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Welcome to the Marvel Handbook at the Nexus.

Wonder who’s editing this week. Ben surprised me again last week. Reveal yourself this week’s editor, please.

Oh alright”¦It is I, you’re one true Dark Overlord. Sorry about that last week. I took a much needed vacation on last minute notice”¦I didn’t even know I was doing it till I called Ben Sunday night and said, “hey yo, I’m taking the week off”¦good luck.”

Anyway, I’m back, better than ever, and ready to kick this column in the butt, lets’ get this party started..

If your ready let’s start this off.

Didn’t I just say that?


Kent emails

First of all, I love the articles. Thank you for trying to muddle though the Marvel U.

Blessed be the continutity
Cursed be the continutity

My question is this: I was flipping though on of the Offical Guides to the Marvel U from 89,one of the updates. It mentioned under Bulleye’s profile that he had adamantium bone lacing. I never remember hearing that about him, which made me think, who else has adamantium bones or other body parts. I thought that Logan and Deathstrike were the only ones.

Ah, good question This has changed over the years.

Wolverine
Lady Deathstrike
Cyber (Dead)
Sabretooth
Bullseye
Ultron (made from adamantium)
Constrictor
Doctor Octopus (tentacles)

There may be others I’m missing but this is a short list.

I think we covered this topic before in an earlier column”¦I don’t have the link on hand, but I know we eventually had a really long list”¦if you’re not afraid of a little research, check out some of the older Handbooks, and I think you’ll find it. – The Overlord

How did Bullseye get it, without the healing ability

He got the same process as Wolvie. Lord Darkwind gave it to him in hopes he would kill someone for him. The fact he survived it well that really hasn’t been explained exactly. No healing factor but yet the same process. Could’ve been an updated process in which the normal human subject would survive. There’s also the little fact of Bullseye loving pain and can endure it.

Somehow I’m doubting they changed the procedure so “anyone” could endure it”¦otherwise we’d have a ton of Adamantium clad heroes and villains running around the Marvel U. – The Overlord


Avengers Challenge:

Here are a few readers ideas.

Nathaniel emails

The Roster
Captain America – the guy is the heart and soul of the squad. Would not be the same without him. He provides the field leadership.

Iron Man – The tech guru, and another big gun. Just like in Animal House, “He’s a legacy, and legacies almost always get in.”

Thor – Another long-time Avenger. Also, he’s the muscle for the team. The Avengers need some real strength, and Thor brings the cosmic-style power level.

She-Hulk – Another powerhouse. This brings a little estrogen to the group, and raises the strength level another bar. Also, she has an interesting new series, is a former Avenger, has a good personality, a cross between smarts and brawn. The Hulk is too much of a wildcard to be an Avenger given current continuity, but She-Hulk will bring a little of that iconic status with her.

Black Panther – Ex-Avenger. A Batman like dark presence for the team, who brings money, prestige, his own country, technological smarts, physical prowess, and his brilliant mind for strategy to the squad. Panther could help make the team more global in appearance. He could also bring in the more cool aspects of world politics and such (the Avengers could be outcast from America, and set up shop in Wakanda as a global HQ!) Also, he is an iconic character in his own right.

Beast – Another ex-Avenger with strong ties to the team. He will bring a mutant presence to the squad, and serve as the resident “brains” of the team. It will be very similar to the role he plays in X-Men, but I feel the change of venue would do him good. Take him out of the dank basement of the X Mansion and give him a more commanding presence – running missions from HQ and coordinating info like the Oracle. He is a great character, currently underutilized, and would be a big strength

Wolverine – Included for two reasons 1) he is different, power and character wise, from every other member of the Avengers and 2) he’s just so damned popular that for a proper update, making the Avengers the group of icons it always should have been, he has to be there.

Songbird – She was doing so well in Thunderbolts, and then Busiek put her over the top once and for all in Avengers Forever – her powers are unique, and have a great visual look. She can stand in as a replacement for Hawkeye (as in, Cap wants Hawk, but Hawk stands down and requests they use Songbird instead) and be the rookie-who-needs-to-prove-herself.

Spider Man – The final Marvel Icon. Admittedly, working him into the book at first will be a style clash. But we can play that up, and have him “earn” a permanent spot on the team by the end of the first story arc. Spidey is the total package, the ultimate adaptable hero who can overcome any adversity. Plus, he’s the team cut-up.

Note – I’m swinging back and forth between these two as the final member. But neither will appear in the first story arc, so its moot.

Namor – Strong, powerful, with a rich character history. Namor will also serve to open up the team and make them seem more global, instead of a collection of Cap’s flunkies. Also, he could lead to undersea adventures

And/Or

Doctor Strange – the Sorcerer Supreme. Would also give the team depth and be a different sort of “Big Gun”

The first story arc – “Helter Skelter”
Spidey watches on, trapped beneath a pile of rubble, as the Fantastic Four does battle with a psychotic Dr. Doom. The FF is laid low for a moment, and then Doom triggers a bomb in his chest, and blows up an entire city block. The FF are all greviously injured, but Spidey survives. He is still on scene moments later when a hastily assembled team of Avengers (Cap, Iron Man, Thor, She-Hulk, Panther, Songbird) show up to help They are too late, having only realized something was afoot when a Dr. Doom attacked Thor.

