Anubis' "How would you do it?" Thread.

[Anubis]

Sounds pretty good.

 

[roach]

better than Ellis

 

[DBM]

Sounds pretty good.

Thanks

better than Ellis

Based on what he's said so far, I agree. I'm still hoping he pulls out something great, but he's managed to already turn me away.

 

[Dread]

Good idea for Elsa, DBM. I could see it selling if done well. The female audience in comics is a tricky one, and often times when they DO attach themselves to a property or title, it is unintentional. Ancedotal evidence suggests that while women don't make up a sizeable amount of comic book readers (although many do), more of them are into Manga and Anime. And "X-Men: Evolution", a show aimed at the usual 9-15 year old male audience, was a resounding hit with girls around that age-group. Considering that half the cast were women, and Rogue got a LOT of focus, it shouldn't have been a shock. Many fan-sites of the show at the time, including Beyond Evolution at Toonzone, were founded by, yep, women.

To tell you the truth, a lot of my "original" ideas have been posted already on this topic pages ago, so the most I have left to offer is a simple action thriller story starring two Marvel characters. It's the sort of mini that could likely be pushed out for X-Fans and expected to be made into a TPB. The plot is almost childishly simple. But I'm a believer that simple plots can still be satisfying if they entertain.

So, here goes with what I have left:
Taskmaster/Mystique

I don't have a working title beyond the two stars of the mini, Taskmaster and Mystique. When I read the TASKMASTER series from 2002, where Taskmaster seemed very adept at using his power and hologram emitor to imitate people, I instantly thought it would be very interesting if he met Mystique, the X-World's espionage fatale. Both of them make livings and operate by "becoming" other people, and by using traits from other people, and leaving themselves, seemingly, as "blank slates", forever adapting to their situation or stimuli. In the series, Taskmaster never removed his mask willingly, and I intend to keep that as a quirk; he never reveals his name or face not because of fears of reprisals, but because he feels his real self is a "nobody", an average Joe that he despises; he'd much rather be Taskmaster. Mystique, meanwhile, is such an actress and spy that many people are hard pressed to know where her true feelings end and the act begins. And while Taskmaster has the uncanny ability of "photographic reflexes", the insistance is that he is not a mutant.

As I said, the plot of the story is simple for a direct purpose; the real meat of the story is how Taskmaster and Mystique interact and operate in a situation where they need to rely on each other to live. And of course, to showcase some clever and spectacular collisions between the pair and their enemies.

Who are the enemies, and what is this plot? Like I said, simple. A mysterious old businessman, who claims to have been effected personally by Mystique's past actions as a mutant terrorist and nearing the end of his life, assembles a cabal of Marvel's deadliest non-mutant mercs and hitmen, and gives them a simple objective: $75 Million dollars for Mystique in a body bag. He claims that they can all operate individually, or form an alliance and split the hit; all he asks is that they murder her, and somehow are able to prove it to either him or his creepy lawyers (should he pass on before the task is completed). He even offers them each $1 million for expenses and claims if they take it, they are devoted to the job.

The group is basically an eclectic bunch I figured would be interesting, with the rule being "no mutants", as the man is a bigot who completely hates and mistrusts them. There are some A-Listers and likely mostly Z-Listers who are expendable...which is the point. Not all of them would be living. The group I had this far: Bushwhacker, Amazon, Blackout, Mongoose, Bullseye, Shotgun, Constrictor, Boomerang, Warrent, Americop, Answer, and MAYBE Foriegner and/or a Scourge. Many of them I plan to revamp and make creepier, more dangerous, and more efficient. The story is that many of them decided to become more focused on handling street-level crimes outside of NYC where most heroes are. They all have no attachment to Mystique and that is the point; many of them see her as a "challenge" and the sort of kill they could brag about. Mongoose would sort of be like a Sabretooth, only much stronger and with super-speed. But Answer, which his ability to gain any power that is "the answer" for a select situation, would be pretty potent.

Of course, the old man sent out an invite to another merc, who happened not to open that email that day because he was already on another mission; Taskmaster.

Mystique would be in the middle of an espionage mission to sabotage some company doing research she felt was anti-mutant. Taskmaster would coincidentally be stealing records from it for another company. The place, however, is rocked by explosions from some of "the cabal" sent after Mystique. The pair run into each other and breifly fight. However, the hitmen sent after Mystique have no qualms about icing anyone who seems to be "with" her, so Taskmaster quickly finds himself alongside this shapeshifter he never met.

Basically, Mystique offers to hire Taskmaster as her "bodyguard" in the official capacity, but in reality both of them are fascinated in some degree by the other. Sort of like a merc meets a merc comin' through the rye. Neither of them are superheroes; they are not merciful to many of their enemies, and the plan basically amounts to a climax where Taskmaster and Mystique are storming the building of the old man in hopes of killing him, with all his hired goons fighting them along the way. The crux of it will be Mystique being unable to believe Taskmaster is just a normal human and being puzzled by her lack of ambition (Mystique is a terrorist with an overall goal, after all; Taskmaster works for money and nothing else). Taskmaster, on the other hand, is attracted to Mystique unlike a lot of other guys she hangs with, and feels she would be happier if she "lightened up". Again, neither of them are superheroes; imagine a SIN CITY thing with two hired killers making out over a dead body; that's them. But of course in that fashion, while there is chemistry, there is also tension, as one can never be sure the other won't backstab them at the last moment.

