Top 10: Supervillains

I already did a top 10 Superheroes, so I thought it was only natural that I did the Supervillains next.  Please keep in mind this is my list, and therefore is based entirely on opinion.  So without further delay; here is the list.

10. Darkseid

Starting off this list is Darkseid.  No matter the medium, if Darkseid shows up; crap hits the fan.  Ruling over a planet called Apokolips with an iron fist, Darkseid made it to my list thanks to the animated universe.  Growing up in the 90s he and Apocalypse were the 2 most powerful baddies of my childhood, and Darkseid was always more interesting to me.  His powers are similar to Superman, but he cannot fly and his eye lasers seem to defy all logic.  It is for these reasons he is only number 10 on the list.

9. Green Goblin

What makes the Goblin such a great villain is not his powers, costume, or secret identity...but the fact he enjoys it.  Norman Osborn was a crooked business man until his accident.  Since then he has terrorized New York, murdered countless people, saved the world, controlled the nation's security, destroyed Asgard, and that's just a short list.  The whole time he was doing these things he had to reuse the Goblin formula, meaning deep down he prefers to be the goblin.  But it was Willem Dafoe's amazing performance that puts him on my list.

8. Doctor Doom

Personally; I can't stand the Fantastic Four, but Doctor Doom is a fantastic villain.  Doom is arrogant, powerful, and has diplomatic immunity.  The only issue I have with him is his power set, magic just has too many variables and is often too convenient for me.  Doom was the big bad behind one of my favorite games, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, where he outsmarts every other villain in the game, and he proves why he is one of the planet's greatest threats time and time again.

7. Doomsday

Doomsday will always hold a special place in my heart, the Death of Superman was a big deal when I was young (Yes the event predates me, but it was still a big deal) and Doomsday's design was really cool.  What makes Doomsday a great villain is he isn't a mastermind...he's an animal that happens to be the top of the food chain.  He also reshaped comic books forever, after he killed Superman he set events in motion that led to death becoming inconsequential. 

6. Joker

Joker is Batman's greatest villain, he scored so low on my list because as you will see, I clearly have a type when it comes to villains.  Joker is one of the few Batman villains I like, and usually when he gets involved his plans keep me guessing the whole time.  Joker however is the first character on my list that follows the number 1 rule of supervillains; a great villain is the heroes opposite, the other side of the coin.  And the colorful and outrageous Joker is definitely the brooding Bat's opposite.  On a side note, Mark Hamill's voice has been how I imagined Joker sounding since I was 5 years old.

5. Lex Luthor

Lex is a different kind of villain, he believes that what he is doing is right.  Lex feels Superman s a threat to society, and thus must be defeated.  At least that's how it all started, now his motives are a bit more greed oriented.  Another thing that makes Lex a great villain is that everyone knows his real name, yet he is still able to become president of the United States.  Not only does he believe he is in the right, he is able to convince others of this as well.  And just look at that image, can you imagine that in the next Man of Steel/Batman movie?  It would be amazing.

4. Magneto

Another villain who believes he is right, Magneto is a terrorist that feels in order for his kind to survive he must destroy the rest of humanity.  This puts him at odds with his enemies (Though surprisingly never really the Avengers) in his mission.  He has been a revolutionary, a terrorist, a political figure, and a member of the X-Men, though in a twist of irony Magneto has the same mindset as those who subjugated him in his youth, the Nazis.  It's this hypocrisy that only puts him at number 4 on my list.

3. Red Skull

Red Skull is has done something few villains can, he killed his nemesis.  Sure Doomsday killed Superman once, but he also died.  The Skull managed to win and for a while the world without it's greatest hero.  But more than that he was also deemed to dangerous to live once Cap came back.  And to add another accomplishment, Red Skull is so evil, other villains refuse to work with him.  Instead he uses his own very small list of accomplices.  In recent days Skull has been brought back in the form of a clone, exhumed the body of Charles Xavier, and experimented on it to give himself Xavier's telepathy.  Not only that, but in the most recent story arc he succeeds in destroying the mutant race; forcing the children of Apocalypse to go back in time to stop him.  His track record speaks for itself as to why he earned his spot on the list, but the next 2 are even worse.

