Well if i'm Gyrich, then that means I'm going to be selecting a team of 'Country First' types into the roster. And even if they're not devoutly patriotic, they need to be practical enough to serve, so with that in mind...

1. USAgent
2. Yellowjacket [Hank Pym]
3. Ms. Marvel [Carol Danvers]
4. War Machine [James Rhodes]
5. Songbird [I know she's a criminal, but she's been in the system enough I figure as a t-bolt that she'd be someone Gyrich would assign, and then arm-twist throughout her tenure with great delight]
6. Scarlet Spider [Julia Carpenter]
7. The Thing [kind of a wild card, and I'd like to see Ben in a dynamic that isn't the FF. Plus he coul help humanize the team surprisingly enough]



thejackolantern Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Let me switch gears for a moment:
>
> You're Henry Peter Gyrich, and you're enforcing
> the '7 member rule' on the Avengers. You can
> recruit any current Marvel character into the
> Avengers, but you can have only 7. You have to
> have meet the following reasons:
>
> 1. The team must work together.
> 2. No non-terran aliens (Must be on Earth)
> 3. No criminals (Gyrich would have a fit).
> 4. Only 7 members.
>
> Who would you choose and why?

Any chess fans here? Is there such a thing as an all marvel Chess set. Who would be your king, queen, rooks, bishops, and knights?

Good vs Bad.

well, teh first thing that comes to mind to me is you could have several sets..

The first one is obviously the Hellfire club. They 're practically begging for a Chess set, and there have been enough Knights & Rooks and Bishops of both colours to fill the ranks, and you have little Hellfire Mercs as your pawns.

I think it'd be a lot easier to do chess sets based on teams, like the Avengers, the FF, and the X-Men. But in an all Marcel i'd use:

White -

King - Captain America
Queen - Phoenix
Bishops - Spider-Man, Dr. Strange
Knights - Iron Man, Wolverine
Rooks - Thor, Hulk

Black -

King - Dr. Doom
Queen - White Queen
Bishops - Green Goblin, Magneto
Knights - Venom, Bullseye
Rooks - Apocalypse, Juggernaut

Pawns?

Shield Agents? and Skrulls? yeah boy!!!

G.A.W. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Pawns?
>
> Shield Agents? and Skrulls? yeah boy!!!

Those pawns work for me!

White:
King: Captain America
Queen: Storm
Bishops: Thor, Spider Man
Knights: Wolverine, Iron Man
Rooks: Hulk, Thing

Pawns:
I like the idea of SHIELD agents


Black:

King: Doctor Doom
Queen: Female Loki
Bishops: Apocalypse, Mandarin
Knights: Sabretooth, Bullseye
Rooks: Abomination, Juggernaut
Pawns: HYDRA or AIM Agents.

Waitasecond...I thought I was The Rook?

casl

You've been demoted, since you're such a killjoy.




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/17/2009 01:21AM by The Last Duskblade.

Okay, here is a new build-a-team challenge:


Build your own Exiles using existing variant characters. Here is mine:

1. Days of Future Past Wolverine
2. What If Sue Storm with Mr. Fantastic's Powers
3. Spider-man 2009
4. Magik Miniseries Kat
5. Earth X Captain America
6. New Warriors (Alternate Sphinx Timeline) Nova
7. What if Secret Wars 25 years later Crusader


Just a few thoughts

thejackolantern Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Okay, here is a new build-a-team challenge:
>
>
> Build your own Exiles using existing variant
> characters. Here is mine:
>
> 1. Days of Future Past Wolverine
> 2. What If Sue Storm with Mr. Fantastic's Powers
> 3. Spider-man 2009
> 4. Magik Miniseries Kat
> 5. Earth X Captain America
> 6. New Warriors (Alternate Sphinx Timeline) Nova
> 7. What if Secret Wars 25 years later Crusader
>
>
> Just a few thoughts

An interesting line-up of what-if characters, although the only Spider-man in 2009 from Marvel worth anything currently are the divergent versions like Ultimates and not the 616 'new' version, or were you referencing Spider-man 2099? If memory serves Crusader would be the daughter of Captain America and Rogue and possesses his shield and all of thor's powers and his hammer, and seems to have inherited his leadership skills.

The 'What if all the FF got the same powers' what-if was a contrast with that classic 'what if they got different powers' Susan given they had everyone refuse to be heroes 'because we look silly', and Johnny became a well-known comedian using his powers (and I always wonder how those worlds survived since with that as a single divergence life should have been short-lived once Galactus got there to eat things).

Seems like the group has a lot of leader types in it though, which even for heroes used to working together could cause problems as each one feels that they should call the shots. We've seen that happen in the Secret Wars with Professor X decided he could do a better job and talked the X-men into going off with him to join Magneto seriously weakening the hero side as a result and in 616 continuity during the short period Reed and Susan were Avengers and Reed went off to do his thing during the Super-nova storyarc rather than listen to the Avenger's leader at the time because he was too used to doing his own thing rather than follow orders.

Yep, that Crusader (Cap and Rogue's daughter, with Rogue having Carol Danvers as the main persona).