And maybe that'd be the best way to describe this, a metahuman noir story set in the MU with two characters who, to the best of my knowledge, have never met.

 

[Anubis]

Good one Dread.

 

[Dread]

Good one Dread.

Thanks. Maybe I should add Crossbones to that little "cabal", too. I've been interested in using him for the longest times. I feel he's often underrated. And I like his design to boot.

 

[DBM]

Thanks. Maybe I should add Crossbones to that little "cabal", too. I've been interested in using him for the longest times. I feel he's often underrated. And I like his design to boot.

Definitely a good idea to include Crossbones. He's always been one of my favorites.

I've actual had the Mystique/Taskmaster idea myself before, though I didn't go the direction you went.

 

[Anubis]

I had an idea I posted in another thread. I guess since Muze revived this one, I may as well expand upon that idea.

The working title for this is Johnny’s six. It's about a mutant Meta morph that suffers from multiple personality disorder. Basically, Johnny was taken by this corrupt organization shortly after his powers manifested. He could transform into anybody. And even duplicate powers. Imagine somebody having their own Hulk. Or Silver Surfer? Well, that was their plan. They tried brainwashing him, torturing him, anything to get him compliant. This young man faced such incredible horrors in his 5 years in their possession. He retreated inside himself. Developing six different personalities. Each personality has their own appearance, thoughts, and powers. They are,


Kate - An eight-year-old girl with the power to create hard light constructs from her mind. She's sweet and innocent, as long as you don't piss her off.

Paco - A smoove talkin, Hispanic guy with the power to move objects with his mind. He's a ladies man, and quite attracted to Emily, the love interest of the story. And a bit jealous that she seems to care more about Johnny than him.

Charity - A fiery little redhead with, you guessed it, the pyrokenisis. She can create and control fire. She's a hot head, and a bit unstable.

Miss Brown - She's a 55-year-old black woman with Super strength. Now that’s just a crazy enough combination to make her a fan favorite. She's very maternal and protective of the rest. She and Emily get along well.

Nasty Ned - He's a dirty, smelly, bum with the power of, well, stink. He can control his disgusting cloud of gas. It can work as knock out gas, or even corrode metals.

The Unholy Bastard - He is by far the most dangerous personality. He is all the hate and rage that has built up inside this guy for the last 5 years of his life. His powers are that of reality warping. It was he that broke them all out of where they were holding them. Killing every doctor, nurse, and security guard in the building. Turning them into horrible, warped, freakish husks. He doesn’t' come out much, but, when he does, watch out, cause somebody’s dead.

Anyway, with the help of the bastard, Johnny was able to escape. He meets up with a young runaway named Emily. She has a very screwed up past herself. I was thinking molestation, or maybe serial killer father or something. Haven't decided yet. Anyway, she and Johnny end up together. Running from the organization that is trying to reacquire him. Mr. Hunt heads the capture team up. Think Agent Smith only with a bit more personality. He has a team of freaks that also went through the same thing that Johnny went through. Haven't decided on them yet, but they're gonna be pretty powerful. Well, that’s pretty much all I got right now. What you think?

 

[Dread]

Interesting idea. Forgive the resurrection from Page 11, but...

Glad many of you seemed to like my ideas.

Now for another...

"How would Dread do..."

New Avengers: I mentioned this idea way back when someone had a "make your own Avengers team" topic in this forum, but since I guess the idea fits this topic I'll restate it, and hope not to be ripped off. Basically, my idea was for some ex-Avengers to try to gather many of the "younger" superheroes, the next generation as it were, and try to show them the ropes in hopes of keeping the spirit of the then-disbanded Avengers alive through them. I had dubbed it "Avengers: Next Generation" and had a very ambitious roster:

The Teachers: Retired Avengers who now seek to teach some of what they learned to the younger heroes:

Justice
Firestar (both now a married couple, Firestar expecting a child)
James Rhodes (fresh from having sold his armor in The Crew)
Stingray (I figured they could use his hi-tech base sometimes, and he could be the wise scientist of the team)

The Next Generation

Nova
Night-Thrasher
Namorita (planned on returning her Kymera name, if only to seperate her from Namor)
Speedball
Dusk
Ricochet
Prodigy
Squirrel-Girl
Darkhawk

Associates/Guest Speakers
Silohette
Rage
Moon Knight

Of course, the Next Generation was mostly a mishmash of various New Warriors and Slingers, which was the point. I figured if Marvel wants a "Teen Titans", they may as well do it right. I always saw the New Warriors at their best attempt at something like that, a team of teenaged heroes who one day wanted to become Avengers, much like many Teen Titans grew up and some actually became Justice Leaguers or solo heroes. Nova would be like your "head of the class" type, since he has always wanted to be an Avenger, Speedball evolving in a wisecracking kind of hero (who has a dark side), and Night-Thrasher actually calmed down a bit during his haitus and is hesitant to go back into "angry vigilante" mode. But essentially these three would want to become Avengers most of all. Darkhawk is an odd character and my angle for him was that he was becoming more violent and inhuman in terms of personality the more often he became Darkhawk, since basically what would happen is that Simon Powel's mind would go into Darkhawk's techno-organic alien body, while his human body was in some alien ship/realm, where Darkhawk was when Powel wasn't summoning him. I figured the more often Powel's mind was in Darkhawk, the sooner he would lose his humanity and start to become more violent, like the machine, a fate he seeks to avoid. As for the 3 remaining Slingers, they have become darker in nature since the death of their pal Hornet at the hands of Wolverine, and they want to become part of this new order because they don't trust "the adults" much anymore. They are basically tired of seeing the world and others kept in a "soap opera" by the current adult heroes, so they join so they can be more involved in affairs. And Squirrel Girl? That's solely on a poster's topic here and I figured she'd be fun as the least experienced person there, like the reader's way in (as well as by virtue of a recommendation by Iron Man, and her victory, somehow, over Dr. Doom).

