howdy. So I have this habit of making up new superhero teams .......... or refining existing teams.

when im watching tv and need to doodle, or when i need a mindless break.


Do you all wanna join in, in my habit?

Let's start with the all girl band!!!

(Inspired by my new favorite comic Heralds)

I'll do a list of an all female DC team and an all Marvel female team. (but you can mix and match if you like, or just do one company) can be based on powers, personalities, history together, whatever ....

I think about six members is good. you can add an origin if you want.


(i'm gonna try to do well rounded teams, that might make sense to work together)

MARVEL
1. Photon
2. Valkyrie
3. Moondragon
4. Firestar
5. Ms. Marvel
6. Clea

banded together to kick some butt. sort of a female Defenders/Avengers.

DC
1. Madame Xanadu (or a good Enchantress)
2. Vixen
3. Firehawk
4. Manhunter (Kate Spencer)
5. Power Girl
6. Nightshade

maybe Madame X brought them together to to stop some cosmic or magical calamity.


something like that.

Ooh, good choices.

I'd be tempted to swap out Firestar for Flamebird and Clea for Snowbird, but Valkyrie, Photon/Pulsar/Captain Marvel 2 and, especially, Moondragon, would totally be on my first draft!

I liked Ms. Marvel better as 'Warbird,' and even then, not terribly much. Could a more-or-less-redeemed/work-in-progress Moonstone / Meteorite fit that role?

Good Enchantress over Madame Xanadu, anyday. And I'd axe Power Girl in favor of Black Orchid, I think. Even with a shirt on, that character is a bit over-exposed, IMO.

I didn't recognize Nightshade, but having looked her up, I like her, so she can stay!

Flamebird? (maybe you mean Fire Bird ex. avenger, fire, pseudo psychic)

1. Photon or Moonstone
2. Valkyrie
3. Moondragon
4. Firebird
5. Snowbird
6. Clea

would make for a supernatural defenders type team, maybe photon dosn't fit so much now ... maybe replace with Hellcat but Photon provides a lot of power. and snowbird can do the cat thing. Maybe Moonstone would fit the sense of the team more .... her dark past and their dark supernatural adventures.

I was thinking the team needed more muscle which is why ms. marvel was there. and i was hesitant to do she-hulk. but snowbird might be pretty strong.


and this would make a very edgy team, they could also take on the supernatural or almost be a female suicide squad.

1. good Enchantress
2. Vixen
3. Firehawk
4. Manhunter (Kate Spencer)
5. Black Orchid
6. Nightshade

This came out more "female JLA" than I intended it, but here goes:

1. Wonder Woman
2. Miss America
3. Hawkwoman
4. Mera
5. Miss Martian
6. Jade

cool i was hoping someone would do an all female big (six) JLA!!

you can take one more more and make it big seven female JLA.




why miss america and not zatanna? just curious.

Well, the original thought was to include her as a cool, fairly obscure, fairly powerful Golden Age character. And, as I said, I wasn't origianlly intending the "female JLA" motif, for which Zatanna would make more sense.

I also thought about resurrecting Dr. Midnight (Beth Chappel).

she's dead?

yeah, i like the not so obvious use of ms. america instead of Power Girl or Super Girl.

I thought about using the female Firebrand from the All Star Squadron, but switched to Firehawk.

MARVEL:

Crystal
Valkyrie
Polaris
Darkstar
Sif
Magma

DC:
Black Orchid
Harlequin (Molly Mayne)
Shadow Lass
Dream Girl
Donna Troy
Black Canary

Really, these are just lists of my favorites-- though Tasmia and Nura coming to their past to assemble a team of super-heroines could make for a great story. (Platinum and Lilith would take their places if it were an all 21st C. team) Actually, I'd want Imra there, too. For story purposes, I'd sub her for Tasmia. But I'll keep Tas on the list.

I guess former sisters-in-law stuck in space Crystal and Polaris could be the beginnings of a Lockjaw-enabled team-up (maybe it'd start with LJ seeking out Aragorn- who really should be in the Super-Pets book Marvel's putting out...)

Firehawk, especially with the dark blue/red costume and the light blue energy wings, has a freaking awesome visual. She gets my vote on that alone!

Ooh, good choices of Darkstar and Crystal, both are faves!

While Sif *or* the Valkyrie could work, I'm not sure I'd want both, since they are awful similar. (And the Valkryie interests me more, as a character.)

On the other hand, a 'Valkryrie' that is Dani Moonstar, fully-transformed into an actual Asgardian via some mystical thing, giving her Valkyrie strength and toughness, combined with her fear-power, could rock!

Super-teams have flirted with the idea of male dieties hanging out with them (Thor, Hercules) for quite some time, but there has been a dearth of female dieties coming down to Earth and joining the capes and cowls club. (Barring Agents of Atlas' Venus, who has since been explained to have never actually been a diety, just a mythological siren!)

Sif is okay, but Freya (seithr witch / leader of the valkyrie / etc. in some accounts), Artemis (a divinely empowered *archer* character), Ratri (a goddess of night, darkness and thievery), Bast (Tigra, if she was a god!) and Kali (multi-armed blade-wielding psycho-babe) could be even more interesting. (Although the Hindu ones would be better served as people with powers that use the names of gods, since Hindu-ism is an active faith, and having the actual Kali running around fighting crime would be about as respectful as introducing a Legionnaire named Jesus Lad...)

Good ones i forgot about! Mystery Lad.

Crystal
Polaris
Darkstar
Sif
Magma


Darkstar could even replace Photon on my supernatural 'Defenders' team. except Photon/Capt. Marvel 2 is one of my favorite characters. and underused. she used to lead the Avengers lol!!

Platinum. on another version of this i might do a Jocasta for marvel or some other tech/science character to round out the team. but my teams turned out kinda magic - mythology -esque.

she would be scary. she'd snap ur kneck after she made you pee your pants with her mutant power.

yeah, and Firehawk has a lot more power(s) than Firebrand did.

Yeah- Sif and Valkyrie *could* be seen as characters for whom it'd be 'either, or'- but I'd like to see them together. They were shown as friends back in the SON OF ASGARD series, and I'd like to see that re-examined.

I'd also like to see the whole 'Sif as leader of the Valkyries just before Ragnarok' thing touched upon. AND, in her earlier appearances, she had transdimensional teleportation powers- which I think should be hers again. She could take over for Lockjaw and let him go about his Inhuman doggy business (though I think it'd be funny if he trailed after them- to keep an eye on his mistress and her friends).

I don't know if we'll ever see Val's 'reawakening' post-Ragnarok. She never- or hardly ever- shows up in THOR titles, for some reason. This might be a place to go into that.

I *almost* included Dani- for the Valkyrie trifecta. Maybe she could share a couple of scenes with Sif and/or Val when they show up to recruit Magma...

Hmmm- looking at my heroines list, they could be together as a sort of time travel tour of the 20th century... WWII Molly (still a little 'gray' around the edges, but already hooked up with the FBI), Black Canary from the 1950's- just after the courts made the JSA shut down, Wonder Girl in her teen years-- pony-tail, toga-top and all, and a current day Black Orchid (costumed and mysterious).

Now what could be the reason Imra or Tas and Nura would have for gathering them?

might help if Nura and Tas were from different eras and/or boots? maybe?

a) only Nura and Tas have somehow escaped the Time Trapper's machinations, he has deposited amnesiac legionnaires throughout the time stream, (the eras these ladies are from) and Nura and Tas need help from these other ladies to find their teammates, reunite the legion, and defeat the Trapper.

b) scavenger hunt for birthday presents for Super Boy (other character or special event), might be cool if he was connected to all these other ladies.

c) scavenger hunt for pieces of a weapon or cure to defeat their latest villain or challenge. maybe another time villain.

d) it takes place in the Adventure era, crazy stuff happens.

e) some better idea

Another supernatural or generally odd stuff team:

Zatanna
Madame Xanadu
The Question
Catwoman
Alexandra Damaskanos (a time traveler from Chronos who polices time anomalies)

The first three are pretty much cliché for anything out of the ordinary.

I added Catwoman to ground the group (or make the sparks fly) - she doesn't usually get into too much weirdness but she's practical, adaptable and a good thief is always an asset.

Alexandra is also highly adaptable, not to mention tough and a bit short-tempered.

catwoman on the team sounds great, i can only imagine her spouting biting sarcasm when things start getting all kooky.

i never heard of Alexandra Damaskanos. I'm so curious I tried googling ...

I was trying to think of a team that would be completely at odds with one another but could still get things done:

Wonder Woman
Spy-Smasher (from BOP)
Batwoman
Starfire
Zatanna
Dr. Light

They're kind of more geared to the grandiose than BoP, which already kind of does exactly this premise in the DCU for spy / mystery related stuff.

YO YO YO.

so, i figured i would do the team creations off of the comics i got this week.

unfortunately not a lot of team books in my basket.

let's do:

NEW AVENGERS!!!

so i think i will do a vigilante, low key avengers similar to who've been running in the comic. but feel free to do a cosmic team, a supernatural team, something offbeat ....... just not a classic big team cause that will probably be a later challenge.

i say about 6 again? (i ended up ding like 8)


1. Spider Man (too much comic relief)
2. Power Man (he's indicative at this point)
3. Moonstone (yes, she's evil, but tough and brillant, and maybe a bit more ont he fence than we think, and not quite the powerhouse that CM 2 or Miss Marvel is, she's phases ..it's sneaky.)
4. Dr. Strange (i think a lower power version like the current one is interesting)
5. Hawkeye 2 (why not, she's like hawkeye but adds a new younger sister dynamic)
6. Hank Pym


so my team seems to be a bit mentally ill, but could make for some great stories and Hank adds the science and the 'classicism'. <---is that a word? and could be a co leader.

it's kinda a team made up of kids that need to get their crap together in some way. they would fight B level threats and villains, and be involved with undercurrents rather than the high profile.

i've taken out the Ms. Marvel / Spider Woman friendship and the Iron Fist / Power Man dynamic too ... but, i think it could still work as a 'family' team.

other ones i considered:

7. Quicksilver
8. Hellstorm
9. Black widow, or maybe a mutant.

I think i would definitely add Quicksilver, while Widow and others make cameos as New Avengers might be interacting with much of the MU.

cheers!

next week i'll try to do a DC ;P
so with an edit/reboot post: i would do:

7: Quicksilver
8: She-Hulk (she adds stability and humor. and POWER RAHHR)

Dr. Strange, as much as I love him, just doesn't work on this sort of team, IMO. They've tried powering him down to kludge him onto an Avengers made up of street level heroes and jumped up wannabe ninja, but he's just not Dr. Strange, if he can't do any of the stuff that Dr. Strange traditionally does. Another mystical hero like pre-Sorcerer Supreme Brother Voodoo, or pre-power up Dr. Druid, or Daimon Hellstrom, would probably work better in this sort of role.

Amanda Sefton, post-limbo-queen, would probably be awesome in this sort of role. She's got mystic cred, she's got ties to the mutants, and she's built-into the backstory of the setting. With the Scarlet Witch off in 'we made her too powerful and now we can't use her' character limbo, Amanda might provide a nice female presence to Marvel's supernatural lineup.

Moonstone as the team powerhouse? Oh, that's fun. Having her on a team with Hawkeye 2 might be amusing, as they'd snark at each other mercilessly.

Hawkeye 2 could also be powered up a tad, for the 'big leagues,' because she is technically using the Swordsman's sword, which has some Makluan tech built into it, allowing it to shoot force blasts and stuff. (Makluan tech being the stuff that powers the Mandarin's Rings, so it's no slouch!) I could imagine the look on her face the first time she accidentally triggers one of the swords powers...

'Holy crap!' <drops bow> 'Ice beam! Ice beam! Ice beam! Take that, biatches!'

Thanks Set.

yeah i thought moonglow versus hawkeye 2 would be endless laughs...and don't think moonglow could spar with an adult female avenger as well.

and i always wanted hawkeye 2 to bust out with an energy blast or something from those swords.

i'm sticking with dr. strange (personally) for his brain and knowledge of lore rather than his power level.

so the my team now is looking kinda like:


1. Hank Pym (leader and science brain)
2. Luke Cage (leader and vision of the team)
3. Moonstone (redemptive and brilliant energy user)
4. Dr. Strange ( almost going with hellstorm but...too evil and he'll always be a defender to me)
5. Hawkeye 2 (youthful exuberance and moonstone check)
6. Spidey

and into the mix:

7. Quicksilver
8. She Hulk (for cameos)

maybe 9. Eros

not sure, he's more cosmic.

Eros showing up, checking out Hawkeye 2, and getting smacked into orbit by She-Hulk, would be about the only scene I'd need of him.

yea, i missed the whole sexual harassment era of eros. i just remember him from the 80s avengers.

i like how he's a cosmic-light hero.

Moonstone and Hawkeye 2 face off:



>)

While I'm not a fan of Eros as a character, I do wish there were more low-grade Uranian Eternals out there. (I think they killed them all, again.)

I like the Eternals power-set, but the ones that tend to join the Avengers (Sersi, Gilgamesh) are usually the insanely over-the-top more-powerful-than-even-a-god Eternals.

It might be fun to see a 'normal' Eternal, who is merely ri-frikken-donkulously overpowered, but isn't necessarily the fastest (Makkari), shapeshiftingest (Sprite), energy-manipulatingest (Ikaris, Thena), strongest (Gilgamesh) or matter-rearrangingest (Sersi) one on the planet.

Or, heck, we don't see nearly enough *Deviant* superheroes. That could be cool!

I really liked the "Heroes for Hire" lineup from awhile ago that Ostrander put together. Ant-Man riding a little dragon seemed weird though.

My "Street" Avengers:
- Hawkeye (leader)
- Falcon
- Tigra
- Spider-Woman
(hmm, a lot of animals on this team...)
- Machine-Man
- Cloak & Dagger

and Tigra and Jessica Drew both were private I's.

Is it next week already?

Since the only DC team comic I bought this week was LSH 2 ... in which Saturn Queen stars .....

let's do a new Legion of Super Villains to tire out our new LSH.

I'm going to do a core team, but feel free to interpret however you want.

1. Saturn Queen (Eve Aries)
2. Lightning Lord
3. Lightning Lord's twin
4. Cosmic King (the transmuter)
5. a new Chameleon King (based on a tribal leader from the original Durla, who's trying to top Chameleon Boy for leadership or revenge)

6. Lazon (cause his power's awesome and an homage to Beauty Blaze)

7. Atmos (he's got enough reason)
8. a Reincarnated Computo. (or evil Danielle Foccart)
9. Glorith (Time Manip and Sorcery ... not time Trapper status)


This team would be like a Hellfire Club from the X-Men, rising to political power and positions in different ways and forming an alliance to subtly and not so subtly undermine the legion of super heroes. they may be allied at some times with the Dark Circle, Dominators, or Darkseid .... and use lower level bad guys for dirty work like:

1. Shadow Kid (sorry Tasmia ... seems like a good villain)
2. Micro Lad
3. Magno Lad
4. Ol-Vir

and I would like the core group to have a bit more firepower, like Earth Man (but i detest him) or Dev-Em or a Super Man clone. Ol-Vir and Validus just don't have the brains to be more than a henchman in this club.

Myg might have also worked on the inner circle of this team.

Would be nice if computo or someone, (maybe computo + cosmic king) could make super powered clones as cannon fodder.

For disposable flunkies, instead of clones (been there, done that), perhaps the super-villains will have duplicated one of the LSH's origins, semi-successfully. Options;

1) Initially, they would have attempted to just randomly duplicate the Lightning Siblings origin, only to discover that most people, when zapped by Lightning Beasts of Korbal, just die. Most Winathian, it turns out, don't do to well either. Fortunately, they have Mekt, and by using his DNA to gene-therapy some henchmen, they can make them *temporarily* have the powers of lightning generation. Eventually, without fresh shots, to which they develop an immunity, they burn out, but the LSV don't fill them in on this 'retirement plan.' Some flunky or two might end up figuring out that their bosses have doomed them to give them a temporary power up, and turn on them, and it's conceivable that Brainy could discover a technique to de-power them, or use Garth & Ayla's DNA to stabilize them, or something.

Duplicating Sun Boy or Wildfire's origins seem a bit over the top. Cosmic King's origin will likely be un-copy-able (and even if it wasn't, he might not be keen on giving anyone else transmutation powers, since every one other than him and Jan that exists, make their awesome powers that much less precious).

Running around exposing flunkies to 'meteor gases' or 'comet's tails' in the hopes of getting more Colossal Boys or Star Boys or Comet Queens seems like a longshot.

2) Stealing from the cartoon, perhaps they snagged ahold of Dr. Londo, the monster-maker who gave his son animalistic super-powers and then brainwashed him into thinking he's a robot assassin. A bunch of feral brainwashed Timber Wolves? Some perhaps with other animalistic traits (bat-like, snake-like, insectoid?). Beats those masked losers that worked for the real Hellfire Club!

Dr. Londo as one of the 'inner circle,' rarely engaging in any sort of brutish combat himself (but having an interesting array of compounds that allow him to temporarily manifest animalistic traits, for self-defense or escape) could be cool.

3) Another potential source of flunkies (and it could be neat for each of these 'lords cardinal' of the shadow LSV inner circle to have their own flunkies), could be that Durlan. Perhaps, unlike other Durlans, this one is a 'breeder' and can grow homonculous like hive-mind lesser Durlans by budding them off of itself. This Durlan would be kind of like the Dark Rider member Tusk, able to generate 'Underlings' and send them off on missions, and then re-absorb them later to 'download' whatever information they have assimilated during their various missions. Due to the amount of mass it would need to generate, this Durlan would be eating pretty much constantly, and generally appear as an immobile blob of tentacles, that splorches out new humanoid sized 'drones,' some capable of shapeshifting (infiltrators) and some just armored fighting machines (drones).

.

As for the 'core' themselves, I'm not sure if Lazon has the stones for a higher up position. Neutrax has more often seemed like the brains of the Super-Assassins...

Tharok and / or Sarya also seem like good choices for a 'boss' position.

Here's two new/old characters with axes to grind against a couple of Legionnaires I would like to see in the LSV.

An Ryd (Ultra Girl)



Zera Vultan (Erg-2)

these are so cool.

would be interesting if An Ryd could use all her powers at once outmatching Ultra Boy. or if Zera could use all Erg 1's powers, where he could do all kinds of stuff, to add a ton of power to the LSH. also be awesome if she had a human form, making Wildfire sad and jealous.

I don't remember Zera Vultan though? Who's she?

An Ryd's asymmetrical boots and Jean Grey sash fill me with joy.

Zera Vultan is Professor Vultan's daughter, the man who created the Erg suit and saved Drake Burrough's life.

Who's in your Fatal Five?


I'm thinking of a good Fatal Five. in the 5YG, towards the end of the series, when most of the older team retires or advises, and the younger team is too innocent for darker mission.

so a more serious team that handles the rough cases, or political non super hero cases. not too 'black ops' just adult ... like the beginning of the 5YG

1. Rond Vidar - Somehow gets his green mojo back, maybe takes it or half of it from celeste (Neon) could be team leader. and the science guy.
2. Kono - she's sneaky, and way younger than the older team she was on. and she's funny. and ruthless.
3. Duplicate Boy - he's more serious after 5 years, and Lallor was boring.
4. Kent Shakespeare - he could also be the leader, i would supe him up slightly, making his sense heightened as well, like a captain comet character. plus he's smart too.
5. Computo - from SW6, she's a bit more mature than the other SW6 team cause she lived through the domination. and now she's a big Legion fan (the older team). Maybe she needs a little electrical control as well.

three of these guys are super smart, which i think would make for great stories, and Dupe would be the brawn, and Kono the humor/stealth.


I also considered Dragonmage, Dev-em, a not so bad Atmos, older Laurel, some sort of Reflecto based on the original.

I adore the Ann Ryd costume! As far as the ERG-2 goes, I like it a lot. I would like the helmet to look a little more... sinister somehow.

My Fatal Five:

Persuader and the Atomic Axe: The Axe would be augmented somehow... maybe showing present/past events on the flat side of the blade?

Emerald Empress and the Emerald Eye: Sarya as needy and bitchy as ever. I kind of liked the addition of a sentient eye from the reboot, but I think it should speak verrrry rarely.

Mano and a spaceship: OK, where I typed in spaceship, I'm holding the place for a poetic-sounding name for a biological spaceship, similar to FARSCAPE's Moya.

Tharok and Validus: When next they appear, Validus is missing a finger or a chunk of shoulder or something which is being replaced by cyborg machinary exactly like Tharok's-- whose control of Validus becomes more and more explicit. Except for when it isn't.

Quicksand, with some object, relic or being in her power. I love her look and her power and have always felt that she's been severely underused and undervalued by LSH creators. I'm tempted to think of her in 'shades of grey', but that slot on this team goes to Mano.

If I were an actual comics writer, I'd never even hint at reforming a villainess- as I think really good, evil ones are rarer than aqua kryptonite.

1st runner-up: Titanor... if Aven can be in both the Wanderer-verse and the current one, why not Titanor? I think he'd be a sub for the Persuader, if only because of their similar builds. I like the idea of a big, brawny, physical fighter who is also a telepath.

I went the other direction in my Emerald Legion story and had Tharok be a member of a large-brained race with two toes and two fingers, resembling a small, thin, Validus. (Of course, it was harder to make the connection, since Tharok had replaced some limbs and Validus was ginormous and distorted.)

A cyborg-ed up Validus might be less about making Validus tougher (since he hardly needs it) and more about providing a nearly indestructible final haven for Tharok's cyborg intelligence. 'Tharok' might fight like a berserker, with no thought to self-preservation, and even blow himself up attempting to kill a Legionnaire, only for it to be discovered that he was controlling that body remotely, and his true intellect now resides with machinery buried deep within Validus, where nothing will ever be able to destroy him, without destroying Validus first!

I haven't read past this point yet, but I wanted to comment on this and ML's Nura/Tasmia idea.
It's great!

And I wanted to throw out that the two are connected to other dimensions, Nura to the Dreaming, and Umbra/and the other Tasmia's?, to the Dark/Shadow Realm.

The two may be connected to a crossover in those dimensions, in a way that bridges times and universes.
That could draw in the Black Orchid, since she's now from another dimension (Vertigo) and Big Barda (New Gods), as well as Firehawk (Earth's elemental representative) and the female Dr. Fate (magic and another time.)

That covers 6 players. There's no telepath but there doesn't HAVE to be one, although Dr. Fate could introduce a spell to cover communication.

I'd love to see a coming together of villians from a couple of the realms/universes mentioned in an alliance that affects all of the DCU without being a mega event.
Someone(s) not used to death already.

The attacks could take place through the Dreaming using the evil minions of Darkness seen in Lo3Ws, perhaps.

