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Mind if I pick your brains, guys?

I've got an idea that started as just a 12-issue series, but now I'm picturing it as something almost 100 issues long. It'd be broken down into seasons: 12 issues plus an annual to conclude.

My idea is that each "season" would harken back to a particular decade or era in comics. I don't want to say "age", since that's a little limiting.

So, for example, the 30s and 40s would be about fighting against factory owners and for workers rights, and of course, the war itself. The comic stories are mostly grounded, but have some fantastical elements. The characters were iconic.

The 50s and 60s would be the Cold War and space exploration (and the boom in sci-fi interest). This was also the era in comics when things got weirder. Imaginary stories and Batman fighting aliens in space, etc. Basically, comic creators went nuts trying to find something that would sell while comics popularity dropped. Though, I'm torn, because it also brought about Marvel comics, which were fantastical, but had a great amount of character depth not seen before.

The 70s is where more mature writing entered the fray. Drug use such as Harry Osborn and Speedy was brought in, as was death (Gwen Stacey).

The 80s was the start of reboots, with post-Crisis. Comics are rebooted into a new reality with previous elements in the mythology all mixed into a new reality. But it also brought more maturity with it, due to Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns.

The 90s...well, they were about major deaths, replacements and the extreme. The late 90s had a return of classic, iconic superheroes and Silver Age villains revamped into something more modern and dangerous.

The 2000s had another form of reboot, like the Ultimate comics, etc.

Anyway, that's just off the top of my head. Still playing with the comic, conceptually, so there's not a whole lot to comfortably share yet. Just wanted to get some thoughts on different decades and eras.

What genre/topic would this be? Superheroes or something more realistic?

So like our opinions on what each decade brought to the comics table? Or suggestions for how to make it all work or something?

'Cause I'm totally seeing this as one thing, which if you'd like I'll share otherwise I'll leave that part of the creative process to you.

I think it should be a single superhero who comes out in WWI and moves through time getting older. Kinda like at the end of Watchmen with Moloch and stuff but he really does have powers. At first he's like Superman in the way he views justice but then as time goes on he gets disillusioned and changes to Batman-like and then Punisher. By the ens he's more the Comedian and almost a super-villain himself because he's just so jaded and cynical.

In the end you can have him beaten by a new super hero just like when he was young or have him have an epiphany and start working on the right side of the law again.

Dave said:

I think it should be a single superhero who comes out in WWI and moves through time getting older. Kinda like at the end of Watchmen with Moloch and stuff but he really does have powers. At first he's like Superman in the way he views justice but then as time goes on he gets disillusioned and changes to Batman-like and then Punisher. By the ens he's more the Comedian and almost a super-villain himself because he's just so jaded and cynical.

In the end you can have him beaten by a new super hero just like when he was young or have him have an epiphany and start working on the right side of the law again.

Click to expand...

The way that I would suggest doing it, would be like a superhero team similar to the JLA or Avengers. People are always coming and going from it, but let the heroes actually age as time goes on. So at first it's set up by heroes with the ideals stated above and a certain iconic imagery and personality that would allow their legacy to become legend. As time goes on some of them start to retire from the crime fighting lifestyle as replacements come in during the mid 50s, inspired by the heroes of the 30s and 40s. So now you've got, let's say, Bug-Man II who was inspired by Bug-Man to start fighting crime, but also what he sees as the threat of communism.

So really by the mid 60s, none of the team would be an original member anymore, but either a new hero that reflects the times or a continuation of a legacy. Then by the 90s we'd have the 3rd generation of the team who may be the most powerful, but they're dealing with issues more complex than any of the originals. There's no longer a clear bad guy and moral issues have become shaded grey.

Actually I was thinking one man. The team would too much like Watchmen.

Perhaps, but I think anything that is a comic about a heroes and also a commentary on comics themselves is going to have to deal with the fact that it's kind of like Watchmen.

Basically it would go that third step into territory Watchmen wasn't able to at the time.

Take the Blue Beetle for example. The first one was a normal dude, but he had a mystical artifact that helped him out. The 2nd one was a normal dude who used gadgets and stuff in his fights similar to Batman. The third and current one wears alien bio/techno armor that basically makes him the bastard child of Iron Man and Guyver.

So a character like that might give Nick the freedom to better express his ideas about these time periods as each generation of the same hero is so much different from the previous. You know what I mean? I'm not sure if I'm really expressing these ideas clearly.

Yeah, it's basically one guy, the main character. And it's very superheroish. But comics seemed to change to reflect each decade, so the series would change every "season" with changes to the character and its mythology.

So, for example, some of his early villains would be very propoganda-based, such as German or Japanese, etc. Then we get some weird sci-fi villains in the 60s, some darker ones in the 70s, revamping Silver Age ones in the 90s, etc.

I just got home, so I haven't had a chance to look at the replies, yet. Basically, trying to link up some comics of each decade, how they were presented and how they reflected the times, you know?

I, for one, can't wait for the multi-pouched, unusually large-gunned, impossible anatomied 90s.

Actually, I was going more with the "death of the main character, followed up by a new, younger, more extreme replacement". =D

kind of like what they did with Batman Beyond? Bruce being older and the new kid taking up the mantle.
Then you could have the old mentor guy dying and the younger guy exacting his revenge.

I actually loved that DC was passing the mantle of characters over to their sidekicks. It always gave DC more of a sense that there's some sort of legacy for the heroes. In fact, I liked many of the replacements just as much as the originals, such as Kyle Rayner and Wally West. Unfortunately, with Barry Allen being back, they've officially gone completely back to the original Silver Age characters, with the exception of Dick Grayson, but we all know that Bruce Wayne is coming back shortly.

Tucker the Triceratops' Terrific Trek Through Time.