DMZ TV Series, Supergirl, Catwoman Year 100 and Other Brian Wood Projects DC Rejected

With Star Wars, The Massive and Ultimate X-Men on his plate right now, it’s hard to imagine Brian Wood having a lot of time to give DC Comics these days–but it wasn’t long ago that he’d been working exclusively or primarily with the publisher for quite a while, and during a period like that, any writer is going to compile a number of unproduced works.The difference is, Wood has kept everything and a number of his unpublished pitches are now a post on his Tumblr. There’s surely more, but here’s what he has to say about the ones he calls “near misses”:

I’m doing some housecleaning this morning, organizing my Dropbox and work folders and finding a bunch of stuff that never made it into production from my time at DC, although a few made it really close.  Seeing them all together, there’s more than I thought.1. Rima The Jungle Girl – I was asked by Azzarello to write a miniseries for his First Wave thing, and I wrote the outline and met with the editor and got that approved and all seemed cool, but the green light to start scripting never came, and to this day I have no idea why.  I like the story, and since I wasn’t paid anything by DC for the outline the story’s mine, so maybe I’ll find a use for it.2. (The Original) Anthem – I’ve since reused the title, but I had an OGN project approved at Vertigo with Jame McKelvie on art that, and I can’t even explain why, just dropped off the edge of the world.  This was late 2009, and I suspect it was the changing of regime at DC that was to blame.  This wasn’t the most traditionally commercial project, and I think in the aftermath it was quietly disposed of.  Following that, I reconfigured this concept in at least a half dozen different ways, trying to make it palatable to DC, with no luck at all.3. The Re-Imagined Wildstorm Universe – talked a bit about that here.  I had a year of stories mapped out for Wildcats, The Authority, and a new title that I’m not sure we ever decided on a name, but it was a sort of Stormwatch meets Global Frequency thing, using a wide cast of characters, including the DV8 kids.4. Superman Beyond – I did a few rounds of pitches but this one I pulled the plug on, and the process was starting to remind me too much of Supergirl.5. Supergirl – whatever you’ve heard about this online is probably true.  Maybe I’ll put the finished scripts online when I’m on my deathbed.6. Green Arrow – this was only a pitch, originally written for the digital office, for a digital-first series.  Last I heard Jim Lee liked it and tucked it away for possible future use in the DCU.  This was late 2010.7. Starve – my foodie comic, fully developed as a Vertigo monthly and ready to go at a moment’s notice, only to be scooped by that Anthony Bourdain graphic novel.  Lesson learned: don’t wait too long to pitch.8. Gotham: Neighborhood Rebellion aka Catwoman Year 100 – When Bob Schreck was at DC, he asked me to pitch a few things, and I did, and none of them got past the first draft pitch stage.  This was one of them, a far flung future crime story featuring a young girl named Nomi Blume (I’ve since used that name in Ultimate X-Men for the Mach Two character… cuz nothing goes to waste).  The other pitches I can’t locate.9 QC (short for Quattrocento) – a Vertigo miniseries about inventors and secret societies and musical prodigies in 15th century Italy, with the same darker tone that Northlanders has.  This is still in my “active” file, and I hope to get it out there someday.

He followed it up with a blog post in which he revealed a pitch for a DMZ television series, written at DC’s request, which he says followed up a request from the publisher earlier to write a movie pitch based on the same property. He linked the full PDF of the pitch, which you can download here if you’re interested.The Catwoman Year 100 is an interesting one; there was a best-selling Batman Year 100 by Paul Pope in 2006, and despite rumors it never got a sequel and neither did any other DC character get a similar treatment. It’s interesting to note that apparently the publisher was taking pitches for such projects, even if none ever came to fruition.Also interesting: Green Arrow as a digital-only series. Where have we heard that before?