I was thinking more of the Ultra Woman version of Sue, from the What if where Johnny became the humanoid Robot, Ben got dragon wings (and I think was code-named Dragon Fly), and Reed became a brain (and later possessed Dr. Doom's body).

Oh I know which what-if you're referring to, Earth 7712 if memory serves, since I did a write-up on them that's in the canon write-ups section. I'm just comparing her to the Susan in the reality where everyone got the elastic powers and they became nothing, did nothing to help the world because they thought they'd look silly doing it as if how you looked mattered compared to what good you did.

Punisher... from what if Venom possesed frank castle instead of eddie brock.
Thena....Thors daughter from M2
Thor from what if Thor where a herald of Galactus
Rancor...Wolverines great great great grandaughter from the guardians of the galaxy universe
Tom Thumb from the Squadron Supreme
Tony Stark Sorcerer Supreme.

i figure Punisher and Rancor would be the team scouts and assasins possible deadly attraction between the two
Thena and Thor would be the powerhouses plus i always felt when a reality is threatened by a cosmic threat a Thor with the power cosmic is just the guy to call and it could be good story telling of Father/daughter from alternate realities
Tom Thumb would be the brains and
stark offers brains and magic and leadership

dacat75 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Punisher... from what if Venom possesed frank
> castle instead of eddie brock.
> Thena....Thors daughter from M2
> Thor from what if Thor where a herald of Galactus
> Rancor...Wolverines great great great grandaughter
> from the guardians of the galaxy universe
> Tom Thumb from the Squadron Supreme
> Tony Stark Sorcerer Supreme.
>
> i figure Punisher and Rancor would be the team
> scouts and assasins possible deadly attraction
> between the two
> Thena and Thor would be the powerhouses plus i
> always felt when a reality is threatened by a
> cosmic threat a Thor with the power cosmic is just
> the guy to call and it could be good story telling
> of Father/daughter from alternate realities
> Tom Thumb would be the brains and
> stark offers brains and magic and leadership

I missed the what-if (if they had one) of Punisher joining with the original Symbiote, and an interesting line-up of characters. Unfortunately I think Rancor would spend too much time trying to kill the rest of the team or in contentious behavior to be a quality benefit. The Thor and Thena angle's nice however, they even went with something like that for the latest iteration of the Exiles, only using divergent reality daughters of Magneto.

Not sure about Stark, in the what-if he was way too arrogant and condescending and it bred enough resentment in Stephan Strange he betrayed Stark to Dormammu. the Magitech armor was impressive though, with the magical database and AI that advised on appropriate spells for various mystical threats. Hmmm, wonder what it'd be like for Tony Stark, Sorcerer Supreme, to encounter Dr. Doom, Sorcerer Supreme. Especially after he'd used his mind-rewriting device to turn the Strange of his reality into his new host after his original body died battling Dormammu.

How about an all science / high tech team? A.K.A. the nerd team.

Mister Fantastic
Iron Man
Giant Man
Spiderman

Hmmm...

I'd go with:

Beast
Iron Man
Mastermind Excello
Forge

CapoCastillo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hmmm...
>
> I'd go with:
>
> Beast
> Iron Man
> Mastermind Excello
> Forge



I was thinking about Hank McCoy, but I already had Spiderman on my team. Forge is a good pick.

Hmmm, a Geek Squad is an interesting concept, as the heroes in it must revolve more around geeky scientific discovery and construction of crazy or fantastic technologies.

Reed Richards obviously fits that as he's had problems in the middle of battles stopping his scientific queries (and in at least a few What-ifs he's been responsible for Galactus consuming his world due to that blindness). Much of his heroic action ends up because he's called in or some of his studies cause a problem and he has to fix things (just look at how many disasters he's brought about from his Negative Zone studies).

Forge also fits given he's frequently been shown along with Reed to be spending his time building and only ends up heroing when someone comes along and drags him into it or stumbles over things.

Not sure if Beast does, some of his depictions have had him focusing way too much on his mutant powers and strength and agility rather than his genius that allowed him to develop his mutagenic formula that gave him his blue-furred form. Still some versions do have him far more scientific and geeky and would let him qualify.

I don't think Iron Man would, he got involved in being a hero far less for scientific or Geeky things and developed his armor from the start as a weapon and in spite of the things he's done over the years it's almost all been focused on developing battle armor and conflict rather than being a geek.

The non-merged Banner-In-Control Hulk from just before the first Secret Wars would qualify. He set up a scientific workshop to study the full nature of Gamma Rays and tried to avoid super-heroics to be the Geek.

Henry Pym at times is a Geeky type, particularly during his West Coast Avengers period when he could only shrink and grow other things rather than himself. Probably his best period where he was heroic and overcoming his issues (even having a great love affair with Firebird) until being returned to being an obsessive control freak with a craving for public recognition and adulation.

Spider-man probably does round things out with his own geeky scientific nature. He doesn't get to express it as much as he should but without the interruptions he'd be one of the top 10 geniuses around for Marvel Earth, and is second only to Reed Richards when it comes to kitbashing something together to solve a problem. He often tosses together cures for transformed people within hours or days of someone showing up.

