Post by Erik on Jul 23, 2010 8:19:08 GMT -5
All of the books below with the exception of Alpha Flight, Omega Flight and Winter Guard are available for proposals and of those remaining books none have any on site continuity meaning everything from Big Hero 6 to MI-13 are blank slates. The biggest intent with this examination of the International Initiative is to further broaden the landscape of the Marvel Anthology Universe beyond the borders of the United States and explore the world through another perspective. Any ideas attached to the books like China Force or Freedom Force are simply there to sell the concept of the book and explore the potential in the book. So, to continue on from where we left off with the previous Initiative breakdowns I bring to you the International Initiative:
Nik Wimer
· Canada’s premier super team has certainly been through some bad stuff over the years and their run at MA is definitely not an exception to that rule. Long standing members have been killed because of an uncovered conspiracy inside Department H with Jaxon Jerome. But, following the end of Gavin’s run on ALPHA FLIGHT, we’re left with a stable Department H and a stable Alpha Flight that is looking to move beyond their heartache to embrace their destiny as protectors of Canada.
With 90% of Canada’s population living within ten miles of the Canadian/United States border there’s really a lot of potential in stories that focus on the expansive wilderness of Canada. Among the great beasts that wander the country, there’s a lot of real estate for villains to build their lairs to avoid civilization and detection by the authorities. It will also be interesting to explore Canada’s relationship with the United States and the newly formed Freedom Force - that we’ll see more of below.
And Canada is a big country, which forces Department H to authorize the creation of two new Flights to provide back-up and help split the Provinces. Beta Flight is the equal of Alpha Flight in terms of power, but where Beta Flight’s authority is limited to their Provinces, Alpha Flight has absolute authority over all of Canada. Gamma Flight is the training team of young heroes on the rise to make sure they’re properly trained and ready for active duty. And unknown to them all was the creation of Omega Flight by Vindicator, the black ops Flight to carry out the dirty work the other Flights cannot handle.
Alpha Flight, of all of these books, has the most history to pull from in terms of story, characters and plots. They are the Avengers of Canada and should be treated as such.
The assembled team of Alpha Flight is:
· Aurora
· Flashback
· Guardian
· Major Mapleleaf
· Nemesis
· Puck
· Saint Elmo
· Sasquatch
And why stop there? With the three Flights mentioned above you’ve got the traditional hero work covered. What if newer Flights dealt with other concepts directly? Maybe Delta Flight is more supernatural based, especially with Talisman’s dib free, and Epsilon Flight could be more extraterrestrial focused? Department H can branch out from the traditional heroics and tackle a greater world beyond it.
Available For Proposals
· Japan is a very interesting country packed full of big culture that mixes traditional values held over from the feudalistic days to an adoption of Western Culture following the reconstruction of Japan post-WW2. The Japanese are notorious for being hard workers with strict values concerning the family. In recent times, the culture of technology and recreation has began to take a big foothold, including the desire for the bizarre. From wacked out anime and video games, growing niches for odd foods like beef ice cream, and odd pornography involving squid…a small percentage, sure, but a very visible percentage.
The Japanese also have a huge love for celebrity, baseball and wrestling. Bands and aging wrestlers who no longer gain the attention of the U.S. find wonderful success in Japan. With a popular culture that hails celebrity with more fervor than even the U.S. I would imagine that a team of superheroes and mutants might be revered in popular culture based on their power set depending on what you’re talking about. On one side you could have a mutant who does nothing but produce large quantities of snot who makes millions off of Internet websites by blowing that snot over naked chicks. Or a guy whose arms and fingers are squid-like—talk about a great combination of regular porn and tentacle porn. And on the less disturbing side you have a mutant who creates ice cream with a business built around him that sells nothing but specialty ice cream from any flavor combination he samples.
With Big Hero 6 we have flashy superheroes with grand costumes and awesome powers. The merchandizing power you could generate through them is endless…from Manga to TV shows. They could endorse products and appear as guests on Iron Chef or other game shows. And when it comes to protecting the islands you could derive a number of different plots, from Technology (Giant Robots), Monsters (Godzilla), Mysticism and Corporate Espionage. And if the moment arrives when one of America’s own celebrity super-teams need to visit Japan (like the Astonishing X-Men) the love and attention thrown upon them could be overwhelming, especially to Japan’s native son Sunfire.
· Baymax
· Honey Lemon
· Silver Samurai
· Sunpyre
· Hiro Takachiho
· Gogo Tomago
Available For Proposals
· China Force holds a lot of potential with the ability to explore the perception of Hero and Criminal and how interchangeable that perception becomes when you jump cultures. Given that China Force is the official Government sponsored superhero team of the People’s Republic of China, the Government will play a large role in the direction of the title and the missions they perform so the Government will be much of my focus in this write up. This will offer an interesting dichotomy to the title when the differences between the Government and the culture of the general public are explored further in the book.
