Comic Book Resources

I think it depends on how DC plans on using them. If they're just being added to increase the diversity quotient, then that would suck. But, if they can make these characters mean something, and tell good stories, then it's good.

It'll be tricky, but not impossible. The heroic big three of Static, Icon, and Hardware actually seem to me pretty portable-- Static's book was never *about* the Big Bang and its world, and Icon, Rocket, and Hardware weren't bang babies at all. Their basic settings and premises have less to do with the Dakota continuity than they do with real life (e.g. high school, the corporate world).

Blood Syndicate and Shadow Cabinet seem to me much more problematic to import-- and I notice that no one's said anything about using the Blood Syndicate.

Hardware is not tied into the Big Bang, true, but I think he was tied a lot into the continuity of his book. In Dakota, his situation made him stand out. In the DC Universe, he really doesn't.

I think what will work will stick around and what doesn't work as well might fade a bit.I also think that Captain Marvel works fine in the DCU except for, of course, the fact that he's been adapted pretty heavily to fit.

Right now, I'm just incredibly pumped that we're getting the returns of the Milestone characters. I trust Dwayne McDuffie to put the necessary arrangements in place to keep a certain modicum of control over the use of his characters. Although, this is going to make my goal of having every Milestone character appearance a bit harder to pull off (even though I'm at about 50% right now, with full runs of Xombi and Blood Syndicate).

Xombi! Man, that would be an awesome comeback, especially under the Vertigo banner. According to his blog, John Rozum's working on Scooby-Doo comics at DC, so he's already with the right company...

My only concern is that the rights/creative controls issues will mess everything up within a couple of years and then there'll be a bunch of bad, bad stories that can't quite be referenced or lots of issues that are there solely to retcon things so they're not a mess or whatever.

Go Static!

Gee, It's not like they're taking characters who had a meaning outside of just the stories and giving them to a bunch of white guys to write.

Oh? Static is joining the Teen Titans, by who?

Never mind.

Further, How many black teen-aged electricity users can one universe have?
(They've talked about Static's resemblence to Black Lighting...might as well just make them related anyway..not like they don't retcon in children and family members for BL every few months already).

And Steel vs Hardware...which is gonna get the shaft in usage?

Clearly, we need MORE black electricity-themed characters in the mainstream DCU. It's time to get Black Vulcan in there somehow.

Black Vulcan is clearly different. His super power, in his own words, are: "Pure electricity ... in my pants."

Add me to the list of people who would love to see a Xombi Vertigo title.

And, allow me to disagree with Scavenger for a sec. He said, "Gee, It’s not like they’re taking characters who had a meaning outside of just the stories and giving them to a bunch of white guys to write."

First, I never saw the "meaning outside of just the stories." The whole "minority characters by minority creators" always bothered me. I just want to read good stories about good characters by good writers. I don't care what colour skin the creators have. Peter David could be an old balding jew, I'd still read his comics (that's a joke, BTW.)

Now, with that said, I like McDuffie's work both in comics and animation. And, I trust that if he is spearheading this project that the integration will be done well and with respect to the original stories.

Theno

I'd rather it just be Earth-9, or whatever.

Yeah, a Xombi book. I liked that series. Hell, if you want to get the kids into it, and have a Morrison-vibe (like the original), get that kid who wrote Umbrella Academy to write it. It'd be like printing money over there.

Terrible, terrible idea. I'm still expecting them to fold Wildstorm into the DCU and be done with it.

"I just want to read good stories about good characters by good writers. I don’t care what colour skin the creators have."

Exactly, Thenodrin. That's what Milestone was about, when most companies were flashing "bad girls" and "superstar artists", but were leaving their stories riddled with the weak sauce. Milestone had complex, multidimensional characters (of all races) interacting with each other to tell great stories as drawn by solid artists. I look forward to Dwayne "The Maestro" McDuffie working his magic, even in just a supervisory role, on these characters in the near future.