My Female Fatal Five was:
Emerald Empress (Cera rather than the tired Sarya)
Quicksand (love elementals)
Beauty Blaze (because she's so beautiful and mysterious AND she's been shown to be kind of close to Saturn Queen)
Saturn Queen
Starfinger (a female host, say like McCauley's niece, with Starlight and Starbright still in female form)

They'd be infighting, stuggling for the leadership role and sneaky, very sneaky.

There's not much physical strength but Quicksand has earth power, Cera has the Eye, BB is fire and SQ can snag a powerhouse or two.
I'm not sure about Starlight and Starbright, but I'm sure they're pretty powerful and interesting.
It's be fun to see what they'd do with a female host with a McCauley brain.

If I were thinking about a Marvel superteam, I'm only currently familiar with the DnA stories using the Imperial Guard, Starjammers, Guardians, Inhumans and other universe Avengers.

I'd use my favorite Marvel females:
Crystal and Lockjaw (can't believe how little she's been used over the years)
Polaris (with her magnetic powers intact)
Scarlet Witch (perhaps finding a new power level, non-magical, as the only one from her universe (along with Vision) who is not controlled by the demons, sorry, I stopped following that story)
Phoenix (not the cosmic one but still with powerful TK & TP.)
Binary (love that character)
Hussar (I think that's the red skinned, whiteblonde one from the Imperial Guard)

With this kind of power, I'd have them written by DnA in their cosmic scaled stories.

List Making and Team Creation is BACK!

with a bang.

I did an LSH this afternoon.

Started being based off the SW6 cause i wanted to do a story with a similar feel but .... hardly any of the sw6 made it in.

check it out! and if anyone's feeling ambitious:

"Who's in YOUR LSH" ?


1. Lightning Lass (a veteran on this team)
2. Magnetic Kid (dosn't have the cast type as leader like Cos. he can just be a great legionnaire)
3. Brainiac 5 (it's not the Legion without him IMO)
4. Andromeda (a bit of a reboot, she's the famous gand as the khund killer)
5. Kent Shakespere (newbie, following in his cousin Andromeda's foot steps)
6. Chameleon (see brainy)
7. Polar Boy
8. Tyroc
9. Wildfire
10. Blok
11. Kinetix ( a replacement of Imra, except she's got TK too, from an accident or mutation, and is a bit of a mash up with the personality of celeste rockfish)
12. Shikari
13. Catspaw
14. Dragonmage
15. Computo (but maybe she's even more robotic like gear, the virus has started to replace some of her human biology)
16. Invisible Kid (maybe Lyle has returned from the after life)
17. Kono (she's got more firepower than Tinya)
18. Power Boy (except he can grow ... replacing Gym)
19. Duplicate Boy (replaces Jo)
20. Quantum Queen (yep old school, and she's a heavy hitter)
21. Element Lad
22. Reflecto (time to flesh out this new heavy hitter)
23. Atmos (He's a powerhouse ... just need to retconn that creepiness (to put it mildly) with Dream Girl)
24. Shadow Lass
25. I thought Kid Quantum #1 but he kinda pales in comparison with Quantum Queen ... maybe sun boy, gates, or a reformed villain ... maybe Validus!! or a hero from the past ... like the 80s past .... not contemporary.


i tried to make a diverse team with regards to gender, aliens, and ethnicities. but it turned out to kinda exclude the adventure era members slightly. and i preferred Computo to Quislet and Kinetix to Tellus.

whatchu think? comments? or your own LSH?

thought of doing a BIG SEVEN VILLAINS to rival the big seven JLA that was going on a few years ago.


1. Lex Luthor puts himself in an Amazo body! he's tired of being kicked around.
2. Black Adam (better as a thunder god type with some weather control)
3. An evil Firestorm. how scary would that be ... he could scatter Supe's Kryptonian molecules to the wind.
4. Chemo. a smart chemo.
5. Parasite.
6. Shade the Changing Man. his suit can become your worst nightmare and he's straddled the line between good and evil before. like an evil empathic GL.
7. Brainiac (?) just added him cause he's a tech character and insanely powerful.

parasite and luthor kinda overlap .... grrr. but they'd both be so badnass.

The problem being, that the JLA don't all have great villains (with Aquaman, Batman, etc. not having a lot of villains well-suited to team work, IMO). Between Lex, Parasite and Brainiac, you've got three Superman villains there, and even a Captain Marvel/Shazam foe! Also, not enough girls!

For the 'evil trinity,' I'd go with;

1. Deathstroke (the anti-Batman, yes, he's not technically a Batman villain, being more of a Teen Titans villain, but he can fill the 'Batman' role on an evil team better than the Joker would! Barring Slade, there's also Prometheus, who fills that sort of role.)

2. Parasite (both Luthor and Brainiac, IMO, are overused, and I don't like the idea of either of them on an actual team, so he's the anti-Superman, and he deserves a little more respect than he's gotten of late, jobbing to Conal recently, when he's about a thousand times scarier than that old bald dude who gets all the movies.)

3. Circe (the anti-Wonder Woman, although, barring a speedster, the Cheetah could work, and even Giganta has potential.)

Which leaves us with;
4. (anti-Green Lantern)
5. (anti-Flash)
6. (anti-Martian Manhunter)
7. (anti-Aquaman)

Sinestro, Atrocitus, etc. seem unlikely to join teams at this point, having their own teams. Someone like Hector Hammond or even some lesser-seen (lately) GL villains, like the Tattooed Man or the Shadow Thief, could fill the anti-GL slot.

Gorilla Grodd is the only seriously badass Flash rogue, IMO. I've got an unwholesome love for the Mirror Master, but he'd be wasted on this team. An evil speedster could work as well, but that's too derivative, IMO. If I wanted this evil ALL-GIRL GROUP to just be carbon copies, it would be all 'Bizarro, Catman, Sinestro.'

Does Martian Manhunter even *have* a rogues gallery? 'Random White Martian' doesn't really cut it, for a group like this. Maybe Black Adam can fit here... Or something even more out-there, like an evil version of Jason Blood & the demon Etrigan! The team is a bit heavy on the beef, so perhaps this random villain can be a villain-ess.

And Mr. Dances-With-Dolphins. Black Manta is not even a little bit suitable for a group like this, his token appearances in the Legion of Doom notwithstanding. Ocean Master, when he has magical powers, doesn't suck, although he and Circe would be too much magical power in one team (although, if the Cheetah or Giganta are used instead, he'd be the 'mage' of the group). Perhaps here is the perfect place for that smart Chemo? Who better to be the 'anti-Aquaman' than a sentient chemical spill?

An initial stab...

1) Ultra-Humanite
2) Ra's Al-Ghul
3) Queen Bee
4) Invisible Destroyer
5) Clock King
6) The Shark
7) Despero

Ultra Humanite! good one. also could take the body of someone super strong or powerful. I thought the Queen Bee would be good too.

Invisible Destroyer sounds cool, i don't know him personally.

'As a being of pure energy, the invisible destroyer was almost omnipotent, appearing and disappearing at will and capable of producing incredibly powerful energy bolts from his fingertips.'

definite plus there. he would actually be good to take out the Flash as a being of pure energy.


If i did a tit for tat big 7 villains I would do it based on who would really drive the emotional knife in our heros.

(another problem with a typical supes vs. lex, wonder woman vs. cheetah, bats vs. the joker is we've seen the heros kick their butts time and time again for decades)


something like ....

1. Superman - Zod
2. Wonder Woman - Ares
3. Batman - Catwoman (always thought she threw off bats even though I really like her as an anti hero .... maybe Ra's al Ghul instead)
4. Flash - Professor Zoom (He killed his bride!)
5. Green Lantern - Star Saphire
6. Aquaman - Ocean Master
7. J'onn J'onzz - Despero

I would say Despero is J'onn's rogue now.

Ooh, Ultra-Humanite, Queen Bee and Despero are all potentially cool choices!

Given the new Batman-through-the-ages stuff that's happened since Darkseid shot him into the past, it would have been a logical progression for him to have fought Vandal Savage, throughout the shadowy parts of human history, forever foiling his plots, and for them to be new arch-nemeses.

that sounds like a graphic novel waiting to happen.

Here's a little of what I was thinking with my choices:

1) I've always wanted to see UH reinstated as a major Supes foe. The best Supes stories are the ones in which the villain can potentially deceive/outsmart him, rather than someone who just tries to outpunch him.

2) The thing about Batman is that he's someone who has trained himself to be the ultimate crimefighter. So, I wanted to match him against someone who was kind of the ultimate criminal. A lunatic like the Joker didn't really seem to work. Among his rogue's gallery, Ra's seemed the most like the Moriarty to Batman's Holmes.

3) Wonder Woman is from an island of women and comes to Man's world to help promote peace. So I thought I'd match her with a matriarch from another world who tries to enslave outsiders. Hence Queen Bee.

4) Invisible Destroyer was, as I recall, GL's first villain, and he's never made a comeback. It seems like it's about time. Definitely a powerhouse.

5) I wanted someone who would be an interesting challenge for a super-speedster, without using another super-speedster. So, what about someone who is a master of using time to his advantage? I was thinking of Batman: The Animated Series portrayal of the Clock King. As far as actual Flash villains, I think the Turtle could probably be used to similar effect, but I've never read anything with him

6) I looked at a list of Aquaman villains and, you know what, the Shark is *really* scary. So I picked him.

7) J'Onn really doesn't seem to have any interesting villains of his own, but Despero was one of the first JLA villains, and seemed to be a nice match, so...

So I think EDE nailed the previous one ^


... and I've been catching up on a lot of Birds of Prey to see what the hype was about.

I thought of a way to go with it. (not so much different)

I'm feeling loyal to Oracle/Batgirl so let me just pretend the concept dosn't work without her.

I'd start with the semi-retired JLA members of the satellite era. Ladies Babs knows from her superhero days.

1. Oracle
2. Black Canary
3. Hawkgirl

(3.5, 3.6 would be Firehawk and Zatanna - semi regular guest stars)

4. I'd give oracle an assistant. Maybe someone who used to work at star labs. I always liked Dr. Janet Kylburn. The BOP needs a lot of weapons and tech for just poor Babs. And Dr. Kylburn won't turn into Rampage.

5. I'd also think about getting Babs a major domo/ body guard/ like the Red Tornado.

6. Tons of guest stars from the JLA days.
Supergirl, Vixen ...

Another person I'd really like to see incorporated is the Black Orchid.

A little Donna Troy in there for good measure.

Not a Marvel fan, so I'll stick to DC. I like the all-female teams, so...

JLA:

1. Dr. Light (criminally underused)
2. Wonder Woman
3. Black Canary
4. Vixen
5. Fire
6. Ice


I love this one. Lots of drama potential here!

And I like this one, too. Maybe An and Zera could go head-to-head versus Tinya and Dawnstar.

My LSH:

1) Kinetix - powerful, versatile AND my favorite. Not letting her go.
2) Gates - no way I'd say no to a teleporter.
3) Brainiac 5 - automatic advantage to any team
4) Saturn Girl - ditto
5) Wildfire - for the power
6) Shikari - knowing where to go can help with any mission
7) Andromeda - I always preferred her to Mon-El or Ultra Boy
8) Sensor Girl - in any combat situation, she could potentially win a whole battle herself...
9) Gear - any enemy that uses tech will fall to him
10) Infectious Lass - and she can take care of any organic enemy
11) Element Lad - preboot Jan made the Legion his home, and was one of the most dedicated members. The Legion needs people like that.
12) Polar Boy - someone else who never lost enthusiasm for the team.
13) Nightwind - always felt she was robbed of her chance on the team
14) Live Wire - Postboot Garth is one of my faves
15) Karate Kid - Legion combat trainer!
16) Chameleon
17) Dragonmage or White Witch
18) Shrinking Violet (Postboot) - grows AND shrinks
19) Kid Quantum II
20) Dreamer - was toying with making her support staff instead of a field agent, though, so I could have more Legionnaires on the team
21) Monstress - I know she doesn't add much, power-wise, but I like her personality and see a role for her as "den mother"
22) XS
23) Umbra - "energy caster with an attitude" sums it up nicely
24) Power Boy - with density control that allows him to phase as well as become more solid!
25) Gravity Kid - a bit redundant given Kinetix, but their powers are varied enough

I threw in the last two because I like the idea of having a gay couple on the team as well.

How about a new Secret Six?

Starting with a Mockingbird-- I'm leaning towards one of the *original* Six. The ones who were extraordinary but non-meta individuals from the 1960's.

TRICKSTER-- definitely James Jesse, mysteriously back from the dead and straddling the line between good and bad guy. And milking the gray for all its worth.

DUELA-- not the gal who got killed in whatever event it was she was in, but her counterpart on whatever Earth it is this lineup would be inhabiting. She'd be sane with moments of crazy, rather than the other way around. She'd go by Harlequin's Daughter and have a similar attention-grabbing m.o. to her 'mother's', with Trickster as her object of affection. The 'duel' part of Duela's the focus-- as this version is a weapon mistress. With a very liberal definition of weapon.

ALPHA CENTURION-- his memory of ancient Rome is used heavily. Though the most heroic, his sense of entitlement comes into play.

ICICLE-- the younger. Tigress is raising their child, but makes guest appearances as an unoffical secret seventh. Turns out that Mockingbird pays better than villainy and after a disheartening 'rat-out' from old Injustice Society teammates, Cameron's ready to make 'the turn'.

NZAME-- of Gorilla City. Albino ape that can heal. I don't remember if the character was male or female; I'm hoping female. Expected to be the personification of simian good, adolescent Nzame's going through a rebellious phase. A destructive one. In fact, she's been banished from Gorilla City.

TATTOOED MAN-- the new one, but wearing Abel Tarrant's costume. He's just been booted out of his family, his neighborhood and his old team. Yet, somehow, he's not angry about any of it. He's determined to find out who he is and get paid well while doing so.

May 2012 THE AVENGERS!!!!

So I did this list last night and I really like it:

1. Wasp - reincarnated in Jocasta's body, she gets all kinds of cyborg powers and looks like a col metallic wasp woman. leader ish.
2. Thor - one of the founders who's not totally evil and/or cray cray.
3. Captain Marvel - Carol Danvers. This team needs a marvel IMO. (replaces another captain ... could be a co leader)
4. Power Man - Luke Cage but let's give him some growing powers from Pym particles! an homage to the original giant Man.
5. Dr. Strange
6. The Sentry - resurrected and good, with no memory of evilness again --- or a new person with the sentry's powers.
7. Nova. He's cool. and flies fast. and deserves his place in THE Marvel team. he's got his own book and stuff sometimes too.
8. Firestar - mostly because she's still nice. (she was on a a cartoon too!)
9. Hulkling - a homage to the hulk. and he's almost ready.
10. Hawkeye 2 - Kate Bishop and she's almost ready.


I like having the team be multigenerational (over the history of the Avengers), and a training ground for over achieving young avengers. (could cause a lot of friction with the other YA's but maybe they get thair own book with a few of these elder Avenegrs as their teachers. Plus ... Hulkling and Hawkeye seem to be two of the more stable ones ... and I liked using them to fill a *homage* gap. I wanted to reference the original and mainstay avengers.

I also think they need a lot of firepower ... hence Sentry, Dr. Strange, suped up Wasp and Ms. Marvel. etc. they ARE supposed to be earth's mightiest heroes!

I think Hank Pym could play a supporting/tech role and Justice/Marvel Boy could be a *teacher* for the new additions and the other YA's. also we get to have him and Firestar together/interact.

I want to do this one!

1. Thor
2. Scarlet Witch
3. Ms. Marvel
4. Captain America
5. Vision
6. Hank Pym
7. Black Widow
8. Black Panther
9. Firestar (I think she was at her best in Avengers)
10. Iron Man (even though he bores me)

Peebs, I promise I will post a list here within the next couple days.

Okay, here goes...

1. Black Widow - chairwoman

2. Hawkeye - field commander

3. Quasar - one of those characters that's just a nudge away from fulfilling their potential

4. Ant Man - Scott Lang

5. Giant-Man - Hank Pym

6. Vision

7. Crystal

8. Wonder Man

9. She-Hulk

10. Power Princess - yes, moving from Squadron Supreme to Avengers, why not?

So hard to pick just 10! I'll try to stick to characters who don't generally have their own books, and so wouldn't be over-exposed, or sucked into crossovers.

1) Wonder Man - always consider a second-tier 'tank' behind people like Thor or the Hulk, it's time for him to be the big gun!

2) Beast - Dr. McCoy (no! the other one!) returns to complete the epic bromance with Simon.

3) Hank Pym - who knows what he's calling himself this week, but he's got the goods.

4) The Wasp - reports of her death have been greatly exagerrated!

5) Ms. Marvel - another flying powerhouse, who may not punch at Wonder Man's weight levels, but she's also got energy powers and limited cosmic awareness.

6) Monica Rambeau - 'cause the team totally needs two people who've gone by the name 'Captain Marvel.'

7) U.S. Agent - not the first Captain America, not the best Captain America, but he's got the heart for the job.

8) Human Torch - the original android super-hero and the original Human Torch, Jim Hammond, man out of time, on a team with the completely wrong Captain America, and not afraid to point that out.

9) Spider-Woman (Julia Carpenter) - not the only member of this team who is getting annoyed at having to say, 'No, not that one, the other one!'

10) Moondragon - is slumming hanging with a team at this level, and won't hesitate to say so. Expresses frequent regret that someone 'first tier' like Sersi or Thor isn't present 'to do the heavy lifting.' Competing with the departed Dr. Druid for the titles of 'least popular Avenger, ever' and 'most likely to die in a friendly fire incident.' Most annoyingly, she's an Iron Fist level martial artist, a telepath with global mind control abilities able to push her way past Galactus' mental defenses and a telekinetic able to block Thor's hammer, so, to the annoyance of all, she backs up her attitude...

I'd love for an updated Wasp to be able to control a swarm of adamantium robots the size and shape of wasps. In addition to her own powers, which are fine on their own, access to such a secondary power, would jazz her up considerably. Alternately, something Pym's always been able to do, but rarely bothered doing, she can already use Pym particles to enlarge stuff (usually only to grow back to normal size, after she shrinks), *and* she can control swarms of insects. It would be an 'OH YEAH!' moment if, in the middle of an alien invasion or something, she summoned up thousands of wasps or ants or bees and enlarged them to the size of volkswagons and sent her giant insect horde to fight the aliens.

oooo I like that pick! No Sersi though ? I thought for sure her and the Black Knight would be on your team.

Here's mine.

1. Capt. America - Leader

2. Vision

3. Capt Marvel - Monica deserves to be in the team imho.

4. Hercules

5. Hawkeye

6. She Hulk

7. Colossus - The team bruiser

8. Mockingbird - Possible triangle with her, Hawk and Dane. She is attracted to Dane, which drives Clint nuts.

9. Iron Man

10. Black Knight - c'mon, he had to be on my list.

A lot of muscle there!


Some characters I wanted to incorporate but didn't:

Eros
Captain Marvel 2

and my team isn't diverse enough so I thought about switching out Firestar for Firebird but I don't like her as much as Angelica.

Yeah, there is a lot of power on my team, but I think that the personalities involved are fun. There can also be rotating guests to round out the power sets.

There's a bit of brain power there and leadership as well.

I think it would be fun to see them interact or try to one up each other ... actually now that I think about it, with so much muscle on the team .... their <gasp> personalities might come out more. other aspects at least ... like She Hulk is as smart and organized as a lawyer ... Hercules should be able to fight really well, not just really on his strength ... and Colossus is agile as well as strong ... which no one plays up anymore. he used to do flips in the old Claremont and Cockrum era. also, he's a cool artists ... and farm boy from Russia.

I love Sersi and Black Knight, but it would be a nigh-impossible challenge to compete with the way Harras wrote them, and plus I think there's no real sense of "unfinished business" with either of them, like I feel there is with Crystal, which is why I did include her.

I'm figuring Herc and Colossus would have some bizarre conversations. With Peter just F'ing with him (but coming across totally serious) as much as Herc F's with Peter (with not quite as much luck remaining serious.)

June 2012

Lately I've been devouring this comic called 'The Boys'. Its a gory adult story based on the concept of one team - backed by the CIA - that needs to keep all the superheroes in line.

There are parallels with a Checkmate type team, the Authority, and probably many others.

Anyway, the Boys comic is pretty dark and the superheros they take out are pretty nasty, much more so than DC. well ... I don't know.


So .... create a team, I'm gonna stick small, that can police the superhero community.

Wonder Woman's gotta do some time for snapping a neck, and I bet even Superman has accidentally dropped a building on some kittens.

I'll do a DC one now, Marvel might be harder.

----------------------------------------


1. Captain Comet

He's tough enough to take out a lot of the big boys and girls and ... he's human, so maybe he sympathizes with the average joe more.

2. Nightshade

She's worked for the government before, she has all this cool training, and lots of pseudo magical shadow powers. Besides shadows seem pretty durable when going up against Wonder Woman.

3. Black Orchid

She's tough, and is great for espionage. I am assuming she can still change her appearance.

4. Captain Atom

Tough and a company man.

5. Steel (John Irons)

The team needs a smart guy, and he's human too. I'll stick with some sort of combo between his battlesuit and the metal body Steel upgrade by Lex Luthor.

6. Firehawk

Wouldn't it be great if when Firestorm dies the power went to Loraine rather than an all new Firestorm. I would reboot her a bit to make her a scientist. (Although a political character would be cool too) A power upgrade of transmutation would come in handy when dealing with Superman. She could snap her fingers and put him into a kryptonite box!


This crew should be able to take all these anti-heroes and morally ambiguous heroes to task for their crimes.


Other characters I considered were:

Tomorrow Woman (II)
A new government created android based off of Ivo's tech.


A Green Lantern like John Stewart

Gypsy
Her whole family and half her teammates have been killed by superhero shenanigans.

Oracle! Would be great as team leader ... or support ... she knows who's been naughty or nice.

A new Dr. Occult was on my mind too.

I think it's difficult to think of a line-up for Marvel because the recent Civil War storyline dealt with those issues in-depth. My team would try to include members from countries other than the US. In the real world, nations exchange security information so I think it would be similar in the comics.

1. Maria Hill- It seems almost obvious that such a team would be overseen by SHIELD.

2. Union Jack- He would a good super-soldier and since all British super-heroes are members of M-16 he would represent Great Britain.

3. War Machine- He is a trusted military man who is much more reliable than Tony Stark. He provides technical assistance and plenty of firepower.

4. Amazon- She is very obscure, but is a decent brick as well as a German citizen. Germany is a very important part of the European Union, and I think they would want a representative.

5. The Beast- They really wanted to get the Hulk, but he was "unavailable" at the time so they begrudgingly agreed to allow the mutant scientist to take part in the team.

