Editor X: New team challenge

Currently the X-Men is a massive mosaic of mutants huddling for safety in San Francisco.  Dozens of characters flit about, yet only a handful have recurring roles in the core X-Books and several major characters have been reduced to little more than occasional cameos during big fight scenes and maybe a little focus in an anthology book here and there.

The X-Editorial is looking for a pitch for a new group book that will collect some of these "odds and ends" and put them in a new team book.  You can select from any character who is not currently part of the regular occurring cast in X-MEN, X-MEN: LEGACY, NEW MUTANTS, X-FACTOR, X-FORCE or UNCANNY or has their own solo series.  You must use a minimum of 6 characters.

Just to get your juices flowing, here are some major characters who fit the bill:

Iceman, Dazzler, Northstar, Havok, Polaris, Rachel Summers, Colossus, Shadowcat, Sunfire, Warpath, Domino, Husk, Chamber, Dust, Anole, Rockslide, Hellion, Surge... to name a few.

I like the young/new X-men concept, though I'm actually hoping that we will see more of them in Legacy.

I'm suprised that not more people have posted ideas for this open challenge. Anyway, here goes my take. Probably I'd wait with releasing it about 6-12 months until Generation Hope/FiveLights has failed, I don't want to swamp the market with too many new books.

I agree... not much more to improve on with Peter Luzifer's ideas.  Both the young X-Men and the "leftover" X-Men have enough story potential to carry a new series, IMO.  I'd drop Elixir and Lacuna from Peter's roster and sub in Prodigy as the team's tech support, Cecilia Reyes as field medic (adding both diversity, romantic tension with Beast and an "everywoman" perspective on things) as well as Husk, who I just think is too cool a character to be so perpetually sidelined.  I'd toss in some government back-up with a Mutantes Sans Frontieres meets XSE vibe but heavy on the public side of it.  The whole deal would be underwritten by Warren as a kind of penance for his actions with X-Force.  This would come back to haunt the team down the line.

I'd build off of Bobby's recent meeting with Kate Kildare and maybe set him up with Husk.  I think his light-hearted nature and her bookishness could make for a nice combo.  I'd really want him to be the star of the book as he's the one original X-Man who always seems to be sidelined, plot-wise.


Edited by Binaryan - 28-Sep-2010 at 12:02am

Anti-Limbo & Ryan, thanks for the compliments. Both your comments made me think, and slightly alter the idea. Indeed, let's not have Lacuna as a member of the group. Still she is a too good character to go to waste (IMO), and I want the rest of the MU to acknoledge X-Statix a bit more, so how about Lacuna is in the book as the person who will do the exposing? It's just like before, she'll do her talk show with bits and pieces about the new team, and eventually she will learn all the dark secrets.

@Crawler - I like those plot ideas. And Iceman and Toad on the same team? I love it. S'only reason Bobby isn't on my team. ; ) Well, that, and I don't want that Alex-Lorna-Bobby drama. Ugh.

I think my concept would be a bit more about exploring who we've got left in the mutant community, more of an outreach program. Cyclops knows that there are a limited number of mutants on the planet. Those mutants need to be reached out, helped, or in the cases of the less-sane ones, either eliminated or captured. My book would be the oddly titled the Other X-Men (as it features those other mutant characters).

Main cast:

Havok - I know a lot of us want to see Havok return and put the smackdown on Scott for his idiotic leadership during the past few crises. However, Alex is just coming home from an intergalactic war. He's been doing some killing and making the hard choices himself. Alex might not like Scott's handling or decisions, but he accepts them. He offers his services to Scott not as a warrior though, but as a friend and brother. After all the death and killing he's just witnessed, Alex wants to help people, defend people, and so he puts together a unit to do just that.

Polaris - After all that time spent in space, Lorna and Alex are back on and happier than ever. However, upon their return, Lorna finds that not only is her father alive, but working alongside the X-Men. She doesn't know how to feel about this - her relationship with Magneto having never worked out in the past. Plus, after all that space-sex, she and Alex have a baby on the way to worry about. So Lorna leaves with the new group, hoping for a little more peace of mind.

