Mutant School

Academy X

As spelled out in my X-Men pitch, I really like the take on the X-Men as running a school for young mutants, although I was dissatisfied with the sheer volume of students they'd since added.  My preference is more along the lines of the days of the New Mutants, where a small class of mutants was being taught even as the graduated class of X-Men continued to save the world.

So gearing up for My Marvel Academy X requires me to pair down the numbers quite a bit. As the school is now public, I can imply some sort of safety review on behalf of the X-Men following that attack on the academy during the Messiah CompleX storyline and declare that they've determined gathering all those mutants together makes them a target.  Due to the hazardous nature of the X-Men's work, they simply can't be home to the least powerful of their kind.  Many of them are sent back home, while only a few are retained to help train.  It doesn't hold up to close scrutiny, but it gets me to where I want my student body to be.

Illogic aside, that means I get to choose from some of my favorite additions to young mutant-hood to create my student body for Academy X. Despite all of the young mutants at Xavier's to choose from, only a few  were distinctive or original enough to draw my attention.

Anole
Victor initially caught my eye by being so visually striking. His reptilian appearance, including one monstrous arm, stood out to me, especially when combined with his comfort with his appearance. In a world that hates and fears mutants, he stands out as being one who hasn't faced much bigotry despite his appearance. He's seen first hand the possibility of humans and mutants living together, and brings that optimism to the team. He's tried team leadership in the past, but despite having the heart, he doesn't have the drive. He serves as unofficial co-leader with Hellion, keeping the crew on the right path.

Hellion

Although I won't say his telekinetic powers are in any way original, Julian caught my eye with his vain, aggressive yet very successful leadership skills. The perfect counterpoint to Anole, Hellion grew up in wealth, yet was expected to hide his abilities. His human vs. mutant upbringing could easily have made him an evil mutant if one of the X-Men's enemies had gotten a hold of him first, but at Xavier's he's learning to work with humankind, even if he still sees them as different. Power-wise, Hellion's telekinesis took an interesting turn when his powers were "upgraded," making them much stronger while costing him much of his control. Punching holes through floors while trying to pick up paperclips really does make him a hellion. Julian co-leads the X Students with Victor, providing the fire and direction that Anole doesn't, while Anole tempers Hellion's darker elements.





Blindfold
There's not much to say about Blindfold other that she weirds me out in the best ways. From her eyeless face, to the enigmatic way she talks, to the unclear way her powers actually work, she cheerfully makes everyone uncomfortable. The biggest challenge with Blindfold, however, is the lack of a visual dynamic in her powers. Focused almost entirely on telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition, there isn't much to recommend her in "the field." Ultimately, the Academy students aren't intended to be field agents, so that shouldn't be a roadblock to her presence, but comics are a visual medium, and something should be expected. My first thought is to have her serve as a sort of home base support, providing intel to the team when they're out while traveling with them via astral from. I dunno.

Bling!

I'm not sure why the less-imaginatively-named Rockslide got all the attention in Young X-Men, when this hip-hop, be-gemmed bad-ass was waiting in the wings. Like Anole, she "suffers" from a grossly apparent physical mutation and accepts it with equal ease. In fact, she goes one step farther and uses it for celebrity, having appeared in a number of her rap royalty parents' music videos. I like Roxanne because she's confident and has nothing to prove, but without the in-your-face baggage of Hellion. She really is an anchor for the team.









Dust
Visually, an X-Men committed to wearing a full burqa is pretty stunning, and I won't balk to say that her inclusion in Academy X is a beacon of the racial acceptance the X-Men are fighting for. While I don't think it should be the point of her character, I've personally known enough people with fearful views of modern day Muslims, and I think Dust provides a good gateway to young American readers to understand more about them. As an added bonus, her power is awesome, ranging from the subtle to the devastating. 



I do have an opportunity here to again address minority balance in comic books. Ironically, it was this group's parent team, the X-Men, which first caused me to address the topic with my lineup's total lack of minorities. Like with them, I make no effort of affirmative action in my teams, only choosing the characters which most appeal to me regardless of race or gender. That's how I wound up with five white dudes and a white chick for my mutant team. Here, it's almost the opposite. Of the five students, we have a black woman, a Middle Eastern woman, and two homosexuals. It's an interesting contrast, and one that accidentally echoes the differences between the original X-Men, and their multi-national replacements

Going back to my New Mutants days, I want to keep the students in a team uniform (favoring the black and yellow like what Blindfold is wearing above), but perhaps with making the yellow a more shiny gold texture. The only challenge is what to do with Dust's uniform. I confess I've no idea how much leeway Islamic women have in accessorizing their burqas, and don't want to ignorantly offend anyone by adding a gold belt to her dress. Still, I'd like to find some way of tying her into the team uniform, so maybe some research is in order...

Of course these students will be in residence at the Xavier Academy, including the Danger Room and everything that comes with it, but it's notable to point out that by this time in the team's evolution, the school has gone public. Everyone knows the students (and faculty) here are mutants, which provides its own new dynamic.

Find me some teenagers with attitude

Young Avengers

The first Young Avengers mini-series really roped me in with  the way they set up these characters as junior versions of Avengers, but then left fielded all of them with reveals that they weren't connected to the Avenger you'd thought .

Later tellings of the group slowly pushed me away, though, as they sidelined favorite characters (Iron Lad, AKA Kid Kang) and brought in less-imaginative characters (Speed? Really?)  Since I can claim vague-itude in the Young Avengers' later outings, I'm free to refocus them to the state I loved them in. 

