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| Space Ghost was conceived
as the cartoon answer to the Batman TV-show craze. And while the
sillier elements of camp should be discarded, that is otherwise how Space
Ghost should be played. There shouldn't be any need for a tortured
explanation of why Space Ghost has two teenage sidekicks and a monkey:
He just does. The trick is to use them as actual allies, and not
potential victims, always getting in the way and needing rescuing.
Jan and Jace are well-trained and capable, and even Blip has a purpose. |
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Space Ghost
has his secret headquarters on the hidden Ghost Planet, his Batcave.
The Ghost Planet is full of his crime-fighting gear, but it is also where
he lives. In the original cartoons, Space Ghost was never given a
secret identity. While he was given one in later incarnations, I
would like to disregard it and go back to the drawing board with a new
one. He lives here on the hidden Ghost Planet with Jan, Jace, and
Blip. Does he have an Alfred or a Jarvis? Is there an Aunt
Harriet or a Pepper Potts? Does he have an equivalent of Superman's
Trophy Room or his Galactic Zoo? |
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| It might be fun to leave
Space Ghost's past undiscovered. While I would give him a housekeeper,
and perhaps even give him a private life, with dating and women, I'd like
to leave an air of mystery about him. Like, that the man he once
was is dead. Really dead. |
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Jan and Jace
are twins that Space Ghost rescued and brought to the Ghost Planet, where
he adopted them and trained them as crime-fighters.
If there is an older women
who serves as his Alfred and Jarvis role, she is also someone he rescued
and brought back to his hidden home-world. The same is true even
of Blip. The monkey was rescued by Space Ghost and given a home on
the Ghost Planet.
In a way, I could see Space
Ghost as being a cross between the 1960's TV-show (and DC 'new look') Batman
and the Baron/Rude Nexus (which is funny, since a lot of Nexus is based
on Space Ghost). In addition to the Ghost Ship, I'd like to give
Space Ghost all manner of Ghost-themed crime fighting equipment and mode
of transportation. But like Nexus, it might be fun to have him slowly
populating the Ghost Planet with people he has rescued and brought back
with him to take part in his noble mission. Perhaps there could be
a love interest for Space Ghost's secret identity to be found amongst those
he has rescued...?
I'd also like to deepen Jan
and Jace's characters, and I'd like to start with the original idea that
they are Robin, the Boy Wonder as the original Wonder Twins. Maybe
there can even be hints that, like Space Ghost's alter-ego, Jan and Jace--like
all the 'survivors' of the Ghost Planet-- are dead, and sharing in his
strange afterlife... |
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| I'd also like to deepen
Jan and Jace's brother-sister relationship and, like Robin, give them a
life away from their mentor. What do these kids do for fun?
Surely they don't spend all their time fighting crime with Space Ghost.
What if there are other young people--even some non-human humanoids--among
those who have been rescued and now live on the Ghost Planet? If
I do that, I'd like to keep Jan and Jace's special place as Space Ghost's
side-kicks, rather than making them two of many. |
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It would also
be fun to give Jan and Jace their own Teen Titans. Regardless of
how far apart they all are, all these characters inhabit the same world,
and occasionally team-up, so why not a team-up of the teenagers?
There's Jan, Jace, Young Samson (& Goliath) and Birdboy to start with,
and there's probably other characters that could be brought in-- such as
Dino Boy. Jan & Jace would together take Robin's role as team
leaders.
I'd like to have Space Ghost
being some sort of officially deputized law-enforcement agent, as Batman
and Superman were in the Silver Age. Space Ghost is deputized by
the same agency that sanctions the Galaxy Trio.
There should be team-ups
and cross-overs between Space Ghost, Mightor, Birdman, and all the rest.
But it would also be a good idea to have an adventure involving a team-up
between Jan and Gravity Girl, two young women in a 1960's-styled science-fiction
story.
I think I'd also like to
make sure Jan and Jace are portrayed as good kids. In looking at
his picture, I could see Jace as a little cocky, and perhaps Jan as a little
conservative, but they should otherwise be model space-age teenagers.
I'd like the same to go for
Space Ghost himself and all the super-heroes: They're all 'good guys'
in the traditional sense. The dark motivations and fatal flaws will
be saved for the villains they fight. |
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| We'll also explore the world
of Space Ghost. The human race now travels between the stars.
On Earth, America still thrives, protected by super-heroes like Birdman
and the Impossibles. The Impossibles even do tours of the colonized
planets, where the members of the Galaxy Trio come from. But not
all the regions of known space are safe, and that is where the Galaxy Trio
and Space Ghost come in. |
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Out in space,
humans have encountered some human races, but they have also encountered
races hostile to humans, such as Brak and Zorak.
Rather than Blip being a
simple Earth-monkey, what if he is actually from a colony of monkeys descended
from a group that was sent into space, got lost, and--against all odds--
survived and founded a colony of space-monkeys!
Over hundreds of years (since
the original monkeys shot into space preceded humans) Blips ancestors evolved
an even greater level of intelligence-- to the point they built a great
monkey city. Maybe Blip could go back for a visit sometime, and visit
family. |
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| There's a lot that could
be done with the Space Ghost characters. The most important thing,
though is to keep the spirit and look of the original cartoon while giving
them all adventures geared towards an expanded, all-ages audience. |
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