I really hadn't planned a main storyline yet, aside for various short adventures that gave everyone specific focus one at a time. The point of the "teachers" wouldn't exactly be to teach them how to be heroes, since all of them have been heroes for an adventure or dozens of adventures. The point would be to show them how to be a team, like New Avengers. Some of those shorter adventures being: someone managing to get the War Machine armor and capitlize on the bad will the Avengers have post-Dissassembled and frame Rhodes for crimes, a potential tale connecting Thrasher to the vigilante Cardiac, Speedball driven over the edge by a serial killer, and so on. One theme would be that some of the Avengers old enemies who missed out on the chance to beat the real Avengers before they disbanded now may go after the "kids" simply out of spite, like Ultron. Teenage heroes need to earn their wings through trials of fire, so after some shorter adventures, it'd be time to have them face big guns.

That's all for now, again. Of course, Vaughn is now doing a somewhat simular thing with having reformed teen heroes assemble in "Runaways" right now, which is awesome beyond words.

I just thought I'd revisit this idea a little in the wake of more recent comics out there, like the end of Vaughan's first run of the second volume of RUNAWAYS with Excelsior and YOUNG AVENGERS set to finish their first arc sometime.

One may think that an "Avengers: Next Generation" thing may seem a bit much considering that we have YOUNG AVENGERS doing the same thing, but I feel it could still work. The Young Avengers operate in the NYC area; this squad could be located outside of New York State, especially since I planned for them to use Stingray's Hydrobase pretty often; it's about time Stingray got some focus and a chance to shine as yet another Marvel genuis.

However, two of the members I listed are part of Vaughan's "Excelsior" team, located in CA, and he writes them so well that I wouldn't want to break up that team; so Ricochet and Darkhawk would have to be replaced. Slott also writes GLA well, but that's more of a humor mag as it should be; I'll keep Squirrel-Girl on the list because here she'd be intending to become more mainstream. Her time with the comforts of the GLA would likely have helped her, though; add some more experience to her belt, especially with dealing with tragedy.

So I've been thinking of replacements on the roster for Darkhawk and Ricochet, and I got one idea from thumbing through one of the newer generation of Handbooks; a new Sun Girl. The original Sun-Girl operated in the 50's and fight crime here and there before vanishing to write a book; her gimmick weapon was a wrist device that shone a "sunbeam ray" to blind enemies. My idea was to give the original Sun Girl a granddaughter who ends up finding out the legacy of her now-passed grandmother and for one reason or another wants to follow in her footsteps; likely because they live in one of those many states between NY and CA where the appearence of superheroes is rather rare (unless Hulk is ripping something up or the Avengers were called for something). Basically the original Sun Girl would have had a journal about her adventures in an attic, with her "book" having been published in the 60's, although it wasn't a best-seller and has mostly been forgotten (hence why they weren't comic-book-rich). I'd establish the wrist-device as a piece of alien technology found half a century earlier that naturally bestowed some abilities and slowed aging, but at the cost of slowly radiating the body to the point where the risk of cancer is high, which is what this new girl's grandmother died of. However, over the decades of non-use, the wrist device "mutated" a little, so when the new Sun Girl puts it on, she gains more advanced powers to go with her younger body.

Basically I wanted two people with alien empowerment on the team, and since Nova is one (and Darkhawk is out), Sun Girl could be the other. Plus, it'd allow for Marvel to have another "legacy", which they are very short on when it comes to non-X superheroes. As for replacing Ricochet, that may end up being either Gravity or Machine Teen, depending on how their respective mini's end. Considering that Machine Man was once considered an Avenger, I'm leaning more towards Machine Teen; every team needs a good andriod.

 

[Muze]

How would I do _________

Ant-Man [yeah, like you didn't see that coming]

I'm trying something different this time and focusing mainly on the first Ant-Man; Doctor Henry Pym. i see him as being the start of everything wrong about the character. if he is made as good as he can be, perhaps all of that will trickle down to the successors of his various roles (Yellowjacket, Goliath, Ant-Man, etc.). On to the show.

Meet Henry Pym; man of science/action hero. My version of Pym would be far removed from the lab coat wearing doormat that you'd be familiar with from reading Tales to Astonish. You can think of my version as the 616 version of MAX 'Doc' Spectrum. He's a science prodigy (chemistry, engineering, genetics), athletic, and the CIA's wet dream. see, in my version, Pym is actually an adventurer for a good chunk of time before ever thinking about costumes or insects. he's recruited right out of college trained as a field operative; using the roles of teaching assistant, industrial chemist, and animatronics engineer occassionally as cover. He grows up very fast as the assignments become more dangerous and the secrets he's let in on become less & less palatable. Then the defining moment of his life arrives. he falls in love with the soviet operative (named 'Maria') sent to kill him. Their romance throws a wrench in the assassination plot and results in Maria being executed by her superiors. this begins Henry's first breakdown. he wonders through the region; using that MacGyveresque brain of his to track them down Maria's killers and exact revenge upon them.

