The concept is this - I tell you things that I'd have done in certain comics!!

But don't worry, I'm not talking about simple 20/20 hindsight things like pick a famous bad storyline and just say, "I wouldn't have done that."

No, I mean more like tweaks and nudges, stuff like that.

You can check out past years' I'ds to see what I'm talking about, or just read on (I've decided to consolidate them all into one big post this year to better center the discussion)!

I'd Have Silver Surfer Be Out on His Own Again

To put it simply, if Jack Kirby and Stan Lee think a character set-up is a good one, it's probably worth following their general lead.

They thought it was a great idea to have Silver Surfer be spurned by his former master, Galactus, and travel the world experiencing new things every day. You can expand that from the Earth to the universe and still get the same basic feel of their plans for the character, but making him go back to being Galactus' herald?

I don't think it works - he's too interesting of a character to have him stuck as Galactus' herald again.

Free the Surfer!

I'd Have Kept a Certain Character Killed in Cry For Justice Alive.

Spoilers for Cry For Justice!!!!

Okay, like Cry for Justice or hate it, the death of Lian Harper is pretty necessary to the plot of Cry for Justice. It doesn't mean that it was well-told or a GOOD plot or anything like that, but Green Arrow's granddaughter pretty much HAD to die (or someone of equivalent importance to him, like Speedy or Dinah or Hal) to get the reaction from Green Arrow that James Robinson wanted in the series. So I don't think it is fair for me (or anyone else) to say "I'd have kept Lian Harper alive," because that's not a tweak or a nudge - it would drastically change the story.

However, having one of the very few gay superheroes (and one of the coolest ones, at that) killed off IN A FLASHBACK did not seem to be a particularly important plot point, and the same gag (showing the big bad guy using the hero's hide as a rug) could have been achieved through any number of truly unremarkable characters (or even a new character), so I'd have kept Tasmanian Devil alive.

I'd Make the Red Hulk be Thunderbolt Ross

I know that Ross was sort of the "obvious" choice for the alter-ego of the Red Hulk, but just because it's the obvious choice doesn't mean that it is a BAD choice!

Having Ross turn into the very thing that he's been trying to chase down for years, and then finding out that he LIKED it?

That's a great twist on the old Ross/Banner dynamic, particularly for a character like Ross who wasn't exactly getting a lot of screen time anyways.

I find it hard to believe that the Red Hulk's actual identity will be cooler than Ross (maybe somehow it IS Ross! But it's most likely going to be Clay Quartermain).

I'd Have the Lead of Haunt Have a Different Job When the Series Began.

The main character of Haunt (about a guy who merges with the ghost of his dead brother to form a super powered being) was a priest when the series began. For, like, no reason that I can see so far (and he no longer IS a priest anymore). It's a distracting plot point in that it really doesn't seem to have a purpose, we never really get to see any sort of guilt (or hell, even any real response from other characters) over his role as a priest mixing with his several vices of his, and now he's no longer a priest - so what was the point? It was basically worth one fairly cheap gag in #1 (look, he went to a hooker but he's a priest!!) then never really used again - I'd have just dropped that aspect of the character period.

I'd Bring the X-Men Down to a Consistent, Moderately-sized Team.

I really think that, while the whole "Every mutant in the same area" concept is an interesting one in general, when it comes to a regular title it is better to have a consistent main cast of characters. There were a lot of characters in Grant Morrison's New X-Men run, but he had a main cast, and it was relatively small.

Joss Whedon continued in this vein, and Warren Ellis after him.

But I think based on a good idea (at the time) of "Why shouldn't Uncanny X-Men get to use cool characters like Cyclops and Emma Frost TOO?," we got this gigantic cast of X-Men, and I think the book works best with a small, consistent, moderately-sized team.

It can even use the same characters who are in Astonishing if you'd like to keep using Cyclops and Emma Frost and Wolverine, just get a regular team!

I'd Have Brian K. Vaughan Write Another Comic!

Come on, Brian, we're dying here! You're too awesome not to write any new comics!

I'd Make the Masters of Evil a Major Avengers Foe Again

So it's been, what, twenty years since the Avengers fought the Masters of Evil in the pages of the Avengers?

