Revamp a Hero....

[Pav]

I have not forgotten a detail about Dusk! She is the most intriguing character on the team!

More importantly: THE SLINGERS ARE COMING BACK!

WHO NEEDS PYM PARTICLES?

BUY SCARLET SPIDER!

-Pav, who actually would like to see Eric O'Grady show up in Spidey comics...

EDIT: Revamping the Slingers

They need no revamping. They are amazing, and all they need is Ben Reilly leading them.

[Crimz]

Decided to go into detail of my Invisible Woman revamp:

Invisible Woman

Origin

It stays pretty much the same. The only difference is that she didn't finish medical school because she had problems doing it as well as raising Johnny, this plus the situation with her father may effect her confidence. This would explain why she had a lack of confidence in her Invisible Girl days.
She wanted to be a surgeon like her father because that's how she remembered him best before he went to prison, as a brilliant surgeon and father. She joins Reed on the rocket because she has a love for adventure at heart and she's a bit of a adrenaline junkie (but she'd never admit it). Being an adrenaline junkie should be a Storm family trait.
I wouldn't really change anything else from her early days of the FF as part of what makes her great is her growth from then.

Present Sue Storm-Richards

She's always wanted to complete her medical training, but commitments to the FF and her kids prevented that. Now that the kids are old enough to not need her 24/7 she decides to finally go back to school and finish it. There are several ways this can be done, but for convenience I'll say that she does her training with the Future Foundation while they are off rebuilding the multiverse. The foundation should have the things required for training and it is a legal educational institution, likely the best on Earth. The time it takes can also be subverted as space/time can easily run differently so that it feels like 20 years have passed, but no aging has occurred. When the Fantastic Four come back she could be a fully fledged doctor/surgeon.

Some worry that making her a doctor would infringe on Reeds scientific territory, but it won't. Reed's main field is physics and his job doesn't require being with many people often as he often shuts himself away from the world, that's the opposite of what Sue's field would be. Being a doctor/surgeon requires interacting with many people and being personable like Sue really helps. She won't be a cold, fact-only scientist she'd be an approachable doctor.

Skills

Trained doctor/surgeon
Martial arts (trained by Iron Fist)
Some acting

Powers

Her powers are great as is and they continually grow naturally as time goes on. I'll just keep up that gradual growth and make her use her invisibility powers more often and creatively. Her powers also make her able to perform meticulous surgical operations.

The Goal of all this

The goal is for her to not only have a useful role on the Fantastic Four, but also for her to be involved outside of the team. She is the member who rarely appears in other books away from the others and that needs to change. Her being a doctor/surgeon paired with her powers make her an invaluable asset to the greater Marvel Universe. She'd be able to operate on super-powered beings with durable skin as she can make it invisible and use her force-fields internally. This means she'd be the go-to doctor for a lot of superheroes and super-powered civilians.

I'd make a book about her opening her own surgery for Super-powered individuals along with Night Nurse and Cecelia Reyes. They'd treat hero, villain, human, mutant, alien, inhuman and anyone who needs help. Sometimes they'd have to go onto the field of battle to help out which come with it's own unique complications. I think that it would be a great book that can tackle some interesting concepts, like the ethics of treating villains or how to handle groups that hate each other (Inhumans and Mutants).


Hope this all makes sense and hope that people like this idea. I've been thinking about it for a long time. May post this in her appreciation thread too later.

[Huntsman Spider]

I have not forgotten a detail about Dusk! She is the most intriguing character on the team!

More importantly: THE SLINGERS ARE COMING BACK!

WHO NEEDS PYM PARTICLES?

BUY SCARLET SPIDER!

-Pav, who actually would like to see Eric O'Grady show up in Spidey comics...

EDIT: Revamping the Slingers

They need no revamping. They are amazing, and all they need is Ben Reilly leading them.

Eric O'Grady as an antagonist/foil to Spider-Man would be truly amazing, because while it's often overlooked, Peter Parker could have easily turned out similarly to O'Grady --- a selfish jerk always looking out for himself with no care for how it affects others --- if not for Uncle Ben's death "teaching" him what happens when great power is used with great irresponsibility. O'Grady is basically a Peter Parker who never learned that lesson and by the time he did, it was too late for it to really sink in for him, so having him there to remind Spider-Man of what he could have become would be a very interesting dynamic between them.