Surge - I honestly don't think there's any mystery to Surge's bitchiness. She's tried to be a team leader and failed (in her eyes) miserably. Seeing her potential and her self-destructing, Alex pulls her onto the team, which also leads into their first mission: finding Elixir.

Toad - Honestly just because I really like Toad's character. But there are a plethora of reasons. He has experience in the field, depending on his personality he's a cunning leader, he has adaptable mutations, and he's a bit of a jerk. And all teams need a bit of a jerk. Plus, Alex has shown a soft spot in the past before when his team took Juggernaut in.

Raptor - Having lost the Phoenix force, Rachel Grey feels pretty cut off from all reality right now. She's miserable, brooding, and totally withdrawn. In an attempt to get her to step out of her new shell, Alex asks her to join the team, giving her a purpose to live for until she can find her own.

Prodigy - He's part of Surge's problem and he's the team science guy. More than able to handle himself in the field thanks to his training, Prodigy also brings a sense of heart to the team. He's going to be the most concerned about the people they reach out to, even if he's the most powerless.

The team would be based out of the Mansion, rebuilt by Rachel's tk, although that would happen at the end of the first story arc. For stories, they would largely focus and feature different established mutants and just what's going on with them - for better or for worse. Some would stay on as background members or temporary team members, others would come in and out as villains.

- The first arc deals with the team going after Elixir. Surge has been coming to Cyclops for weeks since Josh left, asking him to go and get the young man. His healing abilities are needed, what with Hellion and Karma's injuries, and who knows what other damage the X-Men'll take in the future? However, not wanting to risk the resources, Scott's been holding back.
Alex, however, is more than willing to help. The team heads out (Alex asking Toad to come along to get a different perspective on things) and finds Elixir in a mid-west town surrounded by...mutants? During his exile, Josh believes that he's discovered how to activate mutant powers - but it has disastrous results. He'll end up escaping, coming back to haunt the team (and Surge) later on.

- When the Dark X-Men disbanded, Mystique, Omega, Mimic, and Dark Beast split. But what exactly became of Omega, Mimic, and Dark Beast? While Alex doesn't relish running into McCoy again, Omega's powers and mindset are too unstable to leave wandering around America. The team must also deal with Mimic's knowledge of the future - a poor and sad end for him leading him to make several risky and dangerous choices.

- The team calls in Husk and M to help them find and corral Blink, who has gone missing since her appearance during Necrosha. Obviously confused (or potentially deranged), they manage to find her as she travels the world, attempting to resurrect her dead queen. After reaching out to her, the group finally convinces Blink to step out on her own and she joins the team.

And so on and so on. Eventually the team would run into Exodus, little Carter Gazhikanian, fight Elixir and the re-powered X-Cell, and so on. But you get the idea.

I think we need a new Thunderbolts-esque X-Team.  A group who isn't really around to do important stuff but is a group to learn to help others.

Originally posted by Gibbering Fool Originally posted by marhawkman I think we need a new Thunderbolts-esque X-Team.  A group who isn't really around to do important stuff but is a group to learn to help others.   Taking what you said, I think they could take Dark X-men and mold it into a Thunderbolts style X-Book.  It could be a team brought together by Xavier in an effort to reedeem certain characters and trying to repair human/mutant relations.  The roster would include:   Xavier: He hasn't done anything since coming back to the X-men. I would be happy to see him working towards his dream, which has really fallen to the wayside since M-Day.  Mystique: Never repentant, I could see Mystique being arrested once again, but Xavier convinced Val Cooper and Steve Rogers to hand her into his custody for his rehabilitation program. Mimic:  Always hoping the fence between hero and villain, he could see this as his opportunity to make up for picking the wrong side in Osborn's Dark X-men Omega: I could see Xavier not wanting Pointer, due to his instability and extreme power, but Steve Would push this one on him. Avalanche and Toad:  These two have been hanging around the X-men for a while now, neither seem outright villainous. Legion: Still working to rehabilitate his sone, Xavier brings him along, hoping that doing good for the world will help him.  But will spending time with the likes of Mystique really help him?   I could see Xavier taking the team up againt very public threats, much like the Astonishing X-Men, to try and build up good publicity.  I'd start off with an arc unrelated to mutants, like a small alien invasion, or a giant monster bursting out of the sea.  The following arc I would have the team going up against Sugar Man, who has taken his mutate bonding process to Madripoor and is seeling mutate slaves.  He would have retained the services of the Nasty Boys as his press gang and bodyguards (hey Sinister obviously doesn't want them)

