Create a character bible detail who each of the major character's in your universe are, and stick with it. I don't care if Grant Morrision wants to make him Hitler. Note: Does not apply if the character is general agreed to suck.
DC Give Wonder Woman and Superman actual personalities. Note: Hero is not a personality
DC: You shall stop retconning your entire stable every time the wind blows from the east.
Marvel: You shall begin retconning in earnest. Continuity-wise, it's time to stop being prisoners of the worst hack who ever worked on a given title, and time to stop with ass-pulling walkbacks that insult readers' intelligence more than simply saying "it didn't happen" would.
I wanted to mention about the "underwear" comment earlier that I encourage the supposed "underwear on the outside" look, and here's why:
It all goes back to the inspiration for superhero outfits (Superman's, specifically), and this is circus strongmen, who would wear the tight outfits to show off their muscles. However, tights are... tight, and this would cause a problem in keeping people from seeing everything down there. Therefore, they slipped on a pair of looser-fitting "modesty shorts", so named because they let the performers keep their modesty. Any character that wears tights would realistically run into this problem, and it's easier to give characters shorts than to risk the ire of moral guardians if you want to have your art be more realistic or have the costumes in live action (yes, Spider-Man doesn't have anything visible down there in the movies, but his suits have been unrealistic commodities based on Peter Parker's budget—I haven't seen Amazing, which may have addressed this—and I turn to photos of fans at conventions, who do distract quite a bit with their crotches and have more of a budget that Peter would have). People might ask, then, why a woman would want such shorts, and one reason is solidarity and uniformity, but there is also simply the fact of it being utilitarian—if it's "that time of the month", they would likely want to be able to hold their pads in place or have extra room in case there's a leak. Plus, they wouldn't want their genitals highlighted either, I don't think.
But I think there are some good rules for the companies to follow:
Marvel—
- You can have a minority and still have over 200 characters in it. The world population is 7 billion. A minority of just 1% is 7000 people.
DC
- If a character makes a heroic sacrifice to save the multiverse, it is meant to stick.
- When touting diversity in your comics, remember that it means not just race and sexuality, but age, ability, sex, and various other factors. Therefore it constitutes diminished diversity to give sight to your blind characters or to age them all down.
All
- High heels are very unrealistic to crime-fighting. Their use must be well-justified, with all of the cons weighed.
- Marriage will not turn away all your readers. Some people actually like to read stories involving married characters and may have grown up with Spider-Man and Superman in stable marriages.
- Fanservice is fine, but it must work both ways, with male characters also being shown as sexy, with strong female characters in outfits that are not created for sex appeal being created, as well.
DC: Batman's ability to defeat superpowered characters should be determined realistically. With a bit of cash and a bit of elbow grease, taking down...Idunno. Mammoth. Is okay.
But when it comes to characters like Superman, and kryptonite or no kryptonite, that's just not gonna happen.
Marvel: Stop making everyone in Marvel a blithering idiot. Between the Civil War and Norman fuggin Osborn in charge of SHIELD, it's a wonder they have the mental acuity to tie their shoes.
All: No more goddamn Superman deconstructions. Yeah, we get it, you don't like Superman. You think he's too perfect and unrealistic and wah, wah, wah.
edited 1st Sep '12 12:05:07 AM by Eagal
Seventy million. 1% of 7 billion is 70 million.
Fight smart, not fair.I suppose it's better to summarize that they should look at numbers. I saw superhero story where they tried to present 1 in 10 million people as having super powers. This means there's about 33 supers in the United States, total. Keep such statistics in mind.
Fight smart, not fair.It was supposed to be "natural evolutionary changes" so I'm assuming so. If they were triggered by something, concentrations would be perfectly reasonable. Or a mutation that actually spreads through reproduction, however that would take time. And probably sending himnote prostitutes for their country to get as many supers as possible.
edited 1st Sep '12 9:07:17 PM by Deboss
Fight smart, not fair.I can see that happening in Cambodia, Saudi Arabia, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, and possibly the Central African Republic. Oh, and it's a possibility in Somalia, but that doesn't count.
edited 2nd Sep '12 8:25:15 AM by VampireBuddha
Ukrainian Red CrossOr, you know, more super hero outfits could be based on other types of athletic wear. Like Under armor, track suits, or jock straps(which do a fairly good job of distracting viewers from the penis). But on the other hand, it is just a penis. Professional wrestlers wear tights all the time. Wait for a wrestling event, then go to an image board and see how many people are talking about penises(or maybe, camel toe). You won't see much of it, not even on you tube.
If Batman or Superman's circus strong man costume really is that integral to them, maybe point out to readers that it's inspired by a circus strong man's outfit and tell us why they chose it. But then, does everyone need such things? How many police or soldiers wear tights?
edited 27th Oct '12 3:25:18 AM by IndirectActiveTransport
Buldogue's lawyerPart of the fun of superheroes is the costumes. Not Wearing Tights works for some, but not all.
We're talking comic book governments, they're all evilest of evil when convenient. I fully believe that Marvel or DC would do it off their main imprints like the old Wildstorm or possibly the MAX imprints, but I'm not sure I'd buy expect mainstream. My views on reality doing it would depend on the powersets in question.
edited 3rd Sep '12 9:48:06 AM by Deboss
Fight smart, not fair.
If we're talking comic book countries, Canada would totally do it. For some reason, we're totally evil.
I could buy the US doing it in Wildstorm since Gen13. And like I said, I'm cynical enough to buy it in the "real world" if the powerset were good enough but bad enough to prevent it.
Fight smart, not fair.@ Deboss & Vampire Buddha: The "superhero baby factory" happened in DC a while back. She was Mother of Champions, who had the power to pump out disposable super mooks. She was on the same Chinese superteam as August General in Iron.
On topic: I would like to see editors stay creatively hands-off. An editor who intrudes into the artists' and writers' creative decisions is a conflict of interest. Writer/editor is almost always a bad combination, since there's no authority to temper the writer's "eccentricities" in this situation.
My Blog | My Steam profileNo character shall be drawn in a sexual pose unless they are actually trying to appear sexual or are being mind-controlled into doing so.
Ukrainian Red Cross- You shall not use models and porn stars more often than athletes as references when drawing action-oriented women. If a woman used as a reference has worked as both athlete and model/porn star, she shall be classed according to whichever takes primacy.
- Artists shall be informed that bras were invented for a reason.
I'd also suggest looking up how body armor looks and functions. And probably hiring a model or two to actually wear the stuff.
Fight smart, not fair.

Human's have a rule, they disproportional remember the bad stuff. If one guy slips up in batch of fifty plus, they web will RAGE!