@Nib Quicksilver better not come to Central City if he wants to think he's the fasest.
Pietro definitely is not the fastest. I've always believed the connection to the Speed Force has a higher potential than his. The only advantage he has currently is that he was born with his speed.
Damian Wayne is all the worst elements of Batman with none of the legacy and greatness to make up for it, and the little bastard should've stayed dead.
I agree that he should've stayed dead, given Morrison's entire point in killing him off was to redeem his shitty attitude towards others by sacrificing himself for the greater good in the way his father would if it came down to it, but that's neither here nor there.
(Nor a rant that I constantly go into inside of my own head.)
You died the moment you listed Grant Morrison as number 2 on your list.
Only out of the available options. I just don't like King's run, at the end of the day, while I can cite many examples of issues by the other two that I do like. Though I'm curious as to where your breaking point was.
If there were a degree in Batmanology, you know you would be the first doctoral candidate.
Character You're Applying For: Pietro Maximoff (Quicksilver) Jean Grey (Miss Marvel) Scott Summers (Cyclops) Tara Markov (Terra) Garfield Logan (Beast Boy) Jubilation Lee (Jubilee)
Powers And Abilities: With this X-Force team, I want them to be young adults around the age of 18-20 and so their powers are at their basic level with only some years of training behind them. At this stage, they have remained hidden and have not had any field practice as actual heroes. The only training they’ve had with their powers has been within the walls of the Xavier Institute. Throughout this game, they will come out of the shadows as heroes and train further with their powers as they do, all the while dealing with anti-mutant individuals and groups.
Origin And Backstory (In A Maximum Of Four Paragraphs): Charles Xavier and Max Eisenhardt met when they were both still young men. Max was a victim of the Holocaust at a young age and was experimented on ruthlessly by Nazi scientists when they found out he was a mutant. They kept him heavily medicated and only partially conscious . He was eventually able to escape from his torment and immediately began using his powers to fight back against the men persecuting his people. He would often stoop to his enemy’s level in his crusade. While Max fought and struggled, Charles Xavier was pampered and studied his own mutant powers and how they came about. He was eventually approached by the United States government for his powers as well as his expertise. He worked with the government to clean up after incidents involving mutants. Through his work, he learned about Max and his fight against the Nazi party. By this time, Max had his own small band of guerilla fighters, some with their own powers. As the U.S. entered the war, they joined with Max’s forces. With Xavier’s help, they kept the aid of super-powered individuals a secret. Max was unhappy with this outcome but was convinced by Charles to work with the government for the betterment of both mutantkind and other super-powered individuals in need of aid.
For years they worked at this task, with Charles using his powers to erase memories on a massive scale to keep the secret, especially due to Max’s rather violent and extreme tactics in the field. Because of this, Max was kicked from the program. With Max went other individuals, Raven Darkholme among them, and they formed their own band of supers. They focused on fighting against people they deemed evil. Their activities created more work for Charles and his abilities. This continued for years, and Charles slowly stepped back from the program and focused more on educating the younger generation dealing with their powers. As he grew in age, Charles’ powers waned until he was unable to comply with the government and perform another mass memory wipe, and thus individuals with powers became common knowledge. With that, Charles was let go from the program.
Fully away from the program, Charles was able to focus solely on educating the younger generation. Eventually, he crossed paths with Max again. Without the government being involved, Max was more willing to listen to his old friend and agree to join him in his goal to educate the younger generation. Raven Darkholme was lost to the wind by this point. There were many disagreements as the partnership was begun anew, mostly with allowing the students to enter the field with the other super-powered individuals. Charles was still hesitant because of the government, but Max believed the students could help people in need. The stalemate lasted for a while, but as Charles’ health got worse and he was bedridden he agreed to let the older students into the field under Max’s supervision and the condition that they would not operate as violently and extreme as his guerilla fighters had in the past. Knowing his friend did not have long left in this world, Max agreed to his conditions.
