In 2006, Dean Trippe did what all of us comic fans do occasionally, armchair editing. It’s much like armchair booking for wrestling. I had decided to really go the armchair route though. In armchair booking for wrestling you don’t just throw together matches, you tend to also come up with new angles and gimmicks as well. I decided what if I took that approach to armchair editing. I stuck to MARVEL and DC like Trippe did, but I’ created a whole new universe for both companies using their established characters. The biggest thing to remember with Armchairing is that you can/try to ignore everything that is currently going on or is being set-up to go in a totally new and different direction that will still be possible and make sense to fans.
Now with DC about to do their own super reboot in September which almost resembles this entire idea and Marvel in kind of a strange state of existence with their titles, I’ve decided it’s time to try and do this again for shit & giggles.
My rules in 2006 were seven core titles for each company, but to be as progressive as possible. I may be less progressive now with current interests, but I’ll keep the core 7, ignoring things such as MAX,, Ultimate Comics and such. I’ve noticed that DC Comics is actually doing a super reboot as well, so my energies will be focused to just MARVEL. Still 50 titles is too many, 7 sounds just about right. The 50 new DC titles do have some gems in the rough though. I hope you enjoy.
The Mighty Avengers by Roger Landrige and Chris Samnee. The team that brought you The Mighty Thor bring it all back to the square one, but with a faster pace bringing in the full onslaught of all Avengers incarnations together for a book much like DC’s CURRENT version of JSA.
X-Men by Peter David and Clayton Henry. Peter will bring his overarching, but brilliant pierced drama work of X-Factor to the more popular and well known mutants of film fame with one of the most under utilized artists in comics.
Spider-Man by Paul Tobin and Ronan Cliquet. The writer of the Marvel Adventures version of Spidey understands the character and has created a version better than any. While his current Matteo Lolli is fantastic, Cliquet has a dynamics needed for one of the premier titles of the universe.
Strange Tales by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Kev Walker. The entirety of Marvel’s supernatural forces get explored on a regular basis from the man that brought us a great miniseries about just this and the current artist of Thunderbolts.
Mysteries of the Future by Dan Slott and Paul Pelletier. Years ago Dan Slott described to me a great Marvel future exploring paths set up in his Great Lakes Avengers books. It’s time those ideas saw fruition and who better than an artist who can tackle humor, action and space with precision.
Cosmic by Keith Giffen, Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning and Marco Rudy. The men who made Nova, Silver Surfer and more into the best things ever combine their writing efforts with another amazing, but underutilized current DC artist to bring the best the Beyond can bring.
Fantastic Family by Jonathan Hickman and Jimmy Cheung. Hickman has proven himself with these characters and should be given the chance to reimagine them from scratch with an A-list artist who is also bar none one of the best in the biz and the World’s Greatest Comics Magazine deserves such.
To see my much more radical ideas from 2006, check out this link.