6. Sif- I know this seems a bit odd, but I am having a difficult time finding European super-heroes. I intend for this spot to be the "EU leader representative spot", to rotate with the EU leadership. Denmark doesn't appear to have any representatives in the MU, I think it would be appropriate for them to claim an Asgardian as their own.

Reserves/Affiliates: White Cross- The only Swiss super-hero I could find from Marvel. I like Switzerland, and I think as the center of many of Earth's institutions (and banks) it is only natural that they would want some insight into the world of super-heroes.

Snowbird- From my experiences in China, I know that Canada is very active in the international community. While her powers don't work very well outside of Canada, she could provide help with mystical cases.

Captain China- I have no idea if Marvel is aware of the character's existence, but the book is hilarious. I really can't see Russia or China sending people to partake in a team led by American forces (they see themselves as equals to the US), so their own representatives/teams would make appearances when needed.

I'm trying to think of a Marvel one but who's even good at Marvel anymore ...

IN HONOR OF MIKE ALLRED'S NEW 'FF' OUTING:
http://comicbook.com/blog/2012/08/09/fantastic-four-and-ff-confirmed-for-fraction-bagley-and-allred/


I'd say the FF dies and/or gets lost in the negative zone or something and some friends decide to take up the mantel or something.


1. Crystal
That man loving drama queen will be sure to add some wackiness!

2. She Hulk
'cause who dosn't love She Hulk

3. Firelord
'cause he dosn't get along with anybody! and 'space'!

4. Ant-Man Scott Lang
'cause he's a scientist right? and stealthy?

And for their Frightful Four

1. Kristoff Von Doom (a young version would be better)

2. The Stranger

'cause c'mon .... he's strange. 'He may be a stranger to himself.' haha


3. Mole Man
Bring on the Gigantos!

4. Medusa? (might be funny. maybe she goes amnesiac again or something and thinks she's evil.hence crystal getting the FF together.)

The FF seem to have a lack of female enemies!!!!

My Fantastic Four:

1) The Black Knight - C'mon, he's a scientist, strategist and leader. Besides being my fave Marvel character.

2) Dazzler - To see what I could do with her.

3) Justice - Cause he needs a break, and then Firestar can be brought in for adventures without upsetting the balance.

4) Mach 1 - The former Beetle and Thunderbolt.

I can already see a Black Knight + Dazzler romance!

and besides ... she's fought Galactus (has she been a herald?) and had inter dimensional adventures! She'd be great for the FF.

Justice does need a break, and something fun to do, I miss the fan boy from the New Warriors. And some space adventures would set him up as the eventual Vance Astro/Major Victory (Is he still supposed to turn into the guy from the Guardians of the Galaxy?) Dane's had all kinds of cross dimensional adventures as well!

I thought it was somewhat rounded.

...and could there not be some sort of tension between Dane and Ali? Any woman you put on the team would probably fall into that with him...his character almost dictates it.

I think that Justice needs to be advanced past his "I'm in awe/inadequacies" phase, and I think that this team would do that.

Also, having an ex villain on the team would be fun, and Abe was my favorite from the original Thunderbolts.

...maybe I will explore this idea when I get back to my Black Knight fanfic.

NEW ROUND: TITANS WEST (L.A.)

1. Power Boy
2. Captain Marvel Jr.
3. Wonder Boy (a Golden Eagle type)
4. Terra III (Atlee)
5. Miss Martian
6. Red Star
7. Flamebird (LEADER!)
8. Tula ( a take on the grumpy Aqua Girl from Kingdom Come OR the daughter of Tsunami and Neptune Perkins!!!)

Maybe they were brought together by Lilith or something.

I thought about adding Bushido and Kole, and some others.

for Captain Marvel Jr. I also thought about making him a new version ... Egyptian guy or something. A bit like Osiris. Or maybe Osiris!

I'm having trouble coming up with a full lineup. I guess I'll have to sleep on it.

I do know I would like to have Mary Marvel and the Linda Danvers Supergirl on the team.

That sounds like a good start though. At the moment I am intrigued by how these characters would interact ... would Power Boy and CMJR try to one up each other, be great friends, or hate each other ... all because of their similarities.

Usually people try to balance a team and diversify but ... if I were putting a team together I'd want them all to be Supergirl class!

Titans LA seems to me to be the team for "lesser" C-list and below heroes to try and make good, plus act as a support group/family, so...

All are Pre-Flashpoint versions.

1) Beast Boy
2) Flamebird

like the dynamics of these two as co-leaders

3) Terra II

her jealousy towards Flamebird would have added a lot of nice drama!

4) Bushido

though I don't want to turn him into another X-23 struggling to "Not kill"

5) Kole

I'd find a way to bring her back. She had all the making of a great hero. She kicked ass in Crisis despite being relatively inexperienced!

6) Blue Beetle (Jaime)

I think he's up in the upper tiers of C-list, or maybe even B-list now, but he's also, for the longest time, been written as someone still trying to come to terms with his new heroic identity.

7) Magenta

Maybe here she can finally get the help she needs to STAY sane!

8) Captain Marvel Jr.

He's often written as someone who wants to find other heroes his age to hang with.

9) Bumblebee
10) Herald

I see them as being some of the voices of reason on the team, since they're among the older ones. Probably not showing up as often as the others.

11) Hero Cruz

I'm just wary of him becoming a deus ex machina due to the H-Dial, maybe tweak the Dial to give him a handful of identities only.

12) Miss Martian

Sounds like a good choice to me too, especially since she seems ambivalent to being on the "main" team!

13) Ravager (Rose)

I think the more loose-knit vibe of this team will appeal to her.

14) Damage

As someone who's damaged goods... well, you know.

15) Argent

I can picture her being all "when I was with the main team we did blah blah blah".

Wow! Nice image, LWL - and nice lineup too! It's really nice seeing them all together.

I never liked Azrael, and don't know much about the Protector, but would love to see all the rest.

I would read that, oh yes!

Avengers -

throwing in some powerful females (both powers and attitude):

1) Crystal
2) Monica Rambeau
3) Ms. Marvel
4) Firestar
5) She-Hulk
6) Wasp
7) Moondragon
8) Scarlet Witch

and...

9) Thor
10) Captain America

Legion of Super-Villains (bring on the big numbers):

1) Emerald Empress - I can see her thinking "screw the Fatal Five" and instead gathering her own army

2) Lightning Lord - oh, the family drama!

3) Stheno - minor villain who could turn people to stone

4) Validus

5) Brainiac 4 - turns the tables on EE and takes charge really fast

6) Esper Lass - very mean telepath

7-11) Titania, Mist Master, Silver Slasher, Lazon, Neutrax (hey why not)

12) Ze Tongue - he seemed silly, but was surprisingly effective

13) Dr. Regulus

14) Chameleon Chief

15) Cosmic King

16) Twine

17) Quicksand

18) Flare

19) Zymyr

20) Storm Boy (talk about messed up!)

21) Satan Girl - can be a new Daxamite, but the mysterious Satan Girl was more interesting than Ol-vir so...

22) Brainstorm - the mean telekinetic sounds like a good fit

23) Charma (Postboot) - can mind-control men, this should be interesting!

24) Caress

25) Nemesis Kid

I left out majority of the Earth super-rejects - I didn't find most of them particularly compelling.

Here's my Titans West team...

I love all the photos here!

Wow, awesome lineup! Love the inclusion of the overlooked Traci 13 and Connor Hawke. Having Boomer is interesting too.

And all the photos are awesome!

I think it'd be interesting, especially after her apprenticeship under Batwoman, to have Flamebird become a capable heroine and detective. Then, have her go on to form her own iteration of Titans West as a place for her and others to prove themselves. That'll show that Nightwing!

It'd be fun to throw in some of the "new heroes" of the past twenty years who didn't go on to stardom, like say Prysm, Joto, Lagoon Boy, or Zatara. Maybe throw in a more balanced Magenta giving heroing a true shot. Could be fun to have a more established Titan join the team out of curiosity, say Gar or Vic, but taking a backseat to Bette's leadership to give her a genuine shot at making it work.

I think Gar would be perfect. He and Bette have proven chemistry, and Gar knows what it's like to be dismissed as out of his league.

Create the
UNCANNY AVENGERS

I decided to go visual this time too!




The core team would be:

1. Storm
2. Nova
3. Captain Marvel
4. Nightcrawler
5. Adam Warlock
6. Rachel Grey
Junior or Probationary members (but full time to me)
7. Hawkeye 2
8. Power Man 2
9. Sunfire (Its been a long time since he hasn't been f-ed up)

with Power Man, Prodigy, and Vision playing organizing but not quite field roles.

And Molly Hayes will be around. being cute. and she needs guardians.

Their first mission could involve the Kree or a Kree invasion ... since there are so many space/kree characters on the team.

Maybe the Kree come in and try to experiment on mutants to create weapons.

1. Moonstar (leader)
2. Crystal
3. Beast
4. Ant-Man (Lang)
5. Rachel
6. She-Hulk (Jen)
7. Rogue
8. Quasar
9. Ariel (she's always had potential)
10. Vision

I thought about putting Scott Lang in as well!

I like Moonstar as leader of a big team ! she was a shield agent afterall.

Moonstar is one of my favorite characters. I've been wanting to put her in the Avengers for years.

She is one of my favorites too.

The one cool thing about "Uncanny Avengers" versus "Uncanny X-Men" ... is you don't need powers and some of your cohort may not have them either.

that's why I wanted to throw Prodigy on a team with Hawkeye and others that may need to be more creative with crime fighting. Even Luke Cage is just a big tough guy.

Although they need to stop with messing up her powers. Soon she's gonna switch ethnicity like Psylocke.

If it's an X-Men/Avengers lineup, I'd go with;

1. Beast
2. Wonder Man
3. Scarlet Witch
4. Quicksilver
5. Rogue
6. Hawkeye (leader)
7. Wasp

All very 'old-school' choices, I know!

The original X-Men/Avenger tie, IMO, is the Beast and Wonder Man. Wanda and Pietro are obviously the *real* 'original' tie between the two teams, and the first mutant Avengers, but Simon and Hank are the first two *friends* among the two teams.

Hawkeye, as the sole non-powered guy, and the oft-times outsider-looking-in / perspective-guy, to keep the team focused on the bigger picture.

Rogue has a history with the Avengers, as well as the X-folk, which should be fun to play off of.

The Wasp is there because I want her back, but also has a vague mutant tie-in from her possibly soon-to-be retconned backstory (to bring her more in line with her Ultimates incarnation, the root of her powers may well involve mutation, with Hank Pym not merely experimenting on his girlfriend for the kicks of it, but because her awakening bio-electric powers predated his experiments and were wreaking havoc on this young socialites social life!).

Other possibilities;
8. Hawkeye 2 (two archers on the same team, with the same codename? Madness!)
9. Moondragon (wouldn't be an X-team without a telepath, and why not a telepathic *Avenger?* Just not Mantis. Never Mantis. *Shudder*)
10. Iceman (Bobby never gets taken seriously, this could be his place to shine!)
11. Angel/Archangel (Perhaps more in need of being taken seriously than even Bobby, since they keep changing him up...)
12. Amanda Sefton (not a mutant, nor an Avenger, but a mutant-adjacent sorceress with ties to both teams, as an option to replace the Scarlet Witch)
13. Bishop (is he a bad-guy or good-guy this week? I don't even know anymore, but if the team didn't already have Rogue, he could be an interesting choice)

Didn't have time to post this earlier. It's the one time I've written Dani, to date:

http://iammilk-milk.blogspot.com/2009/08/fanfic-avengers-in-midnight-blue-part-1.html

http://iammilk-milk.blogspot.com/2009/08/fanfic-avengers-in-midnight-blue-part-2.html

I suppose an argument could be made that all super heroes are mutants and some event just triggered it ... because radioactive spider bites don't usually give super powers ... usually it just kills the spider haha!

Anyway, there is Hawkeye + Hawkeye action in the Hawkeye series and the writer is really gifted ... but its pretty cool ... besides I suppose the both have all kinds of non archery weapon skills.


Anyway(2), Beat and Wonder Man together would be great, and Beast has already been an avenger and he's super smart. and I love the Wasp.

I kind of hope they don't bring her back just to f her up.

There is a strange Brotherhood of Evil mutants connection with these three:

3. Scarlet Witch
4. Quicksilver
5. Rogue

could be cool.

Agreed!

I think it's about time that one of the Pym-club (and why not make it Janet?) start using Pym particles to enlarge the insects they control, and attack some fool with an army of ants the size of buses.

Heck, Pym could field his own team of Avengers, if he wanted.

He's more or less responsible for his own super-hero career (under five or six different aliases), an additional two Ant-Men, an additional Yellowjacket (Rita), the Wasp, Atlas (of the Thunderbolts), Jocasta, Cassie Lang (as Stature, and her alternate future self as Stinger), an additional Giant-Man (Clint Barton's brief stint as GM), Black Goliath and Victor Mancha (of the Runaways, his 'grandson' by way of Ultron).

Ooh, I hadn't made that connection! Neat.

I realized after the fact that I'd made an 'Avengers' team with four out of seven being mutants, but since two of them (Wanda and Pietro) have never been X-Men, I didn't feel like I was weighting the team unfairly in an X-direction.

You could probably field an entirely mutant Avengers team, by adding in Justice and Firestar and possibly Rage (was he a mutant? don't recall...), but those characters don't really appeal to me as much.

And then there's Wolverine (or even Daken), but, no.

Not sure on all of these characters current whereabouts...but here is my crew.

1. Capt. America (Steve Rogers) - Leader, face it...pretty much anyone is going to listen to him
2. Photon (Monica Rambeau) - because she deserves a real chance.
3. Hulkling - I don't know a ton about him and Wiccan, but I really like what I know of them.
4. Wiccan - see above.
5. Nightcrawler - (Kurt Wagner) - Because he needs to come back and really join the big time.
6. Shadowcat - (Kitty Pryde) - she has the training to hold her own.
7. Sasquatch (Walter Langkowski) - Scientist and powerhouse, [plus I like the character.)
8. MACH VI (Abe Jenkins) - Need a tech guy, and I think Abe fits the bill.
9. Cypher (Doug Ramsey) - playing more of a support role, he develops into a sort of Oracle character for the team, and becomes the teams ace pilot (leading to less crashed Quinjets). Constantly translating and finding information as the team operates. Feeding them through specialized communicators.

edited to correct some spacing and spelling issues...

Cool choices!
I'm a huge fan of Monica Rambeau and Nightcrawler, so those two are a great choice. Wiccan is a good choice, for the tie-in to Wanda, and where he goes, Hulkling is sure to follow.

Abe as the 'team tech' for an Avengers team sounds awesome. In the presence of Fixer/Techno, he always came across as second-fiddle, and Fixer being a big jerk did nothing to help that.

Sasquatch was always a favorite, and him as an Avenger 'big hitter' is cool!

yeah cool! Photon really does deserve a chance, and Nightcrawler's swordsmanship and leadership of Excalibur just make him Avengers material to me.

Hulkling and Wiccan jumped up quickly from the young crowd and seem nearly as capable and more appealing (to me) than their crazy adult counterparts.

also ... Kitty Pryde .... Kitty Pryde .... she's perfect.

ooooo and kitty and doug working together again .... magic! unless he's weird evil warlock doug or something.


Sasquatch is also INSPIRED!

Doug is back to being his normal self. No weird stuff...cause I missed all that anyway.

I thought of an interesting one for a FUTURE FANTASTIC FOUR:

Franklin Richards - Super Psi. Leader. pretty smart.
Valeria Richards - in an android body. She was killed and resurrected in an android body, talks to computers and tech powers now. still super duper smart.
Black Bolt Jr. - He's the tough guy of the team. like Superman. Could be Ahuru, through the Terrigan mists ... or not.
Jack Power - He's got the full Power Pack power set. (whether they are dead or retired) He's still a riot. Maybe he learned to teleport like Kofi too!

heh heh I got a sketch for a FUTURE X-MEN!

1. Prodigy
2. Layla Miller
3. Molly Hayes
4. Hisako/Armour
5. Trauma
6. Thunderbird II (Neal Shaara)
7. Anole
8. Pixie

I tried to stay away with the latest crop of X-Kids since they are uber powerful and i wanted to get the future X-Men back to their underdog roots. I imagine Prodigy and Layla keep the team one step ahead of their enemies. I also wanted to keep the Summers and Grey's legacies away from this team.

Another one ... FUTURE AVENGERS

(again I am staying away from the typical legacies)

1. Justice renamed Astro!
2. Firestar
3. Speed
4. Hawkeye II Kate Spencer
5. Darkstar
6. Living Lightning
7. Marvel Boy Noh-Varr
8. Power Man II

and if they need more strength maybe Thena's son Joey. He goes by "Joey". kicks butt. Half Eternal is still way more Eternal than most people. Except he might conflict with Marvel Boy.

I thought about putting Trauma on this team instead of the X-Men. He could be the magic-esque user ... but the goth kid seemed so right on the X-Men.

From the ashes of Legends ... the Giffen, J. M. DeMatteis, and Maguire Justice League came to combine action and comedy.




If you had to do it, what members would you pick from the Legends mini series / crossover to form an all new Justice League ?

Below is a list of most of the characters from the series.

(I'll probably pick about 9 just like Giff and JMD)

1. Captain Marvel
2. Dr. Fate
3. Batman
4. Black Canary
5. Blockbuster
6. Captain Boomerang
7. Changeling
8. Deadshot
9. Enchantress
10. Firestorm
11. Flash (Wally West)
12. Green Lantern -Guy Gardener
13. Cosmic Boy
14. Rick Flagg
15. Robin (Jason Todd)
16. Superman
17. Blue Beetle
18. Wonder Woman
19. Elongated Man
20. Gypsy
21. Martian Manhunter
22. Steel (He died during Legends but ... whatev)
23. Vibe (See 22)
24. Vixen
25. Nightgirl
26. Element Lad
27. Phantom Stranger
28. Sarge Steel
29. Warlord
30. Lightray
31. orion
32. Kilowog - Green Lantern
33. John Stewart - Green Lantern
34. Hal Jordan - Green Lantern
35. Arisia - Green Lantern
36. Salaak - Green Lantern
37. Katma Tui - Green Lantern
38. Ch'P - Green Lantern

(By no means an exhaustive or exclusive list, feel free to add)

I did an interesting version and a big bad old fashioned version.

I'll share the *interesting* version first.

1. Sarge Steel (maybe leader)
2. Warlord (would be weird, maybe great, maybe funny)
3. Bronze Tiger
4. Changeling
5. Flash (Wally West)
6. Enchantress (a few evil jokes may be funny. The Guy Gardener of the team.)
7. Blue Beetle
8. Cosmic Boy
9. Wonder Woman (this was a brand new Wonder Woman at this point. savage Amazonian humor ensues. Maybe keeps Enchantress in check.)
10. Green Lantern - Arisia (cute and innocent - hilarity ensues)


and maybe Firestorm

So, I went with a "Who would I put in a post-Crisis JLA?" scenario more than anything. One of the neat things about the all-new Justice League is that it kind of represented the merging of the different realities that came together in Crisis, so I tried to use that idea as well.

1. Superman -- DC's flagship character.

2. Batman -- DC's other flagship character.

3. Wonder Woman -- DC's most famous female character, in newly rebooted form.

4. Captain Marvel -- Fawcett's Big (Red) Cheese. Also neat as kind of combining elements of Superman and Wonder Woman.

5. Plastic Man -- Quality's biggest star.

6. Phantom Lady -- Probably Quality's second biggest star. Another classic female character.

7. Blue Beetle -- representing Charlton. Also, he and Cap form a kind of counter-Supes and Bats.

8. Jade -- Representing Earth-2 as well as the team's "Green Lantern".

9. Obsidian -- It just seems like he should be there with Jade as the team's "Wonder Twins".

10. Flash (Wally West) -- Because nothing says "post-Crisis reality" like Wally West as Flash.

I stopped with ten, though I would've like to add Black Lightning and/or Vixen for diversity. I also like the idea of throwing in a New God or someone from the 30th century, but didn't do so.

ooo this looks fantastic ... a Superman new to leadership, a Batman unused to working in groups, and a crazy Amazon new to the outer world.

Combined with a naive Captain Marvel and a green Blue Beetle in over their heads!

I love Phantom Lady, she could ground this group.

And It would be fun to see the young Jade and Obsidian as over achieving second generation heroes!

Here's mine, mostly taken from Legends but adding some who weren't present. Hey, the writers threw Mr. Miracle in and he didn't show up...

I'm thinking of a team that would make a good mix of power and hilarity.

1) Wonder Woman (explore her "newness" to man's world

2) Blue Beetle

3) Guy Gardner

4) Martian Manhunter

(the above 3 just worked so well)

5) Doctor Light (make her a little bit bitchier)

6) Black Canary (would be interesting to see how she plays off the other two gals, and the rest of the team)

7) Captain Marvel (captain whitebread!)

8) Firestorm (for the power... and I think he'd get along with Ted. But I'd much prefer Booster Gold...)

9) Fire

10) Ice

11) Power Girl

12) Metamorpho

^ i threw in the above because they just worked so well!

1)Wonder Woman (Leader)
2)Green Lantern - John Stewart
3)Flash - Wally West
4)Mera
5)Martian Manhunter
6)Hawkgirl
7)Atom
8)Vixen
9)Captain Marvel
10)Plastic Man

sweet ... Love Mera!

I did a Marvel big 7 JLA ...


1. Ikaris the Eternal (Martian Manhunter)
2. Photon (Green Lantern)
3. Black Knight (Batman)
4. Angel (Hawkman)
5. Hellcat (Wonder Woman)
6. Wonder Man (Supes)
7. Moondragon (Aquaman)

I went a bit for personality and character interaction. No Flash as you can see I never found guys who can run fast very interesting.

If I had to I would put ... Photon as the Flash and then come up with another GL analogue like ...

Captain Marvel. or most likely 8) Quasar. hmmm Although Ikaris pretty much has everything covered. Could leave Photon where she is and add Northstar to fill in for the Flash spot.

Every team needs someone with wings. Wasp?

I also seriously considered Mimic for the Hawkman spot but thought he was too non heroic. I wanted a mutant on the team though.

DC Avengers ...

1. Titano (sometimes good sometimes bad Hulk)
2. The Red Bee (Wasp)
3. Alloy (Metal Mean amalgam supersized robot)
4. Orion (Thor) (The obvious pick might be a Marvel though)
5. Steel (Iron Man)
6. Captain Atom (Captain America) or Captain Comet

A science heavy team but I guess the Avengers are.

Ooh, I like the idea of Captain Comet on a JLAvengers sort of team, Peebs!

A Marvel Justice League;

For the most part, replacing any Justice Leaguer with a member of the Squadron Supreme feels a bit cheap, since that's all they are, Marvel's own 'Justice League.' So I skipped those. Similarly, Gladiator and the Sentry are just basically Marvel clones of Superman anyway. Too easy!

