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The Avengers

Like with the My52 Justice League, the Avengers line-up is one of the greatest armchair quarterback opportunities in comics.  Everyone has their favorite and detailed explanations of why their choices are best.  Also like the Justice League, there are so many characters to choose from, it's easy to fall into decision paralysis until the most inviting solution is to put EVERYONE in the Avengers.

Done.

The end of Secret Invasion creates a new opportunity to form up "Earth's Mightiest Heroes." Following his killing blow of the invading Skrull queen, Norman Osborn and his Thunderbolts are on the rise, while the Avengers and the 50 State Initiative are on the outs.  In fact, the Initiative is seen by many to have been a base from which the invasion penetrated the U.S., and the program is quickly dismantled.  The Avengers lose their preferred hero status and government support to the Thunderbolts, and are forced to operate as an independent unit.

Not incidentally, the core membership most people think of when they think Avengers doesn't exist in a recognizable form in Make My Marvel.  Thor and Captain America, fer instance, are now completely different people, as is Iron Man as far as anybody else is concerned.

So who makes it into my Avengers line-up?  Thought you'd never ask.

Captain America 
With the death of Steve Rogers, James Barnes has taken on the role of his former mentor.  He doesn't lead the team as Rogers did, but he still brings a lifetime (or more) of combat training and small unit tactics to the team. He fulfills the role of the legacy hero, a second generation character raised to take the spot of his mentor.

Storm

Storm always seemed too big for the X-Men.  In a group where each character possessed a unique single mutant power, Storm's ability to command the elements seemed out of scale.  She's so powerful, in fact, that she always felt to me like she belonged in the Avengers.  And here she is.

Songbird
Of all the former villains to take on heroic identities in the original Thunderbolts series, Songbird was the one for whom it seemed to take the strongest.  We were even shown that she would be joining some future Avengers team in 'Avengers Forever'.

Besides, villain-turned-hero always makes for some great character and story opportunities.

Icarus

The Eternals are an entire race of god-like superhumans living on the fringes of Marvel Earth, and I'd like to see them get some of the attention they deserve.  Thena, the current ruler of the Eternals, decides that they can't hide anymore, and assigns one of their member to join the Avengers as a way to build goodwill toward their people.  I'm even willing to say Makkari was her first choice (because I confess he was my first choice), but noble Ikaris stepped forward to volunteer (even taking the more commonly accepted spelling of his name as a way to blend in).  Without a doubt, Icarus brings Thor-level power to the team.

Iron Man

With Tony Stark bankrolling the Avengers again, it's a sure thing that his Iron Man will get to be on the team.  It's a bit humbling, though, that he has to convince everyone that he's a different guy under the helmet and he doesn't have as much clout in the team as he should with his founding member status.

In fact, a few people think of him as having bought his way onto the team rather than proving himself. It's an uphill battle for some to prove he has what it takes. 

Yellowjacket

I'm not a fan of the heavy handed slate wiping of Hank Pym at the conclusion of Secret Invasion, but whatever helps us get past that one backhand which marked him as a wife beater for the past 40 years.  With that out of the way, I look forward to returning him to his adventuring scientist days.  Also, as far as anyone knows, he's the only founding member of the Avengers still on the team, and that brings him a level of leadership and respect.

Spider-Man
Flying high on his celebrity status (as described in Spider-Man's own entry in Make My Marvel), Parker adds "Avenger" to his resume.  Despite a life-long history of crime fighting, though, being a superstar has soured public opinion on him a bit, and even some of his fellow Avengers question his commitment to righting wrongs. Truth is, he didn't leave the Avengers on the best terms in Civil War, but with someone new in the Iron Man suit (heh), he's ready to give them another chance.









Since the destruction of Avengers Mansion back in 2004, the team has operated out of a skyscraper in Manhattan.  Since I feel that robs from the Fantastic Four too much, I'm going to have my Secret Invasion end with them losing that building and being forced to relocate. Their new digs are set up in one of Stark's long-abandoned Long Island factories.  It's easily adapted to hold science labs, communications equipment, and engineering spaces.  There's a token effort for living spaces, but it's not really intended for full-time occupancy, requiring 
Avengers to keep residences outside of their HQ.

Cap'n A!

Captain America

Steve Rogers is dead.

There, I said it. Assassinated at the end of Civil War, Captain America's shield and mask are taken up by his former sidekick James "Don't call me Bucky" Barnes.  Although the comics quickly set out to revive Steve Rogers and eventually give him his shield back, my policy of "don't kill 'em if you don't want 'em dead" means that Steve is going to stay a martyr, and Barnes is really going to have to step up to fill his shoes.

