#they're like the fantastic four of DC

[snaret]

darkseid: FOOL, WITNESS THE ANTI-LIFE EQUATION, MATHEMATICALLY PROVING LIFE IS WORTHLESS AND HOPE IS A LIE. ALL WHO SEE IT SHALL LOSE THEMSELVES TO THE WILL OF DARKSEID!

impulse, looking directly at it: but thats not true.

darkseid: what are you. it proves it.

impulse: proves what?

darkseid: THAT LIFE IS MEANINGLESS AND HOPE IS NOTHING.

impulse: ohhhhhhhh! *looks at it harder*

impulse: yeah it's wrong though. cuz thats not true.

darkseid: YES IT DOES-

[artbyblastweave]

To be honest, while I know that you've discussed a Worm/Marvel "crossover" before, considering how unusually different both Ultimate Universes are from mainline Marvel, how would a crossover with Worm go for those?

(Side note: I'm mainly asking for the potential thought experiment of: what if Cauldron met the Maker and all of the immense bullshit that would result from that.)

I don't think I'm totally capable of answering the back half of this ask because I haven't read The Maker comprehensively- Aside from his pre-heel turn stint in Ultimate FF, It's basically only Secret Wars, a couple of the times Ewing used him, and the current New Ultimate Universe.

So what I find interesting about this prospect is that Worm and Ultimate Marvel are very aesthetically compatible, right, you aren't going to drop one character into the other's setting and have them constantly going "what the fuck is going on" the way you would if we subbed in 616 Marvel at it's most four-color. But the worldbuilding and themes are actually very divergent in ways that are interesting to look at. Namely-

Worm is a grim, grim setting, but it's also attempting to replicate the status quo at Marvel and DC where, despite occasional attempts at government sanction or integration, there's fundamentally a weirdly high cultural tolerance for independent vigilantism as long as the person doing it is wearing a costume. Their version of Registration- The Protectorate- is a very carrot heavy initiative, when we see Kid Win making the recruitment pitch to Chariot it's all about the support you get, the funding, the backup, the PR help. Individual street level heroes get nailed to the wall or hung out to dry all the time, but collectively, they're granted a lot of discretion in that they're allowed to exist at all. And the fundamental reason for this is that the government is scared of them. They might be able to smack down individual upstarts who try to go full warlord or revolutionary, but they don't control the overall distribution of powers and there are so many of these assholes, three-quarters of whom go career criminal due to some combination of trauma, material want, neuroticism or ideology. So any set of norms that gets as many of these people as possible to behave in a slightly-less-antisocial manner is something that they're going to roll with. Worm is a world held hostage by the typical superhero paradigm, buckling under its weight. Crucial to this dynamic is that powers aren't a man-made phenomenon, and they're barely a man-influenced phenomenon via Cauldron.

But with the Ultimate Universe, a major pillar of the deconstruction and the worldbuilding is that superheroes would not be allowed to operate in the typical wild west paradigm. There's a much stronger divide between sanctioned heroes (The Ultimates, The Fantastic Four), grey-zone heroes like the X-Men, and then the out-and-out outlaw street level heroes like Daredevil and Spider-Man. A major plot point is that Nick Fury and his spooks very predictably figure out who Spider-Man is almost immediately; he's only able to continue operating as a street-level hero in the usual manner due to Fury's implicit sanction, because Fury is trying to groom him to eventually join The Ultimates. Moreover, a lot of the rest of the street-level capes (as depicted in Millar's Ultimates) are cast as genuinely incompetent puds, only not cracked down on because there's no real reason to. (Note that I have a seething hatred for this particular beat in practice because it deprived us of an Ultimate Luke Cage worth having, but I get what Millar was gesturing at with it.) All of this, likewise, is downstream of the fact that powers are almost totally a man-made phenomenon, with almost all superhumans being downstream of Military-Industrial Complex attempts at reproducing Captain America; it's not an out-of-control supernatural phenomena that they're trying to get in on, It's a government-made phenomenon that leaks like a sieve and eventually spirals out of control. The Ultimate Universe is fundamentally about Hubris in a way that Worm isn't.

Both settings converge on a state of societal collapse due to the advent of superpowers; Ultimate Marvel was gesturing at an impending superhuman-driven World-War Three for a while before things spiraled into the comparably destructive nonsense of Ultimatum, The Maker, The (partial?) balkanization of the U.S. and the rest of the crisis cavalcade that led into the 2015 Secret Wars and the total destruction of that universe. Worm suffered the much more tightly-directed Apocalyptic Bad Time with which we're all familiar.

As for a crossover premise, I'd have to say that post-gm Taylor getting marooned on 1610 and winding up in the orbit of 1610 Peter Parker specifically- as opposed to the MCU or 616 versions, with whom I've seen this done- is an underexamined hook. Ultimate Spidey represents a deft integration of Peter's best and worst personality traits. The early-run ditko-style dickishness is recontextualized as an anger about the state of the world, the crazy-making sense that bullies and dictators appear to have free run of the world and nobody but him is doing anything about it. Which, given the state of The Ultimate Universe, falls in the middle ground between typical teenaged myopia and a sober assessment of what he's up against.

Remind you of anyone?

[soleminisanction]

I've always really liked DC's in-house choice of referring to their various superhero groupings as "families," but it has gotten a little frustrating recently with people both in canon and in fandom seeming to forget that families aren't just a parental-unit-and-kids formation. They're complicated, and a lot of the DC families are too messy to fit into that neat little nuclear family mode.

Which is to say... here's some scattered thoughts/summaries about how these families are actually structured in canon, because I think it's interesting:

Supers -- The smaller, more traditional Superfamily (Clark, Lois, Kara, Kon, etc.) is a pretty traditional Midwestern nuclear family, with Jimmy Olsen filling the role of close family friend/goofy neighbor sidekick (in the Silver Age, he was Kara's would-be suitor) and Steel feeling more like part of Clark's personal circle of friends. The recent line up, though, with Jon, the twins, Kong and Nat? Starts to feel more like some old dynasty or noble house, complete with fostered foundlings and the Steels acting almost like knights under a noble's banner, possibly reflective of what the House of El would have been on Krypton.

Arrows -- Might currently be the closet to a traditional nuclear family structure. You've got Ollie and Dinah, their younger sisters, Ollie's adopted and biological children, and Ollie's granddaughter through Roy, plus by some counts Roy's co-parent and her sister as "in-laws." Bonnie and Cissie King-Jones are adjacent to but not technically "part" of the family, though I believe it's implied at one point that Ollie might also be Cissie's bio-dad. Pretty straightforward, these guys are actually family and they act like it, for good and ill.

Shazam Family -- Also a literal, actual family. Not originally, the original golden age "Marvel Family" was considerably more complicated and only Billy and Mary were full siblings, but nowadays the whole point of the modern Shazam family is that they're foster siblings united by familial love and that's fantastic. Meanwhile your average Black Adam story is 75% angsty family drama, 25% Egyptian mythology references.

