What would your genies be?

[Mister Mets]

It's known that Joe Quesada had three things he really wanted to do as Editor in Chief (the three genies he wanted to put back in their bottles): Ending Spider-Man's marriage (One More Day), reducing the number of mutants (House of M) and significantly reducing cooperation between superheroes (Civil War)

What are the equivalent things you'd really want to see happen in the Marvel Universe in the future?

[Grapeweasel]

My genies would strangle Quesada's genies in their sleep.

[Zero Hunter]

My main one would be to seriously depower SHIELD again. Over the last 5 or 6 years SHIELD has become the monster that can do anything and be anywhere. It seem like almost nothing can happen on Earth without SHIELD knwoing about it anymore (with the exception of the Skrulls sneaking in). Certain writers use SHIELD way way way too much and it has made them a little lazy in some areas.

I hope that after the Skrull invasion SHIELD is brought bakc down little to where they used be, and only showed up when they were really needed.

[mikekerr3]

Kill off Hill and Gyrich. with a needle. after a trial.

Start Shield over from scratch since it seems mostly comprised of Skrulls. Purifiers and the red Skulls flunkies.

Have Wanda rememenbr what she did and reverse the "No more mutants"

[rwsmith]

Some sort of cosmic ban on time-travel. Perhaps a "chronal authority" of sorts comes in and eliminates anyone responsible for mucking with the timestream. The only exception would be Cable, since he was born in this time originally, but his knowledge of the future would be erased.

[Alan2099]

Bendis. Back into the botle bendis! You get one title. Maybe two. Neither of them team books and neither of them set the tone for the Marvel Universe.

Heroes are GOOD people. I think Marvel has taken it's "flawed heroes" appraoch and made them so flawed that they can barely be considered heroes anymore.

Teams with X in the title. Do we really need that many?

Decompressed storylines. I don't care what you'e building up to for 137 issues. What can you do with 1 issue?

MAJOR EVENTS THAT WILL CHANGE VERYTHING!
They shouldn't happen every single year.

SHIELD, like somebody else said, it needs to majorly be powered down.

Super Human Registration. Needs to go away. The sooner the better.

[BugsySig]

1. Depower SHIELD (already explained in this thread)

2. Keep the SHRA, but decrease the 50-State Initiative - As much as I love the idea of each state having its own team, so far we have primarily seen C and D-list heroes lumped together without training, resulting in them often being cannon fodder for baddies...both contrary to the Initiative in the first place. Meanwhile, the major teams remain in NY (T-Bolts being the exception). We could still have A:TI show the training of new recruits/young heroes, but Marvel should go back to the days of Avengers & Avengers West Coast, plus a few teams in the larger states or regions.

Example:

U.S. = Mighty Avengers

North East (NY) = New Avengers

West Coast (LA) = Avengers West Coast

Southwest (Colorado) = Thunderbolts

Southeast (New Orleans) = Defenders

Midwest (Chicago) = a new Force Works (and the GLA of course)

That could still leave the Rangers in Texas, and places for teams like Nextwave, Agents of Atlas, and others, in areas of large population...plus the budget would be much cheaper than having teams in all 50 states, and everyone likes paying fewer taxes. :smile:

3. I agree to an extent on limiting time-travel, but I would like to see a greater definition and limit on Magic in the MU. They sort of touched on this with the Mystic Arcana mini, but with Mephisto running around mind-wiping the entire MU, I think things have gotten a bit out of hand.

[Taskmaster]

#1 Fix the magic side of the marvel universe. There are just too many unanswered questions and every time a new writer throws out his "great" idea (Ghost Rider is an angel? Gee that wasn't revealed a decade ago when he was revealed as the angel of death and then suddenly dropped) they just muck it up more. Set boundaries for the way magic works and make sure writers understand who these characters are before they start writing them (John Blaze is not Dan Ketch, Not all Ghost Riders are the same). Is Dracula still lord of vampires? Is Varane still alive? Are there clans like in the Blade movies now? If so why and how? Answer these questions, have a magic MU "bible" in the office and if people want to write characters on this side of the MU they need to at least know the basics before trying to add their own spin (Grayson and Ennis i'm looking at you).

