the PTB to change their mind and allow me to keep the character around. If that had happened, my intention was to turn the book into, effectively, a team book.''

'''The story: '''David described the story as the “S” equivalent to Birds of Prey. Starting with Kara and Linda, the Supergirls would be immediately joined by Power Girl (who was the Supergirl of Earth-2). Throughout the series, there were plans to include several other Supergirls, such as the Pocket Universe Supergirl, Superwoman of Earth-3 (at the time Earth-2), Superwoman of the 24th century, Sister Andromeda, and various Supergirls from alternate realities. In fact, the concept of Overgirl (used momentarily in Final Crisis), a Nazi version of Supergirl, was going to be seen in this title. The new subtitle of the book was going to be Blonde Justice. That’s right. Supergirl: Blonde Justice.

'''What we got: '''Unfortunately, support for the title torpedoed these plans. DC was willing to go with the idea, but seeing the initial slumping sales for Supergirl #75 caused DC to cancel the series after the initial story ended in #80. Of course, word of mouth was strong for the series and by #80 Supergirl was selling like hot cakes. Sadly, DC had already cancelled the book months before and launched the project to reboot Supergirl under Jeph Loeb and Michael Turner. This eventually came to fruition in Superman/Batman’s second story arc, an extremely high-selling story.

'''Why it matters: '''I have always, always preferred Linda to Kara. Kara is too bland, too stuck in the mold without any unique quirks to make her stand out. Linda had that edge and the it factor to make it work. However, the pairing of the two was amazing and it helped Kara to stand out. This concept of a Supergirl version of the Exiles was fantastic, and I wish that we could turn back the hands of time and keep this title from cancellation. I could live without the Michael Turner Supergirl.

12.  Larry Niven’s Green Lantern Corps

'''The concept: 'Hugo and Nebula award winning science fiction icon Larry Niven wrote an entirely new bible of source material for Green Lantern Corps and planned to relaunch the title.''

The origin: In the early 1970s, Larry Niven wrote a multitude of what are considered some of the most influential and greatest works of science fiction. His novel Ringworld, about a ginat ring circling a star at the distance of the Earth from the Sun became a sci-fi staple and was the direct template for the Halo design. Other works such as his Known Space works and Gil Hamilton works have become the templates for sci-fi shows and films. In 1973, famed science fiction author Larry Niven wrote a novella titled Flash Crowd, about the problems caused when cheap teleporation is introduced to the public. What happens is that large groups of people suddenly show up at places at once, causing all sorts of problems. Decades later, “Flash Mobs” have become a staple of popular culture, working very much on that same premise (well, except for the teleportation part of it).

Similarly, Niven had another idea that ultimately showed up in a different form. In the late 1980s, DC Comics approached Niven about coming up with a history of the Green Lantern Corps. A “bible,” if you would. It was going to appear in a three-issue Prestige Format mini-series that would lead into a new Green Lantern series.

'''The story: '''Larry Niven had a wide array of ideas in his Bible that might sound familiar to you. He created a Guardian named Ganthet who was a very liberal member of that race that sought for other races to embrace seizing their destinies. He also created a completely opposite Corps to the Green Lanterns, based on the concept of complementary colors. These were the Red Lanterns – in his version of the Red Lanterns, they were fueled by all emotion, where Green Lanterns were about harnessing and stifling it. Essentially, it was a very Sith-Jedi relationship to the ring concept. Niven also came up with the concept of hundreds of races seeking refuge on Oa, a sort-of mosaic world. The final idea of note was that Guy Gardner was going to turn out to be of alien heritage.

'''What we got: '''Niven’s time constraints didn’t allow him to work on the mini-series, but a three-issue series was produced using some of his ideas in 1990.

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/greenlanternjones.jpg

Niven eventually was able to put together a graphic novel about his character Ganthet with John Byrne a couple years later:

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/ganthet.jpg

As you can see, Niven provided a lot, a lot, a LOT of concepts that DC has used over the years. Geoff Johns, surprisingly, didn’t know about the Red Lantern idea when he first created the Sinestro Corps, but it did inspire him in his concept of the Red Lanterns (which at that point hadn’t really been fully formed). DC also used the Mosaic concept as an ongoing series featuring John Stewart for a couple years. And anyone who remembers the 90s remembers that Guy Gardner ended up BEING AN ALIEN!

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/guy.jpg

Even though Niven didn’t have the opportunity or time to write the stories himself, his ideas certainly didn’t go to waste.

'''Why it matters: '''This is no BS. Larry Niven is my all-time favorite author, and Green Lantern is one my favorite franchises. This was a match made in heaven, and the only reason I didn’t rank it higher is because a lot of his ideas ended up being used. That said, apparently there were over 300 pages of notes and material that he provided DC, so I would love to get my hands on that someday. Niven has probably one of the best voices in writing, and his short story ability would’ve lended itself perfectly to the world of comic books. I’ve read Ganthet’s Tale and it’s actually pretty darn good. There’s a really a moment in that story where you can feel the GL franchise shifting from the Hal-centric GL style to the Kyle-centric GL style – one that would eventually lead to the Geoff Johns space-opera era. Niven and GL… how I wish we could see more.

11. J.M. DeMatteis’ Death of Captain America

'''The concept: 'DeMatteis had plans in the 80s to kill Captain America and replace him with a Native American.''

'''The origin: '''Let’s just let DeMatteis himself tell the story:

''My last year on the book was one long ongoing saga involving Captain America’s final battle with the Red Skull. It was to reach a turning point with a double-sized CAP #300 in which the Red Skull dies and Cap, after (at the time) forty-plus years of solving problems with his fists, begins to wonder if there’s another way to live his ideals and change the world. In the proposal I presented to my editor, the late, great Mark Gruenwald, Cap was, ultimately, going to disavow violence as a tool for change-essentially rejecting the entire superhero mindset-and start working for world peace. (Keep in mind that this was at the height of the Reagan “evil empire”/cold war period, so it was a pretty radical idea for its day.)''

