Why Won't This Work? Outsiders

Looking over the 52 books DC will be rolling out this September—and August technically—as part of their massive publishing overhaul, you’ll see a lot of diversity. There are the traditional heavy hitter super hero books, some out-of-left-field revivals, genre-stretchers in fields like western and horror as well as new takes on classic characters and concepts.

One thing you won’t see—aside from a Justice Society, which is really another discussion—is a series starring any incarnation of the Outsiders.

This will mark the first time in eight years DC will be without an Outsiders ongoing series (I don’t count the new Red Hood book as a replacement). The most recent series—set to end this month at issue #40—began in 2007 as the second incarnation of Batman & the Outsiders before dropping the first part with issue #15 and became the fourth volume of Outsiders; it continued directly from the previous series that launched in 2003 alongside Teen Titans.

On the one hand, I’m a bit surprised there will—apparently—be no more Outsiders come September if only because they’ve been a DCU fixture for quite some time now; the current eight year run surpasses previous five and two year stints outside of limbo. On the other hand, it doesn’t come as a shock as DC seems to be lining up characters and concepts with a strong brand identity or hook, and as I’ve discussed with my blog-mates here on a few occasions, I’ve never seen Outsiders as fitting those particular bills.

The Outsiders were introduced in Brave and the Bold #200 in 1983 and then moved quickly into their own Batman & the Outsiders regular book. The initial roster included Metamorpho, Black Lightning, Katana, Geo-Force and Halo, but as I touched on recently, the group’s primary identity was as Batman and the guys who would help him out on missions the Justice League didn’t want to touch. That’s not a knock on those characters—Black Lightning and Metamorpho in particular I would consider DCU cornerstones and particularly resilient players—but when one guy’s name is “above the fold,” there’s really no questions whose show it is.

“Outsiders” is a cool name and conjures up images of a group that doesn’t fit in or operates far outside the law, but while both those concepts did play somewhat into the series’ initial incarnation, it really was more “these are the guys we’re having back up Batman because he’s cool enough to have a team book he doesn’t need to share with Superman and Wonder Woman.”

Batman left the book in 1985 and it became just Outsiders. I don’t know sales history well enough to speak too authoritatively—maybe somebody in the comments can clarify—but given that it lasted a few more years, I’d guess at least initially the established momentum of the book and the fact that readers had formed an attachment with these non-Batman characters—it should be noted that the series was supported by a trio of hugely talented creators in writer Mike W. Barr and artists Jim Aparo and Alan Davis, so the stories were going to read and look good regardless of the high concept behind them—sustained some success before it tapered out gradually.

Why don’t I think Outsiders continued past 1988 while the Justice League, Teen Titans and Legion of Super-Heroes marched on? Because it really had nothing to distinguish itself, and with team books that’s even more important I’d argue than series starring solo characters.

The Justice League is the A-list of DC heroes. The Teen Titans are the next generation. The Legion of Super-Heroes lives in the future. Across the street, the Avengers are Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. The X-Men protect a world that hates and fears them (honestly, they’re comics’ true outsiders). The Thunderbolts are bad guys trying to become better.

Dig deeper and you’ve got some other teams that may not be published consistently, but get lots of chances because they’ve got something unique at the heart. The Suicide Squad is villains being pressed into heroism against their will. The Defenders are powerhouses who don’t really get along but put aside their differences for the greater good. The Doom Patrol is a team of freaks (again, they’re closer to outsiders than the Outsiders). Even Alpha Flight and Excalibur have different settings to their advantage.

Then you’ve got that long list of teams who outlived their premise but the names are recognizable so you’ll see new books featuring them every now and again and sometimes if you get lucky with the right creative team or new spin, they land. Infinity, Inc. was the Teen Titans of Earth-2, but then there was no more Earth-2. The Champions were the west coast super heroes but then the Avengers got a west coast branch.

X-Factor is kind of a unique case (appropriate given the name): they started out as the original X-Men, but once those characters left the book morphed into a government-sponsored mutant team and later a mutant detective agency. Perhaps no team has proven as adaptable over the years as X-Factor, with the recognizable name remaining, but mission statements sliding in and out as necessity demanded.