#2 Stop trying to "fix" the X-Men, it seems like every year they get a new status quo and it's gotten to the point where I just don't care and i'm sure i'm not alone

i'm sure i'll think of more later

[Tobias Drake]

Significantly less time travel. It raises more headaches than it's worth. Once in a while might be okay, but time should not be an open door that any drunken lunkjob can stumble through.

Ditto for alternate universes. The Marvel Earth is the entire multiverse's favorite party spot.

EDIT: Oh, and no more "Every superhero on Earth combined is no match for [threat]. Quickly, [title protagonist], you must stop him now, where no other person on the entire planet ever could!" I'm looking at you, Fantastic Four.

[Tetsuo_man]

1. Reinstate spidey marriage.
2. undue SHA through mini series involving supreme court finding the act unconstituional
3. Get bendis off of all avengers titles and re-assemble classic avengers
4. Bring Jean grey back from the dead
5. make the silver surfer viable as a comic again

[brundlefly]

Bendis. Back into the botle bendis! You get one title. Maybe two. Neither of them team books and neither of them set the tone for the Marvel Universe.

Seconded. Sending both Bendis and Millar on permanent "Ultimate universe books only" assignment would be my first 'genie.' I've never cared for the fratty Bendis/Millar/Joe Q axis that seems to be deciding the overall tone and direction of Marvel for the last four or five years. Break that stale monopoly up and let some new writers take over the Avengers books and the summer 'event' minis.

Next would be undoing the "No More Mutants" magical whammy and letting the mutant population start growing naturally again (i.e. bring back "District X," dammit!). It's run its course and accomplished its initial purpose (which was apparently to abolish Morrison's mutant population boom); now it's the Legacy Virus of the 00s: a tired and drawn-out "the mutant race is facing extinction" subplot that no one apparently knows how to end.

Lastly would be abolishing the bloated SHIELD/Initiative/SHRA snoozefest of bureaucratic red tape and nonstop bickering about who's registered or unregistered that seeps into almost every book. You can keep it in books where it belongs (and works), like the Ellis T-Bolts and Slott's Initiative, but that stuff is just killing Casey's Last Defenders, imo, and seemed laughably out of place when shoehorned into Gaiman's Eternals.

[rwsmith]

I would love it if Bendis and Millar were confined to the Ultimate Universe again, as that way I might be able to go back to only buying Ultimate titles. It would certainly save me some dough.

[rZi]

1) Kick Bendis off everything except USM
2) Depower S.H.I.E.L.D - Maria Hill can't go round unmasking spider-man and having psychics look into his memories
3) Make more mutants
4) Less events
5) Undo OMD/BND

[boshobosho]

1. Decrease the number of X-titles -- Two is plenty.

2. Do not consider a Brubaker/Fraction team up a miracle cure -- because it isn't.

3. Provide a valid explanation as to the usefulness of The Wasp on a premier super hero team -- Seriously, I know she was there at the beginning, provided funding, etc but outside of that what place does she have in field ops?

4. Decrease Wolvering appearances -- He's in too many places at once, duh.

[Mr. Earl Brooks]

1. Reunite and regrow the mutant population with Magneto responsible.

2. Hulk should not talk in complete sentences. It's important for his character to be at least half-retarded. Restore him as a hero, rather than a former conqueror.

3. I want the Sentry to be COMPLETELY crazy.

[DeadXMan]

1-2 are hierarchies :evilangry:

[The Thunderbird]

1. Bring back Jean Grey
2. Merge the X-Books with the Marvel Universe
3. Stop the heros from fighting each other 24/7

[DeadXMan]

see Hulk and SI #4
for two out of three

[Alan2099]

Ah yes. That reminds me of another one.

I've heard time and time again about how creators aren't allowed to use (insert character here) because it's some other editor's character. No beast on the Avengers, no Shadowcat in Fantastic Four, etc etc. This even holds up when that character isn't actually in the books at the moment.

I'm not fond of the marvel universe being sectioned off like that. And of course there's the opposite side where certain creators that are just allowed to do ANYTHING with any character they feel like.

[matthewaos]

1. Have my writers respect continuity (you can write a story that can fit anywhere, but you cannot write a story with the Scarlet Spider fighting Kraven).

