The Avengers Dream-Teams!

Well, I tried. I really did. But my levels of motivation vary so drastically on a day-to-day basis, attempting to do anything even resembling a regular, weekly feature here on BMR was rather silly. "31 Days Of Halloween" was a nice idea in theory, but I really shouldn't be committing myself to such things until I'm maybe/possibly being paid or otherwise bribed to do so.

Anyhoo, Marvel's "Dark Reign" event is wrapping-up shortly, and with it The Avengers, presumably all three team line-ups, will be drastically changed if they don't outright vanish. There's a lot of speculation going on right now as to what the team rosters are going to look like, but here's my own personal vision of the future...

MIGHTY AVENGERS
























CAPTAIN AMERICA (James "Bucky" Barnes)



















THOR, GOD OF FUCKING THUNDER!!!
























WASP (Hank Pym)
























LUKE CAGE










THE VISION























GIANT GIRL (Cassie Lang)


















HAWKEYE (Clint Barton)
























SHE-HULK (Jennifer Walters)
















SONGBIRD

This would be the main, public team after "Dark Reign" is all said-and-done. The new "Trinity" of Cap, Thor, and Pym would be the forefront; Bucky has done too good a job as Cap to be ousted just because Rogers came back from the dead so damn soon (see below for what I've done with him), and I really loved the exchange between he and Thor during "Secret Invasion". The Odinson himself would be wary to join with Pym, but it would be an uneasy understanding after it was agreed the REAL Hank Pym would never help clone a Thunder God. The oddcouple of Cassie & Vision would move-up from being Young Avengers, Clint finally reclaims his identity and true place in the Marvel U while his wife Mockingbird goes back to her secret agent job, Cage and Songbird realize their destinies as real Superheroes, and She-Hulk rejoins her comrades and returns to the public eye she enjoys so much. Recurring characters would be Edwin Jarvis, Butler of Champions, Cage's wife Jessica Jones & their daughter, Danny Rand AKA Iron Fist, and of course Jocasta, Hank's android "companion" with the personality imprint of his deceased ex-wife who he obsessed over. Because creepy robot-love is a great read, always! The Young Avengers would stop-by often to check on their buddies, Cassie and Vision, while I'm sure romance would often be in the air as Black Widow visits BuckyCap, and the aforementioned Mockingbird teams-up with her hubby Hawkeye. And how could I forget Abe Jenkins, AKA Mach VI, the former Beetle and Songbird's boyfriend? Good times were had by all!

DARK AVENGERS





















JUSTICE (Vance Astro)



















TIGRA
























SLAPSTICK
























ANTI-VENOM (Eddie Brock)















ULTRA GIRL (w/70's Ms. Marvel Costume)
























KOMODO




















CONSTRICTOR























KIA (Killed-In-Action)
























NOMAD (Rikki Barnes)

Former New Warriors and Initiative members hook-up with Eddie Brock and Rikki Barnes; the universe-displaced Nomad becomes a part-time "junior member", while Anti-Venom joins as the final addition to the team, becoming an "underground/proactive" group that hunts-down the remnants of Osborn's reign of terror. Constrictor and Komodo form a classic snake/lizard, teacher/student relationship, Komodo begining her super-career as a bit of a criminal, while Constrictor works on redeeming his own villainous past. Team-leader Justice deals with his own awkward romance with Ultra Girl, and Tigra brings some serious drama to the table in the form of her being impregnated by a Skrull (which is a very long story), and also some Avengers credibility...but that's stretching things a tad. KIA returns thanks to Slapstick's manipulations (for anyone that read the second arc of "The Initiative", you'll know what I'm referring to), but whose body he's using is anyone's guess, his identity also hidden behind a Scarlet Spider mask. These heroes operate outside the law, often going to extreme lengths to get the job done, but S.H.I.E.L.D. more-or-less ignores their activities so long as they do the RIGHT job.

NICK FURY'S NEW AVENGERS




















IRON MAN
























WAR MACHINE




















MS. MARVEL (Carol Danvers)


















WONDER MAN
























BLACK WIDOW (Natasha Romanova)























COLONEL AMERICA (Steve Rogers)




















ANT-MAN (Eric O'Grady)























ARES, GOD OF GODDAMN WAR!!!
