The story: DeMatteis continues:

''My plan was to have the world turn against Cap, his own country rejecting him as un-America, other world leaders shunning him: The only allies he was going to find in his quest for global change would be the Sub-Mariner and Doctor Doom. This was the period when Jack Monroe-aka Nomad, the Bucky of the 50′s-was Cap’s partner…and Jack, with his cold war mentality, would be manipulated by Cap’s enemies. In the climax, as Cap speaks at a rally of his few remaining supporters, Nomad (perched on a roof across the way) assassinates him. Only then, with Cap dead, would the world realize what they had. In tribute to Cap, all nations of the world would lay down their weapons for one hour. One hour of peace on Earth. ''

''The plan was then to find Cap’s replacement. I toyed with the idea of Sam Wilson, the Falcon, becoming the new Cap…but (as I recall-and, let’s face it, it’s been a while) I finally settled on Black Crow, a Native American character I’d used in the book, as the new Captain America. Who better to represent America than one of the first Americans?''

'''What we got: '''And let’s have DeMatteis wrap us up:

''Gruenwald approved all this, I wrote the double-sized Cap #300, went ahead and plotted the next two or three stories in the arc; but editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, hearing what we were planning, shot the idea down. Jim said, essentially, that my idea violated Cap’s character, that Steve Rogers would never act like that.''

''Cap think by Jim himself-or perhaps Gruenwald under Jim’s direction. (Which is why I used a fake name in the credits and quit the book.) At the time I was angry but, in retrospect, I totally understand Shooter’s POV. Jim-a brilliant editor and a guy who really helped me along in the early days of my career-was the custodian of the Marvel Universe: he had to protect the characters as he understood them. As noted, my idea was extremely radical for its day: I mean-Captain American involved in political controversy and then assassinated? How could anything like that every happen? ''
 * 1) 300 was then cut down to a normal-sized issue and substantially rewritten, I

''Just goes to show you how times change. ''

'''Why it matters: '''Well, any time you plan on killing off a character, it’s a big effin’ deal. I think this story would’ve been fantastic and DeMatteis never lets people down. Plus, a Native American big name marquee character would’ve been a bold move forward by Marvel. Could you imagine the Avengers film featuring a Native American? It would’ve been a different world, folks.

10. The Kingdom Come sequel

'''The concept: 'Mark Waid was going to write an ongoing series featuring the world of Kingdom Come.''

'''The origin: '''Kingdom Come, by writer Mark Waid and artist Alex Ross, was a massive success for DC Comics in 1996. Featuring a story of the DC Universe of the future, the book won acclaim and high sales. By the end of the year, Waid and Ross were all set to continue the storyline in an ongoing title called The Kingdom.

'''The story: '''Mark Waid talked about it with Brett Lord in Dragon’s Breath vol. 3 # 1 in January of 1997:

''Lord: Let me tell you what I think I know about the recently announced Kingdom Come spin-off: It’s called Kingdom, written by you, art by Gene Ha, with covers (and consultation) by Alex Ross. It’s ongoing, set in DC continuity, and may or may not chronicle the events that may or may not lead up to Kingdom Come. How am I doing so far?''

''Waid: Spot on. It’s also set in present day and will focus primarily on the younger characters, but will have healthy heaping helpings of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, and others. The idea is to make this a flagship book for the entire DC line, a place where events of critical importance can occur.''

''Lord: Why the choice to go “in-continuity”?''

''Waid: Paul Levitz’s idea, and a good one.''

''We’re saying that Kingdom Come isn’t just a possible future for the DC Universe: It’s a probable one. We’ve just put a ticking clock on everything we know and hold dear, and you’ll be surprised at the way certain events unfold in the months and years to come. We’re not just allowed to have major DC continuity happenings occur in Kingdom; it’s a mandate.''

''Lord: Will the book focus on just a few main characters, or will it span the DC Universe (as did Kingdom Come)?''

''Waid: A little of both. Too early to say. Look for, among other things, revivals and revamps of Kingdom Come players like Captain Atom and Hourman.''

''Lord: Will Magog or Norman McKay appear in the book?''

''Waid: Magog, certainly. Norman-we’re talking.''

''Lord: Besides covers, how else will Alex Ross contribute to the book?''

''Waid: Alex and I are crafting the series bible together. ''

'''What we got: '''Well, anyone who’s read what we ended up getting, knows that the story was far from what was described above:

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/6166_4_001.jpg

I dug up this old interview from when The Kingdom mini-series was first being published (http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&old=1&id=1593):

''“At that point, I elected to start from scratch and jettison any ideas that had been Alex’s – not out of petulance, purely out of creative courtesy. I had become quite taken with Magog and began blocking out an origin for him which transformed him from a parody into a complex and unique character. Those plans are still viable and that’s a story I’d like to tell someday; maybe I’ll get there. But that wasn’t working out either, not at that point. Sadly, none of the 50 pages of outlines and notes I have on the stillborn ‘Kingdom’ ongoing ever quite gelled, and though there are still a lot of workable ideas in there to be mined, most of them will never see the light of day. In fact, long before ‘Gog’ #1, I’d written an entire 38-page Magog-centered ‘Kingdom’ #1 which no one loved, including myself, and which no one will thus ever see.”''

''While “The Kingdom” wasn’t stillborn, its birth was a troubled one, and the project only began to get back on track about last year, in time for the “New Year’s Evil” week of specials.''

'''Why it matters:''' I wonder how good a The Kingdom ongoing series would be if Waid and Ross worked together on the project. Anyone who knows much about the development of Kingdom Come knows that Ross was a major, major component on the creative development of Kingdom Come. In fact, Ross was probably more essential to the creation of every concept in the series than Waid was. Thus, it makes sense that The Kingdom suffered without him. In fact, the one good idea in The Kingdom wasn’t even Waid’s at all! Grant Morrison came up with Hypertime, and Waid used it in the finale of The Kingdom. I miss Hypertime a lot – not that the 52 worlds are bad at all (they’re better), but Hypertime just felt GRAND. So I guess you could say this is partially a Grant Morrison entry!