They’ve got no idea why Doom would do such a thing, and decide to go immediately to Latveria. Spidey looks around at the carnage Doom caused, and says he must come along – “New York must be avenged.”

Doom greets them with full force, and an epic battle ensues. When the dust clears, he tells the Avengers that he had nothing to do with the New York incident. He sheepishly admits that, upon a recent inventory, he discovered that copies of his blueprints for “Suicide Doombots” have been stolen – he surmises that another villain is constructing Doombots as the ultimate weapon. And then Doom ejects them from Latveria, caring not what they do.

Back in the air, heading towards the States, they see live footage of the Hulk battling a Doombot in the desert. The ‘bot explodes in a custom-made Gamma blast, and Hulk hits the dirt. The feed is interrupted by an emergency message from the Xavier Institute. Beast is bloody and half buried, and calls for help — “Doom is running amuck in the mansion!” And then there is an explosion and the feed goes down.

The Avengers race to the Mansion. They arrive to find Wolverine desperately helping the wounded (This will be a new kind of heroism from Logan, busting his ass as a rescue worker, giving first aid because of how much he learned about the human body from being injured and killed so many times). They dig out Beast. When enough other X-men arrive to handle the rescue, the Avengers continue on their quest. Beast and Wolverine both come – Beast at Cap’s request, Wolverine at his own insistence.

Before he left, Beast ran all sorts of tests on the site where the Doombot exploded, and takes a few fragments with him for study. He finds the fragments bizarrely magnetized, and Cap and the rest assume Magneto is responsible.

But Beast talks them out of it – using reason, he gives a convincing argument that this isn’t Magneto’s style at all, just as it wasn’t Doom’s style. Whoever is responsible is trying to wipe out as many heroes as possible, by using any and all resources (even other villains) It as just about this moment that a dozen Doombots attack, and a massive sprawling battle takes place. And I mean “massive battle” like the Authority used to have, not this lukewarm definition of “massive battle” that Bendis likes to write.

During the battle, Panther and Iron Man manage to subdue a Doombot and deactivate it before the bomb can explode. After the battle, the two (along with Beast) dismantle the ‘bot and discover unusual technology inside that leads them to suspect the Leader. Cap, however, sees some telltale signs of Red Skull being involved.

This leads us to the classic “split the team in half, and each goes after one baddie.” The Leader greets the team of Panther, Thor, Songbird, and Iron Man. He seems remarkably relaxed, at first”¦ and then reveals the still-unconscious form of the Hulk in a holding tank under the floor. The Leader insinuates knowledge of the master plan, and then releases the Hulk. Hulk is disoriented, groggy, and lashes out at the Avengers. And it is ON like neckbone. Thor vs. Hulk!!! Always a classic slugfest.

Songbird chases Leader, and spots him making it to an escape pod. She almost has him, then sees him arm a “contingency plan” (aka a nuclear device) and heads back to get her teammates out in time.

Meanwhile Cap, Spidey, Wolverine, Beast, and She-Hulk pursue the data stream to a former Red Skull bunker, where they are set upon by the waiting Skull and a team of his flunkies. Cap, of course, EXPECTED the set-up, and had a strategy waiting. The Avengers have allowed themselves to be captured, so they can get a good look at the defenses of the bunker. Once Skull and company are in close, Cap gives the high sign and the Avengers tear up that bunker.

Just as Cap has Skull down, and is beating him up and questioning him, a monitor screen lights up, and the Leader appears.

“How did it go, Skull?” he asks. Then he sees Cap and says ominously, “The Big Man won’t be happy about this.”

(I know this is running long, but damn it would make for some HOT comics! I’ll just wrap it up in a bare bones style)

The Avengers press on, digging deeper into the conspiracy of villains, and ultimately find out that a re-born Apocalypse is secretly behind this “Triumvirate”. He wishes to wipe out the eart’s population of heroes, and in the reigning chaos to follow the villains will rise up and conquer the earth as their own. Now, once that happens Apocalypse knows it will be easy to defeat them and take the planet as his own – because villains never work together like heroes do. (and since he will justify himself eloquently, it will be explained that the human-hating Apocalypse teams with Skull and Leader to use them as pawns, not because he sees them as equals at all. The other villains feel the same way)
The Triumvirate is defeated and (possibly) disbanded, and after the adventure all the Avengers go their separate ways – Spidey to help rebuild New York, the X folks back to help at the Mansion, Panther back to Wakanda, Thor to Asgard, She-Hulk back to her legal practice.