The Communist Government of China, as evident by the recent Summer Olympics in Beijing, is very concerned with public image. So, the team chosen for this would reflect that need to project power, respect and national pride. China also gets beaten up for having a poor Human Rights Record, often criticized for limiting free speech, practice of religion and forbidding independence for territories under Beijing’s control. For the most part Chinese culture has resisted Western Influences including adopting a measure of ‘apartheid’ between urban and rural workers. How does any of this mean anything to China Force? Well, in a number of ways that I’ll get into below including how it influences the roster and potential story notes.
To start China has a population over 1.3 billion people. By comparison, India stacks up at 1.1 billion, followed by the U.S. at almost 310 million. China holds nearly 20% of the world’s population in its borders. This has forced China to adopt strict population and fertility control including the famous one child per family rule that has been recently slackened to allow two children per family. It would be very interesting to see China facing a boom in mutant births. The numbers would work in the favor or a larger than typical global number based solely how many births per million are mutant but as a result from a growing industry that gives little regard to environment concerns leading to growing pollution in urban and rural settings.
What this leads to is this: a country already concerned about population to adopt fertility treatments and, in a world that already scans the fetus for genetic and birth defects, the Chinese would adopt into their screening process a procedure to scan for mutations before birth. Parents of unborn mutants would automatically be forced to register their child to a special division of the Government created to deal with a superhuman population. And for families not already in urban settings to take advantage of this screening, Government Agents would visit the far away rural villages to perform random screening with portable technology. Any potential Alpha and Omega-class mutants are automatically taken from the family upon birth to be raised and educated under Government care. Any child not registered with the Government is classified automatically as a criminal and must live in constant fear of being found and arrested for treason against the People’s Republic of China.
How does Hong Kong fit into this as a region that operates on different economical and political systems after spending the majority of its existence under British rule, interrupted briefly by Japanese rule. Hong Kong enjoys a high degree of autonomy in nearly every aspect of life except for foreign relations and military defense. Meaning, China Force has authority to defend Hong Kong but does their interaction end there? Do they enjoy more freedom in Hong Kong like the rest of the populace? Are they allowed to own a residence in Hong Kong or are they forced to live in mainland China?
How does Republic of China - or Taiwan - fit into this role? They’re governed by mainland China and are restricted from having any sort of greater role in the world.
The missions they’re told to perform could put them at odds with the world. Is there an unlawful protest about China’s dominance over Tibet? A protest over the lack of human rights? With China Force involved, how do we avoid an incident greater than that of Tiananmen Square? But there could also be a lot of traditional crime to combat with the growing triads created from a growing illegal drug trade due to a growing ‘middle’ class that is responsible for tripling the amount of cars on the roads in a few short years and creating a sort of party/night-life growing and shown during the Summer Olympics. And given China’s rich history there’s a lot to pull from in terms of mysticism and religion.
Potential members of China Force include:
· Radioactive Man
· Collective Man
· The Cat
· Jade Dragon
· Kuan-Yin Xorn
· Shen Xorn
· Radioactive Man returns home to act as the field leader of China Force. He’s a hero to his homeland and villain to the world at large.
· Collective Man is a hero who wishes to inspire change in his country, push for increased rights and human treatment. He joins China Force to act as an inspiration to China and inspire new reforms. Radioactive Man is, naturally, his biggest obstacle to this.
· The Cat joins out of national pride. He may have no love for the Government but the people deserve fair representation and protection from an increasingly dangerous world full of numerous threats.
· Jade Dragon. He’s a traitor to the People’s Republic of China and banned from entering the country. Well, what if he learns that his mother is dying and he needs to see her before time runs out. His petition to return to China puts him in a position where he’s forced to publically condemn his old ways and the influences of the Western Governments that wish to destroy the Communist Government?
· Kuan-Yin Xorn and Shen Xorn are blank slates in our continuity. One good brother with the healing power of a start for a brain. The other a twisted, violent bastard with a destructive black hole in his head.
Available For Proposals
· Europa would be an interesting book to help explore Europe as a whole, as well as the relationships the various nations that make up the European Union have with each other. There’s a fair amount of national pride that exists but the growing dependence each nation has on each other for economic stability, trade and industrial production has forced each nation to interact with each other and develop a blanket authority that has the best interest of Europe in mind, and created a common currency across many of the nations. However, that doesn’t mean each country has the same approach and laws concerning mutants and other super-powered people. I’d also imagine it would be a bruise to the national pride should a British superhero publically save France from a disaster.
