Oh, What the Hell: A Long Blogging Project Begins

A few posts back I mentioned that I was chewing on my own version of Grant Morrison's big DC Comics project. Knowing that I am (a) the laziest man I've ever met and (b) mortified by public failure, I've decided to start posting the project to force myself to finish it.*

An explanation for my non-comicphile readership:

Popular writer Grant Morrison was hired by DC Comics to create a massive project, Seven Soldiers of Victory. SSoV consists of seven miniseries of four issues each, released over the course of a year. The minis star characters of varying degees of obscurity from the DC Comics stable. Even the name of the project is a recycled one.


Beyond the seven minis, the project began and will end with over-sized individual issues: Seven Soldiers of Victory #0 and SSoV #1, respectively.

Each of the miniseries shares themes, characters, and situations. Comic blogger and all-around smart guy Marc "I Am Not the Beastmaster" Singer has written a passel of great essays on the work.

Despite the commonalities, the seven are also very different from one another in tone and style, ranging from Big Superhero Action to mysticism to monsters.


The project has been both a hoot and a holler to read. Fun central concepts, a fast-and-loose approach that honors but is not bound to the past, an obvious love of the material, and intelligent writing? Hell to the yeah!

For DC, this project was damn near a guaranteed success. The seven characters were laying fallow, so even if the project tanks, it won't hurt DC's overall “brand.” If one or more of the characters resonates with the public, great, a new revenue source.

The project wasn't a massive gamble for them, either. The big name of Grant Morrison would lure in readers by the truckload who normally would never touch a miniseries about Klarion the Witch Boy or Zatanna.

To me, the whole thing looked like a riot. How could any comic fan not want to do this too?

Thus, in homage to Morrison and the comics we love, over the next two months I will present to you the extended pitch for my knockoff SSoV, using characters from Marvel Comics.** Obscure characters will re-emerge, different than before. The minis will be in different styles from one another. And they have unifying themes, symbols, and ideas, though less in emulation of Morrison than because they read better with such elements in 'em.

But why, you may ask. Why? Why, in the name of decency and goodness and niceness, Harvey? Why?

I do it out of love for comics. I do it out of boredom with criticism.

But most of all, I do it for the goof.

The project may prove to be good stuff. It may instead prove to be a massive wankpile of half-assed fan fiction. I'm curious to find out which.

The opening salvo of the project will hit Filing Cabinet of the Damned by Friday, March 17. Synopses of the various minis will follow no less frequently than seven days apart. (I'm a wordy bastard, so they take time.) There will be six minis in total, along with two "bookend" larger issues.

Here begins my biggest vanity project ever.

Harvey Jerkwater is proud to present:

The Champions.

Perhaps this is a bad idea. Well, ya never know till ya try.

(Throughout the project, I'll continue to post regular, non-Champions entries too. No sense going all one-note on everyone.)

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*Granted that by doing this, I create the possibility of a different kind of failure: the failure to produce good work. I may be inflicting a steaming load upon the populace. Which would hurt. But I can handle that a lot better than a failure to deliver on a promise. Mockery for sucking is not nearly as painful to me as mockery for never trying.

**Marvel's actual answer to SSoV looks to be that Annihilation project coming out this summer. Big lead-in issue, four minis about four forgotten characters, big close-out issue? Yep, that sounds familiar. Me, I like my project better. Then again, I would.