Decided to go into detail of my Invisible Woman revamp:

Invisible Woman

Origin

It stays pretty much the same. The only difference is that she didn't finish medical school because she had problems doing it as well as raising Johnny, this plus the situation with her father may effect her confidence. This would explain why she had a lack of confidence in her Invisible Girl days.
She wanted to be a surgeon like her father because that's how she remembered him best before he went to prison, as a brilliant surgeon and father. She joins Reed on the rocket because she has a love for adventure at heart and she's a bit of a adrenaline junkie (but she'd never admit it). Being an adrenaline junkie should be a Storm family trait.
I wouldn't really change anything else from her early days of the FF as part of what makes her great is her growth from then.

Present Sue Storm-Richards

She's always wanted to complete her medical training, but commitments to the FF and her kids prevented that. Now that the kids are old enough to not need her 24/7 she decides to finally go back to school and finish it. There are several ways this can be done, but for convenience I'll say that she does her training with the Future Foundation while they are off rebuilding the multiverse. The foundation should have the things required for training and it is a legal educational institution, likely the best on Earth. The time it takes can also be subverted as space/time can easily run differently so that it feels like 20 years have passed, but no aging has occurred. When the Fantastic Four come back she could be a fully fledged doctor/surgeon.

Some worry that making her a doctor would infringe on Reeds scientific territory, but it won't. Reed's main field is physics and his job doesn't require being with many people often as he often shuts himself away from the world, that's the opposite of what Sue's field would be. Being a doctor/surgeon requires interacting with many people and being personable like Sue really helps. She won't be a cold, fact-only scientist she'd be an approachable doctor.

Skills

Trained doctor/surgeon
Martial arts (trained by Iron Fist)
Some acting

Powers

Her powers are great as is and they continually grow naturally as time goes on. I'll just keep up that gradual growth and make her use her invisibility powers more often and creatively. Her powers also make her able to perform meticulous surgical operations.

The Goal of all this

The goal is for her to not only have a useful role on the Fantastic Four, but also for her to be involved outside of the team. She is the member who rarely appears in other books away from the others and that needs to change. Her being a doctor/surgeon paired with her powers make her an invaluable asset to the greater Marvel Universe. She'd be able to operate on super-powered beings with durable skin as she can make it invisible and use her force-fields internally. This means she'd be the go-to doctor for a lot of superheroes and super-powered civilians.

I'd make a book about her opening her own surgery for Super-powered individuals along with Night Nurse and Cecelia Reyes. They'd treat hero, villain, human, mutant, alien, inhuman and anyone who needs help. Sometimes they'd have to go onto the field of battle to help out which come with it's own unique complications. I think that it would be a great book that can tackle some interesting concepts, like the ethics of treating villains or how to handle groups that hate each other (Inhumans and Mutants).


Hope this all makes sense and hope that people like this idea. I've been thinking about it for a long time. May post this in her appreciation thread too later.

I actually like it a lot, and it would be a good way to expand her role in the greater Marvel Universe without "infringing" on Reed's territory.

[AdamFTF]

Jubilee

Get rid of the vamparism as so many powers make a character Over Powered (She has six separate Vampire the Requiem disciplines by 9/15/2017). Restore her mutant abilities and have her start Using her powers like Bakugou from My Hero Academia, and have Child Protective Services take over Shogo because child abduction is kind of messed up.

Have her go on an arc "Why am I a super hero", Jubilee is a fighter, and she is not criminally inclined (besides petty theft), and takes not pleasure in harming others. But have her ask "Whats my plan? what are my long term goals? Where do I see myself in 5-10 years?

"I am a fighter, but why do I fight is it compulsion or philosophy?" She was trained by Banshee and Emma Frost and her father figure is Wolverine, members if her team's have died in front of her very eyes she is a psychological goldmine.

I agree about getting her powers back to basics but disagree about Shogo. I like the little guy and her taking him in fits with greater themes about "finding a family" that have always been part of the character.