Pym puts a big dent in the soviet intelligence network before being caught, tortured, interrogated, and imprisoned. all that keeps him alive is his reputation as a scientist. they try to force him into the role of weapons designer. When he seems deadset against building a weapon of mass destruction, his captors settle for the young genius developing more efficient ways of spying on their enemies. That is when he comes up with, arguably, his greatest discovery; a group of subatomic particles that (in pill form) allowed an individual to alter their own size. The soviets planned to use these 'pym particles' to sneak spies into the United States. They seriously underestimated their prisoner who had been working on weapons of his own in his spare time; a barebones cybernetic helmet that allowed him rudimentary communication with insect life and a weaponized version of the pym particle gas. as you can suspect, Pym escaped and put a serious hurting on his captors before disappearing off of the face of the Earth. like i mentioned, his sanity had slipped a bit after Maria's death and even more during his forced isolation & torture. all that time, his only companions were the occassional insects who found their way into his cell. he studied their behavior and came to identify with them. it was that time in his life that shaped his dual identity; the Astonishing Ant-Man. Operating overseas, Pym starts his career as little more than an urban legend. he secretly breaks up crime rings, stops assassination attempts, and ferrets information back to american intelligence agencies as the Ant-Man. he wears the costume (really just a wide brimmed hat, gas mask, and long coat at 1st) to conceal his identity but spends most of his time staying far away from the public, living off the earth, and tinkering in his makeshift lab.

At some point, Pym realizes what a mess his life has become. he decides to travel someplace warmer; Vienna. He does odd jobs and puts to bed a few unsolved crimes in his Ant-Man guise. Some of his depression starts waring off. he starts shaving again and spending less time in underground tunnels with ants. and just when he's about to go into early retirement, he meets his future partner. Janet Van Dyne is a young socialite vacationing abroad with her reknowned scientist/lecturer father. she and Hank bump into each other in the marketplace. she finds him intriguing but they don't really have time to socialize & Hank's not really thinking about hooking up. the conference where Jan's father is speaking is hit by terrorists. Professor Van Dyne, her father, is killed. Hank witnesses this and the distraught Janet. a conflicted Pym, approaches Jan a few days later; surprised that she hasn't returned home to America. she seems a little off and confides in him that she plans to avenge her father's death. apparently, they've caught one of the terrorists & Jan's always wanted to try her pistol markmanship. Hank tries to talk her out of it but is about as effective as any complete stranger would be. He tries again but in costume. he convinces Jan that there are greater injustices to combat; that personal revenge wouldn't make her happy or further justice. maybe because he was lonely or feeling guilty about not being there to stop Professor van Dyne's death, Hank takes Jan under his wing and teaches her everything he can about espionage, self-defense, and heroing. he also creates the Wasp guise; initially a mechanical flight suit &, later, actually bioengineering. the two of them become a size-changing force to be reckoned with.

moving right along, Jan copes much better with her father's death than Hank did his lovers's. and she's an outgoing sociable type where Pym had become a somewhat paranoid & jaded recluse. she pressures him into moving back to the States (and later suggests that they help start up the Avengers). Hank balances his time between a weapons designer for the military and a costumed superhero. the rest of his history plays out pretty much the same except for a couple noticeable differences. the constant augmenting of his own powers results in Pym becoming a borderline schizophrenic. he kills the Elf Queen during a paranoid delusion and nearly hospitalizes Jan in a similar instance. the Avengers have to then track their teammate down as he has become a Punisher-esque vigilante in the Yellowjacket guise. Pym is captured and institutionalized for a time. once let out, he relocates to the West Coast where a very persistent Hawkeye convinces him to become science advisor to the Avengers West Coast branch. it's there that his long road to redemption begins & continues. i've left out big chunks of his continuity for the sake of space. Ultron is still around to be Hank's version of Moby Dick or Frankenstein's Monster. in my version, Ultron is more like Pym's mirror image instead of a 'son.' he becomes involved with Hank & the Avengers because his paranoia has him believing that they are out to destroy 'him.' my version of Scott Lang, Will Foster, & Rita Demara are all there, as well, but i don't want to bore you. so to sum it up, my version of Pym is a rogue CIA agent with a few mental problems and a fascination with insects; completely unpredictable and much less of a boyscout.

 

[Dread]

Interesting. And I don't think your other ideas would bore anyone. Hell, my last post was about making a legacy out of a forgotten Golden Age Heroine.

 

[Muze]

Interesting. And I don't think your other ideas would bore anyone. Hell, my last post was about making a legacy out of a forgotten Golden Age Heroine.

thank you. but it was your tackling of a golden age heroine which game the idea to mess around with a professional jobber like Pym.

 

[Anubis]

I had a few ideas about what to do with Dr. Pym. I've always felt that he should just abandon the alter egos all together and just go with Dr. Pym again. No masks, no real costumes, (Something that grows and shrinks. A lot like the suit he had on the crappy Avengers cartoon.) Just Pym using all his abilites. I think he should be Marvels Doc Savage.

