if given the job of EIC, what would YOU do?

[Rollo Tomassi]

Aside from the stuff I mentioned in earlier posts (Like SavageLand, Nth Man, my Leech led X-Men team, etc) here are five eleven more series to start the 52. Which if you add them to the nobrainer "Core" Titles is about halfway there. The Core titles would be Amazing Spidey, Avengers, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, FF, Daredevil, Hulk, and (Uncanny)X-Men. Ghost Rider and Punisher would probably be gimmes as well, making 11. SO here are 11 on top of those 11.

SpaceKnight. I completely agree with you. Hasbro would get more money out of selling the character back to marvel, then making money off of the action figures. But aside from the name, there's no reason they couldn't just update the entire concept sans the name ROM and relaunch him as the Premeire cosmic AssKicker. Hell, they're contantly using they mythology from his series. Even the lates Cosmic Miniseries Annihilators took place on his homeworld, involved his ex-wife who is leader of his people, and inducted a female SpaceKnight named Ikon who wants to jump Quasar's bones.

Avengers UK. This is pretty much just Captain Britain and MI:13 under a more marketable name. the joke would be the world press gives them the nickname of Avengers UK and it sticks. So everybody on the team like Pete Wisdom and Dane Whitman and the rest are always like "We are NOT the @#$%ing Avengers UK!!" but the headlines are always reading "Avengers UK saves England again!!" CB&MI13 was an awesme book and deserves a second shot, regardless of the name. A lot of poeple on CSBG were calling it Excalibur, but franjly that has as much chance of sticking as the Capt britain title, hence...

The Captain and Ms. Marvel. As I've mentioned before, the Skrull who was posing as the Kree Capt. Marvel on an Earth that hates Skrulls after Secret Invasion. And any Kree he came across would kill him if they find out he's really a Skrull also. So even though he's sworn to protect Earth as a hero, he can't let anyone know what he really is. And team him up with Ms. Marvel who is a natural fit to be an agent of S.W.O.R.D. Any of these three concepts couldn't really survive as its own series, but wrap them all together and you got drama where a Skrull is secretly helping the agency designed to find aliens on Earth.

The Wolverine. Heavy on the 'THE' at the beginning. This premise would first require an huge Event Crossover like a 12 issue maxi series universe shattering Event where Wolverine dies. Then you leave him dead for a couple of years at least. And when he comes back, he's regained(?) his amnesia and is not part of ANY SuperTeam. No X-Men, No Avengers. Just a lonely mean cuss who doesn't know who he is or what he is, getting into scraps and dealing with all sorts of seedy heinous shit. He's like the bogeyman. An Urban legend. Some guy with claws took down the Yakuza. the folowing week he's in Africa fucking with some dictator. the next week he's in Russia slicing up white slave traders. And every time Nick Fury or the X-Men get a line on this myth who may or may not be Logan, he's already gone. He'd be like the Television's Hulk crossed with the mysteriousness of Snake-Eyes again. in other word's Wolverine would be cool again and not a fuckin' cliche of himself.

Alias Investigations Jessica Jones. Dakota North. Other assorted street level guys and gals. this series would be part of a fairly tight subgroup of "Street Level" books. Four different titles, almost working as a Weekly book, where events in the four books would routinely and inevitably cross into each other. The other three books would be a
Kingpin/Underworld book and then the Daredevil and Punisher books. Take a long term approach to telling the story of organized crime in the Big Apple. There are plenty of "Crime Bosses" like Silvermane, Tombstone, Hammerhead, Mr. Negative etc. Give them all credible lieutenants and muscle/thugs. make one or more of them undercover cops. Make some of the cops dirty. And then let it all simmer for months and years.

The Winter Guard. Who protects and polices the other side of the World? The Avengers, for all their talk seem to hang out in the U.S. and really for the most part, NYC. These guys pick up the slack. And have Colossus on the team. Why? How? I dunno, it happened in that mega epic that killed Wolverine.