The biggest problem with Jubilee over the course of her existence is that she rarely had any agency. The reason being that she was designed to be the viewpoint kid character. I remember back in the '90s they even used to act like she had some kind of rebellious attitude because rebellious attitudes were cool back then. But since she was never really allowed to do anything, it just manifested as her complaining a lot. So, usually, stuff just happens to her. And on the rare occasions that she does make choices and decisions, those are some of her best and most memorable moments. Whether or not you liked her New Warriors stint or her taking in Shogo, they were memorable. The surprisingly long stint after Gen X where she was largely just a damsel-in-distress for Logan: forgettable. And now she's gone from a rebel who couldn't rebel to an authority figure.

I agree to some extent with your ideas. Notably the questions you want her to ask. It suggests an attempt by Jubilee to take some control over her life. Because there's got to be a point where survivors stop surviving and start living. One thing I would like to play up with Jubilee is that she's been on both sides of the poverty line. She was the stuck-up rich kid, but she was also the streetwise teenage runaway. That should give her a unique viewpoint, especially regarding how fleeting some things in life are. In keeping with that and the idea of surviving/having little control over one's life, maybe make her a hero who has a special yen for helping kids on the fringes. You know: homeless kids, runaways, throwaways, kids in foster care. Maybe not for every story, but just as part of her greater milieu.

[DJ1107]

Nadia Pym: Reinvent her so that she's smart enough to know what the internet is to look up that the heroes of the Marvel Universe aren't these super-duper-paragons of greatness she & every other of this moronic waste of a generation of heroes precieve them as & to give her a better personality that isn't annoyingly off-putting cheery or a blubbering mess for the most asinine thing.

[Matternativ]

Hawkeye (Clint): No more, relatable every day man. Give him a new custome including a mask, give him back the Skycycle and let him do some over the top super heroics again.

[Michael Watkins]

I have not forgotten a detail about Dusk! She is the most intriguing character on the team!

More importantly: THE SLINGERS ARE COMING BACK!

WHO NEEDS PYM PARTICLES?

BUY SCARLET SPIDER!

-Pav, who actually would like to see Eric O'Grady show up in Spidey comics...

EDIT: Revamping the Slingers

They need no revamping. They are amazing, and all they need is Ben Reilly leading them.

Technically, I didn't revamp them. I had Eric steal Eddie's costume; after Wolverine murdered the latter. I'm good with Ben leading what's left of them. They could easily replace Hornet with one of the thousands of unused teen heroes or spider-themed spin offs. Ex. Grasshopper, a Bluebird, a new Locust, Hummingbird, Buzz, etc. just seems ridiculous to not set aside Hornet for the Pym legacy. There are only so many names available. Eric is stuck with Black Ant.

[Sutekh]

THE AVENGERS + THE PYM LEGACY PT 1

Wow, this is all cool! There's a lot of stuff in their backstory that could easily be developed.

My own thoughts on tweaking Janet and Hank's backstory were;

1) Hank's first wife didn't get killed by Soviet spies, she faked her death and went back to Russia because she *was* a Soviet spy, who had infiltrated the American scientific community, married one of it's top researchers, and been smuggling his information out, but felt that she was about to be discovered, and milked this cow for all it was worth. She was Red Room trained, and returned with a headful of secrets about AI and parallel processing and insect communication research, because she left *before* Pym discovered Pym particles, and gosh, did she get raked over the coals for that, abandoning her mission before the 'good stuff!' Still, just with what she had left with, she's now the 'Swarm Queen' of the science city of Koltsovo, with a dozen chip-implanted 'drones' who follow her mental commands through a technologically-connected 'hive.' She's super-pissed at Hank for not telling her that he was on the brink of discovering Pym particles, which would have been an enormous triumph for her to return with, and helps run the former Soviet Super-Soldier program, which grows seven foot plus mildly super-strong dudes to pilot the Crimson Dynamo and Titanium Man armors, working under the mutant super-genius Gremlin (until Iron Man kills him, and frees up advancement options for her...).

Whether or not other geniuses, like Reed, or Tony, or even Victor, were similarly targeted by Red Room operatives out to learn their technical secrets, would be a story for another day.