I'm digging the idea of a  mutant team of Thunderbolts... former villains who've been influenced enough by their time sequestered on Utopia to see the possibility of a better life.  I think Xavier would work well taking this on and I'd team him up with the following mutants:

Toad - Mimic - Avalanche - Tempo -  Scalphunter - Dragoness - Amelia Voght

Okay, so, I'm all for the kids having a team again. My reasons are plural;
1- It seems a waste to have had such good development of them only to have them pretty much relegated to background cast or rotated in Legacy.
2- If they had their own X-Squad before, why were so few of them actively involved in a team roster post Manifest Destiny?
3- The vast majority of them are NOT redundant in terms of their powersets.

So, the way I would start it is having Cyclops giving a speech to an unknown person. It's the typical Scott 'Inspirational' fare, about how, with everything that's happened, the kids need someone they can look up to, someone who is the poster-child for a life in the X-Men, and there's no better candidate than... (I await surprise here)... Kitty. As much as I hate her, and as much as I don't PERSONALLY see it, I think she would be a good fit for a mentor, certainly as much of a good mentor as Rogue. Basically, she's all healed and solid after space dildo, and the first panel we see of her would be her sitting in a chair, arms folded and one eyebrow raised cynically, saying to Scott "Who are you trying to convince; me or you? After all, I'm the one who got one of them killed...". Then we flash back to two days before; The squad is as follows: Surge, Mercury, Dust, Rockslide, Anole, Indra and Pixie, with the Cuckoos keeping telepathic tabs on them via Cerebra (although Phoebe is with the team).

Surge is pissed (of course she is), and despite Anole and Dust trying to convince her that she needs to cool off, she's not interested and darts away from the group, Dust in hot pursuit. Mercury asks Victor if he really thought that was going to work, he replies with something angsty only for Indra to reveal that the reason Surge is so angry (and that they're back on the site of the old Institute) is that David is missing, presumed kidnapped. Rockslide asks why they're even here anymore which allows Pixie to explain via expository dialogue that David's Danger Cave was rigged to sound an alarm built into his costume and Surge's gauntlets should anyone venture through it without their knowledge, and an hour after David went missing, the alarm went off. Phoebe follows up by explaining that it's possible that this is David trying to let them know he's okay. Dust reappears as we see massive electrical arcs firing off in the distance-- Sooraya explains that something awful has happened--

Cut to David being held in a cell somewhere. It's dark, he doesn't know where he is, all he knows is that he recognises one of the other voices in the dark; It's Sophia! She explains that she was taken along with Barnell and Angel a few weeks ago and that every couple of days, some of them are taken elsewhere and never come back-- she assumes the worst since she Angel and Barnell both were taken a few days ago and by her reckoning, they're going to take a few others soon, and there's only a few of them left... No sooner has she finished speaking than she's taken away, screaming...

Cut back to Utopia, and Kitty has stumbled across the Cuckoos in Cerebra and asks where the kids are. The other teams are on a mission and she'd been left behind to look after the kids (with Scott and Emma not thinking she's ready for field ops yet) before realising half of them are missing. The Cuckoos end up telling her what's happened. She rolls her eyes, makes some kind of racist remark, then storms off to find a jet.