The Scarlet Spider. Wha? Who? What the fuck?! Yeah, that's right, Ben Reilly is alive! He's been "Convalescing in Europe" all this time. (ha ha. That's how they explained Norman and Harry being alive, so its kinda a 'fuck off' to Editors). Anyway, now that he knows he's the clone, he's not all mopey emo preoccupied with being the clone. But he IS preoccupied with figuring out how and why he's alive. So he takes off across Europe fighting mystery organizations like the Secret Empire and AIM and Hydra. Think of Spider-Man meets the Bourne Films and you kinda see where's its headed.

Mary Jane Watson, Agent of SHIELD. Ha ha! Another YeahBuhWHA? Turns out MJ was only a few credits shy of getting here Psychology degree from ESU. And she has all sorts of practical experience being kidnapped by all kinds of costume wierdos, so she's in a unique position to get inside the head of a supervillain. Nick Fury recruits her as his go to Criminal Psychiatrist. It's your first day on the job MJ! Welcome to SHIELD from a newbie recruits perspective. Also, Who's "baggage" now Quesada? Thats right, Mj can hold her own!! Dick.

The Man Called Cable. Turns out Cable didn't die after all. He was flung through time one final time, into the latter half of the 19th century. Guest starring all the Western Heroes of the Era, the mysterious gunslinger with a strange glint in his eye is still fighting for the future. Except now the future is the present!

X-Factor. After the universe shattering events of that mega epic thingie (which is now percolating in my head) mutants are hated and feared more than ever. And the X-Men are no more (I anm definitely thinking of using that Mysterious X-Men title.). So who or what is X-Factor? I'm bringin back the original premise of mutant hunters that are secretly saving mutants to take them to the new school training facility being run by [REDACTED] in upstate [REDACTED].

The Mysterious X-Men. As far as the world knows, all the X-Men were destroyed in the EPIC EVENT. In fact, they've all (or whats left of them) gone into hiding. But a select few cannot sit idly by while the world still needs protecting. Who are they? What are they? It's a Mystery. Fighting to save mankind from the shadows of a world that hates and fears them more than ever.

[Rollo Tomassi]

Also, I was thinking about how the time expansion between the "Golden Age" (the 1940s era heroes, Cap, the Invaders, etc) and the "Marvel Age" (i.e the last "11 years".) Much of the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s need to be filled in with "history". I thought the "New Universe" stuff could be reconfigured as to have happened in the 80s. The DP7 could be retconned as mutants being held by some secret govt agency. Spitfire could be retconned as a precursor to the Iron Man. I'm not saying all of those old books retroactively happened in the 616, but I'm saying use those characters and events as a template for stuff that happened with a new (better told) story. That has a definite ending. Like the Pitt catastrophe also happened and then there were nor heroes for a decade or so, then Dr. richards went on his fateful spaceflight etc.

I was also trying to figure out which (if any) Marvel characters could be retroed back into the 70s. The only one I could really see working is the Man-Thing. Ted Sallis' backstory of working on a Super-Soldier derivative could easily have taken place in the 70s and the Man-Thing has been shuffling around the Eveglades for thirty years as an Urban Legend. The same goes for Blade the Vampire Hunter. He turned into a Vampire in the 70s and has just been under the radar killing the undead for a lot longer than people thought. Ghost Rider perhaps. Obvious choices like Luke Cage and Iron Fist, ShangChi, etc wouldn't work unfortunately. Trying to contrive how they are still young in the "modern" era and you start getting into the stupid Black Widow retcon territory. barf.

the 60s would be even harder, but you could have it be an 'anemic" era where there wasn't hardly any overt Heroics going on. Perhaps the Agents of Atlas, the Lost Generation and the Blue Marvel. Maybe have the Sentry in there. Naturally Nick Fury and SHIELD have been busy throughout that entire time period, but its all been on the QT. You could have lots of stories covering a large timespan.

But for each of these eras/decades, you could have an anthology title like Strange Tales or Astonishing Tales To Astonish that fleshes out that era with more definable stories in relation to the modern era. It slightly reeks of COIE in a way, but it could also be a lot of fun telling "retcon" stories similar to the X-Men First Class film.