2.Ultron

Ultron combines some of my favorite aspects of a supervillain: he believes he is in the right, has the power to back up his threats, he was inadvertently created by his nemesis, and he is brilliant.  The best part of Ultron is not if he will destroy mankind, but when.  Ultron is always upgrading himself, and the Avengers know, or knew rather, that he would eventually become too much for them to handle.  The recent event Age of Ultron was all about this and the heroes were only able to stop him once and for all with time travel.  But he is also very limited, and even at his best he could only take 1 planet.

1.Brainiac

Brainiac has never appeared the same for very long.  He had an extremely inconsistent origin story, that is until the New Krypton story and it was revealed there was a reason for this; none of them were the real Brainiac.  Brainiac collects cities, and there is speculation that he is responsible for Krypton's destruction.  Which means he also destroyed every other planet who's cities he has taken.  This gives him a death toll somewhere in the trillion...with a "T".  Brainiac has been in my mind the greatest villain since the first episode of the animated series.  And if the speculation about him destroying Krypton is true (we'll never know thanks to the new 52), then he manages to have created the most powerful and iconic hero of all time.

Well that's my list, if you have one feel free to post it, or if you have any other comments you want to leave.

Editorial: Comic Books and Aging

       It's been a few weeks since I posted anything, I hate Spring Quarter.  Anyway I thought today I would bring up my biggest complaint with comics books as a genre, okay that's not true, DC's ridiculous need to reboot every few years is worse.  But today I would like to go over the annoyance of how characters stop aging once they reach age 30.  This wouldn't be such a big deal if younger characters didn't age, but they do, and eventually they are the same age as their idols.  To make matters worse the narrative of comics is that they go on for years, and often bring up things that happened in the past.  But the always say it was only a few months ago, which doesn't work if you create new characters, then age them multiple years.  The most obvious example of this is Barbara's paralysis in 1988, the New 52 claims this was 6 months ago, but in that time Damian Wayne was born, raised to be a killer, and became Robin.  Not bad for someone less than 6 months old.

       Sure it's understandable that given their powers some of these characters will live longer.  For example all God characters such as Thor, Hercules, and even Wonder Woman can live forever so long as they are not killed.  The same goes for characters with healing factors like Wolverine, who is already over 200 years old.  Also characters like Nick Fury and Superman can live longer than others, Superman because of his powers, and Fury's infinity serum.  It has also been put on record Hulk will far outlive Banner as well.  But what about all the characters whose powers don't affect aging?  Batman for example has been around for decades, fathered 3 adopted sons and 1 biological son, half of which are roughly his age now.

       As a child of the 90s I have lived through many a child hero, all of which are destined to be the next generation of heroes.  Except that next generation never happens, in truth they end up aging and are then more often then not overshadowed by older heroes.  So what happens to the futures we are often seeing in comics them?  Futures that in many instances should have happened years ago.  For example Spider-Man can't lead the Avengers if Iron Man never retires.  Interestingly enough the X-Men are the only ones to address this issue.  By killing off Xavier they left a role that needed to be filled by his pupils, which they did.  Creating a new Mutant power struggle not based on Racism, but who is actually willing to join with the now far more accepting populace.

       Though it is true my favorite heroes are the oldest of their respective universes, and with them aging in real time I may have been denied them in their glory days, but as I said before, new heroes would have raised up to fill their shoes, so instead of Clark Kent and Steve Rogers, I may have gotten Christopher Kent and James Barnes.  Though these are bad examples because as I mentioned before, these characters actually don't age normally and may actually still be active today.  So better example, rather than Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark we would have Terry McGinnis and Anthony Stark Jr.