Flashes -- Technically closer to three nuclear families (the Allens, the Wests and the Garricks; four if you include the Quicks), two of whom are united by marriage and all of whom are bound by the Speedforce, which, given its semi-spiritual connections to things like Speedster afterlives, can act almost like a religious force that connects them to the additional members like Avery, Circuit Breaker and Max as Bart's foster-dad. They're a big, sprawling tree with more cousins than siblings, the kind of family that functionally has a reunion every Christmas and Thanksgiving.

Lanterns -- Now these guys are the exception that proves my point about the whole 'family' thing not being straightforward. The lanterns aren't a family, they're a corps. Soldiers. Space cops. Comrades-in-arms. They respect each other, have each other's backs, might even like or care about each other, but those last two are optional, and they don't have the same kind of assumed obligations towards each other that a family would have. They're friends and co-workers, not family, but that doesn't mean their relationships are less significant, they're just different.

Wonders -- Roughly half of them are either one of Hippolyta's daughters (Diana, Donna, Nubia pre-Crisis) or related to them through the gods (Cassie), and the other half (Artemis, Yara, modern-age Nubia) use sister as a term of endearment more in a utopian lesbian commune kind of way. I think they brought Steve Trevor back recently? He's basically the Ken in this equation and perfectly fine with that role. None of which should be surprising if you've seen Professor Marston and the Wonder Women.

Bats -- This is the one that people get really wrong when they try to force it into a traditional family structure. Don't let WFA fool you, the Bats are and have always been way more a snarled mess of tangled interpersonal relationships than they've ever been a cohesive family. Whether Dick is Bruce's son or his brother depends on what era you're talking about, and the former reading is much more recent than you think -- as in "started cropping up in the early 2000s" recent. Barbara is both Cassandra's sister and her mother. Duke and Steph both have living parents and neither of them want or would ever dream of treating Bruce like their dad; Tim was the same way until his dad died. None of the Robins ever lived in the mansion together, nor did Cass. Babs considered Jean-Paul Valley her brother and Huntress is so close to Tim she once hallucinated him calling her Big Sister. They're a beautiful mess of people finding places where their broken edges fit together into something that works for them and trying to reduce it down to a cozy nuclear family is just so goddamn reductive and lazy.

Blue Beetles -- Are only tangentially related to each other. Seriously, they never even get direct mentoring, each one just takes over when the previous one dies and works on completely different rules from the other two. They're complete strangers bound by a legacy and that's honestly pretty fun.

Zataras -- There's only three of them and they're literally a father, daughter and cousin.

Martians -- Not really a family because there's only the two of them, but an interesting case where the two survivors of what was functionally a war of mutually assured destruction came together in an attempt to find some peace in the aftermath of what they'd lost.

Titans -- The JLA and JSA aren't really in the "family" category, but the Titans lean into it hard, mostly because they're a textbook found family. They don't mirror a nuclear family structure, they're simply a group of people who came together to form a mutual support network. They're the idealized college friends you grew into your own with, some of them childhood companions and others you only met once you leave home for the first time, but all of them friends that you manage to maintain contact with for life, with everyone coming back together even as you scatter and do your own things.

Young Justice -- Meanwhile, this team is the chaotic group of misfits you hung out with when you were a teenager, especially when you were just starting to be allowed to act without adult supervision. You drive each other crazy, none of you know you're all queer as fuck, and you'd fight a bear for any of them even if they asked you not to. They'd probably be insulted if you tried to call them a family. They come out here to get away from their families, thank you very much.

[wanderingmind867]

I love DC's villains. DC has a problem where their villains are like twenty times better than their heroes. I love Captain Cold! Eobard Thawne! The Joker! The Riddler! Mirror Master! Two-Face! Sinestro! They're all so compelling! It's a really big problem. When your villains are so compelling, I just always want to root for them. And I don't feel very bad for saying that. If the writers made the villains so funny, that's on them.

And like...I still think Superman, Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter are characters I really like, even when they're not fighting rogues. But batman and flash are characters where i end up reading just hoping and praying for a constant rogues appearances. And marvel doesn't have this problem. I love Doctor Doom, but he's not necessary to me enjoying the Fantastic Four. The Joker and Riddler and stuff are essential to me even tolerating Batman.

[digitalwizard01]

People are talking about "Whos gonna win 2025 DC or Marvel? Superman or Fantastic Four?" I've always been a believer in liking both sides, I think the fan rivalry is stupid. However on the corporate side I think the rivalry is lowkey very important when it comes to getting quality content. I do think Superman is gonna smoke Fantastic Four and I think it'll be for the better of Marvel and DC in the long run. The friendly competition between the two is going to lead to a new silver age of comic book movies because with actual competition, Marvel will actually have to fight to one up DC for ticket sales and cultural relevance again. When the MCU started it was competing with The Dark Knight Trilogy, one of the most renowned Superhero trilogies still to this day and because of that they needed to work hard to get on that pedestal that they lived on for a long time, but with DC fumbling the bag in the snyderverse era, and Sony doing whatever they're doing, there was no reason to fight. Marvel became stable and the defacto leader in the CBM game. They didn't have to fight for ticket sales anymore, but that stability lead to stagnation and that stagnation lead to degrading quality of content. People started getting disinterested and Marvel started slipping.

Basically, now that DC is back in the game, Marvel has to get their footing back and keep it up or lose it to the new guy (James Gunn)

[brucewaynehater101]

K here me out, HERE ME OUT

you know the fics where on bat kid goes back in Time and they try to fix the past for them and their siblings, but don’t tell anyone?

I want the to happen to all the Barbies and Bruce to be hopelessly confused bc all these children are so confusing.

like clearly they are causing so many problems

I am absolutely listening, but slightly confused.

By Barbies, I've come up with a few possibilities of what you mean:

One, Barbie is a nickname for Barbara/Oracle. However, your message implies there are multiple. Therefore, this probably isn't what you meant?

Two, the Barbie movies (that I haven't seen) are transported into the DC universe right when Bruce first starts out as Batman.... That would be a fairly interesting concept.

Three, you meant batkids.

As for three, I'll go into it more!

There is one fic that has two batkids going back in time. "these aren't wings, they're futures" by aryelee is an amazing fic featuring Tim and Damian being sent back in time to when Damian is four years old. It's a fantastic read, and I highly highly recommend it.

If ALL of the batkids got sent back in time, that would be chaos filled disaster I am all here for. The only issue, Dick would already have to be Robin in order for Damian to be born (unless you mess around with their ages to change that).

Another cute concept is baby Barbara starting her online empire. Her being like 8 or something and her terrorizing/threatening criminals online while her dad isn't looking to help out her father and Batman.

Anyways, it would be a lot to manage with all of them being thrown back in time, but it would be fun (and angsty. The distance from traumatic events makes them seem less severe. Some of their childhoods sucked ass and being forced to relive that would be horrible, especially with their more mature/adult understanding that they shouldn't be treated as such [that what's happening to them isn't normal or okay]).