The kids have stumbled across something horrific-- the dead bodies of the students/X-Men who died pre M-Day/still had their powers afterwards have been taken. They also get the telepathic heads up that Kitty's on her way to meet them and bring them home. Surge wants to find who did it and why, when Rockslide finds a clue-- a receipt from a fast food outlet in Chicago. Pixie teleports them as Phoebe sends a sly telepathic message to her sisters; "Keep Miss Pryde informed..."

Cut to Chicago where it's revealed that Abyss and Fatale (returned from inside Abyss and not having exploded, but the effects of the Terrigan Crystals having worn off), have enlisted the help of Dark Beast to find a cure for depowerment. They've been using genetic material from non-depowered mutants to try to find a way to return their powers permanently and safely. DB reveals he thinks he's finally cracked it, at which Fatale is happy, as they only have one more test subject left alive... close up on a hand dangling out from underneath a blood-stained sheet, wearing Sophia's charm bracelet.... END OF ISSUE ONE!

From there I would have the kids and Kitty trying to find the base of operations, finding it and getting into a brawl just as David's "treatment" has finished. Kitty starts ordering them about and assuming control, telling Dust to stay calm and stay at least semi-solid as they're in a confined space and she could well flay them all alive if she flips out. DB has placed nannites into the corpses and they come to life and fight the New X-Men (as is the title's name). David awakens, and because his powers were mental, he had been treated with a synthesis of Jean Grey's tissue. He manifests a small Phoenix raptor before convulsing... his powers had returned, and he therefore knew that DB was lying and that the nannites would eventually kill him. His powers in tandem with the telekinetic powers of Jean awakened in him caused him to attack the nannites on a molecular level so he could survive with an unexpected side effect-- not only do his old powers fade again, but so do Jean's leaving him with powers of technopathy (communicating with machines and controlling them, but not being able to make them, like Forge). The New X-Men and Kitty fight off the zombies, and Fatale and Abyss run off, but DB is furious at having being beaten by the X-Men during The Dark Avengers crossover, and now at the hands of children, and he flips out, firing a gun randomly into the group. Before he does so, Kitty dives at Dust, phasing as she does so, realising that Dust was too busy tending to David to go granular and avoid the attack... she grabs Dust and David and phases, just as she sees Noriko speeding towards them to move them, Nori can't move fast enough to avoid the oncoming gun fire...

Which is soaked up, instead, by Anole, who had been in camouflage and takes several rounds in the chest... he dies.

We flash back to the present day and it's Anole's funeral. Everyone is upset, and Kitty can barely bring herself to go (because, as always, it's all about her...), until the New X-Men encourage her to do so, explaining that due to David's new power, he was snooping on the conversation she had with Cyclops earlier, and that she SHOULD be their new mentor-- if she's willing to take a death so badly, and so publicly, it shows that she's going to be more invested in making sure they're safe... which is something they don't feel Emma has been doing for some time. At the mere mention of her former arch rival, naturally, Kitty is FULL of pompous sanctimony and decides that she'll be their mentor. They all go to Anole's funeral, and as is the way with X-Funerals nowadays, someone entirely unappropriate delivers the eulogy (maybe Cannonball). Kitty is devoted to making the team work etc.

I would follow with plotlines regarding Nori's family, her father, I've decided, will be involved in manufacturing the Japanese equivalent of 'The Cure'. Dust's eternal quest to find her mother is resolved as she finds her mother in a slave camp, as she's a mutant with geokinetic abilities; Prodigy coming to terms with his new power, basically, I would want to give each main character some kind of story arc before setting them up against DB again... I would want that battle between DB and his newly recruited/re-powered Morlocks to be the final arc that I wrote before passing it on to someone else.

The end.

Ink would be a good shout, but I'd be less surprised by Rockslide...

Originally posted by chrissstopher But couldn't you kill Ink or Graymalkin instead of Anole? I love Anole.

I concur. I know we should kill off better liked characters for the emotional gut punch, but let's continue to kill of the excess, ok?