[anarky]

The only way to get a lot of the ages to work at this point is a retcon. Even if it's a minor one; Spidey teamed up with the original cast of SNL and David Letterman well into his career; he should've been way too young to even be thinking of being Spider-Man at those points.

Cable in the old west... beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Isn't his mutant power some sort of specialized telekinesis that allows his cybernetic parts to work

That idea about Wolverine was inspired. Imagine how much better it would be with a full or partial universe reboot, so the reader doesn't know shit about him anymore, either. Combine that with maybe cameos by X-Men who remember him being on their team, but he doesn't know shit about it and wants nothing to do with them. Give him spotty memories of his past--bring back glimpses of the really early stuff Claremont and Hama established (it bugs me that, for a long time, the official stance on Wolvie was "every new writer completely invalidates everything that's been said before"), and, I'd say, let him have more memories of his time as Patch than any other period. But not even a name to go with his face.

Un-vampirize Jubilee. She, Kitty, and Nightcrawler are the driving force behind looking for him.

'Cause remember how fucking cool it was when all we knew for sure about him was that he'd been on the Weapon X project and went insane? And every so often, there'd be a new little nugget, and we'd all go apeshit? Even that shitty MCP story about him in the old west, using knives--it was shit until the last panel when he finds the skeleton of that worm thing he'd killed and just stands there, dumbfounded, obviously thinking, "This really happened? I thought I was just imagining it." Or that stand-alone story in Wolverine #25 (not an anniversary issue! remember when that could happen?) where it establishes he was a Native American, kicked out of his tribe for being too small, and ultimately raised by wolves? I dig that much more than any of the "real" origin I've read about. Except maybe the original Origin miniseries itself, which left more new questions than it answered.

[Diabolical]

Great ideas.
I think either the "event" or another X-related title could be called "Children of the Atom" as a throwback to the 90s X-Men fighting game.
Its too cool of a name not to use again.

[Rollo Tomassi]

Great ideas.
I think either the "event" or another X-related title could be called "Children of the Atom" as a throwback to the 90s X-Men fighting game.
Its too cool of a name not to use again.

IIRC there was a Steve Rude drawn miniseries back in 2000-ish with that title. But I agree, its a too cool a title to not re-use. The "Event" as i'm picturing it is not just mutant related though. It would have to shakeup the status quo of just about everybody from the Avengers to the X-Men to Spidey to the Hulk to Daredevil to the FF. Here's a few more 'ideas'

Doctor Doom: Sorceror Supreme. Marvel has teased about this possibility for years, but i would just go ahead and go for it. My angle would be, he's always aspired to this position (or felt he was entitled to it) but it was for personal gain. but this would be a case of "Be careful what you wish for." because once he gets the power, he realizes "oh fuck, I really DO have to protect this plane of existence. There actually IS heinous shit on the other side of that door and I'm the first, last, and only defense." So its the story of a reluctant hero who is facing an inner moral test, at the same time the rest of the world's heroes don't trust that he's actually trying to do the job. Part of the 'Event" I'm coming up with ideas is that at one point, all the heroes are down and the Major A-List villains are all thats left and they're just wringing their hands in giddy anticipation of finally having the world to themselves, but then they realize that there's this HUGE threat to the Earth and/or the Universe and they actually have to step up and save the world because otherwise there won't be a planet to rule. So like Doom, Magneto, Red Skull, Kingpin, Loki, etc end up saving the world. This book would flow out of those events.

Amazing Spider-man. this is a one-two punch with a new Venom book (see below). Spider-Man is actually NOT Peter for the first time ever. It's a young kid ( I can't remember his name) who was introduced in Sensational Spider-man vol.2 who was a student of Pete's when he was a teacher and had revealed his secret identity and Doc Ock attacked the High School. This kid ended up saving Spidey. At the time they had even set up a small supporting cast of the kid's single mom and his GF. I think later on he was in one other brief story arc in Avengers:Initiative but I'd have to go back and reread to make sure. Anyone, its a chance to leave all the continuity baggage that Marvel's always screaming about behind. And make Spidey a teen again in a hopefully fresh new way. Peter would be regulated to a supporting mentor role in this series. It would be tough to pass off to the pissed off fanboy legions, but y'know..fuck 'em.