9. Marvels II

The concept: Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross planned on creating a sequel to their hit mini-series Marvels for, well, Marvel.

The origin: Marvels launched Alex Ross and Kurt Busiek on the road to superstardom in the 90s, and it kick-started a new renaissance of goo comics at Marvel. So naturally, Marvel came to the duo for a sequel.

“At first, I wasn’t that interested in doing a sequel,” Busiek said, “while Alex definitely didn’t want to do one. On the other hand, Alex and I did talk about several different ways we would do a sequel to Marvels. At one point, we discussed doing just stories about different points in Marvel history and human perspectives on them. For example, we might see the story of a hospital worker who’s working in a Dallas hospital the night that the X-Men ‘died’, or we might tell the story of one of the bums who was living in a bowery flophouse when the Sub-Mariner was a amnesiac there. We’d sort of move back and forth and around in Marvel history.”

Though Busiek and Ross casually tossed around various ideas that they might’ve wanted to see in a sequel, there was one specific character that they didn’t want to touch. “One of the things that Alex and I talked about in the event that we did do a sequel, was not using Phil Sheldon. So I came up with a story that, instead of using the witness’ eye view of the Marvel Universe, would involve the fringe participant’s eye view at what life was like for the people that got involved in this superhero stuff.”

The story: Here’s Busiek’s concept for Marvels II: Cops and Robbers, described in his own words:

''Charles and Royal Williams–two men whose lives changed forever after their parents were killed during a battle between Captain America and Hydra. The four issue series would tell the brothers’ quest for vengeance, as well as become a study in obsession that mirrors the new breed of Marvel heroes that were being introduced at the time.''

''As a result, Charles would be driven to find a way to impose order and security on a chaotic world and become a cop, while Royal’s faith in society’s ‘rules’ would be shattered, driving him to rebellion and crime,” Busiek wrote in his original proposal for the series.''

''Intending to show how the brothers interacted with the Marvel Universe in the first issue, Busiek was going to have Charles, a beat cop at the time, be part of an attempt to bring Spider-Man in for questioning. At the same time, Royal would start his career in crime working as a petty thief; finding himself stopped by the likes of the Human Torch or Iron Man–heroes who wanted only to apprehend the criminal for authorities, not punish them. The problem for Royal was that times were changing, and a new type of “hero” was lurking in the shadows. ''

Unfortunately for Busiek, Marvel let Ross go over to DC and the replacement artist didn’t work for Busiek, who dropped the project. Busiek has never revealed who said artist was to my knowledge, but I’d like to think it was Kurt Busiek.

What we got: However, does the above idea sound familiar?

If so, it should, as that is the plot of Busiek’s mini-series for Astro City, titled Astro City: Dark Age.

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/13437_4_001.jpg

That’s right – Busiek too his unused idea for Marvels II and re-worked it into a title published by DC a decade later! Obviously there were so major changes to the story – the lack of Marvel characters being the biggest one – but if you look at the four mini-series in The Dark Age, you’ll notice some very obvious similarities. A cop named Charles and a criminal named Royal. The two of the brothers. A superhero’s intervention in their childhood sending them down different paths. A hero trying to be brought in for his local vigilante activities. A Captain America stand-in, a Ghost Rider stand-in, Fantastic Four stand-ins.

Go check it out if you want to see what Marvels II would’ve been like!

'''Why it matters: '''Because, simply put, Astro City is one of the best series in comics. Ever. Period. End of discussion. And while Dark Age isn’t the best story in the series, it’s up there and certainly a worthy sequel to Marvels. We may never had the chance to read Kingdom Come if Marvel hadn’t let Ross slip away, too. A lot of interesting ramifications came out of this project, and I have to say while all of them worked out for the best, this is a story I still wish I could see.

8. The Great Catwoman-Daredevil Trade

'''The concept: 'DC and Marvel planned to trade Catwoman and Daredevil for one year in the aftermath of DC vs. Marvel.''

'''The origin: '''DC vs. Marvel was a much-anticipated mini-series that was to answer the age-old question: who would win in a fight – DC or Marvel? The end results of matches determined by fan votes ended up being widely panned (generally speaking, people lean towards DC on many of the matches Marvel won), but one aspect people enjoyed about the event was the crossover interactions between characters which culminated in the Amalgam comics month where the companies quite literally merged.

Looking to capitalize on the commercial success of the event, Marvel and DC both came back to the table in order to see what else they could come up with. Enter Ron Marz and Peter David.

'''The concept: '''It was going to be the final sequence of the final issue of DC vs. Marvel – Daredevil and Catwoman would end up on the wrong side of the line as the universal barriers went back up, and for the next year we would read the adventures of Selina in New York City and Matt in Gotham. Marvel would publish Daredevil still and DC would publish Catwoman, but within those titles, the writers would be allowed to work with a wide array of characters as provided by both DC and Marvel editorial.

Catwoman was going to be dropped into the world of Daredevil and develop a friendship with Elektra (which makes sense given who she was merged with in Amalgam) and spend at least one story arc going up against Bullseye as a team. There was also going to be a Catwoman-Spider-Man issue, although nothing was planned other than the fact that it was going to happen.

Daredevil, meanwhile, would find himself at odds with Two-Face immediately. Great concept – prosecutor versus defense attorney. Batman would give Daredevil the cold shoulder at first, but at some point he’d get pulled into DCU heroic fold by Nightwing and the Titans. Nothing was ever mentioned about the JLA, presumably because Grant Morrison didn’t want his fledgling title involved.

And at the end of the year, Marvel and DC would have another crossover and the two characters would go home.