At times, Outsiders has come close to being DC’s X-Factor, but more often than not it’s been another Champions or Infinity, Inc.

In fact, I’d say the book’s initial cancellation in 1988 came about at least in part because of the last part of that statement. The Outsiders even without Batman had something of their own identity as the official super hero team of Los Angles, but following Crisis On Infinite Earths, Infinity, Inc. also made their home in L.A. That’s not to say the City of Angels isn’t big enough for two teams—Marvel’s New York has at least half a dozen at any given time—but that there were two books about super hero teams set in L.A. in 1988 without anything to really distinguish either probably spoke somewhat to their redundancy, and neither lasted to 1989.

Five years later in 1993, Outsiders returned, maybe in part because there was a strong pitch—Mike W. Barr was again writing, this time with a young Paul Pelletier on art—but more likely because it was the 90’s and a lot of books were getting green lit. I was only 11 at the time, but I didn’t really have any nostalgia to see Geo-Force or Looker again—Black Lightning and Metamorpho were otherwise engaged at the time, so their spots went to fairly forgettable newcomers like Wylde and Technorat, though we did get the pretty cool Faust out of the deal as well—and didn’t get the sense anybody else did either. The book did play somewhat on the name as Geo-Force was framed for murder and he as well as his allies become fugitives, but it would only run 24 issues before being cancelled in 1995.

In 2003, while Young Justice gave way to a new Teen Titans, a fresh take on Outsiders rose from the ashes of the previous Titans book. Name aside, this was a fairly fresh take on the old brand, with former Titans Nightwing and Arsenal putting together a group to replace their former one. Judd Winick was the writer—Tom Raney started out as the artist but subbed out for Matthew Clark—and I thought came up with justification for why the Outsiders existed beyond there just being another super team; at the outset, he utilized my least favorite comic book cliché of “these are pro-active heroes,” but that seemed more window dressing for the heart of the book. What was really going on—in my eyes at least—was that Nightwing no longer wanted to work with other heroes because the death of Donna Troy burnt him out on being a Titan, but his buddy Arsenal didn’t want him to become like Batman—in demeanor—so he convinced him to found this new crew on the basis that they wouldn’t be friends, like the Titans, but strictly professionals with limited emotional attachment.

It also helped that Winick filled out the roster with a combination of less overt ties to the original Outsiders—Black Lightning’s daughter, Thunder, as well as pseudo-Metamorpho clone Shift—and actual misfits who wouldn’t fit in on the Justice League—uncouth female bruiser Grace and “reformed” killer robot Indigo. Jade—ironically formerly of Infinity, Inc.—filled the final spot to give another known quantity and it made for an interesting dynamic. Winick even had a nice moment at the close of the first arc where Nightwing informed Batman he’d be leading this new team and that they’d be called the Outsiders, with both men exchanging a smirk.

I was a big fan of Judd Winick’s Outsiders. I thought the writing was good and the characters were fun, but perhaps more than anything I was impressed that he located a niche in a universe that already had the JSA, JLA, Teen Titans and more for the Outsiders to fill. I actually became an even bigger fan following the One Year Later jump as Winick pulled an X-Factor move and changed the game.

One of the threads that ran prior to Infinite Crisis was that as more traditional heroes like Captain Marvel Jr. and Nightwing’s former fiancée Starfire joined up, it became more and more difficult for them to remain a “strictly business” operation. Ties began to be formed and Dick Grayson didn’t like where things were headed. After Jade was killed, Starfire was lost in space and Captain Marvel Jr. became involved in the Marvel Family upheaval, Nightwing took the opportunity to revamp the operation. He faked the deaths of everybody but himself and Arsenal—kicking Roy Harper out of the group because he had a daughter and couldn’t do the things required that were coming—and turned the Outsiders into a completely off-the-grid black ops squad doing dirty deeds in the post-Infinite Crisis DC Universe. Grace and Thunder stuck around, Shift reverted to Metamorpho, Katana returned and the villainous new Captain Boomerang joined hoping for redemption.