Wonder Man (Superman)
Ms. Marvel *or* She-Hulk (Wonder Woman)
Captain America *or* Wolverine (Batman)
Namor the Sub-Mariner *or* Namora (Aquaman)
The Super-Skrull! (Martian Manhunter)
Rom, Spaceknight (Green Lantern)
Monica Rambeau/Photon (the Flash)


With the recent popularity of the Guardians of the Galaxy, which, for a brief time was full of totally cosmic ladies like Phyla-Vell, Moondragon, Mantis and Gamora, a DC Guardians of the Galaxy;

Adam Strange (leader)
Krypto (obligatory super-animal)
Starfire
Halo
Green Lantern (Arisia or Katma Tui)
Miss Martian
Captain Comet

As usual, I go for a well-balanced team. I also tried to incorporate a variety of characters from different parts of the respective universes.

A Marvel Justice League:

Luke Cage (Superman)
Iron Fist (Batman)
Sif (Wonder Woman)
Carol Danvers (Green Lantern)
Kid Gladiator (Martian Manhunter)
Northstar (The Flash)

DC's Version of Cap's Kooky Quartet:

Captain Marvel Jr. (Captain America)
Miss Martian (Scarlet Witch)
Kid Flash (Quicksilver)
Rubber Band Man (Hawkeye)

DC Guardians of the Galaxy
Captain Comet(Star-Lord)
Hawkgirl (Gamora)
A Dryad(Groot)
A Proty (Rocket Raccoon)
Superboy (Adam Warlock)

DC Guardians of the Galaxy!


1. Obsidian
2. Jemm Son of Saturn
3. Miss Martian
4. Klarion the Witch Boy
5. Zan
6. Jayna
7. Prince Gavyn Star Man
8. A new Red Torpedo ... who has a space ship ... instead of Submarine.

Alternate Marvel Guardians of the Galaxy

1. Justice (better get started on his Vance Astro life)
2. Starshine (of Rom)
3. Xorn
4. Firelord
5. Lila Cheney
6. Phastos

and Gleek of course.

Maybe the new Red torpedo should be female to balance things out.

Interesting group! I always liked the Spaceknights-with-powers over the Spaceknights-with-gadgets, like Starshine and Firefall. An ex-Herald of Galactus seems a logical fit (a resurrected Supernova could be neat in that role as well, or even a re-constructed Air-Walker). Phastos is one of those 'forgotten Eternals.' Makes me wonder if there are other Eternals out there who are kinda / sorta analogues to other Greek gods, like Artemis, Aphrodite, Apollo or Hades.

Lila Cheney rocks, and not just as group transport, since she can get her hands on some freaky ultra-tech alien weaponry, if she wants to mix it up.

I tried to put a little 'wacky' or 'not who you would expect to be together' in the group. I partly chose Starshine for her human connection. Brandy Clark was actually human.

Dire Wraiths infiltrate the solar system ! mission #1!

10 MEMBER LEGION

SO ... assuming that a slimmed down book could actually be good ...

I will try to do a list ... dissimilar to the 5YL and Legion Lost.

1. Tellus

2. Kid Quantum 1


3. Andromeda


4. Ultra Boy

5. Chemical Kid

6. Catspaw

7. Shadow Lass

8. Tyroc

9. Reflecto

10. Gates


10 seems very few.

aw man I forgot Cham.

Let me do another *popular* version


1. Brainy
2. Imra
3. Garth
4. Cosmic Boy
5. Superboy
6. XS
7. Supergirl
8. Cham
9. Triplicate Girl
10. Dream Girl


not bad ...

Timber Wolf
Duplicate Damsel
Brainiac 5
Harmonia
Phantom Girl
Ultra Boy
Dream Girl
Chameleon Boy
Tellus
Gates

I'm assuming i'm allowed to have any characters I want? XD In that case I will take this list and substitute the ORIGINAL Invisible Kid for Triplicate Girl and Karate Kid for Supergirl. Otherwise...I could dig it.

You can do whatever you like. even add a Wolverine or two.

XD Sir, I believe I shall pass on that one. There is more than enough Wolverine to go around without my adding to it.

lol

1) Andromeda
2) Gates
3) Gear
4) Invisible Kid (Lyle)
5) Konk!
6) Kinetix
7) Kid Quantum (Jazmin)
8) Particon
9) Sensor
10) XS

Let's see:

1) Proty II
2) Neon
3) Infectious Lass
4) Calorie Queen
5) Kono
6) Bouncing Boy
7) Triplicate Girl
8) Power Boy
9) Gravity Kid
10) Questar

great teams!

I have another idea ... if they are going to JLA the LSH ...

why not have ...

1.Superboy
2.Supergirl
3.Rond Vidar Green Lantern
4.Dawnstar
5.XS
6.Cham
7. Brainiac 5

in wacky adventures each month where they rescue planets ... and have a new supporting cast of crazy alien Legion of Super Heroes back up cast members each month!

a revolving cast of 5ish back up members!

I LOVE THIS IDEA. YES. And I can indulge my love for the Rond/Brainy love affair friendship while I'm at it. I AM ALL FOR IT.

A "Satellite Era Legion":

1. Superboy
2. Karate Kid
3. Shadow Lass
4. XS
5. Rond Vidar
6. Lamprey
7. Biron the Bowman
8. Shrinking Violet
9. Dawnstar
10. Tyroc
11. Elastic Lad
12. Nightwind
13. White Witch
14. Element Lad

Who is Nightwind? I mean who does she represent. <a Hawk>

also Biron the Bowman? he he

I think I prefer Shikari to Dawnstar for my original JLA list.

Nightwind for Red Tornado.

ah of course. but now you get an extra spot for a Hawk. and Cham for Martian Manhunter?

Well, MM quit before the Satellite Era.

Yeah, I wasn't sure what to do about the extra Hawk.

Timber Wolf ...

If we can use members from previous version then I'd take Brainy, Jo and Tinya out. The ten I'd like to see are:

Timber Wolf (every team needs an animalistic character)
Duplicate Damsel (Mother hen, determined, flawed - great stuff!)
Harmonia (love her snotty attitude and versatile abilities)
Dream Girl (my fave legionnaire, now if only she would put on something other than an ill fitting silver swimsuit)
Chameleon Boy (increasingly a legionnaire I like, he's the detective of the group)
Gates (snotty socialism is a rare personality trait so it's always fun to see him)
Tellus (The group needs telepathy and an alien - Tellus fits both so here he is)

And -

Thunder - the group needs physically powerful members and she is a match for Mon-El. Now all she needs is a personality. I reckon the Ancient Shazam Mage incorporates the recipients of the magic lightning with the whitebread personality as a fail safe against creating another Black Adam. Think of the fun having Mary Marvel on the team would be - Nura and Brin would hate her innocence while Lu would go all mother hen on her. Internal conflicts (so long as it doesn't come to blows) are staple soap opera material.

Gear - another character who was woefully under explored. He could be as useful as the Engineer in the Authority. Somehow I see him as a distant, almost autistic character with this utterly amazing ability. Fun to watch others integrate with and more fun to watch him cut loose and kick ass.

Kid Quantum 1 - James was a narcissist and wouldn't it be fun watching him and Nura competing for the 'look at me' title? And without him being the uberpowrful character Jasmin turned into his abilities could be expanded a little so they were very useful.

Anyway, that would be my dream team of ten.

I've surprised myself that Brainy, Jan, Shady and Jacques aren't on this list.

Only ten? Torture, man!

I've thought long and hard about this, and...

1) Kinetix - Non-negotiable for me, but she adds a very strong altruistic attitude, plenty of sass, and her powerful telekinesis gives good long-range offense and defense

2) Gates - But this time with more action than talk, I want to see Gates really push the Legion to get involved in development (e.g. medical missions, knowledge transfer sessions to poorer planets.) Teleportation is also one of the most useful powers a team could have.

3) Saturn Girl - Although Tellus is more versatile, I find Imra more powerful and she has a much stronger personality. Telepathy is a major strategic advantage

4) Wildfire - This major hothead might actually end up playing the role of peacemaker on a team with such strong personalities. Anti-energy blasts and general indestructibility (if his suit blows, he can just get a new one) cement his status as a powerhouse

5) Brainiac 5 - The team will never get boring with him around. Amazing intelligence and forcefield powers make him a major asset both on and off the field.

6) Chameleon - Despite his "alien" nature, he makes a good "glue" to this team as everyone's friend. Shapeshifting allows him major versatility in a variety of espionage AND combat situations.

7) Polar Boy - The underdog who made it into the big leagues. His ice powers make him a good backup long-range fighter who can non-lethally take down opponents, but more important is his heart, optimism, and belief in the Legion.

8) Shikari - Pathfinding is more useful than we think - no criminal can hide, no lost person will go unrescued, and so on. Armor skin and speed also make her a good close-range combatant. Curious personality and status as a 2nd Galaxy visitor can help us explore this strange new world through her eyes.

9) XS - One of the characters who really grew during her time with the Legion. Super-speed provides a major tactical advantage and ensures distance is not a factor in battles and in all sorts of other missions.

10) Kid Quantum II - Versatile time manipulation powers and strong kickass attitude while still being a good team player. Also very strong-willed.

Others I heavily considered were Karate Kid (close-range combat specialist who can ensure that enemies immune to powers are never a problem); Element Lad (under Levitz was one of the most dedicated of Legionnaires, and nobody can dispute how amazing his powers are), and Andromeda (extremely versatile powerset and extremely likable personality).

Stats - 5 male, 5 female. Half the team is undeniably "alien" in appearance. Having XS, Shikari and Chameleon prevent the team from specializing too much in long-range combat.

I love this team!

I think Harbi's team is a good one for exploring some woefully ignored characters too. Thunder, Gear, Gates, Tellus, Harmonia... wonder what else we could learn about them.

My 10 Member Legion

1. Brainiac 5
2. Chameleon Boy
3. Dawnstar
4. Karate Kid
5. Mon-el
6. Supergirl
7. Timber Wolf
8. Tyroc
9. Ultra Boy
10. Wildfire

Wildfire
Gates
Quislet
Saturn Girl
Brainiac 5
Phantom Girl
Invisible Kid II
Thunder
Dawnstar
Blok

I've got to say its really interesting to see how many people have chosen Gates for their team, considering when the Reboot was going on so many people seemed to hate him. lol

My ten would be

1.Kinetix - (agree with IB!)
2.Gates (a fav of mine!)
3.Brainy (reboot version). - find him to be more interesting and not as much of a jerk.
4.Saturn Girl. ( I just can't imagine a Legion without her. She's so powerful and a strong female character.)
5.Star Boy -
6.Andromeda -(before her nun days.)
7.Crystal Kid - i want to see what he has to offer.
8.Catspaw - always felt she was underdeveloped.
9.Ferro
10.Umbra

Since picking a ten person Legion is a) an impossible task, and b) at cross purposes with the point of this property, I'll attempt to spin it around a story (using Preboot/Retroboot characters only) -

Legionnaires left to defend the United Planets:

1. Bouncing Boy
2. Dawnstar
3. Dream Girl
4. Lightning Lass
5. Mon-el
6. Shrinking Violet
7. Sun Boy
8. Tellus
9. Triplicate Girl
10. Tyroc

Legionnaires wandering lost on the other side of the universe:

1. Colossal Boy
2. Computo
3. Dragonmage
4. Invisible Kid II
5. Lamprey
6. Matter-Eater Lad
7. Nightwind
8. Polar Boy
9. Princess Projectra
10. Shadow Lass

2 comics. 20 characters. 10 males. 10 females.

Love these line ups!

I haven't done this in a while. Let's see if I've changed my mind about anything. XD

1: Saturn Girl (Reboot) - Preferably later in the series when she was stronger, more assertive, and less whiny. Her characterization in Legion Lost is probably my favorite.

2: Invisible Kid (Reboot) - Other than being my favorite character, this version of him was COOL. A spy at 14? A genius? A bit of a smartass? LOVE IT.

3: Cosmic Boy (Reboot) - I like Rokk. I don't care if he's a stick in the mud from time to time. I like his ideals and his morals and his strength of character. He's the Legion's rock.

4: Dream Girl (ThreeBoot) - Dream Girl was probably my favorite character in the Threeboot. She was sort of a strange mix of kickass and half-flighty.

5: Brainiac 5 (Reboot) - Again, another obvious pick. But this version of Brainy was a much more likable character while still maintaining the traditional snark and attitude that made him Brainiac 5.

6: Kid Quantum II (Reboot) - I loved Jazmin from the moment she was introduced. She got even better after Legion Lost. Her powers were pretty nifty and she herself was a likable female character, which I find a lot of people can't seem to write.

7: Shikari (Reboot) - Okay, yeah, I know most of my picks are reboot characters. SO SUE ME. Shikari was just a fun character to me. Somehow she came across as being sweet, yet bold. And, to be honest, I like her way better than Dawnstar.

8: The White Witch (Any Incarnation) - There always needs to be a spellcaster in the Legion, and Mysa is my pick.

9: Karate Kid (Reboot) - For whatever reason, I really liked the spiritual take they had on Val in the Reboot. He seemed noble and thoughtful. Not to mention I love any character who can kick that much ass.

10: Chameleon (Original or Reboot) - Man, did I hate the Threeboot version of Chameleon! But the other versions were awesome! I like shapeshifting characters, as they're always super useful.

Honorable Mentions: Apparition, M'Onel, and Sensor.

I decided to choose a new ten ... based on ten Legionnaires who could pull this one out. By that I mean ten that could save the universe from the current storyline.

1. Projectra. HLIC. Not even Dream Girl has killed two villains and ruled a planet.

2. Brainac 5 (Always key)

3. Chameleon (Espionagerific and he got the band back together in the 5YL)

4. Superboy (I liked Kon El. He comes to the future, after a long absence, to help save his pals.)

5. XS (She was awesome in LOTD)

6. Element Lad (He's a legend)

7. Polar Boy (inextinguishable newbie spirit)

8. Violet (She will punch her way through Validus if need be)

9. Computo (key to defeating Tharok. Brainy's secret weapon. She'll be even more pissed if Jacques dies.)

10. Dragonmage (Mysa is likely to die, and a bit of magic could just swing things in the LSH's favor)


Shikari and/or Ayla would be great too but I went with XS. I almost added Kid Quantum II but went with Polar Boy and XS for plucky characters.

Hmmmm, lets see what I can come up with for a 10-member Legion, using my own, self-imposed restrictions:

1)Supergirl (a 20th century link is needed)
2)Brainiac 5 (I find it hard to imagine a Legion w/o him)
3)XS (completely underused)
4)Harmonia (interesting powers and backstory IMO)
5)Rainbow Girl (A little off, but that could be interesting)
6)Shadow Lass (An underused character IMO)
7)Night Girl (with Shady? Unstoppable)
8)Violet (I love her attitude and my pick for Dept Leader)
9)Lightning Lass (Need a stable relationship in the Legion)
10)Element Lad (one of the most powerful, and choice for Leader)

(Wow, just realized that I went almost all female with this team.)

Hmmm...

1 - Dev-Em
2 - XS
3 - Dawnstar
4 - Wildfire
5 - Brainiac 5
6 - White Witch
7 - Vi
8 - Ayla
9 - Kent Shakespeare
10 - Cham

Uncanny X Legionnaires

Ala the grim and gritty X babes books.

1. Projectra (On the fence leader)
2. Chemical Kid (bad boy new guy)
3. Timber Wolf (he's got claws)
4. Nemesis Kid (alternate universe version might be evil ... makes Projectra uncomfortable)
5. Dawnstar (she needs to be toting some huge guns)
6. Bloodclaw (he's got claws)
7. Dev Em
8. Spider Woman
9. Shadow Lass
10. Karate Kid 2

Some Legionnaires show up in multiple (or all) variations, such as the Founders and Brainy. This then, would be the others, the Legion of One World (as in, only existing in one world, but coming from many different continuities).

1) Tellus
2) Tyroc
3) Kid Quantum II
4) Reflex (Devlin O'Ryan)
5) Shikari
6) Nightwind
7) Kinetix
8) Crystal Kid
9) Dream Boy
10) Gazelle

You're so sweet

Why not? Girl power!!

So my original "perfect" team from a writing perspective was:

Kinetix
Gates
XS
Chameleon
Polar Boy
Saturn Girl
Wildfire
Brainiac 5
Shikari
Kid Quantum II

My 10-member animated series Legion:

Live Wire
Saturn Girl
Brainiac 5
Gates (I think the kids would dig him)
XS
Andromeda
Apparition
Bouncing Boy
Kinetix (of course!)
Cosmic Boy

A 10-member uber-powerful Legion:

Andromeda
Mon-El
White Witch
Kid Quantum II
Element Lad
Wildfire
Brainiac 5 (those forcefields are killer)
Saturn Girl
XS
Gates (teleportation is extremely powerful, tactically)

A 10-member peacekeeping/diplomatic/developmental Legion to be deployed to poorer, less developed planets:

Tellus
Gates (sense a pattern here?)
Kinetix (she loves to help others)
Andromeda (sans the xenophobia)
Infectious Lass
Kent Shakespeare
Chameleon (I think he'd like this sort of thing)
Dreamer (ever the diplomat)
Apparition (ditto)
Cosmic Boy

1) Jeckie (no 2 ways about it she has to be there)
2) Star Boy - hunk appeal
3) Chollyrphll Kid - sexy Adventure Comics new costume version...not fat hunk of lard version.
4) Phantom Girl...keep the str8 boys interested
5) Element Lad ....keep the gay boyz interested
6) Superboy....keep DC interested
7) Kent Shakespeare....you got have the token character to kill off in #3.
8) XS cos she is the best new character to be introduced in good knows how long.
9)Phantom Boy ----cos he looked hot
10) me.......

I created one I liked a few weeks ago ...

a carbon copy JLA

1) Mon El
2) Andromeda
3) Rond Vidar
4) Dawnstar
5) Karate Kid
6) White Witch
7) Lightning Lad
8) Gear
9) Wildfire
10) XS


Something else else like that ... I can't remember

anyway the trick is ... they guys die and/or disappear ... after coming together to fight a big bad ... or they are the elite of the Legion

Their death leaves a gap in the Legion (a Science Police type organization)

thereby leaving their loved ones on a year long mystery tour to find them ... or come together to fight the big bad which is back.


so preliminary characters would:

Dream Girl
Projectra
Timber Wolf
Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy

Brainy ... a member of the original elite who was left behind

maybe Andy survives.

Lightning Lass

and it builds from there involving a planet hoping star spanning caper.

(also this way many of the uber powerful Legionnaires are taken off the table. The team is inspired by the Justice Legion yet, something completely different. Maybe the first 6 issues is actually the Justice Legion story.)

I find that making a Justice League team of only 10 members is fricking difficult. Possibly because there have just been so many awesome Leaguers whom I've really enjoyed reading over the years.

Making a ten-member Titans team is a bit easier; there have been lots of awesome Titans but I'm just really more fond of some others:

1) Kole
2) Donna Troy
3) Cyborg
4) Beast Boy
5) Starfire
6) Flamebird
7) Argent
8) Tempest
9) Terra III
10) Miss Martian

Basically the Wolfman-Perez Titans with my favorite Kole back, and Argent as newbie. Terra III so we can have a cool Terra without the baggage of the original. I almost put Blue Beetle, but ended up with MMiss Martian instead.

A different sort of Justice League, composed of characters I'd love to have seen more of;

1) Amazing Man (assume properties of objects touched, not the magnetic powers version)
2) Jason Blood / Etrigan
3) Rocket Red 4
4) Nightwing
5) Olympian
6) Firehawk
7) Vixen
8) Hawkgirl
9) the Bulleteer
10) Moon Maiden

I wanted to consider Tomorrow Woman and Element Woman as well, but their powers were very similar to those of Moon Maiden and Amazing Man, respectively.

Other odd eggs could be Bloodwynd (although I like Jason Blood better, as team magic-user) or Aztek (cray-cray powerset, and Etrigan and Olympian already have a raft of unnecessary powers...). I resisted the temptation to put Booster Gold in there as well.

I secretly love Moon Maiden and Tomorrow Woman!!!

and Firehawk of course. I like Vixen as well but she gets plenty of air time.

Nightwing is the best leader ever, from both the big two!

I know right? I generally don't like characters introduced with a Sentry-like 'oh, I was always here, you just forgot me' origins, but Moon Maiden is very cool.

[Triumph, not so much. Too powerful to be useful in a team book, IMO. Same with Maxima. 'Oh, I have all of Superman's powers, and all of Magneto's powers, and all of Jean Grey's powers, and a bunch of other random crap that makes even the Martian Manhunter and Sersi jealous...']



With the blue energy wings, she's got an *awesome* visual, and is not nearly as confusing, origin-wise, as Firestorm himself can be.

Goldstar, a female Booster Gold expy, is also cool, although not so much as Booster himself, IMO. (And Goldstar has never been a member of the Justice League, so I didn't even consider her.)



Yeah, Vixen has gotten more play than her fellow Detroit Leaguers, that's for sure! And I just like Nightwing. Leader. Solo. Whatever! More Nightwing!

Coming up with just ten Titans, on the other hand, is much harder for me...

1) Kole
2) Duela Dent
3) Prysm (Argent and Mirage get a lot of love, Prysm, not so much!)
4) Terra (the original crazy one, working out her issues, one bad-guy face at a time! Accept no substitutes!)
5) Zachary Zatara (cause it's time to step out of big sisters shadow!)
6) Golden Eagle
7) Arsenal / Roy Harper
8) Jericho (100% less evil and crazy!)
9) Son of Vulcan
10) Tempest (Garth)

The Titans are an odd one. I can easily make top 10 lists of Avengers or X-Folk or Leaguers or Legionnaires that are all women, but I find myself disproportionately preferring male Titans. Some have squiffy hard to define powers, like Lilith or Raven or Anima, others have awesome powers and / or great characterizations, like Miss Martian or Bombshell, but I only like in moderation.

I wouldn't mind adding Osiris or Phantasm (yeah, Danny Chase, all growed up!) or, obviously, Nightwing, to the list, or even the forgotten Protector or Talon, but it was already dude-heavy!

If there ever was a Legion universe 'Justice League 3013' sort of team, I don't know about anyone else, but I'd want the Black Canary expy to be She-Roc, a gender-reversed Tyroc, who looks sort of like this;

Superman: Horace Lafeaugh
Batman: Myke Chypurz
Wonder Woman: Sussa Paka
Green Lantern: Roy Travich
The Flash: Klint Stewirt

Ditto! It's a shame that Moon Maiden was never used again after she was retconned back into existence. She was certainly powerful and heroic enough to fit in with the Satellite League.

Tomorrow Woman ended up being restored to life after the Trinity series, but I don't think they ever did anything with that. Ah well.

And Firehawk is like a slightly more mature female Firestorm (at least, she was after she'd been around for a bit).

