10 GENIUS Comic Book Ideas That Should've Been Terrible

[Music] the world of comics is a very strange one as it is but sometimes writers have ideas that will shock even the most die-hard of fans more often than not the weird and wacky concepts fall flat on their face with very few even making it to the page or in some cases the screen however while editors may regret giving their writers such freedom on occasion it's a risk worth taking after all the comic book industry is all about taking chances and pushing the boundaries in order to capture the reader's imagination that's not always the case of course and indeed in some cases some of the very best comic book ideas have come from world restrictions imposed by editors or producers like for instance batman beyond which i'll get to shortly what am i getting at here well try to look at it this way the comics medium has created some seriously great ideas over the years but with some have you ever just had to look up from the page pause for a second and think hang on why is this working again that's not a bad thing necessarily but it remains a happy aspect of the industry that some truly weird sounding ideas have turned out great so i'm ewan this is what culture comics and here are 10 genius comic book ideas that should have been terrible number 10 otto octavius becomes spider-man it's long been said that peter parker and otto octavius are just two sides of the same coin both are extremely intelligent both are incredibly passionate about their work and both seem to have an affinity for animals with eight limbs sadly the two were always destined to clash as they were heading down to opposing paths out of all the webslinger's rogues gallery the relationship between peter and otto was the most fierce and personal especially when otto married aunt may to get access to a private island it's a long story so it seemed odd when earlier this decade news broke of octavius becoming the next spider-man naturally there was some backlash against the idea but what really upset some web heads was just how darkhawk managed to become spider-man in the first place it's one thing to steal someone's identity but to switch bodies leaving peter to die a horrible death in doc's failing flesh suits that's possibly the most evil thing any spider-man villain has done yet somehow damn slot managed to pull off the impossible by the end of the superior spider-man run readers actually liked otto in his new role it's a personal high point of that run for me and one of the most surprised i've been ever reading a comic number 9. gwenpool when marvel offered up a character who was seemingly a cross between gwen stacy and deadpool a lot of people quickly said no thank you and moved on however marvel didn't move on stemming from a series of gwen variants to celebrate spider-gwen's introduction to the marvel universe gwenpool first appeared on the cover of deadpool's secret secret wars when it came to chris hastings heather antos and jordan d white bringing the character to life however they chose to ignore the obvious and create a completely unique character that had little to do with either gwen stacy or deadpool instead what hastings and co-gavers was a homicidal vigilante whose similarity to deadpool was simply down to a misunderstanding with the taylor that's not to say that her cavalier attitude isn't akin to wade's but her overconfidence is due to her knowledge that she is now in a comic book universe rather than just being an arrogant jerk on paper she sounds genetically designed to cash in on the hype surrounding deadpool and gwen stacy but in reality she's a more than worthy addition to the marvel universe number eight the batman who laughs okay so full disclosure i am not a huge fan of the batman who laughs frankly he looks like judge death with a worse tailor but my main issue with the character is how he is everywhere like okay dc chill out we get it you like creepy batman equally though for as much as i think the idea isn't that original looking or that dc haven't worn the character into the ground i really like dark knight's medal and i'm really looking forward to reading its follow-up the dark multiverse is a compelling concept and this version of batman is deliciously twisted number seven cosmic ghost rider in the alternate reality that hosts earth trn666 frank castle's life was mostly the same as his earth 616 counterpart but things quickly changed after a visit from thanos sent castle straight to hell to deal with the devil himself consumed with the need to deal punishment on the genocidal maniac castle made a deal with mephisto which granted him the spirit of vengeance however by the time he returned to the surface thanos was gone and the planet was completely desolate it wouldn't be until a wounded galactus imbued him with the power cosmic that the punisher became the cosmic ghost rider now the idea of a cosmic ghost rider specifically isn't inherently iffy nor is the would you kill baby purple hitler premise of his first story arc in fact it's the exact opposite the thing about cosmic ghost rider that shouldn't work is that he's the punisher and that he's also the sole survivor of earth after thanos decided to murder the crap out of everyone living there that kind of premise is ridiculously dark but donny cates and jeff shaw managed to bring enough levity and style to the idea to make it work now cosmic ghostwriter is one of the coolest characters in marvel's library even if the initial premise would have done more than enough to raise a few eyebrows number six robocop vs terminator the 90s were full of dreadful crossovers for some reason publishers were obsessed with pairing up unlikely characters and this gave us some interesting and some not so interesting books unsurprisingly around 90 of these crossovers were complete garbage except for wildcats i love you wildcats yet there are some brilliant books to be found if you're willing to dig deep enough one such example is 1992's robocop vs terminator from dark horse comics which saw legendary