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mygif

I’d say that this also showcases how lacking Marvel’s line-up is in actual detectives. I can think of Dakota North and then..what? Moon Knight? Is he any good at detective work?

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mygif

Madrox, Siryn and Monet from X Factor are all pretty good.

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mygif

Everyone has to do detective work at some point. Isn’t Tony Stark in a constant corporate espionage conflict?

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mygif

Well shit, this would also make a pretty awesome Dresden Files RPG campaign setup.

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mygif

Yep, I smell an X-Factor crossover.

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mygif

You’ve got my vote. I have a sneaking suspicion that this material will turn up in a Mage: The Awakening game.

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mygif

This vaguely reminds me of the sub-par JMS Spider-Man arc involving a character named “The Shade”. He similarly stole his magical powers by cheating, and expressed them through a tattoo.

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mygif

Something similar was done during one of the failed iterations of the Young X-Men book – only it wasn’t magic, but there was a mutant tattoo artist who could give people the powers of his tattoos. The really interesting part of the story was when he gave someone a Phoenix tattoo – but rather than go with it, the books walked backwards from the implication and never did anything with it before the book was canceled.

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mygif

This sounds more like a job for Hannibal King, Vampire Private Investigator, than X-Factor.

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mygif

Just echoing what Tim O’Neil said… yeah, this was sorta done already. Read the history of the character “Ink”. It isn’t mystical in nature, but the whole ‘tattoos giving powers somehow’ thing was pretty heavily featured there before they cancelled the book.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ink_%28comics%29

–Rawr

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Candlejack said on November 16th, 2009 at 2:20 pm

Tattoos giving power is also pretty heavily featured in a lot of world mythology–which is part of what makes it appropriate for Strange.

Plus, if one creator doing something means nobody else should ever bother with anything vaguely like that again, comics should just cease publication. No more strong guys. No more flying. No more alien invasions. No more mind-controlled heroes. No more villains turning their lives around. No more heroes winning. No more villains winning. No more coming back from the dead. Okay, so that last one sounds like a good idea….

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mygif

The only thing I don’t care for is the explode-y parts of the story. We already have supers and mutants who can blow stuff up. Hell, we have bombs in the real world that can do that. I prefer magic to do things that science doesn’t usually cover. Turn the moon into a living monster. Put screaming demon voices in the minds of every person in North America. Make all roads *literally* lead to Rome. Blowing up the hemisphere? Kinda boring.

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mygif

Turn the moon into a living monster. Put screaming demon voices in the minds of every person in North America. Make all roads *literally* lead to Rome. Blowing up the hemisphere? Kinda boring.

Agreed here.

It also might make for some interesting build up, as two or three components together could make a minor effect that alerts the heroes to their wereabouts while more tangibly spelling out the implications of failure.

It also gives a more generous allowance for failure, since no one honestly thinks a comic book writer is going to blow up North America. Releasing a plague of killer locusts across the Corn Belt? Or turning Lake Michigan into a giant vat of acid? Or summoning the fourteenth tentacle of the Elder God of K’Thaluga’woga’hmdigity? Crazy things have happened.

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mygif

the whole ‘tattoos giving powers somehow’ thing was pretty heavily featured there before they cancelled the book.

I’d say the whole “tattoos giving powers somehow” thing was pretty heavily featured there leading to them canceling the book.

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mygif
Thousand Sons said on November 16th, 2009 at 4:54 pm

“If those five people ever ended up within, say, twenty feet of one another, the spell activates.”

You really *really* have to hope that they don’t go to the same Hatebreed concert.

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Tim O'Neil said on November 16th, 2009 at 6:31 pm

I would like to clarify to say that just because someone did a similar story doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done – oftentimes the best stories can come about as a result of trying to fix an older, not-so-successful version. Like I say, it was an interesting idea that they did very little with, so there’s still a lot of room for a really good magic tattoo story.

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FifthSurprise said on November 16th, 2009 at 7:31 pm

I’m waiting for one of those 5 to have another tattoo on their bicep that they think means “Love, Strength, Peace” but really means “I like turtles.”