Another Kole fan, yay! I always did wonder why Argent was much more loved than Prysm. Maybve it was Argent's personality or her backstory.

Like you Set, I always find myself leaning towards the females. Whether it's the JLA, LSH, Titans, X-Men, Avengers, or even the JSA I always find myself stuffing my team full of ladies.

I like Argent a bit, but Kole already covers the 'create stuff' angle (crystal constructs rather than energy constructs, but still, kinda similar), as does Terra. Prysm offers something different.



The X-Men, in particular, have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to very interesting female characters, but the Avengers, Legion, etc. also have a ton of good heroes who also happen to be ladies.

An all-female Fantastic Four (Invisible Woman, She-Hulk, Crystal and Medusa) could be fun as well!

I want Firehawk to be a scientist who turns herself into Firehawk ... done ... I could even call her Firestorm. done. scientist + accident = powers. plus then she could still be a scientist as a hero too. seems useful.

Nightwing is the Kitty Pryde of the DC U. Personality is a secret weapon!

That would probably be cooler, in the end, than have her origin be 'second-hand hero who is some famous dudes daughter IRL.'



Nightwing and Arsenal both have a certain something that might be overkill on the same team. Non-powered 'sidekicks' who grew up and transcended their former status, much more successfully than some others. (Note, that's Arsenal, not 'Red Arrow,' who pretty much backslid into becoming a color-swapped version of his mentor, instead of a master-of-all-weapons sort of dude as Arsenal. 'Red Arrow,' IMO, is a de-evolution or character regression.)

I agree with you on the Arsenal vs. Red Arrow thing.

I would read an all-female FF with Sue, She-Hulk, Medusa and Crystal!

What I like about Argent's powers is that she's a bit Green Lantern-ish, and in my mind somewhat more versatile than Prysm. Granted, I don't completely understand Argent's powers...

A 12-member Justice League for me:

1) Dr. light (Kimiyo)
2) Wonder Woman (need to balance out the bitchiness!)
3) Superman
4) Batman
5) Green lantern (Guy Gardner)
6) Flash (Wally)
7) Martian Manhunter
8) Vixen
9) Firestorm (Jason/Ronnie)
10) Faith
11) Fire
12) Ice

This team is chock-full of power though a bit lighter on the Satellite era members. Fire and Ice IMO are much better as part of a larger cast.

I think the big 6 are crucial members.

Power Girl was a strong candidate but I wanted more diversity in powers. Left Metamorpho out because we have Firestorm to handle element-changing and MM can shapeshift.

The League has a ton of great characters as former or kinda/sorta members, like the Phantom Stranger, Doctor Fate, Captain Atom and the Martian Manhunter, that I'd rather read in a solo book, because they just have so many (or so much!) powers.

Martian Manhunter, in particular, could have one heck of a solo book. Dark and moody and noir-esque adventures where his detective alter-ego walks into secret invasions by body-snatching aliens, or even supernatural stuff like demonic infestations (which he deals with using super-powers, instead of magic). Sort of a comic book version of the novel 'Tea with the Black Dragon,' where a fairly normal looking noir protagonist may have a bit more up his sleeve than a mean right hook. (And end up in situations that a mean right hook won't fix!)

And then there's the characters I can't choose because I just don't know what the heck the writers were thinking, like with Gypsy or Bloodwynd.

It's X-Factor time!

(as the book ends)


Could be a retro team of some sort, a government sanctioned mutant team or an offbeat investigative team ... or something new.

I just have a sketch so far but I'm thinking something like random characters I just am really into:

Snowbird

Siryn

Sunfire

Prodigy

The latest Nightcrawler

Hellion

I don't know .... need to think more ... I would add Xorn but I think he was over exposed by GM.

and Jessica Drew

... I'd like a creepy supernatural or international espionage vibe. X-Factor Investigations

Maybe a new Dr Spectrum and maybe one of the bad girl Mastermind .. but no the murderer one just the bad one.

I was thinking maybe Warpath but he might be too violent for me ...

and now I want to replace Sunfire with Neal Sharra Thunderbird II.

My X-Factor

1.Havok
2.Polaris
3.Banshee
4.Sunfire
5.Quicksilver
6.Scarlet Witch
7.Blob

X-Factor is one of the rare teams where I like the characters individually, and also as a team.

Here's my 7-member team:

1) Havok
2) Polaris
3) Siryn
4) M
5) Strong Guy
6) Rictor
7) Shatterstar

People who have been in X-Factor;

Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Angel, Iceman

Caliban

Artie Maddicks, Boom Boom / Tabitha, Rusty Collins / Firefist, Leech, Skids, Rictor, Wiz Kid

Havok, Polaris, Quicksilver, Madrox, Wolfsbane, Valerie Cooper

Random, Forge, Fixx, Greystone, Archer

Mystique, Sabertooth, Shard, Wild Child

Siryn, Strong Guy, Monet, Butterfly / Layla Miller, Shatterstar, Darwin, Pip

I'd pick;

1) Madrox (my favorite from that list)
2) Mystique (as co-leader, with her own agenda, she'd be awesome)
3) Fixx (one of the best ideas from the XSE group) *or* Monet
4) Shard (living hologram version) *or* Skids
5) Rictor (I actually liked him without his powers, but I'll take either way)
6) Shatterstar (some muscle, for a team with less purely physical fighters)
7) Wolfsbane *or* Dani Moonstar *or* Wild Child

I Love this thread, probably because I have always been a team book guy!

Heres a list of Legion Teams that I have tried to tweak over the years using pen and pad.

1.Legion of Super-Heroes
2.Legion of Substitute-Heroes
3.Legion Reserve
4.Legion Academy
5.Earth 3 Legion
6.Heroes of Lallor
7.Wanderers
8.Workforce
9.Amazers
10.Rejects
11.Adventurers
12.Rebooters
13.Super-Companions
14.Lost Legion
15.Legion Outpost
16.Adult Legion
17.Khund Legion
18.Allegiance
19.Science Police: Special Forces
20.Terra Firma

You are all giving me ideas so ...

CROSS TIME CAPER X-FACTOR

Fitzroy is back (maybe a younger pre dead out of time Fitzroy) and in the employ of Nekron and/or James Braddock.


1. Pheonix (Rachel Grey)
2. Age of Apocalypse Nightcrawler
3. Bishop
4. Cable
5. X-Man
6. Fixx
7. Shard (hologram!)
8. Blink
9. Archer
10. Greystone


Possibly an appearance by Nocturne and Darkstar.

You get where I'm going ... an inter dimensional time hoping and rotating team extravaganza!


Jean Grey guest stars! and the Beyonder!

Heh. I left Madrox off from my list on purpose, Set! I kept Rictor and Shatterstar together on purpose too, did you?

LWL, please feel free to share YOUR own team lineups for all those Legion-related teams

That's a pretty cool team lineup, Peebz.

How about...

"Exile" Legion?

1) Kinetix as the Emerald Empress - a good Emerald Empress who was her Legion's leader. Actually a version of Zoe Saugin. Has to deal with the reality that other Emerald Empresses encountered by her teammates were almost all bad!

2) Nightwind - she was the founder of HER universe's Legion, and has to deal with the reality that most of her teammates' Nightwinds were Academy students, dead...

3) Karate Kid - from a Legion set in the 18th/19th century

4) Brainiac 6 - son of Brainiac 5! Has the ability to access all "7" intelligences from the theory that there are multiple intelligences - interpersonal, intrapersonal, etc.

5) Gates - from a universe where the dominant species are insectoid and Vyrga is the seat of a massive interplanetary empire

6) Chameleon - from a universe where Durlans are hunted down and the UP is an autocratic, militaristic entity. Will be asexual!

7) Kid Quantum II - Jazmin Cullen from a timeline where the original Legion (of which her brother James was a membe) was wiped out. She is trying to start a new Legion. (Her time powers will be a critical component of all this.)

8) XS - granddaughter of the Flash, longtime member of her universe's Justice League

Of course, I'd have these Exiles visit their home universes somewhere along the way and "set things right" so to speak. They'd eventually disband and return home, and either reform or form their own Legions.

Xfactor always seemed like a home for second (and lower) string characters to me with a couple of almost alpha heroes stuck in to give it legitimacy. With that in mind here's my team:


Madrox

Shadow Cat

Nightcrawler

M

Monsoon (from the issue Jamie died - Haven's brother)

Karma

Wolfsbane

If Jim Lee hadn't gotten his hands on Psylocke and turned her into an Asian ninja, I would *totally* loved to have seen Xian / Karma, after having spent some time working for her crime-lord uncle (in return for his help in finding her missing younger siblings), coming back with ninja-like skills from her time working for her uncle, in addition to a subtler manifestation of her original mind control abilities.

Unfortunately, with Psylocke having been race-changed and 'ninja-ed up,' that logical development of Karma (from where she was written out to work for her crime-lord uncle) would come off as derivative or a cheap knockoff of the path Psylocke has already followed.

An Exiles version of Karma would be an ideal place to introduce that sort of AU Karma, all grown up and evolved from her time working for Uncle Nguyen. She might even go in a different direction, shades of Mariko or even Daredevil or the Agents of Atlas, and have overthrown and replaced her crimelord uncle, taken over his organization, and be turning it towards more benevolent ends! Xian Coy Manh, with her own clan of former crooks, turned secret society!

Makes a bit more sense if Karma got hat kind of development - I think I read the two Psylockes/Kwannon topry though for the life of me can't remember if it made any sense really. Am I right in thinking her mind got swapped with that of a Hand assassin and she kept her own memories and basic personality though acquired her new body's muscle memories? It was something like that wasn't it?

And I like that Karma was seen as an uber telepath that was so powerful she couldn't held but dampen the minds she touched.

Karma could also have "evolved" to the point where the people she took control of wouldn't REMEMBER or know they had been controlled. That would give her a major advantage!

I had some new ideas for an UBER TEAM OF AVENGERS. Or an Avengers International ... with a powerful diverse group of characters.

1. Rom Spaceknight
2. Hyperion
3. Phastos (an underused Eternal and character)
4. Darkstar
5. Snowbird
6. Sunfire (always loved Sunfire)
7. Sif
8. Xorn


some may be dead or something but that's no prob in the MU.

Re Imagine Justice League "Detroit"

Martian Manhunter develops a team to honor the League and partially out of guilt for the Martian War. (might be nice to see a different side of the martian, a spy or war lord, instead of the shapechanging superman). Aquaman of all people I think really needed to split due to upcoming personal problems.

This new league made up after everyone suddenly has better things to do after the Martian Invasion ... (even Red Tornado? ) However, this time the previous members take their departure a bit more seriously and recommend some replacements. Great Heroes that were ready and were around at the time of the split and the team would look more like the old team with a GL and a Hawk (but weren't being used in other books either like the Titans or Outsiders).

1. Martian Manhunter
2. Zatanna (she grew up in the Detroit era. It's her turn to be a senior member.

3. John Stewart. Referred by Hal.
4. Vixen is still a go! Referred by Superman possibly.
5. Captain Comet. (maybe he and Martian Manhunter used to have adventures together???) He's got power and experience.

6. Golden Eagle, referred by the Hawks and the techie guy with his fancy Thangarian suit and weapons. Also IIRC he was a bit older than the other Titans.

7. Firehawk enters in issue 2 or 4 ... she hears the League is down a Firestorm and wants to try her hand. She is the new kid or young member of the team and is admitted probationarily. Might have some cute romance moments with Golden Eagle.

The team's first mission is a call from Japan by a hero named ...

8. Sunburst who is one of Japan's greatest heroes and is around at the time. He is a bit unimpressed to not get Superman, Wonder Woman etc. but fits right in when the battle starts.

The Japan mission might take two parts and introduce a mysterious new character SAMURAI.

I imagine the first few missions would take place in a few locations that would spot light a character inspired by the super friends cartoon. also popular before JL Detroit. so a Japan mission, a mid west mission, a Mexico City mission with cameos by heroes from each place. (but Sunburst stays on the team)

That should be good for like 6 issues at least!

The team might still have some elements of the Detroit era, a people's league ... (more like downtown Manhattan though than Detroit) and a diverse team. This team would fair better against big bads like Amazo and Despero.

Complete with an Hall of Justice headquarters on embassy row!

Aquaman and Elongated Man might stick around for a maxi size reforming the league issue, a league of wholly committed heroes.

1. Martian Manhunter
2. Zatanna
3. Elongated Man (with Sue along, of course!)
4. Vixen
5. Steel (Hank), I have a newfound liking for him
6. Fire
7. Ice
8. Firehawk (I like the idea)


Bea and Tora I think would have been active by then. Problem is thinking up a motivation for them to leave the Global Guardians. Hmmm...

Captain Comet, Golden Eagle and Firehawk are inspired choices! (Although Martian Manhunter and Captain Comet overlap, and either / or might be a cool choice, with Comet showing up as a Manhunter replacement later.)

Manhunter, Vixen and either Steel or Aquaman make nice call backs to the original JLDetroit.

Other than those, I'd also leave a slot for a new character.

Dr. Light (Kimiyo) might make an interesting fill in for a Green Lantern, in place of John Stewart, since her light manipulation is basically just light-based energy constructs anyway.

I think that's why it would be great! They would have to survive on their personalities, hopefully we'd get to see Martian Manhunter use all his powers of disguise or his knowledge of strategy .. while Captain Comet would be the poster boy ... and use his super speed and some of his more random powers, telekinesis etc.

There were a lot of reasons why there was a move away from using the big guns due including:-

- Editorial control and in fighting over characters. “You can’t use him because…”
- Writers having to dumb the big guns down
- Writers enjoying getting a bit more freedom to use and explore second stringers
- Readers enjoying seeing that freedom & this appearing more often in lettercols
- The popularity of X-Men and Titans and the desire to shake up the JLA to boost sales.
- Crisis was increasingly looming on the horizon, so more characters being taken out of the pool.
- Natural changes in the characters taking them out of commission – Atom, Batman, Hal Jordan.
- From the above two, a lot of characters were getting closely looked at, and the JLA was a lesser priority.
- Possibly people above not being terribly keen on Conway anymore. Conway has said he lost real control before Rebirth in one interview.

So, to promote the focus on the team and it’s characterisation, and no doubt to reduce editorial turf wars, the League became a book for full time members only. This basically meant characters with appearances elsewhere in the DCU weren’t going to be included.

All the reader enjoyment of the second stringers went out of the title based on series that had yet to be released. The Hawks, Green Arrow, Black Canary & Red Tornado left. Firestorm also couldn’t commit (as he had an ongoing series) and had to go, even though Conway was writing both titles. This move essentially isolated the League from the rest of the DCU, as any character with involvement in the wider world couldn’t be a member.

Back then, there weren’t that many JLA Members:-

Superman Ongoing
Batman Ongoing, had quit &Outsiders
Wonder Woman Ongoing
Flash Ongoing - On trial
Green Lantern Ongoing - Quit in 1984
Aquaman
Martian Manhunter
Green Arrow Back Up in Detective. Mini plans
Atom Mini/Specials -in S America
Hawkman Mini - released in 1985
Black Canary Back Up in Detective. Mini plans
Phantom Stranger
Elongated Man
Red Tornado Mini planned 1983-1985
Hawkgirl Mini - released in 1985
Zatanna
Firestorm Ongoing

From the list above the League used by Conway in Rebirth were the only possible members who could stay under the new restrictions.

Adding new members was also difficult. So many characters were already tied into other franchises. The Titans were still going strong and the Outsiders had Metamorpho and Black Lightning, both previously involved with the JLA.

As this was before the Crisis, all of the Charlton, Fawcett and other parallel Earth heroes were out of bounds. This included the All-Star Squadron, Freedom Fighters and Infinity inc which tied up all golden age heroes and their legacies. There weren’t a lot of solo heroes left around.

I’d probably have gone for a more gradual restructuring of the team. It would still enforce the idea that characters with too much going on elsewhere would go, but would keep characters with series too far away in the future and build up to those series.

There was the option of using the Martian invasion to also include a prelude to J’Emm and possibly to also include Captain Comet.

There would also have to be a better explanation given to explain the absence of Superman, Wonder Woman & Flash + all the other DC heroes during the Martian invasion. It was used to reform the team, rather than making a lot of sense in the wider continuity. Since Superman transported them all back in time to prevent anyone noticing that the Flash was missing from his trial, they were technically there at the time of the invasion after all.

But at the end, we would have a league reduced in available numbers without a HQ and Aquaman calling the shots. He could have given practically the same speech but with the intent of reinforcing the league to meet the world’s threats, instead of disbanding and downgrading it.

Without using too much hindsight, the league night have been…

Aquaman – I’d have had the league involved in an Atlantean storyline, to help build up Arthur’s back story. All the members should have the potential to have min/ongoing series.

Martian Manhunter - Xenophobia and a look at how aliens are perceived in the DCU to capture that X-Men angst. Also gritty detective tales with an Invaders feel to it. Links to White and Red Martians too (link with J’Emm series in place of Superman).

Elongated Man – Instead of downsizing the league should be heralded as huge heroes for saving the world from disaster. More so for doing it without the big guns. So, we see Ralph and Sue as celebrities. Ralph has always liked the publicity and it goes well with Sue’s socialite background too. Ralph also involved in proper mysteries with Manhunter, removing the need for Batman.

Zatanna – Again, instead of the downsize, we see more of her life out with the league – Vegas magic show career for example, her place in the wider mystical DCU. Madame Xanadu guest stars.
Those four are all that was available to Conway at the time of the decisions. There’s really no reason why Green Arrow, Black Canary and Red Tornado couldn’t have stuck around with a bit of editorial communication. Their changes were often years away. It keeps the lesser lights in the league until it’s time for them to move on while also keeping the league connected to the richer cast of the DCU.

I’d have had more mention of the Hawks’ Shadow War. I think they were aware of it, and probably wouldn’t have stuck around for very long anyway. But an issue or two of ominous foreboding would have helped both books. Some Thanagarian tech could have stayed, especially teleporters. As painful as it is, Firestorm’s life was pretty messy so committing even more to the league would have been tough. Some guest appearances though.

The initial membership drives could have brought us :-

Steel – Could have appeared pretty much as he did, offering a HQ for membership and a legacy with an old hero from another world.

Vixen -(an alternative would have been Animal Man from the Forgotten Heroes), but would have appeared as shown.

Firehawk – I’ve always wanted her in the league & with Conway writing both titles she could have been added easily enough: Ronnie moaning about leaving JLA or simple curiosity +opportunity. Combines League with political work.

Mister Miracle – This was going to be Scott Free, but with Barda he would overshadow a few other members. So, it’s now celebrity escape artist Shilo Norman, brought in by Zatanna as the New Gods title is cancelled in Nov 1984. The JLA also gets some New Gods adventures.

Airwave – If Hal Jordan isn’t available then what about Hal Jordan? He has only slight Green Lantern links and a character with lots of potential. He has worked with both Green Arrow and Black Canary and they would have recommended him. Airwave has electromagnetic powers and can fly.

Perhaps Batgirl was also approached but she turned it down, not sure of her place in the DCU at the time. It’s tempting to give her a monitor duty role, pre-dating her Oracle persona. Others reviewed but not offered would be Golden Eagle and Mind Grabber Kid. Sargon could be visited by Zatanna for moral support.

Further members:-

Supergirl – after her series ends Sep 1984. She had been in the JLA adventure right before Rebirth too, so she would have joined fairly early on. This would have been around the time of her movie and would also have slowly built into Crisis. I’d have brought her in as the world comes to terms with the big guns having been missing and the retirement of some of the others – Atom, Hal etc.

Mera - Appearing so often as to practically be a member. Aquaman works out his marital and kingdom issues in the title, rather than leaving them to one side. It turns out that Mera’s powers act as a sort of TK in the air.

Shade – Instead of fighting gangs in Detroit, this league is still involved in alien invasions, mystical threats, new gods (through Shilo Norman)and in this case other dimensions. The JLA get involved through Commander Steel/ Element Girl connections. Rac Shade has great visuals (think plastic man) and an odd dislocated personality.

Element Girl – This is the Bob Haney character from the ‘60s. Identity/ place in the world would be a major theme through her, J’Onn J’Onzz, Arthur Curry and Hank Heywood. She has the powers of Metamorpho and is also a secret agent. Probably joins in some Hawkman related pulp Egyptian adventure. Part of the Hawk’s Shadow War seeing them guest star.

J’Emm – September ’85 once his maxi series ends. Possibly takes place of J’Onn in a follow up to the Martian invasion story.

With the Martian Manhunter and possibly J’Emm involved, it’s hard to find a place for Captain Comet. But I’d add him in if it was feasible. He was an honorary member after all.

Support
Sue Dibny, Dale Gunn

Guest Stars
Adam Strange, Scott Free, Barda & Orion, John Stewart, JSA/Infinity Inc., Barry Allen + other big guns.

She also has a history of using bright light and intense lasers I did want to include her, but sadly she hadn't been created yet at the time the Detroit League was formed. She'd be a great later member though!

Re thothkins' list, very well thought out. I particularly like how you outlined the buildup and continuing writing of the book and that you considered how you would work within the editorial restrictions of that time. Having Dinah, Ollie and Reddy stay until the plans for their own minis actually materialized is a great idea.

I particularly like your new member ideas in Supergirl, Mera, Shade, Element Girl, Firehawk and Air Wave. And yes, Shilo Norman! And definitely Steel and Vixen.

Love thothkin's list as well.

Jemm, 'Son of Saturn,' replacing J'onn, would be a great concept.

Firehawk and Element Woman, also favorites.

And how could I forget Airwave? 'The other Hal Jordan!' Love that guy, as my affection for characters who can turn into energy (Black Vulcan, Monica Rambeau, Lazon) is well known!

(Just, not the version that had roller skates that allowed him to skate along power lines, 'cause that was pretty terrible...)

Shade, also an interesting character, that could use dusting off.

It would be cool to bring in some obscure one-shot characters from JLA history, like Saranna from JLA #1.

If this were set later in time, I'd also like to see Tomorrow Woman or Moon Maiden get second chances!

thanks guys. Since J'Emm was essentially a reboot of the Martian Manhunter (before it's post Crisis time), I would have had closer ties with both books if Conway was bringing back the Manhunter. An option would be to have J'Emm replace the Manhunter entirely. it would allow Captain Comet to appear more easily.

There's also Sandman II (get in before the Endless) and Mark Shaw (although I think his Ostrander make over was a huge improvement).