1.i. Writers on major books should have a masters degree on continuity

2. Explore the SHRA a lot more, and have a point why it is on effect.

3. Bring the mutants to the MU, or at least some of them.

4. Undo OMD

5. Reveal that Auny May really died in #400, and this one is a fake (Skrull or whatever).

[AdamYJ]

It's hard to think of "genies" that aren't in response to someone else fixing something else. So, I guess I'll just come up with what I can either way . . .

1) Depower SHIELD. As others have said, SHIELD has just gotten too big and powerful. Toning down the SHRA stuff would also be cool.

2) Undo the "No More Mutants" whammy. I understand the reasoning behind it, but I've got some serious problems with it. For instance, the idea that there are now ex-mutants walking around kind of screws with the discrimination metaphor. It used to be that if you were a mutant, it was like being Black or gay or something like that. It was who you were and didn't change. Now, they've kind of thrown that out the window. You could be a mutant one day and a non-mutant the next.

3) Establish a direction for the character of Wanda Maximoff. They essentially used her as a plot device and then left her. If she can be a heroine again, she should. If she's a villianess, let her be villianous. If she's a regular, non-powered person living a normal life, establish that and let her have her happy ending. I'd rather she were a heroine again, but I'd settle for just doing something.

4) Re-define the Jean Grey/Phoenix thing. I know some people love the whole Phoenix idea, so I won't ask to throw it out. However, it's turned into one of those things where the power and concept are bigger than the character.

5) Place limits on time-travel stories. The main issue I have with time travel stories is that they almost always seem to travel to just an earlier point in continuity and the stories themselves are about not mucking with the past. They used to be about sending the heroes to an environment they're not used to (Iron Man in medeival times, etc). I'm starting to miss the point if they only ever travel back a maximum of ten years.

6) Give the horror characters of the Marvel Universe back their sense of menace. In recent years, we've seen Frankenstein's monster become Elsa Bloodstone's butler and the Living Mummy become a "Howling Commando". Both kind of tongue-in-cheek roles. I've read a bunch of those old '70s horror comics and it seems that even the characters that were more anti-hero were still kind of scary. I'd like to see that again. They've gotten a good start with some recent stuff like the Legion of Monsters one-shots. I hope they keep it up.

7) More sense of discovery in the MU. Now, this might not have been the case for a few years, but it seems like it's starting to feel like there's nothing new to find in the Marvel Universe. In the '60s, there seemed to be all sorts of new places that heroes were stumbling on, especially the Fantastic Four. Even in the '70s and '80s with stuff like Otherworld, the Shi-ar Empire and K'un Lun. Lately it feels like every bit of the Marvel Universe has been mapped out. I'd like to see the heroes stumble on something new for once (Whedon's Breakworld is a start).

The problem with putting genies back in the bottle is that there's often a greater than 50% chance that you'll create new genies in the process.

[Monty_Cristo]

1. No Maximus Lobo
2. No mutant clans
3. Real Xorn exists; last two we saw were failed skrull experiments
4. Scott Lang lived through Disassembled and just retired
5. No Draco
6. None of that 'The Other' business
7. Luke Cage never shaved his head and is a single father
8. Forget that killcrop stuff
9. Reign in some of the stuff that was done to Tessa; in her becoming Sage
10. Make Jean Grey and Phoenix separate entities/bring Jean back as Jean
11. Muppet Beast is lame
12. Keep the Ultimate-verse and Supreme Power verse separate
13. Dwayne Taylor survived the Stamford explosion and that loser Donyell stayed put wherever he is
14. No revamp of Priest's black panther


the rest will take care of itself

[CMBMOOL]

1. Undo OMD and let Aunt May die.

2. Undo the "No more Mutants" and bring back some of our favorite Mutant heroes.

3. Have Tony go on a self-discovery journey to try to regain everyone respect since CW and WWH.

4. Have Storm Not married to the Black Panther and get a new creative team on that series.

5. Try to Restablish the Mc-2 unvierse by creating new teams for other MC-2 Universe series, besides Spider-girl.

6. Get a Better Hulk creative team to truly follow up on World War Hulk's reactions to the event.

[Mister Mets]

Time travel was brought up a few times, so I have to ask: in what books has it been a giant headache?

[alveraz]

As a new reader my primary gripes are all these major "events" that crossover into my solo titles and confuse me to no end. It sucks more when the storyline is poorly written or created, as it works its way into my solo title like an infection. So, my genie would be, no more "events" and to let our solo titles be just that, solo. For a while anyway.