'''What we got: '''DC and Marvel were both excited about the idea and the creative doors it could open; in fact, it was the WRITERS of all people that ended up shooting it down. They didn’t think that DC and Marvel would be able to agree on profit sharing royalities for publishing and reprints and that the titles would end up causing a lot of legal problems. Interestingly, rumor has it DC and Marvel were both willing to setup a contract for it, so who knows?

These days, DC and Marvel aren’t exactly on speaking terms which really sucks. Damn you, Quesada!

'''Why it matters: '''I don’t care what anyone else here says – 12 issues of these two characters in their counterpart’s universe would’ve been a helluva lotta fun and it wouldn’t have tarnished either’s legacy. I would read the crap out of Two-Face vs. Daredevil, and if there was ever a better match than Elektra and Catwoman, I’d be surprised.

7. M&M Part I – Evil Professor X

'''The concept: 'Grant Morrison and Mark Millar came up with the idea for an evil Professor X a year before Onslaught was created at Marvel.''

'''The origin: '''Here’s a great story courtesy of Scott Braden’s excellent series of Untold Tales that used to appear in Overstreet Fan. I found this one in December 1996′s Overstreet Fan #18. In 1995, Grant Morrison and Mark Millar were in the midst of pitching about a million ideas all over the comics world, but one that really caught the attention of a company was a very specific pitch to Marvel. Their concept was called Marvel Tales: End of the World.

The story:  The concept of Grant Morrison and Mark Millar’s pitch for Marvel Tales: End of the World is that Professor X would become corrupted by a flaw in Cerebro’s programming. The two would merge into a super-powerful being known as the X-Terminus. The X-Terminus would then proceed to destroy the entire Marvel Universe. We would learn this from the sole survivor of the last universe the X-Terminus destroyed, an alternate reality Wolverine.

In fact, there was a weird twist involved with the alternate reality Wolverine:

''“We even had a subplot that would deal with that newly-arrived Wolverine,” Morrison added, “who was married to the Jubilee from his reality. When he eventually meets our Jubilee, who’s always had a crush on Logan (that was never reciprocated), and she meets this guy who’s in love with her–both of them can’t deal with it. She doesn’t know how to take him, while he can’t deal with the fact that this woman he cares for is not his wife. So there was also a history to create some emotional stuff around.”''

Kinda creepy, no?

What we got: Anyhow, Marvel told them they couldn’t use Professor X, so instead, the pair decided to use the Puppet Master, under the logic of “let’s turn the lamest villain into the biggest one.” The concept of the series then changed, with Morrison and Millar instead showing in the first two-three issues HOW Puppet Master kills everyone, and only at the end of the second or third issue reveal that this is an alternate reality, but now he’s coming to OUR Earth for the end of the series!!

“What was so great about this series was that the Puppet Master would actually destroy bits of the Marvel Universe,” Millar added, “Everybody is lying around, totally messed up. Some are even dead. Grant and I thought there were so many crap Marvel characters at the time, thanks to all those terrible books that came out during the early ’90s. We just wanted all of those really bad characters killed off, and we thought that this was a good way to do it.”

Ultimately, it would come down to Alicia Masters having to stand up to her father, at which point he’d kill her, sending the Thing into a rage.

This gives the Thing the strength to get up. He’s groggy, but he manages to come face-to-face with the Puppet Master, whispering, ‘It’s clobberin’ time!!’ He’s uncontrollable with grief as he suddenly gets in there and kicks the crap out of the Puppet Master. Then, having literally had the sense beaten into him, the Puppet Master uses his last dying breath to bring Alicia back to life. He just passes his energy over to her.”

Ultimately, though, Marvel passed on the idea, but a year later, Professor X’s “dark side” helped created the evil bad guy Onslaught who, for a time, was thought to have killed the most famous Marvel superheroes. Y’know, pretty much the idea Morrison pitched. Only it ended up sucking hardcore and leading us into the single worst comic story to ever come out of Marvel – Heroes Reborn.

Why it matters: A) It’s Grant Morrison.  B) It’s a story that would’ve prevented Heroes Reborn from ever happening. C) It’s Grant Morrison.

'''6. M&M Part II – Marvel 2099 Reborn'''

The concept: ''Grant Morrison and Mark Millar came up with a story that would reboot the entirety of the 2099 line of comics.''

The origin: As has been the case for most of comic book history, if you want to try something really new and different, the best place to try said ideas is in a low-priority comic book, because people won’t be as upset with the changes. Note how much freedom Warren Ellis had with his storyline in Doom 2099 where he basically had Doom take over the United States, affecting all 2099 titles, causing them to be titled “A.D.,” After Doom.

Morrison and Millar were also willing to try and take advantage of a change like this with the 2099 universe when they pitched Apocalypse 2099.

The story: “Marvel heroes (in the past) were always characterized by their less-than-super alter-egos,” Millar wrote in his and Morrison’s proposal to Marvel. “We had the lame Donald Blake, the puny Peter Parker, the blind Matt Murdock and so on. This is what made these secret identities so much more interesting than their counterparts at other companies.”

With that in mind, Morrison and Millar were going to start Apocalypse off with a BANG–launching two new titles; Captain America 2099, a series detailing a broken man’s transformation into the new Sentinel of Liberty, and Iron Man 2099, the ongoing adventures of 2099′s Armored Avenger.

“Our Iron Man was completely spastic power-wise,” Morrison laughed. “We dreamed him up as the most fantastic scientific mind on Earth who had created this wonderful war suit. Imagine, when he’s in the war suit, when he’s Iron Man, he can do anything. He can change shape, become intangible, travel through space…anything. But the minute something happens to that suit, he’s just a guy whose body is completely worthless.”