Venom. This idea is totally and completely shamelessly cribbed from vyn's awesome idea of Peter being mortally wounded and the symbiote reattaching itself to him to save his life. So rather than being a cool arc in Amazing, you could spin it off where Peter is now the Venom. And he can't tell anyone that he's wearing the symbiote costume. And he doesn't know how to get rid of it without dying, or leave it alone without succumbing to its craziness. Also, as the new Spider-Man's mentor there's kinda a Curt Connors or maybe movie Doc Ock vibe going on with the two titles interacting.

Daredevil. A female Daredevil!!! Remember the girl from Frank Miller and John Romita Jrs man without Fear mini? I would have her come back to NYC having just graduated law school. Something happened to Matt Murdock in the "Event" and this girl ends up taking over as the new Daredevil. I'm still working out the kinks on this one, like how or even if she has abilities similar to Matt's. Whether Matt and/or Foggy are in on her being the new DD or if she's doing it solo without their knowledge and/or consent and support. Feel free to chime in with ideas.

Ghost Rider. I don't really have an overhaul here other than to say Danny Ketch would be the focus of the book and not that emo cockslapper douche Johnny Blaze. Fuck that poseur. obviously there would have to more of a hook to it than that, but I haven't got that far.

MachineMan & Deadpool. Having these two in the same book would be the quirkiest, funniest thing on the shelves. Throw in copious amounts of NextWAVE appearances. Keep Daniel Way all the fuck away from it and let 'er rip.

[jjreason]

You've already done way to much work Rollo. If Marvel was down to 52 books, 48 of them would be Wolverine related, leaving very little room to flesh out the stories you want to tell here. You'd likely have to wait 3-4 months before they cancelled enough of the first (horrible) 52 to get any of this shit going. By then the hobby as we know it would have already started to spiral down the drain, leaving only the long-term geeks to grab the final few issues and pine about it all going to shit just as it was getting good again.....

[anarky]

That Doom idea is especially cool. I recall Doom 2099, where we had a hero, but he was clearly intended to be Dr. Doom from the then-present, though I think they ended up going another route for some reason. The hero was formerly the biggest villain in the universe.

Death's Head. The real deal, the one who talks funny and looks like a cartoon skeleton got eaten by a medieval knight. He's the new focus of Marvel's cosmic books. Early on, he's somehow roped into a perpetual (or very long-term) contract to gather up the Infinity Gems, which are scattered across the universe... and it turns out there are actually a lot more than anyone thought there were.

Sleepwalker. For real. Something that captures the feel of the classic series, but with more serious threats. Maybe focus more on his role as a policeman of the Dreamscape.

Ravage. Skip the 2099 bullshit. An eco-hero for the 21st century, with a similar origin story, only set in the modern day. I'm thinking Detroit--somewhere with no heroes, somewhere not very nice. But since all the weirdness he's gone through has driven him nuts (why else would he ride a garbage truck?), the tone of the book is not entirely straightforward.

[anarky]

BTW, I'm not simply tossing out silly characters I like. They need to dig into their ridiculously deep bag of characters to find new nuggets of joy. History shows that the goofiest characters often turn into the most popular. They laughed when Marvel launched the new Ghost Rider book in 1990. They weren't laughing when a relaunch of one of the 70s lamest heroes became their biggest cash cow. Likewise, Wolverine was a throwaway Hulk villain, supposed to be a mutated wolverine, and the Punisher was a Spider-Man villain.

I'm thinking the "event" should be someone really bad getting the Infinity Gems and reconstructing the Infinity Gauntlet. But someone really fucking dangerous. Not some dumb shit like Thanos who should be dangerous but is too busy trying to literally fuck Death. Someone who immediately incapacitates all the heroes (and seemingly killing several, like Spider-Man and Wolverine), leading to the situation you mentioned above. Even Galactus is forced to get in on the act.