2) Janet was a young socialite heiress, known for showing up in the most elegant gowns with fancy long gloves. She seemed to be starting her own fad, but only her father and a few others knew that she had to wear these clingy flesh-covering outfits to keep her mutant bio-electric touch from electrocuting anyone she bumped into. Daddy von Dyne, at wits end to find a 'cure' for his mutant daughter's 'affliction,' found out about a genius wunderkind working for the government who already had breakthroughs in subjects as diverse as computers, entomology and particle physics, and offered to fund the young geniuses fourth PHD in genetics, if he could find something more effective than insulated clothing for his daughter. Working together in the lab for months eventually led to Janet breaking Hank out of his shell and 'chasing him until he caught her.' He also managed to develop a training regimen to allow her to control her bio-electrical generation, so that, without any sort of 'mutant cure' at all, she could control whether or not she shocked someone, originally by discharging her bio-electricity into bulky batteries, but later into slimmer bracelets, that she could tap again later and use as weapons to project her electricity at range (first in taser like 'stings,' later as actual blasts). Enamored of the many cool inventions of her new boyfriend, Janet convinced him to share his Pym particle induced shrinking with her, and even to put that entomology degree to work with the newfound knowledge of genetics to design the new antennae and wings that she would sport as the winsome Wasp.

3) Hank always had a bit of an inferiority complex about fellow geniuses like Stark and Richards, and learned to 'cheat' with Pym particles. He observed (well, Janet pointed it out, but it should have been perfectly obvious) that he was just as smart when he was small enough to ride on an ant as he was at full size, despite having only enough brains at that size as would fit in a hollowed-out pinhead. Somehow, he was able to access his full-sized brains worth of 'smarts,' even when 99.99% of that full-size brain was shunted into another dimension entirely, and, if that was the case, then there was no reason why he shouldn't be able to access a sixty-foot-tall Giant-Man's worth of brains *at human size.* It took some tinkering, as the 'brains' like everything else the particles became (bones, blood, muscle, etc.) was naturally inclined to turn back into undifferentiated matter in that other place, but with the proper life-support matrix, he could maintain a massive 'back up brain' in 'Pymspace,' that would become part of his body when he grew large enough to contain it in his Giant-Man skull, and then sluice back into it's life-support chamber when he shrank down to human size again, and yet still remain 'connected' to his human-sized brain, giving him vastly increased processing power and memory storage, and, maybe, the slightest bit of mental instability...

[Pav]

Technically, I didn't revamp them. I had Eric steal Eddie's costume; after Wolverine murdered the latter. I'm good with Ben leading what's left of them. They could easily replace Hornet with one of the thousands of unused teen heroes or spider-themed spin offs. Ex. Grasshopper, a Bluebird, a new Locust, Hummingbird, Buzz, etc. just seems ridiculous to not set aside Hornet for the Pym legacy. There are only so many names available. Eric is stuck with Black Ant.

FINDERS KEEPERS!

-Pav, who won't give up Hornet without a fight...

[Michael Watkins]

FINDERS KEEPERS!

-Pav, who won't give up Hornet without a fight...

I wouldn't respect you, if you did.

[Michael Watkins]

Eric O'Grady as an antagonist/foil to Spider-Man would be truly amazing, because while it's often overlooked, Peter Parker could have easily turned out similarly to O'Grady --- a selfish jerk always looking out for himself with no care for how it affects others --- if not for Uncle Ben's death "teaching" him what happens when great power is used with great irresponsibility. O'Grady is basically a Peter Parker who never learned that lesson and by the time he did, it was too late for it to really sink in for him, so having him there to remind Spider-Man of what he could have become would be a very interesting dynamic between them.

I think being bookish/intelligence and kind of frail helped Peter. if he had looked like Flash Thompson/had his physical skill, he might have turned out a lot like Eric. the latter wasn't Flash. but he could have very well have been one of those nameless guys who hung around Flash like remora; exploiting his popularity and bullying guys like Peter. I like to think that there was something inside of Peter (same thing inside of Steve Rogers) that led him down the path of heroism. he had just never been tested; living too safe of a life. Uncle Ben's death reminded him of who he really was. Eric, on the other hand, wanted to be a hero or (at least) be seen as a hero. it's why he joined S.H.I.E.L.D (well that and because it was an easier path than college). but, according to Kirkman, he had been taking advantage of his friend Chris for a long time. the first time that Eric was tested, he pushed his best friend shot in the head. that was his Uncle Ben moment. except there were no lessons in it. Chris was dead. Eric's alive and has a super suit. with great power comes great opportunity. it's a good thing that he wasn't smarter or more ambitious. he would have been as bad as Otto or Parker Robbins. don't get me wrong. I loved watching his journey towards heroism. and I knew that they'd kill him the moment that he did something truly selfless. but the backslide was inevitable. he lacks what Peter had on the inside.