I dusted off the 220-230 JLA issues and the following were in the lettercols:-

#220 The Comics Collector seems to have outed the arrival of Vixen as early as #220. Others: Batgirl & Red Star, Wonder Twins, Jack O'Lantern, Green Fury, Robotman, Dr Mist, Metal Men, The Olympian,
#221 - Batgirl
#222 - Captain Comet, Batgirl, Insect Queen, Guardian, Bumblebee
#223 - J'Onn J'Onzz x3, Captain Comet x2, Batgirl
#224 - J'Onn J'Onzz x2, Robotman (Cliff Steele), Wonder Twins, Snapper Carr x2, Captain Comet
#225 - Supergirl (alternating with Superman), Captain Comet, (no for Batgirl, Shazams, Mera or Global Guardians), Reena (could grow on the reader)
#226 - Vixen, J'Onn J'Onzzx2, Batgirl x4, Captain Cometx, Scott Free Mister Miracle, Starman (Mikaal?) + subs of Phantom Stranger, Sargon, Supergirl and Captain Comet
#227 - Black Orchid, Captain Comet, Martian Manhunter x3, Ambush Bug, Batgirl, Snapper Carr,
#228 - Firehawk, Supergirl x2, Mera, Batgirl
#229 - Batgirl, Catwoman

Other points of interest:-

Julie Schwartz said that although letters were often interesting, they wouldn't change the direction of a book because they consisted of such a small percentage of the overall readership.

The letters here may reflect the feeling from that minority or they may have been selected to support the changes that were going through from above. I get the feeling there's a bit of both going on here. There's definite support & praise for seeing more of the second stringers, particularly their ongoing characterisation. That support becomes a bit more focused towards what the book would look like just before it happens.

It's noticeable that it was the likes of Ollie, Dinah, The Hawks, Reddy & Zee that they were praising. Only Zee would remain, and that's where they dropped the ball.

The lettercol said that Conway was writing a Zatanna mini and Busiek a Red Tornado mini. But people with proposed minis weren;t getting to stay? Was the Zatanna plan then changed to be part of the JLA or was it because Conway would write it? But then why not keep Firestorm around for a while?

People really wanted Batgirl and Captain Comet in the JLA.

Chuck Patton was really good. Not from the lettercols but skipping through the pages.

I forgot about Black Orchid. She was a mysterious favourite - probably that Adventure Comics cover.

Thinking about Mark Shaw, I was reminded of Ultraa. He was Earth Prime's first Super hero, but ended up on Earth One with a Kryptonian Power set. Given my way, I'd have dropped the extra "a" and called him Ultra or even Ultra Man. Ultraa appeared in a few stories around the satellite era.

That Adventure Comics cover...

I've read up on the Black Orchid but I don't think I've ever actually read a story with the original in it. The whole "master of disguise" thing was always intriguing though.

From the extremely well priced digital version of Twomorrow's Back Issue 58 some Conway quotes.

On the Satellite Era
““I think part of it is that this was the era where the Justice League really expanded big time. There had been through the ’60s, you know, sort of this drip-drip-drip of additional members coming in. During the satellite period … we had a real influx of almost all of the mainstream DC characters flowing through the book. And we also had the opportunity (because a number of them were secondary characters who weren’t featured in their own titles) to develop storylines that were specific to Justice League. Before that, before I came on the book, there wasn’t a real sense that continuity from issue to issue was really something that was possible or desired even.

It was sort of a glorified team-up book in one sense—and the characters in their own stories, if there was continuity, that’s where you were going to find it. But in the period when I was working on it, and subsequently, the concept was that the Justice League, as a team, had its own interpersonal relationships and character arcs that existed in that book.

So in that sense, that was sort of like the beginning of the modern era of the Justice League, for better or worse. Some people can argue, and I think justifiably, that the idea of a giant-sized team-up book where there is no continuity is kind of cool and fun because you’re able to get into it and out of it without any long-term commitment. But for me, as someone who’s always enjoyed writing serial storylines, finding a way to make that work in Justice League was one of my primary goals.”

On Justice League Detroit
“Yeah, we were experiencing weakening sales. There was a certain amount of competition between us and [The New] Teen Titans. Teen Titans was, at that point, DC’s most popular book and there was a general feeling that Justice League should be doing better than it was. There was also the fact that we were heading into the Crisis. We knew that we were going to be making major changes to the DC Universe and the question was, ‘What will the Justice League be?’

Everybody wanted to use the mainstream characters exclusively in their own stories and to develop continuity primarily with them. Batman had his continuity, Superman had his continuity, Green Lantern, and so on. So there was an increasing pressure to find a way to both reach a younger audience, to create stronger continuity, and to get the mainstream characters out of the book because they couldn’t be part of the stronger continuity.

So we were under a lot of pressure to come up with a creative solution to that and at that time, my feeling was maybe the Satellite Era had passed. You know, that maybe the high-tech, loftier, big-scale storylines that we had been operating in needed to be brought down to human scale in some way.

“I wanted to do something I hadn’t seen at DC, which was a ground-level superhero team that was rooted in a neighborhood…You never got a sense of what was going on with the guy
who ran the sandwich cart down on the street corner while these fights were going on, with the exception of Willie Lumpkin, who was the postman for the Fantastic Four. You never had any sense that there was anybody living anywhere near these people.”

“So I wanted to make these superheroes feel like they are part of the neighbourhood, and my thought was to plunk them down in the middle of a city that was in deep, deep crap, a city that needs heroes. That was the driving impetus for me to relocate them from the satellite down to Detroit.”

“What Titans had going for it was cohesion as a team where the characters in the Titans interacted pretty much exclusively with each other, so you could develop storylines that involved the characters’ personal lives and create drama and character development in that title.”

“The suggestion … was to find some way to make a core group of characters that would be exclusive to the JLA title so we could basically develop their personalities and their storylines and so on.”
Conway also cites the shift in power form the first Avengers team to the second, lesser powered but malleable second team as an influence.

What the above reinforces for me is that people will buy a Justice League with A-List heroes in it across the years and powerful B-Listers for a decent length of time. There should always be enough of those heroes around the shift the book. They will come and go as their own titles dictate. However, the edict should be “Why can’t they be in the JLA at the moment?” and not “We have something perhaps in the works in a year from now. Let’s remove them, even if it’s not that important a change.” This lack of communication & indecision between fiefdoms is what railroads the JLA.

Around those members, you can build in the rest of the team. Relationships can be built in at different levels. Even if Superman can’t get romantically involved with anyone, it would at least show how he interacts with his peers. Others can have more in depth life changes in the book.

The ideas behind setting up the team to work full time in a neighbourhood may make for a decent book, but it’s not a Justice League book. At least, not without that being only a small part of everything else. Having everyone forced to live in the base, without personal lives robs everyone of their supporting cast. Even stuck in the Detroit base, we never really saw the best of Vibe, Gypsy, the Dibny's or Zatanna.

Awesome stuff thothkins!

I love the idea of Supergirl in the League, get her a bit more press and relationships before COIE.

And Supergirl and Batgirl on the team would be a great way to add to the Justice legacy of the team!

I like Black Orchid as well ... but from what I know of her she is a bit of an anti hero.

Airwave! yes ... I'll have to look that guy up ... Black Vulcan homage!

Ultraa Supergirl Black Orchid Airwave Jemm ... lots of uber characters just lying around while the Justice League break dances in Detroit.

I guess they really wanted to go edgy or different ... I think from the stories the creators seemed more burned out on the big mega justice league than the readers were.

It would be and was very hard to compete with the successful soap opera style of comics of Teen Titans and the X-Men.

Who's Who on Airwave II




And Who's Who on Black Orchid

There was certainly enough to bolster the JLA when it's core membership began to decline with the loss of Batman, Atom, Hal Jordan and Barry Allen (for his trial).



The JLA had a good thing going where they could focus on the lesser heroes and develop them, while keeping in the big guns. There were a number of letters bemoaning that the big guns were still taking up too much space. SO this was an opportunity to let some of them go, to be replaced by characters who could be developed exclusively in the title.

Conway was already doing a lot of good things with Dinah & Ollie, the Hawks. We had Barry and Zee and there were the Dibny's. But that was thrown away chasing something they couldn't compete with and that they didn't really know how to.

Wolfman & Perez set up relationship triangles with their characters, created stories to suit each of their specialised niches and gave them rich back stories and supporting casts. They all had visual flare and then they added in plenty of angst and innovative villains early on.

In the JLD, Steel and Vixen had the most depth because they came with most of the above. Both have emotionally powerful histories. By comparison, Vibe and especially Gypsy were pretty aimless. Aquaman and Manhunter were cut off from their back stories and cast. Elongated Man didn't get many mysteries and none of Zee's cast appeared for almost two years.

I love how Air Wave's genealogy makes no sense at all. His father is "Larry Jordan" from Earth-2, and somehow he ends up as the cousin of Earth-1's Hal Jordan? How exactly does that work? I mean, I suppose his mother could actually have been a sister to one of GL's parents, and just happened to also marry someone named Jordan. Or maybe there was an actual Larry Jordan of Earth-1, whose identity the Earth-2 version borrowed (perhaps he was deceased or something)? So he'd really only be a cousin in a funky interdimensional sense.

It all started when Commander Steel implored the Spectre to take him to Earth-1 the next time Jim Corrigan was going to have a brave and bold team up.

The Spectre obliged, but Commander Steel wanted to take all of his equipment with him, including specialised power sources.

Unfortunately for Harold was travelling along in his electromagnetic form and got caught in interference generated from those power sources. He was transported across to Earth 1 with the others. Lost, he went back home only to discover that the people there were related to Hal Jordan of Earth 1. Seeing the boy's confusion and loss, they adopted him. Green Lantern, Green Arrow and Black Canary would mentor him in using his powers.

Commander Steel would go on to use his equipment to finish experimenting on his own grandson to create the Steel of the Justice League. A simple tale.

Man... I'm thinking DC should ditch this whole "multiple earths" idea. Have some big Crisis or something that reduces everything to a single Earth, and straightens their continuity out once and for all!

Lake St. Clair is not nothing, and Detroit is relatively close to Lake Eerie, but still, Aquaman, on a team positioned thousands of miles from the nearest ocean? What were they thinking? There aren't any sharks or octopi or whales in the Great Lakes! He needs to be on the coast, specifically, the East coast**, where he can reasonably interact with Atlantis.

I do get the possible desire to highlight that Aquaman is a perfectly viable super-character without the ocean or the whales or Atlantis, because super-strength and toughness is already putting him past Batman and Green Arrow in the 'power' sweepstakes, and might have helped with the muddle-headed notion that he was useless outside of water or that his only power was 'talks to fish,' but the writing wasn't good enough to justify that, IMO.

.

**That said, an aquatic hero on the West Coast or Gulf Coast, interacting with the Pacific or Caribbean could also rock! A Hawaiian hero, or a same-bito (Japanese shark-people!) could be fun.

DC used to have someone patrol all of this, but she was undermined in the '70s following the Warner Bros takeover and then brutally retconned.





If you look George Perez's first set of pencils for the JLA/ Avengers crossover back in the 1980s you'll note that there is a scene where Arthur defects to a team that is going to be on a coast. However, later issue of What If? replaced Hawkeye and Mockingbird with Arthur and Mera as the mentors of the Great Lakes Avengers, showing that this was a location that Arthur was destined to spend time in.

At first I thought you were being facetious, but thinking of some of the actual stories that they invented to solve continuity snafus, this might actually have happened!

The best of both

Black Orchid's got a more supernatural vibe, and doesn't, to me, feel very 'Detroit.'

A Black Orchid series set in New Orleans, on the other hand... Or somewhere else with at least a passing supernatural vibe, like Boston (which is about 30 minutes down the road from where the Salem Witch Trials happened).

That said, if the justification for Detroit's decline turned out to have something to do with supernatural elements, like skinchangers or vampires or spirits of urban decay or whatever, then, yeah, she could rock that out!

Whatever, as long as it's not like the Deadman series set in Nowhere-You've-Ever-Heard-Of* Vermont...

*Population twelve and a dog named Colin.

In Black Orchid's first appearance she takes down a criminal combine that has control of a small town. In her second, she takes down some modern day pirates. In her third she takes down loan sharking gangsters. So, it's fairly small beans in the super hero stakes. The only enigmatic thing in the stories is the orchid herself and there's no supernatural aspects.

So, she may be a better fit for the JLD than you might think.

I've not read her Phantom Stranger back ups, which may be more supernatural. But I was basing my inclusion her first appearances.

Hey... you know who's from Detroit?

Amazing Man!

Oh yeah, the cover with the squadron up against the Klan.

Decades later Amazing Man reached the limit of his powers when he tried transforming himself into a competitive car industry. A heroic but sad end.

You'd think with the state Detroit is in these days, a Justice League: Detroit could be more topical than ever!

Well Conway did say even back then that it was a place that really needed some heroes.

I peeked into the start of the JLD issues:-

As early as #238 we have Steel & Vixen addressing the reader.
Aquaman: You'll recall what the newspapers said, when we announced the new League.
Steel: Who could forget? "How can four second stringers and three neophytes hope to replace even one superman? This new league is doomed to disaster." ...The thing that heats my pot is how those guys were so sure we'd fail, before we'd even gone into battle. What gives them the right?
Vixen: Fear Steel. Fear of change... Pity them, because in their eyes, the past is always more attractive than the future.

Steel had to let us know in the middle of this, Gypsy had officially joined, because we hadn't been shown it. It's a bit heavy handed really, and must have heated a few readers' pots too.

Reader's Letters!:

#230 - Captain Comet, Airwave (wasn't just me then), Supergirl & Mera x2, Krystal Kaa (remember her?), Firehawk, Vixen.

#230 had an ad for J'Emm.

#231 - None - everyone digesting the annual?

#231 - lettercol mentioned the Perez postcards. Just in time before the new league arrived. They had an additional one with the 4 new members on it. Alan Gold says sales weren't slipping and that the new look was an experiment.

#232 - None

Also in #232 -The monitor and Lyla make an appearance. That's how close to Crisis the new League was. Writers were already adding in the Monitor before the new League had appeared in a regular JLA issue. With so much uncertainty over the big gins and everyone else, it clearly cast a shadow over the new league.

One reader mentions Aquaman and the Outsiders - which makes a lot of sense. Another reader refers to Aquaman as A-Man, clearly ruling out Amazing man from also joining to lessen confusion. Yet another reader points out that "when the Titans revamped, they kept three of their key members... not less effective heroes..." Recall the Titans influence on the League's new direction.

#233 - Martian Manhunter

Also: Alan God mentions a project in the works featuring Captian Comet "so I've kept my hands off that character." That worked out well.

#234 - None

Also: Alan Gold mentions the upcoming Red Tornado mini, with the first issue having already been completed. That seems reasonably close to the relaunch to exclude Reddy from the new line up for me (although having one go into the other would have been better and helped sales). The only letter also asks where every other hero was during the Mars war. Something else else I and many others were probably wondering too. Go ahead for next Sword of the Atom had been given to appear in 1985. This is cover dated Jan '85. So you can see how huge lead times can deprive the League of characters for extended periods unless there's good oversight.

#235 - None again. Funny how they disappear after so many letters advocating change in line up.

Also: Alan Gold says that reaction to the annual had been moderate overall. Which probably reflect people willing to give it a go, to see how it developed. "So I think our new JLA is far from a failure so far." This is very defensive based on just the first letters. "Maybe we did goof in places in the annual...I find a number of things I wish we'd done differently." Way to set a tone Alan.


#236 - None (but a letter wondering why some of the others aren't still being used)

Also: Big add for Universe: Crisis on Infinite Earths. It's soon, but they still have to tweak the title.


#237 - None (but more clls for some of the old members to bolster the ranks)

Also: The final version of the Crisis title in an ad with the first cover art.

#238 - Guess what? None again.

Also: A second Green Arrow mini series is confirmed. Presumably something they felt kept him out of the reformed league, even early on. Silly.

#239 - A little dip into the story here. Flash, Supes and Wondy return. Conway talks about priorities for changing the league. It's more explained away than explained. the 3 did show up for the Earth/Mars war only to get whisked away. In this issue they're about to go back in time to be there yet again. Not the best way to resolve this one.

In the lettercol Alan God states that there won;t be an increase in the membership for a while. Also, an Aquaman mini is in the works. Readers must have been disappointed not to see some more changes, and wondering if it means Aquaman would also go. Aquaman is clearly happy to have picked up a couple of kids right outside the new HQ to complete his line up. There are further little plugs for the Red Tornado mini and the Atom special.

Vixen is clearly a bit of a hit with a lot of the letter writers. She's very much the stand out character.

Also in #238 one letter writer mentioned an idea for Justice League of the World, including members of the Global Guardians. He also mentioned a new era for the heroes, a sort of retconning. So, roughly seeing how Crisis would pan out and well ahead on what the JLA would turn into. Fire and Ice in the Justice League Detroit era?

Powerboy's J.L.Detroit

Invisible Brainiac's J.L.Detroit

Set's J.L.Detroit

thothkin's J.L.Detroit

Ooh, Air Wave and Shade the Changing Man and Jemm and Mera! Cool.

And, uh, to the left of Black Orchid, it's muscle-bound ginger Fabio, I guess. Clenchy McSquareFace? Plungy McNeckline? Mullet McBulgyBiceps? I don't even...

Still, gotta respect anyone secure enough in their masculinity to have flowing locks, shiny gold accessories, a purple leotard with a neckline that plunges to his manscape and thigh high purple pirate boots!

Mine's

I don't recognize the woman on the far left, or the purple-clad stretchy-girl in the middle. Who are they?

Insect Queen, now that's old-school, and yet refreshingly new! I wonder if a new updated Insect Queen could be somehow tied to Queen Bee? (The alien bug-version of Queen Bee, that is.)

I decided that Red Tornado and Firestorm should stick around, since like Zee they were newer members and had a chance to prove themselves without the old guard, I went with Sue as Elongated Woman (maybe Ralph got sidelined due to a medical issue)
Blue Devil was introduced right before the Detroit team formed and had Zee as a guest star in his own mag and they had a nice chemistry together (possible love interest) Vixen the standout of the Detroit team, Robotman team player without a team, seemed like a great choice with the Doom Patrol's awesome rouges gallery following, Lana Lang and Carol Ferris stepping out of the shadows of Superman and Green Lantern, Ragman possibly suggested by Batman and last but least Nubia, Wonder Woman's black sister.

One interesting alternative approach might've been to have each of the Big 3/Big 5/Big 7/whatever form their own splinter group with the dissolution of the satellite-era JLA.

Great stuff Lone Wolf.

Really interesting take you have on your team too. Sue Dibny is an excellent idea. Nubia hadn't crossed my mind at all. I'd tripped across Ragman the other day and added him to a little list I'm toying with. He would certainly add a darker edge to a series.

I hadn't thought at all about Star Sapphire either. The GL issues from around that time had Carol merge with the Predator becoming the Sapphire once again. I don't know quite how evil she was at the time yet.

I'd skipped past Blue Devil, so I hadn't known about Zatanna's guest spot. I'll need to get hold of that one. Is that due to his suit being mystically bonded to him?

Ibby's team looks to have a really nice balanced visual to it. Poor J'Onn having two fire related characters to put up with.

These are so great Lone Wolf! It really helps to see them, I was thinking about how my team would look ... with boy next door Captain Comet and the visual homages to Green Lantern and the Hawks.

Also, Blue Devil seems like a good fit too!

I just might get on that ...

I totally agree, I think it was weird that they had better things to do at the end of the satellite era ... they just got there!

http://justiceleaguedetroit.blogspot.com/2008/06/blue-devil-4-984.html

whoah Blue Devil simmer down! It's a comic book!

I was just reading the Red Tornado mini. He's instructed to cease and desist in his hero career by several heroes who have to awkwardly avoid calling themselves the Justice League. It's basically the pre Detroit league with John Stewart standing in for Hal.


The mini was so long in the planning that the JLA changed around it.

Since they must have thought release was fairly close after the JLA disbanding But since he was to be "changed forever"

When it was finally released, it was right into Crisis for the character and he's "changed forever" yet again..

The mini has John Smith being completely content with his life - he has Kathy Sutton, Traya and employment he enjoys. Sutton is less content and chides Smith to perhaps want something more. While being a super hero is also important to him, he's not likely to give up everything else to pursue it in Detroit. That's just him in that mini though, and may not fit his personality previously.


There's no reason at all that he couldn't ahve stayed in the Detorit League with some minor adjustments. However, there really seemed to be an editorial push to do more dramatic, far reaching things with the second stringers at the time.

Possibly Conway was hamstrung by his own success in making them very readable characters. So we get Shadow War of Hawkman, Sword of the Atom, Red Tornado and a Green Arrow mini, with a Zatanna one in the works and then an Aquaman mini.

Ah, the old "that bug on your head makes you look great" line.

Anyone else think there was something off about Zatanna here, or worrying that she was left alone for Cassidy to lech over?



I could easily see Ollie and Dinah being recruited to the Outsiders. Where Ollie was the unsettled one in the League and DInah the stalwart member, their roles would be reversed the more the Outsiders operated outside the law.

In JLA: The Nail/Another Nail Shade also joined the Outsiders. We've also got the Metamorpho & Black Lightning JLA links. So it makes the Outsiders a more capable League replacement than the JLA Detroit team. I'd imagine Bats would be very keen to recruit Vixen too. Considering Vixen's actions in the early Detroit issues, the Outsiders could have been a very good fit.

I could see like an Avengers type movement where all super heroes are brought into the Justice League fold.

Justice League Unlimited!

I recall an issue where they sort of tried that. They handed out a lot of signal devices at any rate.

While it makes complete sense to be able to call on any person with a certain power set when you need them, there's a feeling that it dilutes the exclusivity of the group. "Is there anyone who hasn't joined?" to paraphrase Aquaman.

Deadman was getting some reprints around this time. The Atomic Knight had learned that his previous adventures were all some elaborate fantasy (not at all like Miracleman) and had a couple of appearances in Wonder Woman.

If they had wanted to make it like the Titans, why not nab Boston Brand to be the League's Jericho?

One team to rule the Marvel Universe:

The ALL NEW MIGHTY UNCANNY AVENGERS!

I decided to try to do an international X-Men Avengers mash up ... but .. they might be a little light in the heavy lifting or iconic Avengers. (but I don't usually like the big guys anyway). and the cosmic heroes are off the hook right now.


1. Black Panther - the brains of the bunch *Wakanda*
2. Sunfire *Japan*
3. Captain Britain *UK*
4. Thor - Icon and Mainstay and *"Scandinavia"*
5. Vision - He needs to expand back to the pre white vision, a more human android with brains and smarts and a mainstay of the Avengers
6. Jean Grey - back from the dead and so over the X-Men, going by the name of Marvel Woman and as in charge as she was in the Morrison Jimenez X-Men books. No flames, that's for Sunfire and Phoenix.
7. Angel - who better to be the poster boy for mutant kind?
8. Photon/Spectrum - she is big league.

I thought about adding another female but ... so many are red heads! So i decided to go with a supporting Jessica Drew out of Spidey tights ... and coopting the forces of Hydra, as more of a counter SHIELD/government agency that can be impartial and at the use of the Ucanny Avengers.