Keeping in mind that there’s more to Europe to consider, it could make the book a political mess for the team to deal with as they operate across various borders.
These differences would be interesting to explore as France, for instance, has a poor human rights record in regard to groups. If mutants were organized more along the lines of a traditional minority then they’re likely subject to some oppression. And I know in terms of our X-MEN INITIATIVE we’re looking to expand mutant acceptance, but that’s in regards to the United States currently and will likely grow from there as our line develops.
Germany is super-sensitive about such things (you only need to be a casual observer of history to understand why) so their mutant population is probably publically treated better than most countries in the EU, but that doesn’t mean in private the general population is happy about them.
Spain might have more oppressive laws on the books in relation to mutants than what the U.S. formerly had, but in light of the growing trend to accept mutants the public opinion might be to ignore them entirely like they didn’t exist than bother to deal with them.
In Italy, domestic mutants would get a pretty easy ride if their financial status propelled them to enjoy the high life and the status money brings. Foreign mutants, on the other hand, might get the smelly end of the stick in terms of freedom to operate openly with their powers like natural born mutants would have. The only place inside Italy that might offer some more acceptance would be Rome.
In Belgium, it probably comes down to whether they're Walloons or not. Mutants would probably find more acceptance in countries like Sweden, Denmark or Norway, barring a backlash against terrorist activities.
In Russia, they'd be actively oppressed. In areas like Georgia, Chechnya, etc…probably not so much. In the Balkans, I'd be surprised if they weren't at the top of the heap, if their powers were 'super-y' enough.
However, if it was necessary for the various nations to join together to form the EU, then it would also be necessary for each nation involved to send a representative to create a special team of heroes to protect the interest and the populace of the EU. Using a renovated EuroLab, the new Europa has a mobile base of operations. Whether or not the previous all of the previous Euroforce rejoins to take up the cause, or other European heroes like the Peregrine head up the team, it mixes Euroforce with new heroes.
· Amazon -- Ukrainian
· Argento -- Italian
· Belgian Brain -- Belgian
· Claymore -- Scottish
· Danger -- Danish
· Deep Sight -- British
· Dragonfly -- Dutch
· Flying Carpet -- Turkish
· Gunnar -- Icelandic
· Javelin -- Finnish
· Key -- German
· Magma -- Swedish
· Oracle -- Greece
· Peregrine -- French
· Picaro -- Spanish
· Prodigy -- Polish
· Red Dragon -- Welsh
· Shamrock -- Irish
· Tiger -- French-Algerian
· White Cross -- Switzerland
Available For Proposals
· Canada has reformed Alpha Flight and Department H has never been healthier. Japan has put Big Hero 6 back together and national pride in Japan has never been higher. Europe has created Europa out of the ashes of Euroforce in an attempt to bring the various nations together tighter. China has authorized the re-creation of China Force to protect the mainland from Western Influence. Nations around the world are assembling state sponsored super teams, some because they can and need to respond to potentially destructive threats, and others are doing it as a show of strength in response to neighboring nations. It’s a race that could prove to be a thousand times more devastating than the nuclear arms race.
The Assistant Director of the CSA, Henry Gyrich, see’s this developing global trend and is not a happy man because of it. The United States is lacking in this area, which is something Gyrich is all too aware of considering the super teams that reside on American soil are private or, in the case of the Avengers, sponsored by the United Nations. And he’d be damned if he’s going to rely on the X-Men to protect America’s sovereignty and depend on the Fantastic Four to protect America’s special interest when they’re constantly in some alien dimension risking to bring some alien invasion down upon the country’s head. And he’d be especially damned if he depended on the Avengers to look out for America’s safety.
As it is, Gyrich see’s all of these new teams as a direct threat to America’s safety and reacts in the only possible way he can: create a team specifically designed to protect the United States. With that, he petitions to reactivate and retool an old mothballed project called Freedom Force. And the first name on his list to approach as the Commander of this team is the one person Gyrich believes is uniquely suited for the job: Valerie Cooper.
Valerie Cooper is eager to accept and sets out to recruit a special group of men and women, people who genuinely want to serve their country out of a patriotic sensibility. Val has no time for internal politics and she absolutely has zero patience to black mail and play games to force a team members loyalty. They either want to be a part of Freedom Force, or they don’t. The members chosen are chosen with the idea in mind that these people will represent the U.S. and, with the growing Political Correctness trend both politically and in the media, they have to choose wisely.