[Michael Watkins]

Wow, this is all cool! There's a lot of stuff in their backstory that could easily be developed.

thanks

My own thoughts on tweaking Janet and Hank's backstory were;

1) Hank's first wife didn't get killed by Soviet spies, she faked her death and went back to Russia because she *was* a Soviet spy, who had infiltrated the American scientific community, married one of it's top researchers, and been smuggling his information out, but felt that she was about to be discovered, and milked this cow for all it was worth.

interesting. throws a little intrigue into the story. the original really glossed over something that should have been a bigger deal. she was his fiancée; for pete's-sake.

She was Red Room trained, and returned with a headful of secrets about AI and parallel processing and insect communication research, because she left *before* Pym discovered Pym particles, and gosh, did she get raked over the coals for that, abandoning her mission before the 'good stuff!' Still, just with what she had left with, she's now the 'Swarm Queen' of the science city of Koltsovo, with a dozen chip-implanted 'drones' who follow her mental commands through a technologically-connected 'hive.'

I like the supervillainess angle (they originally intended Scott's ex/Cassie's mother to be a costumed villainess). I'm not sold on the name Swarm Queen. it's a mouthful. but it's hard to name bee-related characters. :shrugs: I can't think of anything better. and names were kind of goofy back then. I would have just called her 'The Queen,' 'Wasp Woman,' 'Madame Vespa,' or something equally corny. back to your revamp... (p.s. a lot of this sounds like the treatment I was doing for Kashmir Venema. I had planned to make her a full-time member of Wasp's rogues gallery. and she's already been shown to use mechanical wasps.)

She's super-pissed at Hank for not telling her that he was on the brink of discovering Pym particles, which would have been an enormous triumph for her to return with, and helps run the former Soviet Super-Soldier program, which grows seven foot plus mildly super-strong dudes to pilot the Crimson Dynamo and Titanium Man armors, working under the mutant super-genius Gremlin (until Iron Man kills him, and frees up advancement options for her...).

I can understand why she'd want those Pym particles, then. there is actual marvel history that suggests that they were after it (see: "Worm Man" from Tales to Astonish). maybe the secrets to their old formula were lost w/ their famed spy The Worm Man; leading them to embed Maria w/ Pym.

2) Janet was a young socialite heiress, known for showing up in the most elegant gowns with fancy long gloves. She seemed to be starting her own fad, but only her father and a few others knew that she had to wear these clingy flesh-covering outfits to keep her mutant bio-electric touch from electrocuting anyone she bumped into.

so the first mutant Avenger, then.

Daddy von Dyne, at wits end to find a 'cure' for his mutant daughter's 'affliction,' found out about a genius wunderkind working for the government who already had breakthroughs in subjects as diverse as computers, entomology and particle physics, and offered to fund the young geniuses fourth PHD in genetics, if he could find something more effective than insulated clothing for his daughter. Working together in the lab for months eventually led to Janet breaking Hank out of his shell and 'chasing him until he caught her.'

automatically better than my revamp. this is what I was hoping for, when I started the thread.

He also managed to develop a training regimen to allow her to control her bio-electrical generation, so that, without any sort of 'mutant cure' at all, she could control whether or not she shocked someone, originally by discharging her bio-electricity into bulky batteries, but later into slimmer bracelets, that she could tap again later and use as weapons to project her electricity at range (first in taser like 'stings,' later as actual blasts). Enamored of the many cool inventions of her new boyfriend, Janet convinced him to share his Pym particle induced shrinking with her, and even to put that entomology degree to work with the newfound knowledge of genetics to design the new antennae and wings that she would sport as the winsome Wasp.

well at least she's bringing something to the relationship/partnership. I like that it starts with Pym seeing her a potential problem to solve; that it's scientific curiousity that kicks off the relationship. it's also very old school sci fi/universal monster-ish. being able to generate excess bioelectricity can be comic-book-science-d into other useful stuff. it could explain enhanced strength or athleticism; if needed.

3) Hank always had a bit of an inferiority complex about fellow geniuses like Stark and Richards, and learned to 'cheat' with Pym particles.

cutting corners. great way to set up Ultron.