Others that didn't quite make the cut:
Wonder Man - We've got Thor and Brian Braddock
Wasp - We've got a winged one already ... still on the fence though.
Black Widow - I'm happier with the Jessica Drew solution.


Darkstar might be a good admission for her powers and to represent Russia but ... she might look a little too Fire and Ice with Photon.


also I thought of Original Greer Nelson. or Patsy Walker .. but we've got a smart cat already.


HE HE my list turned into an anti film characters list! no merchandising possibilities here!

Crystal might also be a good addition but maybe conflict with Marvel Woman, same with an Eternal ... but might also conflict with Britain and Thor. It would be nice to keep the team rooted in the human civs somehow.

Mmm. International X-Vengers?

There are a ton of cool international X-folk. Colossus, Nightcrawler, Storm, Banshee, Sunfire, Wolverine, Thunderbirds I-III, Psylocke, Mirage/Moonstar, Sunspot, Wolfsbane, Karma, Northstar, etc.

International Avengers. Black Panther, Mantis, Thor (kinda/sorta), Black Widow, Swordsman, Quicksilver & Scarlet Witch (technically Euro-Romany, but rarely addressed as such), Hercules (again, kinda/sorta), Silverclaw, Lionheart.

Colossus
Storm
Nightcrawler
Black Widow
Black Panther
Swordsman
Lionheart

Three classic 'all-new X-Men,' a couple long-term Avengers, and a couple lesser developed Avengers to get a spotlight on them.

Silverclaw could replace Lionheart, easily enough.

Nightcrawler, Swordsman, Black Panther and Black Widow all on the same team might be just a little bit too much acrobatic swashbuckling melee goodness, but I'm a fan of that anyway.

Namor, being both an X and an A, could be an interesting pivot guy, although having him and Colossus on the same team might be redundant (and I tend to forget him as an 'International Hero,' since he's Atlantean, and doesn't represent any real world international / culture, which is the same reason I don't really count Sersi or Hepzibah or Crystal or Deathcry as 'international').

On the other hand, going with 'Detroit League' perhaps Colossus and Storm and even Nightcrawler might be a bit too 'big name' for this team...

Of those who have been both and X and an A, Namor, Storm, Wolverine, Sunspot and Sunfire, only Sunspot and Sunfire are more 'Detroit League' in standing.

Others International X peeps lower on the status pole could be Armor, Omega Sentinel, Slipstream, Lifeguard, Monet, Northstar and Pixie.

I didn't mean to make my team so international, just diverse, even with asian and african characters on the team, Snowbird Jean Captain Britain and Thor make it pretty light ... but they're diverse in their own ways. So I added Xorn and Zorn and ... would like to simplify everyone on this teams powers.


Mantis kicks butt, and she's been off world too long. She is a martial artist and even uncanny at it ... mayeb a few perception powers thrown in but they celestial madonna days of elemental super manipulation of everything are not discussed.

Same with Jean, she's a very strong telekinetic.

Vision is robotic and computerific.

Black Panther is the leader and brains.

Xorn and Zorn have energy manipulation like Magneto ... but I'd like to see them have a powered up and powered down version so they get faces.

Thor is a super strong guy with a hammer.

Captain Britain might be the tactical person ... not sure if he has military experience but it would make sense if he did ... like a super human and smart Prince William.

I would use Snowbird as a super woman.

Junta is this cool cat from South America with gravity manipulation ... I'd make him more like a slippery character like Domino but instead of luck he plays with the warping of physics or uses illusions.

I'd also have to separate Darkstar and Photon by making Photon show off her energy form abilities and Darkstar is more of an energy projector or teleporter.

I envisioned this as a team that would be powerful enough check the crazy Iron Man's and Cyclopses of the world and be a human protection agency. What the Uncanny Avengers were supposed to be before they fell down the well of the endless Apocalypse Twins story line.

Jessica (having wrestled control of Hydra and their considerable resources), Black Panther and Vision support and run things while Black Panther and Jean Grey work as field team leaders.

Maybe they're based in Wakanda!

Anyway, they'd start out with a core team dedicated to stopping the bleeding of the Avengers and X-Men constant rampages. And they'd have missions in Russia and China and pick up some members like Mantis, the Xorns and the Darkstar along the way.

The Xorn's a best pal brothers, would be nice change from the twins story where one's evil.

I think even Snowbird and Thor are rooted in Earth and love for humans so it makes sense they'd be on this not intergalactic cosmic team. (unlike Captain America and Iron Man who seem to be flying around space and dealing with cosmic entities all the time)

I think it's one of the better teams I've designed!

Monica is supposed to be super large, she's a light projection ... that one's not because my photoshop skills are wonky ... like all the others.

Actually, the story makes even more sense because Black Panther is so anti illuminati ... and Jean ... as much of a martyr as she is she must be against the scott and emma terrorist group ... but actually i'd like to avoid all involvement with those groups.

I always wanted an Avengers team with Angel, Beast, and Iceman. They seemed to fit that book more than the angst ridden mutants.

Is that Madrox over to the far right? It could be interesting to see his multitude of skills on an Avengers team...

Mm. I don't love all your choices, but Snowbird, Darkstar and Monica Rambeau are some heavy hitting ladies, and I love all of them!

.

So, I like to make lists of things for reasons that probably have more to do with OCD than anything else, and I was noticing that the Avengers have had quite a few mutant members over the years.

Pre-X-crossover Avengers - Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch, Beast, Namor, Falcon, Justice, Firestar.

More recent X-crossover additions - Wolverine, Sunspot, Cannonball, Storm, Havok, Manifold, Rogue, Sunfire, X-23 (as a member of Avengers Academy, at least).

Other random groupings;
Black Avengers - Black Panther, Falcon, Monica Rambeau, War Machine, Triathlon, Storm, Luke Cage, Manifold, Blue Marvel, Blade, Darkhawk?, Mettle (AA), Nightmask?, Prodigy (Young Avengers)

Latino Avengers - Firebird, Living Lightning, Silverclaw, Power Man, White Tiger, Reptil (AA), Echo, Sunspot, Spider Girl (Anya), Miss America Chavez (YA), Victor la Mancha (Avengers AI)

Asian Avengers - Mantis, Amadeus Cho, Shang-Chi, Sunfire, Hazmat (AA)

AI / Robot Avengers - Vision, Human Torch (Jim Hammond), Jocasta, Machine Man, Vision 2 (Jonas), Machine Teen (AA), Victor la Mancha (A. AI)

Women Avengers - Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Black Widow, Mantis, Moondragon, Hellcat, Carol Danvers, Tigra, She-Hulk, Monica Rambeau, Mockingbird, Firebird, Invisible Woman, Sersi, Spider-Woman 2 (Julia Carpenter), Crystal, Firestar, Silverclaw, Lionheart (Kelsey Leigh Shorr), Echo, Jocasta, Stature, Spider Woman (Jessica Drew), Valkyrie, Sharon Carter/Agent 13, Power Woman (Jessica Jones), Storm, Quake (Daisy Johnson), Captain Universe, Smasher, Rogue, White Tiger.

That's a guy called Junta, with gravity powers (he's south american?) ... I would make him more like a matrix character ... able to switch gravity around to stick on walls and bend gravity of bullets coming towards him ... like a probability manipulator like Domino or Longshot but with gravity. not at all an energy user or telekinetic like jean or the xorn's.

Madrox on my team would be interesting .... very cool ... but not sure his personality would fit ... possibly if my team was envisioned as a checkmate team for iron man and cyclop's groups.

which is partly what i planned, i wanted them to be powerful enough to at least hold their own against the hyperions and captain universes and new smasher ... etc. but much more of a human based and earth based team.

Like Luke Cage's Avengers at a grander scale.

Angel was on my team but then I switched him out for Snowbird.

Living Lightning is also one of my favourites but he never ends up on my teams because of Monica ...

Also, I always liked Victor son of Ultron.

Los Vengadores!

Firebird, Living Lightning, Silverclaw, Sunspot, White Tiger, Reptil, Spider Girl (Anya), Victor la Mancha

Four guys, four gals. No Power Man, 'cause I don't really get him yet, and no Miss America Chavez, because I love her too much to want to see her on a team this size.

Vision - harking back to his attempt to control the world, the vision is the comms link to all Uncanny Avengers activities across the globe. He's omnipresent at their various bases, solidifying into hard light when need be. His global reach makes a lot of people very nervous. Vision is Panther's way of keeping tabs on the Scarlet Witch.

Captain Britain - Brian is quite simple, embodying the ideals of an empire without actually having had to live on the other side of one. Things constantly happen around him on a huge scale, and he's rarely in control of any of it. He's the reader's every-man.

Panther - Provides tech and intelligence. Can also provide secure HQs in his homeland and less secure embassies elsewhere. Aligned against the Illuminati and other groups while quite happy to be an unelected monarch. This is the team he's putting together to topple the other groups if necessary.

Storm - No idea if she's still married to Panther. Tension either way, and she's one of the best leaders of the X-Men. She could easily hold her own against the personalities in either Illuminati/X-Men/Avengers camps.

Sunfire - Bold, brash and opinionated. Perfect to stir things up to see what way the other groups will jump.

Rescue Pepper Potts is sold on the idea of a global team that looks to reduce conflict. Panther enjoys watching Stark squirm a bit too, no doubt. The logistical brain behind the team.

Stature Guaranteeing guest appearances form Wonder Man Hank Pym and her dad, Cassandra's back form the grave with her size alteration powers still there, but with an odd ionic flourish.

Speed Super speedtster with links to both Avengers and mutants. Without the personality of Quicksilver too. Young and idealistic enough to believe in Panther's goals.

Dark Star (used to transport mission teams)& Princess of Clouds (her death was merely a light projection) would join a little later as the group expands its role. The Wasp would be a key secret ally to the team.

I don't really care for the idea of the Uncanny Avengers since it further pushes the brand dilution of the two franchises involved, but if I HAD to make one, it would be:

Captain America
Scarlet Witch
Havok
Angel
Wasp
Ant-Man(Hank Pym)
Storm
Kitty Pryde

I'd agree on Kitty Pryde who only didn't make my team as I was trying to steer away form people working at the academy in whatever the current character shuffle is.

I hate Firebird. Her flighty sort of mystical flame powers.

Firestar is much more likeable to me.

Rscue sounds interesting, I never read a book with her in it but I remember the cover of the comic.

1. Scarlet Witch
2. Quicksilver
3. Vision
4. Crystal
5. Wonder Man
6. Beast
7. Angel
8. Ice Man
9. Havok
10. Polaris
11. Captain Marvel(Carol)
12. Banshee

Here's a picture I shopped of a All New Doom Patrol.

Original Doom Patrol members, The Chief, Robot Man, Negative Man and Elasti-Girl. With later member Beast Boy, add in 3 more Arnold Drake creations Deadman, Stanley and his Monster. Then 2 more with Man-Bat and Element-Woman.

In the letter cols of Morrison's run of Doom Patrol, you got the usual comparisons to older DP versions. One writer went so far as suggesting a new member. Bearing in mind that Morrison was planning an issue with Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man, the writer thought that Clayface could make for a reformed villain character.

Fair enough. Fits the bill in a number of ways and membership suggestions weren't unknown in the letters pages of the book.

The editor's response?

"Hey - why not Signal man and the Cluemaster as well? Get with the program." The moment I read that I thought "Mark Waid is a complete $*!$."

While I was finding that quote I noticed that previous editor Bob Greenberger had suggested that Morrison was going for something different to a similar letter of ideas. In that letter were Deadman, J'Emm (and presumably the kid) and Man Bat.

Thanks for allowing me to get that off my chest Lone Wolf. It's irritated me for years.

I'm working on a little thing now:

Justice League "Detroit" after the Martian War.

1. Martian Manhunter
2. Zatanna
3. Vixen
4. Captain Comet comes to the rescue during the war and stays on the team.

Then there's a draft:

5. Supergirl

Batgirl refuses

6. John Stewart

Firehawk and Golden Eagle don't make the cut but starts Zatanna on the idea of a farm or training team ... they find and add over the course of the series a Hero Dial wearer and a new Super Chief.

7. Sunburst joins after a Japan adventure.

Others I'd like to make a guest appearance are Ultra and Arak and Valda.

Aquaman and Batman would still be in for issues they were integral to ... such as Batman against Despero.

8. Airwave joins at some point ...

Airwave dies against Amazo ... somebody has to. Maybe some of the kids such as the Hero Dial wearer ... leading to disillusionment ....


Which brings us to the Legends!

So a new Justice League was supposed to come out of Legends but as I think of it now I don't like how it was a cobble of all these worlds together with Blue Beetle, Dr Fate and Captain Marvel. seems like cheating.

So who's around in Legends from the mainstream Universe that would still fit:

1. Guy Gardener ok ... but less annoying
2. Black Canary is back
3. Starman (Will Payton .. might be a bit early for him but I think he'd play the Captain Marvel role great)
4. Wally West shoulda stayed.
5. Vixen shoudla stayed (I know it kinda ruins Suicide Squad at the time but I really didn't like what they did with her anyway ... she's so close to an icon ... the Squad stories just brought her down)
6. Firestorm comes back for a bit before he turns into an elemental. Coincidently as new blood comes in for JLI.
7. Cosmic Boy sticks around.
8. Changeling?

Not sure if JJ and Zee should stick around. We don't have any leader types, except Black Canary would have made a great one. Imagine her punching out Guy instead of Bats.

So it's still a young team which allows for lots of laughs but ... these young guys like flash and changeling are veteran heroes and a bit more iconic and not a cobble of all these other universes.


Then ... I haven't quite got to JLI yet.

I think a new Steel (Hank Haywood III but maybe with some software powers) will be added then. and then Red Star could join (in the opposite fashion to captain atom and rocket red)

That still leaves things pretty open for Fire and Ice to join and stints by Hawkman and Hawkwoman.

I'd like to keep Mr Miracle and all the New Gods separate, they should be on another plane IMO.

Of course we'd lose the grey man stories (unless Zee is around .. maybe for a couple issues) most likely and the new gods stories but i'd be ok with that. they were drawn well but ...

A JLI team *must* include a few more Global Guardians! (And not just Fire and Ice, who I liked much better as Green Flame, with her mystical illusion creating hot or cold flame, and Icemaiden!)

I'd love to see Dr. Mist (perhaps in a Phantom Stranger-y role, the DCU could use a slightly less morally-suspect non-white master magician than Papa Midnight!) and Tuatara (see into the past *or* future? awesome!), at the minimum, and perhaps Thunderlord and Wild Huntsman.

Crumbs, I never got round to posting those little fan plots I did after the last time the JLD came up! Something else else for my to do list. Thanks Trapper Boy!

ok. SO moving on to a draft of a possible JLI.

Firestorm, Black Canary and Cosmic Boy as well as Changeling of the Legends team all have to go away due to story reasons probably.

JL USA:

Starman - Will Payton is around for a bit more and adds a lot of fire power.
Wally West sticks around but is on the US team, the US loves the Flash
Guy Gardner says (for now)
J'onn J'onzz returns
Zatanna returns
Fire and Ice join

Hawkman and Hawkwoman are still free to come and go.

JLEurope begins with

Katma Tui
Vixen moving over to Europe to be closer to Africa and adventure links there
Steel arrives as the US liaison but I'd give him some computer control powers
Red Star a more known Russian hero is the Russian liaison
Vibe arrives from Mexico or Spain to be their representative
Black Orchid arrives whom I have decided is a French mystery hero

perhaps the armored Golden Eagle is now ready to joint he big team.

It's still possible for Wonder Woman to cameo.


A couple characaters swimming around are Metamorpho and Black Lightning which might be good for either team, and it doesn't get much better than John Stewart and Captain Comet ... so its hard to not put them back in the mix at some point.

Dr Mist might be good for the Europe team until Silver Sorceress gets there, might be a nice dynamic ... them against Dream Slayer.

It would also be cool to add some of the New Guardians when they are free ... Jet Gloss or Ram.

I'm hesitant to add Dr Light, even though I like her, I just prefer characters with their own names ...

Negative Woman might be a good replacement for Red Star at some point.

JLI and JLE churned through a lot of heroes which is exciting but it would be nice to have some method to the madness and more than a robotic martian holding down the fort.

So we might have four super popular characters on each team for 5 years-ish and then 4 to 5 others in and out.

I guess this is really an exercise in pre crisis continuity with no infinity inc characters, charelton comics, or justice society characters.

That said there's lots of cool international and US folks running around.

Celsius
Tempest

A new Superchief might be cool, or Owlwoman in the JL proper

It's funny how many of the JLA ers ... got the crazy sauce put on them after the satellite era (Firestorm, Red Tornado, Wonder Woman etc.)

Vril Dox might be a cool edition after LEGION fell apart.

Lady Quark too ...

My knowledge of the story / continuity is getting messy though.

I like the contemporary idea of having a Legionnaire on the team periodically. Just one, in the tradition of KK and Cosmic Boy vacationing in the past ... or maybe Dev Em ... who is from the past actually IIRC.

ah! I almost forgot ... Atlas the mythical might be a good addition to the JLEurope and a replacement for the noncommittal Wonder Woman.

There was actually a brief Atom after Ray Palmer when he went all micro jungle. Jean Lorings new boyfriend got the Atom's suit. He might be cool to have around for a while but ... maybe he's really amateurish and dies.

I also have an inkling of an idea for a new Uncanny X-Men based on Giant Sized X-Men #1


5 - 10 years later ala Kingdome Come.

Storm (Claremont's Galahad and keeper of the Grail) who is still in great shape recreates a team based on the Professor's idea of the second generation of X-Men.


1. Storm
2. Frenzy - a more mature hero, whose villain past is far behind her, who takes Colossus role.
3. Thunderbird 2 (Neil Sharra) who takes Sunfire's role.
4. Miraje - as the team telepath-ish character and also bad ass like Thunderbird 1
5. Red Lotus - in the Nightcrawler role
6. Siryn

And two barely seen characters from the future:

6. Blaze - seems to be able to make weapons out of telekinetic power (or light)
7. Blue - looks like a Nightcrawler relative but with massive teleportation power.

ok so that's 8 instead of 7 but maybe Storm stands back as a mentor figure. But still a cool looking diverse team with varied power abilities and youth. (and low baggage ... most of those characters haven't been originized or character mauled to death.)

Blaze and Blue are below ... Blaze is shown in back on a hovercraft and Blue is the blue lady ... they appeared as part of Franklin Richards future X-Men in the crossover Days of Future Present of 1990.




I also would like to incorporate Xorn and Darwin, who I find really cool and underused.

I guess if its a future team, shadow cat's got to be on it ... I noticed besides Blaze there's not a wolverine analogue ... (unless X23 is on it ... which might work) or ...

Older Shadow Cat could have some sort of Adamantium suit or claws.


By then X-23 would be on the Avengers anyway. (ooo idea!)

Olympian (with the power of the 50 Argonauts) might make a good mythical / mystical link.

I thought of a near future Fantastic Four:


Luna of the Inhumans with perceptual abilities
Amadeus Cho with a giant robot battle suit
Kofi the young horse guy of Power Pack who has all sorts of powers as well as teleportation.
Victor Mancha the magnetism wielding android.

I think it would be fun.

Valentina and Franklin might be around but I think if the team is centered on them it might be a bit stale.

I'm working on a future Avengers team but ... it's taking some chess.

Future Avengers:

1. Vance Astro going by Astro and wearing a Captain America type costume.
2. Yellow Jacket - a new one
3. Phobos - grown up and armored with big weapons, the Herc or Ares of the team.
4. Firestar and 5. Iceman as the mutants on the team like Scarlet Witch and Iceman


others I am interested in adding are:

6. Snowbird - she's actually young on the inside in the present.
7. A new spectrum with the gem from the Squadron Supreme's Spectrum
8. a new Captain UK


------------------>


A Future West Coast or Secret Avengers

1. A Space Phantom
2. Kate Bishop
3. Songbird
4. Living Lightning
5. Komodo



Others lying around that might be cool to incorporate are Thundra (I like Thundra) the or a new Uranian, and X23.

I like to stay away from Eternals or Kree etc. because they all seem the same and the Eternals should be above a human level.

Inhuman are ok, they seem more human and are a bit different but with Kree, inhuman, sh'iar and eternal ... they start to have a team of all similar characters.

I was thinking of a New Wanderers team, with characters throughout the Multiverse, Time and Space.

Kind of like a DC Exiles/Sliders/Quantum Leap.

1. Supergirl (Pre-Crisis)
2. Kid Flash (Wally West)
3. Wonder Girl (Donna Troy)
4. Karate Kid (Val Armorr)
5. Jade
6. Star-Spangled Kid (Sylvester Pemberton)
7.
8.

2 Legionnaires, 2 Titans, 2 Infinity, 2 ? New.

2 Young All Stars?

Dyna Mite

and Tsunami? Maybe Flying Fox instead.

Your team's like Avengers Forever!

I had a similar idea I've been working on ... a real DC cross time caper with five members from each era ... but I couldn't decide to make them similar characters or different characters that were original to an era.

Anyway, I'll try for a pass now:

Ancient Egypt:
Nabu
Ancient Hawkman
Ancient Hawkwoman
Blue Beetle of the era
Young Wizard Shazam as a Captain Marvel.

World War II:
Sentinel
Firebrand
Sandman
Spectre
Jay Garrick

1940s
Iron Monroe
Tsunami
Flying Fox
Dyna Mite
Tigress

1950s -60s
Nuklon
Jade
Obsidian
Dr midnight 2
Star Spangled Kid


Late 70s / Early 80s
Superman
Flash
Wonder Woman
Batman
Green Lantern

Late 80s
Black Canary
Zatanna
Supergirl
Firestorm
Green Arrow

1990 (not really)
Cyborg
Nightwing
Donna Troy
Starfire
Changeling

2000
Martian Manhunter
Ice
Fire
Booster Gold
Dr Light 2

late 2000s
Kyle Rayner
Wally West
Kate Spencer
Kon El
Jack Knight


or something akin to that.

I suppose there are a couple alternate dimensions that are not neccessarily eras that could also be added:


WWII

Phantom Lady
Human Bomb
Doll Man
Black Condor
The Ray


SSSV

Ultra Man
Super Woman
Owl Man
The Ring
Johnny Quick

It would be cool to have dopplegangers of Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern and Batman from each era but there's not quite enough ...

also ... with this round I missed out on John Stewart, Metamorpho, Vixen and some other cool peeps. (could move Black Canary to the 1st WW2 era I guess to make room).

I had a similar idea back when Hypertime was still out there. A group of characters abandoned by continuity looking for a way home:

- Silver Aged Katar Hol Hawkman
- Kristen Wells Superwoman
- Fastback
- Grell-era Princess Projectra
- Helena Wayne Huntress

Ooh, add in Donna Troy, who's like the poster child for 'looking for my continuity.'

