Fantasy Teams

[Helix]

So, I haven't actually collected comics in a long, long time. But their nostalgic effect of them lingers within me. I don't know how the characters have evolved over the past 15 years or so, but I have always been slightly dismayed over the waste of cool characters in the Marvel Universe. When I collected, there were many titles that suffered from poor writing, poor artwork, lack of consistency in the creative teams, etc. Perhaps things have changed by now. At any rate, I have actually reordered the Marvel Universe to my own liking (based on the characters I am familiar with, of course) and my first task was to fix The Defenders. Since the were often the bastion of underdeveloped and obscure characters - I stayed true to that spirit. So without further ado, here is the Defenders lineup I would love to have seen:

Dr. Strange
Jack of Hearts
Power Man
Iron Fist
Moon Knight
Blade
Morbius
Ghost Rider
Nighthawk
Valkyrie
Hellcat
Spider Woman
Adam Warlock
Paladin
ROM
Black Bolt
Dr. Spectrum
Nova
The Shroud

Anybody have any comments or dream line-ups of their own? If you could build a team of Marvel or DC characters - what would it look like?

[laughing paradox]

For the longest time, I wanted to create an International Avengers team.

I wanted representatives from various countries to be their own kind of SHIELD-sponsored global task force.

Captain Britain
Black Panther
Darkstar
Sunfire
Shaman
Silverclaw
Namorita

[BentonGrey]

For the longest time, I wanted to create an International Avengers team.

I wanted representatives from various countries to be their own kind of SHIELD-sponsored global task force.

Captain Britain
Black Panther
Darkstar
Sunfire
Shaman
Silverclaw
Namorita

I'd pick that book up.  Neat.

Cool idea Helix.  I'm not super familiar with a lot of the characters you have in your list, but I certainly sympathize with your motivations *looks at DCUG*.  Anyway, for my part I actually have part of a campaign created and several storylines sketched out for my own DC mystical team.  It was based off the JLU episode with the DC version of the Defenders.  It included:

Dr. Fate
Aquaman
Blue Devil
???

And I never had a satisfactory fourth member.  I had Firestorm in my notes, but he didn't really seem to fit.  The obvious parallels to the classic Defenders lineup was part of my motivation, but an interesting mix of characters for the stories that followed eventually took precedence. 

[Helix]

Benton - That would be a very cool idea. I would love to see that! Perhaps Bloodwynd as a fourth? I don't know. It's difficult to find a direct DC parallel to Silver Surfer, but Bloodwynd has a nifty power set and seems like a show-up-when-he-feels-like-it kind of guy. I'll shall ponder this further.

LP - That would be awesome.  An international team would be interesting. You could throw Sunspot in there too. Surely, though, there are other decent foreign characters to add. Right? <thinking> Or maybe not. The X-men corner of the universe kind hordes the international characters. I'll have to give that some thought too.

These are the kinds of things I like to ponder when I have down time. I've done about a million different X-Men (and related groups) lineups, but I won't even discuss that here because it's a never-ending pursuit. The same with JLA, since just about the entire DC universe is a member (a fact that bugs the crap out of me). I do, however, have a lineup for the JSA.

[BentonGrey]

Yeah, Sunspot would make a nice addition to an international team.

Hmm, Bloodwynd isn't someone I care much for, but yeah, there aren't great parallels to Silver Surfer.  I think I'd rather go with a spiritual parallel than an exact duplication of roles.  What other DC characters are nice and "magic-y?"  Zatanna is an obvious possibility, but she doesn't really fit what I have in mind. 

I actually like a JLA that includes most of the DC heroes.  That's one of the great features of JLU.  I think it makes perfect sense, and just because the team INCLUDES that many characters doesn't mean that every story has to have all of them active.  Look at JLU or the Satellite Era League, for example.

[GhostMachine]

I like what they came up with in The Avengers back in the 70's (or was it 80's): a seven member limit. Because frankly more than seven members, you're not going to really give some of the characters as much `screen time' as they deserve.

[BentonGrey]

I like what they came up with in The Avengers back in the 70's (or was it 80's): a seven member limit. Because frankly more than seven members, you're not going to really give some of the characters as much `screen time' as they deserve.

I understand that idea, but it seems unnecessary to me.  You can rotate who shows up pretty regularly, give lots of characters time to shine.

[Helix]

Ghost Machine - I kind of like the limited roster idea as well. Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Yellowjacket, Wasp, Scarlet Witch, and Hawkeye would be my preference. What would your 7-member lineup look like?