But who...?

In the end, the Gauntlet is broken to pieces, and each gem shattered into less-powerful shards of themselves. That's how Death's Head gets suckered. He's hired by someone like Reed (for a ginormous sum) to gather the Infinity Gems. He is unaware that they've been shattered. But he never breaks a contract. He cannot rest until all the Gems have been recovered in their entirety.

As for Ghost Rider, how about this? Johnny Blaze is dead. Finally at peace, he sacrificed himself to save the universe. The curse seems to be ended. Danny Ketch is older, perhaps wiser, and decides to start a family and normal life. But he discovers that he is not finished with the Ghost Rider yet. (Going back to the original Ketch premise, which got lost somewhere along the way when the Midnight Sons popped up all over the damned place....) Whenever innocent blood is spilled within a certain distance (let's say ten miles), Ketch becomes a Ghost Rider who looks like the coolest possible amalgamation of the Blaze, Ketch, Vengeance, and Noble Savage Ghost Riders. But who is this new, more brutal Ghost Rider? Once again, it doesn't know itself. It only avenges the innocent. And he doesn't revert to Danny Ketch until he's done.

Understanding better the nature of his curse, even if he doesn't understand what is possessing him yet, Ketch becomes a man on the move, staying away from his family (keeping in constant touch with them, but never able to see them, adding to the drama) to prevent them from falling in his alter ego's war on evil. What he doesn't know, and the reader doesn't know at first, either, is that this new Ghost Rider is himself, the darkest reaches of his subconscious unleashing absorbed demonic energy to fill an addiction to vengeance that Ketch doesn't know himself that he has. Everyone--even Ketch and Ghost Rider--believe that Ghost Rider is a separate entity.

No supernatural, world-threatening baddies and melodramatic bullshit with Mephisto. Just a crazed, flaming skeleton who beats the snot out of bad guys, stopping just short of killing them because Ketch still believes life is sacred and his Ghost Rider persona won't do anything he won't allow it to. Back to the "unholy vengeance at a street level" feel of the earliest 1990s issues. Lots of people blame him for the actions of the other Ghost Riders. Unlike his predecessors, though, this Ghost Rider will fuck up anyone, hero or villain, whom he perceives as getting in the way of vengeance.

[anarky]

And, as an added bonus, Ghost Rider can't dilly-dally. He can't eat, drink, or sleep in his Ghost Rider form. But he's still human. If he doesn't finish the job and revert, he'll starve to death.

Blade, The Living Vampire: Somehow, some shit goes really bad. The vampire-loathing mind of Blade finds itself in the body of Morbius, the Living Vampire. (Morbius likewise finds himself in Blade's body for a minute or two, until whatever switched them destroys that body. Blade gets the fuck out of there to live another day.)

Blade now finds himself trapped in an artificial form of that thing he most hates. And the ghost of Morbius haunts him, literally. Morbius is sometimes helpful, sometimes not, and makes no bones about the fact that he wants his damn body back already.

[Rollo Tomassi]

That's a pretty good start. I have an idea about the very nature of the Marvel U that would fit in with that perfectly and rock the place to the fuckin' core. but more on that later.

As for the Ghost Rider, how about (and you don't find this out for at least a hundred issues, not even a hint or a clever innuendo) the Ghost Rider IS Johnny Blaze. He died and thought he was at peace, and he just ended up as the flip side of the Ghost Rider like Noble did. Which is why he's uber super rage filled pissed.

[anarky]

As for the Ghost Rider, how about (and you don't find this out for at least a hundred issues, not even a hint or a clever innuendo) the Ghost Rider IS Johnny Blaze. He died and thought he was at peace, and he just ended up as the flip side of the Ghost Rider like Noble did. Which is why he's uber super rage filled pissed.

Brilliant. And with all the retconned history about Ketch and Blaze being brothers, that's why he thinks he discovers (eventually) that it's his subconscious. They're so closely related that Blaze's presence doesn't feel alien to him.

