Monday, February 19, 2007

Rethinking All-Star

Here's an idea.

Cancel All-Star Superman and All-Star BatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder.

Restart as All-Star. Same format as Tales of the Unexpected, call it 36 story pages for $4.00. (Let's dispose of that $3.95 crap, can we?) Make it bi-monthly.

12 pages of Morrison/Quitely Superman, 12 pages of Miller/Lee Batman. You think maybe each team could actually manage six pages per month?

The other 12 pages to contain stand-alone stories, rotating creators and characters: Could be anything. Jim Gordon by Darwyn Cooke. Jimmy Olsen by Barry Kitson. Booster Gold by Kevin Maguire. Plastic Man by Kyle Baker. OMAC by Rich Corben. Hawkman by Joe Kubert. Go wild. Whenever one of your regular Big Guns misses an issue, toss in another standalone. Readers will be hoping they miss.

If it works -- and how can it not? -- don't make it monthly. Fill the odd months with a second bi-monthly "All-Star" title, Sensation, featuring Adam Hughes' Wonder Woman and Johns/Jones Batgirl. Plus Black Canary by Howard Chaykin. Power Girl by Amanda Conner. The new Red Bee by Ed Benes. Manhunter. Cyclone and the Red Tornado. The Bulleteer.

It's a license to print money.

2 comments:

ShellyS said...

That's a pretty good idea.

Tom Foss said...

The last thing I want to read alongside the awesomeness of All-Star Superman is the horrendous awfulness of All-Star Batman and Robin.

In fact, pretty much the last thing I want to read is All-Star Batman & Robin.