For awhile, I touted Outsiders as my favorite One Year Later DC title around the Wizard offices. It had elements of the sneaky stuff and moral handwringing I loved in the original Suicide Squad, but it was even more complex with genuinely good people crossing lines to get things done. There was a great scene in the first arc where Superman came close to shutting the team down, but Nightwing “bluffed” him off their scent with a piece of Kryptonite in a lead-lined box, and then we find out he wasn’t bluffing. Winick’s writing was smart, Clark’s art was slick, and for awhile, the book was gold.

Like so many good things, though, this incarnation of Outsiders had to come to an end. I had a feeling it wouldn’t be terribly long-term—you can’t really keep a character as prominent as Nightwing as a true outsider for long and the idea worked in large part because of him—but it got a good 18 issues before ending in a crossover with the also excellent Checkmate by Greg Rucka where control of the group returned to Batman.

Things came full circle to an extent as Batman & the Outsiders returned in 2007 with Chuck Dixon writing. I didn’t stick around for the re-launch, but from what I understand the first year or so were pretty standard super hero adventures—that’s not a knock on their quality as, again, I didn’t read them and thus can’t judge—with Batman and Outsiders vets Katana, Metamorpho, Grace and Thunder being joined by a rotating assortment of members including Martian Manhunter, Catwoman, Green Arrow and Batgirl. Geo-Force and Black Lightning would eventually rejoin and then the series name reverted to simply Outsiders with issue #15 as Batman seemingly died during Final Crisis.

I followed the 10-issue post-Final Crisis run written by Peter Tomasi—I’m a Tomasi fan—and there were some decent stories, as he had the conceit of Batman leaving behind in the event of his death a plan for the Outsiders to continue with the original team plus The Creeper and a new Owlman, whom together he felt all possessed a skill or talent needed to basically create a composite replacement Batman. While that was a neat starting point, though, more and more once again without Batman or the true outsider status Winick created, it felt like just another super hero team with no real reason to exist.

That brings us up to the present day, the current volume’s cancellation and no announced plans for a new series during the Fall re-launch.

I guess the moral of the story—if there is one; there rarely is in my ramblings—is that some team books in comics have characters or names or basic ideas so strong and iconic they can exist just on that. There will always be a Justice League series, an Avengers series, a Teen Titans series, an X-Men series. Once you go beyond that top tier, you need to work to make sure your team book has a reason for being (not that you shouldn’t even on one of those titles). Sure there are fans out there whose nostalgia for Mike W. Barr’s work or seeing Geo-Force paired with Katana will make them pick up any Outsiders series, but I don’t believe it’s a huge group. Likewise, Batman is a character who is too in demand to base an entire team around; odds are he’s going to be needed elsewhere at some point, and you need a back-up plan.

Judd Winick took the idea of Outsiders and really gave it some thought; kicked kudos to the guys who came before and the fans who loved that work, but also found a particular way to approach the franchise that had legs. I hope that when the next Outsiders re-launch comes around—and it will come around—whoever gets the chance to shepherd it will do the same.

Why Won't This Work? Deathlok

Everybody loves Deathlok.

As seen in Wolverine: Weapon X, Jason Aaron loves Deathlok. As you can currently see in Uncanny X-Force, Rick Remender loves Deathlok. Charlie Huston loves Deathlok and devoted quite a bit of time to him. Brian Bendis drops Deathlok Easter Eggs into his books just about whenever he can. New Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso has a real soft spot for Deathlok. Artist and friend of the CKT Mike Perkins loves Deathlok so much that he’d likely shed his nice guy persona and do terrible things for the opportunity to draw him regularly (which he could do quite well).

And what’s not to love? Though many variations on the theme have emerged over the years, the basic conceit remains the same and awesome: A veteran soldier suffers catastrophic injuries and has his mind implanted without his knowledge into a gnarly-looking cyborg body then attempts to overcome his new programming as a corporate killing machine and win over the computer he shares his new existence with to regain his humanity or at least become a force for good.