The first field team would be christened “X-Force” and be made up of: Pietro Maximoff, Jean Grey, Scott Summers, Tara Markov, Garfield Logan, and Jubilation Lee. Pietro came to the Xavier Institute for Gifted Children with his father, Max, and has been made the field team leader. Jean was one of many students found by Charles and has become his personal student because of the nature of her powers, though her telepathic abilities have been suppressed for years by Charles. With his health getting worse, he must focus all of his remaining power on keeping her powers in check until she can fully control them. Scott was found by Charles and Henry McCoy after an incident with his powers going unchecked; this was one of the last times Charles was able to perform a mass memory wipe and take Scott into his school to help him. Tara and Garfield were transient teens hiding away because of their powers, but they were found and brought in by Henry. Jubilation Lee was one of the lucky ones and found the school as her powers began showing and was able to avoid incident. Their goal as the X-Force is to help people in need and find those individuals with powers and mutations who live on the fringe of society in hiding and give them a home and a safe place to learn how to control their powers.
What Makes This Character 'Ultimate'?: I think these characters will have interesting interactions together as they grow as heroes. What makes them ultimate is how they must overcome bigotry thrown at them by the people they work to save as they also try to make the world a better place for their own kind. This team is also led by Quicksilver with Xavier and Magneto acting as mentors along with Henry/Hank McCoy.
Supporting Characters: Max Eisenhardt (Magneto) - The current supervisor of the X-Force field team and long friend of Charles Xavier. Max recently joined the Institute to help younger individuals learn to control their powers and help those in need. Charles Xavier - Founder and current head of Xavier Institute for Gifted Children. Henry McCoy - Henry is also known as Hank or Beast. He is a mutant and friend to Charles and has been with the school since its founding. He has a genius-level intellect and develops the team’s tools and gadgets. Danny the World - Danny is a sentient brick able to construct buildings and streets around him because of his unique physiology. Danny is Xavier Institute and has constructed the entire campus and its building from his main brick. He is able to communicate telepathically with those on campus. He is also able to transport his main brick and others to different locations around the globe; when he does so he is able to maintain the structures of the campus and so acts as the field team’s mode of transportation.
Character Picture:
”Pull!”
The green-furred gorilla spun around like an olympic thrower and let a clay disc fly; it was wearing a primarily white suit with black trim placed in a way to form a massive ‘X’ across its chest . Through his visor, Scott saw everything tinted in red, but that wasn’t anything new to him. Even the glasses Hank made especially for him had to be tinted red to hold the beams back. What was new was the assisted aiming and crosshair sight Hank outfitted the visor with. The crosshairs moved slightly within the visor and gave him a readout of the disc’s drop speed and the approximate moment to fire. When the sight lit up green, Scott pressed in on the button located in the center of the dial on the side of the visor. In midair the clay disc was struck with a beam of red energy and shattered. The gorilla clapped and spun around, grunting loudly. A moment later, it was replaced by a young man with green skin, cheering and clapping; the suit shrank down to match his body size. Another invention of Hank’s to aid the newly formed and approved field team.
”Yeah-ha! Nice shot, Scott! I mean… Cyyyclops!”
”Thanks, Gar. You’re getting the hang of shifting faster.”
”Thanks, man. And, it’s Beast Boy.”
A silver blur flew past the pair, kicking up a gust and rustling their hair. Pietro turned his head slightly as he rushed past Scott and Garfield. The amazing goggles Hank made for him were similar to Scott’s visor and allowed him to track targets around him even at high speed. They also served the purpose of acting as safety glasses to keep debris and the wind from hitting his eyes as he sped around and were even tinted to keep any glare off. Along with the goggles, Hank designed his suit to be resistant to the high rate of speed as well as have some extra cushioning and protection to his body. At the corner after passing his friends, Pietro skidded to a halt and reached down to grab a towel and water bottle. He dabbed at his forehead and neck before squirting some water into his mouth.
”Lookin’ good, P!”
Gar whooped and swung a fist around in the air. Pietro waved a hand at him with a smirk as he cracked his neck a few times. He’d have to mention to Hank to try and add a little more cushioning to the neck area and maybe some sort of cooling factor.
”Okay. Run Course 3.”
“Voice recognition: Pietro Maximoff… Confirmed. Running Course 3.”
