Which Marvel villains would you choose to become the new Cabal?
This would have to be a team that could rival the Avengers, X-Men or Fantastic Four in power and effectiveness as a team. When these guys have their shit together they could conquer the planet.
My choices would be:
Mandarin: He would be the mastermind behind the whole operation. The CEO of the company, but without the others really knowing he was pulling all the strings. His genius intellect, incredible strategic mind, world class martial arts skills coupled with the enormous power of the 10 rings make Mandarin the perfect choice to lead this new Cabal. He has manoeuvred himself into controlling not only the Asian criminal empires, but also conquered Madripoor and has seized control of The Hand.
Count Nefaria: After cementing himself as the new Kingpin of crime, Nefaria has become the resident powerhouse of the Cabal. His Superman-esque powers make him a team wrecking threat on his own, able to go toe to tow with entire Avengers line-ups, including heavyweights such as Thor, Wonderman, She-Hulk, Iron Man and Vision to name a few. When he's around, there is going to be one hell of a fight on the heroes hands.
Dracula: The Lord of Monsters, commander in chief of the Vampire Nation, an army of superhuman undead soldiers willing to die for their Master. Add in the fact he's a friggin beast himself on the battlefield and he's a handy addition to the Cabal. He's a veritable Swiss-Army knife of superpowers: superhuman (Class 10) strength, speed, reflexes, senses, healing, flight, can turn to mist, control wolves/bats/rats, shape-shift into a giant bat-human hybrid, control thunder and lighting as well as extremely powerful hypnosis/mind-control. Add in centuries of combat experience, being a master swordsman AND has knowledge of magic and the occult and Dracula is a force to be reckoned with.
Graviton: With his power and scientific acumen, he could easily take over A.I.M. and have it act as a proxy to the Cabal. Capable of handling entire Avengers rosters on his own, throw in A.I.M's armies behind him and he'd be nigh-invincible. He's basically Magneto without the moral compass. World shaking might unburdened by the weakness of morality. Piss him off enough and he'll crack the planet in two.
Mr Sinister: Extremely powerful telepath, unparalleled geneticist, gifted strategist, complete control over his molecular structure, telekinesis, forcefields, teleportation, Class 10 strength, immortality and regeneration. What more do you want in your resident science nerd? Of course he'll be hatching schemes behind everyone's backs and more than likely trying to create a clone army using his team mates genetics, but he wouldn't be Sinister if he didn't try. Perhaps that's the price of hiring him, since he is so good at what he does? Sinister will help you conquer the world if you give him a sample of your blood? Fair deal!
Baron Mordo: The teams mystical weapon of mass destruction. Think Dr Strange but with the safety switch off. Mordo doesn't give two fu*ks about tapping into dark magics to get what he wants. He'll make deals with EVERY kind of Devil if it means he gets the power to achieve his goals. When he's channelling a portion of the powers of interdimensional gods such as Dormammu, Shuma-Gorath, Mephisto, Agamotto, Nightmare etc etc and doesn't care about the consequences then that makes Mordo one scary dude.
Kraven The Hunter: Time for Kraven to step up into the big leagues. The guy is highly intelligent, resourceful, perhaps the greatest hunter on the planet, has an exceptional strategic mind, is strong and fast enough to go toe to toe with Spider-Man, and is sneaky and crafty enough that he can have contingencies should any of his team mates decide to pull a fast one on him. Give him control of the Sinister Six, or even go bigger, a Sinister ARMY made up of all Spidey's villains as his personal death squad to back him up and suddenly Kraven is playing on the world stage alongside the rest of these guys.
What do think? Who would be your choices and why?