What Could Have Been/Comic Books: Difference between revisions

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** Marvel at the time, also felt that readers would not view a woman as a physical threat to Spidey, and in turn became something of a [[Self-Fulfilling Prophecy]] in that Spidey doesn't have many memorable female villains.
** Marvel at the time, also felt that readers would not view a woman as a physical threat to Spidey, and in turn became something of a [[Self-Fulfilling Prophecy]] in that Spidey doesn't have many memorable female villains.
*** [http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2006/05/11/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-50/ For kicks, here's the article].
*** [http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2006/05/11/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-50/ For kicks, here's the article].
* [[Chris Claremont]], for [[Kudzu Plot|fairly obvious reasons]], is responsible for a ton of these in ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]''. For example, Mr. Sinister was originally supposed to be the psychic projection of a kid who started stalking Scott Summers when they were both in an orphanage together. The fact that he was the invention of a child was the explanation for his (frankly) ridiculous name, and his entire look. Gambit, meanwhile was supposed to be Claremont's [[Take That]] response on ''New Teen Titans'' villain Terra, as far as being a spy Mr. Sinister hired to infiltrate the X-Men, right down to seducing Storm to get the X-Men leader's confidence. He also planned on sacrificing the Alan Moore created villain the Fury to further build up Nimrod as a major villain (with Nimrod, not Mister Sinister and the Marauders being responsible for the mutant massacre) and the notion of a lengthy plotline where Wolverine is turned into the brainwashed minion of "The Hand" (this actually happened, only the Hand teamed up with HYDRA at the time), kidnapping Jean Grey to become his "Queen of the Night", leading to Forge and Banshee having to rescue Jean.
* [[Chris Claremont]], for [[Kudzu Plot|fairly obvious reasons]], is responsible for a ton of these in ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]''. For example, Mr. Sinister was originally supposed to be the psychic projection of a kid who started stalking Scott Summers when they were both in an orphanage together. The fact that he was the invention of a child was the explanation for his (frankly) ridiculous name, and his entire look. Gambit, meanwhile was supposed to be Claremont's [[Take That]] response on ''New Teen Titans'' villain Terra, as far as being a spy Mr. Sinister hired to infiltrate the X-Men, right down to seducing Storm to get the X-Men leader's confidence. He also planned on sacrificing the Alan Moore-created villain the Fury to further build up Nimrod as a major villain (with Nimrod, not Mister Sinister and the Marauders, being responsible for the mutant massacre) and the notion of a lengthy plotline where Wolverine is turned into the brainwashed minion of "The Hand" (this actually happened, only the Hand teamed up with HYDRA at the time), kidnapping Jean Grey to become his "Queen of the Night", leading to Forge and Banshee having to rescue Jean.
** To be fair, sometimes [[Executive Meddling]] is responsible, and sometimes he's assigned to a different book and the author that replaces him decides to go a different way.
** To be fair, sometimes [[Executive Meddling]] is responsible, and sometimes he's assigned to a different book and the author that replaces him decides to go a different way.
*** Which still counts as [[Executive Meddling]], anyway...
*** Which still counts as [[Executive Meddling]], anyway...
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* [[Dexter's Laboratory|Genndy]] [[Samurai Jack|Tartakovsky's]] [http://worldofhurtonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Genndy-Tartakovskys-Luke-Cage.jpg Luke Cage].
* [[Dexter's Laboratory|Genndy]] [[Samurai Jack|Tartakovsky's]] [http://worldofhurtonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Genndy-Tartakovskys-Luke-Cage.jpg Luke Cage].
* [[Gail Simone]]'s [http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=130350 original proposition] for the Cassandra [[Batgirl]] was to have her rescue a sincerely faithful Christian preacher to Gotham's homeless population from a mugging and be converted by his sincere, strong faith in forgiveness and the teachings of the Bible. Taking up a new, white-colored costume, and devoting herself to the most vulnerable of Gotham's residents -- the mentally ill, the homeless, runaways and immigrants -- she would become known as the Angel of the Bat and, for the first time ever, would be genuinely happy.
* [[Gail Simone]]'s [http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=130350 original proposition] for the Cassandra [[Batgirl]] was to have her rescue a sincerely faithful Christian preacher to Gotham's homeless population from a mugging and be converted by his sincere, strong faith in forgiveness and the teachings of the Bible. Taking up a new, white-colored costume, and devoting herself to the most vulnerable of Gotham's residents -- the mentally ill, the homeless, runaways and immigrants -- she would become known as the Angel of the Bat and, for the first time ever, would be genuinely happy.
