Time: 23:16
Whenever me and my friend Ray get together, either on the phone or in person, our conversation usually turns to comic books, and then, invariably turns to what we would do to MARVEL Comics to make it better. You see, over the years, the powers-that-be at Marvel have been slowly and systematically ruining all of their titles.
So what Ray and I came up with was something of a DC Comics-like “Crisis on Infinite Earths” type of storyline, and then, we clean house. What follows is a bit of that housecleaning.
The first thing to be done is to separate all of the heroes. There are just too damn many of them operating in New York City. It has been reported that the basic reason for all of the heroes being in New York City is because many, if not most, of the writers and creators lived in New York City. All right, even though Steve Rogers, who would one day, grow up to be the man the world knows as Captain America, is alleged to come from New York City’s Lower East Side, or possibly even the area known as Hell’s Kitchen, we will let him remain to have come from either of those areas. It gives him character. However, we propose that his base of operations is to be Washington, D.C. He is headquartered at what is known as the “Old Executive Office Building”, or, as it is known by others, the “OEOB”. He is answerable to the White House Chief of Staff, and to the President of the United States.
With the previous paragraph in mind, let us briefly move on to The Avengers. One of the many things that are wrong with the Avengers is the same thing that is wrong with the X-Men; there are too many of them. While some may feel that having a large team with which to work is fine thing, sometimes less is more. But what we propose here is that there is to be one leader, and that is Captain America. The way it would work is like this.
The Avengers are now brought together by need. There are to be no regular members. As there are no regular members, there is no longer any need for meetings, and because there are no meetings, there is no need for a headquarters. Allow me to explain. An incident occurs that requires more than one hero; Captain America goes from his office in the OEOB to a special room in the Pentagon. He travels by means of a superspeed underground rail system. He then enters the situation into a computer. The computer analyzes the situation and calls up the names of those heroes, and heroines, which are the best ones suited for the job at hand. Now, one might ask “What if that person isn’t available?” Well, the answer is, “Cap will just have to find someone else.” This opens up all sorts of possibilities in that the available person just might not like Captain America.
Take for instance, the resident archer extraordinaire Hawkeye, aka Clint Barton. It could be that Hawkeye was on a previous mission with Cap and the rest of whomever was called, and something happened that Hawkeye did not like, and for which, Cap was ultimately responsible, or vice versa. So say another occasion arises that calls for an expert in archery. Hawkeye could say he does not want to get into another situation like before, but naturally, Cap will appeal to Hawkeye’s sense of duty, and thereby make him join up. Which of course means it may not work the next time he gets called. Did I make that clear enough? I sure hope so, because I don’t think I could go through it again.
So, getting back to what I was saying at the beginning of all this, The Avengers, being that they have a rotating membership, might not always come back with the same people they left with. In short, one, or several members of the team, may die. And they will stay dead.
Now that’s not to say that every month a major character is in danger of being killed, there are some B-Level heroes that aren’t always used, and they seem to be more resilient than cockroaches. In any event, this new Avengers can be considered almost a duplicate of DC Comics’ Suicide Squad, but without the exploding bracelets.
More to Come
No comments:
Post a Comment