Why then with an inspired visual courtesy of Rich Buckler—and later refined by Butch Guice and others—plus a great back story and fandom from so many top creators has Deathlok only had three solo series in his 37 year existence, only two of those bearing his name and only one running over 11 issues?

Admittedly I have only a limited familiarity with Deathlok—I haven’t read the quintessential 70’s stuff or his 80’s Captain America appearances, which Rickey counts among his favorite comics—but even at a glance, I do believe I can see what makes the character simultaneously appealing and yet somewhat creatively restrictive.

Deathlok is like Wolverine on the most basic level in that his battle to retain and/or regain his humanity and not let his mechanical/bestial nature win out is at the crux of the character. Most Deathlok stories told from the point of view of Luther Manning—or Michael Collins or whoever—have him struggling not to go over the edge and become the monster he’s “meant” to be. Using this point of view makes sense and I wouldn’t argue against it; there is a lot of good stories to be mined from a fundamentally good man battling circumstances and internal urges perhaps more deadly than any external threat. You still get the big battle scenes you expect from a comic about a cyborg warrior fighting warmongering corporations in a dystopian future, but it’s Deathlok’s inner battle that gives his story heart.

However, there came a point when writers—specifically Chris Claremont—realized that Wolverine could only go so far as the animal working to keep his berserker tendencies in check, and thus worked to humanize him while not blunting his edge. From there you got classic stories opening up Logan’s world and cast, including his first solo tale in Japan, his romance with Mariko, his mentoring of Kitty Pryde and so on.

Wolverine had the virtue of being part of a long-running series that wasn’t going anywhere in Uncanny X-Men even before he got his own series, so there was time for Claremont and others to develop his layers. Unfortunately—perhaps—for Deathlok, he debuted not only on his own, but in a separate setting from the rest of the Marvel Universe, so it was sink or swim right off the bat for him, and his creators never really got the chance to build his mythology beyond establishing the basics and telling some rocking action stories. From afar, that original run of Deathlok seems to me almost like so many TV shows sold on their high concepts but that then don’t get to run long enough to make you care about the characters beyond the gimmicks. It’s like if Lost only got half a season and then ABC gave up on it: we’d remember that crazy island, but probably not the castaways themselves.

Building on that analogy a bit further, most subsequent creators who resurrect Deathlok are fascinated by the island and want to explore it as best they can, but there are no castaways for them to latch onto and build a series out of.

The noteworthy exception I’d say would be the late Dwayne McDuffie, who managed to get 34 issues—38 if you count the prelude mini—out of Deathlok during the 90’s, even if he did switch the guy with the ‘puter to do so.

McDuffie’s Deathlok was Michael Collins, a pacifist and family man who got shoved into a walking weapon by his employers. For nearly three years, Collins sought to get his body back—which unlike Luther Manning’s was still in working order somewhere—reconnect with his family and also make sure he never actually killed anybody even though every onboard program was screaming at him not to. McDuffie solved the Deathlok “problem” by creating a supporting cast from the get-go and also positioning his protagonist in the Marvel Universe, bypassing a few hurdles when it came to building his world and mythology.

You’ve probably noticed throughout this little missive that I haven’t really come out and said there’s anything wrong with Deathlok as is or the stories that have been told with him either 30 years ago or last year—see last paragraph where I put the word “problem” in quotation marks—because ultimately I’m not sure there is.

Some characters may receive the occasional regular series helmed by creators who get them and have an appealing story to tell that lasts longer than a few issues, but in the end aren’t Superman or Spider-Man and go back to being great guest stars or team members. I’d argue this list includes characters like The Silver Surfer, Captain Marvel (the Shazam! one), Doctor Strange and the freaking New Gods, so it’s hardly shabby company. At the end of the day, Deathlok may simply belong on this list.

Looking over the last few years alone, Jason Aaron and Rick Remender have both been able to craft bad ass story arcs around Deathlok as the mysterious heavy from the future while Charlie Huston spun a nice yarn re-telling the origin story. Do we necessarily need a 50-issue Deathlok ongoing when the tradeoff to not having it is impactful guest appearances and cool limited series? I don’t think we do. If somebody finds a way to make Deathlok as a long-term leading robot—and somebody inevitably most likely will, as I’d use Remender’s new Venom book as proof there’s always a spin that works—I’ll be excited to read it, but my world will survive without it.

