u/Chumlee1917

I found an omnibus of the original run of Creature Commandos from the 1980s and while reading it, had a lightbulb moment as to how to do something different with the idea of a monster squad in WW2

still all in the air but basically Wonder Woman is asked by the allies to use her knowledge and training of magic and the world of gods and monsters to lead the Creature Commandos with Steve Trevor and Sgt Rock against Paula Von Gunther and her army of nazi monster men.

i dunno just something to try different with Wonder Woman since they always give Batman all the cool ideas.

if people react positively I might pick at it more

This all started from this weekend reading Greg Rucka's Year One. And something was bothering me because the rest of the comic I would give anywhere from an 8-9/10............except for Ares who I found to be the weakest part. And then it got me thinking that Ares for me has been one of those Wonder Woman villains who gets boiled down to again and again, big guy in a tin suit with horns and well....I just don't think that's how he should be.

Now by all means if you know a writer/arc that does it better, please tell me. But to continue

I think, if I was doing it, Ares should be more "abstract" as in, yes there is Ares the God of War, but like how the 2017 movie did it....till it dropped the ball, in that Ares doesn't do anything directly, but he's a presence, the little devil on the shoulder whispering in people's ears feeding their anger, their hatreds, all he does is suggest and encourage people to do the worst option, but, and this would have to tie into how the other gods of Olympus are written, he's not directly showing up with a spear and magic helmet to smash up the place. And when he does show up, in disguise, would be like Nic Cage's character in The Lord of War offering gifts of great and terrible weapons to those eager to use his services. Or he finds and creates metahuman villains for Diana to deal with while he can turn to Olympus and act like his hands are clean.

So then, when Diana shows up and confronts him the first time, see a scene of him and Diana standing in like Rome or Sparta, and he goes, "I may be the God of War, but these humans, they do it all themselves even when I do nothing because it is the nature of man to be stupid and violent." And then when Diana foolishly tries to fight him, he easily swats her aside and lays a beat down and tells her flat out, "Tell me Amazon, why am I the villain of your tale when the Amazons are my creation and you time and time again pray to a Goddess of War for aid, that is her sword you carry after all. You were created as a weapon of war by the goddesses of Olympus to be controlled by them. You were trained your whole life to kill and slay man, what does that really say about you, hmmm?"

And then the rest of her arc with and several fights with Ares would be more Diana coming to terms that yes she was created to be a warrior, but also a servant of peace and a philosophical battle of wills over the nature of war and violence and peace, and eventually Ares playing himself into creating his own destruction at Diana's hands thanks in part to Olympus sick of Ares and wanting him punished...but as he falls, he mocks her saying, "So begins a new God of War"

which then leads to the final phase of this character journey for Diana that would be Goddess of War Diana on her journey to transform into the Goddess of Peace....and all the while there's ghost Ares (real or in her mind) taunting her the whole time until Diana beats him one last time by choosing the olive branch over the sword and leaving Ares behind in darkness.

So I know and am planning on getting the Penguin Classic Marvel Thor omnibus that is coming out in November of this year.

But I'm curious as to what you all would recommend as the Must Read Thor authors/runs (and if there are any do not read Thor Arcs) and I'm open to 1960s-2020s. And is there anything to know beforehand when picking up Thor?

I know this question gets asked too much about where to start with Doctor Strange comics, so I am aware that Jed MacKay's run is a good place to start and I intend to. But I'm curious what other arcs to read after him. What are considered the "Must Read Doctor Strange" stand alone arcs that cover Stan Lee to the 2020s to get the best gist of Doctor Strange.

and are there any arcs/writers that you would put in the "Avoid this like the plague"

Key word is realistically so no Grant or Sherman because they weren't ready yet. Both of them had to go through nearly 3 years of war to finally be ready to be the war winners.

The South it seemed got all the old senior officers of the old army besides Scott, was there anyone in the North in 1861 who could have organized and trained the Army of the Potomac and then properly use it against Virginia?

Because that has always been the headscratcher about 1861 to 1862, Lincoln picks the very overrated McClellan who comes in and develops an ego so swollen it could be seen from space and yet squandered months on end refusing to fight and burning up any goodwill he had with Congress and the White House, and even when Lincoln finally forced his hand, squandered both times he was in command and got thousands of men needlessly killed because he refused accept the fact that war requires men dying and going on the offense.

I finally bought the first two volumes of Absolute Batman and am hooked. And I know Scott Snyder has written a ton of Batman over the last while so, what do you all recommend?

Basically I think Sword and Sorcery would be a great place for Absolute Wonder Woman to make her own mark beyond what we already have since both AB and AS are still in the sci fi horror so why not let Wonder Woman have a chance with Fantasy horror and so an arc that has her end up in Absolute Skartaris that is basically Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal and Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian, a world of magic and monsters that's inbetween worlds. Still hashing out the details but basically, a little something something to push Absolute Wonder Woman a bit more in tone to the other two. IE like here Absolute Mouseman is a giant mutant ratking monster who rules a horde of cannibal monster rats. Or like Paula Von Gunther and her people got trapped here and now we have barbarian nazis who ride sabertooth lions. I dunno, but you see the vision right?

Basically I think Sword and Sorcery would be a great place for Absolute Wonder Woman to make her own mark beyond what we already have since both AB and AS are still in the sci fi horror so why not let Wonder Woman have a chance with Fantasy horror and so an arc that has her end up in Absolute Skartaris that is basically Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal and Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian, a world of magic and monsters that's inbetween worlds. Still hashing out the details but basically, a little something something to push Absolute Wonder Woman a bit more in tone to the other two. IE like here Absolute Mouseman is a giant mutant ratking monster who rules a horde of cannibal monster rats. Or like Paula Von Gunther and her people got trapped here and now we have barbarian nazis who ride sabertooth lions. I dunno, but you see the vision right?