“I wanted to base him on the British scientist and writer, Stephen Hawking,” Millar added, “a man with a super-brain trapped inside the body of a disfigured invalid. A handicapped superhero would seem genuinely fresh in an industry still cluttered with successful yuppie super-people.” Another twist they wanted to add was that their Iron Man, although working for Stark Industries, would not be Stark himself.

“Iron Man wouldn’t remove the helmet until the fifth issue,” Millar admitted, “when he finally would reveal his true identity to the book’s love interest. She, with the reader, would suspect it’s Stark, and becomes disgusted when she finds out it’s instead this poor, disfigured man. Stark, on the other hand, would’ve probably been a major villain.”

Like their Iron Man, Morrison and Millar’s Captain America 2099 was also a tragic hero. Unlike the chemically-enhanced Steve Rogers, he was a very human war veteran who, after fighting a war over a certain resurfaced undersea kingdom (a conflict Morrison compared to America’s war with Vietnam), came home to search for the “American Dream.”

“We had Atlantis rise up from the ocean floor,” Morrison explained. “All the Atlanteans, except Namor, are dead because of pollutants from the surface world, so it’s now just this mysterious jungle world covered with weird ruins that were built thousands of years ago. And with Atlantis re-surfaced, both America and some unnamed Eastern super-state try to claim it as their own, resulting in this terrible, messed-up war.

“Our Captain America was a Marine who fought in that war, and now his life is completely shattered. He fought the war thinking that (the legendary) Captain America would come back to save them. But with no sign of Cap, and with America losing, he’s lost everything. His mind’s gone and he has nothing left to believe in. He doesn’t believe in America. He doesn’t believe in anything.”

They were then going to have their unlikely hero find a menial job as a janitor for Stark Industries, obsessing over Captain America’s absence. Not understanding why Captain America hasn’t come back in what he perceives to be “the hour of his country’s greatest need,” he sets out (to the amusement of his fellow employees) to either find the Living Legend, or become one.

“The guy decides that he wants to be Captain America,” Millar revealed, “so he goes to the bombed out ruins of Avengers Mansion, and digs up Captain America’s corpse. There he finds Captain America with the costume still on him, still holding the shield….”

“And like Arthur finding Excalibur,” Morrison added, “he just pulls out the shield (from Cap’s skeletal hands), holds it up, and that’s it. Suddenly, he thinks, ‘I’m going to be the dream.’ Even with his mind shattered and his confidence completely gone, he sets out to become Captain America and suddenly finds the dream again.”

Millar continued, “The important thing was that our Captain America was someone who perpetuated the ‘American Dream,’ as well as inspired the same in others.”

They then planned to tie in the Martian invasion from Killraven into 2099 continuity, even making Ravage a descendant of Killraven!

“Our idea was that the Killraven stories had actually happened, but Earth somehow got itself back together. It’s now one hundred years later, and the Martians are attacking again, meaning that all the superheroes were going to have to deal with them, obviously. Or rather, a group of superheroes.”

Morrison and Millar were going to have Cap, Iron Man, as well as other 2099 heroes join forces in an attempt to drive off the Martian Invasion. As Avengers, they were going to be all that stood between conquest by the Martians and freedom. At the same time this was going on, readers would also have learned that some former Avengers are still alive and well in the “World of Tomorrow”…sort of.

“Giant-Man is around,” Morrison said, “although he’s been comatose for over one hundred years. He’s reached this huge size, and he just stands with his feet straight in the Hudson River. He’s just this huge monolith. I mean, kids paint slogans on his feet and stuff. He’s just been there forever. His heart beats once a day, and it resounds through the gates and ships; it makes the Earth shake.”

The next plot would have involved Galactus, with the heroes of Earth being basically screwed against the combined attack of the Martians and Galactus.

Cap even tries to rouse the man-mountain that was Giant-Man, but to no avail.

“Captain America gives an impassioned plea at the feet of this mighty Goliath,” Millar said, “but Giant-Man just stares out into space, hearing and feeling nothing. He’s beyond the cares of humanity, lost in the lonely worlds of gods.”

Though they fight on valiantly, the overwhelming numbers of Martians teamed with Galactus’ sheer power prove too much for the new Avengers. But though they’re down, they’re definitely not out.

“The team has been beaten down, and all the heroes are just lying there bloodied and battered,” Morrison said. “All of a sudden, Captain America gets up and starts rallying everybody. He holds up his shield and cries out, ‘AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!’”

Affecting all around him, Captain America’s call-to-arms even wakes the sleeping giant that was Henry Pym. After a century of near-slumber, Giant-Man’s eyes open as if to meet his destiny. Morrison and Millar then cut back to Cap and a nearly defeated Avengers, fighting with their last ounce of strength, when suddenly they realize that a man-god once again walks the Earth. “From off panel, we hear the sound of thunder,” Millar said, “enormous footsteps getting closer and closer. Captain America and the others look up, wiping the blood from their eyes and hope radiates from their faces. The reader turns the page and we have a big, double-page spread where a two-hundred foot Giant-Man stands before a two-hundred foot Galactus, ready to fight.”

“He then just walks over and decks Galactus,” Morrison laughed.

With Giant-Man knocking Galactus on his ass, the Avengers were given some precious time, no matter how limited, to think. How were they going to win this?

“Galactus needs a world to eat,” Millar said, “and Earth’s involved in a war against an aggressive alien force. Their solution is to give Galactus Mars.”

With the newer, tougher Avengers offering Galactus alien worlds for lunch, the only question that remained was why should he take them up on their offer? Morrison explained, “Galactus is not a bad guy. The heroes go up to him and say, ‘you can’t do this to us, but why not them?!!’ And he says, ‘Okay, I’ll spare you, but you have to give me something in return.’ So he goes and leaches the energy of Mars, destroying all the Martians in the process. Then he just goes on his way forever.”

This big mini-series would lead into an Avengers 2099 ongoing series that Morrison and Millar would have co-written, but it was never to be.

What we got: Marvel passed on the idea.

