Most of you already know this, but I'm not very happy with the current state of DC comics, and haven't been for quite some time now.
Not really sure why this did it, but today, I was reading some reviews of THE SINESTRO CORPS and COUNTDOWN, and I started thinking about Alan Moore's TWILIGHT, and how it's a shame we'll probably never get to read it.
If you didn't already know, sometime in 1987, Alan Moore pitched a mini- series to DC called Twilight of the Superheroes, but shortly after having pitched it, Moore had a pretty severe falling out with DC and broke ties with the company and scrapped any and all plans for future works.
And while I don't guess it's exaclty fair to say Twilight would've been the most incredible thing DC ever published... it would've been, and if you don't believe me, here's the pitch.
Just read it, and tell me I'm wrong.
Not really sure why this did it, but today, I was reading some reviews of THE SINESTRO CORPS and COUNTDOWN, and I started thinking about Alan Moore's TWILIGHT, and how it's a shame we'll probably never get to read it.
If you didn't already know, sometime in 1987, Alan Moore pitched a mini- series to DC called Twilight of the Superheroes, but shortly after having pitched it, Moore had a pretty severe falling out with DC and broke ties with the company and scrapped any and all plans for future works.
And while I don't guess it's exaclty fair to say Twilight would've been the most incredible thing DC ever published... it would've been, and if you don't believe me, here's the pitch.
Just read it, and tell me I'm wrong.
Also, take note of just how on the money Moore's introduction is about the pitfalls of event comics... and think about how DC operates today.
5 comments:
There was a rumor floating around that Kingdom Come was partly inspired by this Moore pitch.
Yeah, I've heard that a lot, too.
There're certainly plenty of parallels that seem a little too much like simple coincidences... the Captain Marvel vs. Superman fight at the end, Blackhawks bombing stuff, Batman's team of non-superheroes, etc...
Yeah, I figure it was impossible for Waid and Ross to do KC without someone in the DC offices at least saying, "Man, did you guys ever see Alan Moore's Twilight proposal?"
Even more than "Kingdom Come," there was another Elseworlds book that cribbed from this, right down to the "House of Steel" vs. "House of Thunder"; perv Billy Batson; etc., though the title escapes me.
I have to disagree with you though - this was a terrible idea that rightly never saw the light of day. This book reeks of "Iron Age" comics cynicism and the mistaken notion that deconstructing/destroying characters is somehow the same thing as developing them.
In this pitch, Billy Batson is a sexual deviant; the faux Captain Marvel (whom everyone believes, apparently, is the genuine article) is in an incestuous relationship with his sister, who is screwing his best friend/protege behind his back and no one in the extended Marvel Family has an issue with it.
In fact, no one in the entire superhero community has a problem with it, as Superman and Superwomen (the former Wonder Woman, who turns her back on her people, her mission, and her own identity to become a piece of ass/incubator for the Man of Steel) are hot to pawn of their son on seemingly inbred Mary Marvel, jr.
Oh, and did I mention that Superman - the embodiment of "Truth, Justice, and the American Way" is a combination despot/warlord?
The man behind the curtain in all of this is John Constantine, one totally non-powered alcoholic nicotine addict who is one of the poster children for the "kewl" antihero comics of the period. The story itself is a predestination paradox that may or may not (have) happened at all - not much different from the mess we have now with return/revelation of the existence of the new/doomed multiverse.
I could go on and on with this, but frankly I don't have the stomach for it. Suffice it to say that this was a grotesque idea whose only advantage I can see over DCs current continuity freak show is that is would have been self-contained to a single "event" instead of a mega-mega-mega-mega crossover 25 years in the making.
Yuck.
I finally got to sit down and read the pitch... that's a story I really wish I'd be able to see.
According to an interview published in Comicology, if I remember correctly, both Alex Ross and Mark Waid were familiar with Twilight before writing/scripting was finished on Kingdom Come. Ross was given a copy of the Twilight proposal from James Robinson, after Robinson turned down the opportunity to write KC, which was then just Alex Ross' painted follow up to Marvels. Ross wanted Robinson because he'd liked the Golden Age. Robinson, not wanting to pigeon hole himself with a story so similar in story beats to his recent hit, suggested Mark Waid. He also suggested that Alex read Twilight, which Ross initially thought referred to the Chaykin/Garcia Lopez reworking of DC's space heroes. A better question is how much of Moore's Twilight was inspired by Superfolks?
http://www.angelfire.com/mn/blaklion/superfolks.html
Robert
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