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mygif

I would totally read this.

And FifthSurprise: I would also get a tattoo that says “I Like Turtles”. Turtles are pretty cool.

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Evil Midnight Lurker said on November 17th, 2009 at 12:40 am

“And except that somebody gave the tattoo artist that book of glyphs – and they have a vested interest in making sure that the fivepart charm fires off.”

So it isn’t an accidental apocalypse at all, and it was totally intended by people who knew exactly what they were doing?

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Mary Warner said on November 17th, 2009 at 1:22 am

Young X-Men was cancelled?? Nobody ever informs me of these things. (I only ever got one issue anyway. I didn’t like the tattoo idea. It’s clearly a mystical power, not a plausible genetic one, but I’m not sure anyone at Marvel has any idea what mutations are actually like anyway.)

I’m still not sure if you should really be the one to write Doctor Strange. I’d still prefer to do it myself, but this is a really good story idea.
I still haven’t decided yet if Mark Waid should write Doctor Strange. I’ve only read the one issue, with the weird baseball story. It’s not that great, but it’s not horrible either.

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mygif

So would Strange know what the effect of the spell would be? Or would he just be able to recognize the spell’s magnitude, and be glad to never learn its intended effect?

Also, how would the person with this vested interest make sure 5 people got the right tattoos, so the spell to go off? If all the people got parts 1 through 4 of the glyph, but no one liked the design for 5, they might start kicking themselves about missing that.

Of course, you could go with the idea that the designs are one time uses, so eventually, all five would be used, just because 1 through 4 would have disappeared.

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mygif
benfromcanada said on November 17th, 2009 at 5:16 am

I really, really want this to happen. Even if it’s fanfic. I will make it the first fanfic I ever read.

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mygif

Also, how would the person with this vested interest make sure 5 people got the right tattoos, so the spell to go off? If all the people got parts 1 through 4 of the glyph, but no one liked the design for 5, they might start kicking themselves about missing that.

If you’ve got a book full of magic glyphs that can blow up the world, I’m sure you can manage a simple “Hey, maybe purple giraffe surrounded by umlats and swirlygigs is the tattoo for me” suggestion spell.

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mygif
Obscurejones said on November 17th, 2009 at 12:34 pm

In response to any questions as to “why all the convoluted nature of the doomsday plot”: Nylarhotep.

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mygif
Tales to Enrage said on November 17th, 2009 at 6:58 pm

A suggestion spell would make sense, but that might leave a magical trail where the glyph itself would not.

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mygif

I love these ideas and “why should I write” and stuff, but I just hate Dr. Strange so fucking much. So when I read these posts I just imagine you’re talking about Hellblazer or some independent creator*-owned comic.

* That’s you, of course.

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mygif

I think you need to bring in a specialist. What’s the Earth-712 Squadron Supreme analog for Detective Chimp? Simian Shamus? Pinkerton Primate? Cause I think that would be awesome.

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mygif
HitTheTargets said on November 18th, 2009 at 5:56 pm

It’s common knowledge that magic, generally speaking, needs intent to function. Magical spells are complex tools, and the driving will of the caster is akin to the torque applied when you use a screwdriver. Just as merely putting the screwdriver against the screw is not enough to twist it, so is merely saying “enogh morlincck ptg’aah” enough to appeal to the Seven-Handed Sloghee of Ptu for a magical zappy bolt. Without the will, the word is meaningless. Everybody knows this, and it is always the case.

SHAZAM

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mygif

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mygif

I’m waiting for one of those 5 to have another tattoo on their bicep that they think means “Love, Strength, Peace” but really means “I like turtles.”

Here’s a thought: one of the people tattooed by our accidental mystical tattoo artist has a tattoo that says just that, or maybe “Turtles like me”. Anyhow, the result of this tattoo is that turtles worship him/her as their god. After all the fuss with the tattoos of death is resolved, this person still has the turtle tattoo, and has to figure out what to do with all those adoring turtles who follow her/him everywhere.

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