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The Villain Workshop

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Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

18:11 / 13.04.06

I'm not exactly sure of the current status quo - I've never been a Arrow Man. He's had his wandering spells - I'm thinking of the hetero life partner on-the-road Kerouac GL/GA team-ups - but you could and probably should play up the family man angle with Mia Dearden (the new Speedy, who reminds me way too much of Maya Deren - maybe a voodoo villain?), actual son Connor and adopted former ward Arsenal/Roy Harper. There's more of a direct family structure than, say, Batman, so that should possibly play into the situation and makes a mobster family an ideal adversarial set up.

I'd go with the Prey/Runner/Telepath, and maybe some motleys? Angle Man makes an odd amount of sense, actually, to play as the runner - he can manipulate equilibrium and inner ear balance, yes? Gives Angle Man a chance to actually be a competent villain, and it would invite Wonder Woman (and Catwoman, more recently) crossovers on occasion.

I do think that "Bow Season" would be a bad move - the standard, cliche storyline would be to have someone "better" start "hunting the hunters" (ie Red Hood, or the pick-them-offness of the Grand Guignol storyline in Starman), but if you face off the Arrow Family against a mob family with superhuman connections or muscle or members like Angle Man, with an emphasis on making them very good at getting away with things, evading capture...emphasize evasion, concentration breaking, camouflage... it's not so much about eliminating the Arrows as it is about a better escape artist than they are at hunting.

18:42 / 13.04.06

Oddly, I was thinking Angle Man as well. I think a rogue telepath would mop the floor with GA and crew.

There has to be a cat-and-mouse thing with archenemies, and I'm of one mind with you that it ought to be an escape artist/teleporter/camouflagued villain. GA is so Robin Hood that I tend to be blind to any contemporary elements. But I come from a family of traditional bow hunters and did archery as a kid, so I think there may be some flexibility and new interpretations in how GA engages the criminal element.

So, if Star City is the new Sherwood Forest, I can see the hunting corrupt leaders, as that's the legend. But Robin Hood eats by hunting the King's deer. And hunting has been argued to be a means of controlling ecosystems and prey/predator ratios and such. So I'm wondering if we can coagulate the small crimes that the Arrow Family can hunt and trap for. Who are the deer?

There's also a spiritual/traditional element to "the hunt" that doesn't need to fall too deeply into Zatanna or Zauriel magicks that might be interesting to explore. What if it's an enemy that manifests only to those who believe in its existence?

I'm at work... I gotta get back to it.

18:51 / 13.04.06

Well, if it's a Beast of the Forest and we're urbanising it, how about a Brotherhood of the Wolf-style city monster.

Some kind of lizard man riffing off of sewergator legend (could we port in Killer Croc?).

GA as super-animal-control.

19:00 / 13.04.06

Green Arrow, protecting the sheeple?

As MAYOR.

19:21 / 13.04.06

Interestingly, some of my ideas line up with yours. I started from a different perspective, tho.

Oliver Queen is probably the archetypal "left-wing" superhero. So it would seem to me that an archenemy would have to address his political leanings as well as his heroic ones.

Now, the traditional "right-wing" villain is an evil billionaire. Of course, the ultimate example of this is Lex Luthor, but he's tied so dramatically to Metropolis & Superman, sending him to Star City would seem silly. However, there are others.

If I was going for your telepath idea, there is a pre-existing, probably still alive villain we could use, who not only has the powers you want, but also happens to be the fifth-richest man in the DCU. I am speaking, of course, of Steve Dayton, aka Mento and The Crimelord.

But I have a better idea. Bringing back an old GA enemy in a technically new form. Listen to this:

There is a new company moving into Star City. A high-tech firm who's business practices irritate the Mayor, but always remain on the side of legality. At roughly the same time, a series of meticulously-planned robberies have both Green Arrow and the Star City PD baffled.

Queen suspects a connection, but cannot prove that the CEO of Meridian technology, Temple Greenwich, is behind the crime wave. It would be simpler if he knew that Temple Greenwich was born William Tockman, Jr. And he prefers to go by the nom du crime of Clock King.

Basically, I'd take the animated version (Temple Fugate, from BTAS and the JLU) knock about 15 years off of him, and make him a master planner. Someone who can out-think GA, not outfight him.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

19:41 / 13.04.06

Extending the ideas we're punting around to the rest of the Arrow Family, what about the Leviathan entity from Klarion, the underground kids all connected as one mind? The pack mentality would be interesting to go with and also works with Mia on several levels - after all, she was a street kid for a while as part of her backstory, and while she became a prostitute to survive, the kids became a super-entity. Leviathan could work with the mobster context as either an additional target or part of the underground mobster's extended "family" - especially if there was a telepath about who might possibly have figured out how to influence the kids (or, if you want to go to the Clock King method, found a technological manner of controlling them). Green Arrow follows that dynastic model and having a set of threats that work for the different members of the dynasty would certainly up the threat level.

20:15 / 13.04.06

I could see that working, as part of the supporting cast. Not so much an archenemy, but someone who straddles the line (like the Morlocks in X-Men). Works better with the telepath idea, tho. Clock King would be more interested in recruiting ordinary youth gangs as "cogs in his plan".

