Another Blogging from A to Z April Challenge in the books! I thought about doing this little recap on May 2nd as scheduled but I wanted to rest a bit and do my usual Media Update instead. I am always a little tired at the end of these challenges but I have a lot of fun. And I really did have a lot of fun this year. I continue to write little stories that I enjoy writing. This is what I wrote:
- 1 – Azrael Rises – A Batman: Arkham Story
- 2 – Brewster Summer Vacation – A Fright Night Story
- 3 – Cassandra’s Vision – A Hades Story
- 4 – Data-Driven – A Star Trek: The Next Generation Story
- 5 – Earthbound Spirit – A Poltergeist Story
- 6 – Forensic Audit – A The West Wing Story
- 8 – GI Skipper – A Barbie Story
- 9 – Howdy! – A Ballad of Buster Scruggs Story
- 10 – Investigation: Hawkins, Indiana – A Stranger Things/Resident Evil Story
- 11 – James Moriarty: Desperate Times – A Dracula/Sherlock Holmes Story
- 12 – KnightsWatch – A DC Elseworlds Story
- 13 – Lunch Meeting – A Matlock/Murder She Wrote Story
- 15 – McGraw in Hollywood – A Columbo/Murder She Wrote Crossover
- 16 – Neverland Adventure – A Disney Crossover Story
- 17 – Our New Venture – An Enola Holmes Story
- 18 – Prowler 2.0 – A Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales Story
- 19 – A Quick Substitution – A Marvel Comics Story
- 20 – Rockin’ Roxy Rides Again – A The Winchesters Story
- 22 – SOLDIER – A Final Fantasy VII Story
- 23 – Torchwood Debriefing – A Doctor Who/MIB Crossover Story
- 24 – Under Siege – A Marvel Age of Apocalypse Story
- 25 – Viridian Dreams – A Wizard of Oz Story
- 26 – We Must Be Untethered – An Us Story
- 27 – Xena of the High Seas – A Xena: Warrior Princess Story – Iphigenia
- 29 – You Are Nuts, Lady – A Batman ‘89 Story
- 30 – Zilch Origins – A Psychonauts Story
As usual, I started planning for the challenge well before April. As I have had problems with the letters X and Z before, I decided to try and come up with those ideas first when I actually started actively planning. I say “actively” because I tend to have ideas pop into my head throughout the year and I write those down ASAP.
I was deadset on not doing another X-Teams story for X this year so I sat and thought about what properties could possibly fulfill that letter. I used to love watching Xena: The Warrior Princess so I read a little of her biography and found that Xena was a pirate during her villainous days. I did a little bit of Greek Mythology research and found the story of Iphigenia and the story formed itself at that point.
Z was actually fairly easy as I had replayed Psychonauts 2 recently and I had also watched a playthrough on YouTube. Dr. Loboto’s last line resonated more this time and I really like the story of a bully’s redemption. Bobby Zilch is a thorn in the player’s side during Psychonauts but disappears during the narrative of the two subsequent games. It made me curious and I read a lot of theories on who was Dr. Loboto’s kid.
I ended up writing three DC Comics stories and all of them based on characters in Batman. I have had a story based on the Batman Arkham series of video games on my list for quite some time. I ended up choosing Azrael because he is mysterious in the games. I also wanted to do an Elseworlds based on Batman comics but I ran into a dilemma. I originally thought about writing a story where Barbara Gordon gets her ability to walk restored. I read a lot online about different opinions from wheelchair-bound fans. I decided that it was not my place to fix her and instead was inspired to explore a world where Bruce never got his back fixed after KnightFall. Finally, I have been enjoying the graphic novel Batman ’89 which portrays stories following the storylines introduced in Tim Burton’s Batman movies. I decided to take a stab at that myself.
I try to balance out DC Comics stories with the equivalent amount of Marvel Comics stories. One idea easily came to me months ago when I played Spider-Man Miles Morales. I have been obsessed with the Age of Apocalypse timeline since I first spent my allowance on the graphic novels as they came out. As I have done before, I picked some characters unmentioned in previous AoA stories and went about it. And then there’s just something about She-Hulk that I love writing about her (and reading about her). Having her out on a girl’s night sounded fun.
Nobody asked for any Columbo, Matlock, or Murder She Wrote fanfiction let alone crossovers between the three but I have been watching those shows and I wanted to do it.
Finally, after watching the Barbie movie three times, I began to wonder what happened to the Skipper that escaped into the real world. Transforming her into a badass in another Hasbro property was fun.
So the planning has already begun for the next year. I have some ideas swirling already and I wonder what else I can do.