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scans_dailyThis is a challenging one, because it varies on what the function of the team is. Do I need heavy hitters at JLA level? Do I need newbies like the New Mutants or Generation X? Do I want a team of well-oiled professionals, or do I want a team that is barely held together and does a lot of squabbling?
I've been listening a lot recently to the excellent "Rachel and Miles X-Plain the X-Men (because it's about time somebody did" podcasts, and they share my love of the old New Mutants (and especially Warlock and Cypher) to a ridiculous degree (They also win bonus points from me for being fans of the Heartbreak Hotel characters introduced in the Dazzler and Beast miniseries that no one ever remembers), and one of the things they note is that the New Mutants never started out as a hero team, they were students who were at times thrust into the role of investigators and adventurers, and a lot of that appeals to me.
So rather than an ongoing, always together sort of a team, I want a team of specialists, a sort of strike team, that can be called together when situations require special investogational skills. When a hidden city is unearthed, when an unknown space craft arrives in earth orbit, when something completely unknown is striking terror into the hearts of an entire town. Sure, if rampaging supervillains were to attack them they'd get into the fray without hesitation because that's the kind of people they are, but it's not the core reason for being on THIS team.
I also have given a lot of thought about a team I'd want to read about. Does that mean it's heavily slanted towards my favourites? Sure, but it's MY dream team, so that's the way it goes.
First character is so obvious it's almost ibe I fought against using, but why the heck would I?
Nightwing - Leader role - For many reasons, his commitment to leading his team from the front, but most notably for the fact that Dick has been noted has a natural gift for working out how best to use disparate skills, powers and abilities to deal with a given situation. Throw Dick into a roomful of strangers with powers and skills and it's a safe bet he'll have formed a strategy to use them to best advantage within twenty minutes. Wally once noted (whilst he was serving on both the JLA and the Titans) that Batman was better at threat assessment but Nightwing was better at using the team to DEAL with the threa)
Cypher - Comms/Languages/Research/Hacking/Field work - I came THIS close to using Oracle, but decided to go MU, and Doug has skills that Babs lacks (and vice versa of course). These days someone running the teams comms from afar, and using their distance to serve the team better by being able to investigate things whilst they go advebnturing is common (Oracle did lead the way there, though it could be traced back perhaps to Mockingbird of the original Secret Six... kind of).
Brave and resourceful little chap that he is, Doug would still do fieldwork where relevant, he's a natural in situations like lost cities, ancient civilisations or new aliens, where he can establish communications/read new languages faster than anyone else, but would at other times stay at the comms consoles and feed real time info to the team as required.
Magik - Teleportation, magical skills - This would be the original Magik, not the version running around the MU at the moment. The girl who is 3/5 corrupted by evil, but is still pure enough to struggle against that to be a hero. A team should have a teleporter where possible, and Magik has the edge on Nightcrawler in terms of range and number of people she can easily teleport.
She is also the Sorceress Supreme of a hell dimension like Limbo which is... y'know, useful but scary.
And she herself can be downright bloody terrifying when angry.
That could be a very useful source of conflict
Static - Energy manipulation, flight, some technical skills. I was going to use Quasar here, but felt that three blond(e) white folk in a five person team was pushing it in 2014, no matter how adorable they might be, and Static allows for a little more of a down to earth approach than Wendell would, as well as being the sort of slightly smartass but completely committed hero that Nightwing would either see a lot of himself in and like, or see a lot of himself in and despair.
(Absolutely gorgeous fanart here by one DGSantos)
My fifth slot is a real tough one, I want to cheat and make it a rotating slot, according to what Nightwing thinks the team needs for a specific mission... or who is available.
Quasar - Cosmic stuff and something of a knight in (potentially literally) shining armour - I need a heavy hitter, as my team is currently a little subtle. His quantum bands offer a wide range of powers as they harness the entire EM spectrum and he can solidify the light in much the same way as a Green Lantern can. Can also use it to form a hard-light exoskeleton to enhance his strength.
Well connected amongst other races across the galaxy and respected by them all. (He also looks REALLY good in trunks, but that's just a bonus)
Shadowcat - When stealth is required, or just for fun hijinks with Doug.