       Though the most annoying thing about this utter neglect of time has got to be technology and pop culture.  If you read a comic from the 90s there are no cell phones, no Facebook, no Obama.  Yet a comic from 2013 not only has all of these things, but technically they are still in the 1960s with them.

       I may be reading too much into all of this, so I will leave it to you the readers to decide for yourself if our heroes should remain ageless or not.  But I for one would love to see the Titans and Young Justice from my youth go on to become the Justice League, except Superboy, who cannot age.  Or how about the Avengers led by Steve Roger's grandchild.  Have something to say on this topic?  Feel free to leave a comment below.

Comic Review: Supreme Power Vol 1

       It has been a while since I posted anything, and even longer since I have done a comic book review.  So I figured why not do a comic series most people have never heard of.  Thus I decided on a Marvel MAX series titled Supreme Power.  As always this review will contain spoilers, but I will try to keep them to a minimum.  So if your ready read on.

       Supreme Power is a retelling of Marvel's Squadron Supreme, a series that was meant to mimic DC's Justice League.  The real twist however for this series is that it falls under Marvel's MAX imprint, meaning it has adult content.  The story begins with our Superman parallel Hyperion crash landing on Earth and being found in a field by a couple.  A few days later the US government arrives to take the child and raise him in a controlled environment.  It doesn't take long for him to show powers, taking advantage of this the government begins to groom him to be a weapon.  Meanwhile the Flash parallel, called the Atlanta Blur is discovering his own power that was a result of a mystery illness he got as an infant.  Fast forward roughly 20 years and Hyperion is a top secret military asset used to end wars, but he is eventually discovered and the Clinton Administration decides to go public with him as a superhero.  The Atlanta Blur is discovered soon after and rather than be a hero, he gets a lot of endorsements by simply being himself.  The Batman parallel, in this series called Nighthawk, is a black man who only helps black people.  Unlike the regular Batman Nighthawk has no problem with killing and does so without any remorse, especially if it helps black people.  The Green Lantern parallel is named Doctor Spectrum, he is an army colonel who was testing the crystal when it fused with his hand.  The Wonder Woman character is Princess Zarda, a Greek goddess who spent the last 2000 years sleeping in a mausoleum.  The last member is a version of Aquaman who isn't named until the end of the series.  Her origin is that she was born with a defect that made her look like a fish hybrid.  With the origin stories out of the way lets move on to the story.

SPOILER SECTION

       This section will contain far more spoilers as it is the plot of the series, so feel free to skip if you don't want to have the series spoiled.  The story can be broken into a few different parts.  The first part is the origin stories that runs for a few issues.  The second part has a more realistic feel to it.  In a nutshell Hyperion learns the truth about his origin and becomes disillusioned with America, kinda.  He realizes that sometimes the greater good doesn't line up with the American agenda.  This terrifies the government and they put a plan in motion to kill Hyperion.  The first attempt is they send Doctor Spectrum against him.  However because the crystal fell to Earth with Hyperion it has a reaction with him that puts Doctor Spectrum in a coma.  The crystal takes him to the ocean to heal undisturbed.  There he is found by the nameless fish girl who is fascinated by the sight of another human.  Hyperion then goes on a search for the truth that leads him to a military base.  The general at the base, rather than talk with Hyperion decides to implement his last resort to kill him, 20 Daisy Cutter warheads that are stored under his office that destroys everything for a few miles.  Hyperion survives however and is nursed back to health by the newly Awakened Princess Zarda.  While this is going on The Blur is conflicted about being a superhero and continuing his endorsement deals to help his mother.  And Nighthawk is saving black people and blaming all their problems on white people.