CAPTAIN MARVEL (Noh-Varr)

After being re-instated as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., General Nick Fury assembles his own squadron of fast-acting, global-responding Avengers comprised of those he could trust, whose skills he could use or otherwise manipulate, and a couple of guys just looking to prove themselves. Steve Rogers, freshly back from the grave, gets promoted and becomes Colonel America, as much an ambassador for his home country as he is an active Superhero. Stark and Rhodes reunite and bring with them the usual suspects of Danvers, Williams, Widow, and Ares...who also joins with Fury to keep better watch over his son, Phobos, member of the Secret Warriors. Carol and Simon have an on-again/off-again romance, and Widow could provide an often-needed bridge to Bucky's Avengers team, considering her past with both he and Clint Barton. Iron Man and Steve Rogers bury the hatchet, agreeing to disagree on some issues but also admitting to wrongs on both sides, comitting to allow Nick Fury to run the show once again. Ant-Man gets signed-up so he can be watched as well, his skills more useful working for the Avengers rather than against. Noh-Varr still believes his destiny is as a Protector of Earth, so he takes this chance to wash the stink of Osborn off him for good and becomes the newest man to take-up the mantle of Captain Marvel.

BONUS!!! What About...?
























THE SENTRY

Bobby-boy gets tired of the wacky world Marvel's Earth has become, where nobody remembers he first appeared at the same time as the Fantastic Four, he doesn't know whether to trust Tony Stark or Norman Osborn, and he may-or-may-not be a schizophrenic, all-powerful godling who's also the Supervillain known as The Void. So, he ventures into outerspace, joining-up with the likes of The Guardians Of The Galaxy, The Inhumans, and The Imperial Guard, where there are characters who can match Sentry's power and strength such as Gladiator. The dude could possibly even become the new King of The Inhumans, since he has a past with Crystal and Black Bolt is kinda dead, at the moment anyway.
























HERCULES, PRINCE OF MUTHAF'N POWER!!!
Herc and his sidekick Amadeus Cho were serious contenders for one of my teams, but I feel they belong on their own wandering the Marvel Universe alongside Kid Zeus and the gang. I'm sure he'd pop his head in from time-to-time, especially to say "Hello" to She-Hulk and get on the nerves of a certain God Of Thunder.
























SCARLET WITCH

Wanda is, as far as I'm concerned, bat-shit crazy and should be carefully observed while she remains blassfully unaware of what she did during "House Of M". Brother Voodoo should assign one of his pals to constantly monitor Ms. Maximoff, and should her memory return, all magic-based Superheroes should assemble and make sure she can handle it, or banish her to some unescapable dimension somewhere. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of Scarlet Witch, but there's no way I could see any rational person, especially one with an Avengers past, being OK with having Wanda around after she systematically murdered Hawkeye, Vision, Jack Of Hearts, and Scott Lang. Then, she made something like 98% of every mutant alive go powerless, making The X-Men's people an endangered species. Yes, I'm sure they'd all be so forgiving after that.
























QUICKSILVER

Back to X-Factor for Pietro, where he belongs to be the thorn in Gudio's side he so desperately needs. The rivalry between he and Longshot could be legendary, too.




















U.S.AGENT

An Open Letter To John "U.S.Agent" Walker:
Nobody likes you, John Walker. Nobody at all. The only reason you were ever an Avenger in the first place is because Rogers felt sorry for you, and then you go and shove it in his face first by stealing his identity (again) WHILE HE WAS STILL ALIVE, and then after Steve "dies", all you can say is that Norman Osborn's a true patriot and thank god for him. Fuck you, Walker. You're not making the cut on my watch, you goddamned crummy wannabe!

Not-So-Bad 90's: Darkhawk

I posted this on the ComicVine message board awhile back, and the few people that bothered to check it out seemed to think pretty highly of it. Darkhawk is a comic character that means a great deal to me, and lots of good childhood memories are attached to reading, enjoying, and discussing issues of his book. So one day I went a little nutzo, and reviewed Chris "Darkhawk" Powell's entire history, complete with nifty pictures! Want a history lesson of one of the most under-utilized (although he got a nice boost in Marvel's "War Of Kings") characters in the company's great pantheon? Read-on, dear reader for I give you the first entry in the "Not-So-Bad 90's" category here on Big Money's Review: DARKHAWK!!! *Applause*

"Darkhawk #1", March 1991

Trying something different in 1991, Marvel debuted two brand-new characters in ongoing series that hadn't appeared anywhere else before. One was Sleepwalker, the story of a young man with an alien in his brain that was only active when his host was asleep. Surprisingly popular with young girls, Sleepwalker had his own bizarre corner of the market, but his fellow new hero was something else entirely. Darkhawk was created by Tom DeFalco (creator of Spider-Girl) and artist Mike Manley, and featured troubled teenager Chris Powell, who while witnessing his policeman Father taking a bribe from a crime boss, stumbles across an amulet at an abandoned amausement park. Quickly discovering the amulet allowed him to switch places with a super-powerful android that he telepathically controlled (well, he didn't find out exactly what happened, but you get the point). Vowing to use this strange new ability as an "Edge against crime!", Powell began a new career as the adventurer, Darkhawk!