Once Bucky got behind the shield, though, he continued on the trail he'd set as the Winter Soldier, a gun-toting vigilante/super-spy.  Personally I like my Cap'n A a little more high-minded than that, so my BuckyCap will quickly become aware of the shoes he's filling and try to discard the trappings of the previous life that had been forced on him.  Walking the high road is his way of atoning for everything he did while being mind controlled by the USSR.

Including the shield, he's literally carrying more 

weapons than he has hands for.

Trained by the original Captain America, Barnes is no slouch in a fight, especially when you combine that with his years of activity as a Soviet spy.  He's not the leader of men Steve was, but he can still serve as a symbol for people to rally behind.

Appearance-wise, I kind of hate the costume they put Bucky in when he took on the identity.  He looks more like Captain Puerto Rico than Captain America.  I don't feel at all beholden to adopting the appearances from the movies, but I really thought Cap's costume in Avengers was pitch perfect, and could easily see that adapted to Bucky's new wardrobe, especially in the way the zip-up-the-side-paneled jacket matches what he wore as Bucky in WWII.  Detach the mask from the jacket to give it an upturned collar (and Cap's helmet from Winter Soldier like that which CA originally wore) and I think you've got it.

 

There will be a quiz later.

I can't remember the last time Captain America had a secret identity (and then it was a comic book artist (?)), but I think Barnes needs one.  After spending decades either frozen in hibernation or under Soviet mind control, Bucky is even more a man out of time than Rogers was when he was thawed out.  He needs a civilian life to grow accustomed to the modern world (and only coincidentally provide interesting story potentials.)

When considering the best place for a one-armed Army vet, I latched onto the idea of Bucky getting a job at a veteran's affairs office.  Providing support for veterans and wounded warriors adjusting to life outside the military can be just as therapeutic for Bucky, and there's even an opportunity for a romantic interest in a young, idealistic physical therapist.

Then I realized I sort of ripped that off from the Falcon in the Winter Soldier movie as well, but just decided to go with it. 

I...am...Iron...Man...

Iron Man

To be honest, Tony Stark didn't come out of Secret Invasion too well.

On the heels of Civil War, Tony Stark had been made the head of SHIELD and incorporated all his "Starktech" into that global defense force.  I'm not sure exactly what "Starktech" means, but it was apparently even hardwired into his own body such that when the alien invaders inevitably hacked his system and brought down all of Earth's defenses, Stark sort of crashed with it.

After the smoke had cleared, opportunistic politicians saw Tony as the perfect scapegoat and came down hard on him.  In the comics, this lead to some sort of weird system reboot in his brain (conveniently wiping any culpability for the dickhead maneuvers he did during Civil War).  I don't need to go that far exactly, but I do appreciate the excuse to gut all that Extremis gear that had pushed Iron Man so far from the "guy in a high-tech suit" concept.

wha-?

I admit, my ongoing concept for Iron Man stems from one mental image: Tony Stark in trouble and calling on his bodyguard all Johnny Sokko-like, and Iron Man launching from a silo at Stark Enterprises to fly to the rescue.  The twist is that once the Iron Man armor arrives on scene, Tony would surreptitiously slip into it, becoming Iron Man rather than being whisked to safety.  Everybody sees them both together, so they're none-the-wiser about the dual identity, and Stark gets to be Ironman in secret.

"Why," you ask, "would he need to act in secret when everyone knows he's Iron Man?"

The answer is that, following the debacle of Secret Invasion, the public loss of confidence in Stark both from the government and his investors lead him to the realization that the only way to keep his company afloat is to stop being Iron Man.

The opening story arc shows that he's hired someone else to be Iron Man (I'm thinking Michael O'Brien, a character with experience piloting some of Stark's powersuits, pending a quick review to make sure the character is still alive), only to see that person quickly overwhelmed and killed in action.  Tony can't put another person at risk like that again, and decides to continue being Iron  Man himself, but now must keep that role secret for the sake of his company.  He uses O'Brien's death to justify his need to keep the current Iron Man's identity private.

It's hard for me to pick a favorite IM armor.  Of course I'm a longtime fan of the classic MkV armor he wore for so many years, but I also appreciate some of the more modern takes on it.  Ideally, I'd like to see a blend between the classic form-fitting suits and the modern plated armor look.  Something that suggests iron plates, but without all the jutty and sticky-out parts some artists can get carried away with.  Something along the lines (if not exactly the lines) of the 'Bleeding Edge' armor which appeared in 2010.

In fact, this suit is almost perfect.  I wonder if there's a way to add back in the eye slits.  It was always nice to be able to see Tony's eyes through his visor.