[phantomchick]

Personally I kinda hate the aesop amnesia trope, like in tv shows where we have to watch a character learn the same lesson all over again later despite the lesson never sticking because the status quo of the show needs to be maintained, e.g. Homer in the Simpsons never learning from the trouble his inconsideration/poor impulse control gets him into with other people; Batman relearning over and over that he shouldn't isolate himself from his family because they're a strength not a weakness, Nightwing and Tim Drake taking turns learning not to be Batman when it comes to their friends and teammates, The Thing in the fantastic four learning over and over that his physical appearance isn't so bad because he has people who love him anyway ect. It just gets draining and boring even if I understand it's a necessary conceit of the genre to have major personality issues of a character remain in order for the status quo of a story to continue, who is Spider-man without a guilt complex and an over the top sense of personal responsibility? Not the guy we're interested in that's for sure.

I bring this up because what DC's currently doing with Jason Todd exhausts me too much to be properly irritated by it.

[bluespiritshonour]

Batman's no-kill rule vs Aang's no-kill rule:

Batman: I care more about abstract values and ideals than I do about people. I don't care if people are getting hurt, I have rules and they're inflexible.

Aang: I'm the last surviving memeber of my race and keeping their (and my) values intact means preserving my entire culture—but I also care about people of the whole world so I'm gonna find a way to do both.

Edit: what makes it worse is the fact that all examinations of this rule usually are in the vein of “brrr, why won't kill? It'd be so easy!!!”

They rarely examine it through the frame of protecting people. Under the Red Hood and Batman: Ego come close.

But the conclusion to Under the Red Hood really is that Batman cares more about values than people. And in Batman: Ego, fantastic writing of Bruce/Batman that it is, it's still about Bruce just brushing all that argument off and saying he wouldn't kill.

So. I'd just say they do it in Under the Red Hood—where it's directly about letting Joker live is endangering people—and no, I don't want Bruce to kill the way most dudebros over at DC writing alt-Batmen do. I just want him to love the people around him.

While the introduction of energy-bending in ATLA was rushed, I actually like the concept. They could have done it much, much better, there just weren't enough episodes for that (which is why it should have four seasons for: Aang mastering Avatar state and discovering energy bending and for Zuko to integrate into the group well yada yada)—but the concept itself was amazing.

[bigskydreaming]

I’m rewatching X-Men (2000) for the first time in a long time and besides finding it exquisitely nostalgic, I keep finding myself thinking, “Damn, [character] is kind of OP” with literally every. Single. Character. And it’s funny now to think of how crazy powerful all the X-Men are compared to say, the Avengers, where I feel like the only god-tier power the MCU ever delivered was Captain Marvel and maybe Thor in Ragnarok. I guess the first X-Men kind of downplays Jean Gray’s powers, and there are cool take-downs like Magneto’s iconic “That remarkable metal doesn’t run through your entire body, does it?” line and Toad getting fried by Storm, but I feel like it’s so fun that most of the time literally every character is OP. Anyway, I wanted to ask you as an X-Men expert, have they always been so cool and powerful, or do the comics toggle back-and-forth with how powerful they are like the later X-Men movies did? And did comics Avengers and Fantastic Four ever think they had a chance vs. the X-Men?

LOL its ironic, I kinda consider them to be massively UNDERPOWERED in the X-Men films, but also I hate everything about them because Singer, so who's unbiased, not THIS guy!

For the most part it depends on the character. Like, you know Bobby's my Blorbo above all Blorbos there, so the X-films in particular did a shitty job of depicting his actual power levels, but in their 'defense' I guess, so does every other adaptation. Nowhere but the comics has been consistent about him being portrayed as ridiculously OP as he is, which is kinda funny because for all that Iceman doesn't SEEM like he'd be a top tier power level kinda character, he's consistently been that way since the early 90s. Hell, for that matter, he and Jean were the original omega level mutants used to debut the term in its modern interpretation.

(A lot of people point out that omega was first used to describe Rachel Summers, who isn't considered an official omega level mutant these days, but that was by Sentinels describing her as an omega level THREAT, so I don't consider that the same thing as the OL classification mutants use among themselves, but just throwing that out there).

In the comics, there are different classifications, kinda, that mutants use to describe different power levels. Most mutants are gamma or beta mutants. Most combatant mutants like major X-Men and foes, such as Cyclops, Bishop, Psylocke, Emma Frost, etc, are alpha level mutants.

Omega mutants are the rarest of the rare, and are, simply put....god-tier mutants. Their literal definition is mutants whose upper levels of power are beyond any ability to measurably quantify. A lot of people default to calling them infinitely powerful, which isn't quite INaccurate, but also isn't quite accurate....its more like....they're mutants who will never stop finding new ways to grow and advance their abilities, who have no upper ceiling to their powers...though all of them reach different tiers of ACTUALLY utilized power at different times/lengths of time.

A ton of people HATE the omega concept because frankly, it DOES make those with that designation overpowered as fuck but I like to point to DC and the Justice League which has always been full of god-tier characters who are nevertheless possible to write for and give relatable issues and equivalent foes. Personally though, I've always loved it for the narrative possibilities rather than the power levels per se. I like it because omegas are like, ultimate examples of evolution (Marvel style, lol, as in the kind they always have go hand in hand with mutants but uh, isn't always scientifically on point haha). But I mean, they're individual mutants who embody the concept of constant, unending evolution. The view of omega mutants as just the most powerful misses the point, IMO...part of why I hate Bobby's constant cycle of 'untapped potential' storylines (his most often recurring narrative) is because it fails to acknowledge that omegas like him CAN'T ever fully realize their potential, just MORE of it, because like evolution, there is no actual intended ENDPOINT for his or any other omega's powers. There will always be more. Further they can go.

Anyway....I know X-Men '97 emphasized Jean, Storm and Magneto as omegas, but even it didn't actually convey the level their powers are at in the comics, other than Magneto doing the global EMP thing. Omegas can pretty much all affect things on a global scale. A group of twelve of them in the comics recently terraformed Mars, in order to relocate a bunch of mutants called the Arakkii there after they returned from their 4,000 year long war in a demon dimension, protecting Earth from being invaded by it. (Long story).

But yeah, so omegas are a thing in the comics, and no adaptation has quite yet even scratched the surface of what they can do in the comics. There's only 12 acknowledged omegas out of all the Earthborn mutants (though Hickman's list is shit IMO and its ridiculous that there's only one person of color on it, Storm, and there's several other mutants of color I'd happily add to it if given the chance to balance things out), but the Arakkii (who are all black-coded if not actually black, because of where and when Arakko/Okkara originally existed on Earth before Amenth invaded 4K years ago), have a similar number of omegas of their own. But again, we're talking around 12 mutants EACH, among their total respective populations of about a million mutants each.

Anyway, the big four of the omegas, the major names among the X-Men, are Jean, Storm, Bobby and Magneto, with the other Earth omegas being Exodus, Elixir, Hope Summers, Absolon Mercator, Jamie Braddock, Proteus, Gabriel Summers/Vulcan and Quentin Quire (sigh). And then on the Arakkii side there was Isca the Unbeaten and her sister Genesis, Apocalypse's wife, Lactuca, Sobunar, Xilo, Ora Serrata, Lycaon, Tarn, Lodus Logos, Idyll, Kobak Never-Held, and Apocalypse and Genesis' kids, the original four Horsemen. Plus they keep going back and forth on whether or not White Sword is an omega or just a really powerful External, but whatever, I digress. Anyway, that list isn't accurate anymore because as of Genesis War, a few of them are dead, just like on the Earth list Hope is....transcended I guess you could say, lol, and Elixir and Proteus are back in the White Hot Room with her and who knows where the fuck Mercator is these days, but like.