Don't get me wrong, I understand the need for cross marketing and the revenue it generates by compelling readers to pick-up other titles to follow the 'event' but at what cost to the universe and good story-telling? I loved titles as a kid because they sucked you into their own personal journey, their conflicts and resolutions. Now, I have to watch my solo hero wander off into some stupid war or epic event with other heroes I don't even like or care to know about! It congests my heroes personal journey and waters down any possible conflicts he/she already has going on. Lame.

I'm just a little tired of it, that's all.

[The Black Guardian]

My genies would strangle Quesada's genies in their sleep.
Pretty much mine too.

I want the Decimation undone.
I want the SHRA undone.
I want the Parker marriage back.

On top of that, I want Jean and Wanda back and bigger than ever.
7) More sense of discovery in the MU. Now, this might not have been the case for a few years, but it seems like it's starting to feel like there's nothing new to find in the Marvel Universe. In the '60s, there seemed to be all sorts of new places that heroes were stumbling on, especially the Fantastic Four. Even in the '70s and '80s with stuff like Otherworld, the Shi-ar Empire and K'un Lun. Lately it feels like every bit of the Marvel Universe has been mapped out. I'd like to see the heroes stumble on something new for once (Whedon's Breakworld is a start).
Agreed. One way they could have really played with this is by using the Other Earth (from Heroes Reborn) in more (any!) stories. It's supposed to be on the other side of the sun now, but we never hear about it. What are those other Earthlings doing? Do they like Marvel Earth? Don't need Skrulls when there are other Earthlings that might want our stuff.

[Siddon]

1. Bring back Jean but as a time traveler so we can have a book that works with the time-line rather then just try and fix it with a story or two.

2. Kill Dr. Strange, the marvel universe needs a new mystic and the best way to do that is to get rid of Strange. Frankly Strange should have died in the 70's with Captain Marvel, and Warlock.

3. Just get it over with and put together the real A-List Avengers-

Human Torch, Thing, Wolverine, Spider-man, Vision and Hawkeye.

[brundlefly]

I would love it if Bendis and Millar were confined to the Ultimate Universe again, as that way I might be able to go back to only buying Ultimate titles. It would certainly save me some dough.

Meanwhile, I ignore that entire line of books, so I don't care what Bendis or Millar does with them. See? Everyone wins!


Time travel was brought up a few times, so I have to ask: in what books has it been a giant headache?

It's been something of a nuisance in the X-books ever since Days of Future Past. Every other subsequent author "pays homage" to it by introducing another horrific possible future that a time-traveler comes to our time to warn the X-Men about, or the readers have to deal with lengthy storyarcs set in those said futures. And that whole convoluted Cable/Apocalypse/Stryfe/Askani future timeline quagmire is just headache-inducing.

[matthewaos]

I hate time travels, but I think that they haven't been used so much recently.

[bushboy]

It seems to me that most of these "genies" can be summed up as "Retcon Quesada out of the equation and pretend he never existed," or "go back to the way things were (insert time period here)."

[jade_nova]

Keeping the dead dead. Any character that has died must crawl back to the grave.

[AdamYJ]

It seems to me that most of these "genies" can be summed up as "Retcon Quesada out of the equation and pretend he never existed," or "go back to the way things were (insert time period here)."

Well, that's the problem with "genies" now isn't it?

Every status quo change is liked by some and hated by others. And most attempts to fix them cause even more problems. Perhaps it's just better to take the status quo that you've got and run with it as best you can and try to make any lemons you got in the process into lemonade.

[Ghost Shark]

Undo NO MORE MUTANTS, but don't necessarily bring them all back. Genosha had 16 million mutants in it before it was destroyed. 16 million mutants was too many. 198 (or thereabouts) is too few. The number of mutants in the world should not inhibit good storytelling.

Re-integrate the mutants into the rest of the MU. There is no way the X-Men should have sat on their hands like they did when the SHRA was announced. Remember SECRET WARS? The X-Men mixed it up along with everybody else. What do we get now? Mini-series beside the main event, showing them in their own little isolated microcosm of the MU and how their actions affect absolutely no one else but them.

Wolverine. Two books. One solo. One team. That's it.

