Marvel Meet and Greet

[Gaumer]

Let's say that Marvel decided to reboot the whole universe the same way DC plans. Not an Ultimate version or relaunch or retcon of on origin story. But an actual, gee whiz, let's start from scratch and do things over straight from the beginning like they did way back when. I know there are decades between most of the characters in the MU, but DC didn't even have a meet-up of characters for decades after their characters were kickin' it.

So let's reboot the Marvel Universe. What books MUST we have? What origins need fixing? House of Ideas Schmouse of Schideas; I think we can give the goods


I'd like to see the Avengers origin still be an accident but maybe have the individual members be different programs in different government organizations. Cap is an army guy while Hulk can be a secret NASA project while Hawkeye is a CIA covert agent.

I haven't put much thought into anything just getting the ball rolling.

[Navarre]

The Marvel movies are taking that approach with the Avengers to some extent, right? SHIELD is the tie between Cap, Iron Man, Black Widow, and Hawkeye. Less so, but also true for Thor and Hulk.

I like that approach and think it has worked well. The connection with Howard Stark to Tony is the hardest to picture though because Howard seems too old to be Tony's father based on events of the Captain America and Iron Man movies.

The sliding time scale has always been one of the hardest things to work with in comics. But if everything was rebooted at once it would be more plausible.

Besides Cap, I think the Fantastic Four should still be the first publicly known superheroes. Their origin could stand but it would explain why Reed shouldn't be 127 years old by now.

[The Mighty King Cobra]

The Marvel universe doesn't reboot the way DC does.  Their continuity is in a constant state of soft reboot, by design. 

Because of Franklin Richards.

[Gaumer]

The Marvel universe doesn't reboot the way DC does.  Their continuity is in a constant state of soft reboot, by design. 

Because of Franklin Richards.

lol

Referring to this post

Which is a superb, well-thought out, mind-blowing theory, but takes nothing away from the OP, simply for the sake of fun and entertainment, because FR is just a plan of Dr. Doom running as he runs series of scenarios in his own master plan


An X-Men redo in this scale, in today's extreme fear and hating mindset and terrorism being put into the forefront would be very interesting in the concepts of past X-Men story-lines, primarily Magneto's entire family being deemed terrorists. Even better with Wanda and Quicksilver joining the Avengers as former terrorists.

[Navarre]

in today's extreme fear and hating mindset

Our own society has become our greatest enemy, leaving us afraid of what we believe we are.

The right villain would take advantage of that and create a story line with more depth than which cosmic item they are after this week.

[The Mighty King Cobra]

in today's extreme fear and hating mindset

Our own society has become our greatest enemy, leaving us afraid of what we believe we are.

I don't know what that sentence means.

[Navarre]

It means that we as a society have become afraid of almost everyone and everything around us. Yet we are so accustomed to it we barely realize we live in this culture of fear.

But we believe the world to be an increasingly unsafe place. So we withdraw and make efforts to protect ourselves.

The result is isolation. Ironically, this perpetuates the culture of fear because it deepens the belief that other people are very dangerous.

I masterful villain (ie, someone with a plan beyond "build giant robot. kill hero. steal gold.") would take advantage of that. But I am thinking more Ozymandius-type villain I guess, not The Wrecking Crew.

[@lantis]

I'd see the X-Men going with four competing factions.  Two government led and two mutant led.  The government factions would be one trying to conscript mutants into serving in various military positions; the other trying to revoke their citizenship in a similar manner to the Japanese concentration camps of WW2.  The mutant factions being one dedicated to keeping mutants free and secret (X-men); the other being a terrorist-style liberation organization (Brotherhood).

Magneto would make a great cult-leader, promising a new future and shelter to those who feel lost.  He should be a public figure that polarizes people not just mutants.  Just like with any good cult though, non-initiated don't know that his teachings deal with establishing the proper order between mutants and humans, with the human members worshiping mutants as their superiors.

Prof. X is a littler harder.  I see the X-Men as more of a small covert force like in X-Factor dedicated to letting mutants live out their lives in peace rather than the old version with a bunch of them in a school.


If you're going to reboot the universe you'd have to do it similar to the way Marvel did it in the movies for the properties that have movies.  Most did a pretty good job of updating the origins for the present.  The ones that would need help are the lower tier heroes.

[Navarre]

Magneto would fit well into my premise of how fear can polarize people. It has been at the heart of the character for a long time anyway.

We see a lot of Magneto's anger. But, while that is justified anger, much of it is also a secondary emotion borne from the pain of his loss.

Other characters have lost a lot as well. It is a driving force of many characters.

I could see Magneto taking advantage of that. Perhaps it even extends beyond the mutant characters.

There could be a long-running story line with Magneto being a powerful force in the Marvel Universe. To some, he would be a terrorist. But those who follow him would be the ones who understand how much they stand to lose in this world, vowing to never suffer like that again.

A really good writer (really good) could even have Magneto start skewing Peter Parker's views for a time, allowing us and Peter to examine those darker places in him that he moderates by being such a good little boy and playing superhero in honor of the uncle he allowed to die.

[SpiderLover]

Magneto alone couldn't do this, he would need to have a team up with Professor X. Then I could see that plan working on Peter Parker. I would like this story, only if in the end Peter punches Xavier in the face. I'd mount that on my wall. *See my Extreme dislike for Xavier in other posts.

[CrowTRobot]

I've always liked the character of Iron Fist. Let's do Iron Fist.

Also, if we did reboot the Marvel Universe make sure to let it be known that Peter Parker will still be Spider-Man. Apparently that changing has dire consequences on the American Dream.

[Navarre]

I would like to see more international heroes, written by writers who understand the context from which the character originates. I think too often we are given characters from places besides the United States who are either stereotypes or fail to capture the nuances of the characters homeland.

[Gaumer]

I would like to see more international heroes, written by writers who understand the context from which the character originates. I think too often we are given characters from places besides the United States who are either stereotypes or fail to capture the nuances of the characters homeland.

Agreed. Although Marvel had Paul Cornell doing Captain Britain (if I am not misremembering wrongly [triple negative?]) and he will be writing 2 books in the New 52, one of which I believe is a medieval times books...but I'm not completely sure.