[Rollo Tomassi]

The first thing that made me think of this was the fact that the Sorceror Supreme is in charge of protecting this plane of existence. Which is, the entire universe and all the galaxies and planets and worlds therein. Which is ..well..its infinite. Or damn near close enough to not make a difference. So, why, in all that infinite space, is the chosen protector some guy on Earth?
And why'll your mulling that over, consider the Captain Britain Corps. A chosen protector from each and every alternate reality. And each one is from Great Britain. Or the United Kingdom. Or some varioation thereof. All of which are located...on Earth.
Okay, so now you're thinking about the Sorceror Supreme and the Captain Britain Corps. While you're at it, think about the Man-Thing and his Nexus of all realities. Think about that. The Nexus. of ALL realities. And it just happens to be in the Everglades. In Florida. On Earth.

Why did the Celestials drop off Eternals and Deviants on the planet millions of years ago? So they could battle each other and each side wasm, through natural selection making the other side stronger. So that each side would in fact be two separate lines of defense. Why do the Asgardians and all the other races of "Gods" watch over "Midgard" instead of some other mudball in an entirely different galaxy? Why did the Kree create the Inhumans and leave them here? Why do the Skrulls speak of Earth in their ancient tomes and believe it is a sacred location?

See where I'm going with this?

As I see it. When The Creator (and when I say The Creator, I'm not interested in getting into a philosophical religious debate with anyone or impeding on their belief system. In the Marvel universe, we have, accepted as canon of mythology such things as Angels, Devils, Hell, Heaven etc. The buck stops somewhere.) when He created the Omniverse of Multiverses or whatever it is, by its very nature it has a center. A linchpin. And that linchpin is Earth. And Specifically the 616-Earth. And whether or not he specifically created a defense system around it, or as I like to think, he put the pieces in place and the world "naturally" built up its own defense system in the all different manner. Mutants? Check. People being bombarded with radiation (be it Cosmic, Gamma, or Spider-bite variety) of all manner and developing powers? Check. Ghost Riders? Check. Sorceror Supremes? Check. All designed to keep the 616-Earth from unravelling everything.

Of course, no actual character IN the Marvel Universe could ever find this out (or if they did, remember it), but I figure most of the advanced Entities know whats going on. Eternity, Infinity, Order, Chaos, Oblivion, Death, The Living Tribunal, etc, etc. Galactus might be problematic, other wise why would he have tried to eat it? But you could retcon than it was a test or that at the last minute it dawned on him and thats why he spared it and it never actually had anything to do with Reed and the Ultimate Nullifier. And thus he left his Herald there to protect the damn thing after he figured it out.

I once (in my head) started doing a list and tiers of who the oldest/most powerful beings in the Omniverse were. As if The Creator had started making immensely powerful beings (and artifacts such as the Infinity Gems) and then on each subsequent attempt, made them less powerful, but more adaptable. So eventually he got to just dropping pre-atom organisms with a template, and letting them evolve over the course of millions of years on different worlds. Which is where Humans came from. but the earlier attempts were like the Celestials, and the Gods, and Angels and Demons and the like. All of which started trying to do the same thing in various forms. But not as well crafted as the Big Guy.

So anyway, the "Event" (which i really need to come up with a clever name for it, aside from Secret War 7 or something dopey like that) is this moment where the "Defense system" is really tested for the first time. Which is why I though getting Galactus involved would dovetail nicely. See, I'm a firm believer that Galactus has been fucking diluted over the years on account he shows up as a guest star every three months in some book or another. In order to make him credible again, he would have to go away. Like for a long long time. I mean like 5-10 years no mention of him in anything. Ever. Not even writers and editors mentioning him in interviews. THEN, have some In-House Ad where its all like "Galactus. Is. Coming." and really sell the shit out of it. Like Doomsday back in the Superman books but x100. Where its like "Oh fuck, the Big G is coming to eat Earth! Oh fuck!" But there's this other grandiose evil thing happening at the same time. So the heroes all get fucked up first. Then there's the last stand of the Super villains who save the day. But really, in the twelfth issue, he saves it. And then all this secret history I just mentioned comes to light (for the readers anyway, if not the Avengers and Everybody.)