[Peeps]

i wouldnt put previews out there, other than covers

theres way too much speculation about a story and nitpicking and after gossiping about the story for three months before its released, everyone biatches about how it was a surprise

[Omega Alpha]

1) A strong effort in make the MU a less convoluted place overall. Avoid retcons that just make things more confusing, as well as things that are just too messed up by definition (like the Phoenix); that does include reversing OMD.

2) The mutant population would reborn, being in millions again, being a true minority.

3) As a consequence of #3, the X-men would be less isolated from the rest of the MU.

4) Depower SHIELD, as others said. The omnipresence works in the UU, but shouldn't have been translated to the 616 universe.

5) Make the writers stop thinking so much about the past. Seems like every issue in most books (specially Wolverine Origins) is dedicated to retcon something because the writer, editor or EIC disliked it, to bring "shocking revelations", bring back people from the dead or reveal unnecessary connections between characters, that also often don't make any sense. That is the main reason of why what I mentioned in #1 happens. Have them think about the future.

[HeckBoy]

My 3 genies I want back in their bottle:
1. No more "no more mutants." I agree having millions upon millions of mutants probably isn't a good thing, but to just completely stop them is a bit too much. I'd just have it like the "old days" again: very, very few mutants, but you could at least find one pop up every so often.

2. Let those who died in Spider-Man, stay dead (as well as any story that came about due to their resurrection). That means, Norman Osborn never should've came back, Harry's still dead, and Aunt May should've really died way back in #400.

3. tbd (I've got a couple vague ideas here, but can't really choose/formulate one at the moment)

[Alan2099]

2. Let those who died in Spider-Man, stay dead (as well as any story that came about due to their resurrection). That means, Norman Osborn never should've came back, Harry's still dead, and Aunt May should've really died way back in #400.
Spider-man died in an issue of Spider-man. He talked to Death and everything.

[HeckBoy]

Spider-man died in an issue of Spider-man. He talked to Death and everything.Really now? well I'll be... Might have to re-word my genie then. :tongue: Oh well, then all the non-Peter characters then. :biggrin:

[Mister Mets]

Undo NO MORE MUTANTS, but don't necessarily bring them all back. Genosha had 16 million mutants in it before it was destroyed. 16 million mutants was too many. 198 (or thereabouts) is too few. The number of mutants in the world should not inhibit good storytelling.

Re-integrate the mutants into the rest of the MU. There is no way the X-Men should have sat on their hands like they did when the SHRA was announced. Remember SECRET WARS? The X-Men mixed it up along with everybody else. What do we get now? Mini-series beside the main event, showing them in their own little isolated microcosm of the MU and how their actions affect absolutely no one else but them.

Wolverine. Two books. One solo. One team. That's it.Quesada's problem with mutants being in the millions (or even thousands) was that it became easier for writers to come up with new mutants as opposed to other sorts of superheroes, given that writers wouldn't need to have a reason for the mutants to gain their power.

It is worth noting that many of the most notable recent non-mutant superheroes predated House of M, including Gravity, the Sentry and the majority of the Runaways, so Quesada may have been addressing a non-existent problem.

[Babylon23]

1. Create more villains: Seriously, when the #1 villain in the Marvel U is Iron Man, there's a problem. So many x-villains have died/reformed/redeemed themselves that they've lost most of their major villains. Spidey lost 2 of his premier rogues to Thunderbolts. It's time for the heroes to stop fighting themselves and actually fight villains again.

2. Deaths will be meaningful and serve a purpose: No more Alpha Flight/Scott Lang/Bill Foster shock deaths. A story isn't automatically "meaningful" or "poignant" just because you kill somebody in it. Similarly, resurrections need to be relevant. Characters aren't coming back to life just because a writer liked them in the 70's (I'm looking at Captain Marvel and Colossus specifically).

3. Repopulate the mutants: I really appreciated Morrison taking the mutants and turning them into a legitimate underclass. Several million mutants poses a potential threat to humanity, especially with the "4 generations" element Morrison introduced. 198 is a joke and makes the human hatred of mutants laughable. if the problem is writers being too lazy or uncreative to come up with non-mutant origins, then hire better writers!

The rest would be character specific: Undo Wanda's "crazy for no reason" turn in AD, wipe out Sentry and impose a ban on even mentioning him again, restore Beast to his former gorilla form, sort out the Phoenix mess.