I had an idea for him taking a job in Chicago. He and Jan are, taking a time out so to speak, so it' just him for now. I would have him going to see a shrink. I haven't decided yet on weather it will be Doc Sampson or just some guy, but I want it to be a big part of the story. If it was Sampson then you could have the cool graphic of him talking to him in his shrunken size. Chilling on doll furniture or something. He's got alot of issues that he's never really resolved. And I don't mean to make his mental health a driving force in the run, just, use it as the narration for the adventures. Looking at whats going on in his life at that moment. Taking on industrial spies, adapting to his role as defender of Chicago, as well as looks at the past and some of his thoughts on various situations in the life of Pym. Like when he passed the mantle of Ant-Man over to Lang and his feelings about his death.

Hank would mainly be dealing with Super Science. Actively using his many gifts to try and change the world. Something that you rarely see guys like Stark and Richards do. Slott already explored some of the things Pym could do with the "Big House" in She-Hulk. Why not transportation of items? Feeding the hungry by enlarging food. A tomato the size of a freaken buick. Building smaller, computers. Packing up stuff you might find in a super computer in the pentagon that takes up an entire room, and shrinking it down to the size of a PC. Or, you know, crap like that? And seeing as crime is in more places than the NYC, he would basically help out were he can in Chicago. What ever happened to Black Goliath? He might be a nice support character. Toss in a few super villians, maybe Whirlwind, maybe a new Egghead (Though I would totally ditch the name.) Try to make him a respectable hero. Flesh him out more without the whole crazy guy/Wife beater image. Embrace it, but don't dwell on it. Show people why Pym is so damn cool. Create a new love intrest for him. Sure, he and Jan may get back together, but really, he needs to at least try to move on with his life. I feel that it could definatly work.

 

[Dread]

It could work. However, progress is a curseword at Marvel these days. That's why brainstorming here is fun. If the ramifications of HOM are true, Marvel will just be backpeddling to the status quo of 20 years ago, which is not moving ahead.

A LOT of heroes could be doing more than they are for the world, Pym included.

 

[Muze]

It could work. However, progress is a curseword at Marvel these days. That's why brainstorming here is fun. If the ramifications of HOM are true, Marvel will just be backpeddling to the status quo of 20 years ago, which is not moving ahead.

A LOT of heroes could be doing more than they are for the world, Pym included.

i'm interested in seeing how Tony Stark reacts to Pym after House of M; assuming that they keep their memories of it. Pym created a chemical that attacks mutant DNA; killing the host (violently). this happened in House of M: Iron Man. i smell another nervous breakdown.

 

[Muze]

I had a few ideas about what to do with Dr. Pym. I've always felt that he should just abandon the alter egos all together and just go with Dr. Pym again. No masks, no real costumes, (Something that grows and shrinks. A lot like the suit he had on the crappy Avengers cartoon.) Just Pym using all his abilites. I think he should be Marvels Doc Savage.

I had an idea for him taking a job in Chicago. He and Jan are, taking a time out so to speak, so it' just him for now. I would have him going to see a shrink. I haven't decided yet on weather it will be Doc Sampson or just some guy, but I want it to be a big part of the story. If it was Sampson then you could have the cool graphic of him talking to him in his shrunken size. Chilling on doll furniture or something. He's got alot of issues that he's never really resolved. And I don't mean to make his mental health a driving force in the run, just, use it as the narration for the adventures. Looking at whats going on in his life at that moment. Taking on industrial spies, adapting to his role as defender of Chicago, as well as looks at the past and some of his thoughts on various situations in the life of Pym. Like when he passed the mantle of Ant-Man over to Lang and his feelings about his death.

Hank would mainly be dealing with Super Science. Actively using his many gifts to try and change the world. Something that you rarely see guys like Stark and Richards do. Slott already explored some of the things Pym could do with the "Big House" in She-Hulk. Why not transportation of items? Feeding the hungry by enlarging food. A tomato the size of a freaken buick. Building smaller, computers. Packing up stuff you might find in a super computer in the pentagon that takes up an entire room, and shrinking it down to the size of a PC. Or, you know, crap like that? And seeing as crime is in more places than the NYC, he would basically help out were he can in Chicago. What ever happened to Black Goliath? He might be a nice support character. Toss in a few super villians, maybe Whirlwind, maybe a new Egghead (Though I would totally ditch the name.) Try to make him a respectable hero. Flesh him out more without the whole crazy guy/Wife beater image. Embrace it, but don't dwell on it. Show people why Pym is so damn cool. Create a new love intrest for him. Sure, he and Jan may get back together, but really, he needs to at least try to move on with his life. I feel that it could definatly work.

well that enlarging food stuff turned out to be dangerous. Hank and Bill worked on Project B.I.G back in the 90's. just ended up creating rampaging insect monsters. otherwise, sounds solid.

 

[Dread]

Good ideas for Ant-Man. Just brainstorming some more "New Avenger/Avengers: Next Generation" stuff. SLINGERS fans may like this next idea. Reposting my last two installments:
Interesting idea. Forgive the resurrection from Page 11, but...

Glad many of you seemed to like my ideas.

Now for another...

"How would Dread do..."