* When [[J. Michael Straczynski]] thought up his ridiculously controversial ''Sins Past'' storyline {{spoiler|(which revealed that [[The Gwen Stacy|Gwen Stacy]] had had a child with Norman Osborn}}, he planned for Peter Parker to be {{spoiler|the childrens' father}}, but Joe Quesada, the EIC of Marvel, [[Executive Meddling|felt that]] this would [[Not Allowed to Grow Up|age the character]] too much. <ref> Much more acceptable would be to turn one of the most innocent characters in the history of comics into a cheater, thereby tainting the most fondly remembered relationship in comics.</ref>
* When [[J. Michael Straczynski]] thought up his ridiculously controversial ''Sins Past'' storyline {{spoiler|(which revealed that [[The Gwen Stacy|Gwen Stacy]] had had a child with Norman Osborn}}, he planned for Peter Parker to be {{spoiler|the child's father}}, but Joe Quesada, the EIC of Marvel, [[Executive Meddling|felt that]] this would [[Comic Book Time|age the character]] too much. <ref> Much more acceptable would be to turn one of the most innocent characters in the history of comics into a cheater, thereby tainting the most fondly remembered relationship in comics.</ref>
** [[J. Michael Straczynski]], then still the writer of [[Spider-Man]], originally planned a very different version of [[One More Day]], in which many events in Peter's life were changed by his helping Harry Osborn through his drug addiction. This would result in Norman Osborn never returning to being the Green Goblin, Gwen Stacy never dying, Harry and MJ never breaking up, and, in effect, Peter never marrying MJ. This was rejected, however, because Joe Q. didn't want to make all the stories of the past 35 years moot. Unfortunately, this storyline would make much more sense than Joe's version of One More Day... which went and made all the stories of the last ''20'' years moot ''anyway''.
** [[J. Michael Straczynski]], then still the writer of ''[[Spider-Man]]'', originally planned a very different version of ''[[One More Day]]'', in which many events in Peter's life were changed by his helping Harry Osborn through his drug addiction. This would result in Norman Osborn never returning to being the Green Goblin, Gwen Stacy never dying, Harry and MJ never breaking up, and, in effect, Peter never marrying MJ. This was rejected, however, because Joe Q. didn't want to make all the stories of the past 35 years moot. Unfortunately, this storyline would make much more sense than Joe's version of ''One More Day''... which went and made all the stories of the last ''20'' years moot ''anyway''.
** As bad as ''One More Day'' was, JMS' version sounds exponentially worse. Erasing the marriage from history was stupid, but it's been very clear that NOTHING else about Spider-Man continuity has been altered and events from the past 20 years are still referenced in current comics. If they'd gone with JMS' version, it would've completely destroyed 75% of Marvel continuity, to say nothing of undoing some of the most famous Spider-Man stories of all time (as opposed to the version we got, which only undid ONE of them). It's the difference between the kind of minor timeline tweak that happens in issues of ''Fantastic Four'' all the time anyway and a complete ''Crisis On Infinite Earths''-style total reboot.
** As bad as ''One More Day'' was, JMS' version sounds exponentially worse. Erasing the marriage from history was stupid, but it's been very clear that ''nothing'' else about ''Spider-Man'' continuity has been altered and events from the past 20 years are still referenced in current comics. If they'd gone with JMS' version, it would've completely destroyed 75% of Marvel continuity, to say nothing of undoing some of the most famous ''Spider-Man'' stories of all time (as opposed to the version we got, which only undid ''one'' of them). It's the difference between the kind of minor timeline tweak that happens in issues of ''Fantastic Four'' all the time anyway and a complete ''Crisis On Infinite Earths''-style total reboot.
** The point is that, for all the damage it would do, it'd at least ''make sense'', rather than the bizarre story of Spiderman trading his marriage to the devil which somehow also undoes his secret identity being revealed that we got.
** The point is that, for all the damage it would do, it'd at least ''make sense'', rather than the bizarre story of Spiderman trading his marriage to the devil which somehow also undoes his secret identity being revealed that we got.
*** The whole "Nothing about the last twenty years has been altered" portion is complete bunk, as it's made perfectly clear in "One Moment In Time" that Mary Jane soured on the idea of having kids with Peter after he missed their wedding, thus her pregnancy NEVER OCCURS, and thus the 90s Clone Saga occurs VERY differently. Whilst characters from that era have since resurfaced in the post-OMD storylines (such as Kane and The Jackal), that whole period of Peter's life has yet to be properly reexplored in flashbacks, references, or otherwise to even give us an INKLING of how it went down without MJ being pregnant.
*** The whole "Nothing about the last twenty years has been altered" portion is complete bunk, as it's made perfectly clear in "One Moment In Time" that Mary Jane soured on the idea of having kids with Peter after he missed their wedding, thus her pregnancy NEVER OCCURS, and thus the 90s Clone Saga occurs VERY differently. Whilst characters from that era have since resurfaced in the post-OMD storylines (such as Kane and The Jackal), that whole period of Peter's life has yet to be properly reexplored in flashbacks, references, or otherwise to even give us an INKLING of how it went down without MJ being pregnant.
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