Great Unexplored Story Ideas in DC Comics

Superheroes are the bread and butter of both DC and Marvel. It’s their specialty and what they are known for. But both have dabbled in other genres - DC has an especially lengthy history with Horror stories. But even putting that aside, chances are your reading a superhero title where it introduces an idea that, while not explored in length in the title, holds great potential as a standalone story.

One that has been introduced during Tynion’s run on the main Batman book is the Unsanity Collective. They are a group of people who wipe out their memories in order to move past their trauma and start with a clean slate and a mental state free from what society says is normal or sane. It all connects to the influence our current Capitalist system has in our lives and how it determines for us what we shouod seek out in order to be happy, as well as determine our own priorities in favor of corporations and institutions over individuals. The Unsanity Collective and the face of the group Miraclr Molly are initially introduced as villains but once Batman tries to inflitrate their group, sees it isn’t as black-and-white as that. The entire concept feels like something from a David Cronenberg movie. I’m genuinely sad they haven’t been utilized since Tynion left the series and Miracle Molly hasn’t been seen since. A Black Label mini could dive deeper into this group.

But that’s just one idea that stood out to me. What ideas have you come across in superhero books that you wouod have loved to see explored more?

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Of all the characters Tynion introduced during his Batman run, Miracle Molly was by far and away the most interesting imo. Her Secret Files one-shot especially stood out in cementing her as a fascinating character that I’d love to see more of. I’d totally get behind something like an Unsanity Collective book w/ her at the center to see what more of what happened to her and the group after Fear State

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Tynion tends to have a habit of introducing new characters to DC which I really appreciate. Always relying in the same kind of characters or same villains can be repetitive and introducing something familiar but still new is something more writers need to do

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Honestly, from all that I’ve read, Green Lantern.

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Is there a specific storyline from the GL books you wish was explored more?

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I’ll give a third endorsement for Molly. It’s a story that I think many of us can at least partially relate to. It’s a trope that’s been used before, but it’s well adapted for modern comics.

Especially when you see how closely bonded and accepting the Unsanity Collective is, it made me think “hey, maybe they’re on to something!”

Since the writing in Batman is always so good I think a lot of writers make their own mark with the new characters they introduce, but then the next writer wants to do the same thing with their new characters. There’s only so much room I guess between the pages for all of them. I’m glad that Ghost-Maker got some good follow ups throughout the Batman run. I really like his vibe and his relationship with Batman.

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I have a few of my favorite ideas that DC comics forgot about would be interesting to see again.

Young Justice(2019)

Everytime a crisis occurred, the same effect happens to Gemworld but with more destructive capabilities.

It’s implied that the smaller stuff causes natural devastation and change certain details but bigger effects like Dark Crisis and so on would reshape their world and history. It’s treated more like a nod to the crisis and left ambiguous but it would be cool to see it again mentioned as it would be a interesting storyline to see them follow through with.

Justice league Odyssey(2018-2020)

Jessica Cruz, well I might have to spoiler this dies in Odyssey but comes back with Darkseid powers fused with her Green Lantern powers.

It was left behind as a event that happened to Cruz after death metal, and that’s unfortunate. She gets the most fascinating changes yet it never sticks. Same goes for reverting her back towards from Yellow lantern to a Green Lantern without explanation in Dark Crisis.

Death Metal(2020)

The totality seemed like the most fascinating idea from Death metal. A team of heroes and villains united by preventing another crisis through proactive methods. It’s even more interesting considering the villains were still working on their nefarious plans while still part of the team.

The team more or less doesn’t exist anymore but that’s a shame. Just thinking how the heroes might still be working with the villains regardless would be fascinating. Giving the team a morale grey to them.

Shade the Changing girl and woman(2017-2018)

God I hope to see Loma Shade again. A alien who stole the chaos cloak and began a life as a teenage girl with chaos powers. She was my first interaction with a unpopular DC comic character and title when I was young.

She hasn’t been seen for a long time but I really hope she is canon still. Would be great to have more strange heroes in the dc universe.

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I’ll give yet another shout-out to Miracle Molly and the Unsanity Collective. They were the best part of Tynion’s Bat-run and had an interesting, complex relationship with Bruce. I hope they are revisited in future stories.

As for unexplored story ideas, one of my favorite things about the Silver Age was its habit to include a pretty cool concept to frame a story only to fail to recognize its implications and drop it like a hot potato to move on with the plot.

For example, I ran into a Silver Age Supergirl story where the main antagonist was busted from a cosmic juvenile detention center. That was just done to set up the plot and wasn’t revisited, but… it would be pretty cool to have a modern story set in space juvie.

Or, there was a one-off Superboy character known as Mighty Boy from the Silver Age. Mighty Boy had powers similar to Superboy and lived on the planet Zumoor. One aspect of Mighty Boy which showed a lot of promise was the fact that he dealt with all the nuclear weapons on his planet by tossing them into the ocean. Now, this story was written before the full effects and implications of nuclear energy/weapons were known. Could you imagine revisiting the story of a child hero who naively chucked all his planet’s nuclear weapons into the ocean and then had to grow up dealing with the consequences?

Those are just two examples, but, if you revisit stories from the past, you can find plot elements that were never fully realized but could show a lot of potential through a modern lens.

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Great idea about unsanity collective and Miracle Molly. That one shot of her was great and I loved the art in it.

One of my favorite elseworlds stories is Batman Holy Terror. Some sort of follow up would be good. Feels like it’s a story that’s relevant today.

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Whatever Paul Dini was going to do before his Zatanna comic ended.