Doesn't that just sound WRONG to you? They used to fight the Masters of Evil a lot! Like, a dozen times in the first twenty years of the Avengers, but just the one time in the twenty years since, and that time wasn't even in their own title, but rather in the early issues of the Thunderbolts when the Masters were passing themselves off as heroes.

I guess The Hood's league of super-villains is BASICALLY the Masters of Evil, but I'd prefer the "real" thing.

I'd Have Kept One Couple Apart at the End of Y the Last Man

Spoilers for the end of Y the Last Man!

I really didn't like that Hero and Beth got together at the end of Y the Last Man. It seemed way too "cutesy" in a sort of "hey, guess what, everyone you knew ended up with everyone else you knew!" way. I'm glad Yorick didn't end up with Beth, and I guess Vaughan figured it would save space in the final issue by having the two characters together (so he wouldn't have to do two separate "wrap up" visits), but it really took me out of the moment to see how two basically random characters (who both happened to be major cast members of the title) end up together at the end.

I'd Have Roger Stern and John Byrne do Their Red Skull Three-Parter as a Prestige Format Series

Whether an extra-long one-shot (or hell, a three-issue mini-series), I'd bring Roger Stern and John Byrne back to finish the story that they were prepared to do before they left Captain America almost thirty years ago.

They were willing to do it in the past, so it's up to Marvel (well, okay, I guess it's also up to Byrne to work for Marvel again, which might not be a possibility)! This needs to happen!

I'd Give Kieron Gillen SOME Major Book to Write

I get that the thought of having Matt Fraction and Ed Brubaker handling the ongoing titles of the Big Three (two for Fraction one for Brubaker) is too cool of an option to pass up, so I don't blame Marvel for not letting Gillen write Thor regularly, but he's surely shown that he's not just capable of writing a major character, but that he would THRIVE on such a title - so someone really ought to find a major book he could write! If not at Marvel, maybe DC?

I'd Have Not Killed Stealth

I really don't understand the concept behind killing off Stealth in REBELS, especially off-panel!! Her relationship with Vril Dox was fascinating - there had to be a better way to set up an adversarial position between Vril and Querl than to kill off Stealth (NOTE: If she returns to life due to Blackest Night, then, well, my apologies for even bringing this up as a complaint).

I'd Reveal That the Time Displaced Alpha Flight Died in The New Avengers' Collective Storyline

Or that the Time Displaced Alpha Flight (from Scott Lobdell's Alpha Flight run) are still alive - either or.

In either event, I'd use the gaping loophole Lobdell left for everyone at the end of that series and bring back Alpha Flight.

You don't even have to use them right away - just establish that they're alive out there and if someone EVENTUALLY wants to use them, have the option be there.

Open the door, basically.

I'd Bring Wesley Back Into the Pages of Angel

Angel spoilers ahead!

While Wesley did, indeed, die in the last episode of Angel, Joss Whedon made a point of saying that, had the show been renewed for Season 6, Wesley would be back, so now that Angel continues as a comic book, I don't see the point in keeping Wesley out of the comic. He was a strong part of the After the Fall storyline, and he'd be a great addition to the current cast (which, otherwise, IS a pretty interesting cast, a nice mix of established characters and characters introduced in the comic).

I'd Have Wally West's Parents Show Up Once in Awhile

While I can understand why people would not be interested in using some of Bill Loebs' Flash supporting cast like Chunk (although I like him a lot), I really don't understand why the fact that Wally's parents are both alive is not more of a plot point in any Flash comic. I mean, Wally's dad hasn't appeared in a comic in over ten years! Basically, since Bill Loebs last wrote a Flash (or Flash-related) comic, Wally's parents have been no-shows.

I think that's a shame - Bill Loebs did strong work with Wally's mother, Mary, and his father, Rudolph, and I'd like to see them show up once in awhile.

I'd Give Nick Fury and His Old SHIELD Allies Their Own Book

I LOVE the parts of Secret Warriors spotlighting Nick Fury, Ex-Agent of SHIELD.

I don't MIND the third-generation superhero characters, but I don't like them as much in a book that would be near-perfect if it was just Nick Fury, Ex-Agent of SHIELD.

So, well, I suppose I'd like a Nick Fury, Ex-Agent of SHIELD comic, basically.

Those are MY I'ds for this year - now share yours, too!