Point is, the omegas are cosmic level. Jean's current solo literally has her being called a cosmic entity, because yeah, she's one with the Phoenix again but since the Phoenix has long been described as a future point of her own evolution and was recently solidified as like, a mass gestalt of mutant life force and psyche that was collected within her and her power like a nexus point, its kinda one and the same. Storm's solo is said to have plans to have her interact with the Abstracts of the Universe (the like, ultimate top-tier beings in it), Eternity and Oblivion.

Bobby's been quite literally unkillable since the early 2000s at least, as in he's been hit with a nuke and atomized, been blown up MULTIPLE times, and he just makes himself new bodies out of the next nearest moisture. He once started a new Ice Age, can create armies of semi-autonomous ice giants, teleport anywhere there's water, etc. Oh yeah, and since he's the walking embodiment of the future heat-death of the universe, he's also frozen reality on a quantum level to quarantine a cosmic tier threat. Oh AND frozen Hell. Jean reignited a sun recently. Storm took out an alien mercenary army in seconds by just hitting them with Jupiter-level atmospheric pressure with a snap of her fingers, and the only thing about that which actually required she exert herself came from holding BACK enough that her allies standing mere feet away weren't affected the same as her targeted enemies. Vulcan talked about obliterating Mars when he got cranky, and everyone took that very seriously because he can absolutely fucking do it. Any of them can.

There's a reason X-fans are sore about how editorially scripted AvX went, and not just because the X-Men were known to be a lesser priority at that time due to the film rights, so they were never going to get to be the 'winners' of that, ideologically, even though the optics for how that fight started were not actually as great for the Avengers as Marvel seems to think they were. But it also has a lot to do with the fact with all credit to the Avengers heavy-hitters, which there are quite a few of, they tend to get their powers/origins from cosmic storylines far away from Earth, hail from other dimensions like Asgard, etc, whereas mutants have been home-growing cosmic tier fighters on Earth for decades now, and that was pretty much treated like a non-factor.

None of the omegas (and Magneto and Storm may not have OFFICIALLY been listed as such yet, but Bobby was, and its not like they actually got any power UPGRADES when they were finally canonized as omegas, it just was a label change acknowledging the power they've always been depicted as having) actually played definitive roles in that, and again, when you've got global threats in one side's ranks that you refuse to acknowledge as such in order to make sense of pitting them against opponents they should be able to handle with a finger snap, it does tend to make stans cranky. Its like yeah, they gave me a panel of Bobby fighting Red Hulk in the background, but that was the extent of his impact on AvX as a whole, even though he'd quite literally taken Thor on, solo, mere months before during the Dark Iceman arc.

But yeah, you say AvX around X-fans, we will hiss at the memory like a snake. Was not fun for us. And again, this isn't to disparage the cosmic tier characters the Avengers have, and of the Fantastic Four, Sue and Johnny are right up there at the top of any power ranking system one might care to devise. But...like....mutants tend to deal with their threats internally in the Marvel universe, so every mutant alive has known for decades that Magneto, Storm, Iceman and Jean should not be locked in a room together and told to fight because without nonomegas who can't actually survive the stuff they can around them to remind them to keep their power levels DOWN, those four could very easily blow up the Earth before they even realize what happened since omegas vs omegas equals unlimited escalation.

Meanwhile, it was literally only during the Krakoan era that anyone OUTSIDE of mutants sat up and took note of the omega classification (which has existed for decades) even being a THING, let alone mutants casually being like 'oh yeah, we have like, twelve of those guys.'

LOL, so anyway. Yeah, it is kinda funny to hear the X-Men in existing adaptations described as OP, because none of them even come close to scratching the surface of how many of the X-Men are portrayed in the comics. I have very little interest in the MCU as a whole, and am not expecting to be a fan of their take on the X-Men but I am very curious to see which X-Men they emphasize as the heavy-hitters and what level of power they depict them as being at. For better or worse, whether fans like it or hate it, there's a good dozen of them who can go toe to toe with literal gods without breaking a sweat.

(Like, literally literally, not how Kalen usually uses literally literally. Bobby single-handedly thwarted a Loki 'take over Asgard' scheme in the EIGHTIES, at a time when only Thor himself was going one on one with his brother and if he wasn't around, Loki was considered a 'bring your whole team' kind of threat. And this was a full decade before the omega term was even a thing. Thor's canonically been wary of Bobby since the latter was SIXTEEN because he considers him to be a baby Ymir, the father of all frost giants. He was literally playing poker with other Avengers when he sensed Bobby go Dark Side during the Dark Iceman arc and his face went 'oh fuck.' You know how powerful you have to be to make Thor's face go 'oh fuck'?)

(Fimbulvetr is the Asgardian term for the Everwinter, the start of Ragnarok. Its a Ymir thing. Incidentally, after AvX when the X-Men and Avengers were making a point to cooperate, Thor and Bobby teamed up against Ymir himself, and THEN Marvel was perfectly happy to allow Bobby to kick his ass solo and be like 'what, was that supposed to be hard' to an incredulous Thor, BUT I DIGRESS).

But anyway, the official omega list is very recent, but everyone on it like Storm, Jean, Bobby and Magneto have all been consistently powerful as fuck since the 80s, MINIMUM. Bobby's 80s solo was used to debut Oblivion, an Abstract of the Universe, Storm was channeling the energy of multiple stars when fighting the Brood in space, and that was all decades ago. They've all had occasions of being nerfed since then, but for the past decade or so, the Big Four have had relatively few occasions of that compared to any point before, and Marvel's been more pointed about keeping their upper ranges of power more normalized for them.

[citadelofmythoughts]

Fair. Let’s go with Marvel since we’ve got DC already and MHA is commonly talked about

I could see Team RWBY becoming a Fantastic Four-esque team of adventurers.

Their semblances and weapons would be pretty easy to translate to Marvel-Earth. Ruby a speedster/teleporter, Weiss potentially having innate magical powers which would put her on Doctor Strange's radar. Yang absorbs kinetic energy to boost her strength (like Sebastian Shaw) and Blake's shadow clones + limited teleportation ability makes her almost a combo of Jamie Madrox and Nightcrawler.

Or maybe Weiss' abilities are mutant in nature along with the others (which would also make sense because their powers are innate) which would make them a likely addition to the X-Family, they're certainly queer enough to qualify and there are a lot of younger mutants who would give them peers to interact with.

I think, honestly, they're almost a better fit for Marvel than they are DC.

You could write a good fic with this concept I think.

[milkydraws8]

Hey milky!!! I just wanna say two things: firstly, I love, love, LOVE you're work. My sister and I practically worship it. Secondly, do u have any reading recs for marvel? I'm a big DC girly and wanna get my toes wet with thst sweet Stan Lee goodness... OKAY THANKS LOVE U BYE!!!!!!!!!!!!