Some proposed members of this team are:
· Battlestar
· American Eagle
· Triathlon
· Diamondback
· Fixer
· MACH V
· Shocker
· Vagabond
· Jack Flagg
· Free Spirit
Now, you see Shocker and go...’what’?. Well, there might be an offer of redemption made to some people in this book. Valerie Cooper could visit a superhuman prison and make a stirring speech talking about opportunity and patriotism. Given the audience most of them would roll their eyes and snicker, but in one or two select members of this audience the mental gears could be turning...and at the end of his visit she gets two volunteers.
Available For Proposals
· The Mexican Government is tired of having their country seen as some Third World country full of poverty, crime and drugs. With the growing amount of national super teams on the rise Mexico see’s their chance to claim their stake in the global community by creating the Luchadores Enmascarados - the ‘Masked Fighters’ - to represent the Latin country and stand with their neighbors to the North the United States and Canada. Now is the time for Mexico to become a global powerhouse.
There’s a lot that work in favor of this team from the start as culturally the Mexican’s love the Lucha Libre style of wrestling, where masked wrestlers garbed in colorful and wild costumes battle each other in a representation of good and evil. This natural love would easily translate to superheroes. This team is modeled after this extremely popular form of wrestling, as it stands as the inspiration for these heroes. In Lucha Libre, the masks these wrestlers wear are their identity and their source of power, and the masks create a mystery about the real identity of the man underneath. Most wrestlers wouldn’t be caught dead without their masks when in public and, without their masks, they’d never reveal their other identity.
There are few Mexican heroes in Marvel so this would be a great opportunity to bring a few of the Mexican heroes there are back home and draw inspiration from the International Superhero site to create brand new heroes or translate a few over. Mexico as a whole is a blank slate, save for several real life current events that could translate over to this book.
Available For Proposals
· MI-13 is a division of British Intelligence that deals with superhumans and other paranormal events. They have a cache of advanced technology and mystical resources. Agents of MI-13 can travel to Otherworld and interact and battle creates of fairy tales and myth. The strength of this book is the blending of science and magic all in one event. But who does the British Government tap to run this division? Brian Braddock is the Director of A.R.M.O.R., thanks to his knowledge of alternate universes, and Peter Wisdom is the Chief of the newly formed X.S.E. Maybe they go to Union Jack to tap into his extensive knowledge of counter-terrorism to create a team of super spies.
What makes this book slightly different from the other books is that this is slightly more militaristic. They focus on Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence. And they’re afforded that by the formation of Europa - the superhero team of Europe. Think of James Bond with superheroes. Infiltrating countries like Russia and China to gather intelligence about Winter Guard and China Force. What are these countries motivations, where are they going and how does it affect the safety of Britain?
· Black Knight
· Destroyer
· Fazia Hussain
· Lionheart
· Tangerine
· Union Jack
Gavin Devlin
· Omega Flight is a simple premise: black ops. Omega Flight doesn’t exist and consequently the members of Omega Flight no longer exist either. Where other Flights have jurisdiction and authority, Omega Flight has neither. The very nature of this team means that borders don’t mean a thing to them. Only thing that means a damn to Omega Flight is that if they get caught or killed Canada will deny any involvement in Omega Flights mission and deny any knowledge or sponsorship of this team and they’ll condemn whatever actions they’ve been accused of.
The missions may be too much for some on this team, but they agreed to join this team and now they must live with the consequences of their actions.
· Man-Bot
· Pathway
· Radius
· Vindicator
· Windshear
· Yukon Jack
Gavin Devlin
· Russia is nation that is still struggling to maintain their façade of strength and dominance that was created during their years as the Soviet Union. The biggest vulnerability Russia faces lies in the decisions made by her leaders as they fight to redefine the country’s identity in a Post-Communist time while stumbling around in the dark to find their direction in an ever changing political world. The threats to Russia’s prosperity aren’t limited to those opportunists outside of her borders that would prey on an uncertain country with a growing middle-class and an increasingly desperate poor weighing on the stressed economy.
One solution proposed by Colonel Vazhin, of the newly-formed Kremlin Defense Force, sought to counter the likely increase in superpowered crime by those who would target the weak for their own personal gain as Russia’s wealth increased: the Winter Guard. Organized under the Black Widow, Natasha Romanova, this manifestation of Winter Guard is designed to be the Avengers of Russia: proud heroes that would represent Russia to the world and inspire her citizens with pride.
The crisis of identity is a theme that permeates throughout the entire book. Black Widow returns home after several long years away and must readjust not just to a land that looks like home, but doesn’t feel like home and lead a team of uncertain heroes. Others of the roster must adjust from being soldiers to being regarded as heroes, while others must adjust from operating solo to working within a team setting and others struggle with adjusting to representing a new set of ideals that they might not agree with.