Why it matters: This is just about one of the coolest storylines I’ve heard of involving an alternate reality and it would’ve kicked so much ass that Bruce Lee would’ve needed lessons from it. Seriously, this is a phenomenal idea. 2099 is traditionally a pretty weak universe, and this is the kick in the pants it needed to become a force to be reckoned with.

'''5. M&M Part III – Let’s Relaunch Superman'''

The concept: ''Grant Morrison, Mark Millar, Mark Waid and Tom Peyer were going to completely overhaul Superman in 1998.''

The origin: In late 1998, Grant Morrison, Mark Millar, Mark Waid and Tom Peyer developed an extensive proposal for the Superman titles that was scheduled to launch in January of 2000. The proposal was originally greenlit, but then DC changed their mind and instead decided to go for a much softer revamp of the four Superman titles. They still basically revamped all four Superman titles, they just did not go as far and as wide as the Morrison/Millar/Waid/Peyer revamp wanted to go.

'''The story: '''Let me just give you the cover page of the proposal; interestingly, it’s not known who wrote this particular proposal introduction, which can be find here (http://theages.superman.nu/History/2000/):

''Historical record tells us that every fifteen years or so, Superman is re-imagined to address the wants and needs of a new generation. Fifteen years ago, John Byrne recreated Superman from the ground up. Fifteen years prior to that, Julie Schwartz and Denny O’Neil engineered the biggest shakeup since Mort Weisinger began bringing in all his familiar lore fifteen years previous.''

''That fifteen year cycle is upon us again. With all due deference and heartfelt thanks to the creators of all the fine work done since the Byrne revamp, it seems that many of the social trends and historical currents which made those comics so appropriate and so successful in the ’80s and early ’90s have now been replaced by newer, different trends and currents. Sadly, sales would seem to reflect our contention that new times demand fresh approaches.''

''We believe that the four of us understand the new face of Superman: a forward-looking, intelligent, enthusiastic hero retooled to address the challenges of the next thousand years. The ultimate American icon revitalized for the new millennium as an aspirational figure, a role model for 21st Century global humanity.''

''The Superman relaunch we’re selling bucks the trend of sweeping aside the work done by those who came immediately before. Unlike the ‘cosmic reset’ revamps all too prevalent in current comics, our New Superman approach is an honest attempt to synthesize the best of all previous eras. Our intention is to honor each of Superman’s various interpretations and to use internal story logic as our launching pad for a re-imagined, streamlined 21st century Man of Steel. The ‘cosmic reset’ notion has been replaced by a policy of ‘include and transcend’ with regard to past continuity.''

''Our intention is to restore Superman to his pre-eminent place as the greatest super-hero of all and to topple Spawn and every Marvel comic that’s currently in his way.''

We don’t think this will be much of a problem.

I highly recommend you check out this link to read the full 21-page proposal as I’m not rehashing the entire thing - http://superman.nu/theages/History/2000/SUPERMAN2000.php

'''What we got: '''Even though DC passed on this revamp, it’s amazing how much of it ended up sneaking into other titles. For example, Superman was going to be a vegetarian, something that was brought back in Mark Waid’s Superman: Birthright (where he revamped Superman in 2004).

In Mark Millar’s Red Son, he was able to redesign the Fortress of Solitude as described in the proposal.

Grant Morrison wrote All-Star Superman which picked up about half of these concepts and let them loose in a 12-issue maxie-series.

And of course, the New52 reboot of Action Comics featured the costume redesign as described by this proposal, as well as the populist sentimentality as described in the proposal.

'''Why it matters: '''Essentially, All-Star Superman could’ve existed 10 years earlier and been the mainstream Superman. That definitely would’ve change things, eh? But as is the curse of most Morrison/Millar proposals, the company passed on it and all of this is just conjecture.

4. Move over Sandman, it’s Neil Gaiman’s… Phantom Stranger?!?!

'''The concept: 'Neil Gaiman originally pitched his Sandman series with the Phantom Stranger as the titular main character.''

'''The origin: '''It is fun to think of DC Comics in the late 1980s, where there was this influx of British writers who also brought with them an influx of creativity. This creativity was displayed with great effect as Alan Moore took a popular (but not THAT popular) DC character, Swamp Thing, and turned it into a critical darling. DC wanted to know if similarly talented British creators could do the same, and writer Neil Gaiman’s first shot at doing a new take on an established DC character was 1988′s Black Orchid.

After that was a success, Karen Berger asked him to pick a new ongoing project.

The story… AND what we got: Gaiman’s first answer was the Phantom Stranger. His plan was to tell an anthology series covering many different points of history and the Wandering Jew’s encounters with various people and mythological figures during that time.

He was told no, as DC had just negotiated a deal with Grant Morrison to take a look at the Stranger. However, by the time everything shook out with Morrison, he instead opted to work on Animal Man. The thing is, Morrison had already brought Mike Mignola (future Hellboy creator extraordinare) on board, so Paul Kupperberg stepped into work with some of the plot points Morrison had provided. So a Phantom Stranger mini-series was born, but not really from either Gaiman or Morrison:

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/158ul1-2.jpg

So Gaiman suggested the Demon.

The thing is, DC had just negotiated a deal with Matt Wagner (Grendel creator extraordinare) to do a Demon series. Gaiman was asked to pick a different project and Wagner was given the green light. However, Wagner’s time constraints eventually resulted in the book being pushed to just a four-issue mini-series:

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/158ul1-4.jpg

So Gaiman suggested Green Arrow.

Problem was, Mike Grell had just finished inking a deal for a mini-series about Ollie Queen, and it was going to eventually lead into a 100-issue long series that’s widely regarding as the best stuff you can get with Queen:

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/158ul1-5.jpg

So Gaiman suggested the Green Lantern.