And then after, you have this semi-reboot of all these books I've been pitching for fun all up in heah.

Now, the nature of the EVIL thing is still up in the air. I like anarky's idea of the Infinity Guantlet being in there. It might be cool to have that be the opening Red Herring and have it get shattered in the second issue. There was also this thing and I can't remember the specifics but I think it got started in the Avengers book in the 70s that there is a huge "time ripple" that centered around 2020 or slightly before and time travel is impossible in this bubble for a few years in each direction. Or something to that effect. Well, I was thinking, anybody who is attacking the Mutiverse is going to do so with unconventional methods, so what if this time bubble is actually like a rift that sends a timeshockwave back through time. It's a little bit COIE I'll admit, but you could slightly fuck with peoples origins and whatnot. And THAT part of the puzzle I actually thought up a few years ago while reading Exiles. i thought, what if they aren't fixing alternate realities like them little bugs are telling them, but what if they're creating some kind of Omniverse tunnel which makes whatever's attacking easy to bore through all these dimensions and the Exiles are just fucking dupes who can't see the big picture?

Anyway, thats what I've come up with so far. its a work in progress.

[jjreason]

Not sure if you mentioned the Beyonder or not, but there'd be have to be something, they've delved into this supreme-being premise before with some pretty mixed results. Secret Wars I good, you know full well Secret Wars II bad.

[Rollo Tomassi]

Not sure if you mentioned the Beyonder or not, but there'd be have to be something, they've delved into this supreme-being premise before with some pretty mixed results. Secret Wars I good, you know full well Secret Wars II bad.

Maybe kill the Beyonder early on. The supreme-being wouldn't even be IN the book as a character. Just using him as backstory to explain why the Earth is so valuable/important. I mean the guy is way too busy with the entire Omni-Multi-Quasiverse to deal with one little ol' planet.

Thinking about Chux's idea of the Infinity Gems shattering, it makes for a good kind of metaphor for the entire series. think about the In-House teaser ads. "The Avengers....Shattered." "The X-Men...Shattered" "The Amazing Spider-Man...Shattered." Or maybe Fractured. Which would kind tie in with them being called the Infinity Fractals on SHS. But that sounds to close too Fraction, Matt. So I don't know. But "The Shattering" sounds better than "The Fracturing" right? "Where were you when the Marvel Universe...Shattered?" That reminds me of Shatner. And also people would make jokes about things being shat out, shat upon. This seriies is a pieces of shat. etc. Anyway, thoughts?

But back to the story, in thinking about how to eff up the Avengers, I was thinking about how and why the X-Men get "decimated" (or everybody thinks they all die) and the Avengers don't. Because when this Evil Entity is first recognized, all the heroes get together and decide the Avengers will head out to fight it, and the X-Men will stay and be Earth's last line of defense. So when whatever happens, the Avengers are all "gone" and then the X-Men get their asses beat, and thats when the Villains have to step up and save Earth. So when the Avengers get back (and they had some serious shit to deal with, its not like they were just off holding their dicks) but when they get back, the general perception of the people of Earth is that the Avengers ducked out. I mean, their P.R. is just right in the shitter after this. And they suffered some casualties on top of this (still sussing them out).
Also, I was thinking about halfway through the series, whatever Evil Entity shows up in like issue Five or Six and BLOWS UP THE EARTH. Yeah. But then you find out its actually that stupid Counter-Earth on the opposite side of the sun from Heroes Reborn. But I mean, that final two page splashpage? That would blow people's minds. And you'd get rid of a stupid plot device from an earlier shitty Event, but still make it impactful. because y'know people still live on that Earth, and there are some Heroes on it, and you could play up the drama of them all dying or whatever. But still, the Earth blowing up. How fucking crazy would that be?

And here are some more ideas riffing off that.

