| Posted: 05 May 2007 at 5:53pm | IP Logged | 5
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I think you answer your own question, James. The JSA and the JLA are full of disparate personalities, and yet they battle to stop the end of the world or whatever, monthly.
I just don't see the difference. The Champions are more like a DC group than a Marvel "family" unit, but that doesn't stop sales on JSA.
In my scenario, the characters are informed by just their character, which is exactly how the New version of the X-Men grew to prominence. Now, it should be pointed out that the most poignant storyline in X-Men lore is the result of two original X-Men, Jean and Scott, trying desperately to hang onto a love that was doomed from the start. But Logan, Kitty, Peter, Kurt and Storm created their own arcs, based purely on character. How then could "Days of Futures Past" even have begun to work, unless we the readers felt these characters' pain, their crushed hopes?
This can't happen with the Champions?
I'm not encyclopedic in my knowledge of the Champions, the members I'm interested in and the ones I'm throwing in, but...
Admittedly this may sound slightly X-STATIC, but it's not remotely.
The Angel created a super team based on the idea that he could "promote" them as such. Like Stan Lee, Angel wants to get with the hip superhero fetish going around. He creates a contract with Los Angeles: the Champions are the security of the city. They are paid by Warren's company, like a security agency.
Angel is inspired by Heroes for Hire, but he's doing it corporate style.
He builds a team out of odds and ends; not every hero works for money, of course but everybody can USE money, and it's a job. Black Widow is a mercenary, hurt by love and looking for a new life. Iceman enjoys the spotlight, and he's looking to redeem himself after some subplot past disaster shook him up. Hercules is promised legendary battles and the adulation of the crowd. Tigra is afraid she's becoming feral (ripping off JB), and she's come to Bill Foster (Black Goliath) for help. The Whizzer is a superhero from the 1940s whose wife has died and Bob Frank can't make it on retirement. He's just enough superhero left in him, and spunk, to show the young whippersnappers a thing or two, he figures.
Whizzer and Black Goliath are connected by Nuklo, the Whizzer's son, whose radiation gave Foster cancer. Hercules believes Tigra to be an incarnation of an ancient enemy he fought in the past...one that he loved. Whizzer doesn't trust Widow, but has to respect her even as the two struggle for leadership in the team. Angel and Iceman vie for the Widow's heart, one filthy wealthy, the other with two nickels to rub together.
Robert Frank Jr, Nuklo, reappears and the radiation beast attacks Los Angeles. Cue Champions.
Yeah I know the Whizzer is supposedly dead, Black Goliath is dead, and Nuklo is cured and all that, but I'm ignoring those details because I love the Whizzer, stupid jokes aside, and I'm still thinking what Might Have Been in the 1970s version of the team. A talented guy could make this work even WITH Whizzer dead.
And, for the sake of argument, the Angel will convince the Whizzer he needs a new moniker. Bob Frank will have to have the "joke" explained to him. He begrudgingly agrees to change his title. "Codename: MAX VELOCITY!" Which actual works better, since Frank can only run at top speed for a short amount of time. Even shorter now that he's in his mid-fifties.
This is just sketching, and there's enough character right there for a nice start, with everybody involved, some conflicts, emotion, a little melodrama, and it can work just as well as any other team book.
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