This almost went through as a part of the Action Comics Weekly series (remember what we got instead of the Blue Beetle series way back on this list?), but the editor at the time was hesitant to use the story Gaiman suggested, so it was shelved. Instead Action Comics featured a serviceable but ultimately forgettable story that foreshadowed Hal Jordan’s eventual madness:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bdVR-JIDi2g/TTEA7hZ-53I/AAAAAAAAUn4/oItRIQm3KKU/s1600/1133.jpg

How about the Sandman?

Free and clear! And that’s how what is widely considered the greatest run in comics history was born.

'''Why it matters: '''Serendipity was probably not the word Gaiman would’ve used to describe the comedic trainwreck that was his pitching to DC, but at the end of the day, a lot of great stuff came of it. Etrigan eventually ended up in the hands of Garth Ennis, Hal Jordan went into a major era of changes that have become extremely integral to DC, Green Arrow’s greatest run ever came from Mike Grell, and of course Gaiman launched Sandman.

In fact, the only guy who got a raw deal out of all of this was… Phantom Stranger.

#3 – The Watchmen before the Watchmen before the Watchmen

'''The concept: 'Alan Moore originally pitched Watchmen as a modern take of Archie Comics’ defunct superhero line.''

'''The origin: '''When Alan Moore first came up with the idea that became the comic series, Watchmen, he thought that what would work perfectly would be a line of superhero comics that was not being used at the time. The comic company that Moore initially considered?

The MLJ/Archie Superhero line!

The story: Straight outta Comic Book Artist #9 from Alan Moore’s mouth:

''That was the initial idea of Watchmen-and this is nothing like what Watchmen turned out to be-was it was very simple: Wouldn’t it be nice if I had an entire line, a universe, a continuity, a world full of super-heroes-preferably from some line that has been discontinued and no longer publishing-whom I could then just treat in a different way. You have to remember this was very soon after I’d done some similar stuff, if you like, with Marvelman, where I’d used a pre-existing character, and applied a grimmer, perhaps more realistic kind of world view to that character and the milieu he existed in. So I’d just started thinking about using the MLJ characters-the Archie super-heroes-just because they weren’t being published at that time, and for all I knew, they might’ve been up for grabs. The initial concept would’ve had the 1960s-’70s rather lame version of the Shield being found dead in the harbor, and then you’d probably have various other characters, including Jack Kirby’s Private Strong, being drafted back in, and a murder mystery unfolding. I suppose I was just thinking, “That’d be a good way to start a comic book: have a famous super-hero found dead.” As the mystery unraveled, we would be lead deeper and deeper into the real heart of this super-hero’s world, and show a reality that was very different to the general public image of the super-hero. So, that was the idea.''

What we got: As luck would have it, DC happened to purchase a DIFFERENT defunct line of superheroes, the Charlton heroes, and Moore took this idea that he had based on the MLJ/Archie heroes, and applied it to the Charlton heroes. This was what led to the original proposal for Watchmen, which later, due to the fact that Moore pretty much made the characters unusable after the series was over, changed to being ORIGINAL characters based on the Charlton heroes.

However, even after the changes, a remnant of the MLJ/Archie influence remained in Watchmen, as Hooded Justice is very likely based upon the Archie superhero, Hangman.

'''Why it matters: '''The single most beloved comic in history, the comic with more accolades than any other, the highest selling graphic novel in the industry… Watchmen, people. It doesn’t get any bigger than that.

2. Keith Giffen and how to choose who dies

'''The concept: 'Keith Giffen planned to kill off about one-third of the Legion of Super-Heroes by writing down all of their names and pulling said names out of a hat.''

'''The origin: '''The story of what Keith Giffen was going to do with the Legion when the SW6 Batch came in is pretty far out. You might read this and not believe it, but it’s true. Giffen’s plan is known in Legion fandom as “The Hat Trick”, and it’s got nothing to do with hockey.

According to KC Carlson, this was around the time when Giffen was debating on whether to stay with the Legion or not in 1994. KC was editor at the time.

Giffen described this time period in Legion history as “the one story I wish I could have finished up right.”  This story in question was about the mysterious SW6 batch of Legionnaires who had recently appeared – young versions of the now adult Legion that had arrived under mysterious circumstances.

'''The story: '''Giffen’s plan was this: the SW6ers were the real Legionnaires, and the “adults” were clones created by the Dominators circa Adventure #348-349ish – so for the last 20 years or so, we had been reading the Legion of Cloned Super-Heroes. The adults’ secret programming would kick in and the two teams (kid SW6 and adult LSH) would have a “massive battle” to the death — with the victims chosen at random, their names literally pulled out of a hat by Giffen. Then after it was all over, the two teams would make up, and the senior team would then leave United Planets space for the Vega System and call themselves THE OMEGA MEN in their own book.

What we got: KC at this point said, basically, “No way, this is not going to happen”, and that made up Giffen’s mind to leave the series. The Zero Hour crossover event was looming and this allowed DC to completely reboot the Legion (a wise choice after fifteen-plus years of Giffen running the Legion show), so Legion was restarted in 2 new titles: Legion of Super-Heroes and Legionnaires. Sadly, the Reboot didn’t get interesting until Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning came along about 4 years later, but once it picked up it was something to see.

Why it matters: I absolutely love Giffen’s Legion run – you just can’t beat some of the crazy stuff he did. Like the time he blew up Earth and only got away with it because the entire editorial staff was busy that month. So for a couple years prior to the reboot, there was no more Earth in the DCU of the 31st century. I mean, Giffen just did what he wanted and wrote what interested him, and that made him a great writer. More Giffen is always good.

Plus, the Hat Trick. Utterly brilliant; if I ever write a comic series, I’m using that idea.

'''1. Twilight of the Superheroes'''

The concept: ''Alan Moore’s pitch for the sequel to Crisis on Infinite Earths was… probably one of the greatest comic stories ever. Not just never told. Ever. Period. Game, set, match. Prepare your butt for a long write-up.''

