gpack3 asked:
brevoortformspring answered:
We’ll be doing some stories like this as part of Cap’s 75th Anniversary Issue in March. The problem with calling something like this TALES OF SUSPENSE is that that’s a name that only speaks to the long-memoried nostalgists in our community who know that Cap’s strip used to run in a title by that name. But to anybody of this generation, TALES OF SUSPENSE implies something very different from what you’re asking for. So, to my mind, it would be better to have a title for such a project that more accurately represented the contents.
SAVAGE CAPTAIN AMERICA, clearly.
Huh, I feel like this is some expert blindspot happening actually. I mean, I knew from pretty early in my getting into comics the “Tales of Suspense” title. Was I just lucky? Yo, followers who are more MCU than comics fans: do you know the “Tales of Suspense” title? Are you aware of it?
(I mean, not that it MATTERS when it comes to actually naming the damn thing, but I’m curious)
“Aware of” and “speaks to” are not the same thing, of course.
I thought it was dumb to try to hang on to the “World’s Finest” title as long as DC did, and “Superman/Batman” was a much clearer and more effective title. I’d feel the same about “Tales of Suspense,” “Tales to Astonish,” “Journey Into Mystery,” “Strange Tales,” “Adventure into Fear” and various other Marvel titles that got attached to Marvel characters by happenstance.
I’ve used some of those titles as individual story titles, and wrote a STRANGE TALES special one time. But I don’t think they’re commercial titles. Tell us what the book’s about, rather than using an old-fashioned title out of a sense of fannish history.
If the goal is to bring in new readers while not alienating existing readers (i.e. to be a ‘commercial title’), I imagine using the old titles as a subtitle might not be the worst way to do it. I.e.: “Thor: Journey Into Mystery” or “Superman/Batman: World’s Finest” or “Captain America: Tales of Suspense.” It might be a little clunky and kitschy but I think it works well enough. Especially for a title like the Cap anthology suggested above which, by its nature, might be a bit clunky and kitschy.
