The Web Haunt of Ryan K Lindsay

I am excited about yet another comic title soon to debut. But this one hits home a little too close as I also came up with the idea about four days ago. Granted, if the idea from Marvel has just been announced then it was probably kicking around a lot longer than four days ago, but still. Man, I was so close.

The idea: S.W.O.R.D. – an ongoing series.

S.W.O.R.D. is the intergalactic agency affiliate of S.H.I.E.L.D. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, that’s okay, it’s comic speak. S.H.I.E.L.D. is the spy-FBI and S.W.O.R.D. is the alien version of spies and all that fun stuff.

I had the idea in my old post; Wednesday Comics: The College Years. I was putting together some different, off the wall ideas that would make for good comics, one massive page a week. One of those ideas was for Agent Brand and Beast: Agents Lovers of S.W.O.R.D. It would have them doing their job, basically, what more do you need to sell? Brand is a half-alien with green hair, blue energy hands and a wicked attitude; Beast is wickedly smart, sardonic, and will always sound like Kelsey Grammer; intergalactic espionage, open slather to create aliens, cultures, technologies and worlds. It would be wicked fun. Here’s my very short proposal.

Now I find out that Marvel will be releasing just such a title towards the end of the year. It will be written by Kieron Gillen and draw by Steven Sanders, and covers will come from one of the creators of the lady and the agency, John Cassaday, the other creator was someone people seem to know more about, Joss Whedon. It sounds too awesome to be true, but I am slightly saddened that I came up with such an awesome idea too late. I would have loved to have pitched this to Marvel. Next thing you know they’ll have a Max HYDRA series going and then I’ll be well fresh out of ideas.

I think there is a lot of room to move with the S.W.O.R.D. series, and here are some notes on what I would do. They will ramble a lot, but I am home sick with a 38 degree fever, so maybe it will help.

Notes

Abigail Brand - continues to be an intriguing character, we know so little about her. I would love to know who her father is, an alien, who her mother is, a human, and if there were any siblings.
- Why and how did Brand end up at S.W.O.R.D.? Is it in her family to be some sort of galactic cop, or was it because her family are all bags of criminal shit? Has she ever locked up one of her family members?
- Does Brand have any other freak-alien ex’s? That would be a cool storyline for Beast to come across them.
- To what extent do her powers work? She’s like a blue Iron Fist but with more control.

Beast - is always a fun character and I don’t feel that this series will tell so much about him, as he has always been party to some pretty funky situations, but it will be more about his relationship with Brand. It will be about him finally having a spot that makes sense. He’s always been a wicked X-Man, but he’s not just some crusher. He needs to use his brain, and pairing him with technology of a universal scale just makes sense. This will be the chance to see Henry McCoy as we I have always wanted.

S.W.O.R.D. – how long have they been around?
- Who started them? (Which has great room for some Fury flashbacks with whoever started S.W.O.R.D., probably back well before that whole alien menace in Roswell, or maybe even caused it or it was them…?)
- How many agents of S.W.O.R.D. are there? How many of them are sleeper agents in interesting positions and places?
- S.W.O.R.D. practices have to be different because they are dealing with strange and varied species. Sometimes the greater good must be considered, so there’s always a lot of double deals and counter-agents being used.
- What other agencies does S.W.O.R.D. cooperate with across the universe?
- Are there awesome S.W.O.R.D. uniforms that match HYDRA in their awesomosity?
- S.W.O.R.D. headquarters, The Peak, is pretty huge, what excatly do they have there?

Lockheed - named after jets used by the CIA, or is it vice versa, there is a lot about Lockheed we do not know.
- He is an intelligent dragon from another world. This world needs to be examined, and we need to know exactly why he left.
- As shown in the picture, he can get his scrap on pretty well. Let’s flesh out his powers and see what languages he can really speak.

Story arc possibilities…

S.W.O.R.D. are tracking an intergalactic serial killer who goes from planet to planet taking two kills from each planet. It would be interetsing if this being was too strong for S.W.O.R.D. but a compromise was eventually found. They enlist this being and send him to each planet with a two head hit count of who they need knocked off. Brand has shown before that she doens’t mind using excessive force and ways that might seem immoral to keep the universal peace, thiss would be an interesting way to have it happen. Perhaps the being only answers to her, how long can she keep that secret? And, yes, I am aware that the being does sound a little like Predator. I promise, no dreadlocks.

S.W.O.R.D. have to investigate an intergalactic threat that is emanating from Earth. They track down a bunch of pseudo-rednecks who are preparing to go attack another peaceful yet technologically advanced planet. It would be interesting to see S.W.O.R.D. have to prevent problems being instigated by us because if we attacked someone else it would give us a bad reputation. The rednecks got their hands on some decommisioned tech they found buried somewhere, or maybe even found a crashed scout from that planet. A small group of people screwing up intergalactic relations.

Brand’s father suddenly appears. He has been lost inbetween space/time for a fair few earth decades, but in his mind it has only been a few weeks. He had been tracking a major intergalactic terrorist through crazy scenarios. When he comes back it throws the agency into turmoil as he was a previous agent, or founder? This would then be a segue to show why Brand joined S.W.O.R.D., she thought they had killed her father. The father has imprisoned the terrorist within the spaces between space/time, but it cannot be permanent. All he can do is use the time to research the threat and hopefully be prepared when it comes back. What is the father like? Some sort of cranky Fury-type, or more of a space zen thinker?

These are just a few thoughts I have on this hazy fevered morning. I feel that this could well end up being quite an awesome series, and I will surely be sampling the first issue. From there, hell one day I’d love to write it myself. Right alongside Hail HYDRA!, I feel my talents would work best in the darker corners of the Marvel U.

Posted on August 9th, 2009 by ryan
Filed under: comics