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

20:40 / 13.04.06

Perhaps multi-bibble-iple familes, yibble? Each one vying to bring down the Arrow Dynasty or simply staying one step out of line-of-sight, out of the spotlight, out of the line-of-fire? Possibly there could be the Clock King's family with its cogs (great pun, by the by) and the Angle Man's clan?

20:51 / 13.04.06

What good is having a cheesy theme like clocks if you can't use lame puns?

I could see an entire subculture here, a flip side to the city GA manages above ground. I don't want to head too far into Neverwhere territory, tho.

In a way, that works well with my idea. Above ground, he'sthe head of a high-tech company. Below ground, he's the Clock King.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

21:08 / 13.04.06

Ideally, Star City would operate in a breezy gap between Gotham City and the Keystone/Central Cities. I really like the idea of cities where the crime and supervillainy has developed into its own culture. Don't picture Neverwhere, though, a bit too magical for Ollie & the Gang.

Question: what are our specific reasons for the set-up, and how does order maintain itself? I mean, before Ollie really becomes aware of the problem. Does Clock King want to rule the city outright or does he want to pull a back-stage Ticktockman routine (Holy Ellison!), making sure it runs on schedule? His schedule, but with a focus on order? Makes Green Arrow a guerilla in line with Robin Hood (even as mayor) and then there's the issue of Angle Man; perhaps his family has more of a bend (heh) toward of simply destabilizing, and focuses more on Ollie as Mayor and therefore a crux-point of civic politics and order?

Heh, Angle Man reminds me of the Motter/Lark Terminal City, and the ghetto called "Slant Town" - not a racial slur, but an architectural oddity that caused a section of the city to sit at a forty-five degree angle like the Leaning Tower. Hell, maybe Angle Man's working with an Aqua-villain to convert Star into a sister city to Venice Beach - "New Pisa?"

21:25 / 13.04.06

I see CK's motivation as wanting to destroy Green Arrow at every level, by taking his city away from him. Above ground, he can use economic and corporate means. Below ground, things are much nastier.

The amusing bit is that he's mirroring Queen in an unexpected way, because he doesn't know that GA controls the city as Mayor the same way CK controls (a chunk of) the undercity.

As to why? Because GA (like everyone else) never took his father seriously, even when he tried to become a hero. That can really warp a kid.

21:49 / 13.04.06

And you can even use time as a trap, by saying Ollie's crew has one month to clean up Star City before the Bat family comes in to do it for him. Rivalry below, rivalry above.

Phex: Dorset Doom

23:04 / 13.04.06

Cool idea, I like the idea of time/clocks/deadlines being present on every level- maybe as a flipside to GA's story the Society (Is CK a member? I guess he could be recruited for the story) has imposed a deadline on Clock King- he brings Star City under control in, say, two weeks (the story plays out over 14 issues, one a day) or they'll send in hundreds of their members, igniting a massive hero/villain war in Star', and killing Clock King in the process.

The title of this story arc: 'Against the Clock'

.

Another idea I had for the story is hitting GA where it hurts, by turning the people of his city- the city he serves as both its Mayor and 'Emerald Avenger'- against him, and introducing an element of chaos that disrupts Clock King's schedule. This wildcard is Rancor- last seen AFAIK in the 'Joker's last laugh' crossover, a neo-nazi with the meta-human power to make people angry. Let's say his power has evolved since JLL, so now his presence can make a whole city greedy, agressive, lazy, reactionary, everything GA is trying to change about the people in Star City. GA also doesn't know about Rancor's presence until the very end, so he has to deal with the fact that maybe the people of Star City can't be saved, or don't deserve it.
Gah... the fact I'm not writing comics is the greatest injustice in the history of humanity...

23:20 / 13.04.06

At present, Clock King is believed to be dead, so I made the new one his son. But it could be written either way.

23:34 / 13.04.06

Barbelith Comics should have a section in the wiki where it's just franchise proposals.

Metal Men Book One, by Papers Brannigan and Cassandra
Against the Clock, by Mario
Mysterio, by Boboss
Aquaman: King of Atlantis, by Cassandra
Spiderman meets Flyboy, also by Cassandra
Destruction, by grant
All-Star Sgt. Rock, also by grant
Hulk Island, by Emily Triplets
Moondragon and Starfox' Guide to the Universe, by Mario and Cassandra
Storm by Mr Tricks
Cyclops & The Shi'Ar Imperial Guard, by Cassandra
Cyclops: Agent of Shield, by Phex
The Nexus War, by Mario
Sentinel Domination, by Evil Scientist
Prometheus: Dark Phoenix Rising, by garyanchata
All-Star Challengers of the Unknown, by Mario
All-Star Richie Rich, by Never any Elijah souvenirs :-(
All-Star Titans, by Mr Tricks, or garyanchata
All-Star Question, by COBRAnomicron
All-Star Deadman, by Papers Brannigan and Cassandra

23:51 / 13.04.06

I'm not particularly happy with the Challs one. But you could include All-Star Thunderbirds.

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