Post by The MRP! on Sept 22, 2015 4:29:23 GMT -5
Ok so rather than continue to clog up the Progress thread, I am starting this one to bounce some ideas off of folks, share some thoughts etc.
Overall, I am thinking this is going to have to be an Elseworlds thing. Many could be period pieces and I don't want to undercut other writers by messing up the past of the shared sandbox. Plus I will be rotating "series" doing more maxis and mini-series and seasons of ongoings with hiatus in between so the scheduling won't be monthly like a sandbox title needs to be.
Some thoughts on an initial series-
I am leaning on starting with a Black Canary series, roughly equivalent to a Golden Age Black Canary-Dinah Drake is an intelligence agent for the OSS in WWII. She works stateside looking for Bundist activity, saboteurs, spies, etc. Her cover is as a torch singer hence the code name Canary or Black Canary (since it is black ops so to speak). Her love interest in police detective Larry Lance, but there is some debate as to whether she is really in love with him or using him as a source as part of her cover.
I want to set it in a big city (maybe Chicago/NYC like, but I think I am going to stick with the DC tradition of fictional cities-maybe Gotham (sticking with the Larry Lance mythos) or just calling it Windy City (for Chicago) in the vein of Star City, Central City, etc.
I have an "origin" story of sorts in mind for Canary, but it will be told later not as the first story. Initially I want to do a couple done in one adventures to get the flavor down.
Essentially the origin revolves around Dinah being the daughter of a Polish spymaster who worked against the Nazis and had contacts with the American and British spy networks. He trades information for a favor from them, to get his daughter to safety and she is smuggled out just as the Nazis invade Poland, sent to the US and given an Americanized name. She leaned a lot from her father, and aided his efforts as a teenager, escaping Poland when she was 18. She continued her efforts for the Allies/OSS and so the Canary was born, her singing talent being used to help craft her new identity and place her in clubs and social gatherings where information could be discovered/traded, where meetings can go down/what have you.
Unknown to her, her father was an agent of the Shadow Cabinet, and after the war she is recruited for their new post-war initiative leading into Men of War.
The plan for a Black Canary "series" would be a couple of done in ones to start as I mentioned, the origins story as a longer piece (maybe told in 2-3 installments), a handful of stories set in WWII introducing the wider network of espionage operatives maybe some stateside and some in Europe during the fighting, perhaps teaming up with Gravedigger or the Unknown Soldier for a mission, then transitioning to the post-war period, with an arc with her adjusting to retirement after the war and the eventual recruitment to the new initiative. Other than the first done in one and the origin I don't have an specific plots in mind yet, but envision it being something along the lines of a "12 issue maxi-series" when all is said and done, with stories divided between done in ones, a couple of 2 parters, and maybe a longer story or 2 to round it out. I do want to introduce the Manhunter during one of the missions though.
It would then transition into something like Men of War where the post-war agents would take center stage rotating in and out as missions called for it, with Canary being one of the ensemble cast.
Before I jump into Men of War though, I think I want to do a Manhunter maxi, where Paul Kirk is recruited by the Unseen Hand in the Cold War era, discovers he is a clone and there are several of him as operatives on both sides of the struggle and begins his hunt to discover what happened to him and reclaim his identity. No specific plots here, but an idea for tone, themes and eventual outcome, with a lot of worldbuilding of the struggle between the Shadow Cabinet and things like the Unseen Hand in the backdrop.
More thoughts later...
Any and all comments are welcome.
-M
Overall, I am thinking this is going to have to be an Elseworlds thing. Many could be period pieces and I don't want to undercut other writers by messing up the past of the shared sandbox. Plus I will be rotating "series" doing more maxis and mini-series and seasons of ongoings with hiatus in between so the scheduling won't be monthly like a sandbox title needs to be.
Some thoughts on an initial series-
I am leaning on starting with a Black Canary series, roughly equivalent to a Golden Age Black Canary-Dinah Drake is an intelligence agent for the OSS in WWII. She works stateside looking for Bundist activity, saboteurs, spies, etc. Her cover is as a torch singer hence the code name Canary or Black Canary (since it is black ops so to speak). Her love interest in police detective Larry Lance, but there is some debate as to whether she is really in love with him or using him as a source as part of her cover.
I want to set it in a big city (maybe Chicago/NYC like, but I think I am going to stick with the DC tradition of fictional cities-maybe Gotham (sticking with the Larry Lance mythos) or just calling it Windy City (for Chicago) in the vein of Star City, Central City, etc.
I have an "origin" story of sorts in mind for Canary, but it will be told later not as the first story. Initially I want to do a couple done in one adventures to get the flavor down.
Essentially the origin revolves around Dinah being the daughter of a Polish spymaster who worked against the Nazis and had contacts with the American and British spy networks. He trades information for a favor from them, to get his daughter to safety and she is smuggled out just as the Nazis invade Poland, sent to the US and given an Americanized name. She leaned a lot from her father, and aided his efforts as a teenager, escaping Poland when she was 18. She continued her efforts for the Allies/OSS and so the Canary was born, her singing talent being used to help craft her new identity and place her in clubs and social gatherings where information could be discovered/traded, where meetings can go down/what have you.
Unknown to her, her father was an agent of the Shadow Cabinet, and after the war she is recruited for their new post-war initiative leading into Men of War.
The plan for a Black Canary "series" would be a couple of done in ones to start as I mentioned, the origins story as a longer piece (maybe told in 2-3 installments), a handful of stories set in WWII introducing the wider network of espionage operatives maybe some stateside and some in Europe during the fighting, perhaps teaming up with Gravedigger or the Unknown Soldier for a mission, then transitioning to the post-war period, with an arc with her adjusting to retirement after the war and the eventual recruitment to the new initiative. Other than the first done in one and the origin I don't have an specific plots in mind yet, but envision it being something along the lines of a "12 issue maxi-series" when all is said and done, with stories divided between done in ones, a couple of 2 parters, and maybe a longer story or 2 to round it out. I do want to introduce the Manhunter during one of the missions though.
It would then transition into something like Men of War where the post-war agents would take center stage rotating in and out as missions called for it, with Canary being one of the ensemble cast.
Before I jump into Men of War though, I think I want to do a Manhunter maxi, where Paul Kirk is recruited by the Unseen Hand in the Cold War era, discovers he is a clone and there are several of him as operatives on both sides of the struggle and begins his hunt to discover what happened to him and reclaim his identity. No specific plots here, but an idea for tone, themes and eventual outcome, with a lot of worldbuilding of the struggle between the Shadow Cabinet and things like the Unseen Hand in the backdrop.
More thoughts later...
Any and all comments are welcome.
-M