:3

jumps around yaayyyyy!!! TY! YOU AND UR SISTER HAVE MY OFFICIAL DUCAL BLESSING... NO HARM SHALL BEFALL U FOR 8 MOONS...

also forewarning, im not a marvel head but some reccs under the cut

THINGS TO KNOW

Unlike DC, Marvel doesn't reset their timeline, they scale it. The Avengers you see in 1963 are the exact same Avengers you see in 2024, but every so often events are pushed around to keep the characters modern.

There's a few major events/storylines that shake up the status quo both in and out of universe

Kree-Skrull War (1971) Secret Wars (1984-1985) Infinity Trilogy (1991-1993) Introduction of Marvel 2099 (1992) MC2 (1998) Introduction of Ultimate Marvel (2000) House of M (2005) Civil War (2006) Secret Invasion (2008) Fear Itself (2011) Avengers v. X-Men (2012) Age of Ultron (2013) Secret Wars (2015) Civil War II (2016)

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INTRODUCTIONS These cover the origins for many of Marvel's big dogs. They're just fantastic introductions to various teams and characters, as well as the general feel for the world.

Mythos Six issues that serve as introductions to The Fantastic Four, X-Men, Hulk, Captain America, Ghost Rider, and Spider-Man.

MARVELS 4 Issues chronicling Marvel's history, from their 'Golden Age' to the 90's.

Avengers Origins Five issues that serve as introductions to The Vision, Thor, Luke Cage, Ant-Man & The Wasp, and Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver

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STATUS QUO Now that you're familiar with the big shots, here's some stuff you can jump into. Don't be afraid to skip as many issues as you'd like. Hell, skip years at a time if you wish.

Fantastic Four (1961)

Uncanny X-Men (1963)

Avengers (1963)

Daredevil (1964)

New Mutants (1983)

The Sensational She-Hulk by John Byrne (1984)

Weapon X by Barry Windsor-Smith (1993)

Alias By Brian Michael Bendis (2001)

She-Hulk (2004)

New Avengers (2004)

She-Hulk (2005)

House of M

Age of Ultron

Astonishing X-Men

Fantastic Four by Waid and Wieringo

Hickman's Fantastic Four

Uncanny Avengers (2012)

Ms. Marvel (2014)

Spider-Woman (2020)

Wasp (2023)

These are just all the guys I like off the top of my head, I'm sure I'm forgetting even a lot of my darlings. I'm also very much a Marvel noob, so try looking up omnibuses for characters/teams you're interested in or just can't get enough of. Half of my faves I locked in on because of something I learned in passing dialogue, or just cause I liked their costume.

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OTHER These guys are off-shoots of 616 and best enjoyed after you've got a solid grasp on the world/universe

MC2 Marvel Comics 2 was a series of comics in the 90s that take place in an alternate future of the Marvel Universe

Spider-Man 2099 (1992)

Spider-Girl (1998)

Old Man Logan

What-Ifs (Literally just look up Marvel What Ifs and read whatever)

The 'The End' Series Kinda the opposite of Mythos, gives various endings to different characters/teams. Pretty wild at times

Spider-Man Noir (2009)

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A few names I never really called out but ought to put out there Carol Danvers, Hank Pym, The Defenders, Doctor Strange, The Illuminati, The Guardians of the Galaxy, Patsy Walker, Venom, and SHIELD. Also Deadpool's fun!

[luimnigh]

Let's Rate The New Champions!

So, this month Marvel is doing a run of themed variant covers. Each cover depicts a design for a teenage sidekick of the star of each book. This is inspired by the recent creation of Spider-Boy, aka Bailey Briggs, a young boy who claims to have been Peter Parker's sidekick for the last three years, but who all memories and evidence of his existence have been erased from reality.

So the idea is that all these characters are sidekicks that existed, but had their existence erased.

The weird thing is that Marvel didn't call these the "Teen Sidekick" covers, they're calling them the "New Champions" covers- the Champions being an existing team of teenage superheroes.

Almost as if they're saying they want to make actual characters of these covers.

As a resident fan of a Marvel character spawned by a run of themed variant covers inspired by a character created for a Spider-Man storyline, I thought I'd give my thoughts on each, propose a name and secret origin, and rate each concept.

Now, I am not an artist or a character designer, I am absolute layperson, the opinions expressed within are merely my own impressions.

So let's begin with:

Comments: I really like this. It's fairly simple but the pearlescent colours really add an oomph to the design. She looks like she either has hard light or magical powers, and they look really neat. And I really like the clawed fingertips on her gloves, tieing her back with Black Panther.

Secret Origin: Probably a tech or magic prodigy, out to defend Wakanda. I know T'Challa is no longer King in his current run, and is dealing with internal struggles, so maybe she's someone trying to step up and fill the void.

Hero Name: Is Neon Panther too obvious? ...wait is this design a Nyan Cat reference?

Score: 8/10. Just a really solid design.

Comments: That's Timothée Chalamet. That is Timothée Chalamet as a teenage boy version of Doctor Strange.

Secret Origin: Well, due to Strange not learning magic until he was an adult, "Time Travelling Teenage Strange" is out. Honestly, Strange is old enough to have a teenage kid, but also Strange is married to a woman from the Dark Dimension who is half-energy being, so who knows how quickly a child of theirs would age. If we're going with the idea that these characters were erased from existence, "Strange's Son" is a workable idea.

Hero Name: Well Dr Strange is the guy's real name, so this kid would probably just be Timmy Strange. Or whatever first name you wanna give him. Not Adam Strange, though, that's owned by DC.

Score: 5/10. It's not bad, it's just not creative.

Comments: Yes. Punk Rock Thing? Absolutely Yes. Fantastic design, oozes personality, the background gives a clear idea of character to this kid. I love it.

Secret Origin: The aforementioned Yancy Street is Ben Grimm's home turf. In the past, he's done some work combating gangs and mentoring the kids there. So this is a kid who's grown up in a bad neighbourhood, but has had a big-name superhero who grew up in the area keeping an eye out for them and their friends. At some point, they got caught up in a Fantastic Four adventure, get hit by cosmic rays, and become a Thing, so Ben takes them under his wing. They become a protector of their neighbourhood.

Hero Name: Wild Thing. Punk Rock. Spike. Take your pick of stone-based puns.

Score: 10/10, no notes. It's a punk rock Thing with stalagmites for spikes, it's a perfect idea.

Comment: Maybe I just like the punk look, but this is fucking adorable. This is a tween kid, who upon developing weather powers has decided she wants to be like Storm, and specifically she wants to be like Storm in her punk phase. Good taste, kid.

Secret Origin: X-Men are really easy to justify giving teenage sidekicks to, because even when they don't have a school, they're usually inviting mutant kids to come live in their mutant communities to escape violence anyway. So, X-Men, Mutant, fan of Storm.

Hero Name: I've heard people use Maystorm for this kid, but I don't know of that's an official name or not. If it is, may I suggest a real name of April Showers for pun value.

Score: 9/10.

Comment: On first glance: generic. It's just a kid version of White Vision. Gotta love MCU synergy. And there's already a teenage Vision, his daughter Viv. But there's an extra layer to this that they could use. White Vision was a version of Vision that was rebuilt after being destroyed, without his memories or personality. With his flight and intangibility, the ghost symbolism is obvious. So, symbolically, what we have here is a robot ghost child.