Other than that, it's business as usual.  Tony tries to manage his company as best he can, while fending off corporate spies and foreign saboteurs on a monthly basis.  Although no longer in the defense industry, the scope of SE's projects mean there's no shortage of ways to put him in any number of dangerous situations around the globe.

Here's where I confess I have zero idea of who Stark's supporting cast is these days.  I know Happy Hogan's dead, and Pepper Potts recently sported the armored identity of 'Rescue,' but I'm pretty blank on anything else.  He might even need an all-new cast of supporting characters from which to hide is secret identity. 

Marvel's First Family

The Fantastic Four

It's hard to pitch a Make My Marvel version of Fantastic Four because the series never seems to work when it deviates from the initial four characters of Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Thing and Human Torch.  They're all so perfectly balanced and characterful that any tip of the apple cart is too much.  However, I think a fun variation of the team would be to, while not changing the membership, switch up their powers.  It's change for the sake of change, but could liven up a team that's been pretty consistent now for about 50 years.  

They dabbled with this a bit in the second Fantastic Four movie, and I'd bet money it's been played with in the comics before, but I'd like to try it as a long-term ('cause nothing's permanent) change to the status quo.  I accept that it's a gimmick, but let's see how it takes.

Strangely, I couldn't find any pictures of them with switched powers,

so I made this handy chart to track my intent.

Mr. Invisible (Reed Richards)
Based on Reed's deep-set desire to see and understand the underpinnings of the universe, Reed takes on Sue's ability to bend light and manipulate "hyperspace forces" (whatever that means).  As Sue could, he can turn himself and others invisible as well as produce invisible force fields.  His engineering-oriented mind is able to create more complex shapes and effects than Sue ever could, but he finds that his structures aren't as strong as hers were.

It-Girl (Sue Richards)
Sue's desire to protect her family and others leads her to adopt Ben's monstrous strength and appearance.  While I'd like the artist to find a slightly more feminine way to draw her than She-Thing, she does have to learn to cope with her new appearance much as Ben had to in his earlier days (and she does it in much the same way, thanks to the unconditional love of her husband and children).  Her new form is even more indestructible than Ben's was, but she isn't able to reach the same strength that he did.

The Torch (Ben Grimm)
We all know Ben's got a bit of a temper, and he loves to fly, and these two traits lead him directly to Johnny's flame powers.  He's not as good as Johnny was  with the fire shapes, but can really pour out the speed and power.  Unfortunately his flame doesn't last as long, and Ben finds his flames can exhaust themselves pretty quickly if he doesn't moderate them.  On a personal note, he's obviously ecstatic to have his human appearance back, but is almost as distraught by having (inadvertently) foisted his disfigurement onto Sue.

Thin Man (Johnny Storm)
I kind of hate the name, but I tried to keep the new names thematically similar to the meter of the previous names, and the best I could come up with for Johnny was to tie his name into another WWII-era superhero, in this case, one with stretchy powers. In any case, it's Johnny's carefree personality which leads him to adopt the shape-altering powers of Mr. Fantastic, although his vanity makes him slightly less likely to distort his features too much. He mostly limits himself to elongating his limbs and trunk rather than flattening his body or taking on shapes.  Still, he's more acrobatic than Reed was with the same powers, and he can be an elusive combatant.



Recent leanings in the writing of the Fantastic Four have depicted them as explorers, gallivanting around space and the dimensions, and having a series of out-of-this-world adventures (ha!).  I actually like this interpretation as it's in keeping with early comics of them discovering Subterra or aiding alien civilizations, but it shows the same flaw (to me, at least) as all those stories of Thor in Asgard.  I lose interest in the characters if they're removed from the recognizable world.  Putting them in the Negative Zone or rocketing to Altare V gives me zero investment in whatever it is they discover or achieve.

Looking again at their early adventures, the FF weren't just exploring new places, but were discovering new threats to the Earth there and stopping it.  Having just survived a major alien invasion (and feeling more than a little responsible for it), puts Reed and the rest of the FF in a position to re-dedicate themselves to watching for extra- (or sub-) terrestrial threats to the Earth.  The Foursome is more focused on being a first-line defense against anything "not of this Earth."

Initially I was kind of directionless about the Richards kids.  Franklin and Valeria are getting old enough to participate in adventures, and my first blush was that adding these two to the mix upsets the 4-way balance of the main characters.  In fact, I briefly had the idea of renaming the group the 'First Family' (playing off both the growing family aspect as well as their often-used sobriquet as the first family of comics. But then I remembered that was exactly the title of one of Kurt Busiek's Astro City groups and I didn't want to be ripping him off at all.