writer frank miller team up with the equally incredible walter simonson for an action-packed extravaganza that no one was expecting instead of the conflict coming from the drastically different origins linking robocop with skynet was a touch of genius that really made this book stand out above the other attempts at the time number five infinity gauntlet there's no denying the mcu has given the source material a great boost in terms of exposure and the infinity saga will go down in history as one of the finest examples of superhero movies but the story seems a little bit silly when you find out the true reason for thanos's actions in the comics dive into jim stalin's epic infinity gauntlet arc and you'll find the plot is actually about a man who can't deal with rejection as as many attempts to literally caught death fail miserably there's no reason that thanos tries to get a girlfriend should have turned into one of comics's most iconic stories yet somehow star and marsha take the simple premise and turn it into a catastrophic event that saw the universe's heroes attempt to bring back the billions of lives that were lost in the carnage number four hbo's watchman okay so here's the thing it is extremely crappy the way dc and the comics industry more generally has treated alan moore with exploitation of moore's comic book opus watchmen always conjuring a collective big oof from myself and other fans of the original comic and like 95 percent of these cardboard follow-ups to watchmen have been really really poor and that's without getting into zack snyder's classic i don't have a clue what the hell it is i'm adapting approach to the comic in the 2009 movie so with all that in mind there was no reason to suspect that damon lindelof's watchmen tv show would be any better even if you were able to get past the idea of moore's work being exploited against his wishes yet again which is why it was so genuinely shocking when hbo's watchmen series turned out to be so special it was a truly breathtaking follow-up to the original comic and one of the finest comic book adaptations ever committed to screen number three batman beyond over 20 years on from its debut batman beyond is still one of the most beloved superhero animated shows but when you think about it it really shouldn't have worked the idea of bruce wayne being benched for some unknown teenager seems insane let alone one who lived in a cyberpunk inspired neo-gotham looked more at home in ridley scott's blade runner than it did in any of dc's classic comics having retired years earlier bruce is now a 70 year old recluse hold up alone in wayne manor while gotham is left to fend for itself that is until terry mcginnis stumbles across the old man's secret and manages to steal the bad suit after hearing the kid out bruce gives his blessing for terry to take over as the batman with bruce as his man in the chair i absolutely adore batman beyond but in the hands of different creators i sincerely doubt it would ever have come together number two peter talks to a spider there's a reason we tend not to see peter parker interact with his animal counterparts even though it's definitely something he would try to do while no one is watching while spiders are pretty cool animals they aren't the most interesting creatures to feature in a superhero story overall not much to talk about and definitely not something that would make comics fly off the shelves yet when the web slinger made a surprise appearance during donnie kate's run doctor strange it was time for him to finally live out his secret dream strange had been working as a vet for a while and word got round that there was a spell that could let a human talk to animals naturally peter turns up to the sanctum sanctorum uninvited and just so happens to have a spider in his pocket cue a surprisingly deep conversation between peter sporting a gorgeous yellow jumper i might add and an actual spider the two head out and a nature high can skip rocks over a river sadly the mini story doesn't go on nearly long enough and fans have commented for a dedicated book ever since seriously i need it gimme and number one spider-man just spider-man speaking of the web slinger imagines heading up to a pitch meeting and your biggest idea is a teenager who was bitten by a spider giving him superhuman powers it sounds absolutely ridiculous right well that's exactly what stan lee's boss thought when the idea was first pitched yet here we are almost 60 years later and peter parker is one of the most recognizable names in the whole world now spidey's origin story isn't quite as unbelievable as say bruce banner being doused in radioactive material from a giant gamma bomb and not immediately dying but it's still pretty odd when you think about it here's a kid going through puberty who is now responsible for maintaining peace in one of the biggest cities on earth and for some reason being bitten by a spider is the thing that can help him do it even stranger is the choice of animal considering spider is one of the most common phobias across the entire globe and yet it all came together stan lee and steve dick co-pioneered marvel's world outside your window approach by telling the story of a teenage wolf fowler with relatable everyday problems who just happen to be able to do anything a spider can sans actually spewing webs he had to invent that ability himself a wonderful idea that booked trends and helped kickstart the most successful comic universe of all time and that was our list on those genius car book ideas that probably shouldn't have worked as always you can find more content like this at oneculture.com forward slash comics and more of me on twitter at ewin ruins things that's all for now though take care maybe pick up one of the comics featured here from your local store and i will see you soon bye

Channel: WhatCulture Comics

Views: 58,455

Rating: 4.8651471 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: 9tz9n7zkpFY

Length: 11min 58sec (718 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 15 2020