New Avengers: I mentioned this idea way back when someone had a "make your own Avengers team" topic in this forum, but since I guess the idea fits this topic I'll restate it, and hope not to be ripped off. Basically, my idea was for some ex-Avengers to try to gather many of the "younger" superheroes, the next generation as it were, and try to show them the ropes in hopes of keeping the spirit of the then-disbanded Avengers alive through them. I had dubbed it "Avengers: Next Generation" and had a very ambitious roster:

The Teachers: Retired Avengers who now seek to teach some of what they learned to the younger heroes:

Justice
Firestar (both now a married couple, Firestar expecting a child)
James Rhodes (fresh from having sold his armor in The Crew)
Stingray (I figured they could use his hi-tech base sometimes, and he could be the wise scientist of the team)

The Next Generation

Nova
Night-Thrasher
Namorita (planned on returning her Kymera name, if only to seperate her from Namor)
Speedball
Dusk
Ricochet
Prodigy
Squirrel-Girl
Darkhawk

Associates/Guest Speakers
Silohette
Rage
Moon Knight

Of course, the Next Generation was mostly a mishmash of various New Warriors and Slingers, which was the point. I figured if Marvel wants a "Teen Titans", they may as well do it right. I always saw the New Warriors at their best attempt at something like that, a team of teenaged heroes who one day wanted to become Avengers, much like many Teen Titans grew up and some actually became Justice Leaguers or solo heroes. Nova would be like your "head of the class" type, since he has always wanted to be an Avenger, Speedball evolving in a wisecracking kind of hero (who has a dark side), and Night-Thrasher actually calmed down a bit during his haitus and is hesitant to go back into "angry vigilante" mode. But essentially these three would want to become Avengers most of all. Darkhawk is an odd character and my angle for him was that he was becoming more violent and inhuman in terms of personality the more often he became Darkhawk, since basically what would happen is that Simon Powel's mind would go into Darkhawk's techno-organic alien body, while his human body was in some alien ship/realm, where Darkhawk was when Powel wasn't summoning him. I figured the more often Powel's mind was in Darkhawk, the sooner he would lose his humanity and start to become more violent, like the machine, a fate he seeks to avoid. As for the 3 remaining Slingers, they have become darker in nature since the death of their pal Hornet at the hands of Wolverine, and they want to become part of this new order because they don't trust "the adults" much anymore. They are basically tired of seeing the world and others kept in a "soap opera" by the current adult heroes, so they join so they can be more involved in affairs. And Squirrel Girl? That's solely on a poster's topic here and I figured she'd be fun as the least experienced person there, like the reader's way in (as well as by virtue of a recommendation by Iron Man, and her victory, somehow, over Dr. Doom).

I really hadn't planned a main storyline yet, aside for various short adventures that gave everyone specific focus one at a time. The point of the "teachers" wouldn't exactly be to teach them how to be heroes, since all of them have been heroes for an adventure or dozens of adventures. The point would be to show them how to be a team, like New Avengers. Some of those shorter adventures being: someone managing to get the War Machine armor and capitlize on the bad will the Avengers have post-Dissassembled and frame Rhodes for crimes, a potential tale connecting Thrasher to the vigilante Cardiac, Speedball driven over the edge by a serial killer, and so on. One theme would be that some of the Avengers old enemies who missed out on the chance to beat the real Avengers before they disbanded now may go after the "kids" simply out of spite, like Ultron. Teenage heroes need to earn their wings through trials of fire, so after some shorter adventures, it'd be time to have them face big guns.

That's all for now, again. Of course, Vaughn is now doing a somewhat simular thing with having reformed teen heroes assemble in "Runaways" right now, which is awesome beyond words.

I just thought I'd revisit this idea a little in the wake of more recent comics out there, like the end of Vaughan's first run of the second volume of RUNAWAYS with Excelsior and YOUNG AVENGERS set to finish their first arc sometime.

One may think that an "Avengers: Next Generation" thing may seem a bit much considering that we have YOUNG AVENGERS doing the same thing, but I feel it could still work. The Young Avengers operate in the NYC area; this squad could be located outside of New York State, especially since I planned for them to use Stingray's Hydrobase pretty often; it's about time Stingray got some focus and a chance to shine as yet another Marvel genuis.

However, two of the members I listed are part of Vaughan's "Excelsior" team, located in CA, and he writes them so well that I wouldn't want to break up that team; so Ricochet and Darkhawk would have to be replaced. Slott also writes GLA well, but that's more of a humor mag as it should be; I'll keep Squirrel-Girl on the list because here she'd be intending to become more mainstream. Her time with the comforts of the GLA would likely have helped her, though; add some more experience to her belt, especially with dealing with tragedy.

So I've been thinking of replacements on the roster for Darkhawk and Ricochet, and I got one idea from thumbing through one of the newer generation of Handbooks; a new Sun Girl. The original Sun-Girl operated in the 50's and fight crime here and there before vanishing to write a book; her gimmick weapon was a wrist device that shone a "sunbeam ray" to blind enemies. My idea was to give the original Sun Girl a granddaughter who ends up finding out the legacy of her now-passed grandmother and for one reason or another wants to follow in her footsteps; likely because they live in one of those many states between NY and CA where the appearence of superheroes is rather rare (unless Hulk is ripping something up or the Avengers were called for something). Basically the original Sun Girl would have had a journal about her adventures in an attic, with her "book" having been published in the 60's, although it wasn't a best-seller and has mostly been forgotten (hence why they weren't comic-book-rich). I'd establish the wrist-device as a piece of alien technology found half a century earlier that naturally bestowed some abilities and slowed aging, but at the cost of slowly radiating the body to the point where the risk of cancer is high, which is what this new girl's grandmother died of. However, over the decades of non-use, the wrist device "mutated" a little, so when the new Sun Girl puts it on, she gains more advanced powers to go with her younger body.