Here's a magical themed Defender's team I'd like to see

Doctor Strange
Ghost Rider
Blade
Moon Knight
Valkyrie
Snowbird
Talisman

Ideal Creative Team: Neil Gaiman, JR. JR. with Claus Janson on inks.

Neil Gaiman's horrible at writing marvel characters. Look at 1603, bunch of silly nonsense.

I didn't read 1603, but I did like his take on the Eternals.

I did like his run on Eternals. That said, i've always felt the Eternals were a horrible mix with the Mainstream marvel U. They always sort of stood apart in my mind, and because of that I looked at it like 'DC's little corner in the Marvel U'. With that perspective, I felt that Gaiman was writing to his strengths doing up characters that in my view always had a more DC feel to them anyways.


Mopad Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I didn't read 1603, but I did like his take on the
> Eternals.

Nightmask Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> I missed the what-if (if they had one) of Punisher
> joining with the original Symbiote

I haven't read it, but I recall hearing about it. Here's the Wikipedia entry.

CapoCastillo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I did like his run on Eternals. That said, i've
> always felt the Eternals were a horrible mix with
> the Mainstream marvel U. They always sort of
> stood apart in my mind, and because of that I
> looked at it like 'DC's little corner in the
> Marvel U'. With that perspective, I felt that
> Gaiman was writing to his strengths doing up
> characters that in my view always had a more DC
> feel to them anyways.
>
>
> Mopad Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I didn't read 1603, but I did like his take on
> the
> > Eternals.

That's interesting. Originally, Kirby did intend the Eternal's to be separate. I'm guessing you feel that way because of it seeming like a continuation of Kirby's New Gods/Fourth World from DC. The interesting thing is that the New Gods was what Kirby originally wanted to do with Marvel's Thor after the battle of Ragnarok. This has always led me to view the New Gods as seeming more Marvel than DC.

Well ultimately I always felt that both the New Gods and the Eternals were really sort of beings unto themselves. I never really felt that they were a good mesh with superheroes in general. But, the DC Universe had power scales more set to deal with threats like the inhabitants of Apokalypse than the Marvel U was. So having an occaisional New Gods story in DC while not a perfect fit, was a bit better than attempts to have the Eternals go mainstream in the Marvel U.

New Team-Building exercise:


With 'Guardians of the Galaxy' reformed in the modern era with Star Lord's commandos, which characters in Marvel (Using any in the library) would you put on the group?


I'd do this:


Star Lord
Acroyear (Micronauts)
Bug (Micronauts)
Rom the Space Knight
Rocket Raccoon
Mantis
Moon Dragon
Binary (Carol Danvers)
and
Ch'od

Wow, a 9 person group. Kind of a big team there. Let me see who I'd include in my own Guardians of the Galaxy...


1. Corsair [Christopher Summers]
2. Nova [Richard Ryder]
3. Phoenix [Rachel Summers]
4. Captain Marvel [Noh-Varr]
5. Roma [Merlin's Daughter]
6. Rom the Spaceknight [what, it's a good pick...]
7. Ronan the Accuser

An ideal Guardians of the Galaxy? Interesting since its one of my favorite current books.

Star Lord (A character I knew nothing about prior to Annihilation is now vital to me. That says something.)
Nova
Adam Warlock
Gamora
Drax
Rocket Raccoon
Super Skrull (didn't see that comin' huh?)

INTER-DIMENSIONAL EARTH ALLIANCE [I.D.E.A.]
INTELLIGENCE SUMMARY: Earth 616

OPERATION SILVERBLADE

Silver Sablinova (Silver Sable)
Natalia/Natasha Romanova (Black Widow I)
Name Unknown (Viper)*
Elektra Natchios
Felicia Hardy (Black Cat)

*This is not the real Viper, but actually Raven Darkholme (Mystique) posing as the former Madame Hydra in order to infiltrate the Kronas corporation.

Operation SILVERBLADE is a high-level clandestine initiative executed by PARADIGMA, a Star-Chamber council consisting of the European Union's Intelligence Community leadership. Silverblade is intended to oppose and destroy the Red Skull's Kronas corporation. Much of Silverblade's technology and equipment has been supplied by the independent nation of Latveria.

The membership of this group rarely meet or communicate unless participating in a major raid. Instead, they operate independently; strictly maintaining a classical conspiratorial cell structure reminiscent of underground movements such as the French Resistance. Their primary means of operation is to infiltrate or burglarize various divisions and departments of the corporation and then use the information gathered to plan and conduct assassinations of key individuals in the manner most disruptive to Kronas operations. They also perform destructive acts of sabotage on Kronas facilities and frame key Kronas personnel as traitors, blaming them for the actions of Silverblade.

These tactics are guided by the European Union's KASKADE program. This is an advanced psychological computer model that predicts the effects of sabotage and assassination upon a large organization or nation. It is this model that predicted the effectiveness of an all female group of operatives. The clandestine nature of Silverblade is absolutely vital. Should Russian Intelligence discover the hand of the EU in destroying one of Russia's wealthiest and most powerful economic engines, it could easily lead to fractured diplomatic relations, a new cold war, or even outright warfare.