Heroes Editorial- What MV1 Needs to do to Survive

By Tony Thornley

Halfway through February 2008, the original fanfic group quietly returned.  Marvel Volume 1 was formed via the Avengers Assemble website as a “what if” breaking off from the beginning of the Heroes Return storyline, using the original numbering of Marvel’s top titles.  The site grew into a juggernaut, nearly 100 titles at one point.  The group was great, with some high quality work, including some of the legendary titles in fanfiction.
The site disappeared about three years ago.  It was an example for many groups, both good and bad.  For a long time, revivals attempts were made, and apparently, the group was finally successful at the end of 2007.
MV1 is an example for the purposes of this piece.  Honestly, one of the biggest reasons for this is to pimp the site.  Although some of what I’ll talk about is specific to that group, many of the principles here are applicable to all fanfic groups.  This is compiled from some of my observations over the years.  MV1 guys- I AM NOT PICKING ON YOU.  I love the old MV1 group, and I really hope the re-launch succeeds- so much so that I’m going to be taking on two titles there for short runs.  These are observations based strictly on the past.

1. The group definitely needs some form of clear leadership.  One of the frequent examples cited for its past hiatus is administration by committee.  While I understand there are reasons for that, sometimes a single strong personality can propel a group.
   
   Some examples of that are Eric Moreels at Marvel-X, and Cory Weigel at Marvel 2000, or even me at the original Marvel Revolution.  Moreels, although unpopular, was admittedly very effective in organizing a group that was a juggernaut in its heyday.  He was a forceful personality that was determined to pimp his site and keep it viable, and while he was there, that’s exactly what the group was.  Although he was by no means a great editor, he was a fantastic manager.
   
   Cory took a group that was virtually dead after the infamous Digitally Mystic crash and turned it into probably the most viable site in our community.  M2K lost many of its issues at that time, and was abandoned by multiple writers.  Even group founder Dino Pollard declared it dead.  Cory came in with a crash cart and brought the group back.  He worked diligently to rebuild the site on a new server.  He recruited writers and editors.  He even was able to resurrect a batch of titles that had been dormant on the site before the crash. What did he do when he left?  Left a personality as strong as his own- Dave Golightly- in charge.  And what did I do?  I don’t have a damn clue.  I just like a little shameless self-promotion.  But whatever it was, it worked.  Administration by committee can work, BUT a chairperson is needed to balance the personalities and as a swing vote.  Again, a strong personality in charge.


2. Top tier titles.  Okay, those of us who have been around for a while, think of the flagship books of MV1.  Avengers, of course, as that’s what the group was founded on.  Fantastic Four (especially Mark Bousquet’s run).  X-Men.  Spider-Man.  Champions (yeah, really!).  Where are those titles in the relaunch?  Why are they needed?  These books are, essentially, gateway titles.  How do you get readers to your Green Goblin series?  Why not a small Spider-Man appearance?  How about War Machine?  How about a scene featuring Rhodey in Avengers or Avengers West Coast?!  Or even a couple lines of dialogue?  “Hey Tony, how’s Rhodey doing?”  “I’m not sure.  Ever since he stopped that cell of Skrull spies, he’s been missing!”  B-List titles are the spices that make fanfic groups great, but without the main dish, why should I care about the spices?


3. Clearer continuity.  Every old group has this.  Look at the X-Men branch at M2K for a great example of dense continuity.  It that a bad thing?  No.  Some are very good with it.  Others… not so much.  The problem in the past was MV1’s “Years” continuity set-up.  For example, the Spider-Man series could be set in January Year 5, while the Power Man & Iron Fist series could be set in April Year 4 although both of those series had the most recent issue released last month.  I ran into this years ago when I wanted a particular team to appear in a short run I was planning of a series.  The response was “What Year is your title in?  That’ll affect the line-up you use.  And the team won’t even exist any more after Year __.”  A lot of groups use the perpetual now and editorial notes to fill in the blanks if title order is specific.  It’s a problem that could plague any group.  If a fanfic group isn’t a cohesive world, then it’s simply an archive.


4. New blood is a definite must for ALL groups.  That doesn’t necessarily have to be brand-spankin’ new writers.  It could just be “new to the group.”  A great challenge was made… almost two years ago now, I guess, for any writer in our community to go to a site they’ve never written for and do something short.  I ended up with my Scarlet Spider series at M2K over that.  I know of others who have done the same.  MV1 actually drummed up a lot of attention in 2002 in a similar method, and brought in a whole slew of writers that had never written for them before, such as myself, Mike Franzoni and Dino Pollard, and probably brought a few old standards back.  Advertising for new blood is a great way to do it.  Even suggesting titles in the advertisement helps!  I don’t know of anyone in the Heroes community that hasn’t seen an ad with a list of possible titles that didn’t have one stick out to them and get some ideas brewing.  “Gee… Darkhawk!  Now that sounds like fun…  What could I do with Chris Powell that would be interesting and fun.  Oh, I know!!!...”  Now, whether those ideas ever saw the light of day or not, it doesn’t matter.  If only one in ten of those ideas actually made it onto the web, I’d say that’s still successful.


5. Last of all- the MV1 site needs a redesign.  I’m not saying make it all look exactly alike, but by creating an overall design that can be customized by the individual branches, it’ll create a lot more appealing look.  Along with that, consolidate the branches.  A lot of groups suffer from this.  Why have six or seven branches or imprints, when you could have all your active series in only three or four?  Look at M2K, with four branches that have a good number of active titles each, or Av2K, whose imprints are actually different universes- Avengers 2000, Pendragons, Marvel 2079, Ignition and so on.  Sometimes we just need it.

So, for those of you who I haven’t bored out of their skulls, thanks for reading.  This was a fun piece for me to write.  Once again, although I use MV1 as an example here, most of the ideas I’ve talked about could be used in any fanfic group.  We still have an active viable community out there, that any group could survive in.  Let’s see it happen!