· Airstrike
· Black Widow
· Crimson Dynamo
· Darkstar
· Fantasia
· Red Guardian
· Sibercat
· Starshine
· Ursa Major
· Vanguard
Another book that's coming soon that I suggest you keep your eyes open for:
Next: the SUPERNATURAL books.
Nik Wimer
· Canada’s premier super team has certainly been through some bad stuff over the years and their run at MA is definitely not an exception to that rule. Long standing members have been killed because of an uncovered conspiracy inside Department H with Jaxon Jerome. But, following the end of Gavin’s run on ALPHA FLIGHT, we’re left with a stable Department H and a stable Alpha Flight that is looking to move beyond their heartache to embrace their destiny as protectors of Canada.
With 90% of Canada’s population living within ten miles of the Canadian/United States border there’s really a lot of potential in stories that focus on the expansive wilderness of Canada. Among the great beasts that wander the country, there’s a lot of real estate for villains to build their lairs to avoid civilization and detection by the authorities. It will also be interesting to explore Canada’s relationship with the United States and the newly formed Freedom Force - that we’ll see more of below.
And Canada is a big country, which forces Department H to authorize the creation of two new Flights to provide back-up and help split the Provinces. Beta Flight is the equal of Alpha Flight in terms of power, but where Beta Flight’s authority is limited to their Provinces, Alpha Flight has absolute authority over all of Canada. Gamma Flight is the training team of young heroes on the rise to make sure they’re properly trained and ready for active duty. And unknown to them all was the creation of Omega Flight by Vindicator, the black ops Flight to carry out the dirty work the other Flights cannot handle.
Alpha Flight, of all of these books, has the most history to pull from in terms of story, characters and plots. They are the Avengers of Canada and should be treated as such.
The assembled team of Alpha Flight is:
· Aurora
· Flashback
· Guardian
· Major Mapleleaf
· Nemesis
· Puck
· Saint Elmo
· Sasquatch
And why stop there? With the three Flights mentioned above you’ve got the traditional hero work covered. What if newer Flights dealt with other concepts directly? Maybe Delta Flight is more supernatural based, especially with Talisman’s dib free, and Epsilon Flight could be more extraterrestrial focused? Department H can branch out from the traditional heroics and tackle a greater world beyond it.
Available For Proposals
· Japan is a very interesting country packed full of big culture that mixes traditional values held over from the feudalistic days to an adoption of Western Culture following the reconstruction of Japan post-WW2. The Japanese are notorious for being hard workers with strict values concerning the family. In recent times, the culture of technology and recreation has began to take a big foothold, including the desire for the bizarre. From wacked out anime and video games, growing niches for odd foods like beef ice cream, and odd pornography involving squid…a small percentage, sure, but a very visible percentage.
The Japanese also have a huge love for celebrity, baseball and wrestling. Bands and aging wrestlers who no longer gain the attention of the U.S. find wonderful success in Japan. With a popular culture that hails celebrity with more fervor than even the U.S. I would imagine that a team of superheroes and mutants might be revered in popular culture based on their power set depending on what you’re talking about. On one side you could have a mutant who does nothing but produce large quantities of snot who makes millions off of Internet websites by blowing that snot over naked chicks. Or a guy whose arms and fingers are squid-like—talk about a great combination of regular porn and tentacle porn. And on the less disturbing side you have a mutant who creates ice cream with a business built around him that sells nothing but specialty ice cream from any flavor combination he samples.
With Big Hero 6 we have flashy superheroes with grand costumes and awesome powers. The merchandizing power you could generate through them is endless…from Manga to TV shows. They could endorse products and appear as guests on Iron Chef or other game shows. And when it comes to protecting the islands you could derive a number of different plots, from Technology (Giant Robots), Monsters (Godzilla), Mysticism and Corporate Espionage. And if the moment arrives when one of America’s own celebrity super-teams need to visit Japan (like the Astonishing X-Men) the love and attention thrown upon them could be overwhelming, especially to Japan’s native son Sunfire.
· Baymax
· Honey Lemon
· Silver Samurai
· Sunpyre
· Hiro Takachiho
· Gogo Tomago
Available For Proposals
· China Force holds a lot of potential with the ability to explore the perception of Hero and Criminal and how interchangeable that perception becomes when you jump cultures. Given that China Force is the official Government sponsored superhero team of the People’s Republic of China, the Government will play a large role in the direction of the title and the missions they perform so the Government will be much of my focus in this write up. This will offer an interesting dichotomy to the title when the differences between the Government and the culture of the general public are explored further in the book.
