Legacy Titles

I’ve recently been rereading some of the Enemy Ace stories from the 1960’s and I absolutely love the character of Hans Von Hammer, “The Hammer of Hell”. I’d like to get some feedback from the community. Do you think DC should bring back some of the legacy titles from the past? “ie. Star-Spangled War Stories”. Even if just as mini-series? There are so many rich and exciting characters from DC’s storied history that are just sitting around and gathering dust, why not trot them out with new, fresh stories every once in a while? Reading about Multiversal Crises are all well and good, but a little variety wouldn’t come amiss :slight_smile:

Happy Wednesday!
Brian

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Here is why. The creators must choose one of two options- to they pick a character and write a story around the character or make a story and find the right character. The general rule is the second is better, so this makes it harder to just reuse an old character.

In addition there are more of those characters now like them than current comics, so they must choose.

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I get that, but it would still be interesting to see characters like Hans Von Hammer get some love. I think his last appearance (don’t quote me on the actual date) was right before the start of The New 52, when he made an appearance in “Booster Gold”. I think. Even Sgt. Rock and Easy Company are getting a mini-series, albeit with supernatural overtones lol. I guess what I’m saying is I’d love to Enemy Ace get back in the action :slight_smile:

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Enemy Ace should have been in the Wonder Woman film

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Aviator heroes are a tough sell these days. Their heyday was definitely in the Golden Age when the real-life feats of aviators could literally change the course of wars. They faired better in the 50’s than superheroes did and managed to survive into the 70’s, but they were almost entirely out of vogue by the 80’s. The last time I remember DC giving a book dedicated to aviator heroes a solid go was New 52’s Blackhawks and that only survived eight issues before succumbing to the New 52’s aggressive cancellation policy.

There are probably plenty of reasons for their lack of modern appeal. I’d think the changing nature of warfare and the changing nature of attitudes towards it has something to do with it. If they were going to do a new aviator series, I would probably recommend it be a limited series so there’s no risk of cancellation and I would recommend they make it a period piece so it could be set in a time when those characters worked best. It would also have the added appeal of being a history piece. I’m sure there would be some audience for something like that if they found creators who were interested.

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Oh, I agree. If someone like Enemy Ace is brought back, it should only be as a mini-series or even just a one-shot. The last new Enemy Ace story was back in the mid-to-late 1990’s with “War in Heaven”, set in World War II. That was a really good story and I wish DC would reprint it for the newer fans to get a look at (although, after saying that, I suppose it could be on the app). Besides, how can you get these characters some appeal if you don’t bring them out and give 'em a shot? Just a thought lol

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@bridder01: Could not agree more about fewer Multiversal Mishaps, and smaller-scale tales about forgotten characters like Enemy Ace, Bat Lash, The War That Time Forgot, and other period piece heroes.
I own both Enemy Ace Archive Editions. There is literally nothing from the “big two” currently that comes close to the artwork of these stories by the legendary Joe Kubert. I dare say anyone who appreciates the art of sequential storytelling–of any age–would find these books very enjoyable. Modern sensibilities be damned! Art is art!
Appreciate it for what it was, for the craft that brought it to four-color life.

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Amen!

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I love the classic DC Western and War books, and all those rich, rich characters. It makes me sad that rarely do we get Jonah Hex or Sgt Rock stories and its even more sad that those classic runs aren’t being digitized to be put up on DCU. I expect that it comes down to war and western books being very niche though and other have thrown together much, much better arguments earlier in the topic.

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Yes, or the Black Hawks, as opposed to some OCs. Now, don’t get me wrong, they did a good job with the Amazons and I loved Etta Candy, but they could have used some existing DC characters.

@TheCosmicMoth The New Frontier did a good job of setting something in the past and using some of the ‘more obscure’ teams like the Challengers. It could be adapted, or something like it could be written, most likely as animation as I don’t think we are going to get as much live action DC content - and as much variety and diversity of characters and DC lore - that is not theatrical targeted under the DISCO mandates. Booster Gold is possibly the only way it might be used in live action and it would probably just be a small part of any live action film, so not really an Enemy Ace adaptation. And I doubt there’s any reason to believe we are getting a Black Hawk movie anytime soon from Spielberg.

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