Secret Origin: Like I said, Robot Ghost Child. I mean, if you want to break the rule on these being new characters, there's an obvious candidate: Vin Vision, Vision's dead son from The Visions. A ghost of his son, haunting his and his daughter's lives.

Hero Name: Probably something kinda poetic, like "The Spectre of Vision".

Score: 5/10 for basic concept, points docked for lack of creativity and an already existing teenage version of the character, 8/10 if they decide to make them a Robot Ghost Child.

Comments: Okay, first off: Blade already has a teen sidekick, his daughter Brielle aka Bloodline. And as a result of that, I almost dismissed the design as merely okay. Then I had to describe everything this guy is wearing, and I realized that this design fucks severely. Two belts? Three necklaces? A fishnet sleeve under a elbow brace? Dude's stepped right of Final Fantasy to kill vampires and get into a homoerotic rivalry.

Secret Origin: Well, he's here to kill vampires. He was probably traumatised by vampires at some point. He probably started out hunting vampires on his own, crossed paths with Blade, and Blade took him under his wing.

Hero Name: ...I'm trying to think of a name based on blood or a bladed weapon, but I got nothing.

Score: 8.5/10.

Comments: Adorable. Like, maybe too adorable. That's either a very young kid, or that species is naturally quite small. I do love that they went with something more non-human.

Secret Origin: Absolutely some alien kid who looks up to Star Lord.

Hero Name: Squid Lord.

Score: 8/10.

Comments: Could Nora Valkyrie and Pyrrha Nikos please come pick up their child? No, but seriously, this really works. Like, it's recognisably Magneto-inspired while having it's own colour palette and identity. She clearly has hard-light abilities rather than Magneto's magnetism, but the top left also seems to imply hacking as part of her powerset as well. Perhaps that's justified by the electro- part of electromagnetism? Y'know, interesting direction to take it.

Secret Origin: ...look, I don't want to call Magneto a slut, but this would not be the first time he had a child who just reappeared in his life. If she's like, fifteen, then she would have been conceived soon before he made his debut on the world stage. Given how she favours his aesthetic, she may have even been brought up knowing he was her father, unlike the rest of his children. Probably idolizes him to an extent.

Hero Name: I've seen a lot of people suggest Magenta. I feel that maybe that could be her real name, though? Her being named after his pseudonym would be interesting. As for the hero name, though? Well, Monica Rambeau isn't using Spectrum right now, and that's a term in both light and electromagentism...

Score: 8.5/10

Comments: Y'know, I'd once again point out that there is a teenage Venom around... but given that's the white symbol on his chest, I think that could be Dylan Brock. Anyway, adorably creepy, clearly a kid. The question is: Alien or Demon? Venom is an alien, but Inferno (2022) did put Venom into contact with demons. And they do kinda look Dracula-inspired...

Secret Origin: Maybe alien, maybe demon, either way looks to be a Venom fan. Honestly, probably some sort of baby that's imprinted on Venom and follows them around like a lost puppy. A very deadly lost puppy. With the fluffy ruff? Nobility of some kind, too. A alien/demon prince.

Hero Name: I kinda want to do something with "bite", but I also think they could just be "The Prince In Black" to match Eddie Brock's current "King In Black" title.

Score: 7/10. Point docked for there already being a teenage Venom, who even has own sidekick in Rascal.

Comments: The problem with trying to make a Wolverine sidekick is twofold: one, Wolverine already has plenty of sidekicks. Two, there's already plenty of Wolverines. This person is competing with Fang aka Daken aka Akihiro, Talon, Laura Kinney, Gabby Kinney, Bellona, and Jimmy Hudson. And that's just counting the ones that I know are alive. And even the concept of a "more feral Wolverine" isn't even unique or original. It's just another Wolverine.

Secret Origin: ...the one thing that I keep looking at is that foot. It doesn't really strike me as Wolverine-y. It feels more... Sabertooth. So fuck it, let's pull a Conner Kent: they're a person who was made from the DNA of both Logan and Sabertooth, to try and create the ultimate killer. Logan's taking them under his wing to try and make sure the kid grows up to be a better person than either of them, hoping that nurture beats out both the natures in them.

Hero Name: Well, "Feral" is already taken, so fucked if I know.

Score: 4/10. Unoriginal, and the position's already filled multiple times over from multiple different directions.

Comments: There's already a Kid Deadpool. Kidpool. He was a member of the Deadpool Corps. He died in Deadpool Kills Deadpool, the second sequel to Deadpool Kills The Marvel Universe Vol 1. This design is just Deadpool as a teenage boy, and that's not even a unique idea.

Secret Origin: Fuck it, clone. Can't be a biological son, both because that would undermine the previous storylines surrounding Deadpool's daughter, and if he was as much older than Ellie as he looks, he'd have been born before Deadpool got his powers. So clone.

Hero Name: Probably just Teen Deadpool or something. Teenpool.

Score: 4/10. I'd score him lower but Wade seems to like him.

Comments: Cyberpunk Rollerskating Teen Girl Ghost Rider. I fucking love it. Like, being a Ghost Rider makes anything fucking metal, but the contrast between "teen girl on rollerskates" and "flaming skull demon of vengeance" really adds to the cool factor. The digital design to the skull also adds a unique quality, and it's not unprecedented, Robbie Reyes' skull is also more artificial that his two predecessors. It's clearly a Ghost Rider without being a copy of prior designs. Absolutely perfect.

Secret Origin: Well, from what I know from Tumblr is that teen girls like the occult, so I can imagine this girl summoning her demon of vengeance herself. But fitting the cyberpunk angle, rather than bullies I think she was probably out to get some corporation that was running riot over her community. Ghost Rider likely then heard stories of a demon of vengeance wrecking havoc on evildoers in the area, and went to check it out, and that's when he met her.

Hero Name: Firewire, the Unholy Roller.

Score: 10/10. I've seen some argue that Robbie Reyes already fits the Teen Ghost Rider niche, but he's alway been more of a Young Adult, so no points docked.

Comments: Speaking of contrasts, one of the major points that basically every popular version of the Hulk does is contrast brains and brawn. Every human side of a Hulk is an intelligent person, to contrast the brawn of the Hulk form. Bruce is a genius scientist, Jennifer is fantastic lawyer, and Amadeus (the existing teenage Hulk!) is the seventh smartest person in the world. So making a Hulk that's a dumbass, as the image implies, removes a layer of complexity from the character. Aside from that: it's just a blonde Hulk.

Origin Story: The only interesting thing I can think of is making him a kid who drove onto a nuclear testing range, but unlike Rick Jones, he didn't have a friendly scientist to save him. Then he probably seeks out Hulk himself, to help control his powers.

Hero Name: I dunno, Bulk?

Score: 4/10. It's just... so unoriginal. So close to the original.

Comments: It's the Mark 1 Iron Man suit with wings. So it kinda looks like he's taking inspiration from Mach, the former villain turned hero who changes his codename every time he upgrades his suit. Despite there already being a teenager in an Iron Man suit, Riri Williams, this one actually does provide a contrast with her by using the clunkier, more primitive design of the Mark 1.