The floor of the training room immediately began shifting and changing. Scott and Garfield left through the door leading up to the observation room to give Pietro some room. As they left, he stretched his legs and arms out briefly before taking off. In an instant he was a silver blur again, untraceable by the human eye. He beelined for a path between two shifting pillars of metal. The instant he clear them, the floor panel fell away, but with the goggles helping him track everything around him he was able to clear the gap in the floor. The moment his foot touched the ground, he was off again. A wall of pillars shot up from the floor, and he weaved around them then spun around a pillar that shot down from the ceiling. Pietro continued weaving through the shifting floor and ceiling.
From the observation room, Hank McCoy and Max Eisenhardt watched the silver blur dash around the room. Scott and Gar joined them a moment later. The computers tracked every team member’s vitals through their suits, and Hank watched them with interest. He read the numbers flashing across the many screens and muttered to himself as he crouched in his chair and chewed lightly on his glasses. Max, on the other hand, stood by the window and watched the blur down below.
”Hey, Doc McCoy, how fast is he going right now?”
Hank snapped himself out of his thoughts and turned his blue, fur-covered face toward the green youth.
"Ah, Garfield. His speed varies as he turns and ducks, but he accelerates back up the moment he's past an obstacle. On average, however, he's running around three hundred miles per hour. He's achieved faster in a straight test in a more open environment, but this test is simply for reaction time and to see how he does in more enclosed spaces."
”Uh… huh. Cool.”
Scott smirked as Gar’s face fell into a more confused look. He joined Magneto at the window and watched the silver blur rush through the shifting room. Max had a far away look on his face as he looked on. Meanwhile, Garfield had wandered away from Hank and over to the other viewing window overlooking the training room next door. Below, he could see Tara, Jubilee, and Jean training and testing their own suits out. Tara’s eyes flashed yellow as she reached out toward the mound of rocks the training room had produced for her. Pieces of the earth flew around her and launched at Jean. As the pieces sailed through the air at a high speed, Jean reached out with her mind and grabbed hold of several loose objects near her and used them to batter the pieces of earth away and deflect a few toward Jubilee with an extra push from her mind, her eyes flashing pink for a moment. Jubilee watched all five crosshairs light green from behind her own visor and let the energy building up in her fingertips go. From her hands came bright flashes and sparks of multi-colored light. The gloves Hank made her held up against the energy buildup as well as the release of energy. Each bolt of light slammed into a piece of debris or earth and shattered them before they could hit her.
The announcement had come yesterday that the six students training in the two rooms conjoined by the observation deck would be the first field team from Xavier’s Institute for Gifted Children. With the public’s discovery of the superhuman came those who would use their power against the public and cause terror. There were also those with power who stepped up to fight against them, and the X-Force team would be apart of those individuals now. After some intense training and tests they would be cleared by Charles Xavier and Max to enter the field. Of course, Magneto would be their supervisor in the field, and Pietro would act as the team lead. The goal, aside from helping those people in need and to find super-powered individuals living on the fringes of society and give them a place to belong, was for the team to further learn how to control their powers and for Max to eventually be able to let them into the field led solely by Pietro.
Look, is Dan Slott the worst writer Spider-Man's ever had? No. Is he a dumb poopy-head? Yes.
I cannot abide a Spider-Man writer who openly loathes Mary Jane Watson; I cannot abide a Spider-Man writer who's more interested in Otto Octavius than Peter Parker; I cannot abide a Spider-Man writer who turns Felicia Hardy into a cartoonish, "I hate Spider-Man and will see him destroyed at any cost" villain. But mostly, I cannot abide a Spider-Man writer who can't stick a damn landing. His starting ideas could be really good stories... if he ever did them any justice.
<Snipped quote by Eddie Brock> I only just got up to Marv Wolfman's run. At the rate I'm going it'll take me years before I reach Slott's stuff.
I'm so glad. So, so glad.
Yeah, my quest to read all 800+ ASM issues petered out in the high 200s, McFarlane years. I'll get back to it someday. Conway-Wolfman-Stern is my definitive Spider-Man era.
1x Laugh