So perhaps this particular installment of this column shouldn’t be “Why Won’t This Work?” but more aptly “Why This Doesn’t Need to Work.”

Why Won't This Work?: Four-Pack

It’s funny, because even before Kiel’s great post about Captain Marvel, I’d been thinking a lot about characters who seem perennially on the cusp of the A-list or great in concept but never quite living up in execution. I earmarked a half dozen or so and started mentally jotting down some thoughts and then read what Kiel had to say.

And now there’s no way I can match up anywhere near his brilliant little essay, so I’ve got to just be content to serve as the house band playing people out the door after the main act has finished rocking—drat! But hey, I love reading K-Pheg’s musings and he put my own theses into overdrive, so I’m happy to take that and run with what I’ve got.

There has definitely been a rash of “Finally! Somebody nailed it!” cases in comics over the last decade in particular. Iron Fist went from being a neat relic of the martial arts craze to a true fan favorite after Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction added an extensive mythology to the mix. Booster Gold has emerged as more than comic relief simply because folks realized he can indeed be taken seriously without having to lose any of the humor. Deadpool happened to be in the right place at the right time with the right creators and is now riding a wave of zeitgeist. Even Green Lantern has gone from DC’s perennial B-Team captain to their most valuable franchise because Geoff Johns hit on the magic formula of going bigger and bigger with just about every aspect of the franchise.

I think any of the four characters I’m about to spout off about are one good pitch away from sustained success, and while I may not have the key code myself, I do have some brief thoughts on what already makes them work and what they might need to hit that next level.

THE MARTIAN MANHUNTER
J’onn J’onzz is one of my favorite DC characters and pretty much always front and center as part of the Justice League for the past 30 years or so, but he’s never broken out as a solo star the way the rest of the “Big Seven” have (and I think he’s cooler than Aquaman, hence why I’m picking him here). Yes, he did have a respectable and enjoyable series written by John Ostrander back in the late 90’s, but I think that grew more out of the fact that Grant Morrison’s JLA was selling well and they wanted every major team member to have their own book as opposed to anybody having a grand vision for the character (and that’s certainly no knock on Ostrander, whom readers of this blog know I have great respect for).

To me the coolest aspect of The Martian Manhunter has always been that he can literally be anybody, and thus fit into any story, something Ostrander did hit on a few times, but never got to fully exploit in my opinion. J’onn is equal parts science fiction hero and noir detective, a unique combination to say the least; given his connections within the DC Universe, he could easily slot into stories with just about any other focus from the mystic to the urban as well. I’ve always felt the best possible role for Martian Manhunter would be as the anchor of some sort of anthology title with rotating co-stars, but that’s just me and I know those can be a hard sell. Brightest Day has already cleared a major hurdle for J’onn in giving him the best costume he’s ever had, and both Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi seem to have genuine affection for the character, so I’ve got high hopes here.

STORM
It’s actually a bit surprising to me that Storm hasn’t achieved more success outside of the X-Men from a publishing standpoint. She was far and away one of the most popular characters in the most popular book in comics for many years, and even during periods since when she’s been slightly more marginalized or X-Men hasn’t been quite the top of the heap, she’s still held in fairly high regard within the fan community. She was one of the featured players in the 90’s X-Men animated series most fans still remember to this day and was played in three hit movies by no less than Halle Berry. She’s got cool powers that are easy for anybody to understand as well as for any creative writer to stretch, she’s always had pretty iconic costumes, and to “go there,” yeah, she’s a strong black female character in a genre that doesn’t have that many.

