Round Robin or some kind of group thing?

[dans]

We need something to pep up interest here. Something that a lot of people contribute to, that is maybe a little different than the normal story posted here. I wonder if we might collaborate on a story, a couple of semi-related stories going on at the same time, or something else that grabs and holds interest?

I'm not absolutely set on anything in particular, but I was thinking of maybe a multiverse story, where we aren't bound by our current continuity - but, anyone who wants to contribute something that IS in continuity could fit it in. I think we all have our pet characters - maybe we could think of some kind of situation where I could write about Talisman of the Justice Machine in the same story as Crescendo of AVant Guard, and American Girl could be involved, and the Earth 2 Captain Thunder, and, and, and... well, just about anyone.

And, we could start a thread in which we contribute ideas, scenes, suggestions, and discuss fairly briefly what directions we might want the story to go, agree on some of the more popular ideas, and get to work.

Also, I don't know how we would arrange it, but it would be nice if there were some way people could make individual contributions without waiting for someone else's piece. So, not necessarily contributing linear, <this chapter> follows <that chapter> pieces, but, <this chapter> fits <here> in the overall mosaic.

Just some thoughts. I personally am struggling with writing right now, and I find that thinking 'outside the box' often stimulates me for writing something different.

Dan

[starskyhutch76]

Round Robins are fun if they don't get derailed and everyone has the same opportunity to move it to a final conclusion. The idea of something outside of regular continuity doesn'tstir my interest. I can count on one hand the amount of times I visited the Elseworlds and Infinite Earths cubs combined. I never really thought of them as Five Earths Project groups since they fall out or our original mission statement.

While I'd be more interested in something with our main earths, something that coud be fun but not strict on continuity would be a Super Friends round robin on Earth-12.

You and I should chat again on the Jr Injustice Society tale to keep that moving.

[jonclark]

Maybe the story could be set in Elseworlds but use the actual 5 Earths' characters. Imagine a scenario similar to the Crisis (not in threat level but in scale) and a Monitor-like figure using the same tactic of pulling heroes from various places to deal with it. Set the actual story in the "present" of each Earth so that no matter when the characters are pulled from they won't remember the adventure until "now".

So to deal with a threat on Earth Q5 we might have a Legionnaire, a member of the All-Star Squadron from 1944, Dan Garrett's Blue Beetle and Thunder Girl. But on Earth 615.2B a team consisting of Captain Thunder, Crescendo, American Girl and Isis is dispatched. And on Earth V5 ...

Basically as a group we set up the overall parameters- who the Big Bad is for the whole thing and maybe what sort of goals he might have on different worlds- but the individual writers would be free to choose the heroes (and maybe villains) of each chapter. So Dan can toss in Talisman either as a representative from outside our 5 Earths or set his chapter on Georwell and have Talisman simply assist the 5 Earth team sent there. Someone else might choose to create a 300 Spartans scenario where the heroes fail as a way to resolve the fate of certain characters (they die, stay on this variant Earth, survive but retire upon returning home ...). A third person might choose heroes all from the same earth and use it as an origin tale of a new team that allows for events that might not work in continuity on an established Earth (blowing up a major city, moving a character from Earth 1 to earth X)

We could even establish that the "Monitor" is trying to avoid making his actions obvious- so he'll go for say Mon-El over Superman or the Knight & Squire over Batman & Robin as the "big names" vanishing might be noticed (or have a major effect if they died on his mission. That would encourage using C-listers with less continuity ties over the marquee characters. And any major changes (moving the Purple Piledriver to Earth-S) would require group approval if they were permanent.

[dans]

The Crisis thing has been overdone, in my opinion - not just the scale, but the 'nigh omnipotent figure gathering a team together'. Along with Crisis and the Monitors, there was the original Beyonder trying to see what is the difference between good guys and bad guys, all the times two superior beings gathered together teams of heroes to play chess, etc.

Although I can't think of a good way to bring together so many characters otherwise. Some natural event, maybe, that has nothing to do with a much stronger character gathering a team (discounting a Supreme Being usually works behind the scenes and wouldn't be part of the story).

Maybe a comic convention on Earth Prime (our own!) where a bunch of people in costumes get turned into the characters they are representing, as the Earth encounters a glancing blow with a chronosynclastic infundibulum... some turned into more complete and/or permanent doppelgangers than others. That's probably been done before too, but it seems less over-exposed than the 'superior being with a purpose' plot.

 

[johnreiter902]

Maybe some event where the heroes want to all gather together, like some sort of party cerebrating crime fighters?

[starskyhutch76]

And the Hall of Justice would be the perfect place for such a celebration!

One reason for suggesting Earth-12 and the Super Friends is that you don't really need a complicated explanation there for why al these other heroes are there. They just use Scooby Doo Logic. "Hey, it's our old friends the Harlem Globetrotters!"

Hmm. Maybe Bob Haney's stories actually too place on E-12 and that's why Widcat and Sgt Rock were there.

[lawrenceliberty]

I never did it but I always wondered what an old fashioned JLA/ JSA team up would be like if the third group represented (like the Freedom Fighters in JLA 107 or so, Squadron of Justice in those JLA issues, history's heroes in the Lord of Time story, new gods in JLA 183 or so) was the E-12 Super friends.

I wrote an E-12 story in which Robin (Dick Grayson) transferred from Hudson to Gotham U., changed his costume to the long pants version used in post crisis by Tim Drake- there has not been any other Robin but Dick on E-12- and moved back to Wayne Manor. The Wonder Twins were going to start their first year at college at Gotham U. as well. I could see the Elementals joining the team to better learn how to use their powers.

