I see that “Wild Guard: Casting Call” is getting press in the latest issue of TV Guide. It’s just another opportunity for me to yell, “dammit” and smack my shiny head.

Back in January I wrote about 25 pages worth of script for a Marvel/Epic comic submission called “American Marvel”. The concept was pretty simple. What if there was an “American Idol” like TV show in the Marvel universe in which budding young hero wannabes competed for the chance to become Marvel’s next great superstar?

It was a cool idea, but at the time Marvel was soliciting one-shot stories only. Trying to cram the set up for the show and the introduction of 12 characters into one issue…and have a story…was proving to be extremely challenging.

Furthermore, it was forcing me to start with the show being “mid-season” and the contestants narrowed to a final eight. I really wanted to start with the first episode, and have the thousands of wannabes lining up for their chance.

While I was sturggling with that, the idea for “Young Ancient One” popped and I immediately fell in love with it. “American Marvel” went on the back burner.

Less than two months later, Stan Lee and Bruce Nash annouce they’re working on “Who Wants To Be a Superhero“. Incredibly, the description for their show sounds exactly like my “American Marvel” show (sans the grand prize, which would have been actual super powers in my comic).

So, I guess it really was a great idea. No doubt my Epic book would have been featured in TV Guide instead of Wild Guard.

Ah well…coulda, shoulda, woulda been.