He observed (well, Janet pointed it out, but it should have been perfectly obvious) that he was just as smart when he was small enough to ride on an ant as he was at full size, despite having only enough brains at that size as would fit in a hollowed-out pinhead. Somehow, he was able to access his full-sized brains worth of 'smarts,' even when 99.99% of that full-size brain was shunted into another dimension entirely, and, if that was the case, then there was no reason why he shouldn't be able to access a sixty-foot-tall Giant-Man's worth of brains *at human size.* It took some tinkering, as the 'brains' like everything else the particles became (bones, blood, muscle, etc.) was naturally inclined to turn back into undifferentiated matter in that other place, but with the proper life-support matrix, he could maintain a massive 'back up brain' in 'Pymspace,' that would become part of his body when he grew large enough to contain it in his Giant-Man skull, and then sluice back into it's life-support chamber when he shrank down to human size again, and yet still remain 'connected' to his human-sized brain, giving him vastly increased processing power and memory storage, and, maybe, the slightest bit of mental instability...

niice! kudos! I could see some of that actually turning up in continuity. they already posited that Reed could cheat with his ability to reconfigure his brain. and there was Tony's extremis. Beast could have easily given his own evolution a push. why not Pym? don't be surprised if some of this shows up in my revamps of the Pym Legacy; at some point. you should do Scott and Cassie or, heck, any of the other Pym particle users; next.

[Michael Watkins]

Decided to go into detail of my Invisible Woman revamp:

I was wondering when you were going to show up.

Invisible Woman

It stays pretty much the same. The only difference is that she didn't finish medical school because she had problems doing it as well as raising Johnny, this plus the situation with her father may effect her confidence. This would explain why she had a lack of confidence in her Invisible Girl days.

great addition. right away, she's portrayed as someone with untapped/unfinished potential and selfless.

She wanted to be a surgeon like her father because that's how she remembered him best before he went to prison, as a brilliant surgeon and father. She joins Reed on the rocket because she has a love for adventure at heart and she's a bit of a adrenaline junkie (but she'd never admit it). Being an adrenaline junkie should be a Storm family trait.

sure. I never liked the rocket flight part of it. but whatever gets us from point A to point B...

Present Sue Storm-Richards

She's always wanted to complete her medical training, but commitments to the FF and her kids prevented that. Now that the kids are old enough to not need her 24/7 she decides to finally go back to school and finish it. There are several ways this can be done, but for convenience I'll say that she does her training with the Future Foundation while they are off rebuilding the multiverse. The foundation should have the things required for training and it is a legal educational institution, likely the best on Earth. The time it takes can also be subverted as space/time can easily run differently so that it feels like 20 years have passed, but no aging has occurred. When the Fantastic Four come back she could be a fully fledged doctor/surgeon.

most of the problem was solved by her having already been in medical school. it's less of a jump from that than being an unemployed aspiring actress (those were the times).

Some worry that making her a doctor would infringe on Reeds scientific territory,

I'm not one of those people. I think it makes Reed seem less shallow and her a more believable partner/equal. it also suits her powers.

Her powers are great as is and they continually grow naturally as time goes on. I'll just keep up that gradual growth and make her use her invisibility powers more often and creatively. Her powers also make her able to perform meticulous surgical operations.

I'm good with her starting out seeming to be the weakest but have the capacity to be the most formidable of them; her powers requiring exploration and finesse to fully utilize.

The goal is for her to not only have a useful role on the Fantastic Four, but also for her to be involved outside of the team. She is the member who rarely appears in other books away from the others and that needs to change. Her being a doctor/surgeon paired with her powers make her an invaluable asset to the greater Marvel Universe. She'd be able to operate on super-powered beings with durable skin as she can make it invisible and use her force-fields internally. This means she'd be the go-to doctor for a lot of superheroes and super-powered civilians.

goal accomplished

I'd make a book about her opening her own surgery for Super-powered individuals along with Night Nurse and Cecelia Reyes. They'd treat hero, villain, human, mutant, alien, inhuman and anyone who needs help. Sometimes they'd have to go onto the field of battle to help out which come with it's own unique complications. I think that it would be a great book that can tackle some interesting concepts, like the ethics of treating villains or how to handle groups that hate each other (Inhumans and Mutants).

sounds good on paper. not sure how exciting that would be in actuality; it would almost need to be live-action. I'd just focus on her as a person; juggling her many roles, superheroine, mother, surgeon, etc. I don't need her to be performing specifically on the super set. it's ok for her to save the life of an ordinary individual and then step outside to flatten the wrecking crew. it would have to be a juggling act.