       The final act of the series is more like the superhero book we are all used to.  Hyperion is still on his journey of self discovery trying out all kinds of new things.  Nighthawk is on the trail of a killer he believes to have powers, so he asks for help from the Blur and Hyperion.  Meanwhile the government also finds out about this killer, and the new head of project Hyperion learns that the virus found in Hyperion's ship grants superpowers to regular humans, and that the group in charge of researching it has been testing it on convicts, and a few escaped.  One of the escapees turns out to be the killer.  So they send Doctor Spectrum after the killer.  The group of heroes find the killer first, and actually defeat him fairly easily.  But then Doctor Spectrum arrives and Hyperion hands the killer to him.  He justified this by claiming only the government has the ability to hold him.  The series ends with President Bush granting amnesty to any super powered human if they take up jobs as superheroes.  Hyperion however decides to finally show the world his true power by causing a 10.5 earthquake in Antarctica, with a warning; stay away from him and he won't retaliate.  And that is where the series ends.

END SPOILER SECTION

       Personally I thought this series was worth the read.  However I can't stress enough that the series is aimed for a more adult audience, it has strong language, graphic violence, and it has a large amount of nudity, and yet it all works to convey a more realistic take on the superhero.  The writing is done well, the art, done by Gary Frank, is equally amazing and quickly became some of my favorite comic book art.  The only real problem I had with the series is that they introduced a lot of characters they never use who end up in the background.  But this is forgiven because the series continued to later series to accommodate these characters.  The next issue is because the series is aimed for mature audiences it is hard to share with others, some of my friends are turned off by the language and nudity.  However since the review is from my perspective, I give the series a B+, a solid first series that I recommend to any comic book fan.

Top 10: Superheroes

I was sitting around my apartment today,  bored out of my mind because I happen to be the only one of my friends that didn't have class today, and I came to the realization that I've never actually ranked all my favorite super heroes.  So I put an end to that and without further a due I give you my top 10 favorite superheroes.

10) Hit Girl

       I don't know why, but for some reason this characters really stuck out to me.  It could be the fact you wouldn't believe a litter girl could kick ass (pun intended), but it's more than likely because this is one of a short list of female heroes that aren't just knockoffs of male counterparts, and of those Hit-Girl is the only one that's actually interesting.  Hit-Girl is a little girl who was kidnapped by her father and trained by him to kill in order to fight crime.  She is an expert in most weaponry and combat styles, and as an added bonus she has a vocabulary that would make the American Pie cast blush.  This created a huge controversy when the movie came out, and has placed her at the top of parents most hated superhero list.

9) Animal Man

       The best thing to come out of DC's "New 52".  Until recently I thought this guy was a joke, but then the reboot happened and I sampled all of the series, and this one quickly became one of my favorites.  Animal Man is an actor who was chosen by a force of nature called The Red to be its champion.  Now Buddy Baker has the power to replicate animal's abilities, and most recently he changes physically based on the animal.  But what really sealed it is that he doesn't want to be a hero.  He wants a normal life with his family, but every time he tries to get out he is forced back in.  And as of now it has cost him his marriage, his son has died, and his daughter is the one human on Earth The Red really wants.  If you're a comic fan and you aren't reading Animal Man you are truly missing out.

08) Green Lantern

       I realize their are literally thousands of Green Lanterns, but my personal favorite is Hal Jordan, mostly because he reminds me of Mal from Firefly, especially the new version of Hal that's the hot shot pilot.  I really wanted the movie to be good as well and lead into a Justice League film, but when Ryan Reynolds need to fix the script because the oath is wrong your movie is in serious trouble, though I may be the only person on the planet that liked the costume design for the movie.  Green Lantern has a power ring that allows him to create constructs that are only limited by willpower and the wielder's imagination.  I'm not a fan of his comic series, but there was an amazing Green Lantern animated series that recently ended and his appearances in other series such as Justice League are quite good.

7) Winter Soldier

       Ah Winter Soldier, for almost 50 years James "Bucky" Barnes was the greatest argument against child sidekicks, he died young, and his death haunted his partner for years.  That is until the early 200s when he was resurrected as the brainwashed Winter Soldier, the Soviet Union's answer to Captain America, and one of the biggest badasses in comic history.  When he finally regained his memories he kept to the shadows until he was chosen to replace his mentor as the new Captain America.  Nowadays he is back to being the super spy Winter Soldier, and will be the focus of the next Captain America movie next year.

