Monday, May 21, 2007

My moves for today, first draft

As the new editor of BALANCE OF POWER, I'm facing a dilemma. On the one hand, the four of us have created quite a plot for the crossover. On the other, we still have no writer. Or artist.

So my first step is a call for Marvel's exclusive, as well as freelance writers to pitch their ideas for Balance of Power. The only plot point they have to include is the setup: Dr. Doom, Magneto, Black Panther, Namor and perhaps Ikaris, Black Bolt, Mole Man or others band together for a kind of Anti-Illuminati: The Defenders. When the Initiative fails to protect the East Coast from a natural disaster, the new Defenders pitch in, and the classic roles of heroes and villains get reversed.

They can springboard from that. If they have better ideas about the "lineup", if they want to bring in a third party behind the disaster, I'm all ears. In the end, the four of us should pick the best pitch based on how good it is, independently of how close it is to our original idea.

While the writers start submitting their pitches, I go looking for an artist. Philip had a few in mind, so I'll ask them first. If none of them can or wants to commit to this, I'll ask Mike Wieringo or John Romita jr (providing that he doesn't mind doing another crossover so shortly after World War Hulk and providing that he is still able to keep his schedule on Amazing Spider-Man).

With a creative team and a finalized plot in place, I can finally approach the Marvel Handbook editors about the Balance of Power Travel Guide.

7 comments:

Patrick Cook said...

Have we seen anything come in from Bendis yet? Or do you think he'd want to shy away because he's the guy behind the Illuminati?

And what about Kirkman, anything from his old Kentucky home?

Sean Kleefeld said...

Back up a second, Mike! Phil still has the Balance of Power book itself. I just want you handling the coordination end of things, how the book ties in (or doesn't) with other titles. Phil still has to secure talent and get them working on it. Your job in this is to make sure that Uncanny, FF, SheHulk, Panther, etc. come out in conjunction with Balance so that we don't have crossovers happening months before Balance #1 hits the stands or something.

Sorry for any confusion here; I thought I had made the distinction already.

Michael Heide said...

Oops. My bad.

Okay, then scrap the first draft.

Philip Schaeffer said...

I've listed so many alternates I hope we've got the creative team locked by today.

Michael Heide said...

Yeah, but how do we dodge the "editors writing the plot" stigma? I mean, that's what we basically did for Balance of Power...

Philip Schaeffer said...

In my post yesterday I listed several plot points to be suggested to JMS and the writers of the various tie-ins for their development etc., I invited them to a story conference and mentioned that any plot points previously dictated were meant as suggestions and not gospel.

And I will maintain that I don't even think Tom has a problem with the editors dictating story in this game (see the first MES where he basically demanded they do).

Patrick Cook said...

Guys, I'm going to be out of pocket all afternoon today, without access to a computer, so I won't be back on until around 6 p.m. or so.

Sean (or anyone), if you get two seconds during the course of the day to come up with the punchlist for what needs to be resolved by tonight's 8 p.m. deadline, it'd be much appreciated from my end. I'll get on it as soon as I'm back....