[Michael Watkins]

THE FALCON/SAM WILSON


I'm working backwards on this one. if someone doesn't like Sam, why do they dislike him? why do they see him as illegitimate? what kind of person could they see being a contender for the SHIELD?

one thing that I really liked about Sam in the Winter Soldier movie was that he had a regular joe demeanor but also an unrevealed set of skills. Sam has one of the most comic book-y origins that I've read; complicated for the sake of being complicated. so there's this guy in Harlem who trains falcons. a group of men living on a tropical island wanted a hunting bird, so they hired Sam. and they turned out to be Nazis. hilarity ensues. next there was the Snap Wilson origin. but, y'know what. I'm not even going to delve. it has nothing to do with my goals. I want Sam to be someone you could easily see as being a fill-in for Steve (but who wouldn't desire the mantle).

Captain America, as he often does, would chase the Red Skull (or information to a Red Skull operation) back to one of his many bases. only it would be during a brief period where Steve's serum is acting up. he has the skills but lacks the rest of the augmentation. this island base would be used to train new recruits to the Skull's army. Sam would be a special forces operative that got caught up in all of this, captured, and taken to the island as a party favor (forced to fight other prisoners, fight Hydra recruits, and, ultimately, to be hunted like wild game). I would just want an origin that allows Sam to stand out/strut his stuff without being the main character. anyways, Rogers would show up and maybe have to do a short stay as a prisoner (enough time to learn about Sam and what kind of man he is). he'd probably get an opportunity to fight Sam before they team up and lead everyone out of there. they'd say their goodbyes. but maybe Steve would say something to Sam; that eventually inspires him to try his hand at costumed heroism (maybe after seeing that social work or politics aren't getting the job done in his neighborhood).

anyways, Cap would see him doing this and offer to help. they'd partner up enough times to become good friends. I like the idea of him having the mechanical drone. I, personally, think the idea of him calling a bird his brother (and a lot of the other trappings of his bird control power are a little goofy & take away from his regular guy image) but I also understand why people have grown accustomed to him having a bird. I'd say that they used birds in his special forces unit; like the Navy uses dolphins or the military uses dogs. I'd say that he kept one and named it Redwing. but he'd love the bird enough not to put it in harm's way. so he'd go into battle with a drone; dubbed "Redwing II." in general, he'd a very skilled @$$kicker; the prisoner that was most prized as a fighter on Skull Island. in another life, he would be training people to fight; as an occupation. you get the picture. I don't need it but, at some point, I have a story in mind where Captain America has to face a mind-controlled Sam (who had been missing for an extended period of time/maybe even believed to be dead). and the person who is pulling his strings (I'm guessing the Skull) would have augmented Sam with some knockoff of the Super Soldier Serum. before you object, consider that Jack Munroe, Bucky Barnes, and Mockingbird have all benefited from similar treatments (although Bobbi's at the higher end of that scale/Sam would be at the lower end of peak human). why not Sam? it's not to make him more than human. and it's something that was done to him. he wouldn't have chosen it.

[Huntsman Spider]

I think being bookish/intelligence and kind of frail helped Peter. if he had looked like Flash Thompson/had his physical skill, he might have turned out a lot like Eric. the latter wasn't Flash. but he could have very well have been one of those nameless guys who hung around Flash like remora; exploiting his popularity and bullying guys like Peter. I like to think that there was something inside of Peter (same thing inside of Steve Rogers) that led him down the path of heroism. he had just never been tested; living too safe of a life. Uncle Ben's death reminded him of who he really was. Eric, on the other hand, wanted to be a hero or (at least) be seen as a hero. it's why he joined S.H.I.E.L.D (well that and because it was an easier path than college). but, according to Kirkman, he had been taking advantage of his friend Chris for a long time. the first time that Eric was tested, he pushed his best friend shot in the head. that was his Uncle Ben moment. except there were no lessons in it. Chris was dead. Eric's alive and has a super suit. with great power comes great opportunity. it's a good thing that he wasn't smarter or more ambitious. he would have been as bad as Otto or Parker Robbins. don't get me wrong. I loved watching his journey towards heroism. and I knew that they'd kill him the moment that he did something truly selfless. but the backslide was inevitable. he lacks what Peter had on the inside.