Honestly I do think a Storm solo series could be an easy homerun, just for whatever reason nobody has ever got it off the ground. Certainly Chris Claremont laid plenty of groundwork and fodder for stories galore in his early years writing the character, from her childhood as pickpocket to her adolescent “goddess” years to her punk rock rebel days as well as the claustrophobia, the great loves, the flowery speech mixed with street toughness and all the other good stuff that makes Storm who she is. I guess it’s possible X-Men writers through the years have wanted Storm to themselves and couldn’t visualize her running off on solo adventures in between missions ala Wolverine, but I think her value as a globally-recognized iconic character with loads of potential makes her too valuable to have on the sidelines.

STEEL
With the success of Iron Man of late, I half-expected DC to polish Steel off for another star turn, and I certainly wouldn’t have minded as he’s a fine character. I Always liked that he was bound to the Superman family by his ethics and morality, not any sort of heritage or shared powers since he was a street level dude whose abilities were rooted in technology rather than being inherent or alien. A lot of writers seem to dig Steel as Grant Morrison put him in the JLA and then he was one of the leads in 52, but neither really led anywhere significant.

I think with John Henry Irons you have to really play up the self-made-man aspect of his journey, as that’s how Louise Simonson originally sold him to fans and what lots of people latched onto pretty quick. The duality between his street roots and the higher-class lifestyle his intellect afforded him as well as playing those smarts off against his bulk also made for good stories. Truth be told, I think Simonson had a pretty good thing going in those initial stories and in the first couple years of his only ongoing, the core concept just needs to be spruced up for a new generation and put in the hands of a capable creative team. He could also work pretty well in the spot Cyborg currently inhabits on the Justice League (I’ve never liked the idea that Cyborg is some sort of late-blooming super-scientist since that runs so contrary to the character’s roots).

SHANG-CHI
I have an affection I don’t truly understand but fully embrace when it comes to comic book characters that go into battle and excel with only their skills as hand-to-hand combatants. I guess in universes where everybody has super-strength or vague energy powers (TM Sean T. Collins), it’s always cool to see dudes who get crazy respect for just being able to punch and kick well. And while I love me some Richard Dragon over at DC, Shang-Chi I think has him beat by a shuriken when it comes to potential.

From an artistic stand-point, Shang-Chi would be gold in the hands of one of the new guard of Marvel fight choreographers like David Aja, Alex Maleev or Michael Lark who have made Iron Fist and Daredevil’s adventures look like poetry in motion over the last few years. From a story perspective, the Master of Kung Fu has a perfect blend the martial artists influence those characters tap into mixed with an actual espionage background as he was a British secret agent ala James Bond during his 70’s heyday.

Basically, Shang-Chi takes elements of what has made Iron Fist, Daredevil, Captain America and the rest of Marvel’s crime, martial arts or spy-centric books sing during this most recent era and mashes them up beautifully with a lead who provides the perfect cipher for an enterprising creative team, not to mention a built-in big bad in the form of his we-need-a-new-name-for-him uber-crimeboss dad. Looking forward to his upcoming appearances in Brubaker’s Secret Avengers as they could really be the start of something big.

Why Won't This Work?: Captain Marvel

After reading Tom Spurgeon's brief but to the point item on why Giant-Man should be a more successful comic hero (I mean, except for the wife-beating...obviously) and talking with some buds over e-mail about characters primed for a possible second life the other day, I got to thinking about Captain Marvel.

For those of you out there who are having this post read to you rather than looking at the large image above, I mean the Rick Jones/Nega Bands/Mar-Vell version published by Marvel Comics. Although really the specifics of character name/secret identity don't matter here. What got me engaged with the Captain Marvel idea was the core concept and how it's one of many ideas in comics that I'm more than a little bewildered hasn't ever really become a breakout success.

And I should probably state here that this idea doesn't come from a nostalgic memory of dressing up as the character as a misanthropic 11-year-old (I'll save that particular piece of pop psychologizing for a Moon Knight post, thank you very much). In fact, I think the only "classic" issue of Captain Marvel I've ever read is this one, which I bought at a con for a dollar after I realized it was written by my pal and former writing teacher Scott Edelman. I didn't even read the historically epic Death of Captain Marvel graphic novel until I had to as part of a Wizard assignment.

