Looking Ahead [Comics and Possible Team Up Idea]

Hey guys, just a quick few updates since I've got the time.

First off, I've come to realize that the idea I had for the February Challenge isn't entirely feasible. I was going to use it as a final farewell to a small group of characters that I had in the DU way back when called "The Protectors", with the characters making one or two brief appearances, and Titan saying his final goodbyes to his old team before joining the Immortals and going to the Great Library for the March Challenge. There was also a scene planned where the Engineer met and got to say a last goodbye to Joseph Himmelstein, his father who died in the Deviant Universe. Real emotional stuff that I was looking forward to telling.

For reference, here are the characters that would have shown up:

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Now the reason all of that has been cut should be pretty damn obvious to anyone looking at it. Rule #9 of the January Challenge: 9) Only characters in the DU Heroes and Villains galleries can be used. No copyrighted characters allowed.

I've pretty much received confirmation from that I can't have these guys show up, lest I want my February Comic not submitted to the Deviant Universe. And that's fair enough.

However, I'm still doing those pages. Rather than cut out a whole bunch of content that I had planned, I'll be turning those scenes into optional side comics happening at the same time as the main DU Presents; because I still want them as a part of the story, but I don't want them to be the cause of my comic being removed.

So just a heads up, the February comic will likely have a whole bunch of links throughout it to side comics I will also be working on throughout the month. So keep an eye out for those, because it's likely that they won't show up in the Deviant Universe at all, simply because I chose to have Engi's dad walk onto the pannel and say hi before never being seen again.

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In other less convoluted news, I've done the math, and if I manage to get the max amount of pages done each month, I'll reach 101 Accomplishment Points in the DU, right as the March Challenge ends. You know what that means? I can officially form a team with other artists!

In order to tie into the Arc my comics are starting to focus on, which is "The Rise of the Shard Master", the Shard Master:   will be recruiting a small team of elite villains to do his dirty work for him, mainly so he can focus on running Technotropolis and perfecting his experiments. Thus, The Alliance is formed, with Terror-Byte:   being the team's field leader and direct connection to the Shard Master.

A few small notes about the Alliance. I'd want it to be a fairly active team in the DU. One thing that's bugged me about teams is that besides the Thunder Force and the Renegades (when they were around), we don't often see them in action, nor do we see many of them formed these days. One idea that I've had to rectify this is that the Alliance doesn't always need to have every artist active for each challenge. The Alliance would always be an option for artists to crossover their characters, but it's not something that always has to be used in that way... it might be easier if I give some hypothetical examples of how this team would work...

So let's say for the sake of the following examples, 's Doctor Shock and 's Baal are in the Alliance. Apologies in advance :3

1) If the two want to do a crossover, they have the option of working together on an Alliance story, or doing something completely different.
2) If wants to do a story where the Alliance fights the Alphas, and wants to do a different story with their Chaser characters, or Diago, then can use the Alliance without working on that story with them.
3) If is wanting to use the Alliance for a comic, and is wanting to use their character Doctor Shock in their comic without the team, then both can do that. The comics simply take place on different days chronologically.
4) If and both want to tell different stories with the Alliance Characters at the same time, they are free to do so, following example 3).
5) If neither artist want to use the Alliance in their comics, that is fine. Please note though that if you want your characters to stay on the team, you would need to draw at least one comic page a year with the Alliance in it, as either the main characters or antagonists.
6) If doesn't use the Alliance at all for an entire year, they would receive a notification informing them that Doctor Shock was going to be removed from the team, while giving them one final chance to do a solo comic or collab with the Alliance, before their character was removed and a replacement found.

The Alliance is supposed to be a rag-tag group of villains brought together solely by their employer. The villains don't need to have much chemistry or history with one another, in fact, they can outright hate each other if that's what the artists want. As well as this, the Alliance would have an open door policy, meaning that after its founding, members would be free to come and go as they please, provided that they let the rest of the group know in advance, so as to not screw over anyone working on a comic with a team member that's no longer there.

One other thing, Issue 09 of the Immortals comic will primarily focus on the formation of this team, so during the April - May period before the Summer crossover this year. The plan is to have the Alliance assemble and go up against the Immortals for their first outing. In all likelihood, I would probably want to draw the initial formation of the team solo for this reason, and then give everyone else free reign to use the team however they like, either as main characters, antagonists, or background characters in their comics, or as a platform to easily collab with other artists.

I'd probably want to be aiming at working with between 5 and 9 artists on this project. A few minor notes on what kinds of characters I'd be looking to have join the group:
 - No gods. It's unlikely that the Shard Master would want to hire someone more powerful than himself, though I'm fine with overlooking that provided the artist gives a good reason as to why the character would want to join this team.
 - Any character that is willing to work for money and / or power is a good choice, as the Shard Master can offer both to those that do good work for him. Characters that have no desire for worldly possessions are somewhat difficult to accommodate.
 - Characters fueled by revenge or blood-lust are fine, provided they can control themselves enough to not kill their team members and follow the occasional order.
 - Characters with no powers are also fine, provided they can prove their worth in skills. If they cannot, then the Shard Master is willing to part with a few Star Shards to give those individuals super powers of their own while they are members of the team, so they can be more useful. Just remember that the Shard Master can bend Shard users to his will and read their thoughts from across the globe.
 - Any characters that have issues working with (or turning civilians into) Monsters may not fit in well with the group, as the Shard Master may be asking your characters to do just that.

So that's about it. I'm hoping to gauge the public interest in this idea of a more free-form and active super villain team in the DU, and if we get enough support before April begins, we can get started on forming the Alliance.


Oh god I hope that wasn't too long winded... sorry if it was.

Regards, Ignolian Thorne.