Impulse - When speed is required (and because I miss him something chronic)... Dick would usually prefer Wally, but he owes Wally a favour and is trying to get Bart to be a little more of a team player since Young Justice broke up (Dick and Max Mercury's text messages to each other could be a running gag).
He has NOT become Kid Flash in this iteration, and remains the big haired, big footed, slightly eccentric speedster we all knew and loved.
Plus he has a delightfully literal worldview, and has connections to the future if a story requires Magik to use her more than slightly random time travel abilities.
Warlock - When hardware and/or goopy alien shapeshifting is required, or Doug needs to go into the field with expectation of severe trouble.
She-Hulk - When pure muscle is required (or excellent legal skills, you never know with some aliens)
Tempest (Garth) - When underwater skills are called for and they WILL be
He has a costume, but let's just enjoy him as is, shall we? :)
Speedball - When he answered the phone when Justice was in the shower that when they needed a telekinetic...
Psylocke - When a telepath is handy, or we want some hormonal discomfort for Cypher
I want the non-ninja Betsy, the pure telepath in the impractical costume, and no telekinesis. I'd be tempted to make it the blind Betsy who became Psylocke before she got the cybernetic ones she had for a while, because the idea of a telepath who can see the world, but only through other people's eyes (as Betsy mentioned she could do) is a fascinating one I'd have loved to have seen explored further.
And as for what the team is called... Well, I don't want anything flashy, this is a fairly low level team, with some high powered resources should they need to escalate it. It's tempting to say that Dick would be the sort to call it "The Super Friends" (and as a founding member, why not) since these ARE people he enjoys working with, but that lacks any sort of gravtias. The Investigators is accurate but lacks panache.... Perhaps, with Nightwing in charge and their duty is to monitor and investigate the odd an unusual another name springs to mind....
The Night Watch
Other suggestions are welcomed
I've been listening a lot recently to the excellent "Rachel and Miles X-Plain the X-Men (because it's about time somebody did" podcasts, and they share my love of the old New Mutants (and especially Warlock and Cypher) to a ridiculous degree (They also win bonus points from me for being fans of the Heartbreak Hotel characters introduced in the Dazzler and Beast miniseries that no one ever remembers), and one of the things they note is that the New Mutants never started out as a hero team, they were students who were at times thrust into the role of investigators and adventurers, and a lot of that appeals to me.
So rather than an ongoing, always together sort of a team, I want a team of specialists, a sort of strike team, that can be called together when situations require special investogational skills. When a hidden city is unearthed, when an unknown space craft arrives in earth orbit, when something completely unknown is striking terror into the hearts of an entire town. Sure, if rampaging supervillains were to attack them they'd get into the fray without hesitation because that's the kind of people they are, but it's not the core reason for being on THIS team.
I also have given a lot of thought about a team I'd want to read about. Does that mean it's heavily slanted towards my favourites? Sure, but it's MY dream team, so that's the way it goes.
First character is so obvious it's almost ibe I fought against using, but why the heck would I?
Nightwing - Leader role - For many reasons, his commitment to leading his team from the front, but most notably for the fact that Dick has been noted has a natural gift for working out how best to use disparate skills, powers and abilities to deal with a given situation. Throw Dick into a roomful of strangers with powers and skills and it's a safe bet he'll have formed a strategy to use them to best advantage within twenty minutes. Wally once noted (whilst he was serving on both the JLA and the Titans) that Batman was better at threat assessment but Nightwing was better at using the team to DEAL with the threa)
Cypher - Comms/Languages/Research/Hacking/Field work - I came THIS close to using Oracle, but decided to go MU, and Doug has skills that Babs lacks (and vice versa of course). These days someone running the teams comms from afar, and using their distance to serve the team better by being able to investigate things whilst they go advebnturing is common (Oracle did lead the way there, though it could be traced back perhaps to Mockingbird of the original Secret Six... kind of).
Brave and resourceful little chap that he is, Doug would still do fieldwork where relevant, he's a natural in situations like lost cities, ancient civilisations or new aliens, where he can establish communications/read new languages faster than anyone else, but would at other times stay at the comms consoles and feed real time info to the team as required.