The YAs are at their best when they're dealing with more intimate life issues. Sure they were founded by an old Avenger enemy, and one of them is the son of the hero who went crazy and destroyed the Avengers, and another is heir to a cosmic, galactic empire, but at their heart they're kids trying to live up to the reputation of their forebears while at the same time learning that their idols aren't all they're cracked up to be.

Wiccan
I actually preferred his name when he was Asgardian, but I can live with Wiccan. His abilities as a powerful yet inexperienced magician gives the group a fun, variable power, but self-limits it so it isn't the instant win that characters like Dr. Strange can be. It was revealed that Wiccan was the "reincarnation" of one of Scarlet Witch's vanished twins, and then someone less clever came along and said "let's make the other twin a Quicksilver clone." (Speed?  Really?)  You can't talk about Wiccan without mentioning his gay relationship with teammate Hulkling. As one of the few positive portrayals of a gay relationship in comics, it has to be applauded.

Hulkling

His status and appearance as a hulking bruiser downplays his abilities as a shape-shifter. And if you're trying to be a shape-shifter, not letting everyone know you're a shape-shifter is probably key. Still, he is a super-strong character and serves as the team's muscle. He also has ties to the galactic community through his shared Skrull and Kree ancestry, making him a pretty big mover in the galactic community.





Mockingbird
When Kate Bishop first appeared wielding a number of weapons found in the basement of Avengers Mansion, I was stunned when she focused on just the bow and took the name Hawkeye.  Sure the original archer was dead (at the time), but it seemed pretty apparent that using somebody else's stuff translates to 'Mockingbird' pretty readily.  Even when the original Hawkeye returned to life, she kept the name and they both travel around together using that name jointly. 

In Make My Marvel, she's going to give the name back to Barton and, since I never resurrected Mockingbird at the end of my Secret Invasion, that name's wide open for her to use. She'll remain a talented archer, but the new name will also include a broader focus of using multiple weapons from multiple former Avengers and foes. Bow, sword, bo-staff, whatevs.

Mockingbird is also my top choice for team leader.  From panel one she's always been the most assertive and take charge.

Patriot

I missed why they wrote him out of the group, but he'll be making a triumphant return in MMM Young Avengers. Since receiving the super-soldier serum in his blood, he's been able to hold his own in any throwdown the team gets into, but he doesn't feel quite up to the legacy of Captain America. So while he's the most driven to keep the team on the right path, he's the one most likely to struggle with keeping to it.





Titania
Another name change for my relaunch, Stature has long been one of the weakest names (to me) in comicdom. I read somewhere that she originally was going to appear under the name 'Titania,' and I'm going to take up that flag. The duality of her power, growth and shrinking, plays very well with the name, which can refer both to a titanic being as well as the queen of faeries. Of all the Young Avengers, she has the most experience with super-heroing, having been around the Avengers, Fantastic Four, and Heroes for Hire since she was a toddler. She brings a wealth of hero and villain knowledge to the team, which is of key use for a team which lacks the resources of major league teams like the Avengers and FF.


In the final battle of Secret Invasion, Vision got his head smashed in. I guess it wasn't truly fatal, because he was repaired enough to die later during the Children's Crusade storyline, but for my purposes it's enough for me to say that he didn't survive the invasion. For funsies, I'll say that they were able to do a partial save of his program so they still have access to some of his Avengers files, and because I'm slightly wicked, there's just enough of his personality left over to really screw with his former girlfriend, Cassie 'Titania' Lang.

While the conditions for Make My Marvel don't require me to explain where characters go when I drop them from the team, I'm going to say that Speed gets frustrated that his brother isn't doing more to find their mother, and runs off alone to find the Scarlet Witch.

When I was reading YA, they were hiding out in the basement of the destroyed Avengers Mansion. I believe they then moved into an old warehouse or printing press belonging to Hawkeye/Mockingbird's family, but I don't know anything about that. I do like the idea of the group having a hidden HQ (as opposed to public knowledge like other teams'), and if the warehouse serves that purpose, they can stay.

The C-Team

Creature Commandos

My52's first re-boot!

Okay, not a re-boot per se, but definitely a status quo change inspired by some further thoughts on my Agents of SHADE pitch.  At the time, the concept was wholly inspired by the New52 series 'Frankenstein and the Creature Commandos' which I thought was a brilliant concept and decided to keep in play. I struggled for a bit on how to differentiate SHADE from the other government super-agencies, like the Suicide Squad or the Department of Metahuman Affairs, and honestly don't think I really nailed it on that front.

But inspiration struck last night which leads to the first major shake-up in one of my My52 titles. Somehow, the inspiration came from seeing the 'A Team'. When the opening monologue starts up with "a crack commando unit..." my mind went 'DING,' and I realized what the Creature Commandos were missing. As well as SHADE.

Imagine Face as the vampire, Murdock as the werewolf, and
BA as Frankenstein.  It writes itself.

Here's how the story goes down:

After working for SHADE for X number of issues, the team learns from a mysterious source that the organization's mission isn't just the policing of the paranormal, but the elimination of it. The Commandos themselves are just one more inhuman group to be exterminated, but only after they've been used as much as possible. The team, of course, is furious and breaks ties with SHADE, going on the run from the organization while still traveling the world saving people from the horrors that are still out there.

Now all those SHADE resources I mentioned before, like the War Wheel and G.I. Robots, are being used to track down the Commandos. The identity of their unknown benefactor starts as a mystery, with some  assumptions that it's the Bride, but when it's revealed that she's still loyal to SHADE, and the lead agent in hunting the Commandos, the team discovers they're actually being helped by SHADE's undercover operative, the Unknown Soldier.

And we get both an Invisible Man character for the
Commandos AND a role for George Peppard.