Saturday, May 19, 2007

Balance of Power Brainstorm

Just pulling out some 'balance of power' quotes to get some ideas flowing...

"There must be, not a balance of power, but a community of power; not organized rivalries, but an organized peace."
-- Woodrow T. Wilson

"In almost every country there are elements of opinion which would welcome such a conclusion because they wish to return to the politics of the balance of power, unrestricted and unregulated armaments, international anarchy, and preparation for war."
-- Arthur Henderson

"If this phrase of the 'balance of power' is to be always an argument for war, the pretext for war will never be wanting, and peace can never be secure."
-- John Bright

"Let both sides unite to heed in all corners of the earth the command of Isaiah to 'undo the heavy burdens...(and) let the oppressed go free.' And if a beachhead of co-operation may push back the jungle of suspicion, let both sides join in creating a new endeavor, not a new balance of power, but a new world of law, where the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved."
-- John F. Kennedy

"I don't believe, in the 21st century, in the balance of power system. This is a European idea of the 19th and 20th centuries."
-- Joschka Fischer

"From what I have seen of our Russian friends and Allies during the war, I am convinced that there is nothing they admire so much as strength, and there is nothing for which they have less respect than for weakness, especially military weakness. For that reason the old doctrine of a balance of power is unsound. We cannot afford, if we can help it, to work on narrow margins, offering temptations to a trial of strength."
-- Winston Churchill

"The stakes for America's democracy are far higher than has been generally recognized. These claims must be rejected and a healthy balance of power restored to our Republic. Otherwise, the fundamental nature of our democracy may well undergo a radical transformation."
-- Al Gore

"The balance of power in a society accompanies the balance of property in land."
-- John Adams

"The balance of power is the scale of peace. The same balance would be preserved were all the world not destitute of arms, for all would be alike; but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside ... Horrid mischief would ensue were one half the world deprived of the use of them ... the weak will become prey to the strong."
-- Thomas Paine

"Their political interests are entirely distinct from ours. Their mutual jealousies, their balance of power, their complicated alliances, their forms and principles of government, are all foreign to us. They are nations of eternal war. All their energies are expended in the destruction of the labor, property and lives of their people."
-- Thomas Jefferson

13 comments:

Philip Schaeffer said...

What's perfect about these quotes in relation to the miniseries we're trying to construct is that these various notable speakers and writers don't all agree that the world should seek a Balance of Power. It's not an ideal that everyone believes is worth pursuing, and that ties in great with the superpower nature of post-Initiative America and the end goals of Doom and the Defenders.

Philip Schaeffer said...

That's why I plan on using some variation of Juvenal's famous line, because it is itself so often invoked when the balance of power is questioned. I just can't come up with a suitable non-Watchmen translation.

Who will judge the judges? Who will govern the governors? Who shall be warden to the wardens?

Anybody have any ideas?

debbie said...

Guys, I think this is a bit too hands on. Let the writers take care of something like this, IMHO.

You all are doing a fun and good job, though.

Michael Heide said...

While we have violated the "editors edit, writers write" rule way too often during the first half of this simulation, I disagree with Debbie on this part. While it should be up to the writers what happens during the BofPow-event, we have to do the marketing. And that includes coming up with a tagline. That being said, let's analyze Philip's suggestions:

> "There must be, not a balance
> of power, but a community of
> power; not organized rivalries,
> but an organized peace."
> -- Woodrow T. Wilson

Not suitable. Every quote that rules out a Balance of Power is off-limits. The antagonists in Balance of Power (Doom, Panther, Namor, Black Bolt, Ikaris, Mole Man and whoever) are an alternative. A Balance of Power is the goal.

> In almost every country there
> are elements of opinion which
> would welcome such a conclusion
> because they wish to return to
> the politics of the balance of
> power, unrestricted and
> unregulated armaments,
> international anarchy, and
> preparation for war."
> -- Arthur Henderson

Much too long.

> "If this phrase of the 'balance
> of power' is to be always an
> argument for war, the pretext
> for war will never be wanting,
> and peace can never be secure."
> -- John Bright

Better. But it still doesn't say "Buy Balance of Power!"

We need something poignant like "Whose Side Are You On", "Gotta Catch Them All" or "Woo-Hah, Got You All In Check".
Something catchy. Something short, to the point, that (in the best scenario) includes the words "Balance of Power". However, the "Whose Side Are You On" campaign showed that the title of the crossover appearing in the tagline is optional.