Although it might be fair to ask who ripped off whom in his instance.

But then the idea dawned on me that being old enough to have adventures is not the same as joining the team.  I think the occasional back-up story of the Richards kids going all Goonies would be a lot of fun.

Thanks to some destruction during Secret Invasion, the upper flours of the Fantastic Four's skyscraper HQ are eligible for some redesigning.  I'd like to see the tower take on some traits of an observatory, and serving as a reminder of their goal as watchmen for extra-terrestrial threats to the Earth.  In a departure from the clean, symmetrical geometry of Four Freedom's Plaza, the new tower is topped with a jumble of Kirby-esque domes and devices.

Comic's riskiest acronym

The All-Star Squadron

Don't expect to see a JSA revival in My52.  I think it's time to retire some of these WWII legacy characters either because of unreasonable age (Wildcat), duplication of characters (Flash and Green Lantern), or nonsensical "legacy" characters (damn near everyone else).  Even the concept of a Justice Society is too much a duplicate of the Justice League and feels unnecessary in my more streamlined DCU, where each title has to provide a distinct feel to justify itself.

So why am I even entertaining this concept even with a name change?  Because honestly many of the characters introduced early on in the series' life are worth keeping active and frankly I don't hate the idea of legacy team members as much as I dislike the rampant idiocy of it toward the end.

Pictured: The Legion of Supe- what?

Presumably having collapsed under their own weight, the JSA will disband, with only a core element of characters remaining who really want to make a difference.  While the JLA mandate is to gather together to face threats to big for them individually, the A-SS are your "full-time" heroes, maintaining an accessible headquarters and making themselves available for people to come to with their problems.

Membership will consist mostly of the more proven 2nd generation JSA characters, those who remain after Wildcat, Flash and  Green Lantern retire, and after the tidal flood of legacy characters is sent back home.

The All-Stars are:

Mr. Terrific

The clear break-out star from the legacy theme of JSA who got in early and proved himself as a viable character many times over.  The writer has to be careful, though, 'cause he can easily tip into Marty Sue territory where he's the best at everything and everything he does is perfect.  In skilled hands, though, Mr. Terrific's intelligence, skills, and technical savvy focus on a brains over brawn approach to crime fighting.

Hourman

Rick Tyler has two superpowers with great storytelling potential: one, he can activate the drug Miraclo to give himself super strength for one hour, and two, he has an hourglass with tachyons in it which grant him visions of one hour into the future.  Nothing but great things from those.  I'm so glad they finally ditched the Miraclo addiction sub-plot to his powers, but I do like that this addiction is part of his history.  It sets himself up as someone who can provide motivational speeches to the downtrodden, and the lives he's saved through positive influence could equal those he's saved through super-powered conflict.  As an added bonus, many of the people he's saved this way around the world have formed a community of "Minutemen" who keep their eyes out for potential trouble and alert Rick if warranted.  Between his Minutemen and his tachyon hourglass, Rick is the best early-warning system the team could ask for.

Liberty Belle

Jesse Chambers has flip-flopped a bit on whether she's Johnny Quick's legacy or Liberty Belle's, with costume and powers changing to suit.  Truth is, I love her in her 40s-inspired Liberty Belle costume, but think she's better with her superspeed powers.  So I'm going to shuffle the deck a bit and combine the two concepts.  While her father activated his superspeed using a complex mathematical formula (which Jesse also used), her mother activated her great strength through the ringing of the actual Liberty Bell.  Jesse has taken a page from both their books and stabilized her powers thusly: Wearing a belt buckle made from the same metal as the Liberty Bell (just as her mother did), Jesse is able to "ring" the bell with a tap of her buckle, activating her superspeed in the same way her dad's formula did.  I can't think of a logical reason why this would be *better* for her, but it works for me.

Stargirl

The first legitimate JSA legacy, Stargirl has dovetailed the legacies of both the Star-Spangled Kid and Starman to become a true success story of the JSA.  Although she started out as a self-interested troublemaker, she's been taught by some of the best and has become a hero that other neophytes can look up to.

Sandman

I'm not trying to backpedal here, but I think Sand's silicone powers got way too much play during his time with the JSA, amping up to the point where he could cause earthquakes.  Fortunately for me, I've decided that his body is starting to heal a bit from his transformation.  He still has silicone-based powers, but now they're only capable of allowing him to transform himself into sand and pass through stone and crystalline surfaces.