The Communist Government of China, as evident by the recent Summer Olympics in Beijing, is very concerned with public image. So, the team chosen for this would reflect that need to project power, respect and national pride. China also gets beaten up for having a poor Human Rights Record, often criticized for limiting free speech, practice of religion and forbidding independence for territories under Beijing’s control. For the most part Chinese culture has resisted Western Influences including adopting a measure of ‘apartheid’ between urban and rural workers. How does any of this mean anything to China Force? Well, in a number of ways that I’ll get into below including how it influences the roster and potential story notes.
To start China has a population over 1.3 billion people. By comparison, India stacks up at 1.1 billion, followed by the U.S. at almost 310 million. China holds nearly 20% of the world’s population in its borders. This has forced China to adopt strict population and fertility control including the famous one child per family rule that has been recently slackened to allow two children per family. It would be very interesting to see China facing a boom in mutant births. The numbers would work in the favor or a larger than typical global number based solely how many births per million are mutant but as a result from a growing industry that gives little regard to environment concerns leading to growing pollution in urban and rural settings.
What this leads to is this: a country already concerned about population to adopt fertility treatments and, in a world that already scans the fetus for genetic and birth defects, the Chinese would adopt into their screening process a procedure to scan for mutations before birth. Parents of unborn mutants would automatically be forced to register their child to a special division of the Government created to deal with a superhuman population. And for families not already in urban settings to take advantage of this screening, Government Agents would visit the far away rural villages to perform random screening with portable technology. Any potential Alpha and Omega-class mutants are automatically taken from the family upon birth to be raised and educated under Government care. Any child not registered with the Government is classified automatically as a criminal and must live in constant fear of being found and arrested for treason against the People’s Republic of China.
How does Hong Kong fit into this as a region that operates on different economical and political systems after spending the majority of its existence under British rule, interrupted briefly by Japanese rule. Hong Kong enjoys a high degree of autonomy in nearly every aspect of life except for foreign relations and military defense. Meaning, China Force has authority to defend Hong Kong but does their interaction end there? Do they enjoy more freedom in Hong Kong like the rest of the populace? Are they allowed to own a residence in Hong Kong or are they forced to live in mainland China?
How does Republic of China - or Taiwan - fit into this role? They’re governed by mainland China and are restricted from having any sort of greater role in the world.
The missions they’re told to perform could put them at odds with the world. Is there an unlawful protest about China’s dominance over Tibet? A protest over the lack of human rights? With China Force involved, how do we avoid an incident greater than that of Tiananmen Square? But there could also be a lot of traditional crime to combat with the growing triads created from a growing illegal drug trade due to a growing ‘middle’ class that is responsible for tripling the amount of cars on the roads in a few short years and creating a sort of party/night-life growing and shown during the Summer Olympics. And given China’s rich history there’s a lot to pull from in terms of mysticism and religion.
Potential members of China Force include:
· Radioactive Man
· Collective Man
· The Cat
· Jade Dragon
· Kuan-Yin Xorn
· Shen Xorn
· Radioactive Man returns home to act as the field leader of China Force. He’s a hero to his homeland and villain to the world at large.
· Collective Man is a hero who wishes to inspire change in his country, push for increased rights and human treatment. He joins China Force to act as an inspiration to China and inspire new reforms. Radioactive Man is, naturally, his biggest obstacle to this.
· The Cat joins out of national pride. He may have no love for the Government but the people deserve fair representation and protection from an increasingly dangerous world full of numerous threats.
· Jade Dragon. He’s a traitor to the People’s Republic of China and banned from entering the country. Well, what if he learns that his mother is dying and he needs to see her before time runs out. His petition to return to China puts him in a position where he’s forced to publically condemn his old ways and the influences of the Western Governments that wish to destroy the Communist Government?
· Kuan-Yin Xorn and Shen Xorn are blank slates in our continuity. One good brother with the healing power of a start for a brain. The other a twisted, violent bastard with a destructive black hole in his head.
Available For Proposals
· Europa would be an interesting book to help explore Europe as a whole, as well as the relationships the various nations that make up the European Union have with each other. There’s a fair amount of national pride that exists but the growing dependence each nation has on each other for economic stability, trade and industrial production has forced each nation to interact with each other and develop a blanket authority that has the best interest of Europe in mind, and created a common currency across many of the nations. However, that doesn’t mean each country has the same approach and laws concerning mutants and other super-powered people. I’d also imagine it would be a bruise to the national pride should a British superhero publically save France from a disaster.
Keeping in mind that there’s more to Europe to consider, it could make the book a political mess for the team to deal with as they operate across various borders.