Kennedy: Too long.

Fischer: Shorter, but it basically says that a "Balance of Power" is out of date. That's not what we want to bring across when it comes to the crossover.

Churchill: Russia has nothing to do with this.

Al Gore: This is about the World, not just America. Disassembled was about the Avengers. Civil War was about the USA. Balance of Power is about the whole Marvel Earth.

John Adams: The shortest quote. But "the Balance of Power in land"? I'm not sure.

Thomas Paine: The first sentence is actually usable.
"The balance of power is the scale of peace."
Definitely a keeper. But let's drop the rest.

I love the Jefferson quote, but again, it's too long.

Tuckenie said...

First of all let me just say that I LOVE the Balance of Power idea and feel like it's a story that Marvel hinted at in BP already and chickened out on.

Also I'm not saying this should happen but a really funny moment would be a triumphant Doom asking a jaded and shocked world: NOW whose side are you on?

I really like: "The balance of power is the scale of peace."

It's a good quote that works for the story, but you may not want to ape Civil War too much with the "catch phrase" marketing campaign. At least not a quote from a historical guy.

One Idea: If you really want to make it about Namor you can ask the question "Love or Peace?"

Tuckenie said...

Oh hey! What if you had a teaser question for each Defender or character? You could do single character posters like DC did for Countdown. Possible examples:

Doom: Power or Balance?
Black Panther: Hero or King?
Magneto: Messiah or Judas?
Namor: Love or Peace?

Imagine them with different lighting never showing all of them but just enough so you know who it's about with the question hanging over them. That's how you tease some Defenders!

Tuckenie said...

Thought about it some more and wanted to add this: "Why join the Defenders?"

See you could put that at the bottom of each poster because each character has a different reason for joining.

And for BoPo you could have a tagline like "A shift is coming..." Because it references the title without using it.

These are just suggestions. If you don't like them it's cool. I just thought I'd share some ideas to help out with your simulation. If you do like them I've got more, like having an anti-Defender campaign that promotes the Initiative or Reed Richards: Villain or Failure?"

Philip Schaeffer said...

I like that teaser poster idea a lot. I doubt we've got the time/marketing for a series like that but pretty that's dead on tonally.

Uh, for the record Mike, these quotes were found by Sean, and I don't know that he meant them as suggestions as much as food for thought.

That being said, "The balance of power is the scale of peace" works kind of nicely. Leave it to old T-Pain.

Oh wait, that's that rapper. Leave it to old T. Paine.

Philip Schaeffer said...

No Vallen, I very much appreciate your suggestions. Particularly, the posters you're describing remind me of a series of one sheets for Star Wars: Episode One.

They were pictures of the various characters with two "one" phrases written next to them. I recall Darth Maul's said "One truth. One hate." They were pretty cool looking, and a very effective marketing campaign, giving you just a little information about what themes the character's going to be dealing with but no real plot points.

Sean, what do you think? Is this worth the strain on the budget?

Sean Kleefeld said...

I like the multiple one-sheet idea. I expect what we'd have to do is really small print runs of each, though. So instead of 5000 (or whatever) for a regular poster, we only do 1250 of each one and send them out to shops randomly. So one place gets Doom, the next one might get Magneto. We'd then have to throw them all online, so fans know there are a series of sheets.

I especially like with the idea, though, that we could pull existing imagry for the artwork, so we can use some really high-class looking stuff and get it out to the market well before we have completed art for the stories.

The down side I see to this is that we'd have to spend more time upselling "Rise" and Balance in the copy. Especially since one is crossover that runs throughout several books and the other is a separate title with other books touching/expanding on it. That should be made clear with the text? And when we start doing that, it starts drawing away from the not-even-a-full-sentence tagline.

I'm not saying we can't or shouldn't do it. I'm honestly torn on the idea at the moment.

Michael Heide said...

Rise is not a crossover. It's setting the stage for Balance of Power. All of the books bearing the "Rise of the Defenders" tagline show the future Defenders in their respective books. Magneto in Uncanny. Doom in FF. Mole Man in She-Hulk?
Balance of Power then grows organically out of the Rise books.

debbie said...

I just think you are spending too much gray matter on this kind of stuff. Just say "every action has an equal and opposite reaction" and go on.

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