6) Wolverine

        Growing up in the 90s, or the heyday of animated superhero shows one hero really stood out, Wolverine.  This is how I was introduced to super heroes and Wolverine just seemed far cooler than all the others.  He has been the focus of almost every X-Men movie, and was the best part of the only one that didn't, out of everyone on this list I feel he has the most development.  Originally he was a Hulk villain, but he was popular enough to become an X-Men, an Avenger, and the star of his own series.  recently however he has made his most shocking development, he has chosen the path of peace and is continuing Xavier's dream of cohabitation with humanity, teaching the X-Men this philosophy in the hopes that eventually they'll no longer have to fight, yet Cyclops, the poster child for the X-Men has chosen the path of Magneto and mutant superiority rekindling the Xavier/Magneto conflict that was the central premise of the early X-Men comics.

5) Batman

       This is where I piss everyone off, especially once you see who I put at number 4.  I feel I don't need to describe him, but her it goes.  Billionaire Bruce Wayne's parents were murdered in front of him as a child so he traveled the world to learn as many skills as he could before finally returning to his city to wage war on crime as the Batman and becoming the one thing all criminals fear.  I like Batman, and in fact he was almost my number 3, but I decided I liked my number 3 choice slightly more so Batman was bumped down.  Batman has some of the most memorable villains, and allies in all of comic books, and right now he also has my personal favorite comic series from DC, as well as some of the best games and movies of all time.  The problem is, all of these things create a legend that the man himself simply can't live up to, coincidentally that's the whole point of Batman.  He doesn't score higher on my list because he relies too heavily on his gadgets, when he is more than capable of not needing them, and because he is quite possibly the most depressing guy in comic book history, a lot of heroes are orphaned, get over it.

4) Red Hood

       Before you send your hate mail, hear me out.  Jason Todd's parents were also victims of crime, however unlike Batman Jason had no money and ended up on the streets.  He had to work hard for everything, he became the second Robin, was trained by Batman, was then beaten to death by the Joker.  Was resurrected and trained in the same manner Bruce was, but by all the greatest underworld figures on the planet, whom he killed afterwards to stop them.  He then returned to Gotham to see that nothing has changed since he started.  Thus he came up with one of the greatest plans in comic book history, take down crime by becoming the greatest criminal ever.  He is willing to get his hands dirtier than Batman for the same goal, making him something criminals fear even more than Batman, in short he's a better Batman.  The downside however is because due to horrible writing he is prone to bouts of insanity that conveniently last long enough for a story arc to finish.  If you haven't read or seen Under the Red Hood I highly recommend you do both, the movie in particular happens to have casted one of my favorite actors as Jason Todd, and Neil Patrick Harris as Nightwing.

3) Daredevil

       Daredevil is an interesting hero, honestly if not for DC I believe this guy would have been called Batman, or at least Bat something.  As a child Matt Murdock was blinded, which heightened his other senses to super human levels.  When he got older he started to clean up his neighborhood, Hell's Kitchen, by working as a lawyer during the day, and fighting crime as the vigilante Daredevil at night.  I'm one of the few people I know who liked the movie, though to be honest the director's cut is far superior.  I fell in love with this character when I was young and he made a guest appearance on the Spider-Man cartoon, everything about him was cool, his costume, his weapon, his other life, this guy would have scored higher if I made this list back in middle school.