These differences would be interesting to explore as France, for instance, has a poor human rights record in regard to groups. If mutants were organized more along the lines of a traditional minority then they’re likely subject to some oppression. And I know in terms of our X-MEN INITIATIVE we’re looking to expand mutant acceptance, but that’s in regards to the United States currently and will likely grow from there as our line develops.
Germany is super-sensitive about such things (you only need to be a casual observer of history to understand why) so their mutant population is probably publically treated better than most countries in the EU, but that doesn’t mean in private the general population is happy about them.
Spain might have more oppressive laws on the books in relation to mutants than what the U.S. formerly had, but in light of the growing trend to accept mutants the public opinion might be to ignore them entirely like they didn’t exist than bother to deal with them.
In Italy, domestic mutants would get a pretty easy ride if their financial status propelled them to enjoy the high life and the status money brings. Foreign mutants, on the other hand, might get the smelly end of the stick in terms of freedom to operate openly with their powers like natural born mutants would have. The only place inside Italy that might offer some more acceptance would be Rome.
In Belgium, it probably comes down to whether they're Walloons or not. Mutants would probably find more acceptance in countries like Sweden, Denmark or Norway, barring a backlash against terrorist activities.
In Russia, they'd be actively oppressed. In areas like Georgia, Chechnya, etc…probably not so much. In the Balkans, I'd be surprised if they weren't at the top of the heap, if their powers were 'super-y' enough.
However, if it was necessary for the various nations to join together to form the EU, then it would also be necessary for each nation involved to send a representative to create a special team of heroes to protect the interest and the populace of the EU. Using a renovated EuroLab, the new Europa has a mobile base of operations. Whether or not the previous all of the previous Euroforce rejoins to take up the cause, or other European heroes like the Peregrine head up the team, it mixes Euroforce with new heroes.
· Amazon -- Ukrainian
· Argento -- Italian
· Belgian Brain -- Belgian
· Claymore -- Scottish
· Danger -- Danish
· Deep Sight -- British
· Dragonfly -- Dutch
· Flying Carpet -- Turkish
· Gunnar -- Icelandic
· Javelin -- Finnish
· Key -- German
· Magma -- Swedish
· Oracle -- Greece
· Peregrine -- French
· Picaro -- Spanish
· Prodigy -- Polish
· Red Dragon -- Welsh
· Shamrock -- Irish
· Tiger -- French-Algerian
· White Cross -- Switzerland
Available For Proposals
· Canada has reformed Alpha Flight and Department H has never been healthier. Japan has put Big Hero 6 back together and national pride in Japan has never been higher. Europe has created Europa out of the ashes of Euroforce in an attempt to bring the various nations together tighter. China has authorized the re-creation of China Force to protect the mainland from Western Influence. Nations around the world are assembling state sponsored super teams, some because they can and need to respond to potentially destructive threats, and others are doing it as a show of strength in response to neighboring nations. It’s a race that could prove to be a thousand times more devastating than the nuclear arms race.
The Assistant Director of the CSA, Henry Gyrich, see’s this developing global trend and is not a happy man because of it. The United States is lacking in this area, which is something Gyrich is all too aware of considering the super teams that reside on American soil are private or, in the case of the Avengers, sponsored by the United Nations. And he’d be damned if he’s going to rely on the X-Men to protect America’s sovereignty and depend on the Fantastic Four to protect America’s special interest when they’re constantly in some alien dimension risking to bring some alien invasion down upon the country’s head. And he’d be especially damned if he depended on the Avengers to look out for America’s safety.
As it is, Gyrich see’s all of these new teams as a direct threat to America’s safety and reacts in the only possible way he can: create a team specifically designed to protect the United States. With that, he petitions to reactivate and retool an old mothballed project called Freedom Force. And the first name on his list to approach as the Commander of this team is the one person Gyrich believes is uniquely suited for the job: Valerie Cooper.
Valerie Cooper is eager to accept and sets out to recruit a special group of men and women, people who genuinely want to serve their country out of a patriotic sensibility. Val has no time for internal politics and she absolutely has zero patience to black mail and play games to force a team members loyalty. They either want to be a part of Freedom Force, or they don’t. The members chosen are chosen with the idea in mind that these people will represent the U.S. and, with the growing Political Correctness trend both politically and in the media, they have to choose wisely.
Some proposed members of this team are:
· Battlestar
· American Eagle
· Triathlon
· Diamondback
· Fixer
· MACH V
· Shocker
· Vagabond
· Jack Flagg
· Free Spirit
Now, you see Shocker and go...’what’?. Well, there might be an offer of redemption made to some people in this book. Valerie Cooper could visit a superhuman prison and make a stirring speech talking about opportunity and patriotism. Given the audience most of them would roll their eyes and snicker, but in one or two select members of this audience the mental gears could be turning...and at the end of his visit she gets two volunteers.