The origin: In 1987, hot off the heels of the success of Watchmen (and the success at DC of Crisis on Infinite Earths), Alan Moore was takes by DC Comics to come up with an idea for a big crossover. Moore’s idea was called Twilight of the Superheroes.

The story: The basic gist of the story goes a little something like this – It is around the year 2000, and superheroes more or less rule the world. There are eight “Houses” which are made up of related superheroes.

The two strongest ones are:

House of Steel – Superman and his brood (including Superman’s wife, Wonder Woman)

and

House of Thunder – Captain Marvel and his Marvel Family

These two houses are about to join with the marriage of Superboy (the son of Superman and Wonder Woman) and Mary Marvel, Jr. (the daughter of Captain Marvel and Mary Marvel – yes, I know, that is a creepy pairing – Moore does not shy from the creepiness of it).

The other six are:

House of Titans – Made up of, yep, you guessed it.

House of Mystery – Various magic characters.

House of Secrets – The remaining super-villains who have not been captured/killed.

House of Justice – The remaining unaffiliated superheroes

House of Tomorrow – Due to a flux in time, all time travelers have been stuck at this point in time, so they all gather here.

House of Lanterns – Abandoned, because awhile back, Earth has turned on aliens and driven them all out (Superman being the notable exception, of course). They currently have a base on the moon, waiting to get back to Earth, planning an invasion along with New Mars, Rann and Thanagar.

Okay, so the whole story takes place in a flashback at the beginning of a framing sequence with John Constantine at a bar in late 1987, reading a letter. A woman asks him for a lgiht, and he flashs back to earlier in 1987, and that begins the story.

It appears that the John Constantine from the future somehow helps Rip Hunter (one of the time travelers stuck at that point in time) escape to the present (1987), where Hunter teams up with 1987 John Constantine to warn all the heroes about the future. Future Constantine has told 87 Constantine (through Hunter) that the world of the future is awful, and he needs to help change it.

So anyhow, Constantine and Rip Hunter go to various heroes and warn them – presumably, these would take place in the various titles of the DC line of comics.

Meanwhile, in the Twilight of Superheroes series, proper, the Constantine of that time is the readers’ guide to the world of the future. Constantine is his normal self, just older, but actually in a happy relationship with a woman he’s been with for some time now – which is a nice change of pace for Constantine. So Constantine makes his way through the grimy world of the remaining human characters, the ones who don’t belong to the various Houses. He meets Green Arrow, etc. One notable absence, of course, is Batman. However, Constantine seems to be making various plans and contacts with people here and there. He is obviously planning SOMEthing. He keeps having mysterious meetings with people we don’t learn the importance of until later.

In the end, there would be a whole series of twists and turns.

That’s what happens in the long finale (I’d imagine the finale would be so big it would take up at least two issues, maybe three) – first, all the remaining Earth houses attack the wedding of Superboy and Mary Marvel, Jr., because they want to prevent that union. Massive bloodshed, but the House of Steel and Marvel manage to survive more or less intact (while mostly wiping out the other heroes).

When the dust settles from that fight, though, we get the big revelation that that Martian Manhunter has been impersonating Captain Marvel Sr. for the whole series, as part of an alien invasion. The Green Lanterns, the Rannians and the Thanagarians all invade at once.

Big fight with the remaining characters, and in the end, the aliens simply have too much manpower (including the Daxamite Green Lantern).

However, this is when Constantine’s plan comes into play – Batman and a small group of human heroes attack using armor created by the Metal Man Gold (who disappeared earlier in the series) and fight the aliens to a stand-still, but when it looks like a stalemate, Constantine reveals his final trump card. He has contacted the New God Metron (seen earlier in the series, although not made clear what he was doing), and used his chair to travel to Qward, where Constantine has sold the secret of Boom Tube technology to the Qwardians, so while the aliens are on Earth, their home worlds are currently being invaded by Qwardians. So the aliens all leave, and Earth is left with mostly humans and non-powered superheroes, so the world is ultimately (in Constantine’s view, at least) a happier place.

We cut back to the opening, and realize that the letter Constantine is reading in 1987 is from his future self. He is learning via a letter from his future self (that Hunter gives to Constantine after they warn all the heroes) that the whole thing has been a con, and he was meant to warn the heroes of 1987 specifically so that this future WOULD happen. Older Constantine apologizes, but says, on the bright side, A. I conned you for a good cause and B. at least you’ll end up with the woman of your dreams. In fact, I’ll even tell you when you meet her. She comes up to you and asks you for a light at a bar at the end of 1987.

So yeah, you guessed it. The young Constantine is so angry at his future self that he tries to think of a way to hurt him, and all he can think of is, when the woman asks for a light, he replies:

“No. I’m sorry. I don’t smoke.”

She leaves, and the books ends with Constantine drinking himself into a stupor as he weeps uncontrollably.

Cool, huh? You can find a massive 21-page proposal at the following website and I HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend you read it: http://fourcolorheroes.home.insightbb.com/twilightfree.html

What we got: Here is Moore on the subject:

''“There were a few raised eyebrows over some of the character portrayals,” Moore remembers, “but I gather they were generally in favor of the idea at that time. Of course, I had my famous rile with DC that was ostensibly over the introduction of a rating system, but that was really a last straw in a number of things, including problems with Watchmen royalties. So I withdrew the offer of writing Twilight, and that was the last I heard of it. But again, I gather that they were pretty keen on it.”''

Why it matters: This story would’ve been better than Kingdom Come. This story would’ve been better than Watchmen. This story would’ve been better than all the Sandmen, and JLAs and Ultimate Spider-Man and Preachers and Hellblazers and Fables-es you could possibly muster. It’s phenomenally good… and it’s not even in a rough draft. This is just a proposal! I mean… jeez.

If DC want to press with this today and got Moore to come back and put this together, I guarantee you it would still be a Top 10 comic of all time. It’s that good.