Generally speaking, there isn’t a whole lot out there in superhero comics that Lisa and I enjoy. When it comes to the output of Marvel and DC, we tend to buy based on the creative team, rather than the character or cross-over. Matt Wagner, Darwyn Cooke, Frank Miller, Mike Allred and Gail Simone are usually safe bets – but still, we tend to keep our superhero comic purchases to the occasional mini-series or trade.
But we can’t help flipping through the racks – looking for something, ANYTHING interesting.
Jeff Parker and Colleen Coover have a four page back-up story in today’s X-Men: First Class #3 from Marvel Comics. In it, Marvel Girl and the Scarlet Witch team up to bond over shopping, and stop an attempted robbery.
I’ve been reading comics for about 30 years now, and I loved the fact that the characters are actually, you know, IN CHARACTER. They’re not angsty and filled with rage, or crazy, or broken.
Lisa’s only been reading comics for the last couple of years or so, and she loved that these girls were depicted as girls, not little Lolitas, not immature brats, but healthy teen-age girls who may have some of their own issues to deal with, but really just want to hang with their friends. Or in the case of the Scarlet Witch, just wants to find friends of her own, and find a way out from under her family’s influence.
We both love the fact that these teenage girls are drawn like teenage girls, and dress (within the logic of superhero comics) appropriately. You’ll notice that Marvel Girl’s boots are boots, not heels. You’ll also notice that the Scarlet Witch is wearing heels, but then, she’s a bad-guy on the verge of reform. Even though she’s in heels, they’re not 6 inch FMP’s – they’re the kind of low heels an average girl might own.
If Marvel keeps on putting back-up stories like this in their core books, we may just have to start buying them more regularly. Good move on Marvel’s part. But you know what would be even better? A whole book of these two characters written and drawn by these two creatives. Even better than that, a whole line of “Indy” feeling superhero comics. Capture the sense of wonder that people with abilities convey, but stay away from the navel-gazing nature of a lot of the autobiographical titles. Give us heroes and heroines that entertain and make us feel good, but don’t let them become stand-ins for working out whatever personal issues the creators have with authority, or women, or the government.
Make comics fun, and for everyone. Keep the dark and grim titles for your current readers, but give those of us who want to give you our money something, too. If you’re looking for writers, those named at the beginning of this might be a good place to start (except Frank Miller, but we like him for a whole bunch of other reasons).
I don’t know how the direct market would deal with a book like this, but as we’ve seen with our Hailey’s Comic Series (and here, here, here, here and here), there are young readers like Hailey (and not-so-young readers like ourselves) out there that WANT to read super-hero comics, but there just isn’t a lot out there for them.
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illustrator/cartoonist. Currently coloring Black Cherry Bombshells for Zuda & SAM PI for iVerse. Also working on a serialized, online Zach Johnson original graphic novel with John Zakour. Plus freelance illustration work for Vegas casinos. 
Peter Milligan and Mike Allred’s “X-Statix” offered everything you desire in a comic and more. Then Marvel nixed it. “Runaways” is still pretty damn good, though.
I loved X-Statix. It was the last ongoing X-Book I purchased regularly. But what I think did it in was that there was no clear “line” distinction between it and the other 40k X-Titles out there. It didn’t quite fit into continuity, and it wasn’t quite in it’s own world, so those who need the continuity didn’t like it, and those who wanted to avoid continuity stayed away.
And Runaways and Astonishing X-Men are the only Marvel title I’m buying these days. Even though I’ve never seen an episode of Buffy, Joss Whedon has earned enough trust from me with his work on Firefly and Serenity to keep me buying.
Those are some very good ideals. I wish people working in comics followed that list a bit more often.
at least the have grim and gritty for the current superhero reading base but also make sure you have some comics that are fun and can be read by everyone.