Basically I wanted two people with alien empowerment on the team, and since Nova is one (and Darkhawk is out), Sun Girl could be the other. Plus, it'd allow for Marvel to have another "legacy", which they are very short on when it comes to non-X superheroes. As for replacing Ricochet, that may end up being either Gravity or Machine Teen, depending on how their respective mini's end. Considering that Machine Man was once considered an Avenger, I'm leaning more towards Machine Teen; every team needs a good andriod.

Putting the cast aside (as I said, depending on how MACHINE TEEN ends), I'd just like to spell out this story idea. As stated, I am not a firm believer in every comic needing an A-B-C sort of arc from day one, where everything is connected. Life is not always that simple and neither should comics. I figured before we got into that sort of stuff, best to start out with some shorter tales that spotlight each character or sets of characters, so they can test their mettle and settle to the audience before one goes hardcore. That doesn't mean these plots can't be grand scale. Imagine a simple thriller where Stingray's brother-in-law, the murderous Tiger Shark, comes calling into the Hydro-Base and these kids are stuck defending themselves against a "Hannibal_Lector" type on steriods. Or a plot by Ultron. I planned on connecting Night-Thrasher to Cardiac and having Speedball express a nasty, repressed temper, but now for the Slingers idea.

As I said before, Ricochet's on EXCELSIOR, and best to keep him there. With Hornet dead as of WOLVERINE #23, that leaves Dusk and Prodigy as the latter half of the Slingers on the team. Basically, they would be the two "hippies" of the team; by that I mean they would be against "the establishment". But not the government; they mean the "establishment" of older, currently-in-operation-and-popular superheroes who "protect their own", even when "their own" do nasty things. They feel that many adult heroes have a "blue wall of silence" like police, and while they're on the team because they'd like to become second generation Avengers, they feel they can do that without "sucking up" to the "adults".

A good way, perhaps, to narrow down these two and introduce some of the varied opinions and themes of the cast would be soon after the first story (where they have to recover James Rhodes' stolen War Machine armor to clear his name) would be a story on Dusk & Prodigy. After spending some time training with the various teen heroes of the group and perhaps sharing in some adventures, the pair vanish for parts unknown without a word; surely a bit unorthodox. These two would also be the pair who seem to act the most "angsty" and have a secret to them; this secret would be that they are dead set on "avenging" their pal Hornet by killing Wolverine. The pair naturally are in the middle of a fight with Wolverine (and Dusk could likely beat him, depending on how vast her powers are) when they are met by the rest of their team and have to be talked down from finishing Logan off. On the one hand, they are "avengers" in the literal sense, as the pair have a buddy to avenge. They would mention how he died a hero facing a brainwashed Wolverine, his corpse was decapitated and (perhaps along a vein that Squirrel Girl, member of GLA could relate to) whose death mattered to absolutely no one but them. Dusk & Prodigy have no intention of allowing other heroes to linger if they "go rogue", despite who they are, and often believe many adult heroes are hypocrites when they "permit" some heroes to stay in operation despite some past outbreaks (the Hulk is a good example). The lesson at the end would basically be that being a hero like Hornet means not taking violent revenge on enemies, but on the other hand, the pair do have a point that the other teen heroes agree with; if they want to improve stuff as "the next generation", they will have to operate differently than the older heroes.

So, meh, there you go.

 

[Muze]

i think you should leave the repressed anger to Darkhawk. it's more fitting with his character than someone like Speedball. otherwise, cool. i'll have more commentage later.

 

[Anubis]

I like that idea with the remaining Slingers going after Wolvie. Thats a damn good way to shed light on that particular type of hypocrocy within the hero community.

 

[Muze]

just once, i'd like to see a true hero (not a punisher type) consciously choose to go over the edge to avenge someone. i think Jack of Hearts did something similar but the wrong lesson was learned from it, imo. if Prodigy or whoever were to go after Wolverine, i think they should do it after ditching the costume to acknowledge that there are actions that heroes don't take.

 

[Zoken]

X-Men; Millenium
this is my idea for changing things up. I know thta now, five years later, the millenium is kinda passe, but its was the best I could think of (extreme and Ultimate are already taken)

you start things out the way the did back in the day more or less.
Prof. Xavier has four students:
Hank McCoy, a black boy from harlem with gorilla like strength and monkey like agility as well as genius level intellect
Bobby Drake, the "Kid" of the team at age 14. he loves to laugh and play and goof around.
Scott Summers, up tight, and always in control. he is fighting OCD derived from his issues with his familie's "Death".
Wilma Worthington, the lovely and sharp tongued winged member. her family has practically exiled her to this place, but she can live with that.
and of course in the first issue you have the new girl; Jean Grey. Jean is sassy and sexy and flirtatious. but she is also the first to get Wilma to open up about her secret, while Jean is straight, Wilma is lesbian.

filled with angst and heart ache. also the redesigned Brotherhood
Toad, who is as always Toad
Rogue, ruthless and dedicated to Mystique.
Blob, who is but Blob
Mastermind, witty and charming and apparently handsome.
Scarlet Witch she has a shakey loyalty to her father, though she does miss spending time with "Uncle Charles". she is also enduring the attempted courtships of both Toad and Mastermind.
Quicksilver, who is kicked around like a dog, despite his loving loyalty to his father.
Magneto, a powerful mutant who has chosen the path of war against the humans.
Mystique, the sexy seductive shapeshifter. no one really knows where her loyalties lie except that she will kill any one who hurts Rogue or Destiny.
Destiny, the sage wisdom of the group. if any of the brotherhood have an issue of the heart, the take it to Destiny and she will help them sort it all out over a cup of tea. she is like the grandmother of the group.