When his new life began, Darkhawk was almost portrayed as a "second" to Spider-Man, who guest-starred in Darkhawk's third issue as the two battled The Hobgoblin. The two street-level New York heroes ran into each other frequently in these early years, but others such as Captain America and Daredevil met Darkhawk as well, assisting in fights with Hawk-centric villains like Portal and Savage Steel, as well as The U-Foes and Toad's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (from the pages of "X-Force"! Cha-Ching!). Thankfully though, Chris Powell began to find his own voice and character, the storyline of his Father's corruption and subsequent abandoning his family setting a very moody tone, especially as Powell struggled to care for his younger brothers while also having to be out crime-fighting. Things took a turn for the really dramatic when Tombstone, yet another Spidey villain, ripped the amulet right out of Darkhawk's chest, freezing him in the android body as he slowly bled to death!

"Darkhawk #11", January 1992

"Heart of The Hawk", as this new direction was called, was the biggest storyline in the Darkhawk mythos. As Chris Powell was frozen inside (so he thought at the time) his Darkhawk armor, he obviously couldn't attend to his family responsibilities, namely the safety of his brothers who were always, it seemed, targets of the Mafia. The most successful chapter of this period was Darkhawk's encounter with Venom, Marvel's Cash Cow at the time, who was still hanging-out on a South Pacific Island, thinking he had killed Spider-Man. Darkhawk had escaped Tombstone's clutches, only to run into Venom, who proudly gloated about murdering Hawk's buddy Spidey. Enraged about that bit of info and literally fighting for his life, Darkhawk lunged at Venom with his razor-sharp wings extended, forcing him to play dead so Darkhawk would go away. What this caused though, was for Powell to feel even MORE distraut that he himself became a murderer, "No better than his back-stabbing Dad", he thought.

"Darkhawk #13", March 1992

Venom Fakes His Death

Following "Heart of The Hawk" (he got the amulet back), Darkhawk became both a New Warrior and a very brief member of The West Coast Avengers, Marvel apparently struggling with what exactly to do with the character. He had begun to discover his origins, but Darkhawk was losing steam in a hurry. Having tie-ins with both the "Infinity War" and "Infinity Crusade" cross-overs didn't help much, and so Marvel pulled their "One Last Shot" move that was very typical for the 90's: The costume-overhaul. Daredevil got his wacky grey-and-red armor, everyone had leather jackets and those weird Gambit-masks on that Jim Lee blessed us with. Not one to be left in the cold, Darkhawk was given a new, streamlined update along his path to figuring out just where the hell the amulet came from. It turns out, the Darkhawk armor wasn't armor at all, but an android that had been laying dormant in an alien spacecraft within a dimension called Null Space. When Chris activated the amulet, his body switched places with the android while his conciousness transferred between bodies. The new costume/armor debuted when Powell finds a second amulet, thus trading with a different android body.

Darkhawk's Second Armor

While this change briefly shot some interest back into the book, it just as quickly left. Darkhawk became like so many other vicitms of the 90's, in that a character with so much potential in his beginings faded into obscurity with barely a whimper and a pair of shoulder-pads. Making it to a longer-than-average issue #50, "Darkhawk" as an ongoing comic book series was shot-down, most likely putting it out of it's misery. Why most likely? Because nobody, not even me, was reading the book when it was finally put to bed. However, the fact that it made it fifty issues could be a testament to someone's possible fondness for Darkhawk, most likely his creator, Tom DeFalco. Tom is known for being passionate about his creations, most recently being Spider-Girl and her title's constant battles with cancellation, a battle the book finally lost after a ten-year-long struggle. I imagine the man behind both characters felt the same way in 1995 about Darkhawk that he does now about "Mayday" Parker in 2009; like a proud Father, wishing the best for his children in one of the most shallow and competitive industries in entertainment. But in 1995, when his employers at Marvel were sweating over whether-or-not they'd still be in business the next day, books like "Darkhawk" were the first to be culled in the wake of Image Comics' rise to dominance.

Today, Darkhawk lives-on as part of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning's ongoing Space Saga within Marvel's rejuvenated cosmic-themed books, most notably taking central stage as the assassin of Empress Lilandra (he was being mind-controlled). Before that, Chris Powell saw his cult-status rise as co-star of C.B. Cebulski's "The Loners", a group of Superhero self-helpers that debuted in the pages of the hit book, "The Runaways" by Brian K. Vaughn. So while the 90's may have crashed-down upon Darkhawk's head, at least his worth was recognized by a select few of the industry's best and brightest, a sure sign that my love of the character was and is validated, that I'm not alone. Comics still remain my main area of expertise, something I'll take to my grave as being a close second to the women in my life as my true love, and a greatly gigantic part of that is all in thanks to this guy...