Well guys, here's the story details I have put together so far. This is meant to be a one-shot superhero humor book, broken into 4-to-8 page "chapters" to be divided up among the participating artists. The tentative superhero team name is "THE NEW CREW". I know, I know... not the most descriptive. (Someone else has suggested "The Odd Squad", but I'm not sure if that has been used elsewhere before.)

Premise: This is a satirical look at the modern "cult of celebrity", using super-heroes as an analogy. The idea came to me after I realized an important fact about American pop culture: We, the people, are unbelievably gullible. Our politicians can lie to our face and their popularity will soar even higher once the lie is exposed. Professional athletes can be arrested for all sorts of crimes yet still keep their multi-million dollar contracts. "Spin" and "image" (not the comic company) seem to matter far more than reality... which prompted me to wonder what would happen if superheroes ever took advantage of this innate gullibility of the public.

What if an objectively pathetic superhero team (like DC's old Legion of Substitute Heroes Auxiliary) had a Star Wars level marketing budget? It wouldn't matter if their powers were useless or their skills were inept, because they'd be famous! Armed with polling data and focus groups, they could win the hearts of the public as surely as they lose their battles with the villains.

This one-shot book would feature a group of second-rate heroes who become famous based on their publicity, not their performance. They make up for weak powers and incompetence with a hefty public relations campaign and sympathetic media coverage. The news editor in their hometown is the exact opposite J. Jonah Jameson of Spider-Man fame -- He sells the news by hyping the heroes, and so he will take even their embarrassing losses and report it as a victory for the public. (Not unlike certain news reporters will do for certain politicians. But I digress.) And when the team's failures are too big to sweep under the rug, it just makes them all the more popular. Their unofficial motto is: "At last: Heroes you don't have to look up to!" That, or "The best heroes money can buy!"

The city where the New Crew operates (as-yet-unnamed, but probably someplace somewhat small, shallow and weird -- which describes any number of southern California coastal towns) has another solo super-heroine named "Virtue" who has been protecting them for years but never seems to get any credit or recognition. All she ever gets is negative publicity as the local media try to make the New Crew look good by making her look bad.

AUTHOR'S UPDATE: The New Crew's hometown was eventually named "New Viras City". The name is a play on the word "veracity", a quality sorely lacking in most of the characters there. As a side note, Viras was also the name of an alien squid that once fought Gamera the flying turtle in an old Japanese monster movie. But that has nothing whatsoever to do with the New Crew at all, so consider it a free bit of useless trivia.)

The comic book will feature one of the team's adventures as seen from different perspectives -- The hype and spin of how their actions were reported on TV, as contrasted with the less-inspiring truth as seen from the more honest and conscientious members of the team, as well as from the perspective of the town's other super-heroine who is always working in their shadow. While not an overtly "Christian" story, it is intended to be a satire on our modern, amoral, TV-driven and celebrity-crazed culture. There will be two Christian characters thrown into the mix to provide a sane counterpoint to the New Crew's manufactured "spin". The central moral to the story is that the truth is the truth regardless of how much spin you put on it... or how many people believe the lie while it's convenient. And that "the right thing to do" is still "the right thing to do" even if it is a thankless job ignored by popular opinion polls.

(AUTHOR'S UPDATE: The two Christian characters in the story were later reduced down to one. Virtue remains the underdog heroine whose Christian faith is a major motivating factor in her life. Rearguard was originally proposed to be a Christian awkwardly working within the New Crew. However, as a character, Rearguard seemed much better suited for the role of a reluctant hero that is well-intentioned but uncommitted -- religiously and otherwise.)

I'm tentative regarding the ethnic diversity of the characters. As Scott Adams has commented regarding Dilbert, I don't think any particular group would want to be represented by a team of incompetent stooges -- and yet I'll need somebody on the team besides mutant freaks and aliens. I'm just glad that humanoid lizards, little green men, and walking puddles of glue don't have political action groups...