No, my interest in Captain Marvel stems entirely from time spent thinking too much about superhero concepts while riding the El around Chicago without a decent iPod. But even with all that proven research at my beck and call, I still think I've got a strong case for why Marvel's own Captain should be a bigger hit than he's been and maybe even a few reasons why he's whiffed in the past. And the best way to get this ball rolling is by showing why the good Captain is better (on paper at least) than his Distinguished Competitor.


Think about it: the Marvel Captain Marvel is the same as the DC Captain Marvel in basic concept, and that concept is one hell of an example of what STC would call "the inner 8-year-old" hook: you're an average kid who's all of the sudden turned into a magical bad ass with awesome powers that let you fight anyone who sucks. Wish Fulfillment 101, right? Except the Marvel version is cooler in all the ways that people say Marvel is cooler than DC. To wit:

* Rather than being a dopey little kid reporter who says "Holy Moley" you're a teenage army brat who rides around on a motorcycle. Seriously, if you don't think Rick Jones fits the "teenage rebel" poster boy archetype that advertisers use on preteen boys every day perfectly, consider this: he was once voice in a cartoon by Luke Fucking Perry. 'Nuff Said.

* The hero you turn into is a cosmic Spartan warrior with a laser gun instead of lumbering man child with no eyes and cape that looks like a towel with a rope sewn on it. And if you prefer the later, non-Kree warrior take on the Marvel Captain's look, you've still got a pretty killer costume design that highlights the whole "Brad Pitt from 'Troy' but from space" thing. Cosmic powers are rad!

* Digging deeper, Mar-Vell is a hard core warrior of a lost space dynasty or something...right? I guess I don't know much about the Kree world, but I'm assuming that Mar-Vell has to be some kind of disgraced soldier who can't get back to the love of a good woman or something. In any event, I've always got the impression that he was kind of an asshole when compared to free-wheelin', "don't tell me what to do, dad" Rick Jones. And people loves assholes.

* No stupid wizard tells you what to do.


So, we've got a core empowerment fantasy wrapped in some cool imagery and a healthy dose of teen/adult drama, and to top it all off, the character's name contains the name of the company. This has got to work somehow, right? Yet for some reason, the character hasn't been able to really carry his own ongoing without fear of cancelation since sometime around 1974.

There's a group of dudes out there on the internet who are organized and believe with all their hearts that the reason no character has made a go of it as Captain Marvel in the Marvel U since back then is because there is only "one true Captain Marvel" and that dude is named Mar-Vell. At least one of their number is a frequent question asker on CBR's Cup O' Joe message board thread, and I honestly think it's great that they support something they're into with a lot of passion and fervor. But they're also mostly wrong.

Unlike Peter Parker or Reed Richards or Ben Grimm, there is no real definitive character behind Mar-Vell. Not to say that some good stories haven't been told with the character (I know Edelman spoke fondly of Steve Englehart's work on the series), but it's not like there's some compelling piece of personal backstory that means ONLY Mar-Vell can be linked to a snot-nosed earth teen via whatever magic the Nega Bands contain. And hell, even Rick Jones isn't THAT vital to the equation. Guy is such a cipher that he's been the sidekick for like 14 different heroes (give or take).

I DO think that since the original Death of Captain Marvel story, no one has been able to take that core concept and make it work for characters in a way that's compelling enough on its own merits. Part that is the way the Marvel Universe works and what it needs, but I think even more of it is a result of comics scene and how it rarely supports a solid concept done well based on its own merits.

The last time there was any kind of fleeting success with Captain Marvel was Peter David's early '00s run that saw Mar-Vell's kid get linked to a 20-something Rick Jones for a few years. While I'm waiting for someone to show up in the comments and tell me that this series invalidates my whole "not able to carry an ongoing since '74" argument, my memory of that book involves it always being on the bring of cancelation (U Decide!!!!) and of it being more of a humor book who's in-jokiness wasn't quite at Dan Slott She-Hulk levels but was a bit past Mark Waid Impulse ones. In any event, that book always felt like it was built way more for the comics market than it should have been to succeed, so I'm still left waiting for that mythical "they nailed it" take on Captain Marvel.

So what concept do you think should work more often?