Magik - Teleportation, magical skills - This would be the original Magik, not the version running around the MU at the moment. The girl who is 3/5 corrupted by evil, but is still pure enough to struggle against that to be a hero. A team should have a teleporter where possible, and Magik has the edge on Nightcrawler in terms of range and number of people she can easily teleport.
She is also the Sorceress Supreme of a hell dimension like Limbo which is... y'know, useful but scary.
And she herself can be downright bloody terrifying when angry.
That could be a very useful source of conflict
Static - Energy manipulation, flight, some technical skills. I was going to use Quasar here, but felt that three blond(e) white folk in a five person team was pushing it in 2014, no matter how adorable they might be, and Static allows for a little more of a down to earth approach than Wendell would, as well as being the sort of slightly smartass but completely committed hero that Nightwing would either see a lot of himself in and like, or see a lot of himself in and despair.
(Absolutely gorgeous fanart here by one DGSantos)
My fifth slot is a real tough one, I want to cheat and make it a rotating slot, according to what Nightwing thinks the team needs for a specific mission... or who is available.
Quasar - Cosmic stuff and something of a knight in (potentially literally) shining armour - I need a heavy hitter, as my team is currently a little subtle. His quantum bands offer a wide range of powers as they harness the entire EM spectrum and he can solidify the light in much the same way as a Green Lantern can. Can also use it to form a hard-light exoskeleton to enhance his strength.
Well connected amongst other races across the galaxy and respected by them all. (He also looks REALLY good in trunks, but that's just a bonus)
Shadowcat - When stealth is required, or just for fun hijinks with Doug.
Impulse - When speed is required (and because I miss him something chronic)... Dick would usually prefer Wally, but he owes Wally a favour and is trying to get Bart to be a little more of a team player since Young Justice broke up (Dick and Max Mercury's text messages to each other could be a running gag).
He has NOT become Kid Flash in this iteration, and remains the big haired, big footed, slightly eccentric speedster we all knew and loved.
Plus he has a delightfully literal worldview, and has connections to the future if a story requires Magik to use her more than slightly random time travel abilities.
Warlock - When hardware and/or goopy alien shapeshifting is required, or Doug needs to go into the field with expectation of severe trouble.
She-Hulk - When pure muscle is required (or excellent legal skills, you never know with some aliens)
Tempest (Garth) - When underwater skills are called for and they WILL be
He has a costume, but let's just enjoy him as is, shall we? :)
Speedball - When he answered the phone when Justice was in the shower that when they needed a telekinetic...
Psylocke - When a telepath is handy, or we want some hormonal discomfort for Cypher
I want the non-ninja Betsy, the pure telepath in the impractical costume, and no telekinesis. I'd be tempted to make it the blind Betsy who became Psylocke before she got the cybernetic ones she had for a while, because the idea of a telepath who can see the world, but only through other people's eyes (as Betsy mentioned she could do) is a fascinating one I'd have loved to have seen explored further.
And as for what the team is called... Well, I don't want anything flashy, this is a fairly low level team, with some high powered resources should they need to escalate it. It's tempting to say that Dick would be the sort to call it "The Super Friends" (and as a founding member, why not) since these ARE people he enjoys working with, but that lacks any sort of gravtias. The Investigators is accurate but lacks panache.... Perhaps, with Nightwing in charge and their duty is to monitor and investigate the odd an unusual another name springs to mind....
The Night Watch
Other suggestions are welcomed
Tags:
- char: aqualad/tempest/garth,
- char: kid flash/flash/wally west,
- char: magik/illyana rasputin,
- char: quasar/wendell vaughn,
- char: robin/nightwing/dick grayson,
- char: she hulk/jennifer walters,
- char: speedball/penance/robbie baldwin,
- char: static/virgil hawkins,
- char: warlock,
- creator: alan davis,
- creator: art adams,
- creator: bill sienkiewicz,
- creator: bret blevins,
- creator: phil jimenez,
- creator: skottie young,
- series: 31 days of scans