2) Superman

       I am a huge fan of Superheroes with uncompromising values.  Superman is a being so powerful nothing on Earth can stand up to him, not even Batman so please shut up about it, yet he chooses to use his powers to protect mankind.  In recent years Superman has been treated unfairly because of how powerful he is, and he's not a bad boy as opposed to darker heroes like Batman or Wolverine.  In comics today he doesn't even have a decent series in the mainstream universe, and if I was new to comics I would probably hate him.  But I'm not and over the years he has demonstrated his superiority time and time again.  Superman has even died saving the people of Metropolis and has never compromised his morals to achieve his goals, not even Batman can say that since he did kill Darkseid...with a gun, breaking two of his own rules at once.  If you read my editorial a few months ago you'd know that I feel the best way to revitalize Superman is to focus on his internal struggles, since he is so powerful on the outside, problems like that make him conflicted on the inside, it would be far easier to appeal to a wider audience this way, like how the Earth One series did, than to go the route DC took with the New 52 and simply constantly put him up against powerful enemies with no real consequence because DC won't ever raise the stakes.

1) Captain America

       Captain America is like Superman in that he is uncompromising and always doing the right thing.  The difference however is why he is at number one instead of Superman.  Steve Rogers was originally a frail kid who wanted to stand up for good so bad that he underwent an untested process to make him strong enough to do so, he wasn't born with powers like Superman, or money to travel the world to train like Batman, he simply really wanted to do good.  Captain America has started out as a propaganda comic during World War II, but Marvel acquired the rights in the early 60s and since then he has been the poster child for the Avengers.  In the mainstream universe he became the head of S.H.I.E.L.D., and in the Ultimate universe he became the president of the United States, however I prefer the mainstream despite the fact he's weaker, but of all of them the movie version is my favorite because he is the most uncompromising.  The image above is the concept suit for the upcoming movie Captain America:The Winter Soldier, and is based off my favorite costume from the comics.  Fun fact, the movie version is possibly the only movie superhero who is a virgin, think about it he started tiny, his first girlfriend was Peggy, and they only kissed once, and then he was frozen until the Avengers.  Much different than his comic book counterparts who have been known to be involved in affairs with married women.  Cap is the ultimate everyman hero as well as the ultimate role model.  Another fun fact, he has fought Batman to a standstill on two different occasions, the latest one Batman admitted Cap would eventually win, both these fights are confirmed as cannon by DC.  He also has the only villain so evil most other villains refuse to work with him, including the Joker in a 1960s crossover.

       I just realized a lack of diversity on my list, this wasn't intentional, in fact Black Panther and Miles Morales almost made the list and should be considered honorable mentions.  As for Spider-Man, I always thought he was a bit too whiny until recently when life finally started to go his way, but a few years of awesome can't make up for decades of annoyance.  Agree with my list?  Disagree?  then feel free to leave a comment below.

UPDATE: I realized that I like Daredevil a lot more than I listed him here, so I moved him up to a more appropriate position.  Besides, thanks to the Not-So New 52, I hardly read DC anymore, just reboot it again already.

Comic Reviews: Avengers vs X-Men

       This last summer Marvel did an event that many fans, myself included wanted to see, with a premiss that can be enjoyed by Avengers fans...not so much for the X-fans out there.  Quick warning, as with all of my reviews I will spoil some major elements.  Without further a due, lets dive into this event and tear it apart.

Plot

       The plot here is simple, the Phoenix force is back, this time for Hope Summers, and the Avengers want to protect her and stop the Phoenix.  Cyclops on the other hand, wants nothing to do with this.  He believes the Phoenix force is here to recreate the Earth in the mutant image.  This inevitably ends with a grudge match between the two groups.
     
        Being a child of the 90s, I know that whenever the Phoenix shows up, it never ends well, so you would think that the X-Men, who have relearned this lesson over and over again, would be all for protecting the mutant messiah and stopping the most dangerous being ever.  This is where the problem starts, it is hard to side with Cyclops when he is being retarded like this.  Granted I've personally never been a fan of Cyclops, but here I don't even get the change to see his side of things.  In fact halfway through the event Cyclops himself gains the Phoenix force and goes about threatening the world with it.  Then at the end he even kills his former mentor Charles Xavier.