[mikekerr3]

Quesada's problem with mutants being in the millions (or even thousands) was that it became easier for writers to come up with new mutants as opposed to other sorts of superheroes, given that writers wouldn't need to have a reason for the mutants to gain their power.

It is worth noting that many of the most notable recent non-mutant superheroes predated House of M, including Gravity, the Sentry and the majority of the Runaways, so Quesada may have been addressing a non-existent problem.


That would not take any more than putting some editorial limits on writers, that is part of what a editor normally does. To bad Marvel doesn't have any editorsd that edit.

They dumped the Mutants because they were to incompetent to do thier jobs,

[Hatut Zeraze]

Lastly would be abolishing the bloated SHIELD/Initiative/SHRA snoozefest of bureaucratic red tape and nonstop bickering about who's registered or unregistered that seeps into almost every book. You can keep it in books where it belongs (and works), like the Ellis T-Bolts and Slott's Initiative, but that stuff is just killing Casey's Last Defenders, imo, and seemed laughably out of place when shoehorned into Gaiman's Eternals.

I agree with your other genies, but this one hasn't seemed as bad to me as it has to you. I actually liked how Last Defenders and Eternals handled this.

Last Defenders is easily my favorite Marvel comic right now. I wish it were a regular series. I think the Initiative angle in that comic has really shown rather than told us how the Defenders concept will never become a mainstream, by-the-rules group. It reinforces the outsider angle the Defenders team always had in its best incarnations.

In Eternals, I thought the way they blew off Stark served to illustrate the godhood aspect of those characters, that the SHRA was nothing more than a mortal concern, and therefore petty.

While I have enjoyed the usage of the SHRA/Initiative to date, I would admit that it will soon get to be a tired plot-device (a border you feel has already been crossed). I hope that it is something they begin to phase out in the next year or two.

[La Fea]

1. Depower SHIELD (already explained in this thread)

2. Keep the SHRA, but decrease the 50-State Initiative - As much as I love the idea of each state having its own team, so far we have primarily seen C and D-list heroes lumped together without training, resulting in them often being cannon fodder for baddies...both contrary to the Initiative in the first place. Meanwhile, the major teams remain in NY (T-Bolts being the exception). We could still have A:TI show the training of new recruits/young heroes, but Marvel should go back to the days of Avengers & Avengers West Coast, plus a few teams in the larger states or regions.

Example:

U.S. = Mighty Avengers

North East (NY) = New Avengers

West Coast (LA) = Avengers West Coast

Southwest (Colorado) = Thunderbolts

Southeast (New Orleans) = Defenders

Midwest (Chicago) = a new Force Works (and the GLA of course)

That could still leave the Rangers in Texas, and places for teams like Nextwave, Agents of Atlas, and others, in areas of large population...plus the budget would be much cheaper than having teams in all 50 states, and everyone likes paying fewer taxes. :smile:

That's actually a REALLY good idea!

I love the Initiative idea as well, but it seems like the concept will spread itself thin with 50 separate teams (well 49 and Alaska...).

Its funny...discussing this and M-Day, the superhumans will inevitable have their own "Decimation".

Next would be undoing the "No More Mutants" magical whammy and letting the mutant population start growing naturally again (i.e. bring back "District X," dammit!). It's run its course and accomplished its initial purpose (which was apparently to abolish Morrison's mutant population boom); now it's the Legacy Virus of the 00s: a tired and drawn-out "the mutant race is facing extinction" subplot that no one apparently knows how to end.

Heh. Great comparison actually.

1. Reunite and regrow the mutant population with Magneto responsible.

That would be awesome.
VERY awesome.

He'd actually be the Savior and I'm sure that'd put the X-Men at a huge disadvantage.

[Ghost Shark]

Quesada's problem with mutants being in the millions (or even thousands) was that it became easier for writers to come up with new mutants as opposed to other sorts of superheroes, given that writers wouldn't need to have a reason for the mutants to gain their power.

It is worth noting that many of the most notable recent non-mutant superheroes predated House of M, including Gravity, the Sentry and the majority of the Runaways, so Quesada may have been addressing a non-existent problem.


Hmmm. Perhaps Wanda should have just said "No more NEW mutants."

[brundlefly]

"No more NEW mutants."

Would that have caused Cannonball, Rahne, Moonstar, Sunspot and Karma to suddenly vanish? :biggrin: