I said sure -- what's not to like there?
The basic idea for the comic was a superteam of 'duplicate characters' - clones and/or lifelike androids/robots/synthezoids, designed specifically to be impersonators for various characters in the Marvel Universe.
The very first thing my collaborator told me was that the last thing he wanted was 'another X book'. Great. Couldn't agree more. The next thing he said was that he 'definitely wanted Madeline Pryor in the book'. So now I was confused, but... well... I foolishly decided, hey, we can work this out.
So, below, are some extracts from various notes, which more or less show how things went and why nothing ever happened.
UNNAMED IMPERSONATOR TEAM (first draft)
ARSENAL - a male fighter who seems to have no actual super powers but who is a walking arsenal of advanced, futuristic weaponry. (A Madrox clone tricked out by one of his team mates with various blasters, force fields, jets, and other devices.)
NUCLEON: Another male wearing some kind of bulky, concealing armor who can fly, fire power blasts, apparently is nearly indestructible, and has super strength. (A Tony Stark/Iron Man LMD. He's the weaponeer/gadgets guy who provides various members with their gimmicks.) (Alternatively, a Victor Von Doom clone who escaped from Doom years ago. He's not crazy and wants to live a normal life, although he may have temper issues. He would be the gadgeteer for the group.)
MINDSTAR - A telepath/ telekinetic who is, of course, Madeline Pryor.
NIGHTWOLF - a super strong, super agile fighter type who has claws and swings around on a cable line of some sort. Actually yet another, previously unknown Spider-clone created by Professor Warren. He ran off very early and has been living on his own, until some mysterious clone killer tracked him down and tried to kill him (which may be how several of the team's members came to know about each other).
NOTE: The above is the first mention of the 'clone killer', which would come to be the central driving force causing the team to form in the first place.
BLACKBIRD - A female fighter in a black winged outfit - she can fly, she has some kind of energy claws and maybe some sort of vocal blast power, I don't know, I'm making this up as I go along. She's really the Gwen Clone who supposedly died, but who, in fact, faked her own death (she was married to a Professor Warren clone, so this shouldn't have been all that hard) and went into hiding. Romantically linked to Nightwolf. The costume she's wearing is an old Vulture suit, modified by Nucleon.
BERZERKA - hugely muscled, enormously strong red haired chick with a staff that apparently allows her to fly and fire off huge lightning bolts. Who the fugg is she? She's a female Thor clone Tony Stark was working on in secret before Civil War. He wrote the project off and dumped the cloned fetus, but somebody else grabbed it up and completed it.
EXTREMIS - Master of heat and cold. Turns out to be the Bobby Drake Sentinel/LMD from X-MEN #100, who somehow survived when the rest of his team was destroyed, and gained actual self awareness from cosmic rays or something. Or, if we don't want robots /androids in this, he's just a clone of Bobby Drake someone (our central villain) made up for reasons of their own, who has escaped and developed his control of his mutant powers further than the original Iceman ever had.
BLACKBALL - a shiny black ball the size of a bowling ball that flies around and shoots out blasts and stuff. There's someone tiny inside it. Turns out to be a Wasp-clone that never grew wings and is permanently stuck at three inches high.
Feedback from my collaborator at this point:
* No Thor clones ever because he doesn't like Thor clones
* Maria Pym clone instead of a Janet Van Dyne clone because he thinks Maria Pym is cooler
* Nightwolf is a crappy generic sounding name,
* DC has already used 'Arsenal', which I knew, but had forgotten
* No androids or robots. Just clones.
Now, I could have argued with nearly all of this. A female Thor clone is a fantastic idea and, as it turns out, would have been rather foresightful, as well. Cloning Maria Pym is all well and good, but she has no super powers and there's no reason she should be tiny, so what the fuck? 'Nightwolf' is a crappy generic sounding name, but we weren't publishing tomorrow, were we? 'Arsenal' may have been used but it's been used by many companies in many places and isn't so distinctive it can't be used again. And 'no androids or robots, just clones' is simply a needless and stupid limitation, which I should have realized at the time meant my collaborator did not really understand the team concept at all.
But, instead of saying any of that, I came up with some other ideas and here's the next evolutionary stage of the team -
"The team needs a behind the scenes leader type... someone who is old and can't get around that much. Based on something you said in an earlier email, I suggest Jake Fury. He didn't actually kill himself, but he wounded himself badly and was dragged away by one of his android Zodiac members, which was in love with him. He's recovered, but he's crippled in some way. However, he has some kind of incredibly useful power that came from exposure to the Zodiac Key (like, mastery of electronics, or, the ability to mentally control computers).
The thing is, Jake has discovered that he was never Nick Fury's brother... he has always been a clone of Nick Fury. And he, too, is being hunted by the Clone Master.
Let me take this opportunity to set out some of the back story for this book as it's starting to come together for me, and you add on or scream that something is stupid as you see it:
Twenty years ago or so - Jake Fury tries to commit suicide after his android Zodiac is thwarted by the Avengers. He only badly injures himself and is dragged away by one of his android Zodiac, who loves him. (If we want Jake and his android to be gay, then it could be a male android, otherwise, it's probably Virgo.)
Jake and the android escape in a flying vehicle of some sort, and while looking for a place he can recover, he stumbles across Red Raven's flying island.
Now, I've checked the wiki page and the history on Red Raven, his flying island (alternately 'Sky Island' or 'the Aerie') and the Bird People (genetic offshoots of the Inhumans) is all fucked up and contradictory. But he had a kind of daughter, Dania, who was apparently kidnapped by Arcade and died in Murderworld, so that gives us a sort of Arcade connection. Anyway, we could straighten it out in flashbacks... Red Raven, wary of the Lower World after a lot of bad experiences, including the destruction of his adopted Bird People race faked the destruction of his floating island and actually just put massive stealth shields around it and took it higher into the atmosphere. But then his daughter (probably a female clone of him) went out to the outside world to be a superhero, got kidnapped by Arcade, and died. So Red Raven wants revenge on Arcade.
Okay. Jake and his android find Red Raven's flying island 20 years ago. They land on it. Red Raven is there but in suspended animation (he was always in suspended animation). They're out of fuel so they have to stay there. Eventually Red Raven wakes up and forms an alliance with Jake and his android.
A year ago - Evil Clone King starts hunting stray clones all over Earth-616. Who is it? We don't know, but somebody is killing clones and self aware humanoid androids right left and sideways. Jake becomes aware of this and tries to send emails to every clone he can locate with his 'super computer control' powers to warn them, offering Sky Island as a refuge. Our team eventually shows up. They decide to form a team of superheroes with disguised identities which they will go out into the Lower World and try to save other clones with, with the idea of eventually figuring out who Evil Clone King is and dealing with him/her, too.
So who's our team?
SINGLETON/SOLO/SOLITARY/LONER/LONE STAR/NARCISSUS - a male fighter who seems to have no actual super powers but who is a walking arsenal of advanced, futuristic weaponry.
-- A Madrox clone tricked out by one of his team mates with various blasters, force fields, jets, and other devices.
- A clone of Bucky. The Soviets probably had a few stashed away; this one woke up and escaped. No super powers but he's a kick ass fighter.
- a clone of Rick Jones. I have no idea who did it, but certainly someone should have cloned Rick at least once at some point.
Other possible names - Swashbuckler, Freebooter, Wanderer
NUCLEON: Another male wearing some kind of bulky, concealing armor who can fly, fire power blasts, apparently is nearly indestructible, and has super strength.
- A Tony Stark/Iron Man LMD. He's the weaponeer/gadgets guy who provides various members with their gimmicks.
- Alternatively, a Victor Von Doom clone who escaped from Doom years ago. He's not crazy and wants to live a normal life, although he may have temper issues. He would be the gadgeteer for the group.
- An escaped Doombot. Again, the group weaponeer/gadgeteer.
- a Reed Richards clone. Doctor Doom or Maximus the Mad might have FF clones just hanging around. I know that young Watcher did.
Other possible names - Master Blaster, Projektile, Centurion, Mr. Meteor (if whoever he is feels like being corny), Captain Vector, Skyguard, Jethawk, Afterburner, Bombshell, Golden Guardian, Ion Man (heh, no, he'd never use that one).
STAR SPIRIT - A telepath/ telekinetic who is, of course, Madeline Pryor. But she is careful to conceal her real powers, manifesting her telekinetics as super strength and flight and invulnerability and blast beams or tractor beams coming from her wrist bands. She telepathically coordinates the team in combat, passing along the commands of Jake Fury, or possibly their field leader --
TRIBAL - A T'challa/Black Panther clone who was created by T'Challa a long time ago. T'Challa planned to use him to fake out his various friends and enemies, having him pose as 'Luke Charles' as well as the real Black Panther while T'Challa himself was manipulating things behind the scenes. But Tribal decided, to hell with that, pulled out the tracking tech T'Challa had built into him, and ran off.
He's a big buff black guy with wild hair (beaded dreadlocks or a big fro or something), wild facial hair (similar) who wears leather pants and a leather vest over a really ripped physique. He's incredibly fast and agile and has low level super strength and lots of tattooes and he fights with a crowbar and chain. No one would ever associate him with the Black Panther, which is how he likes it. But like his progenitor, he's a supergenius, and the team's field leader due to his mastery of tactics.
BLACKBIRD - A female fighter in a black winged outfit - she can fly, she has some kind of energy claws and maybe some sort of vocal blast power, I don't know, I'm making this up as I go along. She's really the Gwen Clone who supposedly died, but who, in fact, faked her own death (she was married to a Professor Warren clone, so this shouldn't have been all that hard) and went into hiding. Romantically linked to Tribal. The costume she's wearing is an old Vulture suit, modified by Nucleon.
EXTREMIS - Master of heat and cold. Turns out to be the Bobby Drake Sentinel/LMD from X-MEN #100, who somehow survived when the rest of his team was destroyed, and gained actual self awareness from cosmic rays or something. Or, if we don't want robots /androids in this, he's just a clone of Bobby Drake someone (our central villain) made up for reasons of their own, who has escaped and developed his control of his mutant powers further than the original Iceman ever had.
I still like the idea of bringing back one of the Classic X-Men Sentinels from X-MEN #100, just as I like the idea of having both humanoid androids and clones in the team. Both would have identical identity issues -- they were created as chattel with no lives of their own to mimic someone else, to fulfill someone else's agenda, and now someone is trying to throw them away... and they're fighting back. But if you really hate it, we'll get rid of it.
Possible alternative - the Zodiac android that saved Jake Fury could be in the team, and this gives us a lot to work with, as we know virtually nothing about those androids. We're just working with star signs. If it's Sagittarius, for example, we could have a super archer in the team that everyone thinks is a clone of Hawkeye, but... nooooo, it's Sagittarius from the android Zodiac! Or maybe Aquarius could have developed hot and cold powers (he's the Water bearer).
BLACKBALL - a shiny black ball the size of a bowling ball that flies around and shoots out blasts and stuff. There's someone tiny inside it. I suppose it could be a tiny Maria Pym but... why would Hank make her tiny? Wouldn't Hank want to bring Jan back? I think a damaged Jan clone would be very poignant... she doesn't have her Wasp powers, so she's dependent on this ball to help the team out. Plus, she's stuck at three inches tall so she can't have any kind of real social life. Angst stuff all over the place."
Let me just pause here and say that the above is so full of resplendent and awesome brilliance that it fucking amazes me Marvel isn't paying me three figures a page to script this shit. Any artistic collaborator with any sense at all should just fall to their knees in awestruck worship of my incredible genius. There should be no notes whatsoever, just a wide eyes "these are all wonderful suggestions sir let me start doing some character sketches while you work on the plot for our first issue".
But -- nooooooooooooo...
Feedback at this point:
* Maria Pym Maria Pym Maria Pym. No Jan. Just because.
* No Tribal. He's one of those characters that reinforced colonial stereotypes or something. Of course, we have no non white characters at all in the team without him, so, you know.
* The 'tiny clone who has a flying craft' idea is cool, but no.
* Madeline Pryor can't have Jean Grey powers, she has to have mystic/demon/supernatural powers. Why? Because he says so.
*No Doom or Richards clone. No Stark LMD.
* Let's have a Spider-clone after all.
So now we're at:
"GAUNTLET - A Madrox clone armed with all kinds of futuristic weapons I guess supplied by Jake, since you don't want a Stark LMD, or a Doom clone, or a Richards clone
Some Spider-clone with a name to be determined - I strongly think he should not have a name associated with Spider-man, and he would be hiding his true powers, for reasons I've gone into in the past
Madeline Pryor - you don't seem to like my Star Spirit idea, so we can call her whatever you want, but she should be hiding her past, too, and I really like the idea that she's using her powers to make herself seem like a Supergirl sort, hiding that she's a psionic
Blackball - if Jan is alive again, then a crippled Jan clone who yearns for Hank but can never have him is even more poignant. But if you gotta have Maria, fine.
I think we need at least two more. The Zodiac android who saved Jake after he tried to kill himself could be one. An archer type (Sagittarius) or Virgo. Or that Zodiac android could be Extremis, the master of heat and cold powers
With my suggestion of Jake Fury in the team, I start calling the team informally "The Furies".
At this point I'm starting to get pretty fed up with the completely idiotic bullshit this guy is throwing at me, but, hey, I had no idea just what fed up was yet.
Feedback:
* . Madeline Pryor can't have TK or TP as she does not have the Phoenix Force in her. Now, this makes no sense to me because Jean Grey had both powers long before she got Phoenixed up, and she's a Jean Grey clone (or she doesn't belong in this book). But he wants her to have mystical powers - he now suggests she have the ability "to animate objects and send them to attack opponents. The power is so glaringly obvious but at the same time completely new."
If it's 'completely new' (and I'm sure it's not) then it's because it's really stupid, but, whatever.
* Archers have, according to my collaborator, been 'done to death lately'. Well, I'm suggesting a different kind of archer, but, whatever.
Now I've come up with a brilliant idea: to give the team some gravitas and some ties to deep Marvel continuity, I suggest we use Red Raven, a Golden Age Marvel character who is largely unused and who comes with his own cool floating sky island. I come up with a back story for it that ties it to Marvel continuity even more tightly:
Back story on Red Raven/Sky Island/The Aerie:
1926 - In Attilan, a young woman named Skirra is exposed to the Terragen Mists, as all young Inhumans are. She is mutated into an avian form. Skirra is a brilliant scientist type, but she is also somewhat unstable; she becomes obsessed with her avian form as 'the ultimate evolution' (because she can FLY!) and starts scheming to convert all inhabitants of Attilan to similar avian forms by tampering with the Terragen Mists. She succeeds in causing a few hundred Inhuman children to gain forms like hers, but then the Royal Family of the time figures out what she's doing and drives her and her bird-people followers into exile.
1932 - Skirra has built a floating "Sky Island" concealed in artificial clouds as a haven for herself and her mutated bird people. By now, they all fanatically share her obsession with turning everyone else into bird people. They are working frantically to build a device that will cloak the world in Skirra's specially tailored Terragen Mists formula.
1936 - Richard Edward Draven, a stunt pilot/adventurer who picked up the nick name "Red Raven" while on barnstorming tours, and his young partner, Adrian Toombs, are taking part in an 'Around the World In 80 Days' ballooning stunt and they accidentally crash land on Sky Island. Richard is extremely charismatic - men tend to want to follow him, women tend to fall in love with him (it may be a mutant power, he doesn't know) and so Skirra takes a liking to him. She tries to convince him and Adrian to be the first humans to undergo the transformation to bird people. . They're like, uh, no. A big fight breaks out. Richard and Adrian manage to release an experimental knock out gas Skirra was developing to use on the 'Low World' into the cloud generators that keep the island from being seen, and Skirra and the bird people all fall into comas.
Over the next month, Richard and Adrian, with the help of robots and automated manufacturing machinery, manage to get Skirra and her bird people loaded into suspended animation tanks. Richard doesn't want to kill them, but they can't be allowed to run around loose while they're so dangerously crazy. He decides he will remain on Sky Island and work on curing them. Adrian decides to leave. Unbeknownst to Richard, Adrian takes with him the plans for some battle armor that the bird people had designed for themselves, along with some samples of their advanced technology, which he will later use to create his Vulture suit. (Ironically, after turning down Skirra's offer to become bird people, both Richard and Adrian will eventually become, sort of, bird people.)
Eventually, Richard builds himself his own bird suit and as Red Raven, does all the stuff that he has done, sort of, in Marvel continuity.
About a year ago, Red Raven was out flying around, bored. (His suit is stealthed, no one can see him if he doesn't want them to.) He heard a woman screaming for help from a house down below. He swoops down and sees some kind of robots or androids or something. They've killed the woman's husband and are about to kill her. He trashes them and is rather taken with this woman, who is the Gwen clone. He offers her sanctuary and having nowhere else to go, she accepts. So he brings her back to the Aerie/Sky Island.
Turns out, she's been using the Internet to form a sort of Clone Support Group, and she's been worried because several members have fallen out of contact. Now she's afraid they've been killed and someone is trying to kill clones. Red Raven is falling in love with her so he agrees to help. Using his advanced technology, tapping into surveillance satellites and news broadcasts, he determines that, indeed, Gwen's group missing group members have been killed... by strange androids (different types from Marvel continuity). Working together, he and Gwen manage to rescue half a dozen other members of her support group. And we have our team. Determined to find out who is killing clones and stop him/her/them, but also wanting to conceal their identities until they find out what is up.
So they form The Furies. Red Raven is their front man; he gives the group gravitas. Maybe they aren't heroes for hire, maybe they just swoop down when the Ani-Men attack Roxxon's Hoboken High Tech Show, to show the world that they're heroes.
* * * *
You know what's hard? When you're working with someone and you're coming up with all these amazing brilliant ideas and every time you write one out and send it off you're expecting the guy you sent it to will come back with 'whoa, that blows my mind, yeah, LET'S DO IT!' and instead, you get this shit:
* * * *
Feedback:
* Why would the Gwen clone fly, when her biggest fear should be falling to her death?
So I wrote the following:
A scene explaining why Gwen might enjoy having wings:
PANEL 1:
VISUAL: Gwen, in her Blackbird suit, in a large open cavern flying through hoops, avoiding flame blasts and explosions, shattering targets with the edges of her wings.
CAPTION 1: She flies like one of the Furies themselves. Like some unlikely offspring of the sky and the wind. Like she was born with wings, instead of just wearing them.
CAPTION 2: She reminds him of himself, when he was very young... and yet, she is nothing like him. Nothing like anyone he has ever known. How can she possibly be a clone, when she is so obviously so... unique?
CAPTION 3: Watching her makes him feel exhilarated. Like those first instants of free fall when your plane reaches the very top of the loop, or you first step out the cargo hatch, before you pull the rip cord... or you fold your wings at five thousand feet, and plummet towards the ground, spinning like a pinwheel, feeling so alive...
PANEL 2:
VISUAL: We see Red Raven leaning in the doorway, watching as she lands, some distance away.
CAPTION: Watching her makes him feel terribly, terribly old.
GWEN: "Oh!"
PANEL 3:
VISUAL: Red Raven has come closer but not too close. Some piece of equipment is between the two of them, he's leaning on it. She's taking her hood off, shaking out her hair.
RR: I did not mean to startle you. I apologize.
GWEN: You didn't... I'm sorry. I just didn't know you were there.
GWEN: I... was I... doing it wrong?
PANEL 4:
VISUAL: Close up on Red Raven's face, looking surprised.
RR: Wrong? No. No, nothing like that.
RR: I've never seen someone with such a natural sense for flight. Not since...
RR: Not for a very long time.
PANEL 5:
VISUAL: Gwen just stands there, not looking at RR.
GWEN: I... thank you.
PANEL 6:
VISUAL: Close up on Gwen's face, staring intently at RR.
CAPTION: She looks up, then. He would have sworn she wouldn't. She seems so shy, most of the time... but she looks at him, her bright blue gaze like a bullet to the heart --
GWEN: My clearest memory is falling to my death. Screaming. Waiting for... someone... to save me. Praying in my head, screaming and screaming, screaming my throat raw.
GWEN: It's not my memory. But it's always with me. In my head, I'm always falling, always waiting for someone to save me, always screaming... All my life, I've been falling, screaming... waiting for someone to save me.
GWEN: But now I can fly.
PANEL 7:
VISUAL: Possibly a smaller inset panel. Gwen leans up and kisses RR on the cheek.
GWEN: Thanks to you.
PANEL 8:
VISUAL: Gwen walks away, while RR stares after her, rubbing his cheek.
* * * * * * *
I also start throwing out ideas for non-white team members, eventually settling on the idea of a Bill Foster clone.
THE FURIES -
RED RAVEN - WWII hero/occasional crazy/Hawkman rip off/possible clone. Perhaps the leader of the group, or maybe just a crazy old guy who hangs around letching after Blackbird. YOU be the judge!
JAKE FURY - LMD, younger brother of Nick Fury, or Nick Fury clone -- YOU decide! If he's a younger clone of Nick Fury, somebody must have been cloning folks way back in the 1940s - but maybe Kang the Conqueror was, in an attempt to control the destiny of the 20th Century! Whatever he is, now Jake is crippled from a failed suicide attempt -- he's a head on a box, but with his Scorpio Key derived power to control computers, he's still a helluva good guy to have on your side!
EXTREMIS - formerly Aquarius of Jake's android Zodiac, Extremis has evolved his 'water bearer' powers into the ability to create water in any form - which he usually manifests as either ice or high pressure steam, allowing him to freeze people in their tracks or create gigantic explosions at will! He dragged Jake out to a Zodiac flying craft after Jake shot himself and got him to safety (possibly to the Aerie; that remains to be worked out). He's devoted to Jake and may be in love with him, but, you know, there's that whole android thing, plus, probably Jake isn't gay. But if Extremis could just get his chassis modified into a female form, then, maybe...
GAUNTLET/HUNTER PRIME/NIGHT HUNTER/LONE GUNMAN - He's like this cool ripped dude in a black jumpsuit with guns strapped to him everywhere! He leaps about shooting everything! He's got pistols and machine guns and shotguns and he's AWESOME! Plus grenades and maybe a sword for that cool Deathstroke the Terminator/Taskmaster look.
He's -
* A Madrox clone without the ability to make more Madrox clones! But he learns fast and he's totally agile and awesome!
* An Alpha Primitive who loves to shoot people and blow crap up!
* A clone of Flash Thompson! (what?)
* A clone of Matt Murdock who calls himself Mike Murdock! (Uh...)
GORGONA - She's this really incredibly hot chick except she's got tentacles instead of hair! She's actually a Medusa clone the Wizard made to permanently fill out the Frightful Four, but her Inhuman DNA mutated in the tube, ending up with this horrifying result! Although her completely articulated tentacles allow her enormous versatility, the rest of the Frightful Four couldn't stand looking at her and drove her off!
SNAPDRAGON - cloned by Egghead from DNA samples stolen from Hank Pym's lab, Snapdragon is derived from the cells of Hank Pym's murdered first wife Maria. Egghead jazzed her up with his version of Wasp-empowerment, resulting in a normal (if petite) sized woman who can fly and smack someone with a toxic sting! She escaped from Egghead a long time ago and just hid, thinking she was hideous and couldn't trust anyone... but now that clones are being killed by the Clone-Killer, she's contacted Gwen and accepted sanctuary from the Furies!
WITCHFIRE - Madeline Pryor with some minor TK and TP and a whole lot of demon-fire. She can make inanimate objects become animate by projecting her will at them for limited periods, plus, she can blast people with Ghost Rider fire! She's not very nice.
BLUE DEMON/INCUBUS - When Norman Osborne was alive, he always wanted a son with super powers. Using samples he took from Spider-man's DNA during their many encounters, he cloned a copy of his son Harry with Spider-powers! But the induced spider-DNA isn't a good match to Harry's frail metabolism; only a constant regimen of fortifying super-steroids keeps Norman, Jr., from dying of super-anaphylactic shock! He's hoping that if he hangs around with the Furies someone who's good with advanced technology will find him a cure! In the meantime, he has kind of a half assed romance going with --
BLACKBIRD - the Gwen Stacy clone in a modified Vulture-like winged suit. She has razor sharp wings and can fly like a jet fighter! She feels more pity than love for poor Norman Jr., but at least he treats her like a real person instead of a freak (when he isn't busy feeling sorry for himself, that is). Flying through the air as Blackbird, she's free for the first time from her recurring nightmare/memory of falling to her death. If only she weren't so confused about her feelings for Red Raven...!
POPPER - a clone of the Vanisher created a long time ago by Magneto in hopes of incorporating cool teleportation abilities into his Brotherhood of Mutants. Unfortunately, it's hard to keep a teleporter around if he wants to leave. Magneto decanted little Porter when he was still a toddler, figuring he'd raise him as a son and thus ensure his loyalty. Yeah, that worked. Porter hit puberty and followed in the non footsteps of his genetic father. However, now that some crazy is hunting down clones and murdering them with killer robots and like that, he's decided to join Gwen's support group -- the Furies!
MICRO-MAN - covertly cloned from Bill Foster's DNA, Micro-Man nearly died before ever opening his eyes when Norman Osborne discovered the secret project and blew up the entire laboratory to destroy it. Having learned during his hair raising escape from death that apparently his one time power to increase his size has somehow mutated into an ability to shrink, this newborn clone of a dead hero hears of an Internet support group for unwanted clones... which leads him to... the Furies!
At this point I feel like I'm really working hard to compromise with my collaborator. As far as I'm concerned, the team is shot through with some really incredibly stupid ideas, like a clone of Maria Pym with Wasp powers and a clone of Madeline Pryor with supernatural demon powers, but whatever, I"m still in there trying to do what I can to salvage this mess.
More feedback. The team further evolves:
THE FURIES -
RED RAVEN - WWII hero/occasional crazy/Hawkman rip off/possible clone. Perhaps the leader of the group, or maybe just a crazy old guy who hangs around letching after Blackbird. YOU be the judge!
JAKE FURY - LMD, younger brother of Nick Fury, or Nick Fury clone -- YOU decide! If he's a younger clone of Nick Fury, somebody must have been cloning folks way back in the 1940s - but maybe Kang the Conqueror was, in an attempt to control the destiny of the 20th Century! Whatever he is, now Jake is crippled from a failed suicide attempt -- he's a head on a box, but with his Scorpio Key derived power to control computers, he's still a helluva good guy to have on your side!
EXTREMIS - formerly Aquarius of Jake's android Zodiac, Extremis has evolved his 'water bearer' powers into the ability to create water in any form - which he usually manifests as either ice or high pressure steam, allowing him to freeze people in their tracks or create gigantic explosions at will! He dragged Jake out to a Zodiac flying craft after Jake shot himself and got him to safety (possibly to the Aerie; that remains to be worked out). He's devoted to Jake and may be in love with him, but, you know, there's that whole android thing, plus, probably Jake isn't gay. But if Extremis could just get his chassis modified into a female form, then, maybe...
GAUNTLET/HUNTER PRIME/NIGHT HUNTER/LONE GUNMAN - He's like this cool ripped dude in a black jumpsuit with guns strapped to him everywhere! He leaps about shooting everything! He's got pistols and machine guns and shotguns and he's AWESOME! Plus grenades and maybe a sword for that cool Deathstroke the Terminator/Taskmaster look.
He's -
* A Madrox clone without the ability to make more Madrox clones! But he learns fast and he's totally agile and awesome!
* An Alpha Primitive who loves to shoot people and blow crap up!
* A clone of Flash Thompson!
* A clone of Matt Murdock who calls himself Mike Murdock!
BERSERKA - Big and strong and really mean. She has a laser-chain or something that Red Raven or Jake or somebody fixed up for her. She's actually a Thundra clone the Wizard made to permanently fill out the Frightful Four, but her anger management issues made him happy to see her punch a hole in the wall and beat feet!
LADY STINGER - cloned by Egghead from DNA samples stolen from Hank Pym's lab, Lady Stinger is derived from the cells of Hank Pym's murdered first wife Maria. Egghead jazzed her up with his version of Wasp-empowerment, resulting in a normal (if petite) sized woman who can fly and smack someone with a toxic sting that will take down neary anyone! She escaped from Egghead a long time ago and just hid, thinking she was hideous and couldn't trust anyone... but now that clones are being killed by the Clone-Killer, she's contacted Gwen and accepted sanctuary from the Furies!
WITCHFIRE - Madeline Pryor with some minor TK and TP and a whole lot of demon-fire. She can make inanimate objects become animate by projecting her will at them for limited periods, plus, she can do blast people with Ghost Rider fire! She's not very nice.
BLACK MARVEL - When Norman Osborne was alive, he always wanted a son with super powers. Using samples he took from Spider-man's DNA during their many encounters, he cloned a copy of his son Harry with Spider-powers! Yet only recurring shots of a special preservative chemical keep the flawed Harry-clone from crumbling into dust! He's hoping that if he hangs around with the Furies someone who's good with advanced technology will find him a cure! In the meantime, he has kind of a half assed romance going with --
BLACKBIRD - the Gwen Stacy clone in a modified Vulture-like winged suit. She has razor sharp wings and can fly like a jet fighter! She feels more pity than love for poor Black Marvel,
My collaborator still doesn't like my ideas for the Harry Osborne/Spider clone. I suggest:
"We need a few non whites, and a Black Panther clone is a fascinating concept. I'm pretty sure Chris Priest introduced at least one (who was the Black Panther from the Kirby miniseries) so certainly there could be others out there.
Now, Black Panther's foster brother and chief of the Wakandan secret police is White Wolf. So 'Nightwolf' might be a natural for a Black Panther clone. However, we can easily come up with another name.
I think a Black Panther clone might call himself 'Charles Teacher', as T'Challa took the pseudonym 'Luke Charles', who taught in inner city schools, briefly during the 70s. As to his superhero name, if he wants to distinguish himself from his progenitor, he might give himself some sort of 'Street Fighter' type name, to erase any and all jungle associations with himself. Maybe he just calls himself 'Rumble'.
Or, looking at a list of Street Fighter characters, maybe he just calls himself 'Hugo Vega' for a real name (as a joke, he has a weird, very dry sense of humor) and calls himself 'Tribal' as his hero name. And maybe instead of dressing up in a superhero costume, he's like totally pimped out, with leather pants and a leather vest and he's of course completely ripped and he's got dreadlocks or some gigantic Afro and braided facial hair and he looks really bizarre... because T'Challa would never ever appear in public like that. He's got tats and he fights with a crowbar.
Yeah. And his only name is 'Tribal'. Hmmm. Yeah... "
Again he says he doesn't like Tribal, because Tribal is "one of THOSE characters". Yay.
Eventually we are told we can't use Red Raven because someone else is planning to use him. So I switch over to a clone of the Vulture. After several other permutations, it becomes obvious to me that my collaborator, despite not wanting to do 'another X-book', basically only wants to do clones of X-characters, including a character he feels he created himself, plus, Namorita.
I don't quit the partnership right then, but I should have.
Here's an idea I had, as a sort of prequel to the series -
* * * * *
Scenario - SUPER VILLAIN TEAM UP ANNUAL
KANG meets THE MAD THINKER
Open in 40th Century - show young Rama Tut arriving in time sphere, confronting neo-barbarians in odd armor with advanced weapons, killing one with his 30th Century blaster. The survivors follow him, awed. He uses time sphere sensors to discover he is not underground, as he'd thought... he has arrived inside a vast alien space craft that has crashed on Earth. Exploring it, he finds bits and pieces of alien armor and we see him assembling Kang's distinctive battle suit for the first time.
Meanwhile, in 1968, the Mad Thinker's Awesome Android is digging a tunnel. The Thinker himself is obviously nearby watching, as the captions indicate typical Thinker time stamped observations - the Android is exerting x foot pounds of pressure and directing y degrees of intense heat and z voltage of electricity at a, b, and c construction materials - it should reach its goal, the subterranean vault of the Second Avenue Rand-Meacham National Bank, in 8.23769 minutes precisely... and then, the Android breaks through into a completely unanticipated space. We see a vast room filled with Horton-Trask type storage tubes, each of which contains an indistinct human form...
Cut back and forth between future and past. Kang eventually travels back to early 20th Century and starts funding people like Horton, Howard Stark, Abraham Erskine, and others. He also sets up his own project - creating clones of people he knows will come to dominatethe 20th Century, like all the scientists he funds, plus, Steve Rogers, the Sub Mariner, Bob Frank, Miss America, Nick Fury, etc, etc.
Kang must abandon the project. Eventually, the Thinker finds these clones by accident. Nick Fury's clone was long ago released through a mishap and, confused, in a state of shock, wandered back to his old neighborhood where the real Nick Fury found him and assumed him to be a runaway younger brother, Jake. The other clones remain in their tubes, and are eventually sold off by the Mad Thinker to various outlaw supervillain figures at an auction in the late 60s...
Final scene: 2189 - the future Supreme Intelligence is showing all this to a young Kree Centurion with faintly green skin. "Now that Kree evolution is back on track and the Kree are realizing their cosmic destiny, we can turn our attention to other details. As you can see, this time travelling barbarian was responsible for polluting Terra's past with Kree cloning technology. It would be unwise to interfere too closely in the Conqueror's already established time tracks... but it should be a simple enough matter to travel to Earth's early 20th Century and remove our cloning technology from their timeline before it can warp their history over much. So we are appointing you, Arvas Vell, to be our representative in this matter. Your family history is deeply intertwined with that of Terran superhumanity; this will be an opportunity to restore honor to your name."
Arvas Vell replies "It will be a great challenge, Supremor, but I will not fail!"
The S.I. says "I will give you power and accoutrements appropriate to the milieu you will be entering. You will blend in... and if any should uncover your true purpose, it is unlikely that there will be any on Earth at that time powerful enough to stop you."
Arvas Vell is blasted with power by the Supreme Intelligence - and in the final panel, as theenergy surrounding him fades, the S.I. proclaims "I appoint you to your task, Arvas Vell, now recreated as Sentry 98X-744B12! You will find your glorious destiny in Earth's past!"
* * * *
Going through some archives regarding this project, I also found this synopsis of what I wanted to do in the first issue. Apparently at some point, we've decided to put a clone of Mondo in the team, as well.
Let's just do the whole thing as one long fight. No flashbacks, no nothing. The Ani-Men are running riot at this Roxxon High Tech Show in Hoboken, New Jersey. Ape-Man is standing up on some cool looking flying car prototype beating his chest and saying "GORT LOVES THIS CAR! GORT WILL HAVE IT!" And like that.
We see it initially as a TV news report. The reporter on the scene initially miscalls the group as 'maybe some new version of the Zodiac, those old Avengers villains'. The network's superhero consultant, Burt Cusack, one time writer of the authorized Avengers and Spider-Man title, corrects this from the studio -- he recognizes four of the strange attackers as Ape-Man, Bird-Man, Cat-Man, and Frog-Man, so he presumes this must be some new, expanded group of Ani-Men. Cut back to the reporter on the scene, who is hiding because the Lizard-guy was crawling all over the balcony where she is. She comes back out -- just in time for our full page splash, at the team comes crashing in through the roof skylight, and she gives our title in a big exclamation balloon with cool Tom Orzechowski style lettering -- "WHO THE HELL ARE THESE GUYS?"
Which remains the theme of the entire issue. Jake is directing the team through their earpieces; he's in their stealthed aircraft above the auditorium with his buddy (whoever it is) piloting the craft. He directs Red Raven to circle the inner perimeter of the auditorium and help out anyone who needs it. Red Raven says something like "Keeping your most experienced man in reserve -- sound tactics. I agree." Jake says something like "I'm so glad." Blackbird gets put on Bird-Man and says something chirpy and kind of silly like "I'm on it like a bonnet!" as she dives for him. Jake is like "What did she say?" Aquarius says "She's blonde, just roll with it." Fantasia is straining her natural Jean Grey TK to the limit lowering herself, Incubus, Mondo, and the Mystery Clone into the auditorium. Mystery Clone has massive energy blast powers, so Jake and Red Raven have him decked out like a 90s Image gun-toter with a huge piece of metal shaped like a Rob Liefeld blaster cannon that he can project his energy blasts through.
So Jake says "Leave Lone Gunman/Firepower (whatever we call him) on one of the girders near the ceiling so he can snipe. The rest of you, pick opponents and mix it up."
Mondo is like "Aaaaaaaalllll RIGHT!" Incubus says "Dibs on the cat guy, the rest of them look groaty." Madeline says "If you boys are so eager, then, have at it!" and throws them at the Ani-Men.
Incubus mixes it up with Cat-Man. He's dodging all over the place and bitching, because that's what Incubus does -- "Hey, this guy is FAST! And STRONG! And he's got like CLAWS!" Jake is like "Okay, he's a cat guy, you thought he'd be slow and weak and attack you with marshmallows?" Incubus says "Okay, he is fast and strong, but he's not as fast and strong as me", while he's dodging and blocking a bunch of punches and kicks, and then he lays Cat-Man out with one big punch.
Meanwhile, Mondo has landed and is confronting a whole bunch of Ani-Men, some new ones we'll come up with plus Frog-Man/Croaker. They don't know what to make of him. He says something like "Now you must face the power of..." (small letters) "screw it what was my code name again?... never mind..." (BIG LETTERS) "HUMUNGOUS! THE LORD HUMUNGOUS!"
Crushtacean says, like, "Ruler of the Wasteland?" and Croaker says "The Aya-TOLL-ah of Rock and ROLL-ah?"
Mondo is like, "What, you guys watch movies?" and they're like "Yeah, we got one of those big dishes. Okay, let's kill him." And they rush him and the whole mob smashes into one of the exhibits and Mongo is like "I love it when a plan comes togeth--hey, this thing you've shoved me up against... is this admantium?" Because it is.
Blackbird has mixed it up with Bird-Man but unfortunately he's flying rings around her, so Red Raven has to get in it. He's not all cool and calm, though, because Bird-Man has clawed Blackbird a few times, so Red Raven comes in screaming "YOU GET AWAY FROM HERRRRRRRR!!!!"
Meanwhile, Jake is telling Lone Gunman, "Hey, there's a big Ape Guy at your eight o'clock". Gunman says "Eight o'clock? I don't have an eight o'clock!" We see Jake in the airship face palming, then he explains about being at the center of a clock face and what the positions mean. Gunman says "Oh, okay... oh, yeah, I see the big Ape Guy. Wow. Impressive." Jake screams "SHOOT HIM YOU DUMB ASS!" Gunman's feelings are hurt, he's like "You don't have to call me names, I don't do this stuff for a living like the rest of you" but he shoots him. And then Gort gets mad and comes leaping right up in Gunman's face.
Meanwhile, Madeline has landed and is thinking to herself about how she's surrounded by hideous freaks that want to hurt her, it's just like hell, she feels right at home. She starts to use her powers to like make lamp posts bend down and grab Ani-Men and stuff but then the snake guy or the spider guy or somebody sneaks up behind her and bites her, injecting her with poison. And she's like "Hey, that isn't fair" and then collapses.
Snapdragon blips in and slaps her attacker with her sting-slap, and the attacker goes down, and then Snapdragon is like "Oooh I'm gonna get 'em all!" and starts blipping around the room, trying to smack each Ani-Man. But she hasn't had a lot of practice so she's missing a lot and possibly endangering her teammates.
Meanwhile, Gort is up in the girders and he's grabbed Lone Gunman and is shaking him and saying he's going to rip Gunman's arms and legs off and beat him to death with them, and Gunman is obviously scared and saying "No -- no -- NO!!! You're -- NOT!!!!" And he gives off this massive blast of energy, shredding his costume and blowing Gort across the hall into the opposite wall. And then he's standing there, naked, junk blocked by smoke tendrils and energy effects, saying "Oops. I think I blew my cover."
Meanwhile, Jake is telling Incubus that he's closest to Fantasia, he needs to grab her and get her up to the airship. Jake mutters something like "But I HATE that bitch". But he grabs her and he's bounding from girder to girder and leaps for the aircraft, but misjudges and has to shoot out some webbing. He thinks "Ooops, I hope nobody saw that".
Down below, we abruptly hear "Hey, hey, HEY..." coming from off panel... and then we see this huge gleaming metal Mondo, like thirty feet tall, come rumbling up, saying "It's ADAMANTIUM MONDO! YOU BITCHEZ ARE IN TROUBLE NOW!!!"
And the other Ani-Men who are still conscious take one look and they're like "Uh... RUN!!!! RUN!!!!" and they're booking like hell.
So we see Red Raven, standing over an unconscious Bird-Man with one arm around Blackbird. She's saying she's okay, he just got in a lucky shot, she'll be fine, she mostly took it on the armor. Jake says "If you two aren't too busy, could you maybe round up the fleeing perpetrators? We'll look better to the law if we can turn over the whole package to them. Those guys hate it when the bad guys escape." So they go and head off the fleeing Ani-Men.
So then there's a press conference and a reporter asks Red Raven if he's that WWII hero and Red Raven says yes, he's come out of retirement to mentor this group of young heroes, and he is proud to be the field leader of the -- (in small letters, as an aside) God help us all -- REJEX!!!
Blackbird says "Yes, we're all outcasts from mainstream society, but we've banded together to protect the innocent and fight evil!"
And the reporters are like "What?" "She's hot, who cares?"
And up above, Jake is like "Wrap up the intros and everyone get in the ship. I really need a drink."
And as the stealthed ship flys off, the reporter is down below, saying "So... it appears the world has a new superhero team today... REJEX! A bunch of unknowns, led by a mysterious veteran hero from World War II! What can we expect from this enigmatic group? Only time will tell!"
Our last page, we see Norman Osborne, watching on TV. He says something like "Rejex? That's... retarded." He shakes his head. Then kind of sighs and says "All right. Kill them." And we see he's talking to some huge android/robots standing behind him... Dreadnaughts, modified Sentinels, something (I need to do research on Marvel robots/androids).
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