Available For Proposals
· The Mexican Government is tired of having their country seen as some Third World country full of poverty, crime and drugs. With the growing amount of national super teams on the rise Mexico see’s their chance to claim their stake in the global community by creating the Luchadores Enmascarados - the ‘Masked Fighters’ - to represent the Latin country and stand with their neighbors to the North the United States and Canada. Now is the time for Mexico to become a global powerhouse.
There’s a lot that work in favor of this team from the start as culturally the Mexican’s love the Lucha Libre style of wrestling, where masked wrestlers garbed in colorful and wild costumes battle each other in a representation of good and evil. This natural love would easily translate to superheroes. This team is modeled after this extremely popular form of wrestling, as it stands as the inspiration for these heroes. In Lucha Libre, the masks these wrestlers wear are their identity and their source of power, and the masks create a mystery about the real identity of the man underneath. Most wrestlers wouldn’t be caught dead without their masks when in public and, without their masks, they’d never reveal their other identity.
There are few Mexican heroes in Marvel so this would be a great opportunity to bring a few of the Mexican heroes there are back home and draw inspiration from the International Superhero site to create brand new heroes or translate a few over. Mexico as a whole is a blank slate, save for several real life current events that could translate over to this book.
Available For Proposals
· MI-13 is a division of British Intelligence that deals with superhumans and other paranormal events. They have a cache of advanced technology and mystical resources. Agents of MI-13 can travel to Otherworld and interact and battle creates of fairy tales and myth. The strength of this book is the blending of science and magic all in one event. But who does the British Government tap to run this division? Brian Braddock is the Director of A.R.M.O.R., thanks to his knowledge of alternate universes, and Peter Wisdom is the Chief of the newly formed X.S.E. Maybe they go to Union Jack to tap into his extensive knowledge of counter-terrorism to create a team of super spies.
What makes this book slightly different from the other books is that this is slightly more militaristic. They focus on Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence. And they’re afforded that by the formation of Europa - the superhero team of Europe. Think of James Bond with superheroes. Infiltrating countries like Russia and China to gather intelligence about Winter Guard and China Force. What are these countries motivations, where are they going and how does it affect the safety of Britain?
· Black Knight
· Destroyer
· Fazia Hussain
· Lionheart
· Tangerine
· Union Jack
Gavin Devlin
· Omega Flight is a simple premise: black ops. Omega Flight doesn’t exist and consequently the members of Omega Flight no longer exist either. Where other Flights have jurisdiction and authority, Omega Flight has neither. The very nature of this team means that borders don’t mean a thing to them. Only thing that means a damn to Omega Flight is that if they get caught or killed Canada will deny any involvement in Omega Flights mission and deny any knowledge or sponsorship of this team and they’ll condemn whatever actions they’ve been accused of.
The missions may be too much for some on this team, but they agreed to join this team and now they must live with the consequences of their actions.
· Man-Bot
· Pathway
· Radius
· Vindicator
· Windshear
· Yukon Jack
Gavin Devlin
· Russia is nation that is still struggling to maintain their façade of strength and dominance that was created during their years as the Soviet Union. The biggest vulnerability Russia faces lies in the decisions made by her leaders as they fight to redefine the country’s identity in a Post-Communist time while stumbling around in the dark to find their direction in an ever changing political world. The threats to Russia’s prosperity aren’t limited to those opportunists outside of her borders that would prey on an uncertain country with a growing middle-class and an increasingly desperate poor weighing on the stressed economy.
One solution proposed by Colonel Vazhin, of the newly-formed Kremlin Defense Force, sought to counter the likely increase in superpowered crime by those who would target the weak for their own personal gain as Russia’s wealth increased: the Winter Guard. Organized under the Black Widow, Natasha Romanova, this manifestation of Winter Guard is designed to be the Avengers of Russia: proud heroes that would represent Russia to the world and inspire her citizens with pride.
The crisis of identity is a theme that permeates throughout the entire book. Black Widow returns home after several long years away and must readjust not just to a land that looks like home, but doesn’t feel like home and lead a team of uncertain heroes. Others of the roster must adjust from being soldiers to being regarded as heroes, while others must adjust from operating solo to working within a team setting and others struggle with adjusting to representing a new set of ideals that they might not agree with.
· Airstrike
· Black Widow
· Crimson Dynamo
· Darkstar
· Fantasia
· Red Guardian
· Sibercat
· Starshine
· Ursa Major
· Vanguard
Another book that's coming soon that I suggest you keep your eyes open for:
Next: the SUPERNATURAL books.