I intend both groups to be equally the stars. showing both sides of this war.

 

[Muze]

X-Men; Millenium
you start things out the way the did back in the day more or less.
Prof. Xavier has four students:
Hank McCoy, a black boy from harlem with gorilla like strength and monkey like agility as...

*Jesse Jackson tour bus screeches to a halt in front of Zoken's house*

 

[Muze]

X-Men; Millenium
this is my idea for changing things up. I know thta now, five years later, the millenium is kinda passe, but its was the best I could think of (extreme and Ultimate are already taken)

you start things out the way the did back in the day more or less.
Prof. Xavier has four students:
Hank McCoy, a black boy from harlem with gorilla like strength and monkey like agility as well as genius level intellect
Bobby Drake, the "Kid" of the team at age 14. he loves to laugh and play and goof around.
Scott Summers, up tight, and always in control. he is fighting OCD derived from his issues with his familie's "Death".
Wilma Worthington, the lovely and sharp tongued winged member. her family has practically exiled her to this place, but she can live with that.
and of course in the first issue you have the new girl; Jean Grey. Jean is sassy and sexy and flirtatious. but she is also the first to get Wilma to open up about her secret, while Jean is straight, Wilma is lesbian.

filled with angst and heart ache. also the redesigned Brotherhood
Toad, who is as always Toad
Rogue, ruthless and dedicated to Mystique.
Blob, who is but Blob
Mastermind, witty and charming and apparently handsome.
Scarlet Witch she has a shakey loyalty to her father, though she does miss spending time with "Uncle Charles". she is also enduring the attempted courtships of both Toad and Mastermind.
Quicksilver, who is kicked around like a dog, despite his loving loyalty to his father.
Magneto, a powerful mutant who has chosen the path of war against the humans.
Mystique, the sexy seductive shapeshifter. no one really knows where her loyalties lie except that she will kill any one who hurts Rogue or Destiny.
Destiny, the sage wisdom of the group. if any of the brotherhood have an issue of the heart, the take it to Destiny and she will help them sort it all out over a cup of tea. she is like the grandmother of the group.

I intend both groups to be equally the stars. showing both sides of this war.

i was just kidding. i love it. i think a lot about the X-world; in the exact same way your doing it; plotting it out as if it were on a timeline. your Brotherhood is very similar to mine as well. i probably wouldn't have changed McCoy's race but it doesn't bother me that you did. one thing i did add was that Calvin Rankin would be the first Xman to defect to Magneto's side because of his temperament. he'd be a lot like pyro was in X-2. Mystique would have aided Magneto in his escape from the death camp (disguised as an SS guard and being told that the boy would one day become Magneto by Destiny).

as for the original 5, my personal choice would be to install the origin that Xmen:Children of the Atom introduced. it makes more sense for them all to be in Westchester to me.

other changes i'd make:

- no assistance from the Shiar/their tech would come from the mutant Forge; reluctantly

- Xavier's spy network would be created sometime before he shifts his attention to creating a school and the Xmen

- Magneto would head up the spy network/Xavier Underground, initially. after the betrayal, the job would be given to Banshee until he resigns to become Generation X's instructor.

- Magneto would use his role in the underground to find like-minded individuals for his own mutant army; sometimes stealing impressionable young mutants right out from under Xavier's nose.

- the Brotherhood would be younger but still older than the original xmen; Pyro (mischievous), Blob (oafish), Unus (cocky), Mimic (insolent), Toad (impressionable), Phantazia (brainy), and Avalanche (reserved) would all be roughly late high school to early college-aged (but not clones of their Xmen evolution selves); to put emphasis on how new the mutant phenomena is.

- Lehnsherr would also give clandestine support to other terrorist cells with no obvious connection to his own Brotherhood (ex. the Mutant Liberation Front, the Morlocks, etc) and occassionally hire freelance terrorists to do jobs that he suspects might hurt the image of his own organization (ex. Black Tom & Juggernaut, non-mutant terrorists, etc). he'd freely exploit the human media and do whatever it takes to ruin race relations between mutants and humans.



p.s. i like the descriptions you used for the individual characters.

 

[Zoken]

I changed his race because I always thought that would work better... I don't know why. I also thought it would interesting to juxtapose Beast speaking in that high-brained tone, then turning around and speaking "snoopish"

 

[Muze]

I changed his race because I always thought that would work better... I don't know why. I also thought it would interesting to juxtapose Beast speaking in that high-brained tone, then turning around and speaking "snoopish"

no, that's cool. it's how you would do it afterall. i would have, likely, changed Bobby's race if anyone's. it'd be interesting to see his somewhat bigoted father be a black man. that and Bobby's appearance, at present, is kind of bland.