Secret Origin: As the original, there's been multiple versions of the Mark 1 armour over the years. Not a far reach to assume one was destroyed at some point, and it's remains went unrecovered until this kid found it, fixed it up, and decided to use it. Tony, having a history of bad things happening when he loses control over his tech, likely went out to confiscate it, saw the kid being a hero with it, and gave his approval.

Hero Name: Honestly, Mark-1 sounds like a hero name already.

Score: 7/10.

Comments: Well, it's just someone in Miles' suit, but with long dreadlocks. Not the most creative, to be completely honest, but it does an eye-catching distinction. However, I think this someone is supposed to be a girl, and that does imply something specific going on here...

Secret Origin: Miles Morales had a Clone Saga of his own a couple years back. So, in the tradition of Ultimate Universe Spider-Men: a girl clone of Miles. This time we can probably have discussions of gender dysphoria and explicit comparisons to being transgender as part of her story. Give everyone who wanted more out of Ultimate Jessica Drew exactly what they want.

Hero Name: There's already five people sharing the name Spider-Woman, one more won't hurt.

Score: 7.5/10, not the most creative, but extra points for the potential for social commentary.

Comments: Oooh, I like this. The hat, hood and facemask gives him a sort of Bedouin-inspired look that really works with Moon Knight's Egyptian origins. And I love the little throwing moons between his fingers, and the armoured gloves, clearly this kid is nearly as violent as Moon Knight usually is. This design overall works pretty well.

Secret Origin: It is my understanding of Khonshu that it would be totally in-character for him to resurrect a dying child to be a Fist of Khonshu, and then dump him on Moon Knight to take care of and train him. Which would lead to conflict between Moon Knight and Khonshu, and also inner conflict as Mark/Steven/Jake could see this as them training their eventual replacement, while also grappling with the morality of putting this life on a kid.

Hero Name: Well, unfortunately Moon Boy is taken. Moon Squire? The Lunar Page?

Score: 8/10.

Comments: The more I look at this the more I like it. It's not an incredibly striking design, it's quite subtle and simple, but it's well-put together and it does grow on you. I didn't even notice the horns the first few times I looked at her. It looks similar enough to Wanda's current outfit in the comics that it's easy to see them as team, without being a direct copy.

Secret Origin: Well, there's probably a demonic or eldritch component to it. Honestly, Wanda recently absorbed Chthon, maybe she accidentally a magic baby using part of a demon again. Give her a kid to raise who isn't off ruling the Kree-Skrull Empire or wherever Tommy is nowadays.

Hero Name: Stellar Witch?

Score: 8/10.

Comments: So, interesting contrast with the other Hulk on this list, the cover ultimately gives us less information about who she is, but given that I didn't like the last guy's information, that ultimately comes off as a bonus. Comparing her to the motorcycle, she appears to be the smallest Hulk we've ever seen, and I like the contrast of small size/physical powerhouse. The design is very civilian, but that does work for a Hulk

Secret Origin: In the spirit of She-Hulk, let's say she became a Hulk due to a medical emergency. Childhood cancer, experimental gamma-ray treatment gone wrong, activates a latent mutation, permanent Hulking like She-Hulk used to be. She met Jennifer Walters when her parents hired her sue the hospital. They won the case when Bruce testified that without a latent mutation in her DNA, the amount of Gamma rays she was subjected to would have killed her.

Hero Name: Hulk Girl. Hulk names usually aren't creative.

Score: 7.5/10. Not the most creative, but some effort put in.

Comments: Okay, giving Black Cat an apprentice does seem like a cool idea. I do like the jacket over the jumpsuit, and the inversion of Felicia's usual colours. Though I do question a thief dressed in bright white, it's probably not the most impractical thief outfit in this image.

Secret Origin: Well, given the shared hair colour, I'd suggest they're related. Cousins, maybe? I know Felicia apparently has a niece, maybe it's her nephew. At the very least, I think he sought her out to learn from the best, rather that her deciding to take someone under her wing while spotting them out thieving.

Hero Name: I'm sure there's a White Cat out there, so instead I'm going to suggest Calico.

Score: 7/10.

Comments: Now here's one that went in an interesting direction with the assignment. The suit is very Steve Rogers, but the wings harken towards Sam Wilson. Taking elements of both Captains America, and making something new out of them. The insect-like design of the wings make them distinct from Sam's. They almost look like they could belong to The Wasp. The hexagonal paneling and the way they glow makes it look like they're made with hard-light.

Secret Origin: Honestly, she looks like she could be the daughter of Janet Van Dyne and Steve Rogers, so why not just make her the alternate-universe daughter of Janet Van Dyne and Steve Rogers, stuck on Earth-616. She traveled to this universe, chasing a villain, but found herself unable to return home after the villain stole her travel device. The whole "all evidence of her existence being erased" thing would hit harder for her, as this would be the second time that people who are supposed to be her parents don't know who she is.

Hero Name: I'm torn between Glowbug, for the glowing wings; or Doodlebug, for Yankee Doodle.

Score: 8.5/10

Comments: Once again: there's already an existing teenage version of Captain Marvel. You may have heard of her. Aside from that, I do like how he takes elements from both Carol's Ms Marvel and Captain Marvel outfits, and I do have to give it props for being one of only two designs here where a male sidekick is taking inspiration from a female character. I do wonder why this teenager seems to be working with the US Air Force, though.

Secret Origin: Actually, that gives me an idea: this kid's parents work for the US Air Force. One night, he wanders out onto a restricted part of the base, and stumbles on an Air Force experiment that goes wrong and ends up empowering him. The Air Force goes "it's free supersoldier" and starts sending him on missions. Carol finds out, and after blowing up at the Air Force for deciding to employ a child soldier, takes the kid under her wing.

Hero Name: Well, Marvel Boy is taken, and so is Captain Marvel Jr. How about another one of Carol's aliases: Warbird.

Score: 7.5/10.

Comments: Oh this is fucking awesome. I've seen people say she looks like Jinx Arcane/LoL, and yeah I see that, but it still looks absolutely rad. Her mace has a very interesting design, and it's clear that she has lightning powers, which connect her to Thor, but the Ravens are usually symbolic of Odin. Almost as it trying to say she's connected to both. A lineage.

Secret Origin: In myth, Thor has three biological children. Magni and Modi, his two sons, have been explained in Marvel comics as existing in a prior version of the Aesir, from before a previous Ragnarök. But no such explanation exists for the lack of Thor's daughter, þrùdr, or Thrúd. With both visual references to Odin and Thor in her design, she clearly looks like she's supposed to be related to both, and this character being Thrud would do that. Thor's daughter, who's existence was erased from reality, but who's name is still uttered in the Poetic Edda. Hell of a concept.

Hero Name: Even if she's not Thor's daughter, I'd still vote to call her Thrud. Have his sidekick be mistaken in myth for his daughter.

Score: 10/10. Absolutely great. No notes. Surprised she doesn't exist already.

So in conclusion, a lot of great concepts mixed in with a few not-so-great ones. I don't think all of these should be introduced to the 616, but a couple of these would work as great additions. Personally, I'd predict the Thorsdottir has the best shot of actually coming into existence, purely for the fact that she'd work as MCU synergy, with MCU!Thor now being a dad. And I can't be mad at that, she's one of the best concepts here.