What if original SF villain Overlord had an E-1 and E-2 counterpart. They can communicate mentally after experiments conducted by one of them.

They decide to combine forces and eliminate the JLA, JSA, and SF.

When the first two groups meet for an annual meeting they are shunted to E-12 where they face Overlord and various villains.

Not a complex plot- just an excuse to put the characters together and throw some E-12 villains at them.

Or how about initially switching Earths for the selected heroes?

I assume SF Superman is still involved as CK with Lana if SF continuity picks up where series ended.

SF Batman and Robin are still partners. No Jason. No Tim. No Carrie.

SF WW still has a living Steve Trevor and a military intelligence job.

SF Aquaman is King of Atlantis?

[DocQuantum]

I'm with Starsky on wanting this to be part of the continuity in some way. But I wonder if, instead of going the Earth-12 route, we can make it work on Earth-1 or Earth-2 with a bit of creativity. After all, not everyone will be interested in the more humorous slant that Earth-12 is known for.

Here's an idea I call "Empowered":

What if, suddenly and inexplicably, the powers and skills of random super-heroes were transferred to ordinary people? These ordinary folks, created by us rather than using existing characters, could be literally anyone -- even versions of ourselves -- dealing with having new powers.

What if Joe Peterson the garbage man suddenly gained the skills and abilities of Batman, along with the costume, utility belt, and various equipment (Batmobile, etc.)? Given his life experience, how would he start using those abilities as opposed to the real Batman?

What if Jen Waters in Marketing suddenly gained Superman's powers and costume? She's never been a hero before, but now she has the power to make nearly anything happen. What does she do?

Meanwhile, the real heroes have lost their powers, costumes, and special training. Given the weaknesses of their secret identities, which is all they are now, how do they figure out what's going on, and put a stop to it?

For example, Bruce Wayne wakes up one morning feeling very groggy, his mind dulled. He senses something is wrong, and goes to check on the Batcave, only to find that everything is gone. The whole place has been gutted. (The contents of the Batcave have been transferred to a property owned or used by Joe the garbage man.) Superman gets up one morning and heads off to put in a full day at the Daily Planet as Clark Kent, and is forced to take a taxicab there (I know he's a freelancer now, but I'm sure Perry keeps a few desks for his freelancers to work in occasionally.) It's only after his first cup of coffee that he realizes he's no longer super.

And what if some of the empowered ordinary people aren't that interested in acting like heroes? They may decide to use their powers for personal gain, not necessarily in any overtly evil way, but in the way that people do if they think they can get away with things, and they feel entitled to get something denied them. (OK, having said that, this could turn bad as well. I just don't think ordinary people would turn into outright villains, is all I'm saying.)

This story would necessitate a powerful being, but not one of the boring ones. It would be a Mr. Mxyzptlk story, although he's only seen from behind the scenes throughout the entire story, until the end. I couldn't think of any other way this would happen except through magic.

(It's sort of like a classic Super Friends comic book from the '70s, in which people turned into the characters they were dressed up as for Halloween. A DC Comics Presents story also did a riff on the idea, also using Halloween. I don't think this has to be a Halloween story, though.)

[DocQuantum]

Oh, and the individual characters will have their own story arcs completely controlled by the writers, similar to how DC used to do its theme-based annuals. It would be up to us if and when they start crossing over into each other's stories.

[johnreiter902]

Even better, Maybe Mr. Mxyzptlk is only a tool, for a villain who planned this in order to render earth effectively free of heroes for his conquest? The inexperienced people would have to quickly master their new powers in order to save the day. They wouldn't even be able to get help from the original owners of the powers, because they wouldn't know how to find them in their secret identities.

[DocQuantum]

Aug 18, 2017 21:35:55 GMT johnreiter902 said:

Even better, Maybe Mr. Mxyzptlk is only a tool, for a villain who planned this in order to render earth effectively free of heroes for his conquest? The inexperienced people would have to quickly master their new powers in order to save the day. They wouldn't even be able to get help from the original owners of the powers, because they wouldn't know how to find them in their secret identities.

Good idea. I could see someone like Brainiac using Mxy like that.

[starskyhutch76]

How about that guy that switched the E-1 and E-2 Atoms' powers?

[DocQuantum]

Mallo, Keeper of the Cosmic Balance?

[jonclark]

Mxyzptlk could have left a back door for the heroes which backfires. In order to turn the tables on Superman for all those years of tricks, there is a way to reverse this other than banishing Mxyzptlk. The idea had been Superman figuring out this fact and using it to recover his powers. But Superman doesn't know this and some of "our" heroes trigger the effect and their powers transfer to new people.

So
1) The real heroes have to figure out the secret to regain their heroic IDs (or find a way to send Mxy home)
2) The fill-in heroes run the risk of losing the powers but have no idea what might cause it
3) Some people are aware the powers cab be transferred and will be trying to steal them

[starskyhutch76]

I just had a crazt thought, but what if this were all because of an argument between Bat-Mite and Mxyzptlk. Mxyzptlk would argue that it's the powers that make them great and any old schmoe could do what they do if they had them. Bat-Mite would argue it's their courageous nature, values, and ingenuity that make them great. So the two set a wager to prove their respective points.

The heroes would have to contend which this sudden lack of powers. Would they stll try to do what they do?

The newcomers would react to their change of situation. Would they go crazy, fall apart, or rise to the occasion?