When In Doubt , Kill Scott Lang - Writers' "Idea Repertoire"

Michael Pullmann made the point in the "shtick" entry about how Chris Claremont tends to use the theme of human slavery a lot in his comics. And he's right, it does seem to pop up often frequently, doesn't it?

So I thought that would be an interesting topic for a discussion...what ideas do certain writers always seem to fall back upon, their so-called " Idea Repertoire"?

I differentiate this from shtick in the sense that I was using shtick to denote a style of writing that a writer uses, no matter what book s/he is writing. This is different from an idea repertoire because you can write a book in a totally different style, but still reuse an idea that you've used in the past.

In addition, I do not think having an idea repertoire is a NEGATIVE thing, really. It is just something that you notice when you read a writer a lot, that certain ideas keep showing up.

Brian Bendis has now killed off Scott Lang twice in his comics.

Chris Claremont uses slave traders a lot.

Karl Kesel is obsessed with old Kirby characters.

Greg Rucka has introduced two strong female characters, both of whom were totally fixated on the star, male character.

Jeph Loeb strip-mined Frank Miller's Year One for The Long Halloween, then used whatever was left over to do Dark Victory, as well.

Warren Ellis seems to enjoy writing characters in his stories that can be his "fiction suit" in the story (that is, a character that embodies him).

What other idea repertoires spring to your mind?