For the most part, he's going back to the commando-mode of his early JSA days with his gas mask and sleep gas (his powers sort of make the wire-poon gun unnecessary).  Between his sleep gas and his ability to penetrate nearly any building, he really is the mortal embodiment of the Sandman.  Somewhere along the line he's also going to earn peace when he sleeps.  His prophetic dreams are too similar to the otherwise more interesting future visions of Hourman.

Dr. Mid-Nite

One of my personal favorites from the Society, I like the way he uses medicine as a tool to fight crime.  He's like the exact opposite of the Crime Doctor.  There's a bit of overlap with Mr. Terrific, what with his intelligence, skills and pet owl (akin to the T-Spheres), but I think that just makes them closer friends than competitors.  There are some notable philosophical differences between them, of course, which just makes for a more interesting environment when they work together.

Plastic Man

It's been established that his plastic body has kept him alive for all these years and confirms that he was a member of the Squadron back in WWII as the liaison with the FBI.  Although a lot of attention has been paid to his criminal background in recent years, I think it's time to revisit his FBI potential and not only make him the longest arm of the law, but also get him back into the saddle with the All-Star Squadron.  His gangster background plus his work with the FBI makes Plas the perfect crime-buster.

TNT and Dinah-Might

This is where, after mocking the flood of poorly-thought-out legacy characters, I introduce my OWN legacy character(s) to join the Squadron.  For no other reason than a personal fondness for the characters of TNT and Dan the Dyna-mite (dating to one of the first Superfriends comics I read as a kid), I'll have a new duo discover the science between the explosive-packed rings. In this case, a college professor struggling for tenure finds inspiration in the work of one of his graduate students and the two manage to recreate (more or less) the experiment that lead to the original crime fighters.  In addition to enhanced strength, the two gain explosive punches and rocket-propelled flight.

Something I really have to address when working with these Golden Age legacy characters is how the DCU sliding timeline has grown ever-farther from the anchor point of World War II.  While many of the original JSA-ers had an "excuse" for their slowed aging, many of these new descendants don't.  I was able to put together a solution for Black Canary in my post on her title, and Stargirl's step-father, Pat Dugan, has the convenient time-skip of the time he was lost in time with the Seven Soldiers of Victory.  I can also see a way to time-skip the members of Infinity, Inc. if that becomes necessary.

But in this group, the troublemakers are Liberty Belle and Hourman.  Explicitly stated as the children of WWII heroes, it's getting to the point where even if they'd been born in the 60's (with their parents well into their 40s), they'd be around 50 years old now.  Clearly they're not.  

I'm afraid I don't have a solution for either of these, so it'll have to be something I address in the future.

Just...Dove

Dove

Despite the ever-increasing gaps in my posting habits, my mind is still tuned to My52 and another character who deserves her own title in my fantasy publisher camp.

'Dove' is a simple title, but I like it.  Within these pages we'll continue the story of Dawn Granger as Dove, the mortal representative of the Lords of Order.  Since the character first appeared (and before, since she's a legacy character to the first Dove), Dove has always been paired up with a Hawk, the mortal representative of the Lords of Chaos.  With the previous Hawk (Holly Granger) killed off in Blackest Night, and my BN-changes which skipped the first Hawk, Hank Hall's reincarnation, Dawn currently finds herself Halwk-less, and I'm going to fight temptation and NOT team her up with yet another Lord of Chaos counterpart.

You got it, boss.

A key player in Blackest Night, Dove is ready to take the spotlight on her own, actively taking on the role as an Agent of Order to keep society moving forward and defeating any efforts from Chaos to undermine the peace.  She'll be doing this in two fronts: in her superhero identity as Dove, and also in her involvement in politics as a Congressional aide in Washington D.C. Although not a decision-maker in U.S. politics, she at least has the ear of one who is, and can influence policy whenever she can overcome the petty bickering of her co-workers.  That government thing might be totally out of nowhere, but I remember her (and her partner) being based in Washington during a previous series.  Since then she'd spent a few years in a magical coma and believed dead, but I don't think that invalidates her previous status.

Hawk and Dove were initially created as an experiment between two Lords of Chaos and Order who were in love with each other to see if their methods could ever work together.  As far as I'm concerned, that experiment is a failure.  We've already lost one Dove and two Hawks. Don't expect any cosmic balance to attempt to try again with a new Hawk.  If anything, a spurned and angry Chaos would produce an enemy Hawk to try to take care of his ex-girlfriend's avatar.  In fact, expect T'Charr (the Lord of Chaos) to become a Hera-like power which will produce obstacles to Dove's mission just out of jealousy.

They sort of already did this with a character called

Kestrel, but that was Liefeld and doesn't count.