       Personally I feel that the X-Men events of the past few years has led up to this, the death of Jean Grey, the devastation of the mutant race, the forming of X-Force, the creation of Utopia, The Schism, all of this has established Cyclops going down a dark road, one similar to the one Magneto took years ago.  This all ends with the logical conclusion, Cyclops is now the villain.  Though personally I feel he started down this road a bit earlier, when he chose to cheat on the epitome of good within the X-Men, Jean, with the plastic bimbo that is Emma Frost.

       As for the Avengers, Captain America is my all time favorite superhero, so naturally I'm gonna side with him in any argument.  From the first issue Hope is willing to go with them, but Cyclops keeps fighting it and tells Cap to "Get the hell off his island."  Cyclops even makes the first attack.  The Avengers spend the first arc of the event trying to reason with Cyclops and stop the Phoenix, once this proves futile and the Phoenix is divided amongst five of the X-Men, The Avengers are in hiding, training Hope to fight the Phoenix, and making strategic attacks on the "Phoenix Five", taking them out one at a time.

Characters

       As mentioned, the fight is between the Avengers and the X-Men, but who are the major players of these teams.  The main series, which is what I'm focusing on, has a relatively small cast.  The X-Men is basically the Phoenix Five, five members who the Phoenix divided its power into, they are Cyclops, Emma Frost, Namor, Magik, and Colossus.  The Phoenix force is slowly driving them crazy and eventually this leads to the involvement of other members who are actually on the side of the Avengers, like Xavier, Magneto, and basically everyone else.

       The Avengers are of course led by Captain America, Iron Man is trying to find a way to stop the Phoenix, Scarlet Witch who can actually harm the Phoenix, and Iron Fist, who is training Hope and providing a temporary HQ for the group.

       Other characters are involved, but to a lesser extent, although Spider-Man does defeat 2 members of the Phoenix Five on his own.  I feel this works well because having too many characters can take away from the story, sure there are side stories that give other characters the spotlight, but they don't contribute too much to the story here. 

My views

       Because I am a product of the 90s, I was a huge fan of the X-men, the cartoons, the movies, the video games, but I could never fully enjoy the comics for some reason.  Thus any event that puts them front and center, but not the only spotlight, I'm gonna enjoy.  Also this is a fight that I've been wanting for years.  My issues with this event stem from the X-Men, they're simply overpowered.  I know this is a plot point, but even without the Phoenix charging them up they seem to have little to no problem taking the Avengers.  In fact at one point Colossus' kid sister out-magics Doctor Strange himself. 

       Though honestly I do enjoy watching a hero that I've never liked crack under pressure and go evil, in this case Cyclops became obsessed with saving the mutant race, in the Ultimate series Mr. Fantastic loses his tether to humanity, these stories are great, and usually way better than when its the other way around.  Ultimately though, Marvel's events are what shapes the comics for the coming year, then a new event happens and the cycle repeats itself.  Thus the real gauge of how an event is depends on what happens next, with Cyclops gone many of his supporters are now criminals, Cyclops mentioned the Avengers never really cared about the mutants, so now there is an Avengers team that is half mutant, Xavier is dead, so now Wolverine is the new advocate for mutant peace.  Personally, I kinda like where this is going.  Thus I'm giving this event a B+.

       Disagree with me?  Have a question, comment, or opinion?  feel free to post it in the comment section, it may even change my views on some things.

Fan teams Avengers

       First some background, a fan team is an idea I have where I take different universe versions of preexisting characters, and fill a roster for a team.  In this case, to celebrate the upcoming release of the Avengers, I'm giving my version on the team.  It's a good way to waste time for the super nerdy and regular folk as well, think of it as a fantasy league.  The rules are as followed.

1. Roster size is limited to 5-10 members, personally I like to use 7.
2. You must be able to back up your choices, these are complex characters and simply choosing your favorites may not work.
3. No crossovers, this means the characters must be from the same company, in this case I'm doing the Avengers, so all my characters are from marvel.