A 'Forgotten League' full of people like Moon Maiden, Air Wave and Amazing Man could be fun.

OKay, I'll try one.

The Legion of Super-Overpowered Heroes

R’E’L / Ariella Kent
Composite Superman / Joe Meach – Reformed
Sir Mixyezpitelik of the Anti-Matter Universe
The Phantom Stranger
The Spectre
The Radiant
Wally (from P.A.D. Supergirl)

Ha!

Also, the Legion of We Don't Really Understand Their Powers And / Or Will Portray Them Inconsistently / Or Will Change Them Without Notice

Wildfire
Star Boy
Light(ning) Lass
White Witch
Chemical King
Glorith
Chemical Kid

I'm curious about a space team (s) right now! Marvel or DC!

Here's a rough sketch

Marvel:

Binary / Ms. Marvel
Vance Astro
Warlock
Phastos
Darkstar
Xorn
Yondu
Human Torch Jim Hammond

Kind of like a space Avengers.

Marvel

Hercules
Mantis
Swordsman
Moondragon
Jocasta
Quasar
Photon
Starfox

ALL NEW ALL NOW JUSTICE LEAGUE 3016



1. Chameleon (Taking Martian Manhunter's place)
2. Ultra Boy (The Wonder Woman of the team)
3. Andromeda (Superman)
4. Dragonmage (Green Lantern)
5. XS (Flash)
6. Brainiac (Batman)
7. Dawnstar (Hawkwoman)


woot!

Members of my second draft pick:

Dev Em (Supes)
Duplicate Boy (Wonder Woman)
Comet Queen (Flash)
Quantum Queen (Hawkwoman)
Neon (GL)
Rond Vidar (GL)
Karate Kid (Batman)

Computo, Gear or Quislet could be a new style of Martian Manhunter or take the role of the brains like Batman

I'm still keen on the above team!

Also this ^ still rules!

I'll approach from a different angle -

If I had to pick 7 members to restart the Legion after the team breaks up and goes into an apocalyptic future:

1) Kid Quantum II (good powers, and she has leadership chops)
2) Saturn Girl (determined, people will listen to her, and the powers)
3) Kinetix (I'm biased, but she is also one of the most versatile ranged attackers and defenders, and this will be a good outlet for her desire to help others)
4) Brainiac 5 (duh)
5) Chameleon (versatile, smart, one of the best symbols of interspecies cooperation)
6) Gates (oh the places you could go... and having HIM, one of the greatest skeptics, come back is a big feat)
7) Andromeda (no more power vacuum here!)

I was going to put Cosmic Boy and Live Wire, but decided to leave them out for greater power variety!

Seven, eh...?

I'd pick

I love the Satellite-era League, and would love to see a lineup that used those members *minus* the 'Big Seven.'

Green Arrow (financier, nominal leader)
Black Canary (hand to hand specialist, trainer, field leader, effective leader)
Hawkwoman (melee combatant, alien tech supplier)
Atom (team scientist)
Elongated Man (plus Sue, team detectives)
Firestorm (also partial team scientist, thanks to Stein, team heavy hitter)
Red Tornado (other team heavy hitter / powerhouse)
plus guest-appearance by;
Zatanna (mystical support, occasional member, pops in for supernatural threats mostly)

I found it amusing that Green Arrow (wealthy backer), Black Canary (tactical leader), Elongated Man & Sue Dibney (investigators), Hawkwoman (tech supplier) and Atom (scientist) were all covering roles that Batman, *by himself*, traditionally covered.

I skipped Hawkman, because the team was big enough at 7 (plus Zatanna, in the Phantom Stranger-esque role of showing up with portents of doom role). Having Black Canary, Hawkwoman and occasionally Zatanna as members of an eight person group made it a bit less of a sausage-fest than the original 'Big 7,' which only had Wonder Woman to represent the super-ladies.

Seven Legionnaires? Oy. So hard. Will have to think on this...

I've been playing around with an idea for a NEW BROTHERHOOD / UNCANNY AVENGERS / ASTONISHING X-MEN TEAM.

They all seem conceptually similar now.


1. Scarlet Witch (Leader)
2. Quicksilver
3. Polaris
4. Sunfire
5. Legion
6. Frenzy
7. Dust



They seem a bit more redeemable than other "bad boy / girl" X-men like Gambit. Although Wanda's done a lot of bad, she's also done a lot of good.

Maybe this team is all about redemption, and old fashioned X-Men plot.

I would like to get Siryn or Banshee in there. Maybe Mirage as a regular illusionist.

Ooh, Frenzy and Dust are total favorites! Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and Polaris on the same team is also cool. They've not gotten to interact as much as they should, whether or not they are related this week. Sunfire, it's about time he became a real contender. Same for Legion. I'm not a huge fan of Legion, but it's long past time he got to join a team.

I really like this team; I'm with Set in that Wanda, Pietro and Lorna should interact more (also, Wanda and Pietro need to be re-retconned into being Magneto's kids again)...Sunfire and Pietro on the same team would be an interesting clash of personalities, they're both pretty insufferable for different reasons.

If I was gonna change anything, I might switch Legion and Dust out for Magma and Empath; Legion is SUPER powerful for a team, and I just have more of a connection to old-school Amara than Dust...ALTHOUGH....add Blindfold to your 7 and I'd be happy too - love me some Legion and Blindfold

I like blindfold too.

I have an ok idea for a new Excalibur.


1. Captain Britain
2. Psylocke - maybe back with her Captain Britain super suit, not that she needs it.
3. Spider Woman - I fancy her as the head of Hydra or a faction and using their resources to fight crime.
4. Black Knight
5. Druid II


With Captain UK and Rick, Meggan and Tangerine and tons of back up characters like Tom the psychic ex of Betsy Braddock being in the background.

And possibly a Commonwealth team:

1. Thunderbird Neal Sharra
2. Lifeguard
3. Slipstream
4. Karima the Omega Sentinel
5. Red Lotus


I'd like to arrange a Europe team but having trouble thinking of a good mix:


1. M
2. Darkstar
3. Maybe Dust


Chamber, Pixie, Siryn and Madrox could fit in somehow.

Any ideas?

I've been toying with Avengers teams as well:

A back to the six member team:

Black Panther as leader. The team could be based out of Wakanda to take advantage of all their high technology.
Mantis. I would concise her powers down to ninja with complete control over her body, she can control her molecules, phase and teleport but skip the energy powers and plant control powers. Pre celestial madonna stuff.
The Lady Sif. She's the heavyweight. She hasn't been an Avenger either.
Machine Man.
Living Lightning.
Talisman. I would take her powers down as well, she can control spirits of the elements. and do some magic. not like all the magic.


.....


A few substitutes I'm thinking of are Crystal instead of Talisman, and maybe Dr. Samson instead of Sif. Spectrum for Living Lightning. But generally I like the newness of members of the first line up.

I really like your team, it is a nice balance of power and personality.

I will try this:

Cannonball- Leader 30 years is a long time to wait for A-List Status
Sersi- She is an immortal and a lot of fun.
Ms.Marvel (current)- Her stretching powers are fun and she has a good personality.
Iron Patriot- Sent by the government to "babysit" but legitimately enjoying the experience
Firestar- She fits the bill for elemental and her past with the Hellions would make for good nostalgia for longtime readers.
Hawkeye (Kate)- A young and popular character

Future Avengers (based loosely on the originals)


1. Huk (Cho)
2. Victorious (Victor Mancha) in lieu of Hank Pym
3. Cloud 9 in place of speedy Wasp.
4. Horus in a Captain Marvel Shazam way in lieu of Thor.
5. Prodigy, team leader instead of Captain America and the smart guy like Iron Man.
6. Nico sorceress supreme.

I also had an idea for an interim X-Team between the original five and the introduction of the Giant Size X-Men with characters that were around.


1. Havok
2. Polaris
3. Sunfire
4. Darwin - could've been around.
5. Banshee
6. Wolverine - part time
7. Astra - Could be after she fell out with Magneto and the Brotherhood. Or is a double agent. Or isn't quite that bad yet.

This segway team makes a bit more sense out of the incorporation of Banshee, Gunfire and even Wolverine, who were at odds with the X-Men, into the second team. This team could show how Prof. X earned their trust rather just randomly showing up and asking them to rescue the original 7 on a dangerous mission. It also allows Astra to have some screens time since she is a retcon.

I had to look up Astra, but I liked this one as a transition team. Better than the plucking them out of the Mission Impossible files approach.

Thanks!

To add some ladies to the roster, there's also Sage/Tessa, Sway and Petra, from the 'pre All-Different' era. A team of lesser-seen X-Men with Havok, Polaris, Sunfire, Banshee, Thunderbird, etc. would be kind of cool.

From what I can tell Astra is a teleporter and a genius in genetics and cloning. She may also be able to phase. She was retconned as a member of the original Brotherhood of Evil Mutants but Magneto wasn't evil enough for her.

Recently, she seems pretty evil, she manipulated the Magneto clone Joseph into trying to kill Magneto.

So, in this group maybe she would still be evil just trying to undermine the X-Men or maybe she has a fractured personality or something. (or maybe she broke with Magneto for different reasons and this tenure with the X-Men is what turns her bad).

Oh Yeah! I forgot Tessa was around. Maybe she could appear with a different look and name to account for her later going undercover in the Hellfire Club. Tessa and Astra's inclusion would make this group much more interesting plot wise.

So Tessa was a smarty pants for virtually her whole career and just in extreme men she seemed to have this other power that could bring out peoples powers or some biological thing. Maybe she predominantly uses this in this interstitial team and then represses it for all the years she is in the Hellfire Club to hide her true identity.

I'd change my line up a bit then:


1. Havoc
2. Polaris
3. Banshee
4. Sunfire (a somewhat reliable version. or this tenure explains why he wasn't interested in sticking around much after Giant Size X-Men)
5. Tessa - as the Fox. (Diana Fox is another alias she will use in the future and this lineup would make her the badnass of the team after dropping Wolverine [for cameos]) Also there are Foxes in Afghanistan were Tessa was found and may be from. They are smart and kick butt ... like Tessa. I'd give her one of those seemingly impractical masks like Marvel girl and Mockingbird to conceal her identity.
6. Darwin
7. Astra - adds some drama with Tessa trying to sniff out Astra's motives.

All drawn by Neil Adams.

Not bad at all. I'm not much of a fan of antagonists crossing over to the hero teams, but there's certainly scope for Sage to be more ambiguous. Of course, if it's going to be drawn by Adams, it could just be Professor X forging a team from bits of his belly button lint and it would still be worth reading

I am thinking of replacing Legion with Chamber. He's not a bad guy just sour i think. I'd change his look a bit though so his powers don't look too much like Sunfire's.



There are some other's I was thinking about including, the more naughty X-Men.


So maybe this team has a Hellions spin off.

1. Sunspot (or Eclipse as you like)
2. Magma
3. Empath
4. Elixir
5. Hellion
6. Oya (Although I like her for a main X-Man prime team)
7. Round it out with X23 or M ... although M doesn't really work well on a team anymore, she's too powerful.



I guess there could be an Uber X-Men team:


1. Wolverine
2. M
3. Legion
4. Magneto
5. Kid Omega
6. Magik
7. Rogue ...

... etc. doesn't seem very interesting to me at the moment.

Inhumans/X-Men Future Alliance Team- If things go the way they seem to be in Marvel, Inhumans could just divide Earth among themselves. It could lead to a future similar to that in the 1970s Guardians of the Galaxy, where some mutants resettle on another planet. But I think some of them would willingly settle in Inhuman controlled lands, as at the very least, there would be no inherent basis to persecute them. Indeed, I have seem panels from a What-If? story where Maximus allows the X-Men into his court.

This list was difficult because there have been a lot of interesting Inhumans created recently.

Alaris- Inhuman who represents the government, Standard Good-Looking Hero, Super-strength/durability
X-23- In my headcanon she eventually marries one of Gorgons kids, because I think she values strength over race.
Inferno- One of the 'NuHumans', with fire powers of course
Anole- Mutant with lizard-like appearance, powers, abilities
Mercury- Mutant who is living Mercury, a mild personality to balance out X-23
Loa- Mutant with phasing powers and Atlantean artifact/knowledge
Margoyle- Wiki describes him as an 'Inhuman with gargoyle appearance', so I wonder if he would have stone like powers
Iridia- The beautiful butterfly-winged character famous from the 'Inhumans' Trailers

Luthor's League

The super heroes travelled to the dawn of time to defeat the Anti Monitor. They succeeded. But they didn't come back.

With no Superman to contend with, Lex Luthor began to release his research to the world. He helped shape a New Earth. But it was still populated by the supervillains and threatened by alien forces and the extradimensional. Luthor promised the world an age of men. He formed a League to counter the threats to that age. A League with no costumes and, as far as the public were concerned, no secrets.

Lex Luthor - Scientific genius. From protecting cities with force fields to revolutionising medicine and technology. This was the role he always saw himself in. Before the superheroes took man's pride away. He proactively hunts down technology from the super-age, changing it to help mankind. He has reactivated the JLA satellite, and its Thanagarian teleportation system is revolutionising transport. He's also found the Transmatter Cube and is beginning to think of threats from other universes...

Helena Bertinelli - Scourge of the corrupt, she is a huntress of bribed politicians and strange foes left behind in Gotham and beyond. Luthor has broadened her scope as she has honed her skills.

Michael Carter - What could have established Luthor's success more than confirmation that the future was a bright one, free of superheroes? Michael works with Luthor to shape and change things to come, using the technology that he brought back to boost mankind.

Dale Gunn - Designer of the urban pacification units that helped eradicate crime in Detroit, Gunn now has access to Luthor's technology. He uses it to expand the uses of the suits into areas of space and ocean exploration as much as crime prevention, steeling mankind against new realms.

Shilo Norman - The celebrity escape artist came to Luthor as the Mother Box in his possession had begun whispering terrible things to him. Proficient in the technology of New Genesis, the team hope that Norman can help them before this age of miracles ends and their legends are crushed under the heel of Darkseid.

Erik - In protecting Earth against supernatural threats, Luthor sought out the man most likely to destroy such things forever. While Erik is showing signs of stress, Luthor knows that no one is better equipped to solve a mystery or spot signs of infection from other realms. A young gentleman from England is also being monitored as a potential recruit.

I have a new idea ... that started off as a Titans West idea but now might make more sense as an Outsiders team.

1. Halo, a young Aurakle flees to Earth. In later issue the other Aurikles will come looking for her.

2. and 3. Mal Duncan & Bumblebee are scientists in California that work to mimic Apokoliptian tech. at a NASA type organization. They detect Halo's fall to Earth and hence, Mal's got a mega wand lite that he replicated and Bumblee has a parademon knock off suit. The find Halo.

4. Static also detects the energy disturbance and meets them.

5. Copper, the newest Metal Person, is vacation in LA because none of the other Metal People take her seriously. Somehow she meets the others and gets involved.

6. Terra (Atlee) also in Southern Calif. hooks up with the team.


7. I think maybe Polar Boy could come from the future to put a team together, might still fit, to gain experience to help him gain entry into the Legion ...build a rep for himself ... maybe his time cube arrival attracts Halo.

I thought this team could be a bit funny in a comic, kinda like the Legion of Subs and that these were all characters that couldn't quite make it in mainstream super teams.

But would hopefully end up like a DC version of Nextwave.

Others I though to include were Vibe and Gypsy but Terra and Halo can do what they do power wise.

I love pretty much everyone you've picked, but I don't think Sunspot, Hellion and Empath would work well on the same team, being all kind of alpha dude. (Plus, while I like Empath, I'm not sure if he's 'redeemable' after using his powers the way he did on Tom Corso and Sharon Friedlander...)

I want an X-team of mutants nobody ever expected to see again;

1. Frenzy
2. Unuscione
3. Fixx
4. Scaleface
5. Indra
6. Windshear
7. Cypher

It's a funky mix, from all over the place, but all of them pretty obscure, or some of the least popular of their respective generations. Others could include Wicked, Freakshow, Shola Inkosa, Dust, Evan 'Genesis' Sabah Nur, Ernst, Cecelia Reyes, Nature Girl, Armor, Bling!, etc.

Heck, with Skids, Cecelia Reyes, Armor, Unuscione, Radius (from Alpha Flight) and Projecteur (former Acolyte), you could almost field a seven man X-team entirely of force field / force exoskeleton users! (And up to seven if Indra's retcon to have Armor's force-exoskeleton powers remains, or if Invisible Woman is taken in as the token non-mutant force-field-user!)

Or an all mutant teen girl time-manipulator group. Sway, Kiden Nixon, Lacuna, Tempo, Tempus, etc. (some iterations of Magik and Rachel can monkey with time).

And goodness, at least one entire team of Wolverines/clones/spawn/time-displaced or AU selves or red-headed telepaths and / or telekinetics who may or may not have the last name Grey.

Yeah, Empath is creepy.

I loved Scaleface ... and Bezerker.

And I never knew Fixx but thought she was cool from reading her description.

Indra could be cool with a great artist.

This team could be an Acolytes team maybe.

Unuscione had a small part in Age of X and a new name, Stand Off.

She was in a team called Force Works that kept a shield up over the mutant settlement.

"Heck, with Skids, Cecelia Reyes, Armor, Unuscione, Radius (from Alpha Flight) and Projecteur (former Acolyte), you could almost field a seven man X-team entirely of force field / force exoskeleton users"

There is an old X-Factor comic that did three tribes of mutants .... chosen (i think) that looked like humans .. the Jean Grey's, excepting for skin color, some were blue etc. ... and dualers ... like Iceman and ... "rejects" I think ... like blue/black Beast. And a resistance cobble of each because the chosen ruled the others.

Might be interesting to have tribes of mutants based on powers too.

I reverse engineered the Squadron Supreme for a Marvel's JLA:


1. Thor - Hyperion - Superman
2. Quasar - Dr.Spectrum - Green Lantern
3. Captain Marvel - Power Princess - Wonder Woman
4. Namor - Amphibian - Aquaman
5. Spectrum - Whizzer - Flash
6. Wasp - Blue Eagle - Hawkman
7. Siryn - Lady Lark - Black Canary
8. Black Panther - Nighthawk - Batman
9. Dr. Strange - Arcanna - Zatannna
10. Sunfire - Nuke - Firestorm
11. Hawkeye - Golden Archer - Green Arrow
12. Mr. Fantastic - Tom Thumb - Atom

Pretty well rounded team, IIDSSM!

I made a reverse engineered Justice League. I based this team on Wildstorm's original The Authority line up. I tried to pick popular characters, or characters tied to the League instead of my favorites. Although a lot of these are also my favorites.

Jenny Sparks - Black Lightning
Engineer - Cyborg
Swift - Shayera Hawkwoman
Jack Hawksmore - Geo Force
The Doctor - The latest Dr. Fate young Khalid Nassour (I think there might be a new one now though in Rebirth ... ?)
Apollo - Captain Comet
Midnighter - Vixen

A Quality Comics Justice League:

Superman -- Wonder Boy
Wonder Woman -- Miss America
Batman -- Midnight
Green Lantern -- Ray
Flash -- Quicksilver
Aquaman -- Red Torpedo
Martian Manhunter -- Invisible Hood

Later recruits:
Green Arrow -- Alias the Spider
Atom -- Doll Man
Hawkman -- Raven
Hawkgirl -- Spider Widow
Elongated Man -- Plastic Man
Red Tornado -- Bozo the Iron Man
Zatanna -- Merlin the Magician
Firestorm -- Wildfire

Nicely done EDE. I really like the Quality heroes and you've made some interesting match ups there. Plastic Man even replaced Elongated Man in a number of later JLA line ups.

I brainstormed this less than an hour ago:

AVENGERS OF EARTH-R (A previously uncharted universe where SERSI became the new ETERNITY after leaving our universe in AVENGERS #375:)

THOR: Luna Maximoff (daughter of Quicksilver and Crystal)

GOLDEN WITCH: Lilith Miller-Madrox (daughter of Layla Miller, who is now the SORCERESS SUPREME, and Jamie Madrox)

CAPTAIN MARVEL: Frank Cage (son of Luke Cage and Monica Rambeau -- Roger Stern himself has said that if he hadn't been fired from AVENGERS, he'd have hooked up Monica with Luke)

CAPTAIN AMERICA: Carol Danvers

YELLOWJACKET: Rita De Mara (last seen brought back to life, about 10 years ago (?), only to be forgotten)

GOLIATH: Simon Williams (with mix of Erik Josten's Atlas/Goliath powers and his own Wonder Man powers)

ANT-MAN: Scott Lang

IRON MAN: Vision's body, Stark's mind

BLACK WIDOW: Sybil Dvorak (originally Gypsy Moth, later had a brief but memorable stint as Skein in the final stretch of Fabian Nicieza's T-BOLTS run)

WASP: Nadia Van Dyne (daughter of Hank Pym and Maria Trovanya)

RED KNIGHT: Philip Javert (the Swordsman from the Epting-Era Avengers)

OLD MAN BLACK KNIGHT (Dane Whitman; self-explanatory)

Their main antagonists are the MASTERS OF REALITY (QUEEN CRYSTAL and KING ZEMO, with Red Knight's ex-lover MAGDALENE as their Captain of the Guard)

Ooh, I sometimes amuse myself by mashing up characters, and Madrox is super-fun to mash up or create imaginary kids for. A child of him and Wolfesbane, for instance, would be 'Wolfpack,' a young woman able to turn into an entire pack of wolves.

A child of him and a sorceress could be 'Coven,' individually not the toughest spellcaster in the room, but able to split into three to five 'witches' and combine their power for greater magical workings, like surrounding someone and binding them in magical restraints.



Yes! I loved her character, and her potential return in Dead Avengers (which was *amazing!*) was super-intriguing.

I read recently that had he been able to use Rita, Kurt Busiek had intended to make her part of his initial 'ex-Masters of Evil' Thunderbolts lineup. He was told he couldn't have her, and so he used Melissa Gold/Screaming Mimi instead. I love, love, love Songbird, but can't help but wonder what that would have been like!



Neat choice. Her 'textile telekinesis' is a fun power that doesn't get a lot of play.



For a blast from the past, I want Maria Trovanya to have not been killed by Soviet spies, but to have faked her death to bring home information stolen from Pym because she *was* a Soviet spy, trained in the famous Red Room. Now she's the 'Swarm Queen' of the former Soviet 'science-city' of Koltsovo, and runs the Russian super-human operations there, using technological means to control (modified) people the way Pym could control ants, and creating technology, weapons and soldiers based off of both the stolen research and her own genius (the reason why she and other agents were planted with American super-scientists, because they were smart enough to keep up and understand the science they were stealing).

I've been trying to think of a Quality Comics JLA for a long time but could never figure out who to put in Superman's place!

Thanks EDE.