Cap makes sure to give each of them a new and improved Avengers communicator. “We won today, but we don’t know the next time the world will need the Avengers.”

Nice plot and team my friend. I think Marvel would give you the go ahead with that idea in no time. A little long but no problem. I was hoping synopses of the plots mostly but I like this one enough I’m not complaining.

I think Marvel would give you the go ahead with that idea in no time. I’m not saying it wasn’t an interesting story, but Jim”¦seriously, if it were that easy to break into Marvel I think we’d all already be working there”¦ – The Overlord


CyclopsSummers checks in,

My team:
Captain America
Thing
Hulk
Spider-Man
Thor
Iron Man
Dr. Strange
Daredevil

Villain: Masters of Evil
Loki
Red Skull
Mandarin
Baron Mordo
Green Goblin
Bullseye
Grey Gargoyle
Abomination

New Masters of Evil form and this time they’re out to destroy the world and reshape it their way. Now the Earth needs the Avengers more then ever. A new team is formed and it goes after the new Masters of Evil. In the finding the true foe behind it Loki. Again Loki unites the Avengers into a team.


Villain tournament
The Leader (2)
Dr. Octopus (4)

Mumbles emails
Doc Ock beats the crap out of the Leader in 22 seconds

Anthony emails
The leader would trounce Ock. Ock is smart the leader is Smarter. Ock is cunning the leader again is more so. Leader has loyal army of humanoids at his beck and call as well as a mind control power that would take Otto out pretty quick. Stands to reason; Dr. Octopus has to deal with Spiderman and almost always loses. The leader often salvages victory even from seeming defeat at the hands of the hulk

The Winner of the first part of the Villain tourney: Doctor Octopus. He’d get his ass handed to him in the next one so I’m not even going to ask if he should be added.


Now that was it this week email wise. I know many where on vacation so No problem. The Avenger challenge from last week still stands.
Incase you forgot:

I’m making you Brian Bendis
Your job: Recreate the Avengers.

You come up with a team. I’ll give you an 8 member minimum. You’ve got to give the first story arc here is all. If you want though you can have a reserve roster of 8 listed as well. But those members would only be used in this arc if something big happened.

You also have to tell me how and why they are reuniting.

Have the villain who you’d use listed as well.

Just a small challenge; let’s see how you do. Take your time too. I’ll accept them as long as you send them.

Let’s try and limit the fan fiction though, sorry Nathaniel”¦ If anyone wants to do some fan fiction type stuff with this idea, a great place to do it would be in the forums, where you can interact with other people and get some instant feedback. Thanks everyone. – The Overlord


Also the new villain tourney should fill the rest:
Allow me to present the all-powerful and all-destructive Ultimate Villain Tournament. (Please don’t think it’s the Ultimate versions of these guys. Just the name for using these powerful foes.)

East
1. Thanos
16. Impossible Man
2. Mephisto
15. Annihilus
3. Hyperstorm
14. Blastaar
4. Aron the Watcher
13. Super Skrull
5. Beyonder
12. Red Shift
6. Magus
11. Firelord
7. Black Heart
10. Terrax
8. Molecule Man
9. Nebula

North
1. Apocalypse
16. Mojo
2. Magneto
15. Omega Red
3. Mister Sinister
14. Sauron
4. Onslaught
13. Emplate
5. Exodus
12. Ahab
6. Holocaust
11. Juggernaut
7. Selene
10. Bastion
8. Post
9. Shadow King

South
1. Loki
16. Lilith
2. Dormammu
15. Destroyer
3. Morgan Le Fey
14. Xandu
4. Umar
13. High Evolutionary
5. Hela
12. Sphinx
6. Kulan Gath
11. Baron Mordo
7. Kurse
10. Malekith
8. Set
9. Enchantress

West
1. Doctor Doom
16. Maximus
2. Kang
15. Super Adaptoid
3. Ultron
14. Psycho Man
4. Grim Reaper
13. Deathbird
5. Mandarin
12. Diablo
6. Temugin
11. Graviton
7. Morlan
10. Nekra
8. Carnage
9. Venom

If you’ll notice some new villains made the list like Temugin (Mandarin’s son) and Morlan (from Amazing Spider-Man). I think you can check Marvel.com for their bios at least. Some others could be in the Marvel Handbooks in your local shop. Anyone you don’t know you can ask me about to. So good luck voting.


That’s everything I think. Did I miss anything Mister Editor?

How the hell am I supposed to know, the emails come to you”¦check your ibox, don’t ask me”¦

Alright then you get the pleasure of signing off first then.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Before we go I want to thank Ben for filling in for me last week. That break was really needed, and Ben did a great job filling in (and making fun) last week. Also, for all you Missing The Boat fans out there, stay tuned for a return of your favorite seafaring column as it makes its return in the very near future”¦

Now my turn. Reporting from my comic vault in the Marvel Universe I’m Jim Trabold. Have nice week and see you again next week.