       Now that the rules are out of the way, here is my attempt to recreate the avengers.

                                          The Leader

 This choice is the easiest to make, I'm going with Captain America from the movies.

Captain America is my favorite Super hero of all time.  And I was a little worried when they announced the actor playing him.  But once I saw the movie I realized how perfect he was.  Captain America is a scrawny guy from New York who wanted to fight for his country so bad he underwent an experimental procedure in order to become eligible.  I chose the movie version because unlike any other version, this one had to prove himself after he was turned.  He is a great guy who just about anyone is willing to follow into the depths of hell.  Sure the costume isn't perfect, but I like the fact that he more than any other version is so willing to fight.  Recently in the comics he lost his powers for a brief time, and refused to go back out until he was strong again, I feel this version wouldn't have this setback.

                                            The Money

       Another easy choice, the options here are limited to if you want a government funded team, or a privately funded team.  For the Avengers I want a private funding.  Because the team needs a headquarters and transport we need someone rich, meaning Iron Man, in this case standard universe Iron Man.

I chose this version because of Extremis, Extremis allows Tony to control machines with his mind, giving him actual super powers on top of his suit.  This version also currently has the Bleeding Edge, which is made of nanites, so it can change shape and create weapons at will, which is awesome.

                                          The Tank

       The member that can dish out damage as well as take it.  I didn't want to go with another obvious, the problem is all the good tanks are obvious choices, Eres is too violent, Hercules is a knockoff of Thor, Thunderstrike is a bigger Thor knockoff, Red Hulk is a Hulk knockoff, Hulk is too volatile,  Captain Marvel is kinda boring, Luke Cage doesn't have the persona I want, leaving Thor.

My choice is the 1602 version, This version of Thor is more authentic and rather than speaking olde-English, he has a viking accent, plus look at him, he looks like he stepped out of Norse mythology.  Thor is one of my favorite Avengers period, and though 1602 was less than stellar, Thor was a shining point of the series.

                                          The Infiltrator

        The stealth based character, the member that can preform recon for the team.  However this member must also be able to take care of himself if needed.  For this I chose Black Panther from the ultimate universe.

I chose this version because I find him to be a much more tragic and therefore more interesting character.  He has mutant powers that make him more panther like, and actual claws.  however his throat was slashed leading to him becoming a mute.  This version also has weapon X training, like Wolverine.  Also having him on the team diversifies the group a bit, creating a better public face.

                                       The Wild Card

       This is the member that is known for turning things around.  For this I chose another one of my favorite avengers.

The Scarlet Witch, I went with the standard version, mostly because I couldn't find a more exciting version who wasn't evil.  Her power is that she can can alter probability fields and change the outcome of things.  This version also had a psychotic break, but it was revealed this was because she was using an outside force to boost her powers, she is fine now and back on the regular roster.

                                           The Rookie

Every team has one, a newcomer who is usually not sure why he is there, and the rest of the team tends to see great potential in them.

For this I chose the ultimate version of Peter Parker, I know he's dead, but he is my favorite character to come out of the Ultimate Universe, when he died he was being trained to join his universes version of the Avengers, the Ultimates, and he died because he took a bullet for one of them, then he fought Osborn's Six, saving his friends and family.  He died making sure Osborn could never hurt anyone else again, a true hero.

                                 The Liaison

       This is the government agent that acts as the buffer between the government and the team.  Not exactly needed, but I needed a 7th member and I liked the character so here it goes.

       Agent Phil Coulson from the films.  This guy is awesome, he was able to sneak past Stark Industries state of the art security, beat a guy with a bag of flour, shot Loki with a Destroyer gun while dieing, and had a personality that would be easy to get along with once you were working together and weren't his assignment.

       There is my avengers team, if you have any opinions, changes you would make, or simply have your own team idea, feel free to comment.