Several small changes to the format of DC and Marvel Comics can collectively make their line both more accessible and more profitable. Some of these proposals may seem like common sense to those well versed in the American comic format, but nothing contained below is considered common practice for either major company.

DEMAND 1; LONGER, SELF-CONTAINED RUNS

I, the author of this petition, recommend three simple, actionable changes to the format of comic runs…

First, plan runs with a proper beginning, middle, and end; you walk into a run knowing your days writing for the book are numbered, and you write with a proper end goal in mind. Instead of throwing out your big stories right away, one after another, tell a singular, larger story over the course of several years, broken up into smaller, episodic adventures.

Second, plan single-team runs to go on for an average of 52 chapters, properly numbered 1 through 52. This is, from a purely civilian perspective, sufficiently large to provide a satisfying run yet sufficiently small to prevent a poor creative team from totally destroying the image of a character; a perspective from within the industry may find a slightly lower or higher number of guaranteed entries preferable. If possible, form a mutual contract with the creative team that guarantees continuing publication in exchange for a guarantee of continued work. If they gain employment benefits through this contract, rather than being strictly work-for-hire, all the better.

Third, keep all content required for understanding of a book within the book itself. Crossovers are not only allowed but heavily encouraged, yet should be self-contained to the book itself and should not require purchase of an entirely different series to understand. Crossovers should encourage cross-pollination, but not require it! Not following this particular sub-rule alone threatens to undermine everything else in this initiative.

DEMAND 2: SMALLER STAKES ARE NORMALIZED. LARGER STAKES ARE USED SPARINGLY.

It is tiring and, further, boring for the stakes to constantly be about the end of the world, let alone the universe. Save your Thanos, your Darkseid, your Spider-Verse, and so on exclusively for the finale of a long run, which comes about once every few years. Of course, slowly escalate to that point, but once that conflict is over, immediately DE-escalate to prepare for the next run.

Additionally, put greater variety into the rivals the heroes face. As an example, Joker suffers from extreme over-exposure at the moment; seal him away in the shadows for a few years, build up excitement for his return, and give everyone a well deserved break.

DEMAND 3: LESS HOUSE STYLE, LESS CENTRAL PLANNING, MORE CREATOR VISION.

Mythos is more of an aggregate than a well-defined A-to-Z. Every Spider-Man book, movie, video game, radio show, and even every popular fan work is part of the larger Spider-Man mythos, whether we want it to be or not. As such, stop treating your books as continuous canon with clear corporate mandates. Make stories like Gotham By Gaslight, Batman Ninja, and Absolute Batman far more normalized than a direct continuation of what came before. Treat the mythos more like a playground than a court of law. And when a "non-canon" detail of a character is more widely known and accepted than the "true canon" - such as Spider-Man being in a stable relationship with Mary Jane - consider that detail to be the necessary canon.

Of course people have to play nice with each other. They gotta share. They gotta stop themselves from doing anything that would utterly ruin a character. But at the same time… Why can't we just treat every run as its own little self-contained elseworlds, with each consecutive run choosing what to carry on from and what to ignore as is artistically appropriate?

Want to see what that would look like? Here are ten experimental DC Comics pitches and twelve experimental Marvel Comics pitches, detailing my personal vision for these mythos. It's extremely unlikely that either company will actually let me and my ragtag group of friends write these books, of course, but I put in what effort I could to take these a step above wish-fulfilling fan fiction and make them a story that not only would honor the characters’ legacies but add texture and depth to their respective mythos.

I, of course, don't know the ins and outs of every mythos, especially in their current form, so many of these pitches may be off the mark. But while I'd agree to write these stories in a heartbeat, please remember that it's extremely unlikely that me and my ragtag group of friends will be actually hired by either Marvel or DC regardless of the success of a random internet petition! Please don't withhold your signature just because you dislike my vision for your favorites!

The pitches are contained in the following two links, one for each company. Each pitch is on a separate "tab" of the Google document, and comments are enabled.

DC: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15DlEzqHWSQ9-ToxCkxwL-s0Y7pY1H9E0Icb-sTgbNCs/edit?usp=drivesdk

Marvel: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UTrK5yVu-x-LUSPSZNaPDMIxZPiSGr64LCpcY0RkxeM/edit?usp=drivesdk

If these demands appeal to you as a superhero fan, or if you think they should be industry standard anyway, please sign this petition. The more who do, the likelier our voices will be heard!