Hawkeye. After the fallout of the Event. Hawkeye has always pretty much defined himself as an Avenger. But now, he's done. Fuck the Avengers. He, along with everyone else, has been let down by them in the most dire hour. So he leaves, heads to Los Angeles and opens up a Urban Youth center to help inner city kids. gets a new supporting cast, and intends to hang up the Quiver and Bow. But pretty soon, the kids he's helping get involved in some seedy shit, and he has to pick up the Bow and Arrow once more, dons a cool new modern costume (closer to his Ultimate/Movie getup) and starts fighting crime in LA.

Iron Man. Tony Starkis a casualty of the Event. His body is shattered and he can no longer use the Iron Man armor. So he has to hire a Body Guard to wear the Iron Man armor and its a completely n00b guy. i was thinking of the twist being somebody who was traditonally a villain. I'm open to suggestions on that part. Could be somebody obvious, or somebody crazy like Batroc the Leaper. Throw them out there.

Quasar. this is a totally "out there" concept and a complete pipedream. Because of the Event Quasar gets blown into...the DC Universe. this would be an ongoing series written and published by Marvel, but with complete constant contact by DCs staff. You see why it would be a Pipedream. But think about how it could be marketed. Marvel has this HUGE Event. And then one of their new series is happeing at DC. Which might get readers more interested in DCs stuff. And would certainly get comic readers talking about BOTH Publishers. Long term its a win/win for everybody on the press side of it. (And if DC were willing to reciprocate, I'd have Deathstroke wind up in the Marvel Universe with the same rules, reversed).

[anarky]

Slade Wilson beating the shit out of Wade Wilson would be priceless.

I was also thinking Stark should no longer be Iron Man. And his body is beaten to the point where he can't simply put on a suit of armor. He's reached a sort of breaking point, where technology can no longer directly help him. He becomes a genius in a wheelchair, sort of Professor X without the mutant powers.

Rhodey would probably, sadly, have to die for another person altogether to become Iron Man.

If you wanted a slightly different spin, Michael Collins could become Iron Man. If you're re-writing stuff, he never got his body back. Stark helps him build a slightly less hideous mechanical casing in exchange for replacing him as Iron Man.

Here's another "so far out there, they'd never consider it" idea:
Captain America: Steve Rogers was one of the casualties among the Avengers. Not in the traditional sense, but circumstances put him in a position where he effectively had to order the genocide of the Shi'ar (or Kree, or Heroes Reborn Earth, or whoever) to save our world. He is now a broken man, whose troubles are compounded when the Avengers are shamed. Even with his incredible force of will, he is unable to cope with his guilt and lives in exile (possibly in the wilderness, maybe on another planet).

For the first time since the Avengers found his frozen body back in, uh, what's the year supposed to be now? 2000? Eh, whatever. For the first time since the Avengers found his frozen body, the world is without a Captain America or a potential successor (for some reason, John Walker can't or isn't willing to do it, and that Cappunisher bullshit was the first thing to get retconned away). Someone somewhere is doing some research and discovers the 1950s Cap, who was (and I'm assuming Wikipedia is up to date here) placed in cryogenic storage when he went insane due to a missing compound in the Nazi supersoldier serum he used. Of course, modern technology can fix that--even if they can't replicate the supersoldier serum, there are other ways to keep him sane. So he's thawed out.

So we get the "man out of time" approach again. Only now it's a guy who was frozen about the time Elvis was making his appearance on Ed Sullivan trapped in the 21st century. He's a bit disappointed there are no flying cars, and he thinks the music sucks. And, where Steve Rogers was an idealistic, this Captain America is sort of a dick. And he's so far to the political right (where Rogers has always been portrayed as slightly left, and Walker as slightly right) that his version of "patriotism" is considerably different. (I haven't read much Ultimates, but what I've heard Ultimate Cap described as comes to mind.) Let's say that, although he's no white supremacist by any stretch, he's finding it really tough to shake the racist ideology of the 1950s--how does he react to a US indebted to China, led by a black guy who some folks (folks he would likely agree with on many points) claim is a socialist?

Truth is, your Quasar idea has a better shot of publication.