That's a pretty good analysis of Peter's character vs. Eric's, come to think of it. I also like your take on how to revamp Sam Wilson.

As for my own revamp ideas . . . well, I wouldn't outright revamp so much as refine, because a lot of the character I'd "revamp" has already been established so well, I'd just touch up a few things here and there. For example, where did the spider that bit him come from before it got irradiated, and why would ordinary radiation enable a spider to bequeath its abilities to a human in its final moments rather than just give the human cancer? Answer: The exhibit was actually of a newly discovered radioactive isotope that amplified the properties of whatever it was exposed to (ISO-8 from all the Marvel mobile games), and the amplified properties of the spider venom also served to amplify his own bodily functions and capacities once it bonded with his biochemistry and nervous system. As for the spider, it was an experimental subject in enhancing and harnessing the actual medicinal properties of spider venom to induce faster recovery from certain ailments in humans, and given that different experiments can be carried out in the same facility, all it took was a little bit of carelessness for the spider to wander out and get exposed to the new isotope.

Then there's the matter of his particular power-set. Spiders are not given nearly enough credit for their strength and speed, proportional to their size. If a spider can lift up to 170 times its own weight, and Spider-Man's powers are the abilities of a spider scaled up to human size, then he should be able to lift 14 tons. Spiders are also capable of crossing distances up to 70 times their own body length in a second, so if we scale that up to human size as well, a spider-powered human should be capable of running at speeds far north of 200mph --- precisely speaking, 278.41 miles per hour. Spiders stick to surfaces because the hairs on their body generate a form of static cling through Van der Waals forces, and Spider-Man's skin does the same through excessively high bioelectricity, and his strength and speed enable him to carry and maneuver his own weight over the surfaces he climbs. Additionally, those hairs are very sensitive, even hypersensitive, to vibrations and currents in the air, which is how spiders are able to detect and pounce on potential prey or evade potential predators. Similarly, Spider-Man's senses are hyper-attuned to his environment, and work so fast and extensively that the only way to prevent total sensory overload is for his brain to operate these senses at mostly subconscious levels, his conscious mind processing the rush of information as a tingle at the base of his brain stem that spreads throughout his entire nervous system and causes his body to move reflexively to avoid the danger. However, it should be made clear that the enhanced spider venom spreading through his system doesn't give him any new organs that he didn't have already --- meaning no spinnerets --- it simply augments and adapts his body to emulate a spider's abilities as much as possible.

How does he exploit these new abilities? By sneaking into underground MMA (mixed martial arts) clubs and practicing on everyone there, soon dominating the underground circuit and becoming quite cocky and arrogant in the process, which begins to bleed into his civilian persona, much to the dismay of his beloved uncle and aunt. Of course, he learns a lesson about where his arrogance leads when he runs into a thief on his way home from his latest victory and doesn't bother stopping him, because he doesn't see it as his problem, only for said thief to burglarize a house and kill a man in the process when said man tries to fight back. In a tragic coincidence, that man is his uncle, and our protagonist is out for the thief's blood, only to realize upon cornering him that he's the same thief he ignored as himself, not caring at the time what the thief would or could go on to do. Crushed by guilt and self-loathing, he drops the thief-turned-killer into the custody of the police chasing him, and departs the scene to reflect on what he's done and what he could or should have done, coming to the conclusion that he should have done better and been better . . . and that's exactly what he has to be from now on, better. No, not just better . . . Amazing. Here comes the Spider-Man.

Does he work for The Daily Bugle in his civilian identity? Yes, but in a much different capacity than usual. He works in the Bugle's online and social media department, keeping it free of bots and spam and viruses and malware while also spreading its presence through the Internet to new generations of readers, listeners, and viewers. Ironically, the Bugle's founder and owner, J. Jonah Jameson, constantly writes and/or posts articles demonizing Spider-Man, smearing him as a reckless vigilante or even no better than the criminals he "claims" to fight, completely unaware that he is actually employing Spider-Man. Then again, the Spider-Man articles, whether pro or anti, do seem to get lots of clicks and likes and shares, so who cares, right?