[payton-arts]

Anime Voice Actors As Marvel Characters

On my YouTube channel of the same name, I've been making videos called, "What If Anime Voice Actors Had A Marvel Role?". While some like Yuri Lowenthal and Laura Bailey have played Spider-Man, Iceman, Mary Jane Watson and Gwen Stacy, I think it would be cool if existing VAs from Fairy Tail, My Hero Academia and various English dubbed anime from Funimation got to voice them. If you love these two subjects, I think you're gonna love this article and my videos.

Todd Haberkorn as The Human Torch

In my first video, I nominated four cast members from Fairy Tail. Starting with Todd Haberkorn, I think he fits well for the Human Torch and not just because Natsu Dragneel has similar fire abilities, but they have similar personalities. They're both ecstatic, carefree, adventure hungry, brash, childish and reckless. Because of that and since he's Spider-Man's best friend, I can imagine what he might sound like if he was on a mission teaming with the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man or by himself. I've even made some concept edits to give viewers a rough idea of what kind of performance they could give.

Newton Pittman as Deadpool or Iceman

I could actually see two characters Newton Pittman could play. Also linked to my first video, the first one should be obvious. Since MHA was heavily inspired my Marvel and DC comics, Twice bears some similarities to Deadpool. Their costumes almost look identical and they have similar inner monologues with another voice.

The second, taken from my third video, is Iceman from the X-Men. Clearly, Bobby Drake and Gray Fullbuster have similar powers. Outside of the X-Men, he's close friends with Spider-Man, with their similar sense of humor. He's also has a close friendship with the Human Torch as their powers are polar opposites. In some comics, they also have rivalries, like Natsu and Gray would. But personality wise, Gray is kind of laid back and chill guy. Maybe sometimes introverted. Bobby can be like that in some versions, but I guess not nearly as much. Still, the remaining similarities Natsu and Gray have with Human Torch and Iceman are still there. Heck, In Ultimate Spider-Man (Brian Bendis, not John Hickman), Johnny and Bobby moved to Peter Parker's house and went under the identities of being his cousins. So, they've been constantly teaming up to fight crime as heroic trio.

Cherami Leigh as Mary Jane Watson

This one is my personal favorite, in my first video, if not out of all of them. Cherami Leigh has played all kinds of characters female characters and their personalities are partly defined by how she pitches her voice. With her more casual voice as Lucy Heartfilia, Minako Aino and Asuna Yuuki, I think she might make a great Mary Jane Watson. She started out as a carefree and flirty party girl, in Stan Lee's run, Which Minako and Lucy are no strangers to. Then when Gwen Stacy died, she and Peter became more closer, expressed more emotional sincerity (which is what Mokoto Nijima has presented) and they started a relationship.

Cherami could also capture other incarnations like Ultimate MJ, Insomniac's PS exclusive games and Spider-Woman in the Marvel Mangaverse.

Colleen Clinkenbeard as Captain Marvel or Black Widow

In my second What If video, I created two concept edits of Colleen Clinkenbeard possibly voicing Black Window or Captain Marvel. This is because she's played some of the toughest and most powerful characters. One of them being Erza Scarlet. Although she can be bossy, she is a dedicated wizard to focusing on completing a mission. In some versions, Captain Marvel has been written as an emotionless kind of character, which Erza is no stranger to early on in Fairy Tail. Then there's Momo Yaoyorozu, who's calm, anaclitic, intelligent and strategic, bearing resemblance more to Black Widow.

Robert McCollom as Moon Knight

Ending this with Robert McCollom, I think he'd make a great Moon Knight. If you've watched all of Fairy Tail from start to finish, it's mainly because of Jellal and Mystogan. Combine the robes with the deep, mysterious voice Robert brings to them, compare that to Robin Downes, Gideon Emery, Diedrich Bader and Nolan North and it sounds like Robert McCollom could pull of a good portrayal of Moon Knight. I don't really have much to say about it this one because all it could take for me was to vibe with the personality everyone brought to their characters.

Well, that should be it here. If you want to see me talk more about things like these, I have a playlist on my YouTube channel. Also if you have any suggestions, feel free to leave your comments and I'll look into it. Thanks for reading!

[wanderingmind867]

Reading the original Doom Patrol stories is pretty fun. i heard somewhere that Arnold Drake was one of DC's only writers who took Marvel as serious competition, and it shows. The Doom Patrol have a lot of similarities with the stuff Stan Lee wrote. They both wrote about people with insecurities, personal problems, very human problems. Like how Stan Lee used the Fantastic Four and the X-Men to tell very human stories, of very powerful people. Same with the Doom Patrol.

Also, I have to say it: I love The Chief and Professor X. I'm a sucker for mentor figures, and these two are just...they're mysterious, but they never seem evil or malicious. I appreciate them both as characters. And I don't like how future stories with both characters try to make them out to be evil. That'll never not get under my skin.

[hood-ex]

Honestly I love that celebrity status of the titans. The fan mail. The coming together to pay rent. The going on tv! Like it’s both fun and refreshing. I don’t know I don’t really go here but I just love that detail and it’s so different from I guess how the batfamily operates or is shown to operate.

Yeah, they're basically the Fantastic Four in that sense. I remember there was one issue where the FF needed money and Reed was like, "BlahBlahScienceBlah, by the way, Johnny, here's the cure for acne so go sell it for millions of dollars."

Except the Titans don't have a Reed on their team who can make valuable shit like that on the spot to sell, so they ended up selling Titan's figurines to help pay their rent.

It would honestly be cool if it was revealed that the Titans had a storage unit where they kept all of their fan letters. I think it would be fun if the Titans read through those letters whenever they were feeling shitty about themselves. It could be a reoccurring thing in solo or team books for a specific Titan to read a particularly inspirational letter as a pick me up. If DC was smart like me, they would do something like that to instill fond nostalgia in all of us.

[izunias-meme-hole]

Izunia, which would you say is better Marvel's universe or DC's universe?

Damn is like my hyperfixation on decent superhero content that noticeable now? Huh? Anyway...

I'd say they're even, but mostly because of two factors. DC does better with self-contained shit. Think about the best Batman or Superman stories, like most of them don't ever involve other heroes or whatnot. The spotlight is purely on them, the setting timeline-wise isn't that set in stone, and the narrative takes its time. Like DC stories in a shared continuity don't suck in the slightest, but there's a reason why stuff like The Killing Joke, All Star Superman or even some standalone stories of the New Gods are better known and given more praise than like most Justice League comics.

Meanwhile Marvel does a better job at making a whole shared continuity. Like I can believe that someone like Doctor Doom or Magneto lives in the same universe as fckin' goobers like Deadpool, Spider-Man, Ms Marvel, and Squirrel Girl. Like a good 50% of modern Marvel CAME from Fantastic Four comics, Spider-Man comics, or X-Men comics in some form, like Black Panther debuted in a Fantastic Four comic for gods sake!

So yeah, IMO DC is better at making self-contained storylines, while Marvel is does the whole "shared continuity" shit better which was why the MCU (even if it is like mid as hell overall) even took off even after some instances of fumbling the bag.