I like where everyone is going with these. I too would either think 'New' X-Men or 'Media Darling' X-Men, with the basic line ups listed.

Of course my dream team would be a team we've discussed before - Gay-X: Led by power couple Rictor & Shatterstar, they recruit the LGBT spectrum from the X-Teams: Northstar (A-List Gay, C-List X-Man), Dazzler (#1 Fruit Fly & aging Pop Star), Anole & Greymalkin (the Gay BFFs, and fill the 'freak' quota), Bling! (she's shiny AND she likes girls!), and Karma (robot leg - check!, likes girls - check!). They travel the globe talking mutant rights, gay rights, beating up The Thing, and of course all things fun & fabulous.

This of course is a huge joke, becuase even typing it out it sounds like the worst team ever

Edited by QDLux29 - 04-Oct-2010 at 6:46pm

Originally posted by QDLux29 Originally posted by chrissstopher But couldn't you kill Ink or Graymalkin instead of Anole? I love Anole.    I concur. I know we should kill off better liked characters for the emotional gut punch, but let's continue to kill of the excess, ok? I like where everyone is going with these. I too would either think 'New' X-Men or 'Media Darling' X-Men, with the basic line ups listed. Of course my dream team would be a team we've discussed before - Gay-X: Led by power couple Rictor & Shatterstar, they recruit the LGBT spectrum from the X-Teams: Northstar (A-List Gay, C-List X-Man), Dazzler (#1 Fruit Fly & aging Pop Star), Anole & Greymalkin gay rights, beating up The Thing, and of course all things fun & fabulous. This of course is a huge joke, becuase even typing it out it sounds like the worst team ever

Actually, it's not that bad of a lineup when you look at it.

Rictor can be the dispatcher, the depowered mutant who still believes in the mutant and human co-existence.

Shatterstar is the unknown; the alien and the one who can get down and dirty when the times call for it. He also has a connection to Rictor in the form of his lover, and a connection to Dazzler.

Northstar is the speedster, cocky, arrogant, openly gay, and is great friends with Dazzler. No doubt, Shatterstar would find him strange yet alluring..while Rictor would be jealous and weary of the speedster. Lots of room for drama.

Dazzler..she's the disco queen, the powerhouse of the team when she wants to be and is somewhat the most experienced next to 'Star. Her possible son is on the team, and she loves Dazzler as her BFF..lots of drama when 'Star goes for Northstar, and she finds out Star is her son..and she's BFF with Northstar.

Anole and Graymalkin is the two kids - two somewhat physical powerhouses. Plus, I think Graymalkin stands to be fleshed out much more.

Yes, they're all gay or bi, except Dazzler..but it's an interesting team. The only real lack is having a leader. I just don't see Rictor and Shatterstar as leaders. I'm sure they could pull Xavier..

Originally posted by chrissstopher That's awesome das boot... Both you and grief had the same ideas I did... doing a team with the X-Jammers and then a team with the New X-Men. But couldn't you kill Ink or Graymalkin instead of Anole? I love Anole.

Thought I'd replied to this already... I would rather go for the gut-punch a la K+Y. Basically, I would want this title to be somewhere between the Kyle and Yost all-action and the DeFillipis and Weir all-development-- not to say that Kyle and Yost didn't develop the characters, because they did, in spades, but I would want to steer away from the D+W era of, as my housemate put it, 'Sweet Valley High with super-powers' feel.

I would want to write it so that each character has a distinct arc to develop them as a character, as well as allowing for some action, with the exception of Prodigy, who I would want to be developed as a long-term venture. I could see him, as a Technopath, being as useful a strategic resource as the Cuckoos are, being able to monitor a team via local CCTV feeds etc. I would want to see him dealing with being one of the perceived ;weak sisters' in terms of power, to dealing with being depowered and still an X-Man, and then repowered to the point of him being invaluable. Those are a LOT of changed to have happen to a character, and in a relatively short space of time, too.

I was going to kill off Dust, before realising that she's actually quite a unique character and certainly deserves more limelight than she's been given.